Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Royal Capital and the Church of the Eastern Sky

“It really does make Maalt look puny by comparison,” I said as I peeked out of our carriage at the scenery of Vistelya, Yaaran’s royal capital. Night was just falling upon the city.

Yaaran was a backwater kingdom, but even so, the capital was larger and more prosperous than the other regional cities. Or maybe it felt particularly glamorous because I was comparing it to a city like Maalt. I mean, sure, Maalt was trying its best despite being on the outskirts. It had its own dungeon now and a fairly large population. All in all, it was a nice place to live, but when compared to the capital...

“That goes without saying,” Lorraine remarked. “But I prefer Maalt over Vistelya. Vistelya is prosperous, but it reminds me too much of the imperial capital.”

“You said before that a lot happened to you there. Still, Yaaran isn’t as stuffy as the empire, right?”

Lorraine once mentioned that when she was in the empire, she’d found the constant politics that came with being an elite member of the scholarly community exhausting. Research and scholarship, in general, were valued much more in the empire, but in Yaaran, you didn’t hear much in the way of glamorous tales of the scholarly class. At most, the Tower and the Academy squabbled now and again. It was plenty stressful for people in the Tower and the Academy, but it wasn’t even comparable to the empire’s scholarly politics.

Lorraine nodded. “True enough. Maalt is a good example of the more relaxed atmosphere in Yaaran. Seems it’s the same in the capital.”

Yaaran’s capital felt like a giant metropolis to me, but to Lorraine, it was still on the quaint side. But if that made it easier on her, then it was probably a good thing. I silently gave thanks to Yaaran for being a backwater country.

“We’ve arrived,” our driver announced. “Please feel free to enter your lodgings. I’ll be staying in a separate location, so contact me when you’re ready to return to Maalt,” he added as we disembarked from the carriage.

It bears mentioning that the driver brought us straight to our inn, but he and the carriage would be staying elsewhere. The place we were at didn’t have space to store a carriage, and because the draft animal was special, it needed to be kept in a specialized holding pen.

All things considered, this was an expensive ride, but Wolf—or rather, Maalt’s guild—was footing the bill, so it was no skin off my back. Given that we’d use the same carriage to return to Maalt, it must have cost the guild quite a bit in additional lodging fees. Wolf had gone out of his way to treat us well.

“Come on, Rentt,” Lorraine prompted, and we entered the inn.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Lodgings for two, then. Please, follow me,” the receptionist said.

After the receptionist left, Lorraine murmured, “They didn’t bother to ask and just gave us a single room.”

It was just the two of us now. As for Edel, I’d left him back in Maalt. It wasn’t that I wanted to exclude him, but security was a lot tighter in Vistelya. Since we were going to the palace itself, I thought it might be a problem if an actual monster like Edel was with us. I could’ve claimed I was a monster tamer, but Vistelya was a proper city, unlike Maalt. There were plenty of actual monster tamers in the capital, and if they’d bothered to take a closer look, I might have slipped up.

If I’d known I’d be in Vistelya, I would’ve asked my father in Hathara more about monster taming, but I could always do that next time. Besides, he had some weird monsters in his menagerie, and I wasn’t really sure if his knowledge would make me seem like a normal tamer. So, all things considered, I was pretty sure I’d made the right decision in leaving Edel at home.

“We must have looked like siblings or a married couple,” I replied.

Lorraine laughed. “Married couple, perhaps, but siblings? We don’t look anything alike.”

“Fair.”

Back when I was alive, our faces didn’t look similar at all, but the differences were even more pronounced now that I wore a skull mask. In fact, I’d be more concerned if an inn worker said we looked alike. Chances were that they thought we were married.

“Were we acting like a married couple?” I asked.

Lorraine paused, then calmly answered, “I don’t think we were, but it’s hard to say. You can’t really tell unless you’re looking at it from the outside.”

“Do you want me to get separate rooms for us?” I offered.

Lorraine furrowed her brow in exasperation. “We live in the same house. Staying in the same room isn’t that much of a change, is it?”

Part of me wanted to ask if she wasn’t worried that I’d try something, but Lorraine was a powerful mage. She only needed a wand to deal with the vast majority of men in this kingdom, including me. I could probably survive a couple of blows now, but I still couldn’t beat her. And as she’d pointed out, we already lived in the same house. I agreed with her that sharing an inn room wasn’t all that different.

“Fair enough. I thought I’d ask anyway. So which bed do you want?”

Thankfully, there were two beds in the room. Lorraine chose the one closer to the window, so I ended up having to stare at the wall when I went to bed.

Anyway, it was time to rest for the day and prepare for tomorrow. First, we had to go to the guild, but... Maybe we should go buy souvenirs first? I figured I would hammer out the details with Lorraine in the morning.

◆◇◆◇◆

It’d been a while since I’d visited Vistelya’s guild, but just as I remembered, it couldn’t even compare to Maalt’s guild. The building itself had a more solid construction and was large enough to house the huge number of adventurers who called the capital home. Last time I was here, I wasn’t able to get a good look at the interior, but this time I spotted some elevator doors.

That made sense. The building was five stories tall, and it’d be quite the task to use the stairs every time. It would be one thing if the upper floors were rarely used, but I was pretty sure the guildmaster’s office was on the top floor, which would make a daily commute up five flights of stairs a bit of a chore.

“I’m told the Grand Guildmaster of Yaaran is fairly old,” Lorraine said. “While he was once an adventurer, surely he’s no longer active at this age.”

