CHAPTER TWO

The eagle, ruler of all birds, looked down at them over her beak.

The one glaring at the eagle with a growl rumbling deep in her throat was a girl who had inherited the blood of the wolf, the king of the forest.

For Myuri, who could command the stray dogs of the city with a glance, to be called a dog was the greatest insult.

“Did you just call me a dog, you chicken?!”

Myuri yelled with her ears and tail exposed as Sharon literally looked down on her, puffing out her chest.

The hairs on Myuri’s tail instantly stood on end, but Col stepped between them.

“By dogs of the Church, might you mean the inquisition?”

Sharon puffed herself up and shook out her wings, as though sighing.

“How insolent.”

“Hey! Get down here! Chicken!”

As Col held Myuri, who was practically threatening to rip the other to shreds, back by her shoulders, he responded.

“If we really were with the inquisition, then how would you explain Myuri’s ears and tail?”

Those who were not human were deemed by the Church to be possessed by demons and had the fate of being burned at the stake if they were discovered.

The inquisitor’s job was to find those who followed pagan beliefs and the very pagan gods themselves.

“Simple. Taking that dog along with you would make sniffing out our kind an easy task, and it serves as a simple way to lower our guard as well. Two birds…two dogs with one stone.”

“Hey! You clearly called me a dog just n—Gwah!”

The fur on Myuri’s tail was standing completely on end, and she was ready to run after Sharon to bite her, even if it meant climbing up the wall, but Col reached around to put his hand on her mouth. His gaze never left Sharon as he held the thrashing wolf pup still in his arms.

“Miss Sharon.” He called her name and dropped his shoulders. “Could you please cut the act?”

“Gwah…gwah?!”

Myuri calmed in his arms, her ears twitching inquisitively.

“If you truly believed we were inquisitors, then I do not understand why you would appear in your true form to confirm such a thing.”

“…”

Sharon remained silent, staring hard at them.

“Perhaps you really did believe we might be inquisitors, but I’m sure you have already ascertained what you wanted to.”

Sharon and the other tax collectors were trying to take back the fortunes of the Church within the Kingdom. It would not be unusual if the Church tried to carry out some sort of sabotage. He could understand how cautious she needed to be, even after reading Ilenia’s letters and hearing about the Twilight Cardinal.

But what he heard Sharon say and what he saw her do did not add up.

“You came to us in this form for another reason, did you not?”

“You’re a clever one,” she said and spread her wings, flapping them several times, carrying herself to a shelf in the corner of the chapel. She was matching her eye level to theirs in her own way. “I first thought you had forced her into slavery to put her to work. A disciplined dog will do as it’s told, no?”

“Hey!!”

Myuri’s tail puffed up at being called a dog again. Col had thought she was maturing, but she was still easily riled up by even the most obvious provocations.

It was hard to tell exactly, as Sharon, a bird, was expressionless, but it almost seemed like she was having fun teasing Myuri.

“Miss Sharon.” He called her name with an admonishing tone, and Sharon flicked her tail feathers, as though shrugging.

“I received word from a fellow bird and observed you long before you arrived at port in this city…Honestly, I can barely stand watching you two interact,” she said, exasperated.

Much like the wolf’s sense of smell, human eyesight was no match for that of the bird, and when she mentioned it, he remembered how many seabirds had been above the boat when they arrived in Rausbourne.

On the one hand, Col suddenly felt rather embarrassed knowing that someone had seen his private moments with Myuri. Conversely, Myuri puffed out her chest in pride and took his arm, but Sharon uncomfortably turned away.

“Miss Sharon, please let me say this before there are any misunderstandings—Myuri is the daughter of the man who helped me through life and is like a little sister to me.”

“Brother’s just shy.”

While birds were not supposed to be that expressive, Sharon’s irritation appeared in the form of a half-open beak.

“I don’t think one should expect much of a relationship between human and nonhuman.”

“Hey!”

Sharon easily brushed off Myuri’s threatening attitude by simply looking away.

“Because that dog there looked thoroughly tamed to me. I didn’t think she could possibly be working for the Church, but I couldn’t shake the last of my suspicions.”

Myuri bared her fangs and growled at being called a dog again, and she gripped so hard on Col’s arm that it hurt.

“However…If she gets this angry at being called a dog, then at the very least, she hasn’t lost her pride as a nonhuman. She could not possibly serve as the leader of the Church’s hunt.”

Apparently, her provocations had also been a form of confirmation.

“I’m glad your questions have been cleared up. Let me just say this again: We are not friends of the Church. Of course, we are not entirely its enemies, either; what we are hoping for is a reformation, not to overthrow them.”

“Whether you are friend or foe is up to interpretation. It seems your faith is true, even if you’re going around with that dog.”

Myuri’s eyes sharpened again, so Col got a handle on her before answering.

“God created everything on this earth. And so we must love everything equally.”

“No, we shouldn’t!”

Myuri immediately interjected, and Sharon puffed herself up.

“Erm, Myuri…”

“You can’t love everything equally! I should be number one!”

She would not listen to him if he explained to her that it was a quote pulled straight from the scripture.

As he found himself at a loss as to what to do about Myuri as she howled, Sharon murmured softly, “…So this is the Twilight Cardinal.”

While she sounded annoyed, he could not possibly be angry about it.

“To be honest, that nickname is far beyond what I deserve.”

“But it is your name nonetheless. Whether you like it or not, that position already belongs to you.”

Hyland had told him the same thing. The friction between the Kingdom and the Church had been at a standstill for many years, but it was now making its way to the next stage with earth-rumbling steps.

And the one who caused that was none other than himself.

“…I suppose I have to accept it, don’t I?”

“You do. Any bridge with a weak keystone will collapse.”

She was right.

“Also—”

The eye of the eagle, the hunter of the sky, twinkled.

“If you do not securely establish your position, others can easily use you. You could become either my friend or my foe. That would be trouble.”

“You’re a foe! I won’t ever be your friend!” Myuri yelled and stuck out her tongue.

Sharon gave only a birdlike tilt of the head.

“It is true—I am in a rather awkward position. However, I have heard about the situation of the city…of the Kingdom. You could end up being either friend or foe as well, Miss Sharon.”

He paused and fixed his gaze deep on her expressionless face.

She was one of the three forces who would decide the fate of the city.

Sharon was the vice president of the tax collector association, who was acting under the Kingdom’s prerogative.

“Are you aware that your tax collecting carries the possibility of cutting the life from the Kingdom?”

That was essentially the main point of what Hyland had told him.

The Church knew they had the strength in numbers and were trying to light the flame for a counterattack. If he stayed on the sidelines, especially now, all the riches of the churches within the Kingdom would end up in the hands of the tax collectors.

The option of war was growing ever more likely, and it seemed Heir Klevend, who backed Sharon and the tax collectors, was rather hoping for that possibility. By using the collection rights to corner the Church and forcing the cornered Church to start a war, chaos would erupt within the Kingdom, which he would take advantage of to usurp the throne…

Just as it had been demonstrated in countless tales of conquer, chaos was the perfect chance for those lower in standing to distinguish themselves. Even a man who had held a simple job in a remote bathhouse could one day come to be called the Twilight Cardinal.

