Chapter 95 - Alliance Meeting (1)

"..."

Alon fell silent at Yuman's words. More precisely, he was thinking.

'... What is he talking about?'

Hiding his bewilderment behind an expressionless face, he recalled what Yuman had said.

'I bear the same burden as him? Perhaps an even heavier one...? What does that mean?'

Alon looked at Yuman. The unmistakable respect and awe in his eyes made it clear that he was sincere, not joking.

"...???"

Alon was even more puzzled.

'Does he mean I looked that impressive, or something?'

The kindness the priests had shown him lately brought that possibility to mind, but he soon shook his head. No matter how he considered it, Yuman's words were not an expression of that sort of respect or awe.

And so he asked.

"... Forgive me, but what are you talking about?"

"Pardon?"

"What you said about my bearing the same burden as you, Your Holiness."

Yuman did not seem to understand indirect remarks, so this time Alon asked plainly. Yuman answered without hesitation.

"I mean exactly what I said. We are in the same position, but you bear a heavier burden than I do."

"... I do?"

"Yes."

Yuman had certainly explained himself, yet Alon understood his meaning even less. One thing, however, had become clear.

'... I think he's mistaken about something.'

There was definitely a misunderstanding...

For a start, Alon had nothing in common with Yuman, no matter how he looked at it.

Even in terms of social standing alone, Alon had been born into the comital House Pallatio, whereas Yuman had been orphaned at birth and raised in an orphanage. Their upbringings were different, too. Alon had lived as he pleased in a noble household, leisurely cutting into the meat served at his table, while Yuman had lived in an orphanage as a child before being chosen to become a saint.

Their personalities, their inclinations, even their values—as someone who knew Yuman, Alon could not find a single point of agreement between them.

'Should I tell him?'

He debated it inwardly. Along with realizing that Yuman had misunderstood something, he had recognized one other fact: Yuman's kindness stemmed from that misunderstanding.

In other words, clearing it up here and now would mean losing that kindness. Alon hesitated.

'I'll tell him.'

In the end, he decided to set the misunderstanding straight. Of course, he had no particular wish to sour their relationship. Yuman was both the right-hand man of Elivan, Psychedelia's protagonist, and the Holy Kingdom's saint.

But long experience had taught Alon that the longer such misunderstandings lingered, the more trouble they could cause when finally cleared up. Having quietly made up his mind, he spoke.

"Your Holiness."

"Yes, my lord?"

"I say this because I believe you are mistaken about something, but I am not actually in the same position as you."

Alon spoke without hesitation, intent on clearing up Yuman's misunderstanding.

However...

"Yes, I know. You bear a greater burden than I do, my lord. Perhaps you walk a path for which no one can give you recognition."

"...???"

At the words that came from Yuman as he nodded with an air of complete understanding, Alon spoke again.

"No, that is not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

"... Exactly what I said. I am not being self-deprecating. I am telling you that I truly am not in the same position as you, Your Holiness."

Once he had made it absolutely, inescapably clear that Yuman was mistaken, Alon felt a slight headache coming on. He had no idea what the misunderstanding was, but clearing one up this way very often left both parties feeling awkward.

He disliked that particular kind of awkwardness, and so he was worried.

"Ah, I see."

Instead, Yuman took it remarkably lightly. With even clearer respect in his eyes than before, he nodded as though he had realized something.

"How thoughtless of me."

"Pardon?"

"I have been discourteous in this matter. I still have much to learn."

"No, are you sure you understood me correctly? As I said, I am not in the same position as you at all..."

"Yes, I understood perfectly."

The saint spoke with a smile. Contrary to Alon's expectation that clearing up the misunderstanding would be awkward, the response was remarkably noncommittal.

Instinctively, Alon realized something.

'I don't think he believes me.'

As that thought crossed his mind, Yuman spoke.

"I apologize. I had no intention whatsoever of distorting your resolve, my lord."

"... No, I'm saying you've misunder—"

"Yes, I understand, my lord."

Before Alon could get a word in, Yuman answered with an air of Yes, yes, I know all about it. Don't worry. He nodded as though he understood everything, as though he would deliberately pretend not to know what he already knew.

'No, the person concerned is telling you it's a misunderstanding. What the...?'

Alon was inwardly dumbfounded.

"Then I shall pray that Goddess Shironia's blessings be upon you in abundance, my lord."

With those final words, Yuman left the hospital room.

Alon stared blankly at the door through which he had gone.

"..."

He could not say a word.

####

Three days had passed before he knew it. Just as Alon's symptoms of mana depletion had almost entirely subsided, Yutia came to visit.

"Are you feeling all right, Teacher?"

"Yes."

She had visited every day, as Yuman had, and smiled in relief at Alon's nod. Then she took a black fragment from inside her clothes and handed it to him.

"... Is this an Abyssal Core?"

"Yes. As you said, Teacher, it seems Anderde used Abyssal Cores. Forty of them, at that."

"... Forty?"

"Yes, and those are only the ones we've found so far. It looks as though there were actually more."

At Yutia's words, Alon looked at the empty gray cube, its power gone, and thought.

'... So Abyssal Cores can be used to create an Outer God.'

Naturally, Alon had known nothing about this. Abyssal Cores would not enter circulation in Psychedelia until several years later, and even in the game, they had merely been treated as a piece of background lore explaining how monsters' levels rose to match the player's.

