Chapter 10: Leo and Johann

I Became the Secretary of a Hero! — LNCrawler · All chapters

LEO finished preparing for the journey and came to the audience chamber entrance only to find none of the Hero Party members were there yet.

“Sheesh, I’m the first one here? …Guess I just came too early.” He scratched the back of his head.

Even if I’m earlier than I need to be, we’re finally leaving on the journey to defeat the Dark Lord today. What’s the harm in getting together a little earlier than we have to? Leo internally complained as he sat with his back against the hallway wall.

He yawned and stretched out the kinks in his body, when Johann arrived exactly at the precise time they agreed upon and not a second later. He lightly furrowed his brow upon seeing Leo relaxing against the wall.

“Good morning. I see you are as relaxed as always on our day of departure.”

“I see your morning sarcasm is in tiptop shape. I was up a tad late last night researching some stuff, so I didn’t get much sleep. Not any different from usual.”

“I see. Is it safe to assume you were continuing your usual research?”

“…You could say that,” he replied halfheartedly and said no more, becoming lost in his thoughts.

Leo’s consecutive nights of sleeplessness stemmed from his extensive research into the Hero, Dark Lord, their Right-hands, and their exact purpose. From what Johann had told him, the Hero and Dark Lord’s duty was to inject new Creation Energy into the world and their Right-hands were summoned from another world to lend them the Goddess’ power. However, Leo’s research led him to believe that wasn’t all—they had another mission that was their true purpose and one that was kept a secret. But for some reason, their real role wasn’t publicly known or accessible.

From the extent of what I’ve researched, it seems to directly correlate with the Creation Goddess’ birth…

The Creation Goddess was born as the guardian deity of the world and exists somewhere as an ethereal being that watches over the land, maintaining it. Not once has the Goddess shown herself in front of humanity, leaving her as an unverified existence that has some researchers claiming she is nothing more than a legend.

The Goddess, who’s as elusive as a secluded princess, has supposedly revealed herself to the Holy Kingdom—a country possessing a sphere of influence and territory rivaling the Kingdom. The myths say the Goddess descended on the Holy Kingdom in a temporary form to relay a divine revelation to humanity.

The Kingdom and the Holy Kingdom—the foundation of the world circled around those two world powers fighting for dominance. It goes without saying the Kingdom is where Elias, Leo, and Aki currently presided. It reigns over a vast expanse of territory and is a nation boasting superior military and political strength.

On the other hand, the Holy Kingdom stands as the oldest country in the world and is a religious nation ruled by the Pope. Due to the religious nature of the country, they only grant citizenship to people in sacred professions. The catch is that only those of a select bloodline and heritage are allowed to join the sacred professions, essentially making the Holy Kingdom an exclusive and secretive country running on the doctrine of a chosen people. They deny entry to all immigrants.

As the Holy Kingdom existed since the beginning of the world, it is understood that myths about the world’s creation unknown to the rest of the world are left in their hands. With that unique aspect on their side, they are considered the home country of the Creation Goddess and continue to maintain absolute power on par with the Kingdom. Incidentally, one distinct feature to the Holy Kingdom is the Priest training facility—the Sanctuary. Naturally, the Priest Johann hails from there too.

Things are further complicated when it comes to Johann because while Priests are normally required to wear emerald-green vestments, he dons a starkly different pure-white vestment. Colors symbolizing purity such as white and silver are considered the Goddess’ colors and only the high priests are allowed to don them. In other words, Johann is a high priest.

That’s why I thought Johann of all people would know something about the truth behind Elias and Aki’s mission, but…

No matter how many times Leo pressed Johann for an answer, he wouldn’t share anything with him. Leo believed it was less that he didn’t know, and more that the strict rules of the Sanctuary forbade disclosing information of any sort to the outside world.

Realizing pestering Johann was a dead end, Leo set about researching it himself and discovered the existence of the Book of Creation—the oldest religious text in the world containing information on the truth behind the Hero and the Dark Lord. Unsurprisingly, the only copy was under the safekeeping of the Holy Kingdom.

Things only get more suspicious as the Sanctuary actively avoids letting the Book of Creation be known to the public by forbidding it from ever being taken outside its safe room. Needless to say, outsiders to the Holy Kingdom such as Leo, Aki, and Elias would never be allowed near it, but even among the Priests, only the high priests were allowed to lay eyes upon it.