However, if war did break out and all the foreign merchants stopped their trade, an unprecedented tragedy would befall the people of the Winfiel Kingdom. Not to mention that the outbreak of civil war would be far too terrible a sight.

Was Sharon aware of what sort of web she had a hand in?

Or perhaps, as Hyland had said, she was fully aware of what she was doing.

“I pray for peace for the people, just as much as I pray to correct the evil practices of the Church.”

And he also wanted to help Hyland, whom he knew on a personal level. If Heir Klevend revolted and caused a civil war, then Hyland would have to fight her own people in order to protect her country.

Then, on the slim chance that she lost, history very clearly demonstrated what happened to fallen leaders.

“You said you wanted my cooperation and reputation, yet you ask my help only for collecting taxes, heedless of the state of the Kingdom?”

While he may be pitiful when it came to other things, he could take pride and confidence in his own convictions.

He spoke loud and clear to Sharon, who puffed herself up as though taking on the challenge, and said, “You think it’s money we want?”

Tax collectors cast successful bids on collection permits, collected through their own wits, and profited.

But the reason he froze when he heard her say that was because it occurred to him that perhaps Hyland’s conjecture was off its mark. In short, perhaps they were not the vanguard following Heir Klevend’s scheme, deliberately cornering the Church to cause a war.

In that case, that made it clear if he and Sharon were friend or foe.

“You think we would come together for money? We want something else.”

Sharon spread her wings wide and, like a stretching cat, flapped them several times in place.

And what she finally said after a moment of silence was nothing he could have ever predicted.

“We want revenge.”

“…Revenge?”

It was so unexpected, but when he remembered how she was not human, he could imagine all sorts of pasts she might have had.

But in that case, he still questioned it.

“If you hate the Church…then I can think of several reasons why. But then, does that mean all the tax collectors I saw in the harbor are also not human?”

If so, Myuri would have said something, so when Sharon heard him say that, she narrowed her eyes in vexation.

“If that was the case, then we would instead simply attack the Church, but you’re wrong. I’m the only nonhuman. We have all come together purely because we hate the Church equally. Human or no, the best reason to bring drifters like us together is a shared hatred.”

Sharon’s explanation only made the problem even bigger. Col could barely comprehend the hatred Sharon and the other tax collectors shared.

But he could tell right away how deep it was. He felt a stinging, burning rage from her words, yet her eyes remained calm.

Myuri changed the position of her feet to brace herself, perhaps prompted by Sharon’s overwhelming determination.

Sharon was not acting on impulse.

That was why it was not anger but hate.

“Of course I know about the war you fear. It seems like we might be the spark that would cause it, after all. But we have absolutely no intention whatsoever of loosening our grip on collecting taxes. We are doing this to take revenge on the Church—not for money and hardly for some heir who’s backing us for some plot or another. It just so happens that we’ve chosen the rights for tax collection as our tool. We bid for these rights simply because we had no other options.”

Ilenia the sheep had also been using the tax collection permits as her tool.

“Do you know what the punishment is for failing to comply with the collection of taxes under royal authority?”

“…Death, isn’t it?”

Of course, it would be almost impossible to sentence the entire organization of the Church to death.

But there were people on the Kingdom’s side, so right now, all the good reasons to attack the Church were in order.

They had authority enough to wage war with the Church.

“But…whatever major reasons you may have, do you still plan on bringing misfortune to the Kingdom for your own personal revenge?”

One could not place others’ feelings on the scale to measure their importance. But whether he be a priest hopeful or not, he could not acknowledge revenge, not to mention the countless livelihoods that would be jeopardized by war.

And Sharon seemed well aware of that.

“I don’t want to argue with you. I just want you to know.”

“…Want me to know?”

“Yes.”

Sharon spread her wings; elegantly flew up into the air, over their heads; then landed on a pew near the chapel entrance. Her eyeline was just below theirs.

“At any rate, the Church is not worth defending. It sounds like you want to correct their evil practices, in which case, we have a suggestion for you: In order to right their wrongs, the only option is to drag them out onto the street corner, draw them up by their necks, and eviscerate them.”

Col would not be surprised if this was Sharon on her own, since she was nonhuman, but she had said all those who gathered in the tax collection association shared a hatred for the Church. He was not sure why, but he believed they still had time if he listened to what she had to say. Sharon, at least, had said she wanted him to know.

If they could talk, then that would be the perfect option.

“Then, let me hear what you have to say. There is still the possibility I might stop you even after that, though.”

“If you’re gonna use my brother, then I’m gonna bite you to death.”

Sharon cast a brief glance at Myuri, then replied.

“I’m not going to force you. We have no intention of stopping either way.”

She sounded arrogant, but depending on how one perceived it, it could also be taken as her honesty.

Col decided he would not waste any more words, and he nodded.

Myuri growled, having been ignored, so Col casually stroked her head in order to calm her down.

“But what should we do?”

Anyone was free to enter the chapel. The morning service ended a while ago, and there was still plenty of time before evening services started, but anyone could appear at any time.

“There’s a place I want to show you. It will be easier to explain if we go there.”

“Well then—” he began, then paused. “I would rather you didn’t guide us while flying through the sky…”

The streets were crowded, and they would not be able to keep up if she led them in the sky. While Myuri was another story, Col was sure he would get lost.

“It’s fine. Luckily, you’re dressed as a guard of honor.”

“Huh?”

The moment Col wondered what she meant, Sharon again levitated lightly into the air, then landed on a place he least expected.

“Wh—! Hey! Get off from there, chicken!”

“M-Miss Sharon?!”

Sharon had landed on his shoulder.

“You are a guard of honor with an eagle on your shoulder. People will think of you as someone from a very good family. People will part the way for you.”

That might be true, but Sharon was looking at Myuri, who was growling and gnashing her teeth as she spoke. She was doubtlessly enjoying Myuri’s reaction.

It was too much mischief, and he was about to try to take her off his shoulder.

“Generally speaking, if I was to walk around in my human form, it would just be the cause of unnecessary trouble. Would you mind getting tangled up with those imbeciles from the traders’ association again? Think about why I didn’t go directly to Lord Hyland’s manor myself.”

“Oh.”

Sharon was the vice president of the tax collector association. When taking all these various factors into consideration, assuming her eagle form and riding on someone’s shoulder was surely the most optimal way to move about the city freely.

“If you understand me, then let’s be off. I’ll point you in the right direction,” Sharon said and readjusted her feet once, twice in order to have a stable grip on him.

Her fine talons did not hurt, either because his clothes were made of good material or she was adjusting the strength of her grip, and he barely felt any weight from her. If he mentioned how smooth her feathers felt as they brushed against his ears, Myuri’s eyes would surely bulge in so much anger that they would almost fall out, so he stayed silent.

Even still, Myuri stared hard and aggressively at Sharon as she rode on his right shoulder, and she was deliberately holding his right hand. It was likely so that she could immediately rip the bird to shreds if anything happened.

“Please lead the way.”

