Chapter 101

"Yes. We'll start a rumor of our own."

"What kind of rumor?"

"That the temple's holding the Saintess prisoner."

"How?"

"Why so doubtful? It's not like I've been sitting around doing nothing."

Nais straightened his shoulders, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

"Every time I've taken on a case — every time — I've talked up the Lecashe Grand Duke's house!"

"Pft. Have you, now?"

With Rozelia gone, it had been a while since Iberin had laughed out loud.

Nais declared, full of confidence,

"Just trust me. I don't repay kindness with betrayal. Whatever you've given me, I'll spend my life paying it back! And everyone knows I'm a Lecashe man — if anything happens to His Highness, I go down with him."

The whole thing was absurd enough to make her laugh, but Nais was dead serious.

He kept stressing that he had people on his side, and on Lecashe's side too — a lot of them.

If he spoke up, temple or no temple, they'd help.

And true enough, plenty of people, the moment Nais asked, didn't bother asking why and instead said it was an honor to finally be able to lend a hand.

Only then did Iberin let out the breath she'd been holding.

She'd been at her wits' end about what to do, and now she had a solid ally.

---

Cherity reached the capital quickly.

The moment he arrived, he went looking for the high priest.

"The Saintess? Where is she?"

"In the sanctuary chamber."

"You're treating her properly, I trust. She's the first Saintess to appear in thousands of years."

The truth was, Cherity hadn't ever been especially interested in Saintesses.

What was the point of a great vessel if it couldn't channel holy power?

He didn't bother with broken things.

So when the temple had announced this generation's Saintess had been found, he hadn't been particularly moved.

A broken vessel, probably, like the rest.

But awakened — that changed things.

He wanted to meet her.

The thought that he might find holy power had set him on fire, and he'd raced to the capital in one go.

"Right this way."

Led by the priest, Cherity arrived at the sanctuary chamber, took a low, steadying breath, and stepped inside.

The priest followed in as a matter of course, and there, in front of the great altar, the Saintess knelt on the floor.

"What in the world is this? Are you out of your mind? Treating a Saintess this way!"

Cherity barked it out, appalled.

"She — she resists violently. It was the high priest's order…"

The priest who'd led him in couldn't even lift his head, mumbling it.

Her knees had been forced down and bound with cord so she couldn't move; her mouth was gagged.

Her arms weren't free either.

"Even so — you'd treat the Saintess like this?"

At the sound of voices, only then did the Saintess react. She turned to look at Duke Cherity.

Their eyes met, and the duke felt his heart strike against his ribs with an enormous, swelling sensation.

"A — aah…"

There was no room to doubt that this was holy power.

The high priest had called her a half-formed thing, but Cherity was hit with the urge to drop to his knees right there.

"Mmph, mmph."

The Saintess, tears spilling down her face, tried to say something.

Without realizing it, Cherity took a step forward, then another, but the priest moved to block him.

"You can't go any closer."

"But the Saintess is in agony. That gag —"

"No. Absolutely not!"

The priest shook his head, rigid.

"How long is the Saintess to be kept like this?"

"Until she acknowledges herself as the Saintess and stops trying to flee."

"Hah… So the Saintess won't acknowledge herself as the Saintess?"

"That's right. She keeps wanting to go back out into the world."

"What on earth…"

This wasn't anything different from imprisonment.

Cherity believed in the god so deeply there was a term for it — holy fastidiousness — and he sought the god constantly.

And yet, by any read, this was an act against the god.

"Mmph! Mmph!"

The Saintess kept looking at Cherity, trying to say something.

But the priest said his time was up, and he had no choice but to step out.

The temple was relying on him, and the relationship between them was nominally one of equals, but the truth was he couldn't simply do as he pleased.

"…She's eating, at least?"

"We remove the gag at meals. Don't worry."

Even as Cherity left the temple, he kept glancing back, unable to shake the sensation of meeting the Saintess.

He wanted to taste that warm power he'd felt for the first time, over and over again.

---

A few days passed.

Lyssel was still winning out in the west.

But the capital was running strangely.

The Saintess had been found, and there wasn't a person alive who didn't know she'd been found in Lecashe territory — and lately, an odd rumor had been making the rounds.

"They're saying the temple's keeping the Saintess locked up?"

"Is that true?"

"Apparently. Why else would the Saintess not show her face!"

"I heard they're purifying her of the worldly dirt clinging to her."

"Come off it — what does a Saintess need purifying for? She's already a Saintess!"

"Now that you mention it."

The commoners Nais had helped were diligently working the angles, dropping the right words in the right places.