I can probably put the pieces together if I could only get a look at the Book of Creation… But it’s not like I can sneak into the Sanctuary. Leo imagined himself disguised as a Priest sneaking into the Sanctuary and shook his head at how terrible their vestments would look on him.

The Book of Creation is said to contain information on a wide range of topics from law to history during the Creation Era when the world was first made. Information concerning the structure of the world was recorded in the form of myths in the Book of Creation. Information pertaining to things such as why the Creation Goddess came into existence, what the Creation Energy circulating through the world is, the consequently created Hero and Dark Lord, and why a Right-hand summoned from a parallel world is necessary.

But with the Sanctuary hiding the contents of the Book of Creation and making it only accessible to a select few powerful Priests, there’s no way for the masses to know the truth behind anything. Basically, the people readily swallowed the information the Sanctuary saw fit to disclose for their own good, allowing the battle between Hero and Dark Lord to repeat for generations without anyone harboring doubts.

That’s why Leo had his doubts that Elias and the Dark Lord’s purpose was really just about resupplying the world’s dried up Creation Energy. Where was the proof? If anything, the Sanctuary was suspicious for ostentatiously hiding the Book of Creation. Leo suspected they had ulterior motives for using Elias and the others as a part of some bigger and separate role.

That’s exactly why I wanted the High Priest Johann to tell me about the Book of Creation, but no luck there.

He suspected the Sanctuary strictly forced him to keep his mouth shut, because Johann never disclosed anything to them. If his suspicions were correct, and Elias and the others had a different purpose than injecting new Creation Energy into the world, it would mean Johann was lying to them and hiding vital information.

Leo grimaced, feeling like he was about to arrive at a very disturbing conclusion. Johann was hiding things from them. That fact pained Leo as a fellow Hero Party member, but Johann had his own position to protect. While they may be members of the same Party, that didn’t mean he could readily disclose information the Sanctuary strictly prohibited discussion about.

Leo couldn’t bring himself to one-sidedly blame him for his behavior. However, it was also true he wasn’t going to give up on prying the information out of him.

Aki and Elias were still nowhere in sight, so Leo decided to ask a question he knew he’d get no answer to. “Johann, sorry for constantly pestering you, but there’s a purpose behind the Hero, Dark Lord, and their Right-hands that we common folk don’t know anything about. You Sanctuary people told the Hero Party and the Kingdom’s statesmen a convenient truth that the Hero and Dark Lord’s battle is all about replenishing the world’s Creation Energy, but what is it really about? That’s not all, is it?”

Johann stayed thoughtfully silent for a brief moment, before giving the short reply, “…I cannot answer that.”

A predictable response. Despite knowing his efforts would be in vain, Leo dug deeper while Johann kept his eyes trained on the floor. “You know, even I understand the Sanctuary’s orders keep you from revealing anything about the Book of Creation. But aren’t Elias and Aki very important friends to you too? I don’t know what the truth behind their roles is, but are you going to keep things important to their survival a secret just because the Sanctuary orders you to? I sure hope you don’t end up regretting it later.”

“I—” Just as Johann was about to speak, Leo spotted Elias and Aki running toward them from the other end of the hallway. Johann noticed them as well, and decided to leave his statement unfinished.

…Tsk, another push and I may have gotten something out of him. Now I’ll have to wait for a later point to ask him when Elias and Aki aren’t around.

Leo waved Elias and Aki over to him. “Man, you guys are slow! What took you so long?”

Elias ran up to him and lowered his eyebrows in an apologetic expression, lightly catching his breath. “Sorry for the wait. We met with Arnie in the Isolated Tower.”

“Arnie?” Leo racked his brain for who that referred to. Wasn’t that the nickname of the Kingdom’s Crown Prince Arnold?

The news of Prince Arnold’s body being impaired by a curse placed on him by the Dark Lord had been kept a secret from the public; Leo knew only because he was a member of the Hero Party. But as he never actually met him in person, he had no idea what kind of person Prince Arnold was.

Whether he’s disabled or not, he should show himself to his people without fear, was Leo’s honest opinion, but he didn’t know where the prince stood on the subject. For all he knew, the king may have very well been forcefully keeping him locked up in the tower. That possibility naturally kept any conversation about Prince Arnold a forbidden topic inside the castle…or rather, an avoided one.

“Were you summoned for an urgent matter to have need of meeting with Prince Arnold?” Johann asked, walking over to Elias and Aki. Aki shook her head and explained the sequence of events leading to their meeting with Prince Arnold.

