Chapter 186 - Damn Reincarnation

The Cathedral

“I must leave this place in the morning as well.”

Trechia Cathedral was a venerable building boasting hundreds of years of history. Yet neither the central sanctuary that served as its symbol nor the surrounding annexes showed any signs of age. Even the corridor they were walking down looked untouched by time.

“You summoned me here, and now you’re leaving?”

Eugene asked the question as he looked at Sergio’s back. Sergio chuckled softly.

“My apologies. I was determined to meet you at least once, Lord Eugene...”

“We would have met at the Holy See in five days anyway.”

“Yes, indeed. But we would not have been alone together there, would we?”

Sergio was still smiling. Both his smile and his words were remarkably blatant. Eugene answered with a silent smile, moving only the corners of his mouth.

“It seems you wanted to test me, Cardinal Rogeris.”

“I will not deny it.”

There was not even a moment’s hesitation before his answer. Eugene looked at Sergio’s steady shoulders and the red cloth draped over his left shoulder and down across his chest.

Those clerical vestments carried a clear meaning. The black cassock beneath represented darkness, exactly as its color suggested. The white cross around his neck signified that light existed even within darkness. The white garment over the cassock enveloped darkness in light, symbolizing that darkness could never stand above it.

The red cloth hanging from his left shoulder symbolized his resolve to exalt the faith and willingly shed his blood as a martyr for the God of Light, the religion, the Pope, and the faithful.

“How did you intend to test me?”

“I have already seen that you are unquestionably the Hero.”

Sergio recalled Eugene drawing the Holy Sword. The pillars of light illuminating the sanctuary, which should never have moved, had turned toward Eugene of their own accord.

The Holy Sword had resonated with the light and illuminated the entire sanctuary. That dazzling storm of light had been an undeniable miracle, and Eugene, who had raised the Holy Sword at its center, was none other than the Hero of Light.

“... But...”

Eugene Lionheart. No further test was needed to establish that he was the Hero. If the other cardinals and Pope Euryus himself saw a storm of light like that, they would have no choice but to acknowledge him.

“... The Hero is the Incarnation of Light. How could I, a mere servant of the Light, presume to test him?”

“Aha.”

Eugene nodded with a smile.

“Cardinal Rogeris. It seems you wanted to test not whether I was the Hero, but what sort of man I am.”

“Please do not take too much offense.”

“I know you used to be an inquisitor of Maleficarum.”

“That was thirty years ago.”

“Time doesn’t change a person’s nature. Isn’t your lingering influence over Maleficarum the reason so many inquisitors have been mobilized for this?”

“I cannot deny that either. However, I have no intention of using that organization for personal reasons. It is simply that this ritual is far more important than those held before...”

“Does having me watched right now not qualify as a personal reason?”

Sergio stopped walking. Composing himself after his surprise, he turned to Eugene, who was looking at him with an innocent smile befitting his youth.

“Two inquisitors escorted me here. Atarax the Punisher and Hemoria the Guillotine. But... how curious. There are far more than two inquisitors watching me right now.”

Calling it curious was no exaggeration. Even if Eugene added up every inquisitor who had left with Kristina, there were still more watching him now. A rough count put the number of hidden inquisitors at a hundred.

“... Haha.”

Sergio chuckled softly and raised a hand. One by one, the hidden presences watching them began to withdraw.

“You, the Hero, are every bit as important as the candidate for sainthood’s ritual.”

“So you sent some inquisitors away with Kristina to misdirect my attention, then stationed inquisitors throughout the cathedral so I wouldn’t notice?”

Eugene did not wait for Sergio’s answer. His lips curled into a crooked smile, and a sharp menace radiated from him.

“You can hardly blame me for getting the wrong idea. If I hadn’t proven I was the Hero, or even if I had, but failed to meet your standards... what were you planning to do to me?”

“...”

“I know Maleficarum’s inquisitors are good at dirty work. Would they all have rushed out and stuck their knives in me? If killing me was a bit much, would they have chopped off an arm and taken the Holy Sword?”

