Chapter 119 - Burnt Offering

"... I would appreciate at least a little warning before you take them away."

The moment they followed the Pontiff back to the surface, they came face-to-face with a distinctly sullen Noel.

All this land belonged to the Pontiff, so no one could stop her from doing whatever she pleased here. Still, Noel presumably meant that she could at least have notified them.

Indeed, people were milling around despite the late hour, keeping the place brightly lit through the night, apparently determined to organize a search party and find Aiden and Katya by whatever means necessary.

... Of course, the person they were dealing with, even if they searched the entire continent—

"So what?"

"..."

"I swear by the god of purification, something would have gone wrong if I hadn't done it that way. Anyone here have a problem with the oath I just swore to Lady Sier?"

That's right. Big Sister's here.

Big Sister can kidnap people whenever she likes and return them whenever she likes, and not one of you can say a word.

That was what the Pontiff's expression seemed to say. Everyone dispersed, reminded once again of the injustice of a class-based society. Among them was Noel, renewing her resolve to smack that woman across the back of the head someday...

"What's with that look, anyway?"

Having performed the miracle of driving people away with a few words, the Pontiff noticed Aiden's peculiar expression and asked him about it.

"It's just a little surprising."

"What is?"

Come to think of it, she always used respectful language when referring to Sier.

That ought to have been perfectly natural, but she was so utterly overbearing that hearing any respectful language from her was a shock in itself.

Especially after seeing how casually she pulled stunts like this.

"That bothers you?"

Suspecting she would keep pestering him until he answered, Aiden told her exactly what he was thinking. Abigail III tossed back that question.

"... No, not really."

It wasn't that it bothered him. He was simply curious.

"I'm responsible for an entire country. I can't go bowing my head to just anyone."

"... Oh."

"If I address someone with an honorific, they have to matter more than the whole Holy Kingdom. Understand?"

"... I see."

Well.

Between the Emperor, the imperial princes, and her, the rulers of this continent's nations certainly seemed to have their own peculiar convictions.

In short, unless you were a god who mattered more than her country, earning her respect was practically impossible.

Conversely, that showed just how important divine beings were.

"So study hard."

The Pontiff tossed out the remark with a yawn.

"Now that the team competition's over, the burnt offering is next. It's one of the foremost rites dedicated to the god of purification, so everyone will be working hard to prepare. But the ritual is so damned complicated that even I get it wrong sometimes..."

Still mulling over his thoughts, Aiden blinked blankly at this abrupt announcement.

"Pardon?"

What did she mean, study?

He couldn't even remember the last time he'd looked at a book.

But the Pontiff frowned at his question.

"You came all the way to the Holy Kingdom's Grand Temple and thought there wouldn't be any religious observances?"

"..."

"It's less important than the combat events, but it still matters, so make sure you're prepared. Classes start tomorrow."

"... Do I have to do it?"

"Are you seriously asking that? You're asking whether religious observances are mandatory in a ceremony to select the next Pontiff?"

Aiden's face grew steadily paler as he listened.

'Oh, right.'

He had half forgotten, what with all the explosive incidents he'd been caught up in since his arrival.

... At its core, this place was a religious educational institution.

▣

The classes proved considerably more rigorous than expected, much to Aiden's regret.

He was struggling so badly that Noel and Katya were thoroughly bewildered. They were used to seeing him squeeze out some sort of solution no matter what happened.

"... I've never been good at studying."

The half-dead mumble came from Aiden, whose head was planted on the desk.

He had holed up in the Grand Temple's library with Noel and Katya for some intensive studying, but they were getting absolutely nowhere.

Mountains of material on the burnt offering ritual surrounded them, all things their instructors had been hammering into them to memorize over the past few days.

"You seemed quite capable of handling paperwork."

"Dame Stella and Morrigan did almost all the work. I mostly just checked that everything was right and stamped it..."

He had painstakingly gathered information and forged documents while running cons, but that was more a matter of diligence and attention to detail than intelligence or memory.

Being told to memorize an entire dictionary's worth of knowledge in a few days, with the warning that a single mistake might incur a god's wrath, was not a task those qualities alone could cover.

'... Not that I can quit halfway through.'

Aiden sighed inwardly and pushed back his hair.

It would be absurd to blow off an event that even the Pontiff had advised him to take seriously just because he was having trouble memorizing things.

"I must say, it takes some nerve for the Holy Kingdom to insist on keeping to the schedule after such a major disaster in the very first team competition."

Noel sounded incredulous, but Aiden knew where that sense of security came from.

The Pontiff hadn't been present before. Now she was on the island in person, with her bodyguard Magnus in tow.

With those two here, the organizers evidently trusted them to handle anything that might happen...

