Chapter 117 - Communion with a God

“... Look, Lionhearted. Everyone here knows what a noble knight you are.”

Alester stumbled through the words with visible difficulty. He was among those from the Holy Kingdom who had fought in the Coalition War, of course. There was no way he could fail to recognize the name of someone who had demonstrated the might of a hundred warriors in that war.

“But I cannot allow you to jump straight off a coastal cliff without any safety equipment.”

“...”

... And the fact that someone of her stature was stubbornly insisting on this made it all the harder.

The other royals nearby expressed their silent agreement. They could hardly stand by and watch her do something so dangerous.

In other words, everyone agreed—except the Lionhearted herself, who had proposed it with absolute determination.

“But didn't you say you found traces of Aiden and Her Highness down there?”

“...”

That left them all with no choice but silence. After spending the entire day following their trail, they had indeed just concluded that the two were ‘somewhere’ down below.

The Lionhearted was as renowned for her integrity as for her illustrious reputation. Her willingness to brave fire and water for her companions truly made her a model knight.

It was in that spirit that Alester tried to reassure her.

“Please don't worry so much, Lionhearted. A rescue party will be dispatched shortly...”

“No. I don't think that's really necessary.”

“... Pardon?”

“I've spent enough time around those two infuriating people to know. Being dragged down there and going missing isn't nearly enough to kill them. I think we could probably just wait for them to make their own way back up.”

“...”

... Then why was she so hell-bent on jumping down there?

The question crossed everyone's mind, but fortunately, the Lionhearted continued her explanation before anyone could voice it.

“I just don't like the two of them being alone together.”

“...”

“A man and a woman, alone together somewhere dark and damp? Are you kidding me?! Anything you can imagine could happen!”

As they listened to her say this, everyone nearby went blank.

“... She does have a point.”

At Mylène's quiet agreement, Alester put a hand to his head and sighed.

‘... A slick ladies' man, was it?’

It was a timely reminder of a nickname that would have had Aiden rubbing his temples if he heard it.

▣

Thinking about it, Katya had always left the indelible impression of someone who never stopped chattering. Back in the Empire, people had run away from her even when she wasn't doing anything particularly violent.

There was no one whose feelings she needed to consider, nor any reason to do so. Nothing whatsoever kept her from doing exactly as she pleased.

Which was why it was honestly worrying to see how reluctant she had become to open her mouth since arriving in the Holy Kingdom.

But even taking that into account...

“...”

“...”

Her behavior in this cave was a little extreme, even by those recent standards.

Katya had been sleeping soundly with her head in his lap until moments ago. The first thing she did upon waking was sour her expression without a word.

“...”

“...”

Then came the follow-up combo: silence without any explanation.

It was super effective. Aiden was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe, too.

‘... This woman, honestly.’

He had seen her spirits abruptly plummet quite a few times lately, but she looked worse now than ever.

The Personal Quest that had appeared for Katya earlier had said something about helping her overcome the traumas she harbored here, hadn't it?

Perhaps she knew something about this place as well.

“Katya. Do you happen to—”

When he tried to ask about it, she answered haltingly in a stiff voice.

“... This place is directly beneath the altar.”

“The altar?”

“You saw it too, didn't you? Where the first flame was burning.”

... Oh, that.

She apparently meant the structure that had prompted Aiden's blasphemous first impression of a torch.

Presumably, she meant this was a separate space attached to its underside...

‘Why would they build something like that?’

There was probably some religious significance to it, but honestly, that irreverent thought was once again the first to come to mind.

“Actually, this is the real one.”

“Pardon?”

“That one's for show. This is where the real ‘first divinity’ is kept.”

“...”

All right. That would make sense as a reason.

But it still didn't explain everything.

Why hide it in the first place? Why bury it in such a dark underground space? And how did Katya know what sounded like classified information?

Fortunately, it seemed he would at least get an explanation for the last part.

“I've only been here once myself. I was so young that I barely remember it.”

Katya continued quietly. Yet in her eyes, all manner of deeply rooted negative emotions swirled together.

“... It's where they perform the second ‘baptism.’”

“Baptism?”

“Imbuing divinity with a characteristic.”

“...”

Realizing what she meant, Aiden fell silent.

