Chapter 98

"I can't read their minds, but that's my read. There's no real reason for them to stay otherwise."

It was a fair point. They'd said they'd come to help wipe out monsters, but at this point there were no monsters left to wipe out.

"Up until a few days ago, they were combing the heart of the forest — the part the monsters had emptied out — looking for something. That didn't seem to pan out either, and now they're just lounging around."

"Tch."

There were limits to gall.

Iberin clicked her tongue under her breath.

"If they don't leave, Rozelia has to stay locked up in that storeroom."

"Right. I'm worried too."

It was a damp, gloomy little room without a glimmer of light.

Rozelia kept insisting she was fine, but it sat badly with Iberin.

"I'm going to meet with the priests myself."

"You, my lady?"

"Yes. If I push the issue, they'll at least start watching their step."

And if they left, all the better.

"Understood. I'll fetch them, then."

"Do that."

Rotte stepped out. Iberin let out a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. The space Lyssel had left behind felt enormous.

This was the office where Lyssel had sat every day. With him gone, Iberin was holding it on her own.

A short while later, Rotte returned, her chest visibly heaving.

"What, what happened?"

"They said if you want to see them, you come to them."

"Hah!"

She didn't know what nerve they thought they were standing on.

With Lyssel out of the picture, they had no one left to play nice for — they were insufferable.

One thing was clear: they had no intention of leaving anytime soon.

"For Rozelia's sake alone, I can't let the priests stick around indefinitely."

Rotte dropped her gaze.

"If they're going to be childish, then I'll answer in kind, won't I?"

"Sorry?"

"Stop treating them well. We've been treating them well, and that's why they think they're somebody."

"Sorry?"

If they could be made to leave out of pure indignation and pettiness — fine, that worked too.

---

While Iberin was locked in her invisible standoff with the temple, Lyssel was sending word of one victory after another from the west.

Thanks to that, all of Aleta was buzzing about Lecashe.

Every time people gathered, the talk turned to how strong Lyssel was.

The people of the Lecashe territory were a class apart.

The bragging was something else, and Ether's shoulders were practically up around his ears because of it.

Iberin set down a little of her worry, too.

She couldn't be fully at ease yet, of course.

"They say he's basically a hero in the west these days?"

"Yes. Apparently if you don't know Lecashe in the west, even the fringe cults won't have anything to do with you."

Rotte and Pons were grinning, the corners of their mouths nowhere they could control.

The thought that their lord was finally being recognized seemed to have them positively glowing.

The truth was, this was the general state of everyone at Lecashe.

Open their mouths and out came another piece of bragging about Lyssel, or they were so pleased they didn't know what to do with themselves.

"Not long ago, His Highness — in one stroke! — brought down a high-tier monster. That news has gone right across the country!"

"Ooooh!"

Everyone broke into applause, completely worked up.

Iberin couldn't hide her smile either, delighted.

"They say knights and even nobles don't dare cross him to his face."

A few of the rumors had to be exaggerations, but most of it would be true.

In fact, after Lyssel had arrived in the west, casualties had dropped sharply.

Among the commoners — who'd taken the worst of the damage — Lyssel was treated almost like the emperor himself.

"Things are all right between him and Duke Cherity, aren't they?"

"…"

Nothing but news of victories. The morale across the Lecashe region was sky-high.

The front lines in the west had to be even more charged than that.

---

Meanwhile, the priests still camped at Lecashe were growing uneasy as the situation kept shifting.

The high priest could feel it too.

"Hah."

On top of which, that insufferable Iberin woman wouldn't so much as show her face — and yet kept pulling deeply irritating moves.

"The food today isn't right either."

"There's no meat in the thin soup."

"When I went to the head cook, he said Lecashe land has always been poor, so there's nothing to go around. They'd managed to keep it stocked until now, but it's beyond them at this point."

The first thing she'd done was let the quality of the food slide.

Everyone else seemed to be eating perfectly well, and the priests alone were being served slop a dog wouldn't touch.

Pressing the matter only got them excuses.

The country was effectively at war — they needed to be stockpiling food. That was the line that kept coming back.

"Hah."

The attendants assigned one-to-one to each priest had been pulled back, and the knights too.

It was just short of someone shouting clear out already.

"Krgh."

The high priest had never been treated this openly poorly in his life.

Even the haughtiest nobles had crawled the moment he opened his mouth — and this was the impudence he was being shown.

"Hh."

The high priest let out a heavy breath and muttered under it.

"Is there no way to deal with this?"

They'd found nothing in the forest.

The monsters had pulled out, but the knights still kept the interior tightly controlled in case of lingering danger.

Before the controls had gone up, he'd been into the shrine inside the forest. He hadn't sensed anything notable.

It was a place that had once been dedicated to the god, so strong holy power lingered — but that had been all.

He'd combed the inside top to bottom, and there'd been nothing.

It had clearly gone untouched for ages — only the empty altar remained.