Lorraine was right. I’d heard that the current grand guildmaster was already in that position when Wolf was recruited into the guild. I’d also heard the story about the grand guildmaster being a former adventurer, but I was sure I’d also heard that was over fifty years ago. Even if he’d retired in his thirties, he’d be over eighty years old at this point. Adventurers were substantially tougher than normal people because of their physiques and mana supply, but still being an active adventurer in your eighties was stretching it.

“But there are exceptions to that rule, like Gharb. So it’s not impossible,” I noted.

I thought about Gharb, the medicine lady and head mage of my hometown. She was getting up there in years, but she was still going strong. If she decided to become an adventurer now, they’d start her off at Silver-class, in which case, she’d instantly surpass me. Well, she was my mentor, so that was okay.

“Now that you mention it, I guess that’s true,” Lorraine said. “My mentor is similar. I’m sure they’re enjoying themselves in the empire.”

“The person you threw your wand at?”

Lorraine furrowed her brow. “I was young back then. I wouldn’t do that now. I couldn’t do that now. I still can’t forget how angry they were...”

“Heh, I’d like to meet them.”

They’d be a great source of fun stories about Lorraine, and it’d be nice to turn the tables on her for once. After all, the people of Hathara had told her all the embarrassing stories about me when we went there.

“Really? I’d like to go see them, but you can’t just walk in and meet them. I’m sure we’ll eventually head to the empire, so we can plan for it when that time comes.”

Surprisingly, Lorraine was more receptive to the idea than I expected. I assumed she wouldn’t want me to meet her teacher, but it seemed Lorraine felt a lot of gratitude toward them. Lorraine had lived in Maalt for a long time, and even though she sometimes returned to the empire, she’d never stayed long. She might not have seen them for ten or so years now, so I could understand why she’d want to go.

“I’ll look forward to that,” I quipped. “Ah, the receptionist is open. I’ll go deal with that.”

“Then I’ll wait over there,” Lorraine said as she pointed at the bar built into the guild hall.

Technically, it was a cafeteria that offered light snacks and all manner of drinks. While not all guild halls had one, they were a common sight in most of them. The menu selection and the portion sizes were a bit too limited for a proper meal, so it was mostly a place to take a short break between jobs or to wait for party members—meaning that Lorraine was using it exactly for its intended purpose.

“All right. I’ll see you in a bit,” I said and headed toward the reception desk.

◆◇◆◇◆

“They’re out?” I asked as I tilted my head quizzically at the receptionist.

The woman behind the desk calmly answered, “Yes. I’m afraid that Jean Seebeck is currently unavailable. I believe he’ll be back in a few days.”

“If I wait until he returns, will he see me?”

“Of course. If I neglect a guild employee who Master Wolf Hermann of Maalt sent directly, I’d be in trouble myself. Nevertheless, I can’t do anything about the grand guildmaster’s absence. I truly am sorry. Is there any way you can try again in five days or so?”

I felt she was being a little too polite to a fellow guild employee, but it made sense. The adventurer’s guild was a single organization, but each regional branch was mostly independent. To a Vistelya guild employee, someone from the Maalt branch was basically a stranger.

That aside, she’d been respectful toward Wolf, even calling him “Master Wolf.” Was he really worthy of that much respect? Really? But, on second thought, there weren’t that many people who were as good a guildmaster as he was, and combined with his eye for detail and his abilities as an adventurer, he might be the epitome of what a guildmaster should be. That would explain the respect. That said, Maalt was in the middle of nowhere, so it was still surprising that they recognized Wolf’s value. It felt kind of good, actually, to know someone who was treated with such respect.

At any rate, the only thing I could do now was wait. That might not be such a bad thing, though, because I still had a long list of errands to run. I had planned to just give up on them if I didn’t have enough time, but now a pile of free time just got tossed into my lap.

I nodded to the receptionist and replied, “That’s fine. Five days from now, then?”

“Yes. As for the documentation, we’ll sort through and organize it on our end, so your report should go relatively smoothly.”

The documentation in question was the huge pile of paperwork Wolf had given me to hand to Vistelya’s guild. Most of it detailed the current state of Maalt, and you’d think that would be enough, but it was better to have someone who knew the situation give a direct report to the higher-ups. That was the reason Wolf sent me here, which was what had prompted the receptionist’s remark.

“Thanks. I’ll leave it in your hands. See you in five days.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“You’re done already? What happened at the meeting?” Lorraine asked as I approached.

“It seems the grand guildmaster’s out of town. Evidently, he’ll be back in about five days.”

“Out... Well, I suppose he can’t stay in one place for too long. Although, I’d heard he wasn’t able to leave the capital for long...” Lorraine said with a puzzled expression.

I nodded in agreement as I remembered what I had heard back in Maalt. “Wolf mentioned that, but he probably meant that the grand guildmaster couldn’t come out to someplace in the middle of nowhere like Maalt.”

The journey from Vistelya to Maalt took about a week using normal methods. Given that the grand guildmaster would have to go there and then come back, a visit would take at least two weeks. He couldn’t just abandon the capital for that long. The regional cities closer to the capital, however, were only a few days round trip, so it wouldn’t be particularly strange if he made frequent trips to those cities.

“Ah, you make a good point,” Lorraine muttered. “Either way, there’s nothing you can do about his absence. Plus, it’s fortuitous in a way. We now have time to take care of our various errands beforehand.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”

“Our to-do list includes delivering the letter from Sister Lillian to the Church of the Eastern Sky, visiting the palace for an audience with Her Highness, and buying souvenirs for Alize and Rina. Now, the first thing we ought to do...”

Lorraine looked at me and asked what we should tackle first.

“The letter, I think. I have no idea how long we’ll be at the palace, but with the letter, all we have to do is deliver it,” I suggested, thinking it best to get the simpler task out of the way first.