“No.”

Sergio shook his head.

“Although I did consider whether that might be the right course, I would not have gone that far. But... I cannot help being wary of the fact that you are not a devout believer and that your faith is faint.”

“So? What will you do now?”

“I believe people can be corrected. Even if you are not a follower of the Light at present, I believe you will one day give thanks for divine grace and embrace the faith.”

Sergio reached inside his robes.

“Had you not shown me such radiant light, I would have done everything in my power to make you embrace the faith.”

How, exactly? Eugene did not bother asking. The inquisitors’ treatment of unbelievers, apostates, and heathens had been infamous even three hundred years ago. To them, interrogation was synonymous with torture. There were also numerous rumors about the forced conversions they carried out to turn people into tools for spreading their doctrine.

“... But I saw it clearly with my own two eyes. You could not have shone with such radiance if there were no faith within your heart. Lord Eugene, do you understand? The Hero is the Incarnation of Light. You seem to have little awareness of it, but you are the Light itself.”

What Sergio withdrew from his robes was a thick book of scripture. Holding it in both hands, he respectfully offered it to Eugene.

“Faith is revealing and proclaiming the light within your heart. Please accept these scriptures and embrace the faith of your own accord.”

Eugene stared at the book before reaching out. Honestly, he wanted to bring it crashing down on the crown of Sergio’s head, but that would obviously make things terribly troublesome.

“Is that all?”

He tossed the book into his cloak as he asked. Sergio watched him with a faint smile, then turned and began leading the way again.

“There are a few things I wish to tell you about the candidate for sainthood.”

Eugene recalled how carefully Kristina had controlled her expression throughout the train journey. She had been wary of him meeting Cardinal Rogeris, her adoptive father. She had even prepared an excuse, intending to make Eugene get off the train.

“... After meeting you in accordance with the revelation and spending several months in the Great Forest... the candidate seems to have changed a little.”

“You don’t sound pleased with that change.”

“No. How could I be? I have instructed the candidate since she was a child. ... Before she became a candidate for sainthood, I educated her as her adoptive father so that she would grow into a proper follower of the Light. Afterward, I educated her to ensure that she lacked nothing required to become a saint.”

“Hmm... I honestly have no idea what you’re trying to say, Cardinal. What change have you seen in Kristina that displeases you?”

“I am referring to the letters sent through Rohanna Selis.”

So that was it, just as he had expected. Eugene smiled without betraying any unease.

“It doesn’t seem you’ve read them, though.”

“I did not wish to intrude that far. But if their contents were nothing to be ashamed of, there would have been no need to use encryption magic and send them through an outsider.”

“She isn’t an outsider, is she?”

“No. Rohanna Selis has been assigned the role of soothing the candidate’s weary heart.”

Sergio made no attempt to hide it.

“It is not only Rohanna Selis. All the clergy residing in this cathedral, myself included. The faithful who volunteer to attend to the cathedral’s affairs, and those living in the diocese. The archbishop and other clergy of the Alcarte diocese, where the candidate serves as Auxiliary Bishop... A great many clergy and believers have been assigned various roles connected to her.”

This was excessive.

No, it was abnormal. Eugene could see it no other way. If Sergio’s words were true, most of the people around Kristina were actors and watchers placed there because of her special status as a candidate for sainthood.

“For over ten years, I have taught the candidate and prayed that she would grow upright and become a saint. Thankfully, she will soon attain sainthood and illuminate the world, supporting the Hero who has appeared for the first time in three hundred years.”

Sergio paused briefly.

“... Please do not take offense, Lord Eugene Lionheart. You are unquestionably the Hero, but you are sorely lacking in the faith befitting one. I hope the candidate will guide you toward becoming a devout believer. Yet... it seems that she has been influenced by you instead.”

“Why don’t you just say what you mean? Talking in circles like that must be irritating for you, too. Listening to it, I keep thinking... well...”