Even if Col’s voice did sound rather tired when he spoke, he was sure that God would forgive him.

How people presented themselves was important.

Col was aware of that, but he still felt it was a little strange how obvious it was now.

Nobles engaging in falconry clearly had vast territories, so there was no one who would dare step in the way of someone wearing formal clothes and with an elegant eagle on their shoulder.

Even the wandering peddlers who clung like leeches parted the way for them, fearing the consequences.

Sharon gazed to the sky, paying no mind to the people of the city, occasionally whispering to him where to turn.

Myuri was upset as she always was, but it was not like Sharon was going to try any new tricks on her, so she soon stopped glaring and simply walked along with a pout.

The place Sharon brought them to was deep in the back of an alley. From the main avenue, they entered a densely packed residential district, passed by two wells where women doing laundry and fetching water were busy chatting, stepped over free-roaming pigs lying in a sunny little vegetable garden, went down a tight alley that could barely fit two adults side by side, and finally came to a run-down building.

“Is this it?” Col asked, but Sharon flew up without a word and went inside the building through an open window on the second floor.

“…This is really close to the church we were just at. Why’d she make us walk all this way? Does she think she can trick us? I’m a wolf.”

While her bad mood had been somewhat mollified, the valleys between Myuri’s brows were still rather deep as she spoke.

“This seems like an old city, so it’s probably full of blind alleys and dead ends.”

The locals likely had shortcuts that cut through other people’s gardens and kitchens. This space was for the locals to live in, not for visitors to enter.

As they stood there, Col felt like the silence around them was draining all the sound from his body, so the occasional cry of a baby he heard in the distance was comforting. As he thought about how it reminded him of being in the forests of Nyohhira, there came the sound of a lock being undone on the other side of the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, revealing Sharon wearing simple clothing in her human form.

For some reason, other people’s houses had a peculiar scent to them.

The moment they passed through the door, Col was overwhelmed by the smells of daily life that stirred old memories.

“Is this an orphanage?”

Still expressionless like a bird, Sharon raised an eyebrow.

“I’m surprised you could tell.”

“I was a wandering student when I was a child. I often found myself in the care of places like this.”

He had practically run away from his village, which was almost as remote as Nyohhira was, for a journey to master his studies. It was hard to believe now how naive he had been back then; wandering students without a family of money or status to support them were practically the same as orphans.

He had been in the care of houses that helped the poor and others without anywhere to go many times, and the smell of this place was just like that of those sorts of orphanages.

“I was convinced you were a young master from a good house.”

It felt like she had reevaluated how she looked at him, but it was pure good luck that he had managed to survive this long.

“Well, never mind that. As you’ve guessed, this is an orphanage, but they don’t accept just anyone.”

“Is this like…a Saint Lumeria charity clinic?”

Those were institutes run by a well-known religious order that took in only those beset by particular illnesses who could not lead regular lives among other people. There were several places like that throughout the world.

Then, as Sharon closed the door, locked it, and was about to walk off, she paused and smiled for the first time.

It was an ironic, sad smile.

“We’re not altruists. The one I’m helping is a younger me.”

“Younger you…?”

Sharon did not answer and continued down the hall.

The building was old and rather run-down, but he could tell that it was still being carefully cleaned. After they passed several nearly empty, quiet rooms, Sharon stopped. None of the rooms had the luxury of a wooden door; they could see everything inside.

This room looked like a remodeled shed, and the children inside sat around a single adult, fervently writing on wooden boards.

“Sorry. Didn’t know you were in class.”

Col looked over Sharon’s shoulder as she called out into the room, and his gaze met the young man’s there, who was about the same age as himself. He could tell at a glance this person was a priest from his unique appearance. Judging by his clothes, he was likely a low-ranking pastor who dealt directly with the lives of the city people.

“Oh no, we were just about finished…But I don’t see you at this hour very often, Miss Sharon. And…who is this?”

Col realized it was not only the young man but all the other children in the room who were looking at him.

And those gazes were accompanied by a bad nervousness.

Col was bewildered by the reaction, but he then realized it was because of the clothes he was wearing.

“Don’t worry. He’s not a government official. Or part of a Church raid. He’s not an enemy,” Sharon said. “At least for now,” she added. “Come with us.”

She jerked up her chin, and while the young man seemed puzzled, he nodded and announced the beginning of the noon break to the children sitting around him. They seemed happy that their studies had ended early.

The children of varying ages left the room, not bothering to hide their curiosity as they stared at Col. They all moved to a different room, perhaps to the dining hall. There was still a small child sucking on his finger inside the room until a girl acting as his older sister pulled him along.

As Col watched the group depart, it felt like his surroundings suddenly fell silent.

“I don’t like kids much,” Sharon said, yet her expression seemed a bit softer. “And our guest here—this is the Twilight Cardinal.”

“Huh?”

It was not the young man who voiced his surprise but Col.

While he did not think the title was something to hide, he felt like revealing it to people was something that warranted a bit more structure.

And the young man before him was clearly a pastor. Right now, virtually all the places of worship in every town in the Winfiel Kingdom had their doors closed, and their chapels were open but unmanned. The crest of the Church had been removed even from the chapels in the parishes here.

That meant they were unable to hold religious services, and without religious services the benefices stopped coming and the clergy was unable to receive their salaries. He could believe that this young man was teaching here in order to earn his keep.

And here was Col, the person who was partly to blame for this young man’s suffering. In a sense, he was both a friend and an enemy, one who could bring about any kind of trouble to him.

It was just after he held his breath in fear.

A smile immediately spread across the young man’s face and he pushed Sharon aside, quickly approaching Col and tightly grasping both his hands.

“That means you translated the scripture into the common language, didn’t you?”

“Huh?”

“I have heard the rumors, yes! But more important than that was the feeling I got when I received a draft of the common-language translation—I felt like my eyes had been opened! I knew right away that this was the future of preaching!”

His hands being vigorously shaken up and down, Col found himself at a loss, but it at least did not seem as though the man bore him any ill will.

With excitement and a great big smile, the young man let go of Col and then bowed deeply and respectfully to Myuri, then shook her hand. Myuri was rather surprised, but she was smiling brightly.

Then, when Sharon cleared her throat, the young man seemed to realize how excited he had gotten and straightened himself out in shock.

“I—I got carried away. I’m sorry. My name is Clark, Clark Komenda. I am a curate of the twentieth parish in the Rausbourne archdiocese.”

He slowly held out his hand toward Col.

Col noticed a callus from writing on the man’s middle finger, and he recalled the book from the chapel.

“My name is Tote Col. I am not much more than a wandering student. I am still a bit embarrassed being called the Twilight Cardinal…But more importantly, were you the one who put the book in the chapel?”

Another bright smile immediately crossed Clark’s face.

“Yes!”

His smile was proud and kind yet, at the same time, had a weakness to it that made Col want to help him. He thought that maybe all of those who decided to walk the holy path shared a certain kind of idiocy, like Myuri had said before, but it was Sharon who explained the reason for that.

“After the benefices stopped coming in, Clark used up all his money on paper and ink, despite not even having enough bread to eat for himself, and has been handing out books to chapels here and there throughout the city. He is just like you, standing against those people from the cathedral.”