“That’s true. Since Sister Lillian gave me the letter, I could deliver it on my own, but I imagine I’ll be wanted at the palace as well.”

“Yup. Besides, there’s someone else we need to drag to the palace with us. We need to get in touch with him, but about the only way I can think of is to leave him a message here at the guild. Aside from that, we could try his regular haunt.”

I was referring to the bar we met Augurey at the last time we were here. We might run into him there if we just went, but a message left at the guild would reach Augurey the moment he came in. Conversely, while he might get the message tomorrow, he could be on a long-term assignment right now and wouldn’t get it until he came back. In that case, Lorraine and I would have to go to the palace without him, but we’d cross that bridge when we got there.

“It might be easier to find him by asking around if anyone has seen an adventurer wearing strange clothing.”

Lorraine had said it jokingly, but she had a point. Augurey’s fashion sense made him stand out. Still, I’d rather leave that as a last resort.

“We can do that if we can’t find him,” I said, “but for now, why don’t we head to the Church of the Eastern Sky. It’s on the eastern side of the capital, right?”

“Yes, that should be right,” Lorraine answered.

Lorraine and I left the guild and made our way toward the church.

◆◇◆◇◆

“This makes the church in Maalt look like a ramshackle hut,” I murmured in front of the building in question.

Lorraine nodded. “As expected, really. While the Church of the Eastern Sky isn’t a particularly wealthy religious organization, it’s still the main faith in Yaaran. It stands to reason that the main church here in the capital would be much grander than the one in Maalt.”

The soaring building in front of us with its large towers shimmered overhead as though to corroborate Lorraine’s statement. I also saw a large number of worshippers busily yet quietly making their way in and out of the building. It was a lively place. Not to say that the Church of the Eastern Sky in Maalt wasn’t lively, but it was often overshadowed by the Church of Lobelia there.

Even here in the capital, the Church of Lobelia was starting to spread its influence. I could see their church not too far away. We’d had to pass by it on the way here, but they’d been so aggressive in their evangelizing that it’d been a tad overwhelming.

“If you join the Church of Lobelia, you’ll be guaranteed salvation.”

“We have a great many saints in our ranks, so you’ll be set for blessings in this life as well.”

“Our holy water is more affordable than other faiths’!”

Every ten feet or so, we’d get a pitch along those lines. I’d wanted to ask if they were trying to convert people to a faith or to seal a business deal, but I knew that if I said that aloud, it’d just set off another flood of words. I’d just ignored them instead.

Despite the fact that Lorraine had been standing next to me, no one had tried to sell her on the Church of Lobelia. This seemed odd to me, so I decided to ask her why that might be.

“Maybe you just looked more gullible than I did,” Lorraine replied. “They kept glancing toward me, but after a few seconds, they all tended to scatter.”

Did I really look that gullible? Maybe back before I’d gotten eaten by a dragon that might have been the case. When I’d been human, people had often told me I looked trustworthy and nice. I was sure I looked pretty shady these days, though. If anything, I looked like the sort that would prey on earnest followers of a faith. Either way, no one really bothered me that much when I was in Maalt. That sort of random recruiting on the street was rare there anyway.

By contrast, the Church of Lobelia here in the capital just happened to be particularly hungry for converts. The Church of the Eastern Sky wasn’t doing much to spread their faith, so it might have been that the Church of Lobelia’s eagerness to evangelize had created the situation where it was steadily encroaching on the Church of the Eastern Sky’s turf in Yaaran. In that sense, as a citizen of Yaaran, I wished the Church of the Eastern Sky would step up its game a bit, but it wasn’t like I was a devout follower, so I wasn’t all that invested in the outcome either way.

Just as I’d reached that point in my musings, Lorraine said, “All right, let’s keep moving, Rentt. We look suspicious just standing here.”

She began walking toward the church, so I followed behind her. We then ducked into the building through the open doors of the giant entrance.

◆◇◆◇◆

The interior of the Church of the Eastern Sky, like the exterior, was an impressive piece of architecture, but perhaps because of the church’s teachings, it wasn’t garishly or richly decorated. That wasn’t to say it wasn’t beautiful—it was—but its beauty was sober and understated, and the statues and murals eschewed ostentatiousness in favor of piety.

The decorations all depicted people and events from the Church of the Eastern Sky’s scriptures, and followers were offering prayers in front of each statue and mural. In the middle of the great hall, endless rows of large benches designed to seat scores of followers were lined up. In between the large benches was an aisle of purple carpet that stretched toward the altar. Behind the altar, a large stained glass panel that depicted the Angel of the East that the church venerated lit the room with a warm glow. Still, neither the altar nor the stained glass were about displaying the church’s grandeur; they were devices meant to create a quiet, pious atmosphere.

“I have no intention of following a particular faith, but I always do feel something when I’m in a place like this,” Lorraine said, exhaling softly.

The Church of Lobelia was quite influential in the empire, but Lorraine herself wasn’t very religious. I suppose what she was trying to say was that this place made even someone like her want to believe in a higher power, even if for only a brief moment.

Given that there were such things as blessings from gods and spirits, I didn’t see anything wrong with believing in something, but the fact was that blessings were often bestowed on those without a strong sense of faith. Since Lorraine and I both possessed divinity, we were both saints according to most religious institutions, but if asked if we worshiped the spirit from that shrine, I’d probably have to say no. I was grateful, but that wasn’t the same as fealty.

“It’s not that I don’t understand why,” I murmured, “but as I sort of expected, nothing’s happening to me even in a place like this. I figured that unlike the little church in Maalt, something might happen here in the high church.”

Lorraine turned to me and watched me intently.

