The Beginning of Ruin (2)
Inside the inner court of the Kingdom of Jaive, Uorin sat with her mouth set, lost in thought.
"Whee."
Havitz, leaning against her back, whistled and exhaled a plume of Asker smoke.
"I can hear your heart."
Meirei's ability—the God Frequency.
"When you saw Shirone, that sound you made… it was closer to pain, wasn't it?"
Uorin answered, "If I'd asked her to step aside, she would have."
"Now you're having delusions too?"
Silence fell, then Havitz spoke again.
"The reason I didn't kill you at first was because you said you had someone you loved. I was curious. Back then I couldn't hear your heart. But now I can—your way of loving is similar to mine."
"You've been in love before?"
"Well. If what you're doing counts, then I fall in love every day. No—maybe every second?"
"People, you know, when there's a word for something, they mistake the word for the thing itself. Love, success, failure, happiness, misery. When those words didn't exist, how did they even live?"
Her eyes were slack from drugs, but her emotions were calmer than usual.
"Wipe every word from your head. Your heart will still beat, your body will still crave things. Whatever it wants, you'll eventually get it—if you don't define it."
"Is that vanishing?"
"There you go again."
Havitz tossed his cigarette butt at the Jaive official who regarded him in horror.
"It gets messy when you try to trap it in a word. Split up thought and you can't feel the whole. It doesn't have to be love. The important thing isn't what that feeling is, is it?"
Uorin tasted bitterness.
To be consoled by Satan… well, maybe that only meant she'd fallen that far.
What did it matter? Desperate desire is always nearby, while gods remain distant to humans.
"…Can I reach it? If I don't define my feelings for Shirone, can I arrive at that something, that feeling I want?"
"Yes."
There was nothing Havitz had wanted that he hadn't achieved.
"Of course you can."
He looked up at the sky with a childlike grin, innocent as a child.
"Nice weather."
Today as well…
May everyone in this world obtain what they desire.
"Not a single exception." At the fountain in the square overlooking the Holy See, Shirone, Iruki, and Nade were deep in thought.
Nade said, "How about sneaking in? If Shirone's identity gets exposed, the holy knights will move. You'll see—getting tangled up with those holy men is the last thing I want."
Iruki propped his chin on his hand. "Hmm. But would that hold true inside the Holy See? From what I know, the Rami Church doesn't have an especially belligerent doctrine. They might act differently outside, but at least outwardly they're a religion that cares about appearances."
Shirone said, "It depends. The Rami Church treats other faiths in two ways: as cults or as heresies. If someone believes in a god other than Cria, the Rami Church calls them a cult and tends to leave them alone. But if—"
She's not a cult.
"They label it heresy. In other words, religions that call themselves gods. In those cases the Rami Church has always suppressed them aggressively. This time won't be different."
"But you never called yourself a god, and you certainly didn't found a religion," Iruki said.
"It's about reputation. Countless people already see Shirone as a messiah. They can dismiss other gods as false. But if an actual human is worshipped as a god…"
Nade's expression finally turned grave. "It would be fatal to the Rami Church. It directly contradicts the doctrine of monotheism."
Iruki agreed. "So that's why the holy knights are so hostile toward Shirone. If they approach thinking it's just a different religion, that would be dangerous."
Certainly.
"But that doesn't mean we should announce it openly, right? We can't just pick a fight here."
Iruki raised a finger. "What about using an alias? Provided it's someone who'd draw the Pope's attention."
"A frontal approach," Shirone decided. "If we plan it, meeting Pope Constantine won't be hard. But I can't press my claims that way. Besides, the Pope is about to depart for the Crusade. There's something I want to confirm before that."
Nade sprang to his feet. "Good. Then let's formally request an audience. If the holy knights lunge at us, I'll be the villain."
Inside the Holy See they sought the office at the junction of the Diocesan Administration Bureau and the Holy Knight Office.
"Excuse me."
A priest greeted them with a smile. "Welcome, servants of Cria. What brings you to the Holy Office?"
Nade said, "We've come to see Pope Constantine. We must meet him before he departs for the Crusade."
"Pardon?"
The priest blinked, checked the ages of Shirone's party, and scratched his head.
'Of course—they look that age.'
Young, fervent believers of the Rami Church had crossed continents to request an audience with the Pope.
"Sorry, but the Pope is extremely busy. To meet him you must follow procedure. There's a department in the Diocesan Administration Bureau for such matters…"
"I'm Shirone." The priest at first didn't understand. "Please tell Pope Constantine that Yahweh requests an audience."
The priest's face went pale.
"Ya—Yahweh?"
At once the priests in the Unified Office stood and stared at Shirone.
"What? Yahweh?"
They weren't villains, of course.
Not murderers or terrorists—yet some of the priests' expressions were harsh.