Clark gave a troubled smile, bashful in response to Sharon’s rough introduction of him.

Now that she had mentioned it, Col realized the weakness he sensed from Clark was a weakness as a living creature.

His skin was dull, which made his cheekbones stand out. The reason he wore such loose-fitting clothes was perhaps to hide how skinny he was.

“Please stop, Miss Sharon. The people from the parish have been bringing me things lately, so I’m not pressed for food.”

“You don’t look it. You’ve been giving your leftovers to the needy outside the orphanage, haven’t you?”

“Well, uh…But I’m also an enemy of the cathedral…”

Clark’s voice was frail, and he turned away.

Sharon sighed and looked to Col.

“People like him are the very few allies we have on the side of the Church. He even teaches reading and writing to the kids here.”

After glancing back and forth between Sharon and Clark, Col glanced to Myuri.

Myuri, who had been observing Clark’s lesson with great interest, noticed his gaze, but she did not look like she was on guard. It did not seem like Sharon and Clark were plotting anything nefarious against them for the time being.

“What sort of orphanage is this? Is this an institution under a religious order?”

There were almshouses, charity clinics, elderly care homes, and orphanages.

These sorts of institutions built in and outside of the cities were typically run by churches and religious orders.

If that was the case for this one, then it was rather odd that Sharon, a tax collector taking away the Church’s riches who was also an eagle avatar who wanted to drag the people of the Church out onto the street corner to string them up, could come and go freely.

“No, this is a private institution. My fellow tax collectors and I cover the expenses, and the rest is met by donations that Clark’s popularity brings in.”

That was a surprise.

Sharon loathed the Church, yet she placed a curate from the parish here to give the children an education. Not only that, but she had also said she was helping her younger self. That meant the children here had something in common with Sharon and the other tax collectors, but Col could scarcely come up with a reason that would explain it all.

That was why his guard was down.

Just like Myuri had said, he never saw the dark parts of the world.

“All the orphans here are illegitimate children of the Church.”

When Sharon said that, Clark looked as though he wanted to say something but instead dropped his head.

The tax collecting embodiment of an eagle spoke, her mouth twisting into a smile in overwhelming anger.

“Everyone here, including myself and the tax collectors, is what you’d call the ‘nieces’ and ‘nephews’ of the clergy. They cast us aside like garbage to save themselves the nuisance.”

Col had forgotten to breathe. He had not even considered that possibility, and at the same time, he now understood all the actions of Sharon and the tax collectors.

He of course knew this was a custom within the Church. No one was ignorant of it. The fact that many of these holy men were not supposed to marry yet had unofficial wives and families was such common knowledge no one thought of it as a secret in the first place.

One of the reasons Myuri constantly whined about becoming Col’s wife without ever learning her lesson was because she knew about this terrible practice.

But in that case, that also meant Sharon’s very existence carried an even more particular meaning. Sharon was not human, born as a result of a priest who broke a commandment, and then tossed away—an illegitimate child.

“Now do you understand why I wish to see them hanged?”

These men selfishly brought them into the world, then selfishly discarded them.

Those same men went on to preach the virtues of chastity, honorable poverty, and piety.

Sharon had said “hate.” And now Col understood why she was a tax collector.

The job of a tax collector was one that accepted drifters, and even after an orphan grew and matured, they were still not fully-fledged individuals, since they lacked support. They were lucky to get any job, even if it was a position as hated as a tax collector. They had been through such hardship because of their birth, and yet, they survived. And to imagine after all that, whenever they saw a church in any town, they saw priests preaching the gospel of God and living good lives.

Not only that, but she was Sharon.

Myuri was born from the union of her mother, Holo the wisewolf, and Lawrence, a human, whose relationship was so close, it invited smiles from all those around them, even in the generally optimistic hot spring village of Nyohhira, which was full of music and happiness.

But not everything in life adhered to such wondrous ideals.

An example of someone who had walked the darker parts of the world, the parts Col never wanted to show Myuri, stood right in front of them.

“Twilight Cardinal…” Sharon murmured his moniker, and Clark, who had forgone eating in order to transcribe the scripture, also looked up.

“…Help us…”

Her gaze and words were so straightforward that Col could not even flinch.

“…Crush the rotting Church.”

Even in the back of a quiet alleyway, Sharon’s voice was hushed and calm.

And because of that, Col understood how deeply rooted her anger and hate were.

This was not something that could be relieved with words.

“You said we might end up at war with them because of us, right?”

“Well—”

“Listen. You might be right. And the people of the Kingdom will fall into great misfortune because of it. But if we could destroy the Church here and now, there wouldn’t be any more people like us and the children here at the orphanage. Wouldn’t you call that justice?”

She was not doing this for her own self-interest.

There were countless people on her side who shared her justification and pain.

There was reason and righteousness in what she was doing.

“Or…”

Sharon looked down to her feet, then raised her gaze to Col in a glare.

“…You’re working with the Church, and you’re here to get in our way?”

Her right hand moved threateningly.

Perhaps the reason she had taken them here was not only to show her hand and convince them to join her but also to secretly do them in if their goals did not align.

What she was talking about was something that could not be solved by talking.

But also, it was hard to imagine she was tricking them with temporary lies and flattery.

Just as everyone was holding their breath to see what would happen next, there was a loud clattering sound from one of the rooms farther in. After a brief moment, it was followed by the sound of a crying child.

“…”

The crying was then joined by the alarmed shouts of the other children.

That was enough to relieve the malicious fumes.

“I’m going to check on the children, Sharon,” Clark said, patting her on the shoulder, then disappeared after casting an acknowledging glance to Col.

When he saw him do that, he wondered if Clark had originally planned on stopping Sharon. And, while this was also pure conjecture, he thought that perhaps Sharon knew Clark wanted to stop her.

Col sensed that was how familiar they were with each other.

“Hey.”

Unexpectedly, it was Myuri who spoke up at that moment.

“Hey, chicken.”

When she said that, Sharon, who had been looking down the hall after Clark, turned back to Myuri with a sharp gaze, but that did not frighten her.

“Tell me about you, chicken.”

“…”

Sharon stood speechless, and Myuri reached out to take Col’s hand and continued.

“My brother is pretty unreliable most of the time, but he can be pretty useful here and there.”

Col frowned at her rough way of putting it, but Myuri kept her composure and grinned.

“And all in all, he’s our friend. More importantly, he’s my friend, though.”

Regardless of whether or not they actually rivaled each other in that department, what Myuri said in her rough introduction was all truth.

Col cleared his throat to straighten himself out and then said to Sharon, “Miss Sharon, I don’t think I will be able to persuade you, and I do not completely agree with your goal of…vengeance by any means necessary. But I believe the malpractices of the Church must be righted. I may not be able to totally help you, but I’m sure there are other ways in which I can assist you.”

“At the very least, won’t be getting in our way, is that right?”

He was not so inexperienced as to agree with her right away. That was because this whole situation could decide the fate of the Kingdom.