“True, you’re no different. Well, this is a church, but it’s not as though it’s overflowing with divinity. Besides, even if that were the case, you’re an oddity. You’re an undead with your own divinity, so it isn’t terribly surprising that nothing has happened.”

“Yeah. If I thought it’d be that big of a risk, I wouldn’t have entered the church in the first place.”

My impression before entering was that it was a large, impressive building, but I didn’t feel any unease or fear. Since my body was that of an undead, if the church itself was dangerous to my kind, I’d have felt some sort of dread or disgust upon nearing the place. The reality was that I’d felt nothing of the sort when I got here.

Also, when I actually stepped inside, nothing had happened. It might have been reckless of me, considering that had anything happened, my only option would’ve been to have Lorraine drag me out of the building. I’d already been to a fair number of religious facilities at this point, though, including the chapel at the orphanage in Maalt. It wasn’t a large chapel, but it’d been useful in testing my reaction to holy structures. Maybe it wasn’t that reckless of me to have just waltzed in here, then.

“However, that simply means that you can handle this particular church. It’s possible that churches of other faiths might affect you. You should still be careful.”

Lorraine made sure to keep me from getting overconfident, and she was right, of course. I’d heard before that the relationships among gods could impact the power balance between a god and a divinity wielder. For example, saints might receive a power boost when facing followers of a god that their god hated. After all, the gods usually chose mortals based not on their morals, but on whether they liked the individual. That was what Lorraine meant when she pointed out that it might still be a problem at another church, even if I was fine in the Church of the Eastern Sky.

“Yeah, true. I’ll be careful. That aside, what about the letter? Who do we give it to?”

When I changed the subject, Lorraine retrieved the letter from her bag. The letter was sealed with wax, and though it wasn’t addressed to anyone on the outside, Lorraine had been told to whom to give the letter. She’d been the one to take the job too.

“Sister Lillian requested that I give this letter to Abbess Elza of the Yaaran Abbey of the Eastern Sky.”

“So she’s sending it to someone pretty high up.”

In the Church of the Eastern Sky, Archimandrite was the top rank, followed by abbot, prior, canon, and so forth—ten ranks overall. There were more precise separations between ranks, but that was the basic hierarchy. The equivalent of the Great Church-Father in the Church of Lobelia, or say a pope or patriarch in other faiths, was the Archabbot, so an abbot in the Church of the Eastern Sky was essentially a cardinal or bishop. An abbot could even one day become an Archimandrite.

Lillian was directly exchanging letters with someone of that rank, so was she higher up than I thought? She’d always just introduced herself as a cleric and never told us her exact rank. Ordinarily, someone in charge of a church in a city the size of Maalt would be a canon, at best. I suppose this was something I’d have to ask Lillian about at some point.

“Perhaps it simply means that the Church of the Eastern Sky isn’t as caught up in their hierarchy as the Church of Lobelia. I’ve been told that if you want to send a letter to the Great Church-Father in the Church of Lobelia, you have to be either high-ranking or accomplished to get him to even pay notice of your approach.”

That was an extreme in the opposite direction.

“So no point in a small child saving their allowance to pay the postage, huh?” I said.

“Well, they can still send it,” Lorraine answered, “but the letters are first read by the Great Church-Father’s subordinates, who then sort through them. In the end, only a handful of them ever make it to the Great Church-Father’s desk. That said, it’s more likely that a letter from a child like you described might have a decent shot. If word got out that the Great Church-Father read it and responded, it would be good for the church’s reputation. In the empire, if you go to a church in the countryside, you sometimes see a reply from the Great Church-Father framed and displayed on a wall.”

“Y’know, it’s not entirely a bad thing...but it feels kind of dirty.”

“The reality is that we live in a hard world. At any rate, the letter. I’d like to make sure the abbess receives it, so I don’t want to hand it to a random priest only for it to never be read.”

Lorraine looked around the room, then called to a passing woman who appeared to be a nun. She was going to ask the nun to bring Abbess Elza to her. The easiest thing to do would be to give the letter to the nun and ask her to deliver it, but Lorraine had taken this task on as a proper request. Her professional pride as an adventurer meant she needed to make sure Elza got the letter. In that case, it would be imprudent to just hand it off to a passing nun.

“Yes? How may I help you? Do you wish to offer a prayer? Or purchase some holy water? Or perhaps you wish to make a donation?”

The nun was probably just listing off potential requests, but I couldn’t help but hear a tiny bit of hope in her voice on the last question. While religion wasn’t about money, every religious institution needed money to survive. It was understandable.

Besides, as far as I could see from the passing monks, they all wore simple clothing. The older monks had evidently been wearing their clothes for a long time, because numerous patches were covering tears and gaps in the fabric. It was clear they weren’t in the habit of frivolously spending on luxuries. It drove home how little the Church of the Eastern Sky cared about such things, which made me inclined to donate.

“I intend to make a donation before I head home,” Lorraine said, “but that’s not why I’m here today. We’re from the city of Maalt, and we have a letter from a nun of the church that we were asked to deliver on her behalf. I’d like to hand it directly to the person I was told to give it to. Would it be possible to have you bring the recipient to me?”

“Ah, you truly have come a long way. Thank you for taking the time to do so. I will be happy to help you. And to whom is the letter addressed? And if possible, may I know who wrote it as well?”

“Right, my apologies. The letter is addressed to Abbess Elza. It was sent by Sister Lillian of Maalt. Forgive me, I don’t know Sister Lillian’s rank, as I never had the right opportunity to ask...”

Lorraine was just describing her requested task, but the nun’s eyes went wide with surprise when she heard the name.