Eugene laughed pointedly before continuing.

“‘What a load of sh*t.’ Ah, sorry. I suppose you find it offensive for the Hero to swear like that? I don’t particularly want to swear either, but that seems like just the right phrase for how I feel right now...”

“It is quite all right.”

Eugene had thrown out those words to unsettle him, but he could sense no disturbance whatsoever in Sergio. He supposed that was only to be expected of a clergyman who had spent decades in prayer.

“The candidate’s failure to guide you, and the fact that she has instead been influenced by you, are the result of shortcomings in my education.”

“I suppose you want me to hold hands with Kristina and go to church?”

“That would be a truly joyous and blessed development. But since you seem unlikely to do so... I shall ask the candidate to guide you so that you can at least pray together.”

“I think you’re going too far in several respects. Shouldn’t faith come from the heart rather than be forced on someone? And Kristina isn’t a ten-year-old child. She’s about to become an official saint, not just a candidate. Even if you are her adoptive father, I think interfering like this is overstepping your place.”

“If the candidate possessed perfect, unwavering faith, there would be no need for me to interfere.”

They were nearing the end of the long corridor.

“... Lord Eugene. Please do not test the candidate’s faith. You are already a Hero who bears magnificent light, but she is an apostle of God who has received the Descent of Light. If you continue to test her faith and make her waver... until she comes to doubt it entirely...”

Sergio stopped before a closed door.

“... God may withdraw the light bestowed upon her. Then she would become an ordinary human, unable to stand beside you, the Hero.”

“I decide who stands beside me. Not God.”

Eugene walked past Sergio and reached for the doorknob.

“Someone doesn’t have to be a saint to stand beside me. If Kristina loses her power as a saint, and it’s my fault? I’ll consider God awfully petty and take her with me.”

“... Haha...”

Eugene glanced at Sergio’s smiling face. He saw an eerie gleam in the eyes curved by that smile.

“... Even if you feel that way, the candidate will not. She has worked so hard to become a saint that she will be unable to imagine herself failing to become one... unable to imagine herself as anything else. In particular... she knows that this era is special.”

“Special?”

“No Hero appeared for three hundred years. Every saint who came after Anise the Faithful served as a symbol of Yuras and was venerated as a saint after death. That was all. But with the appearance of a Hero in this era, a saint can finally fulfill her true role and accompany him.”

Opening the door revealed a spacious room. Eugene glanced at the cross hanging high on the wall and the religious ornaments decorating the walls and shelves.

“... You said you’re leaving in the morning, didn’t you? I’m late in asking, but where are you going?”

Eugene asked as he entered the room. Sergio had stepped back a few paces, and the eerie gleam from earlier was gone from his eyes.

“To the Spring of Light. As this is a sacred ritual, a senior clergyman must preside over it and oversee its proceedings.”

“A sacred ritual! If I were allowed to observe it, perhaps faith would take root deep within my heart as well?”

“My apologies, Lord Eugene. The ritual at the Spring of Light is a special one. Even among the faithful, only those who have been preparing it beforehand may attend.”

Sergio began closing the door. He kept smiling at Eugene until the very moment it shut completely.

“So please, experience God within this cathedral until the ritual ends and the candidate and I return.”

The door closed. Sergio clasped his hands and offered a prayer toward it before turning away. He crossed the corridor at a faster pace than before, and by the time he had passed the sanctuary, Maleficarum’s inquisitors were following him.

Sergio spoke without even looking at Atarax as he approached his side.

“The Spring of Light?”

“The Blood Cross knights are guarding the area around the spring. The water has already risen, and the candidate is preparing for the sacrament in the worship cavern.”

“A sacrament she performs on her own will not suffice. Unlike previous ones, the ritual beginning tomorrow must be special. That is why I summoned you all.”

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

“I must help ensure that the sacrament is complete and without flaw, so I should hurry as well. My preparations are already complete. Let us head straight to the spring.”

