Chapter 39 – Wind Blowing from the South

If anyone asked where the authority and power of the empire lay, most people would point toward the capital of the Empire, the Holy City of Torra. Located within the Holy City of Torra was the Throne of Eternity, where the Emperor was enshrined. Although the Throne of Eternity was considered the empire’s guiding light as well as a milestone, it wasn’t a living authority.

On the other hand, if utilitarians were asked the same question, they would point toward the ‘Citadel of the Sun

,

’ where the empire’s Regent, Barth Baltic resided. Citadel of the Sun had the most powerful knight order in the empire. It was the empire’s most powerful armed force.

However, if those who enjoyed talking about the truth privately were asked the same question again, they would point toward the ‘Vatican,’ where the Church was located. The Church made the decisions regarding how the empire’s citizens should think and act. They were a group that represented His Majesty, who was the savior and leader of humankind, and deputized his will. Although some people didn’t believe this to be true, the Pope, Helmut Helvine, believed so.

“...Is there still no message from the Order of the White Crow?”

Helmut was anxiously wandering around the corridor of the Vatican’s terrace. Despite being over ninety years old, his body had no difficulty moving at all. However, recently there had been some news that kept him awake at night.

“N-not yet, Your Holiness.”

It was a question that had been asked repeatedly over a dozen times, but a young Priestess answered respectfully as she bowed her head.

Helmut frowned and kicked the Priestess’ face.

The Priestess slumped to the floor, but soon hurried back down to her knees. Her face was already covered with bruises and she was missing a few of her teeth. As her blood dripped on the corridor floor, she quickly wiped it off with her sleeve.

“It’s already been a few days! How can they still not send us a message!? The Order of the Blue Rose should have already come across that bastard by now!” the Pope bellowed.

The Priestess trembled and once again bowed her head; it was all she could do. She had the ability to heal herself using Grace, but she knew that she would only get in more trouble if she healed herself in front of Helmut. She could only hope for this moment to pass by as quickly as possible.

“Your Holiness, a message from Captain Ethan Etil of the Order of the White Crow has arrived.”

Finally, a voice to rescue the Priestess was heard.

Helmut hastily ran toward the Priest that delivered the message.

Meanwhile, after Helmut had left, some of her fellow Priests quickly came over to heal the Priestess.

“What does it say? Did they purge that bastard?” the Pope asked.

The Priest handed the letter over to Helmut with a sour face.

Helmut skipped over the flowery words and complimentary phrases that were automatically engraved, and swiftly read down the body of the letter. The body of the letter was short with only about two lines.

[Change of course during the pursuit of heretic boy due to detection of the Order of Huginn activities.]

That was the end of the message.

Helmut almost cursed out loud. He had commanded the Order of the White Crow to kill the heretic boy from Tantil. But, instead of following his commands, Ethan Etil, the Captain of the Order of the White Crow, had chased after the Order of Huginn.

‘This son of a bitch, he did this on purpose!’?

Helmut barely managed to stifle his curses. He was aware that there were many people who found fault with him due to the humble status that he originally came from.

The Grace that bestowed the ability to send telepathic messages was instantaneous; there was no reason it would take so long to send such a short message. Although the bottom of the letter was filled with quite a few excuses, it was obvious that Ethan sent the letter much later on purpose. He wanted to avoid Helmut’s opposition to his pursuit of the Order of Huginn.

“Is there anyone who does their job properly?!” Helmut shouted, ripping the letter in pieces.

Helmut had given commands to many of the members of the Church including Bishop Rietto and Inquisitor Kato. But Kato’s life and death was unknown, and there was no message from the Order of the Blue Rose. Helmut nervously bit his fingers.

“Your Holiness.”

Helmut flinched upon hearing a voice with a deep and low tone across the corridor.

Upon seeing who had arrived, the Priests quickly backed away and vanished.

The Vatican strictly banned armor and weapons, but the new arrival was fully armed with armor and a sword.

“Are you still concerned about the prophecy?”

The man was tall with long white hair hanging down. His muscular body was filled with scars, but what caught people’s attention the most was his white cape with a sun drawn on it.

“Captain Pavan,” Helmut called out his name.

Pavan Peltere was the Captain of the Order of the Capital.