“A l-letter from Sister Lillian to Mother Elza?! I-I understand. I’ll go fetch the abbess at once! If you two could wait in the drawing room— You! Show these two to the drawing room!”

The nun, who was thoroughly anxious now, stopped a young woman, apparently a novice, and issued her orders before she hurried off.

Lorraine watched her leave with bemusement. “Was it something I said?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. Maybe the girl could help us out?”

I turned to look at the understudy who’d been assigned as our guide, and Lorraine nodded in agreement.

“Forgive the odd question, but do you know of Abbess Elza and Sister Lillian?” she asked the young woman.

“Yes, I know of Abbess Elza. She’s in charge of Ephas Abbey, the headquarters of the Church of the Eastern Sky in Yaaran. But, my apologies, as for Sister Lillian...I am afraid I do not know of her. Where is she from?”

“She is a nun of Maalt.”

“Ah, Maalt. I see. To be a nun in a hard land like that, she must be quite the person, but I’m afraid I do not know of her. My apologies. I’m sorry I can’t be of use.”

Lorraine glanced over at me, but if the girl didn’t know, she didn’t know. I shook my head.

“I see...” Lorraine said gently. “I’m sorry for asking you something so random. Please take us to the drawing room.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“If you’ll excuse me. She should be here shortly.”

After showing us to the drawing room, the woman made tea before leaving us alone in the room. Lorraine waited until we heard her footsteps receding in the distance before speaking.

“We still have no idea why that priestess was so surprised, do we?”

“Maybe she was just surprised there was a letter addressed to Abbess Elza? Could be she’s not much of a writer and doesn’t get much mail.”

“Are you being serious right now?”

Lorraine furrowed her brow and glanced in my direction. I was kidding, of course. An abbess of the Church of the Eastern Sky was not just a religious figure, but a political one as well. There was no way she wouldn’t be much of a writer, nor would receiving letters be rare for her. Therefore, it made the most sense to assume that the nun hadn’t been surprised at the fact that Abbess Elza received a letter, but at the fact that Lillian had sent one to the abbess.

“I’m kidding. The most logical guess is that Lillian’s pretty important in the church, right?” I said.

“Then why didn’t that girl know of her?”

“I’m sure we can come up with a bunch of reasons, but she is young. It wouldn’t be odd if she didn’t know a whole lot about the church, yet.”

“I suppose you have a point...”

Although she nodded, Lorraine didn’t seem particularly convinced by my logic. Lorraine was a scholar at heart, so she never liked relying on hunches and guesses aside from determining whether it was important or not.

Still, I shared her curiosity about Lillian. She was a nun serving out in the sticks of Maalt, but now that I thought about it, her presence there was odd. After all, she could use divinity, which made her a saint. It was easy to forget how impressive that was given that Lorraine, I, and even my thralls could use it if they wanted to, but it was a fairly rare ability. Those who could use it, regardless of the extent of their power, were valued by any religious institution they belonged to. It was normal for them to technically belong to a particular branch of faith but actually work as traveling priests, clerics, and deacons, yet Lillian had been assigned to a backwater congregation. It was easy to imagine that there was a complicated story behind that.

“If you really want to know, you’d either have to ask her in person, or maybe ask this Abbess Elza we’re about to meet. Though, it’s hard to say whether they’ll answer that question or not.”

“Hmm... That would be difficult.”

Lorraine crossed her arms and sighed. Considering that this information dealt with the Church of the Eastern Sky’s internal affairs, it seemed unlikely that they’d be willing to share freely. In that case, there wasn’t much we could do about it. Although, if we asked Lillian, she might not make a fuss about it.

We sat waiting for a bit, sipping our tea, when a knock came at the door. Lorraine and I stood and both said, “Come in.”

The door slowly opened, and the priestess from earlier entered the room, followed by a priestess who I assumed was Abbess Elza.

My first impression of Abbess Elza was that she looked a lot younger than I’d expected. An abbot was equivalent to cardinals and bishops in other faiths, and it was one of the most important positions in the Church of the Eastern Sky. When the supreme leader passed away, their successor would come from among those who held this title.

People who were chosen for such roles had to meet a large number of requirements ranging from personal character to education to experience and, as a result, they often needed to be of a certain age. Despite that, Abbess Elza was extremely young. Since I hadn’t picked up the trick to identify a woman’s age at a glance, I couldn’t say for certain how old she was, but at the very least, she looked young enough that some would say she looked to be in her late twenties, whereas others would say she was still in her late teens.

I figured I’d be safe if I said she was somewhere in her twenties. It wasn’t that she’d lost all her childish features, but that she demonstrated a certain amount of intelligence and maturity, along with a calmness that no teenager could possess. She also had raven hair, which wasn’t all that unusual in Yaaran, as well as obsidian-hued eyes.

Abbess Elza bowed deeply when she entered the room. Lorraine and I stood and returned the bow.

“I thank you for coming so far to deliver this to me,” Abbess Elza said. “I’m told it’s a letter from Sister Lillian Jean. I’m Elza Olgado, the abbess in question.”

“Thank you for the polite introduction. My name is Lorraine Vivie, a Silver-class adventurer, and this is my companion, Rentt Vivie.”

Lorraine was the one who’d accepted this task, so she was the one to answer the abbess. I was just along for the ride, so to speak. Still, I’d accompanied Lorraine from Maalt, so I did think I had a right to be here. Besides, from Lillian’s point of view, it was less that she asked Lorraine alone, and more that she’d entrusted the letter to the two of us.

Upon learning that we shared a family name, Elza looked back and forth between us. Lorraine realized what the abbess wanted to ask, but she brushed it aside and pressed forward. There was no need to clarify things since there were a number of reasons we might share a surname, whether it be that we were married or that we were from the same family. Elza also let her question pass unanswered and returned her attention to Lorraine.