But when he'd visited that same altar again after Lyssel had left for the west, a fierce holy power had been pouring off it.

A shrine that was practically a relic from thousands of years ago — putting out holy power on that scale!

The high priest had been thunderstruck.

How?

Why was a holy power that strong suddenly making itself felt?

He had an uneasy feeling that it was tied to Lecashe leaving.

"Don't tell me a dog-shit situation is about to unfold where Lecashe gets to be the hero who saved the world."

"No, surely not! No matter what, Lecashe is Lecashe!"

The priest beneath him shot it down, but the common people were simpler than that.

They threw their support behind whoever was protecting them right now.

If Lyssel really did wipe out the monsters as the high priest had said, then from the temple's standpoint, everything would unravel.

This was the same temple that had cast Lecashe out harder than anyone, branding them cursed beings.

"What in the world are we supposed to do."

It wasn't as if they could quietly do away with Lecashe, either — the monsters were terrifying.

The temple had no ability to deal with monsters.

"What if we spread rumors again so he can't become a hero?"

"And how would we do that, exactly?"

"That this whole mess was caused intentionally by Lecashe…"

The high priest's eyes lit up in an instant.

"Not bad."

"All we need to do is shape the conversation. Common people are ignorant — they'll trust what the temple says. And isn't Lecashe just a cursed thing to start with?"

"Khaha. True, true."

The high priest felt as if the whole thing had already been resolved.

Manipulating public opinion was the temple's specialty.

He looked at the priest who'd suggested it and beamed in approval.

"If this works out, I'll give you serious responsibilities."

"Th — thank you!"

The priest bowed his head, almost overcome.

Then another priest beside him began to fidget anxiously, clearly torn, and raised his hand.

"Hm? You have something to say too?"

"Y-yes!"

"What is it?"

The high priest, having already heard a plan he liked, sounded indifferent.

"I-I felt a faint holy power in a room down the corridor."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"With respect, sir, it was similar to the energy I felt in the shrine in the forest."

Ordinary priests believed the holy power they encountered was the power of artifacts.

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

But the holy power radiating from the shrine in the forest was a completely different sensation.

It was intense, the kind of holiness that made you want to drop to your knees on its own.

Unlike the fake imitation produced by artifacts, the energy steeped into that shrine was the real thing.

And this priest was saying he'd felt that exact energy.

The high priest's eyes opened even wider than before.

---

The high priest himself couldn't channel holy power.

But thanks to the energy held in artifacts, he was more than familiar with what divine power felt like.

"Where?"

"In the very farthest corner of the castle."

Don't tell me — Lecashe?

The suspicion lifted its head and wouldn't be pushed back down.

The high priest stood without hesitation.

"You know the location?"

"Yes."

"Lead the way."

When the priest saw the high priest's expression ease a little, he finally let out his held breath and scrambled to his feet.

He hurried off toward the spot he'd marked down for himself.

They walked for some time.

"It's there."

The priest gestured.

It was a corner saturated with a kind of gloom, but it couldn't quite hide the holy power leaking out of it.

This was unmistakably not the false imitation of artifacts.

That was when it happened.

"Wait."

A woman in a maid's uniform stood there for a long moment, glancing around in every direction, then carried a tray inside.

What's this?

The high priest narrowed his eyes.

The maid came out quickly, and the tray she'd carried in was gone.

So someone's in there.

They waited for the maid to disappear, confirmed no one else was around, and only then closed in on the door.

When they put an ear to it, they heard signs of life inside.

Clack—

He threw the door open, and there sat Rozelia, sipping at her soup.

"You—?"

The high priest recognized Rozelia at a glance.

"Hk!"

Rozelia, in turn, recognized him.

She was so startled she dropped the spoon she was holding, and the blood drained from her face.

A thick smile spread across the high priest's mouth.

"So this is where you've been. Saintess."

"…"

"I've been looking for a long time. How did you end up at Lecashe?"

Rozelia stayed frozen and couldn't get a single word out.

"And — you aren't a half-formed one anymore."

To think he'd sat in this very estate like an idiot and missed a holy power radiating this thickly.

Scolding himself under his breath, the high priest yanked Rozelia roughly by the arm.

"N-no! I'm staying here!"

Rozelia tried to wrench her arm free, but a child had no chance of overpowering a grown man.

"Ow!"

The grip tightened, and tears sprang to her eyes.

"Let go! Please, let go!"

Rozelia cried out with her eyes brimming, but the high priest gave a sour smile.

"The temple's Saintess belongs in the temple."

She was the Saintess who'd run.

And to think she'd been at Lecashe.

"No!"

Rozelia reacted violently to the talk of going back.

She must have been well looked after here — her cheeks had filled out nicely.

When she'd been bone-thin she'd looked plain, but the beauty in her was showing through now.

"Lecashe abducted you."

"That isn't true!"

"For the Grand Duchess's health."

"That isn't true!"

Rozelia screamed in protest, but the high priest carried on as if he hadn't heard a word, muttering to himself.