Chapter 103 - Qualifications (3)

"..."

"..."

Julius and Alester trudged along in silence. They might have looked far too relaxed for men making their way through a labyrinth, but in truth, they had little choice.

"There's a trap there. Be caref—"

BOOM.

The trap shattered.

"Hey, that's a magical beast nest. Move past it without provoking—"

CRUNCH.

The nest was demolished.

"..."

"..."

It had been like this the entire way through the labyrinth. All thanks to that man called Aiden charging ahead of them, wreaking havoc without a moment's pause...

"... Julius. How long does it normally take to get through this entire course?"

"A day at the very least."

Even for royalty who wielded divinity—and among them, the top contenders capable of reaching the end—traversing the labyrinth took a full day. Especially because, the farther they went, the more they were bombarded with tasks impossible to complete alone.

Wasn't that why the current Pontiff, Abigail III, had caused a greater sensation than any Pontiff in history? She had finished that course in ten minutes.

"He's the one Her Holiness brought, isn't he?"

"What kind of monster has that senile old woman brought us?"

"... Katya is the only person who calls Her Holiness that."

"No. I mean it."

Julius's eyes darkened as he spoke. He smacked his lips a few times, seemingly desperate for the cigarettes he hadn't been allowed to bring into the labyrinth.

"If the preliminaries end like this... I'm worried about what things will look like once the actual ceremony begins. Every power-hungry bastard in the country will flock to him."

"... They will."

"And it'll change how the royal participants in the succession ceremony behave, too."

For now, the three factions led by Julius, Alester, and Mylène were so firmly established that anyone outside them could only sit around empty-handed. But the sudden rise of someone new they could cozy up to was another matter entirely.

'... What the hell is that woman thinking?'

It was as though the Pontiff herself were deliberately trying to stir up that chaos.

As Julius sighed inwardly at the thought, Alester suddenly stopped and tilted his head. The man who had been leading the way had come to a halt.

"... He's stopped."

"Who knows? After all that ridiculous power he's been putting out, perhaps he's finally run dry."

He had smashed through every obstacle that had given them reason to think that so far, but maintaining that kind of output all day would still be difficult. Besides, what stood before them now was on an entirely different level from the obstacles thus far.

But Aiden hadn't stopped because his supernatural power was exhausted.

... He just found it a little funny.

'Reminds me of Reaver.'

Aiden chuckled at the artificial magical beast before him. Its appearance reminded him exactly of Soul Reaver, whom he'd asked Morrigan to look after outside.

Calling it a genuine Top-Tier Magical Beast would be a stretch. Still, it undeniably radiated enough power to make it clear what it was modeled after.

And that alone made it threatening enough. After all, Aiden had only managed to subjugate Reaver because multiple favorable conditions had coincided at the time.

But...

'This looks worth a shot.'

He couldn't be sure, but at this pace, he had likely smashed every record along the way. Which meant that if he got through this one last obstacle, setting a new all-time record probably wouldn't be all that difficult.

And above all...

'I know exactly how to beat the crap out of Reaver.'

He saw it every night in his dreams. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. He also had a fair idea of what he would need.

With a slight frown, he called up the system window. Come to think of it, he still had some left over from before.

Skill-copying opportunities.

-System Message

▶ You have acquired ‘Skill: Divinity Manipulation - Combustion.’

▶ You have acquired ‘Skill: Mana Manipulation - Basics.’

One belonged to the Pontiff, the other to Morrigan.

'I should try using magic at least once.'

It was one of the combinations he'd considered before coming in here. If anything, he was glad a target had conveniently appeared that he could test it on without worrying.

▣

Meanwhile, the department organizing the succession ceremony's preliminary round was in full-blown crisis mode. The scene on the monitor was a nightmare made manifest.

"... What the hell is that bastard?!"

"Aiden Kellermain, sir!"

"Did I ask for his name?!"

The department head screamed at the screen. He wanted to tear his hair out. Everything he'd worked so hard on to make this event happen flashed before his eyes.

'I've staked so much on this...!'

Successfully overseeing the ceremony to pass on the leadership of the nation was bound to send his performance ratings soaring. He had put everything on the line to prepare for it.

And now that bastard Aiden Kellermain was ruining it all.

It wasn't as though he was doing anything particularly grand or extraordinary.

If there was an obstacle in his path, he broke it and moved on.

If there was a section stocked with artificial magical beasts to give him trouble, he broke those and moved on.

If they gritted their teeth and added something else specifically to stop him from doing that, he broke that too and moved—

"... What kind of fucking lunatic is this?!"

"..."

