༺ Puzzle Pieces (1)༻
The investigation wasn’t going anywhere.
Immediately after the fall of the Tower of Mages, Estelle began searching all over her faction. There was a traitor inside the Order who created an item to seal her sacred energy, so she was eager to find and personally interrogate the rat that betrayed their faith and passed the Saintess over to the mages.
“Saintess. Priest Morrison, who was due to be interrogated today… has been found dead.”
“Again?”
“…Sincerest apologies, Saintess.”
All the way from the Inquisition to the lower priests, whenever Estelle was about to investigate them, they were either discovered as a corpse or found to have escaped the Kingdom. Plus, those priests who escaped the Kingdom were highly likely to be dead already.
The rat that betrayed her seemed to be of a very high status to make all this happen. It even made her think that it truly must be a cardinal at the very least.
『When you’re carrying out your investigations, go through the cardinals as well. They must at the very least be at that level to take out an item like this for personal use.』
‘No. That can’t be.’
Cardinals were people of high faith who had their faith verified, so how could they possibly betray the Saintess who was being blessed by the god?
They shouldn’t be able to use their sacred energy, which was the proof of their faith if that were to be the case…
“I must see His Holiness.”
The Saintess was having trouble making ends meet with her status. Now that it was highly likely that a high priest inside the Order was a traitor, she needed the permission of the pope to investigate them.
“Welcome, Saintess Estelle.”
Estelle went to meet Pope Sicarii, and received a ‘no’ to her request.
“That will be impossible, Saintess.”
“…Why is that?”
“It is impossible for there to be a traitor among the cardinals. All of them are devout believers who have had their faith verified already. Don’t you remember yourself, the Solemnity Day before you were kidnapped?”
He was right. Every year, there was a festival held at the sacred land where the high priests volunteered for the sick, and this year, it was held just a few days before she was kidnapped. It was a grand event that involved not only the cardinals but also the Saintess and the pope, where they prayed for and cleansed the sick, the injured, and those possessed by demonic spirits.
To Estelle’s knowledge, there wasn’t anyone out of the 18 cardinals who could not use their sacred energy back then.
“There is not a single question about their faith.”
He was telling the truth. Her eyes used to seeing through lies, ascertained her that the pope was telling the truth.
“What happened was very unfortunate, but how can we possibly turn away from the will of god?”
Again, he was telling the truth.
“The culprit might be someone from the Old Faith. They too possess a similar technique.”
“Huh?”
“Saintess?”
“N, nothing. Please continue.”
What… was that just then? Estelle pondered on that strange feeling but there were more coming.
“The cardinals are all innocent. There is not a single high priest, at least inside our Order, who would inflict harm to the Saintess.”
A lie…
“But… we can’t say that for sure, right? There might be a hooligan who betrayed their faith to…”
“Such a thing is impossible.”
Truth.
Estelle was confused.
She was the Saintess chosen by the god – her senses exceeded that of a normal person.
Her eyes could discern the truth and in turn, detect lies. The pope, who should be at the pinnacle of faith, was letting out a mixture of truth and lies, which was greatly confusing for her.
That was why she added another question.
It was a daring question asked in hopes of bringing her closer to the truth.
“Your Holiness. Do you really think there aren’t any traitors among the cardinals?”
“None. For their faith has been proven by their sacred energy.”
A lie, followed by a truth.
Estelle gripped onto the hems of her skirt.
“I see. Then I will look into whether there are spies from the Old Faith or not.”
The person in front of her was lying to her. After realizing that, Estelle controlled her expression and forced herself to float a natural smile.
“Shouldn’t you start heading back to the capital? You can leave the rest to me and take a good rest at the palace.”
The moment she left the meeting room, Estelle barely held her knees back from failing on her. There was nothing certain; no proof and no logical motive she could think of.
However, her innate senses and her intuition… the intuition of the so-called chosen child of the god was pointing at one thing.
The pope was a traitor.