“What will you do about Lord Eugene?”

“There is no doubt that he is the Hero. His lack of faith is a flaw, but we need only instill it in him in the future. What matters now is the candidate’s ritual. I believe we have sufficient time, but if any more light should take root in her, we may need a little longer.”

“Yes, I understand. But should someone not remain at the cathedral to watch over Lord Eugene...?”

“Of course. I originally intended to leave one of you here... but Lord Eugene is far more perceptive than I imagined. Choosing one of you would displease him greatly. I shall therefore assign one of my squires to attend to him.”

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

Keeping pace was a struggle. Atarax could not help feeling awe toward Sergio, who was gradually pulling ahead.

It had been thirty years since he had retired from active service in the inquisition. Atarax had heard that, instead of going into the field, he had spent those years traveling between churches and the Holy See, celebrating Mass and devoting himself to religious study... Yet not a single inquisitor could properly keep up with the cardinal, who was well into his seventies.

‘Of course we can’t. Before becoming a cardinal, he was known as the Exterminator and was all but certain to become the next director. Since becoming a cardinal, he has even received stigmata... His prime is now, rather than when he was an active inquisitor.’

Atarax felt profound gratitude for having been summoned to this sacred and glorious ritual.

And he was not alone. The hundred inquisitors Sergio had summoned were all trusted followers who had long been inspired by him. Every one of them considered his invitation to this ritual a tremendous blessing.

“The gate?”

“It is open.”

The Spring of Light was a considerable distance from the cathedral. Running there or taking a carriage would take far too long. The reason they had been able to take Kristina from the station to that distant spring, and the inquisitors accompanying her had returned to the cathedral so quickly, was that secret warp gates unknown to the world were hidden beneath the cathedral and in the station.

“Lord Eugene has probably noticed the gate’s existence as well.”

He had realized that the inquisitors who left with Kristina had returned ahead of him and were lying in wait in the cathedral.

“Close the gate as soon as we pass through, and leave the cathedral.”

“Is it necessary to go that far?”

“There is no harm in taking precautions. Surely Lord Eugene would not find this gate and attempt to reach the Spring of Light without permission... but he seems quite an unpredictable man.”

Sergio walked toward the warp gate as he spoke.

“Should Lord Eugene happen to witness the ritual... he will not try to understand. He will try to interfere. We cannot have that. This ritual is very, very important...”

Important indeed.

Sergio’s eyes settled into a calm gaze. Once the confirmation of the saint at the Holy See was complete, the new saint would be proclaimed in the Sun Plaza on Anise the Faithful’s feast day.

The saint inheriting Anise the Faithful’s legacy would officially be revealed to the world. This saint would be a symbol of Yuras and a central figure of the era, standing alongside the Hero.

That was why the ritual at the Spring of Light mattered.

Sergio felt boundless glory at being entrusted with presiding over it.

* * *

“My name is Rensol, and I have been assigned to attend to you here, Lord Eugene. Please make yourself comforta—”

“Does this cathedral have any holy relics or anything like that?”

Eugene abruptly put the question to Rensol, who had knocked before entering. He had no intention whatsoever of making unnecessary conversation or building a relationship with a clergyman who was obviously there to watch him.

“... Holy relics... you say?”

“Trechia Cathedral is old even by Yuras’s standards, isn’t it? A place this old ought to have a relic or two connected to saints of the past.”

“... Er... hmm... yes... We do have some.”

“Surely you aren’t going to tell me outsiders aren’t even allowed to look at the relics?”

“Holy relics are not tourist attractions.”

Rensol’s expression turned stern. Eugene immediately changed his attitude.

“I misspoke. Recently, I have come to understand my destiny and have been seriously considering embracing the faith of Light. I thought that if I encountered the relics of past saints in person, their devotion might reach me and allow faith to take root in my heart, and so...”

“... Ah...”

“I have no wish to view them frivolously. Even from a distance, I simply want to see these holy relics for myself.”