As the sun symbolized His Majesty, the only group that could use the symbol was the Imperial Guard. However, the Imperial Guard was deprived of the right to use the symbol after Winoa Weaver, the Captain of the Imperial Guards was found to be involved in the assassination of His Majesty. After that incident, the Order of the Capital under Great General Barth Baltic occupied the right to use the symbol.

“It’s been a while, Your Holiness. I heard that the empire has been a mess lately,” Pavan said.

Helmut felt sick. The Pope held the empire’s spirit and politics in his hand, but he couldn’t look down on the Captain of the Order of the Capital; he practically represented Barth Baltic himself.

“His Majesty’s Grace reaches far beyond my capability and many things happen out of my control. I can see that the noise has flowed into the Citadel of the Sun. It’s not a big deal so there is no need to worry.”

Helmut tried to equivocate, but Pavan was persistent.

“The Regent doesn’t seem to agree,” Pavan answered.

Helmut bit his lips upon hearing that Barth Baltic was paying attention to the incident. The only reason Helmut was able to dominate the affairs of the empire was that Barth Baltic did not have a major interest in politics. If Pavan working under Barth became ambitious to hold authority, Helmut’s position would easily become unstable.

While it was the Church that practically governed the empire, Barth Baltic was the one at the top of the power chain. Helmut didn’t dare to make policies or plans against Barth no matter what, and had to bow his head to Barth’s whims.

“Let’s take a walk. Isn’t it suffocating for Your Holiness to only stay in the Vatican?”

“...The Vatican is spacious enough.”

Pavan started to walk past Helmut, and Helmut had no choice but to follow after him quietly.

“So, what was the prophecy again? I thought it started with ‘The black emperor…’ or something like that.”

“...The black emperor will appear from the south to color the wheat field gray. The dragon will wake, fallen gods will rise, the border will collapse and the emperor will finally fall down the throne. It’s what our Saintess cried out last month.”

Pavan stared into the void as he chewed on Helmut’s prophecy, then he soon let out a laugh and shook his head.

“Your Holiness, hadn’t you already…hmm, expected the Saintess’s prophecy?” Pavan derided. It was a gentle way to point out the fact the Pope had a history of manipulating the Saintess’s prophecies.

The Pope’s main job was to interpret and manipulate all the omens according to the imperial leader’s taste; the Saintess’s prophecy was no exception. The Saintess was forced to either prophet something she didn’t even hear or distorted prophecies.

Barth Baltic was well aware, but had been ignoring the truth as their collusion had continued from a long time before. As Helmut had no chance of winning against Barth, Helmut was a valuable resource for him.

“This prophecy is different,” Helmut said with his lips distorted.

“If you don’t mind, may I ask how it’s different?”

“...First of all, I didn’t make this prophecy up. There was an unknown fire at the southern Great Plains, and then the colosseum in Tantil was burnt down. Even the Ash Tower collapsed with a sudden downpour. The rumors say that Talter and Grunbalde had revived. All the prophecies are coming true one by one.”

Pavan quietly laughed instead of answering Hemut.

Helmut realized that Pavan didn’t believe any of it. But he couldn’t blame him. If he was put in Pavan’s shoes, he would have also laughed at such claims.

“It’s just a coincidence. Your Holiness, you shouldn’t let the Saintess sniff so much of that incense smoke.”

“...You’re right. It seems like I’m only getting overly cautious as I age.”

“It’s just a breeze passing by. We all witness odd phenomena in life, but don’t you think the citizens will be agitated if the capital makes a big fuss over nothing?”

Helmut sensed a strange feeling from Pavan’s tone, causing his face to stiffen.

The appearance of the malicious heretics or apostates gave an opportunity for the Church to unite and strengthen their power. Pavan suspected that Helmut was trying to use the recent incident to further expand the influence of the Church. Pavan thought that Barth’s whims were somewhat included in Helmut’s plan. After all, it was Helmut’s wits and sense of balance that allowed him to become the Pope and continue coexisting with Barth for decades.

“...I will be more careful. Please let the Regent know of my words.”

“I am overwhelmed to see Your Holiness take my advice sincerely,” Pavan answered.

Helmut quietly nodded his head. Although it was Pavan’s misunderstanding to think he made up the prophecy, Helmut had no choice but to bow down and stay obedient. Barth and his Order of the Capital were arrogant enough to enter the Vatican while fully armed even when things such as armor and weapons were prohibited. But their arrogance was only natural; they had the power to back their arrogance. Templars might be powerful, but they were no match for the Order of the Capital and imperial force.