The staff he'd hounded throughout the painstaking preparations for the preliminaries fell silent. Some had even vowed to personally arrange the department head's funeral after being unable to go home for an entire week, but even they said nothing.

Even they couldn't help sympathizing with their boss as he clutched his head and screamed.

"... He doesn't just use divinity. He's a wielder of multiple supernatural powers. It's a blind spot we never considered."

"Even so, does that look remotely reasonable?! That!"

Seeing the department head's bloodshot eyes, the staff shut their mouths again.

Well, he wasn't wrong. Even for someone wielding multiple supernatural powers, that level of output made no sense...

A preliminary round needed to distinguish between the contestants' abilities to some degree. Yet at this rate, that one man was stealing the entire spotlight.

"... Do you have the all-time records?"

Of course, even in a situation like this, indulging one's curiosity was human nature. Someone glanced warily at the department head's fit and whispered the question to the junior colleague beside him.

Unlike their boss, whose head was on the chopping block, he had enough breathing room to wonder where Aiden Kellermain's current pace ranked in the history of succession ceremonies. However extreme his methods, the abilities he was displaying made a record attempt entirely plausible.

"One moment."

The junior's expression twisted as he rummaged through the records.

"... The all-time record holder for the labyrinth course is, um..."

Before he could finish, his mouth clamped shut like a clam.

"What is it?"

At the repeated question prompted by his odd reaction, the junior quietly showed his senior the data he'd found. The senior's face immediately registered horror at the name written there.

"That would be me."

The voice from behind made everyone turn in alarm. Both senior and junior went deathly pale at the sight of the Pontiff standing there with her arms crossed, looking utterly fascinated.

The Pontiff wasn't exactly known as a tyrant, but there wasn't a soul in the Holy Kingdom who hadn't heard how arrogant and capricious she was. No one knew what might happen if they caught her attention the wrong way.

As they dwelled on that thought, she strolled over, draped an arm companionably around each of their shoulders, and peered at the screen.

"Let's see... Ten minutes? I did pretty well back then."

"..."

"How many minutes is he at now?"

With her hand resting amiably on the shoulder of the staffer who had just been viewing the data, she asked her question. Trembling all over, he somehow managed to retrieve the time.

"Six... minutes."

"What, he's keeping pace with me?"

"..."

Everyone in the room fell silent once more.

... Without a doubt, if that man continued on to match the Pontiff's record, that would create problems of its own.

"Um, Your Holiness. Forgive my presumption..."

The department head, who had been throwing a fit until now, spoke as if to voice those concerns.

"If it's presumptuous, don't say it in the first place."

"..."

"I'm joking. What were you going to say?"

... She certainly lived up to her reputation as an eccentric ruler.

"It is true that the man has been granted royal status, and that there are no grounds to disqualify him from the succession ceremony. However..."

"However?"

"... If he becomes a serious contender for the succession, it will cause tremendous upheaval."

A ruler's position wasn't earned through strength alone. Their influence on the country needed to be assessed as a whole. In truth, the succession ceremony was closer to selecting the person who best met those criteria from a set of predetermined candidates.

In ancient times, no one had known who would become Pontiff, and the succession ceremony had been an arena where contestants were hell-bent on slaughtering one another. But in the modern age, the harm caused by that approach had become more apparent, and the ceremony had gradually softened.

One could call it more peaceful. Everyone wanted to leave the spoils to the same preselected handful.

In that situation, if an outsider who had suddenly entered on the Pontiff's recommendation posted a time rivaling the current Pontiff's own, it would cause a seismic shift among those factions.

The succession ceremony always claimed casualties, even with that measure of consensus. Adding another faction to the mix could be the beginning of hell on earth.

"So?"

... The problem was that the Pontiff's tone made it clear she had little interest in such concerns.

No, it went beyond that.

Her eyes were glowing crimson as she spoke.

"I'll ask again. So?"

"..."

"Since when has the succession ceremony been a tradition dictated by that sort of crap? Hmm? It was never such a peaceful affair, was it?"

"..."

"We can't have that. Won't it be more fun if everyone actually puts in some effort?"

Her words almost sounded...

"That's how we'll weed out the rat that's snuck in, too."

...as though she had deliberately invited that man for precisely that purpose.

"Keep it going. Let's see how far he gets."

If he broke the Pontiff's own record through his own strength, that alone would probably bring about a seismic upheaval within the Holy Kingdom.

"If he gets through that too, that's when it'll really start blowing."

Then it would truly begin to blow.

A new wind.

For some reason, the grin on her face as she said it seemed like the first stirrings of the great storm that would engulf the succession ceremony—all beginning with that man, Aiden.