『…Lord.』
Suddenly she recalled a memory of the past – the time she felt the Divinity of the Sun. Her
thoughts that she denied back then were, for some reason, crawling back up to the surface.
***
“I am in a little bit of… trouble.”
I could immediately tell what that trouble was.
After our victory against the Tower of Mages, she had gone back to the Order, vowing to track down the traitors of the New Faith.
The reason she was feeling so down must be because she was now somewhat aware of the real truth.
“We still have time before the banquet, right? Can we talk for a little?”
“Sure.”
We sat down on the couch.
“Are things not going well in the west?”
“…Is it that easy to tell?”
“Somewhat. I just figured there wouldn’t be another trouble for you right now, Your Highness.”
“Huhu. I told you to call me Noona…”
Her voice didn’t contain the usual energy. As expected… it was going exactly like the original scenario.
“See this, Junior.”
Lifting her right hand, she changed the sacred energy in her hand to a ball of light. It was a manifestation of sacred energy, which was as easy as breathing for her.
“What do you think sacred energy is?”, she asked.
“Isn’t it the proof of faith?”
It was both true and false. Faith and belief… the question, however, was in the origin and the source of the power.
“If sacred energy is the proof of faith, the origin must be the ‘Lord’ that we believe in, correct?”
“I suppose so?”
I had no plans of starting a religious debate with priests including her, but that was when an unexpected response came from her.
“You see, I don’t believe in the ‘Lord’ right now. Actually, I turned away for a moment.”
“What?”
“I saw something else… and looked for god from another existence.”
What did she mean? Even though Estelle was a Delinquent Saintess, she wasn’t someone who would betray her god. How could she turn away from her ‘Lord’?
“And yet this sacred energy did not leave me and still remains the same as always. That is probably the same for the traitors that betrayed me.”
With a serene and calm voice, she denied faith and questioned how she could still possess sacred energy despite denying faith.
“Isn’t it strange? How can non-believers of the ‘Lord’ still harness sacred energy?”
She was asking the obvious question, ‘If sacred energy was the proof of faith, shouldn’t faith come before sacred energy?’
“Perhaps… the god, the ‘Lord’ is different from what we have been thinking until now.”
I knew the true answer to this question.
In this world, the only beings that could be referred to as gods were the Sky Titans who created the world, and the Danann who decorated and adorned the world into its current state.
The ones who had been looking after the world before humanity whom the Goidels had chased out – the conceptual beings who had been harboring divinity in this land.
Danann of Light, Lugh. Danann of the Earth, Dagda. Danann of the Sun, Nuada. Let light chase away the darkness. Let the earth grant a plentiful harvest. Let the sun cleanse all evil….
Faith allowed things to happen to the believers, and it was the accumulation of such concepts that formed a god in this world.
However, the Goidels had chased away the gods; they killed them and rejected them.
The land lost its divinity and became barren. The world became polluted by evil creatures and only after forgetting about the gods that they themself chased away from the world… did humans start to believe in the ‘Lord’ again.
Out of countless believers, only the ones with the blood of Danann or titans faintly flowing in their body were able to be enlightened about their talents and become high priests.
In the end, the origin of faith was the Divinity of the Danann.
That was the hidden mythological story of ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱. The world was bound to be reduced to chaos the moment this was revealed to the public.
‘Even in the last iteration, Park Sihu and I had to think about this for a very long time.’
What if we revealed the existence of Danann and aimed to crush the religious factions as a result? The problem was that we couldn’t spread the belief to the world or prove it, and most importantly…
‘The pursuers of Paradise… the high priests of the Old and the New Faith were aware of that already.’
The reason they were still able to use sacred energy despite turning away from the ‘Lord’, was because they simply changed the target of their belief from the ‘Lord’ to the ‘Danann’.
“What are you going to do?”
“…I don’t know. I am getting all sorts of evidence that proves against what I’ve been believing my entire life.”
Both in the game and the last iteration, Estelle managed to discover the negative sides of the New Faith but never had the time to solve them.
Similarly in the last iteration, she somehow discovered the truth about the betrayal of the cardinals and the pope, but could not resolve it until the final battle.