After Col closed his mouth, Sharon stared hard at him, then gave a tired sigh.

“Either way, I guess that dog’s preventing you from giving it your all.”

“I’m not a dog, you chicken!”

It looked like a squabble between crows and dogs that one might see in town, but neither of them obviously seemed like they were being earnest.

“Fine. Things will be a lot easier if I can win your sympathy. Let’s talk,” Sharon said, then jerked her chin toward one of the windows. “It’s nice and sunny in the garden at this time of day. Perfect weather for a dog.”

“Grrr!”

Myuri’s growl sounded a little too convincing, so Col patted her on the head to calm her down, and they then went outside.

Buildings that could not be refined even out of flattery were built leaning against one another, creating a wall around Col and company.

This little garden was less like a courtyard and more like a space that so happened to come about when the buildings were built, but just as Sharon said, it was bathed in sunlight, and there was even some greenery. Little birds peacefully pecked at something in the grass.

“Get out of here, you.”

Sharon waved her hand, and the little birds flew off. Taming smaller creatures seemed to be an old trick that any nonhuman living in a city, not just Ilenia, could do.

“Now then, where should I start?”

There was a crate placed there for sunbathing and Sharon sat down on it as she spoke. There was only one other crate there, and Col was hoping to let Myuri have it, but she instead pulled him along and sat him down. He wondered what she was going to do, and she sat on his lap without a second thought.

While she tended to want to do things like a spoiled little girl would, she was still sharp.

“What happened to your mother, chicken?”

She got straight to the point with a single breath, and while Sharon’s eyes widened, she soon just shrugged, perhaps because she thought it would be the easiest starting point.

“My mother was a beautiful golden eagle with golden wings.”

“Wooow, golden wings…”

Despite how Myuri called Sharon a chicken, she was purely fascinated by the idea of an eagle with golden wings. Sharon seemed slightly perplexed by her response, but she did not seem to be upset by it.

“And I don’t know how it happened, but she got involved with a priest from the Church. They lived peacefully for a while.”

A forbidden love between a priest, who was not allowed to marry, and a nonhuman, of all people.

How would the poets write songs about it?

“But when most of the members of the clergy get ahead in life, they’re required to clean up their affairs. Owners of churches in smaller towns out in the country might not need to do anything like that, since they’re practically kings, but it’s apparently a required procedure out here in the bigger cities.”

If a priest had to move from a smaller diocese to a bigger one, then the place they lived and everything else would have to change. Should their new home be located within the walls of a city, then they would have to prove themselves suitable, and if they had children, then it became a question of who those children belonged to.

“Of course, they systematically repeat the same rotten customs over and over. Priests are used to cutting off their wives and kids who are holding them back. They rewrite the baptism directory to change who the parents of their children are, and then they add names to the funeral directory to kill off a made-up husband. In an instant, that creates a widow and child left behind by a good husband. There’s nothing between the mother and child and the real father. The documents prove beyond a doubt that they’re living separate lives.”

When she said that, Myuri stirred and turned to look at Col.

Her surprised expression read, She’s kidding, right?

“It might just be on paper, but…I think it is possible.”

Just like how public perception of people changed depending on the clothes they wore, ink and paper could easily change a person’s entire existence.

“But still, the truth always gets out. The local people all know the truth anyway, right? Rumors naturally spread. The better the life a woman lives as a priest’s mistress, the colder everyone around her would be and the more ostracized both she and her child would become. They usually aren’t able to stay in their original town or village, or even the region, so they go far away. And then…” Sharon sighed, dropping her shoulders. “The kid gets in the way. Even with proof of identity, at the end of the day, the mother is still a woman who’s come from far away with a kid in tow. She would absolutely draw attention in an inspection at the city gates. Maybe she’s related to someone who committed a serious crime. Maybe she committed adultery and was chased out of her home. Or maybe…she’s the mistress of some Church man or a noble and she’s been tossed away.” Sharon lifted her head, squinting at the sun, and continued. “Most mothers find themselves at their wits’ end, and with little other choice, they leave their kid on the front step of a church or monastery. Isn’t it ironic? Despite how awfully they’d both been treated by the Church, that’s the only thing they can rely on.”

“No…”

It was a grim tale, unthinkable for the daughter of the biggest lovebirds in all of Nyohhira.

“And so your mother…was the same?”

Myuri did not call her a chicken.

Sharon looked at Myuri and shrugged.

“The kids in the orphanage have been through pretty much the same thing. Clark was smart and was allowed to stay by his father’s side as his ‘nephew,’ becoming a curate who assists the pastor. My mother and I were different. Because she was such a magnificent golden eagle, who could encircle every house around her when she spread her wings, she couldn’t just bring in my keep from the forest. If it was possible, she could have simply caught all the creatures in the forest and sold everything to the furriers and the butchers to earn a mountain of coin.” But from the way she was speaking, that was not how it turned out. “My mother lived for a long time, and she knew what it meant to live alongside humans. She didn’t hide how she never aged; she revealed her true identity, and they still crossed that gap and took each other’s hands. That’s how much they trusted each other. But even then…” The light disappeared from Sharon’s eyes. Even beneath the sunlight, her eyes were brimming with hatred. “He betrayed her. All for the sake of his own success.”

Myuri squirmed on Col’s lap because she was overwhelmed by Sharon’s open hatred.

“And my mother could not stand to be in the human world any longer. She left me behind and apparently flew across the western sea.”

The loathing in her eyes faded, transforming into a more muted hue of sadness and sorrow.

However, something in her words caught Col’s attention.

“What do you mean by apparently?”

Sharon lifted her head, then tiredly cocked it to the side.

“I was still an infant then. That’s the story I heard from the elderly sheep my mother left me with. The old man was a shepherd at a monastery, of all things, and no matter how hard we struggled, we couldn’t escape from the net of the Church.”

That was why she wanted to set fire to and destroy everything. Much like the net she was entangled in, Sharon’s hate had a tight hold on her.

On the other hand, Col realized how small the world was.

“Could that sheep have been a golden one?”

Sharon was clearly surprised.

“You know Huskins?”

“It seems all paths are connected and intertwined.”

What came from his mouth was an excerpt from the scripture, and Sharon huffed.

“Okay, then does that mean your mother went to the land in the west, where Ilenia wants to go?”

“Huh? Oh right, that…legend of the land to the west is talked about among the people who live in the Kingdom and those who live on the western shore of the mainland. The old man probably told that to me to calm me down. I don’t believe it.”

When Myuri, who believed in the land to the west, saw how flippant Sharon was about it, she pouted.

“I heard it from a whale. He said it’s not impossible.”

“…What?”

“But I guess the whale also said that he couldn’t swim all the way there, so he wasn’t planning on going…”

Sharon sighed, knowing she would not be able to talk sense into her, but Myuri continued to argue.

“But he also said there are unbelievably massive footprints in a really, really deep part of the ocean. And those footprints are heading west.”

“Footprints?”

Myuri stood and spoke.

“It’s the Moon-Hunting Bear.”

It was a legendary calamity all nonhumans and their close company would have heard about at least once.

Sharon blinked, speechless.