“I have come today because Sister Lillian entrusted me with a letter to give directly to you, Abbess Elza. Here it is.” Lorraine retrieved the letter from her magic bag and offered it to Elza.

“A Silver-class? I see. Would you mind terribly if I opened it here? I’m afraid I’m quite anxious to see what she has written.”

The reason Elza mentioned Lorraine’s rank was because ordinarily, a Bronze-class adventurer was more than sufficient to safely deliver mail. Not many would bother hiring a Silver-class adventurer to do so. There were cases where the rich would hire a high-ranking adventurer to deliver an important missive, but Lillian was the head of Maalt’s orphanage. She wasn’t particularly wealthy, and Elza must have wondered why she’d asked a Silver-class adventurer to deliver the letter.

The fact of the matter was that Lorraine had taken the job not because Lillian specifically wanted a Silver-class adventurer, but because Lillian knew Lorraine personally. As for the fee, Lillian had initially insisted she’d pay full price, but Lorraine had given her a discount since we were coming this way anyway.

As for why Elza wanted to open it in front of us, there were probably two reasons. First, as she had just noted, she was anxious to see what was written in the letter itself. Second, she wanted to confirm that it had been properly delivered to her.

The former reason was simply a statement made for politeness’s sake, while the latter was likely the real reason. Normally, when an adventurer was tasked with delivering mail, they never opened the letter to check its contents. In fact, doing so without the employer’s permission was a crime. Nevertheless, some less-than-honest adventurers would steal a glance. Not many would do that, but it was best to check if anything had been tampered with, just in case.

Lorraine nodded. “Of course. Please do.”

“Then... Oh, my apologies. I don’t mean to make you stay standing. Please, sit down. I’ll take a seat as well.”

At Elza’s prompting, Lorraine and I sat back down on the comfortable sofa in the drawing room. Elza sat down after she saw us settled, but the nun who’d brought Elza remained on her feet and stood quietly behind the abbess. The nun was likely standing at the ready so that she could run errands if Elza felt it necessary. That and she was probably there to serve as Elza’s shield if anything happened. I could feel that the nun had martial training, but it was hard to tell if she’d be able to put up a decent fight against us. She wouldn’t be able to do much if Lorraine decided to unleash the full force of her magic.

Then again, if that happened, we’d definitely be captured. Even if we escaped, we’d end up wanted criminals on the lam. I wished the nun would relax, given that there was no way we’d do such a thing, but since an abundance of caution was important in these situations, there wasn’t anything we could really do about the nun.

As I pondered such things, Elza’s eyes went wide as she opened the letter.

“Is something the matter?” Lorraine inquired.

Elza shook her head. “No. It was just that I felt an old familiar presence...”

Elza then suddenly chanted a holy mantra of the Church of the Eastern Sky, and a gentle blue light lit the air around her. As though responding to that light, Lillian’s letter began to glow with a similar but slightly different light.

It was unmistakably the glow of divinity. Lillian, as a saint, could use divinity, and it appeared that Elza too was a saint. You didn’t have to be a saint to become a high-ranking member of a religious institution, but having that ability would usually start you out relatively high on the hierarchy. That, in turn, allowed you to advance through the ranks faster, so in general, it made it easier to achieve a higher position. Or at least, so I’d heard. It would make sense if Elza’s unusually high rank for her age was due to her ability.

The divinity subsided after a moment, at which point the wax seal on the letter crumbled into dust. Since I’d never seen it happen before, I glanced over at Lorraine for an explanation, and she began to explain in a soft whisper.

“It’s a seal blessing used mostly by high-ranking clergy. It isn’t known or used by the general public. If someone who doesn’t know the proper way of opening the seal—that is, someone who doesn’t have the ‘key’—tries to open the letter, it leaves a mark indicating that it has been opened without permission. Since the mark is made with divinity, it also reveals who tried to open it. Though, I’m told that anyone who can use divinity can also erase the mark.”

It wasn’t as though Lorraine had said it so softly that Elza couldn’t hear, and indeed, she’d heard Lorraine’s explanation.

“I’m impressed that you know of it. You’re correct. Lillian lost the ability to use divinity some time ago, so it has been years since she sent me a letter in this fashion.”

◆◇◆◇◆

Lillian had lost the ability to use divinity? The first thing that came to mind was the fact that she’d developed accumulative malice disease, but when I thought back to those events, Lillian herself had only learned that she had the disease when she was treated for it. It would be strange for Abbess Elza, who hadn’t heard from Lillian in a while and had been in the capital all this time, to know about it.

Although, maybe it wouldn’t be that odd if Elza had gathered information in some way that Lillian herself was unaware. Elza’s words didn’t seem to have that connotation behind them, though. Instead, she seemed to be implying that Lillian had lost the ability to use divinity before she’d developed accumulative malice disease. That would explain why a saint like Lillian, who had the precious ability to use divinity, was assigned to be headmaster at an orphanage in Maalt, a backwater among backwaters.

“I do not know if you are aware,” Elza continued, “but Lillian was a nun here in the Ephas Abbey until about ten years ago. She originally became a nun when she was fifteen, and even at that age, she had a powerful gift for divinity. She was regarded as a promising saint who would carry the future of the church on her shoulders.”

Aha, so there was a meaningful reason that Lillian had been assigned to a rural place like Maalt. Well, no, Maalt wasn’t rural. It was a relatively prosperous frontier city. And while I wanted to point that out, Elza wasn’t the one who’d called Maalt a backwater, so I couldn’t say anything.