If the same were to happen this time around…
‘There’s nothing certain, but it’s worth giving it a shot.’
“Saintess… I mean, Estelle-noona.”
“Huh? D, did you call me ‘Noona’ just then?”
She asked with widened eyes as if she wasn’t actually expecting me to refer to her as that. If she was decently fond of me and if we had indeed formed a bond of trust during our escape…
“Can you spare some time for me at the end of the banquet?”
“…Do you know something?”
“Everything is up to you to decide after you see it with your own eyes.”
Would she accept the truth, I wondered. If she did, then what would her future look like?
I had a strange intuition that no matter what action she took in the future, she would not become an enemy.
***
The royal banquet began. Countless nobles, knights, and mages were called in, and their peerages, statuses, and regions were all introduced.
“Korin. It’s our turn.”
“Aiya~. I wasn’t expecting there would be a day where I get to go into a royal banquet right before the royal family.”
We were scheduled to enter at the very end, only before the royal family.
“Kuhum…! Be quiet!”
“C’mon, dear. Why are you doing that to our Korin?”
“H, honey?!”
Duke Marde immediately shrunk after being told off by Duchess Elencia. This old man appeared to be weak to his family.
Anyway, as for the reason why I was entering with Marie and the Duke couple…
“Korin can just stay right next to me! We are partners, after all!”
It was because I was entering as the partner of the young lady of Dunareff for this banquet.
“Then shall we link our arms? Everyone seemed to be doing that.”
“Haht! S, shall we? C, cross arms? Right? That’s normal, right? Y, yes! It’s common for a gentleman to escort the lady after all…!”
Marie said with her cheeks flushed. This was nothing special so I couldn’t understand why she was so embarrassed by it.
“Y, you bastard! How dare you try to pull a move on Mari…!”
“I believe it’s normal to hold hands as the partner, though.”
“Eeeek…!”
Duke Marde looked like a plate of metal inside a scorching furnace, but this was normal according to the etiquette I learned so I remained confident.
“Oh my, you must have studied hard.”
Unlike Duke Marde, Duchess Elencia smiled and gave a short clap.
“As expected of our son-in-law… oh, sorry not yet, right?”
“Honey? Honey?!”
The duchess continued without caring about her husband.
“Please take care of Marie. It’s her first time coming to a social event with a male partner of her age, you see.”
“K, kuhum… I’ll keep that in mind.”
The beautiful duchess who appeared like an older version of Marie, whispered with a cunning smile on her face.
“By the way, when you go into an odd-numbered resting room on the 2nd floor of the banquet hall, a red light comes up, and it is a common rule to not interfere with the room.”
“Sorry?”
I, I do know about that as well but why are you telling me this…?
“I visited there often with my husband when we were young. That was where we had Mari-”
“M, mom?!”
O, ohh… How open and explicit. Is this family okay?
“What’s wrong? Mom wants to be a grandmother now. I had you when I was your age—”
“Honey. Please. Please stop there. I’m sorry,” apologized Duke Marde.
“Come on… Mari is an adult already. It’s nothing embarrassing to talk about either, is it?”
“I, I am an adult but Korin still needs another year, okay!?”
“Ah~. That’s okay. Unlike ladies, gentlemen are usually more susceptible and accepted even if there are obscene rumors about them.”
“Mom! Please…!”
What an incredible family. Personally, I would want to side with the mother.
The Dunareff family was carrying out that shocking conversation when a palace attendant walked towards us.
“Lord Duke… It’s about time.”
“Kuhum… When you are ready.”
Finally, it was our turn.
“The Viscount of Crancia, Count of Card Riole, Marquis of Rangol and — etc — Duke of Dunareff, with 2 million hectares of land, 5.6 million hectares of farmland, the protector of 25 cities, 47 mines and 67 farms, Duke Marde Dunareff, and the high knight officially approved by the royal court, the feudal lord of Card Riole, guardian knight of Vanane and the Duchess of Dunareff, Sir Elencia…!”