In other words, he had to memorize all this as though his life depended on it. Unfortunately.

The advice the Pontiff had given him recently drifted through his mind.

["The high-ranking priests will show up in droves and nitpick everything you do. Get on their bad side, and that's when things get difficult. They have a say in the succession ceremony too."]

["What happens if I completely botch it?"]

["You're eliminated."]

["..."]

["But come on, would it really go that badly? You've handled much harder things without a hitch."]

... Now that he was actually studying, it felt as though things really might go that badly.

Fundamentally, he had come here to save lives, but even that depended on his being able to remain in the succession ceremony.

'... Isn't there anyone who can help?'

With this sort of thing, Noel and Katya could only help him memorize the material. They couldn't do anything in his place. The participating royals had to perform the ritual alone.

But as always, there seemed to be exceptions.

"You look like you're struggling. Want some help?"

At the sight of the person who cut in, Katya's expression smoothed out.

That was an exceptionally rare reaction from her, as opposed to scowling or grimacing. It even prompted Aiden to look up and see who had elicited it.

"Hello, Katya."

Alester greeted her with a wry smile.

"It's been a while, Brother."

Katya even replied in an even tone.

Their greetings gave the impression that they had interacted fairly often, simply as people.

'... Oh, come to think of it.'

Katya avoided discussing the other royals, or hated even having their names brought up. Hadn't Alester been the only one she was relatively comfortable with?

That meant Aiden had no particular reason to be hostile toward him either.

"What brings you here?"

When he asked without objection, Alester pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down.

"I wanted to help. You've looked like you were having a hard time for a while now."

"..."

Aiden silently looked around.

So many gazes were fixed on them that they practically stung. Most seemed to demand who Aiden thought he was, talking to someone so important.

His performance in the team competition had gained him considerable standing, but Alester was still fundamentally the frontrunner in the succession ceremony. A day or two of outstanding performance wasn't enough to easily surpass a man whose supporters were already almost devotees.

And yet that man had come over of his own accord to offer him a hand...

"Why would you do that?"

"Honestly, I don't want you to become Pontiff. But I don't want you eliminated altogether, either. I think it would make Katya sad."

... Hmm.

Fifty points for honesty. Another fifty for his reason for helping.

A perfect hundred-point answer. His conduct was every bit as upright as his model-student appearance suggested.

"We've been picking up this knowledge since childhood, even if only by watching others. But for an outsider, there can hardly be anything more disadvantageous."

The burnt offering ritual.

A rite in which an offering was burned whole and dedicated to a god.

Apparently, there was an old legend about people trying to burn a living creature, only for an enraged Sier to burn down the entire altar.

Thanks to that, unlike the gruesome original version, the current ritual simply involved burning the "offerings" each participant had prepared.

The aim, apparently, was to burn the most precious object one could obtain according to the proper ritual, eliciting the most favorable response possible from Sier.

"It's called a religious observance, but in reality it tests your resourcefulness, political influence, and intelligence. All three are essential qualities in a leader."

The key was to obtain the "best" object and perform a maddeningly complicated ritual "without mistakes."

Obtaining a fine object tested how effectively someone could use their network of contacts, while putting that enormous volume of memorized knowledge into practice tested their intelligence.

In that case, just as Alester said, it was a religious observance in name only. In practice, it was a comprehensive examination.

Listening to Alester's lengthy explanation, Aiden scratched his chin gloomily.

In fact, the more he heard, the more depressed he became. He had neither a means of obtaining a good offering nor a way to memorize all this.

'I don't like this... '

With so little to work with himself, Aiden would end up clinging to someone who offered to help.

And frankly, he still hadn't identified the "traitor" on this island. Alester wasn't entirely above suspicion either.

Assuming the offer was sincere, he appreciated the sentiment. The trouble was that he couldn't know whether it was sincere in the first place.

Which meant he had to find some way to get through this on his own.

'... Oh, wait a minute.'

As he continued listening to the explanation, Aiden's eyes suddenly widened as though something had occurred to him.

"What's wrong?"

Alester tilted his head as he asked, but instead of answering, Aiden quietly stroked his chin.

Before his eyes was a window that had appeared not long ago.

-System Log

▶ Sier likes you.

▶ Sier really, really likes you.

After staring intently at the words on the window, Aiden turned back to Alester.

"So, just to be clear. I need to get the most intense reaction possible from the god of purification, right?"

"... No, I said a favorable reaction."

"Wouldn't an intense reaction be a favorable one too?"

"..."

The question sounded as though he had already decided on his answer. Alester and everyone nearby suddenly looked faint.

... They had learned that whenever Aiden became this obstinate, he was certain to pull something.

'There is something I can try... '

There was.

Something that could overcome every disadvantage he currently faced.