“And yet she was assigned to Maalt?” Lorraine asked. “Not to cast aspersions on my own home, but Maalt is a country town compared to the capital. It doesn’t seem like a place for a saint who has that much talent.”

A part of me was a little hurt that even Lorraine would be so dismissive of Maalt, but she was from the empire and was a city girl born and bred, so I couldn’t really blame her. I was the only country boy here, then. I felt a faint sense of inferiority as I decided to stay out of the conversation for the time being.

Unlike my whimsical inner musings, their conversation continued on in a serious vein. Maybe I was just a little bit too much of a goof. In any case, this was all inside my head, so I could be forgiven for having a little fun in my own world, right?

“Not at all,” Elza replied. “I’m told Maalt is one of the more prosperous parts of the frontier. In particular, as of late, it’s considered a promising land with the birth of a new dungeon. Many are saying that it won’t be considered a frontier or backwater in the future.”

Elza offered some praise for Maalt with the confidence of someone from a big city. I could barely hold back tears; how she’d gently and tactfully worded her statement was a salve to my fragile country pride. I decided at that moment that I’d happily accept any task that Abbess Elza might ask of me.

Joking aside, I was pretty sure that Elza’s prediction was right. Even now, we had the Tower and the Academy lurking around town. I didn’t know how useful the discoveries in the dungeon would end up being, but observations would be conducted over the long term. Not only that, but a newly created dungeon was an extremely rare find. It’d require a large-scale research project that would require building advanced research centers and academic institutions in the city itself. It was easy to imagine that adventurers and workers would flock to the city in the process.

It was clear that the city would be booming in the future, so Maalt would be joining the ranks of the world’s big cities. Well, I didn’t know if it would go that far, but my hope was that it would. On the other hand, while there was a benefit to the population growth that would come from those developments, there would also be downsides. It was hard to say that growth would only be a good thing. The back streets might become poorer and end up as slums, or more conflict and crimes might arise as a result.

There were already signs of that now. The spat between the Academy students and the merchant we saw before, and the disputes between Tower researchers and adventurers we saw before we left, were no doubt just the start of it. It would just mean more and more work for Wolf. Not that that was my problem, but I supposed I could help him out a little bit.

“As you’ve stated, Mother Elza, it’s true that Maalt is becoming prosperous now,” Lorraine said. “However, that probably wasn’t the case when Sister Lillian was assigned there.”

Elza nodded in agreement. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Then why... No, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pry...”

Lorraine held back, evidently feeling that she might be prying into Lillian’s private affairs, but Elza answered her unspoken question.

“No, I’ve perhaps said too much. I should apologize to Lillian later. Still, I feel I’ve given you an incomplete picture. To offer a little more detail, the reason Lillian went to Maalt wasn’t because of anything she had done, but because of internal conflicts within our faith.”

This was a common story, but it wasn’t typical in the Church of the Eastern Sky. Or rather, it wasn’t the sort of thing that went public even if it did happen. It was more common to hear about it when it involved other religions, but...

Elza continued, “Which is why I’ve always felt guilty about it. I tried to stay in contact with Lillian even after she left for Maalt, but Lillian herself said that contact with her would be bad for me and, at a certain point, had stopped contacting me at all. This letter is the first I’ve heard from her in a long time. I’ll carefully read the contents later and, if possible, write her a response. While I would hate to trouble you, I would appreciate it if you could take the response to her directly. We can make it an official request through the guild...”

The conversation had gone in an unexpected direction. It was natural to want to write a response to a letter you’d just received, especially if it was from an acquaintance you hadn’t heard from in a while. It seemed Lillian and Elza weren’t just acquaintances or superior and subordinate in the church, but also friends, so it was even more understandable that Elza wanted to send Lillian a reply.

That raised a question. Were Lillian and Elza about the same age? Lillian was a stout middle-aged woman who appeared to be in her early forties, but Elza was talking like she knew Lillian when she was in her teens. I fought the urge to ask Elza, “How old are you?” because I was well aware that the only thing that awaited a question like that was pain.

I’d seen it happen all too often to my fellow adventurers who’d posed the same question to veteran female adventurers at the tavern. They’d received a fist or two as an answer and ended up with a nice mouthful of dirt to go with their ale. After seeing that happen several times, I’d learned the valuable lesson of not asking women their age. Not that it completely stopped me from asking, even now. Maybe I just needed more discipline.

Anyway, carrying back a reply... Since we’d be returning to Maalt eventually, it shouldn’t be an issue. Lorraine must have agreed, because she glanced at me to check before replying to Elza.

“In that case, we have no problem with accepting your task. I plan to stay in the capital for a while, meaning that any letter to Sister Lillian will only be delivered once I make my way back. If that is acceptable...”

“Yes. It’s not an urgent matter, so that would be fine. Then, I will contact you through the guild once the letter is completed. Thank you for taking on this job.”

◆◇◆◇◆

Lorraine and I then each made donations before we left Ephas Abbey, the great abbey of the Church of the Eastern Sky’s Yaaran branch. While Lorraine made donations every once in a while, it was rare for me to make donations of any kind, but now that I finally had some financial cushion, I was able to make one today. I could only spare a few silver pieces, but it was enough to support a family for a month, so it wasn’t a small donation. Well, okay, it was enough for maybe twenty loaves of bread.

I had no idea how much Lorraine gave, but the average donation from a follower of the church was, at most, several copper pieces. This figure shot up when adventurers got involved, but earnings from adventuring flowed like water, so it was almost unavoidable. Adventuring was good money, but it was also an expensive job to maintain. Just weapons, armor, and tools were enough to give me a headache when budgeting my funds. Even lower-ranked adventurers made decent money, but for many of them, once they factored in equipment and maintenance, they tended to lose income rather than make it. The only way for adventurers to find financial security was to work hard and get stronger.