…Long.
Why is it so long?
Even though they were the so-called Empire of the South, did they always have to go through all those formalities every time?
I had been to banquets in the last iteration, and I had heard the introductions of several nobles with long peerages and lands, but it was my first time hearing such a long introduction that took ages to finish. Why was it that this time… ah.
The Dunareff must have confined themselves to the South after the disappearance of Marie or something. There wasn’t any official mention of them after all…
The attendant then moved on to Marie’s peerage titles.
“The Baron of Collon, Count of Mongwol, a semi-Unique Grade guardian approved by the royal court and—”
“Baron? Count?”, I asked.
“Kuhum…! I inherited them a few years ago ahead of schedule because of taxation…”
Tax deductions, huh? I see.
Marie’s was fairly long as well.
“— etc — the oldest daughter of the Dunareff, Great Mage Marie Dunareff and—”
Hoh? Was she even considered a great mage now? Honestly, Marie wasn’t at that level yet unless it was solely in regards to destruction but… they were probably calling her that to honor the Dunareff family.
Anyway, it was my turn after that as the partner. I had a few titles myself, so I was looking forward to the introduction!
“— and her partner, Baron Korin Lork.”
……
……
Right… I see how it is. Grade 1 isn’t even worth mentioning huh?
“Ahht… Korin, that’s weird. Why don’t they talk about your guardian status and how you’re a Grade 1 JP?”
“Hmph! An introduction of your baron peerage that you got for free is more than enough. Let’s go.”
-SLAP!
“Ahkk…! H, honey?”
Duke Marde turned around in shock and looked at Duchess Elencia who slapped his back… It sounded more like a smack though.
“I can’t believe you said that instead of saving your son-in-law’s face.”
Umm… technically I’m not a son-in-law yet but…
Without caring about the specifics, Elencia called the gatekeeper who was staring at us with a gaze that seemed to be asking, ‘Why aren’t they going in yet?’
“You there.”
“Yes?”
“Do it again.”
“Sorry?”
His face was asking, ‘Do I do the introduction again?’ but Duchess Elencia remained firm.
“Introduce, my son-in-law, again.”
“Ah, ye, yes madam!”
I, I’m not your son-in-law though?
“A, ahh…! A high-grade knight approved by the royal family and…!”
“Not like that. Start from him being Mari’s partner.”
“Ah… yes! The PARTNER of Lady Marie Dunareff…! And a high-grade knight approved by the royal family, a Grade 1 Justice of the Peace with incredible feats under his name and—”
………
……
…
Only after the embarrassing introduction of the attendant were we finally able to enter the banquet hall.
It was incredibly embarrassing after being called the guild master of the best Guardians Guild of the entire universe, and Duke Marde also had a disgruntled look on his face after getting slapped due to acting childish against his daughter’s boyfriend.
Both Duke Marde and I had rotten looks on our faces but the female leads of the dukedom looked incredibly satisfied instead.
“Now that is my son-in-law.”
“A, ahht… M, mom. Don’t say that… He’s not the son-in-law… yet~. Hehe…”
“…”
“…”
Watching the two of them walk down the red carpet with a proud countenance, Duke Marde and I remained silent for a while until I broke the silence.
“Shall we grab a drink later on, Father?”
“I am not your father.”
In any case, we were finally at the royal banquet. It wasn’t a bad feeling to receive the spotlight and have all your achievements acknowledged and be named as an official hero of the kingdom.
I entered the banquet hall with my arms crossed with Marie’s and found a familiar-looking beauty wearing an alluring black dress chatting with the person next to her.
Renya Claire.
She was one of the members of our guild and an executive of the Intelligence Guild. The person she was talking to was a lady wearing a dress that appeared simple at a glance.
That person was none other than the Grade 4 government official of the kingdom, Ednar.
Her true identity was that of an SM Queen in control of the dark side of the capital.
There were two people who tried to assault me in the last iteration. One of them succeeded and the other failed.
Ednar was the one who failed.
