[END]Side Story 8: The Holy Emperor, Roan Hebriss
The Holy Emperor, Roan Hebriss.
Ever since the war in the holy land ended and the throne of God descended to the earth, his position as the archbishop of the church had been expanding day by day.
The kings of various countries treated Roan with courtesy at the conference hall, and all kinds of precious food were served to him at mealtime.
He also acquired expensive clothes and jewelry that he could not have dreamed of before.
Although he could no longer continue his research on black magic, he still had countless things in his life that he could not have had before.
“Wasn’t the great one really amazing today?”
“…”
Roan’s first task of the day was to get ready in the morning and go to meet the great one.
Every time he went to meet the great one, the first apostle, Eutenia, was always there, and she would come to him every day after the first task was over and tell him her impressions.
Most of them were words of praise for the great one.
If it were someone else, he would have thought that they had a deep faith, but to Roan’s eyes, Eutenia’s current appearance seemed somewhat distant from faith.
No, rather, it seemed closer to love.
Love for the throne was in some ways disrespectful and irreverent, but the great one was somewhat tolerant of Eutenia’s behavior.
It must have been because of the wish she had made to the great one.
“I think it would be nice to erect another statue of the great one in front of the holy palace.”
“…A statue, you say?”
“I think the number of statues we have now is not enough to express the greatness of the great one.”
Sometimes, Eutenia’s enthusiasm would go too far like this.
There were already statues of the great one in every chapel, but she still wanted to erect more statues.
It was a very irreverent thing to guess the will of God, but to Roan, the holy emperor, their master did not seem to welcome the carving of his image.
It might have been because his image was not perfect, or because the avatar that descended to the earth was only temporary.
But Eutenia did not care about that fact, and that was a well-known story.
She already had countless statues in her room.
“Why don’t you take out the ones in your room and move them here?”
“They are too small to be of any use.”
The statues that were the size of an arm were already placed on every piece of furniture in Eutenia’s quarters.
There were so many of them that one day, the great one who visited her room burned half of them.
Even so, the fact that there was still one on every piece of furniture was amazing enough.
There were many radical believers in the church, but there were not many who had such an obsessive attachment to statues as Eutenia.
“And… the more artworks that capture the image of the great one, the better.”
“Is that so…?”
“Isn’t it obvious that the artworks that capture the image of the throne are the most beautiful and perfect?”
As she said that, Eutenia sipped her tea with a satisfied expression, and Roan sighed inwardly.
It was good for an apostle to show a devout side, but he wished that she would say those things in front of the great one.
Moreover, he wished that she would stop coming to the holy palace every day at the time when the cake arrived.
Today, too, the cake that was placed in front of him disappeared into Eutenia’s stomach.
As Roan stared blankly at the empty cake plate, Eutenia put down her teacup.
“I enjoyed it. Please seriously consider my suggestion.”
“…”
“I’ll come back tomorrow at this time.”
After eating all the cake for today, Eutenia bowed politely to Roan.
It was the minimum etiquette for Roan, who had ascended to the position of the holy emperor.
As soon as she got up from her seat and left the office, Roan raised his middle finger at the door where Eutenia had disappeared.
It was his revenge for the empty cake plate.
He also did not forget to mutter his complaints in a small voice.
“I wish she wouldn’t come tomorrow.”
Squirm.
As the shadow under his feet moved, Roan lowered his hand politely.
***
One of Roan’s tasks as the holy emperor.
It was to deal with the countless documents that came to him.
Most of them were about the establishment of temples, the enactment of laws, the appointment and promotion of clergy, and so on.
There was a higher throne in the holy palace than Roan, but it was not something that he could pass on to the great one, so most of it was Roan’s responsibility.
“They want to keep the old church headquarters as a holy land…”
Among them, there were some tricky problems that he had to think about for a long time.
There were many aspects that were affected by the church’s prestige or financial situation.
Moreover, there were some documents that Roan had to review again at the end, because there were not a few people who had taken important positions without having a good head.
As Roan racked his brains while looking at the documents, a priest outside the office told him something.
“The second apostle, Evan Allemier, wishes to see you, your holiness.”
“Evan, you say…?”
Evan Allemier.
The second apostle of the church had come to see him without any notice.
He must have had something to say to Roan in person.
After a moment of hesitation, Roan ordered the priest to open the door.
“Let Evan in.”
Creak-.
As the door opened at Roan’s command, Evan, who was wearing armor, entered the office.
He greeted Roan briefly and then dragged a chair to the opposite side of Roan.
In Evan’s hand, which faced Roan, there was a document.
“Your holiness, Roan. I have something to ask you.”
“What is the problem?”
“I was notified unilaterally by the holy knight order that part of the defense budget of the holy land has been cut. I want to hear the whole story of how this happened.”
Evan said that and handed the document to Roan.