A little while after we’d left the abbey, Lorraine said, “So now the only things left to do in the capital are to buy gifts for the others and to have an audience with Her Highness.”

“True, but the gifts can wait until we’re ready to leave, I think. Rina’s list is mostly things that spoil quickly...”

“For foodstuffs, magic can help preserve them, but even then, it’d be best to wait on those.”

She wasn’t talking about manipulating time and space, but just using magic to cool things or to remove humidity. It wasn’t that there was no such thing as space-time manipulation magic, but such magic was far more difficult to use than other types of spells. It wasn’t meant for casual use.

Maybe it was easier to understand how hard those spells were if I said teleportation was essentially a form of space-time manipulation magic. Not even Lorraine could use it to preserve food. Of course, she could probably do it given enough preparation, resources, and help, but it wasn’t the sort of effort you’d expend on mere souvenirs.

Having maybe a dozen mages in a giant magic circle chanting while pouring vast amounts of mana into a cake would make anyone critique the waste of high-level magic that would be. There was a part of Lorraine, however, that would delight in doing such a thing, so I couldn’t say for certain she’d never do it. Thinking about it, I kind of wanted to do it myself at some point. There was just something cool about experiments so ridiculous that no one had ever been crazy enough to try them before.

While I daydreamed about that ludicrous waste of magic, Lorraine continued the conversation.

“That leaves our audience with Her Highness. Rentt, did you remember to bring that medal?”

The medal Lorraine referred to was the one given to us by Nauss Ancro, the captain of the Yaaran Royal Guard, who’d been protecting the princess when we’d saved her. It depicted part of the scene decorating Nauss’s armor—a unicorn stabbing a monster with its horn—which was a part of his heraldry. It was a magic item used as a form of identification, and he’d handed it to us to show to the guards at the palace gate when we wanted an audience with the princess. Technically, he’d just lent it to us rather than gifting it, so obviously I wasn’t going to lose it. And since I needed it for this journey, of course I had it on me. I thought I did, anyway.

“Ahem... I’m sure I had it in here...” I stuck my hand into my magic bag and thought of the medal.

“Why do you sound uncertain?” Lorraine questioned, looking a tad worried.

I mean, I knew I’d put it in there, but there was always the possibility I’d just forgotten. All the same, I was sure I’d put it in there—pretty sure, anyway. Even as I fretted, I felt the hefty weight of metal in my hand, and a wave of relief washed over me. I pulled my hand out of the bag and the medal was there, lying in my palm.

“Aha!”

“Oh for the love of... You had me worried there for a second,” Lorraine said with a faint look of exasperation, but I pretended not to notice.

“Anyway, this seal... It’s kind of creepy no matter how many times you look at it, huh? I guess a family that produces a captain of the royal guard needs to show its martial prowess even in its heraldry.”

“Yes, that’s probably true. Nobles do have to be concerned with appearances. Of course, those who can’t back up those appearances with substance fall out of favor quickly. At any rate, with this we can enter the palace, but we still have to worry about your identity being discovered.”

Lorraine referred to the detection net that checked for monsters entering the capital. I’d been able to get into the city due to a magic item from the Latuule Family, but when it came to the palace...

“But you’re sure it’ll be fine, right, Lorraine?”

“Yes. I checked what sort of detection items they use in the palace and even tested one on you. None of them responded to your presence, so there’s no need for excessive concern. But it’s still important to be prepared, just in case, which is why I’ve borrowed an underling from Edel.”

That surprised me. “Just when did you do that?” I asked.

“Back in Maalt, of course. It was accompanying me in the carriage. Did you not notice?”

“Now that you mention it, I remember seeing a single puchi suri there, but I just assumed it was a wild one.”

Puchi suri stowaways were common when traveling by carriage, so I’d paid no attention to it at the time. Since I’d no longer felt its presence when we got to the gates, I’d assumed it’d hopped off somewhere along the way.

“It goes without saying, but even a puchi suri, unlike you, is obviously a monster, and we couldn’t very well enter the capital with one in the carriage. Plus, I wanted to confirm how effective the House Latuule’s device was, so I gave it the item and had it sneak into the capital first. It’s now wandering around the nobles’ district to make sure it’s safe to go that far in with the item. Once we’re sure of that, I’ll have it try the palace.”

It sounded like quite a precise plan, but just how had Lorraine been able to communicate so well with Edel and the puchi suris without my knowledge?

Lorraine must have noticed my confusion, because she added, “I was thinking a lot about this visit, so I was muttering about wanting to confirm it was safe ahead of time. Edel evidently heard me talking to myself, and he brought his underling to me. It felt like Edel was telling me to make use of it. It’s not that we can talk, but it can nod or shake its head in response to things I say, so when I was able to confirm we could communicate, I had it tag along to help me.”

This was a bit too much independence, wasn’t it? Or maybe it was fine because it was for my sake.

“But Edel never misses a beat,” Lorraine continued, “and he made sure to ask for a reward.”

“A reward?”

“Yes. You know the temperature-adjusting magic item at the house? He wants one for the basement of the orphanage as well. It’s a small price to pay for having them take on a dangerous job.”

Edel had stayed quiet because he had other motivations, eh? It wasn’t like it cost me anything, so I figured it was fine.

“I understand how it happened,” I said. “But even if that’s taken care of, it’s the three of us that have to pay Her Highness a visit.”

Lorraine nodded. “Yes. We need to contact Augurey. I know the location of his inn. Why don’t we try starting there?”