She frantically explained, with overactive gestures, all about how a divine revelation from the Goddess was written in the notebook Leo summoned, how when she was about to tell Elias, the notebook moved of its own accord leading her to the Isolated Tower, and how she met Prince Arnold and chatted with him there.

Elias was thrilled about Aki’s ability and she smiled joyfully upon seeing his reaction. It was a wonderful thing that Aki awakened to her ability from the Goddess, quite wonderful really, but—

Paying only a sidelong glance to Elias and Aki’s friendly interaction, Leo put his hand to his chin deep in thought. The Goddess is giving her instructions directly? That’s an extremely peculiar ability. It’s been unthinkable for there to be another divine revelation from the Goddess since the time she gave the one divine message to the Holy Kingdom. I’d say that’s an ability among all the successive Hero’s Right-hands’ abilities that shows the Goddess’ favoritism.

Like Leo, Johann frowned as if he had his own thoughts on what her ability meant. Johann was one of the highest ranked Priests—did Aki’s ability strike a chord with some of his hidden knowledge? Something, perhaps, to do with the hidden truth behind their mission?

Leo wasn’t going to let his reaction go unnoticed. “Hey, Johann, what’s wrong? Got somethin’ to say about Aki’s ability?”

Startled by his question, Johann trembled. He dropped his gaze to the floor, hesitant to say anything. “…No, nothing in particular…” he said ambiguously and not a word more.

Leo shrugged. As he suspected, Johann had no intention of divulging any of the information he knew about the Book of Creation with Leo and the others. With that said, he likely felt guilty about keeping the truth from them. The occasional pained expression that slipped through his calm façade whenever he kept the truth from them spoke volumes about the guilt he felt.

Johann is probably stuck between a rock and a hard place with us, his friends, on one side and the Sanctuary’s orders crushing him in on the other side. Even if he wants to tell us the truth, his position doesn’t allow for it. I believe he’s stuck in a very difficult position. Not only did he climb to the top ranks of the Priesthood at a young age, but he was also selected to be the Hero Party’s Priest. His abilities aren’t just talk. That’s exactly why he’s stiff when it comes to his sense of responsibility and following the rules… Or another way to put it is that he’s more inflexible than most.

Elias noticed the awkwardness between Leo and Johann and stepped between them. “Now, now, isn’t Aki’s special ability awakening a joyous occasion? She seemed bothered all this time by the fact she wasn’t granted an ability by the Goddess.”

“…I can’t deny it. To be honest, I was so nervous and anxious that the Goddess hated me… But I was a little relieved to learn she doesn’t hate me completely now that I have this.” Aki happily held the notebook in front of her face with both hands. Leo and Johann’s expressions softened into smiles upon witnessing her beautiful smile.

No matter the reason why, she was gifted with a special ability by the Goddess, and that was a joyous occasion. Especially since Aki felt responsible for becoming the Hero’s Right-hand because she jumped into their world. She secretly believed it was her fault she didn’t receive any abilities from the Goddess.

Well, at any rate, we have one less thing to worry about. Leo tried to convince himself and pointed to the audience chamber’s door.

“C’mon, let’s hurry to where the king is. The sun will set on us if we don’t get a move on.”

“I agree. The monsters become more active and dangerous once night falls,” Johann added.

Monsters are predominately nocturnal creatures. While they are still active during the day, it’s much easier to encounter them during the night, and there are many species whose offensive and defensive powers increase. The established strategy for most Adventurers is to avoid traveling the fields at night and to plan accordingly in order to arrive at the next barrier during the day.

Elias nodded and formally looked at the members of his Party. “In that case, everyone, it’s finally time for us to depart on our journey to defeat the Dark Lord. Aki, Leo, Johann, let’s work together to take down the Dark Lord. Please lend me your strength.”

Elias ceremonially bowed his head, to which Aki clenched her fists and nodded, Leo smacked him on the shoulder, and Johann smiled softly. Elias pushed his cloak behind him and turned on his heel to walk toward the audience chamber door. Leo followed him, stealing a peek at Johann walking beside him.

As things currently stood, Johann was still following the Sanctuary’s will and showed no signs of disclosing the contents of the Book of Creation with the Hero Party members. But he cared for his friends more than he appeared to—surely he would tell them the truth someday and help them if the need arose.

Leo believed saving Johann from the constraints of the Sanctuary to be another one of their roles as friends and members of the same Party.