The archpriest who headed the Unified Office stepped forward.
"Hmm."
He compared the rumored description to Shirone's face and bit his lip.
'It seems to be true.'
Who in the Holy See would lie about something like this unless their life depended on it?
"If you truly are Yahweh, then you must know what this place is. Is this a declaration of war?"
"I don't intend to fight. I have no reason to. I only came because there's something I must tell the Pope."
To address the Pope so casually—
'How arrogant…!'
The archpriest's eyes flashed, but Shirone did not back down this time.
'Constantine.'
She thought him a good man.
No—can anyone cleanly divide people into good and bad? Even if such beings existed—
'Would we still call them human?'
At that point, they'd be concepts beyond humanity. Miro might be the extreme of righteousness, Havitz the extreme of wickedness.
Shirone included herself in that spectrum too.
"It won't take long. Please let me see him. I'm attending the Crusade anyway and will meet the Pope there. The reason I came now is because there's an issue the Holy See must handle."
"Ahem."
They couldn't contradict her about information on the Crusade; the Holy See knew more.
"I will inform him. But if the Pope refuses, there's nothing we can do."
"All right. Please."
At the archpriest's command, two priests dashed down the corridor and split left and right.
'Two.'
The Diocesan Administration Bureau and the Holy Knight Office.
'They won't send us off kindly. Still, the Pope will meet me. To preserve authority at the Crusade, they'll have to negotiate with me.'
The next problem remained.
'How will the Pope answer my question? If he gives a human answer, I'll accept it. But if that answer denies humanity—'
'Blood will be shed.'
Holy Knight Office.
Seina, a senior holy knight of the Oracle Administration Bureau, hung her silvery armor and stood before a mirror.
'O God.'
Her gold bob and pure face were so beautiful one could believe God had made them.
'Punish me, I pray.'
But to Seina, as a holy knight, the body was merely a shell that bore her faith.
'Erase the doubt within me, O God.'
Her divine power had weakened.
'Why is this happening? Nothing special changed. Why am I doubting my life, everything I've achieved…?'
She first noticed the change when she returned to the Holy See after meeting Yahweh.
'They said Shirone.'
When she had knelt before the temptation of Siok, Yahweh had rushed in and baptized her.
'I had resolved to be a martyr. Death did not frighten me. So why… did I cry?'
The moment Shirone struck her forehead, a hideous evil poured out of her.
'Perhaps… what left me wasn't just a demon.'
"No!"
Seina shouted. "There's no way my heart was shaken by that person. This is the payment for succumbing to Siok."
Better to be a victim of evil than a traitor to the faith—that thought comforted her.
"But…"
When she remembered the brilliance of that light that had washed over her, she went blank again.
"Seina, are you in there?"
"Yes! I'm here!"
At the voice beyond the door, Seina snapped out of it and turned, her holy sword strapped on.
She opened the door to find a handsome man in his early thirties with a neat beard smiling.
"Leon."
A senior paladin from the same department.
"We were paired for this week's patrol. Were we too early? We still have five minutes."
Five minutes before duty was only slightly late.
"Oh—no. I'm sorry."
Seina wasn't unsociable, but Leon always felt awkward.
Perhaps because he was too lighthearted.
'Not a bad man. It's just… Leon's way of emphasizing relations between men and women grates on Seina.'
Holy knights were forbidden to marry; their bodies and souls were already offered to God.
Sensing her discomfort, Leon changed the subject.
"Since Seina's report, they're reviving the holy knight training program. My subordinates are up in arms, haha. Back in our day it was brutal."
'It was.'
From childhood, when she chose to be a servant of God, Seina had endured harsh training.
It had been her pride.
'Why now?'
After Yahweh's baptism, that whole process felt repulsive.
'This doubt is weakening me. Pull yourself together, Seina. You are a paladin.'
As Leon gazed at her lost in thought, his expression softened with admiration.
'Truly a splendid person.'
Holy knights were forbidden to marry, but the Church didn't force that teaching on ordinary laypeople.
'If I gave up my rank, Seina…'
As he indulged that fantasy, a priest came panting down the corridor.
"Temi? What's wrong?"
"Ah, Seina-nim! Leon-nim!"
Hands on his knees, the priest sucked in air and shouted, head snapping up.
"It's terrible! Right now in the Holy See… in this very Holy See…!"
Leon grabbed his shoulder. "Calm down. Tell us plainly—what is it?"
"Yahweh has come! He marched boldly through the main gate! He requests to see the Pope!"
Leon frowned at the implausibility. "What on earth are you saying?"
At the harsh breathing behind him, he turned and his eyes widened.
"Seina?"
Her face flushed bright as a ripe persimmon.
"Yahweh…?"
Her heart pounding so fast she could barely stand, she asked in a daze, "He's come here?"
A ripple of light shimmered before her eyes.