“…You’re kidding.”

“Are you calling me a kidder?”

It seemed like they would start glaring again, so Col interjected.

“It is most certain that Lord Autumn is not someone who would speak without good reason.”

Autumn, who was the embodiment of a whale, was also a difficult one, but he was not someone to tell lies.

“…The land at the end of the western sea…,” Sharon murmured, narrowing her eyes in displeasure.

There was said to be a continent in the western sea, to where Sharon’s mother flew off. It was entirely possible that Huskins made up the story out of kindness.

But Col felt like he understood why she would flatly reject the possibility that it might exist.

That was because in her eagle form, Sharon was an elegant and valiant creature and not entirely out of place in the forests like Myuri was. She knew her own wings probably would not be able to carry her all the way to that continent. Only a fool would get so worked up about a place she would never reach, and since she was not, doing so would only be painful.

Paradoxically, perhaps it was because Ilenia knew that as a sheep, she could not fly or swim in the first place, that she could chase talk about the continent.

As Col thought about that, Sharon stood from her crate and spoke.

“Whether the continent exists or not, I know what I need to do. I’m going to drag the Church dreck out onto the corner and string them up. I won’t be able to meet my mother without getting my revenge anyway.”

She was not looking for approval, and perhaps she was not even looking for sympathy.

She glanced over at the orphanage, then looked back at Col and Myuri.

“We’re up against the great organization of the Church. I don’t think we’ll ever get the chance to use tax collection permits as a shield to boldly pressure them like this again. Don’t get in my way.” She then walked off, and as she passed by them, she whispered, “Clark doesn’t know what I really am. Don’t say anything unneccesary.”

Without giving them a chance to respond, Sharon opened the door and went into the building. They could hear the children making a ruckus from the gaps in the window.

“Hmph. Chicken.”

He realized Myuri was standing next to him, her hands on her hips.

“She’s just telling herself it doesn’t exist because she can’t fly there.”

It seemed she had been thinking the same thing as he had about Sharon, but he did not think she was a cowardly chicken.

“She has been through a lot. She’s being realistic.”

While people could not live solely on bread, they still had the scripture, but without any bread in the first place, giving them the scripture would only lead them to starvation. Sharon was here in this city now because of all the trouble she had been through.

“And it does not seem like Miss Sharon’s anger belongs only to her.”

“What do you mean?” Myuri asked, and Col slowly inhaled before answering.

“All the tax collectors have come together, right? Not only that, there’s this orphanage here. Miss Sharon is not the kind of person who can ignore those who have fallen on hard times. That is why the land in the west does weigh on her mind, but she must chase it from her thoughts.”

“…”

Myuri seemed dissatisfied, probably because she was still slightly angry at being called a dog, but she did not deny that was true.

Sharon had looked at the line of children as they went for food and said she did not like children.

Yet, the sharp-eyed Myuri could not have noticed that softened expression when that happened.

“I obviously agree with the reasons why that chicken is angry.”

She started calling her a chicken again, but Col instead felt a closeness between them when she did, and he could not help the smile on his face.

“…Why are you smiling?”

“It’s nothing.”

As an older brother, he was pleased that Myuri had grown into a kind girl.

“But anyway, now I know who it is we need to drag over the coals,” she said.

He agreed heartily with that.

“While there is distance between Miss Sharon and us, we are still headed in the same direction.”

It was still good enough that they learned that Sharon and the tax collectors were not Heir Klevend’s vanguard for bringing chaos to the Kingdom and throwing it into a civil war. Consequently, there was no reason to see them as an enemy, and it was not reason enough for them not to work together. And even if the reason they were fighting was because of anger, he took that as a reason to demonstrate the possibility of reconciliation.

“But, Brother?”

“Yes?”

It was just after he asked in return.

Myuri leaped to him, almost knocking him backward off the crate he was sitting on.

“Wh-what is it?”

He wondered what it might be when he saw her wolf ears standing on edge under her hood and the fur on her tail standing on end under her robe.

“You’re not going to throw me out, are you, Brother?”

His breath hitched for a second.

He was confident he would never do that, and he was relieved to see that there was still a weak juvenility to Myuri, even though she acted so bold all the time.

He rubbed her slim back as she buried her face in his chest, and he said, “If your tricks and rambunctiousness get to be too much, then I might.”

“Hey!”

Myuri looked up at him, and he returned her gaze with a smile.

“But you are a well-behaved girl, so there’s no need to worry about that, is there?”

She immediately huffed and buried herself in his chest again.

Her tail wagged about in displeasure, and she suddenly stopped.

And then she whispered.

“We’ll burn the damn Church.”

Myuri knew what justice was.

The tension in his cheeks dissipated and he kissed the top of her head, her face still buried in his chest.

“Young ladies don’t say words like that.”

Her tail then immediately began to swish about, and she groaned in protest. She was cuter than any noble girl if she stayed quiet, but it was times like this she was a rambunctious girl from the mountains.

Yet, she was angry on Sharon’s behalf. He knew she was just as high-minded as any noble girl.

“Come now, if Miss Sharon sees us again, she’ll make more comments.”

He lightly patted her back, and Myuri swished her tail about and then grumpily lifted her head.

She then glared at him with wide eyes.

“Hug me again.”

With a tired sigh, he did exactly as the princess commanded.

It was truly a big scoop to learn that Sharon and the tax collectors were not after money and not even Heir Klevend’s vanguard but that they were working off their own pretext.

It was an earnest fight regarding their past, which had nothing to do with the principles of faith, but they were working in the same direction in the sense of righting the Church’s evil practices, and Col believed it was also God’s will that their pain be soothed. How could he loudly celebrate what was correct faith without supporting them?

They needed to cut the Church off from the merchants, avoid a situation where they would take advantage of the Kingdom falling into confusion due to a lack of supplies, and also take a stand against the Church, no matter what.

And they absolutely needed to right the wrongs of the Church.

“I guess the merchants are our priority here.”

If they could only find out why they seemed so oddly cohesive, then they might be able to alienate them from the Church by driving a wedge between them. They would then lose their weapons that were the merchants and then perhaps hesitate in looking for a chance to start a war with the Kingdom.

However, while Col was rather confident when it came to complicated questions of theology, he was completely unfamiliar with trade. Not to mention the smoky, phantasmagoric hearts of merchants—there was no way he could ever understand those.

He grew nervous, wondering if he would be able to see through them, but when he looked at Myuri beside him, his feelings changed a little. That was because they had journeyed thus far, even though it was practically impossible. He was not the only one fighting here.

After leaving the orphanage, he and Myuri, his most dependable partner, talked about how they could deal with the merchants.

Myuri liked shortcuts, so she insisted she should dress up as an errand boy so a company would hire her, and then she could look into things, but in contrast, Col proposed that perhaps they should call over Myuri’s father, Lawrence, if things started to get dicey.

Lawrence was once a talented traveling merchant, someone who had changed the entire economic landscape of the northlands practically overnight. Col doubted there was anyone else so reliable when it came to mercantile problems, but Myuri immediately responded with a frown.