“I’ll get going then. I have nothing more to say since Your Holiness gave heed to my humble advice. May His Majesty watch over you.”

“May His Majesty watch over you.”

Pavan turned back and headed out of the corridor even before Helmut could finish his farewell.

Looking at his back, Helmut once again affirmed the determination he had already made a thousand times; that he would one day break Barth Baltic’s horn off his head and shove it down Pavan’s throat.

While Helmut pretended to come off as obedient, there were two things he didn’t tell Pavan. One was that the boy at the center of all these incidents had black hair, and another was a new prophecy that the Saintess had heard last night.

[I have never told anyone to serve me, or distort my teachings. I have never told anyone to set villages on fire nor did I tell anyone to praise me with the blood of the weak—none of that is my…]

***

Sina woke up and opened up one of her eyes. She tried to open her left eye, but flinched when she felt the odd sensation of her coagulated skin. Only then did realize that she had lost her left eye forever. Even His Majesty’s Grace couldn’t heal injuries seared with fire.

“You’re awake.”

Sina turned toward the voice. In front of her stood a short-haired female knight with a cold expression. Sina immediately realized she was a Templar from the Order of the White Crow as she recognized her silver white armor with the white crow symbol.

Sina was in the barracks of the Order of the White Crow.

“How…?”

“We found you while we were searching for the traces of the Order of the Huggin. It seemed like all your comrades had already died. We could tell from the scene that you all fought back heroically. I commanded the bodies of the Laus Mountain Scouts to be retrieved with courtesy. Their bodies will be sent back to Tantil.”

“Oh…”

Sina once again realized that all her comrades had died, including Ossrey.

“Our Captain doesn’t care much, but I personally would like to apologize,” the female Templar said as she bowed her head in front of Sina. “I’m sorry. We knew you needed help, but we couldn’t afford to offer as we were on a mission to pull the roots of deeper sins. You can blame us since we are also at fault for your comrades not being able to return.”

“Ah, it’s okay. I understand the circumstances you were under.”

Sina would be lying if she said that she didn’t resent them, but she had to admit that they had no choice. It was only natural for the Order of the White Crow to prioritize chasing after the Order of the Huggin over Juan. Juan was a heretic that only appeared recently, but the Order of Huginn was one of the groups that committed the major sin of participating in the assasination of His Majesty. It couldn’t be helped that the Order of the Blue Rose was disregarded. After all, it was Sina and Haselle who decided to fight Juan even in the absence of the Order of the White Crow.

“My name is Kamil Kastorea, the Deputy of the Order of the White Crow. Feel free to call me Kamil and I’ll try my best to provide convenience for you during your stay. We are still chasing after the Order of Huggin so it might not be the best environment for a patient, but we will drop you off in the nearest city,” Kamil said as she got ready to leave and give Sina some personal space.

Looking at Kamil set to leave, Sina got confused.

“D-Deputy Kamil?”

“Hmm? Do you have any more questions?”

“Well…that’s exactly my question. Don’t you have any questions for me? Perhaps about what happened between the boy and I or the conversation we had?”

Sina had been on an inquisitorial trial in Tantil, just because she had a conversation with Juan. But this time, not only did Sina survive alone, but also had signs of treatment on her body. Yet Kamil was not interrogating her.

“I was planning to ask after you recover a little. We are focused on the pursuit of the Order of the Huggin anyway so we can’t afford to pay attention to that incident. I did expect you to have some message to deliver considering that the bastard treated you, but you don’t need to say anything.”

“May I ask you why?”

“All heretics have a forked tongue. Anything they say is not worth listening to.”

Sina flinched at Kamil’s words. It was as if she was telling Sina to snap out of being convinced over Juan’s words. Sina’s pupil was shaking.

“I can tell that you didn’t commit any heretic actions by looking at the scar on your left eye. That bastard put in the effort to engrave an ancient rune on your skin. He wouldn’t have left such a scar if you were a heretic. And, it’s not really considered an insult to us,” Kamil added as she smiled at Sina.

“Did you say…a rune? Do you know what it says?”

“It means ‘the emperor’s watchdog,’” Kamil answered.