That coaxing earned him a tour of the relics.

Holy relics came in many forms: the remains of saints, their belongings, or objects that had touched their bodies in life or their corpses after death. Naturally, a saint’s remains were the most valuable relics, followed by their belongings.

Beneath the sanctuary’s altar lay the jawbone of a saint from hundreds of years ago, enshrined as a holy relic. Deeper within the cathedral were numerous other relics: leg bones and ribs of past saints, crosses they had worn around their necks, clerical vestments, burial shrouds, rings, and more.

Honestly, Eugene found it difficult to understand keeping dead saints’ remains and belongings as holy relics. But he did not let that show on his face, instead gazing with apparent emotion at each relic Rensol showed him.

“That is the last of the holy relics kept in Trechia Cathedral. It is the skull of Saint Theodore, who served as Pope no less than nine hundred years ago.”

“...”

Looking at the snow-white skull enshrined in its glass case, Eugene wondered how he ought to react. The saint’s jawbone beneath the altar and the other saints’ ribs and leg bones had already been shocking enough... and now an entire skull?

“... Do you have no relics of Anise the Faithful?”

“Pardon?”

Rensol blinked.

“Relics of Anise the Faithful? She departed on a distant pilgrimage and vanished, leaving not even a fragment of her remains behind.”

“... Relics don’t have to be remains, do they? Her vestments, perhaps... or a necklace...”

“Ah... quite true. But I have never heard of any relics of Lady Anise. Nor are any kept in this cathedral. If any do exist... I would imagine they are stored in the Holy See’s highest-grade relic vault.”

“Highest-grade relic vault?”

“Yes. Anise the Faithful is a great saint second only to the Saint of Light, the founder of Yuras. Any relic of hers would be of the highest grade, so the Holy See would surely manage it directly.”

Eugene parted ways with Rensol and returned to his room. His tour of the relics would be reported to Sergio, but that did not matter.

‘The highest-grade relic vault...’

Perhaps a relic of Anise was there. He would be going to the Holy See with Kristina in a few days anyway. If he used his position as the Hero well, he might be able to enter that vault.

‘... What was that earlier?’

Pillars of light.

The smell of blood.

A back covered in wounds.

Sergio had called everything that happened there a miracle, but Eugene simply could not see it that way. He took the Holy Sword from his cloak and set it beside the bed.

“... You showed me that, didn’t you?”

The Great Forest of Samar.

The Holy Sword had interfered with Eugene’s dreams of its own accord and shown him the past.

“... What were you trying to show me?”

The girl standing with her back to him... Had that been Anise? Perhaps it had been Kristina. He did not think it was a meaningless revelation.

“Lord Eugene?”

Mer peeked out from inside his cloak. Feeling her wriggle her way out, Eugene lifted it slightly for her.

“... Hmm. What am I supposed to say?”

“Don’t say anything.”

“But I don’t understand.”

“There’s a reason for all this.”

Mer stared down at Eugene, who had closed his eyes and was trying to sleep while hugging the Holy Sword.

“... If you sleep like that, I can’t sleep beside you.”

“You don’t sleep anyway, so what does it matter? Right, Mer, stay beside me... and make sure I don’t let go of the Holy Sword in my sleep.”

“Are you telling me to watch you all night and listen to you talking in your sleep?”

“It’s not like this is your first time. Why make a fuss now?”

At Eugene’s grumbling, Mer gave a pert little smile and climbed off the bed. Then she pulled a chair over and sat beside him.

“Well, that’s true. I’ll make absolutely sure to listen to your stupid sleep-talking.”

“I told you to watch the Holy Sword, not my face.”

“Don’t worry. But why are you sleeping like that? Does hugging the Holy Sword keep you cool?”

“It’s so I can dream.”

“Dream?”

Mer tilted her head.

Eugene gave no further answer. Keeping his attention on the Holy Sword held in his arms, he drifted off to sleep.