Roan felt that this would be a tiring conversation as he faced the document.
Every department in the holy land needed funds for their own reasons, but the finances of the holy land were not enough to handle all of them.
The church, which had newly occupied the holy land, did not receive as much donation income as the six temples combined.
That was why there were complex money problems all over the holy land.
Roan saw that the reason why Evan came today was also one of those problems.
“I always say this to other people, but that kind of problem is not mine, but the lower level’s…”
“I heard that you can’t ignore the documents with your seal on them. I thought it would be faster to talk to you directly.”
“…”
Roan felt a sense of crisis and tried to turn the conversation to another priest, but unfortunately, it seemed that there was already a priest who had sold him out.
It was hard for the other priests to face Evan, who was an apostle chosen by the god himself.
It looked difficult to avoid the situation now that Evan was talking like this.
Roan had no choice but to listen to Evan’s complaints that followed.
“As you know, Your Majesty, the defense of the holy land is a serious matter.”
“…Yes.”
“Even the six temples that were holding the Crossbridge were careless enough to allow the invasion of the cult.”
“…Hmm.”
He had a lot of things to say about that, but Roan nodded obediently under Evan’s menacing gaze.
He could not suppress the apostles who were directly selected by the god with the authority of the holy emperor.
They showed respect to Roan, but he knew very well that it was not because of Roan’s authority.
So the only thing Roan could do now was to listen to Evan’s dissatisfaction.
“No matter how great the one who resides in the holy land is, we cannot rely on his existence alone for the defense of this place.”
“That, that’s true.”
“Besides, even if we repelled the invaders, it would be a problem if we failed to defend completely and the holy land suffered a great damage.”
“Evan is right. The defense of the holy land is an important matter.”
He would give a plausible reason, but in the end, all these words converged to one point.
Increase the budget.
Since most of the documents that Roan stamped were related to the execution of the budget, the conflict over the finances was inevitable.
But the fact that the holy land’s finances had a limit was a fact that he swore to the great one.
“But how can you reduce the budget of the holy knights, who are the mainstay of the holy land’s defense?”
“Hmm…”
In the end, Roan was inevitably destined to be scolded by Evan.
How could he make Evan’s dissatisfaction subside a little?
Roan listened to Evan’s nagging and sighed deeply in his heart.
***
When the sun began to set, most of the official schedules of the holy emperor were over.
After that, he would eat dinner and drink wine, or read a book and spend time alone. That was Roan’s daily life.
As he was moving to eat dinner after a day’s work, he met a familiar apostle who waved his hand with joy.
“Roan! Long time no see!”
The one who came to him was the sixth apostle of the cult, Peter Enklov.
Peter spent most of his time outside the cult, so he had relatively fewer meetings with Roan than the other apostles.
Peter, who met him after a long time, was holding something in his hand and walking towards Roan.
Roan greeted him with a forced smile, hiding his fatigue.
“It’s been a while, apostle.”
“You can call me Peter, you know.”
“I can’t do that to an apostle who was chosen by the great one. You seem to have been to a faraway place this time.”
The clothes that Peter wore in front of Roan were quite exotic.
As Roan guessed, Peter nodded and pointed to the sky.
He was pointing to the sanctuary that would be floating high above them.
“I went with Perin, and it was a very unique country.”
“It must have been a good experience.”
“The food was not to my taste, but apart from that, it was a pretty good time.”
Peter said that and handed something to Roan.
It was something similar to a scarf that Peter was holding.
It looked like a clothing that was common in that country.
As Roan looked at the scarf that Peter handed him, Peter smiled brightly and put it in Roan’s hand.
“It’s a gift. I can’t pay off all the debt I owe you with just this, though.”
“Peter, apostle…”
As he said that, the memories of the apostles he met today flashed through Roan’s mind.
In the morning, Eutenia came and stole all of Roan’s cake.
While he was working, Evan came and demanded an increase in the budget.
While he was touring the holy land, Daniel came and urged him to secure additional manpower for the farm.
And finally, at the end of the day, he met the first apostle who gave him a gift for himself.
It was a trivial gift, but it felt different to Roan who received it.
“You don’t owe me anything, apostle.”
“Come on.”
“No. I swear by the name of the great one, you don’t owe me anything.”
At this moment, it was rather Roan who felt a slight debt in his heart.
He smiled brightly and put the scarf that Peter gave him around his neck.
It was a thing that did not match the holy emperor’s formal attire, but it was not a situation that he needed to care about now that the schedule was over.
Roan pointed to the lit-up restaurant and said.
“I would like to have dinner with you, Peter. It’s been a long time.”
“Dinner with you… That sounds good.”
“Let’s go together. There will be delicious meat prepared.”
In the evening, the red sunset was cast on the sky.
The footsteps of Peter and Roan echoed side by side in the holy palace.