Col did not think there was any need for her to be so coldhearted, but Myuri gave her reasons why.

“If Father comes, then that means Mother’s coming, too.”

Myuri loved to do things on her own terms, but her mother was the only one she could never disobey. And what others around them probably thought of as a loving relationship between husband and wife, Myuri, as their daughter, saw as painful.

Those sorts of feelings of hers were purely like that of a child, but they should be held in the highest regard, and Col personally wanted to leave calling Lawrence and Holo the wisewolf as their very last resort. He could not say he was independent if he would so readily rely on them.

“Hmm…Either way, it is true we lack manpower on our own. We could send a letter…Or perhaps we could ask Mr. Hilde…I’m sure Heir Hyland hasn’t heard from Mr. Hilde directly…”

As he hemmed and hawed, Myuri said something that made him go numb.

“That’s exactly why I should sneak into the companies here in this city like a spy.”

“Um, you know this isn’t a game, right?”

“What?! Did you forget how much I’ve done so far?!”

It was not the Golden Fern they were headed to as they chatted. Not even Myuri was insolent enough to go smacking her lips over mutton after listening to Sharon’s story and seeing the children in the orphanage. Though it was not much, Col had even quietly put some money into the donation box.

So after they had a bite to eat at the outdoor stalls, they made their way over to the manor Hyland was renting, but before they reached the gates, something caught Myuri’s attention and she sniffed the air.

“…Something smells good, something I’ve never smelled before.”

“Myuri, girls your age mustn’t be so immodest. And did you not just eat?”

Col spoke with exasperation, and Myuri made a hurt expression that she did not often make.

“Brother, you dummy! I’m not talking about food!”

“Is that so?”

“All you ever do is treat me like a kid! It’s totally different, okay? It’s like a really strong smell of flowers.”

He wondered if it might be candied petals, but a strong smell of flowers might mean perfume.

He thought about that as the servant opened the gate for them and they made their way onto the manor grounds, and under the open archway was a magnificent four-horse carriage.

“Heir Hyland has a guest. That probably explains the residual scent of perfume.”

“Perfume? Oh, that thing that smells really good but you can’t eat.”

He was a little relieved her appetite was more for food than anything else.

“And what a wonderful carriage. It must be a noble.”

“Where’d they come from? I smell so many good things I’ve never smelled before.”

The carriage was tall, wide, and could easily fit six to eight adults inside. There were elegant engravings on the lacquered body, and the subtle gold ornaments on key spots gave it a mysterious dignity.

The windows were also made of panes of polished glass, which could be an asset all on their own.

“Come now—let’s go.”

Myuri might end up crawling into the carriage should he leave her alone, so he pulled her by the hand into the manor.

If Hyland had a guest, that meant they would report on Sharon only once it was nighttime. He wanted to give his report on her and the tax collectors and then start seriously discussing how they might expose the ties between the Church and the merchants as soon as possible…but once he started thinking about that, they happened upon a maidservant who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Just as Col decided to greet her, then ask how Hyland was doing, she spoke first.

“Sir Col, it is good to see you. Heir Hyland and the others are waiting for you.”

“Huh?” he asked in response and looked over to Myuri beside him. Myuri also wore a strange expression, and she tilted her head.

“Could it be Mother and Father?”

He doubted it at first, but he could not think of anyone else who could have come all the way here to wait for them. There were very few people who knew they were here in the first place—Ilenia the sheep or perhaps even Autumn the whale. Either way, they were keeping whoever it was waiting, so they needed to go see them.

“Then, we will go to our room to change and then head over straightaway.”

Just as he said that to the maid, Myuri interjected.

“I think this is way better than our usual, boring clothes, though.”

Col was stubborn, since his usual attire was that of an aspiring priest, so having those be called “boring” was a compliment, but the maid said, “You have on some lovely apparel; it won’t be rude of you at all,” so he gave up.

“Then, I guess we’ll go straight there.”

The maid led them to the reception room. They passed from room to room, and it was after they passed about four austere portraits on the wall—two people wearing exotic clothing stood before a closed door.

“I have brought Sir Col.”

The maid gave an elegant bow to the two at the door.

Both wore long swords decorated in gold at their hips, which meant they were probably this guest’s personal guard. They had shapely noses, and their tanned skin and dark hair and eyebrows gave off the air of people who hailed from a foreign land; the clothes they wore were embroidered with gold and silver thread, closely resembling the actors he and Myuri saw in Nyohhira.

They were dressed exactly like the actors who portrayed tales of the desert that were so popular in the cold northlands of Nyohhira.

Col glanced over at Myuri, and just as he thought, her eyes were twinkling with curiosity. He was almost worried that her ears and tail might pop out.

“Come inside.”

One of the two spoke quietly, knocked on the door, placed his ear on it to listen for a response, then slowly pushed it open.

Then wafting toward them was the comfortable smell of flowers, strong enough for even Col’s nose to make out.

“Oh, Col, perfect timing. I was about to go send someone to get you.”

Hyland the royal went out of her way to stand from her chair and greet them.

It was an honor for her to do that for them, but just as he was wondering if that would not be rude to her guest, she graciously motioned for them to come into the room, and for a moment, he saw a serious expression pass over her face.

Myuri, of course, noticed as well. Her own expression, giddy with curiosity, immediately returned to normal.

Evidently, the person who had come to visit was a treacherous one.

“It seems the Twilight Cardinal has returned, honored guest.”

Col looked at the person sitting right in the middle of the long side of the banquet table in the long, narrow room and could not help his eyes widening. That was because this person was making the attendant girl hold an open umbrella overhead, despite being indoors.

And that umbrella was a bright, eye-popping red, animals and plants depicted on it with gold thread, with silver thread woven into the edges and hanging down along the sides like tassels, which was enough for both himself and Myuri to stare at it slack-jawed.

The only word he could think of for the umbrella was luxurious, and the attending girl was more beautiful than anyone Col had ever seen before. Her thick, luscious hair was decorated with slim gold ornamentation all over, and beneath it, she smiled at him with almond-shaped eyes.

But it was only then he realized the girl’s clothes looked exactly like the kind he’d seen the dancer girls in Nyohhira wearing, and the animals depicted on the umbrella were creatures that looked like horses with lumps on their backs.

And the guest sitting there so elegantly, face obscured by the umbrella, wore an extravagant robe that looked like a priest’s garb but had delicate patterns embroidered into it, and they wore a unique green jewel around their neck. It was a jewel sung about in the epics of the far, far south; a land where the light of the sun was much too strong, where the people loved the moon more.

A desert dweller.

But even though Col might know stories about the desert, he had never been there, so of course he had no acquaintances there.

Right when he was wondering who it might be—

“Been a while, Col.”

Col was perplexed when he heard the voice from beneath the umbrella.

That was not because whoever it was knew his name. It was because he knew that voice.

“No…way…”

Indeed—there was one other person in the world who knew he was here.

The person beneath the umbrella waved their hand, and the attending girl respectfully moved the umbrella to the side.

What appeared was a face he had not seen in quite a long time.

“Miss Eve!”