In short, Psychedelia had never gone into any detail about Abyssal Cores, so Alon had been completely unaware of this fact.

'Well, there was a clear difference, even if it was an artificially created Outer God.'

Even so, the fact that Abyssal Cores could create an Outer God was certainly not something he could ignore. As long as they were in circulation, this could happen anywhere.

And so, having finished considering the matter, he spoke.

"Yutia."

"Yes, Teacher?"

"If you learn anything about where these Abyssal Cores are being distributed, could you let me know?"

"Of course."

For now, he decided to ask Yutia as well to look into where the Abyssal Cores were coming from. He knew that the Holy Kingdom maintained its own informants rather than going through the Information Guild.

'They're quick to deal with matters involving heresy. If I leave it to Yutia, I should hear something sooner than I would from the Information Guild.'

As Yutia continued to tell him various details about the Abyssal Cores, a possibility suddenly occurred to Alon.

'... Surely that wasn't the "Forgotten One"?'

For a moment, he considered it just in case, but then coolly shook his head. An Outer God that had already fully manifested surely would not have been so imperfect.

Two days after that thought and his ensuing conversation with Yutia...

"Are you heading home now, Teacher?"

"Well, I've finished what I came to do."

"That's true."

Alon promptly made preparations to leave the Holy Kingdom. And he would be doing so...

"H-hello...! My lord!"

"Myaon...? What a coincidence. We're traveling home together as well."

...with the mercenary company he had not seen at all during his stay in the Holy Kingdom for the investiture.

"Y-yes, indeed...!"

"It's been a while... Why are you suddenly being so formal? It isn't like you."

"Ah—well, I—ah, yes! Now that you've become a marquis, the difference in our stations suddenly feels so much more pronounced...?"

Alon was baffled by the way she seemed to question the plausibility of her own excuse even as she gave it.

"Please take good care of Teacher."

"Yes."

"You understand?"

"Yes...!"

Seeing Myaon snap to attention in her reply to Yutia, Alon instinctively looked at Yutia.

"Then I'll be waiting for your letter."

"Yes. I'll write once I get home."

But her perfectly composed farewell soon put the matter out of his mind.

'Well, it'll be fine.'

With a casual goodbye, Alon left the Holy Kingdom.

####

Immediately after Alon left the Holy Kingdom, Sergius was reporting to Yutia inside her office.

"We have found three more in total."

"How many does that make?"

"Including the ones we have just found, forty-three in total. But I believe there are far more buried in the underground waterways."

Though they were both cardinals, Sergius stood stiffly and addressed Yutia with deference, while she accepted that deference as though it were perfectly natural. Neither felt uncomfortable with this relationship. On the contrary, Sergius found a strange comfort in the situation, as though this was how it ought to be.

Perhaps that was why...

"... Lady Yutia."

"What is it?"

"May I ask you one question?"

... Sergius asked a question he had never once asked before.

"What is it?"

"... Why did you simply watch until the chief cardinal did such a thing?"

Sergius knew that Yutia had already learned what the chief cardinal was planning. A year ago, she had ordered him to investigate what Anderde was doing in the underground waterways.

And that was not all. Through Sergius, she had already stolen several of the Abyssal Cores they had been gathering inside the stone statue.

In other words, Machina, which had appeared a week earlier, had been unable to complete an Outer God's form and had remained an unstable mass of vines to the very end because it lacked sufficient Abyssal Cores.

It meant that Yutia could have stopped the chief cardinal before he did what he had done.

Having asked the question before he could stop himself, Sergius realized his mistake.

"Ah..."

Alarm crossed his face, but Yutia smiled as though amused.

"Why didn't I stop him, you ask..."

Then she spoke.

"First, let me make one thing clear."

She slowly opened a drawer in her desk.

HUM

The nine Abyssal Cores Sergius had brought rose into the air. Yutia glanced at them as they floated before her.

CRUNCH! CRRUNCH!

Then, without hesitation, she shattered them.

"..."

A single Abyssal Core cost such an enormous sum on the black market that one would have to sell a territory to buy it. Having destroyed them all in an instant, Yutia spoke.

"It wasn't to steal these. This sort of trash means nothing to me."

She twitched a finger, and the fragments of the Abyssal Cores fell to the office floor. As Sergius stared at the pieces, involuntarily swallowing, Yutia addressed him.

"Tell me, Sergius."

"Yes?"

"Do you know what gods feed on to grow?"

"The gods... you mean?"

"Yes. All gods, including the great Goddess Shironia."

Sergius answered her question cautiously.

"... Isn't a god a complete and perfect being in its own right?"

Yutia smiled and shook her head.

"No. That isn't so."

"Gods need two things: faith and awe."

"Faith and... awe?"

"Yes. And this time, all I needed was people's 'awe.'"

A deep smile spread across Yutia's lips, and the scene from a week earlier replayed before her eyes: Alon, hurling a spear of lightning at the Outer God beneath the blue moon—the Great Moon himself.

"More radiant and beautiful than anything else."

"Never to be forgotten by anyone."

Yutia's lips curved upward.

"Awe, for him alone."

Her eyes crinkled in a deep smile. Within those red eyes, that scene was already playing over and over again.

"That is the reason, you see?"

At Yutia's final answer...

"..."

... Sergius could only swallow hard and nod. For her eyes shone with unmistakable madness—something he must never, ever disturb.