In other words, this was where she had manifested her divinity's characteristic and lost all her senses.

There was no way she could have any fond feelings toward it.

But that clearly wasn't the only reason.

Katya quietly stepped over and wrapped herself around his arm. Since she only came up to his chest, she was just the right size for it.

“... Katya?”

She wasn't exactly gifted at flirting, so he simply watched, wondering what on earth she was doing. Katya spoke haltingly in a deeply subdued voice.

“It's something I heard a long time ago. Because of the nature of this place, lots of very powerful energy gathers here, so it attracts all sorts of things.”

“Could you explain that a little more simply?”

“... They say things like ghosts appear here.”

“What?”

“This place is haunted.”

“...”

... Well.

Such things certainly existed.

The bracelet hanging from Aiden's wrist contained two souls, for starters.

‘... Come to think of it.’

Noel had been far more matter-of-fact about this sort of thing than Katya. She had said ghosts had tangible forms, so all you needed to do was beat them up.

In that respect, Katya had retained a much softer sensibility than Noel...

“... Katya.”

“What?”

“Are you afraid of ghosts, by any chance?”

“So?”

“...”

“Is that weird?”

It was weird.

Wasn't divinity a supernatural power that had an inherent advantage against spirits in the first place? What was she talking about, when she could drive off a ghost just by breathing...?

But Aiden had enough common sense not to say any of that to the glaring Katya.

Ordinarily, she would have snorted and asked what there was to be scared of. Seeing her make no effort to deny it, she really must have been frightened.

Looking at Katya dangling from him like a pet, Aiden heaved a deep internal sigh and stood up.

That lifted her so high her feet no longer touched the ground, leaving him practically carrying her on his arm. Even so, she only buried her face more firmly against him and showed not the slightest intention of letting go...

“... Shall we get moving first? I have a feeling we shouldn't stay here.”

The Grand Temple was probably in an uproar by now, and they might have dispatched a rescue party to search for them. But if this place was home to all manner of things, as Katya said, sitting around waiting could be dangerous.

It would be better to move cautiously and gather whatever information he could.

Katya offered no particular objection, so she apparently agreed.

... Or perhaps she was simply devoting all her attention to dangling from Aiden's arm.

Fortunately, after only a short walk, they reached a place that inspired curiosity before any sense of danger.

‘... What is this place?’

It was a vast cavern, so enormous that even his soft footsteps rang out loudly.

“Wow.”

At the very center stood a structure so wondrous that the exclamation slipped out unbidden.

The altar he had seen on the surface had been a torch planted in the ground, burning brightly with colorless flames. Here, as though that image had been flipped upside down, a torch-shaped structure extended down from the ceiling, its head pointing toward the floor.

Aiden tilted his head at the flame radiating heat from its tip.

‘... Red?’

How could he put it?

Unlike the ordinarily colorless flames, this looked much more like the genuine red fire one could see in reality. As though the one above was merely an ‘imitation,’ and this was the true ‘original.’

He stared at it for a while, spellbound. The supernatural power possessed more than enough mystique to warrant that reaction.

And so it took him a little longer to notice the other ‘being’ near the torch.

He stepped back and blurted out in alarm.

“Katya?”

“Why?! What?! What is that?!”

“...”

Clutching Aiden's arm hard enough to crush it, Katya kept speaking in a shrill voice.

“Can't you see that? It's Katya.”

“No! What is?! I can't see anything!”

“...”

Katya kept blurting out panicked protests beside him, but Aiden hadn't really been calling her.

How could she possibly not see that?

With that thought, he stared at what sat inside the enormous cavern.

He hadn't merely been addressing Katya. The thing over there was a very large Katya.

At least several dozen times the size of an ordinary person.

Something so enormous that it filled most of the cavern.

In fact, it was difficult to call it human at all. Ordinary humans didn't have clouds of golden particles billowing around their bodies. The darkness of the vast cavern made the sight twice as conspicuous.

It unmistakably gave the impression of something far beyond the usual ‘laws.’

Stretched out with its chin propped on one hand, smiling gently and looking straight at Katya and Aiden, the being had assumed a remarkably familiar form.

And the system window promptly supplied an explanation of what it was.

-System Message

▶ You are making contact with Sier, the ‘god of purification.’

... What's a god doing here?