When Col was about Myuri’s age, he stuck fast to Lawrence and Holo while spending days with them that he could only call adventurous. He had met many people and experienced many things. If he had been told to list all the people from that time he could never forget, the name right at the top would probably be Eve Bolan.

She was a merchant of a different breed than Lawrence, a woman who was like a starving wolf that kept even the wisewolf Holo on guard. Hyland was right to be cautious.

However, Eve was often misunderstood because of her demeanor, because on the inside, she was not a bad person. Col knew she had achieved great success in the south, and it seemed she had accumulated even more wealth in the past decade.

“I haven’t seen you in ages, Miss Eve!”

Eve had always looked out for him, but since she was based in the distant south, the most they could do was communicate by letter.

Col was simply happy to be seeing her again, and he unwittingly rushed to her.

“I got a letter from that Ilenia. I had to come see you, so I arranged for a boat and here I am.”

“I see. But you’ve traveled quite a distance…”

“Well, I have my reasons…Heh, so that’s her kid? She looks just like her.”

Eve had also come to Lawrence and Holo’s wedding, so she of course knew Holo had a child. When Eve turned to look at Myuri, Myuri’s expression obviously tensed.

Suddenly, a wicked grin crept onto Eve’s face. Then, like a queen would to her retainer, she raised one of her hands and turned the back of it to him.

“Col, isn’t there a proper way to greet a lady older than you?”

He did not for a second think she was being arrogant. Eve loved theatrics like this, so Col fell to one knee like a retainer would, touched the back of her hand to his forehead, then gave it a light kiss. It was etiquette that a knight would use with a noble lady.

It seemed like both Hyland and Myuri had been holding their breath, but when Col looked up, Eve wore a carefree, delighted smile on her face, one that most would never expect a powerful multimillionaire to show.

“I taught you a knight’s etiquette for fun over ten years ago, and yet, you still remember it.”

“That’s because you taught me so much, Miss Eve. You also taught me there are people who are perfectly fine with putting their lives on the line for money.”

Eve’s smile silently grew and then demonstrated a merchantlike caution.

“My apologies, Lord Hyland. I got carried away with this long-awaited reunion.”

“Oh, it’s all right…”

Eve was a former noble of the Winfiel Kingdom who became a great merchant after losing her status. So of course she had an easy elegance that was as graceful as Hyland, who was a member of royalty, or perhaps even more so.

“I see you know each other.”

Hyland sounded baffled, and Col responded with a shy smile.

“Yes, ever since I was about Myuri’s age. Miss Eve also employs Miss Ilenia, who helped us not too long ago in Desarev.”

Hyland nodded in understanding, then turned to face Eve again.

“But why would the owner of the Bolan Company go out of her way to renew old friendships?” she asked as she offered Myuri a place to sit before she sat down herself, demonstrating she was a different sort of noble than Eve was. Or perhaps because she intended to stand on the same front as Myuri.

Myuri did not bare her fangs, but she was clearly upset. If she spoke, she might even say, Brother, you cheater!

“I happened to hear a little while ago there have been recent developments in the conflict between the Kingdom and the Church. And that’s when I received a very interesting letter from one of my employees. And what do you know, it said there is a boy who is still a little timid…Oh, pardon me, who is as pure as a freshly peeled egg being called the Twilight Cardinal.”

Col knew Eve was making a joke, so he stayed silent, but Myuri’s gaze was piercing.

He knew she was going to grill him with questions later.

“I am not much of a believer, but there are several fundamental rules that are deeply ingrained into me,” Eve said, slowly recrossing her legs. “One being that whenever I make a big deal, I absolutely see it through with my own eyes.”

“A big deal?”

“Yes. That is why I rushed all the way to this still-chilly land, Lord Hyland, and waited at the port, but I had no idea Col…Sir Col was under your care.”

She should have known he was working with Hyland, since she received her letter from Ilenia, and because this was Eve of all people. It might be nothing more than a show of humility, but still.

Sharon also said she put her fellow birds on watch, and Hyland also said that she stationed people in the harbor because she was worried about him.

When Col thought about how many people had their eyes on him, it seemed like the name of the Twilight Cardinal had completely taken on a life of its own, and that terrified him.

“The owner of the Bolan Company, said to be known to all in the south—talk about a big deal. And it seems you’re here to rely on the Twilight Cardinal for such a deal.” Hyland, leaning back in her chair, spoke in a noble-like way that she did not often use. And Myuri, sitting beside her, warily stared at Eve. “May I ask what your motives are?”

Eve deftly parried Hyland’s attack with a smile.

“When I was counted among the nobility of this country, I wasn’t much more than a fly on the wall, even in social situations. To this day, it is still strange to be asked anything by a member of the nobility.”

The atmosphere immediately tensed.

Col looked to Eve, wondering what she was planning, and, of all things, she impishly winked.

“Heh. My family completely lost our standing due to the previous king’s misgovernment, so we left this country. I hope you won’t mind a brief comment?”

It seemed Hyland was frozen, unsure of how to respond.

She was completely engulfed in Eve’s presence.

“However.” Eve straightened out her crossed legs and sat up, and her expression immediately tensed.

The atmosphere, which had been like an overripe fruit, suddenly changed to something more dignified.

“As you know, I am a merchant who was a noble before leaving this country. And at the end of a checkered fate, I collected enough gold to bring about countless fantasies. That is why I had the foolish thought of coming to a lord and telling her of my plan, but she probably wouldn’t trust me.”

Just a few moments ago, there sat a terrifying merchant from the desert.

But as she spoke with such clear enunciation, she was exactly like a noble reporting to the king in the palace.

“And so then I decided I should receive a recommendation from the Twilight Cardinal.”

Eve looked to Col, and he found himself bewildered.

“Me, you mean?”

“Sir Col knows a lot about me. I might be slightly immoral by his standards, but at the same time, that also means I am someone he can trust.”

She smiled.

“…”

Hyland looked to him, puzzled, and Myuri looked at him like a traitor.

But he sort of understood what his role was now.

Eve knew that anyone who looked at her would think she had some ulterior motive, that she was definitely plotting something, so she actually plotted to come out here. But she knew that without the guarantee of a third party, she would not be able to conduct trade.

And so she was asking him to do that.

If they had the mind to do it, a priest could easily fabricate records of where they were born, who they married, and where they died. Knowing someone and vouching for who they were on their own was more convincing than any amount of money.

Col obviously could not know everything about Eve, nor was he planning on insisting that he did.

But there was one thing he was confident about.

“I can trust Miss Eve when it comes to trade.”

That was because Eve would put her life on the line for money without batting an eye. She had saved Lawrence, Holo, and even Col himself, powerless as he was, back then from narrowly being killed.

And since she never learned to change her ways, in terms of the money of faith, he could even call her a martyr.

“But,” he continued, only because the wisewolf Holo herself acknowledged, for better or for worse, that Eve was a wolf in people’s clothing. “What could you possibly be plotting this time?”

Eve smiled childishly and said, “I was thinking about monopolizing the Winfiel Kingdom’s trade with foreign countries.”

Eve Bolan.

This miser feared not even God and had just as much vigor as she always had.