Light-eared types found themselves wavering, and the rumor became truth in no time and spread.

Devotees pushed back, calling it nonsense. But thanks to Nais's continued maneuvering, people began to demand the temple show them the truth.

The temple is holding the Saintess prisoner!

If that's not it, bring her out — now!

The temple, too, had heard the rumors spreading.

Bang!

The Pope slammed his fist on the table and shouted,

"Just how are you running this!"

"My apologies."

The high priest had nothing to say.

He couldn't even tell where the talk had started.

He only knew it had spread at a speed nobody could catch.

The Pope raged, and the high priest ground his teeth.

"Settle this immediately!"

"Yes."

"Show them the Saintess!"

"But if she puts up resistance, the situation becomes complicated."

"What the people want is for the Saintess to be shown. Is there another way?"

There wasn't.

Unless the real Saintess appeared and was seen using holy power, the rumors would only grow.

The high priest squeezed his eyes shut.

The Saintess in the sanctuary chamber was still impossible to reach.

She was stubborn beyond belief — she didn't look like she'd listen to anything, ever.

"What if we announce we're setting a date, and drag it out?"

"That's pretty much covering eyes and crying 'ah-ah,' isn't it?"

"Unfortunately, that's about all we can do, Your Holiness."

"Is the Saintess really being that uncooperative?"

"…Yes."

"Hh. Nothing for it, then. Drag it out as long as you can. In that time, you'll need to bring the Saintess around."

"Yes, Your Holiness."

As the high priest left the great hall, his eyes glittered, cold and sharp.

He couldn't stand the sight of an incompetent Pope strutting around on the strength of his title alone.

In the end, Pope or high priest, neither of them could channel holy power.

The only difference was that the current Pope was the son of a high-ranking noble.

That, and that alone.

"If I can just figure out how she opened her holy power…"

The next Pope's seat was as good as his.

---

Word came down that the temple was going to present the Saintess.

Did they actually have something up their sleeve?

That was the first thought — but it had been days since the announcement.

It wasn't only the common people waiting on the Saintess.

Nobles, too, kept asking when they'd be allowed to see her, but the temple wouldn't commit to a specific time.

When she got wind of it, Iberin let out a snort.

"They're playing for time."

"Sorry?"

"If the Saintess appears, the temple is the one who benefits — that's obvious. And yet they can't bring themselves to put her forward. They're just talking."

"What if the Saintess really does come out?"

"Won't happen. They're going to keep saying soon, soon while they buy time."

"You seem to trust this Rozelia tremendously."

Nais murmured it.

"That's part of it. She was a child who liked me a lot."

"…Confident, are we. Rooting for you."

"Ah. It's not confidence — it's the truth."

"Right, right. Love that she'd never betray me faith of yours."

Whatever the case, lies built out of words alone always came apart eventually.

"People still trust the temple more, though."

"That's true."

"If the temple really has gone into time-stalling mode…"

"They'll go after Lecashe?"

"Since they're saying the Saintess was found in Lecashe territory, they'll find some way to drag the name through the mud."

"Hmm."

It had started with a kidnapping, so if they used that as their angle, Lecashe wouldn't have much to say.

How did a child living in the capital end up all the way out at Lecashe?

And people didn't actually care about the facts.

They cared about the story going around.

"How about we pay a visit to the orphanage Rozelia used to live at in the capital?"

"Orphanage?"

"Yes. Rozelia said she came from an orphanage. Said the memories weren't good either…"

Stopping by once couldn't hurt.

"Given how aggressive Rozelia was about money, you don't think the headmaster was some money-obsessed bastard?"

"Could be."

"Should we buy him off?"

"Buy him off to do what?"

"Cook up a reason Rozel ended up at Lecashe. An adoption."

"Ah!"

"Cooking the books — bold of you to say it out loud right in front of a lawyer, but not bad."

Nais grinned and joined in.

So Iberin made up her mind to visit the orphanage.

---

Iberin didn't know the name of the orphanage Rozelia had lived at.

But Rozelia wasn't a common name, and digging through orphanages that had had a child by that name turned one up quickly.

It was a fairly fine establishment, even by capital standards.

"This is way nicer than I expected?"

Iberin tilted her head, standing at the entrance.

She'd been picturing rough conditions and an abusive headmaster, which made it stranger.

It was the finest of the orphanages Iberin had looked into.

"It is."

"Some kind of corruption going on, you think?"

Nais pinched his nose as if he could smell something rotten.

"If they're doing something they shouldn't to those children…"

"We don't let it stand."