CH 180

Chapter 180 – Reunion With The Saint

It took me a few dozen minutes of walking, asking ladies and men on the street for directions to the castle… It must have taken about an hour or less. I finally reached the front of the castle. Too long, you say? No, no, no, Merinesburg is bigger than Erichburg, and the road to the castle is not a straight one, so you have to turn one way and another way to get to the castle. It took a lot of time.

The soldiers seemed tense. When I asked them why, they told me that there had been several assassination attempts against the saint. Most of the attempts seem to have failed, and such as when the soldiers were rushing toward the saint, they were knocked unconscious by mysterious stone-throwing when they tried to use magic, or when they tried to snipe the saint with bows and arrows, they were set on fire and fell from the roof at the sniping point. It was definitely the Slime girls, that’s for sure.

And then I came face to face with the knight guarding the castle gate.

“You are..? Hmm, dull face and dark hair, just as described.”

Sorry about my dull face! It’s none of your business, idiot! I swallowed the word in the back of my smile and let the knight say what he wanted to say. I don’t consider myself handsome at all. In fact, there is no damage. Yes, yes, zero damage.

“The letter of invitation is definitely authentic. There’s no problem with you entering the castle, but I’m going to have to take all your weapons.”

“Of course.”

“Sorry, but I have to ask you to take off your armor, too.”

“Okay.”

I’m not guilty of anything, and if it comes down to it, I can get my weapons and armor out of my inventory, so I don’t see any problem.

I’ll leave my short spear and short sword, plus a knife, round shield, and Wyvern leather armor with the knight, and I’ll also leave my miscellaneous bags with only my valuables, or rather my purse leather bag and my letter of invitation. Finally, I was checked to see if I had any weapons hidden in my body and finally entered the castle.

By the way, when they checked my whole body for concealed weapons, they touched my buttocks and crotch strangely… Let’s not talk about this. I don’t want to think about it.

“I just sent out a messenger. The guide should be here soon, so wait here.”

“Okay.”

After the inspection, I entered the castle and saw a wide variety of people. Especially conspicuous were the soldiers and knights armed with short spears. As one would expect, carrying a weapon gives a different sense of intimidation or presence. The repeated attacks on the saint have made them very tense.

And busy moving around are men and women in nun’s uniforms. Speaking of castles, shouldn’t they be maids? It is hard not to think that the castle staff is fortifying the castle for fear of assassination. But, in the first place, are they not the ones who are plotting the assassination? I wonder what is going on in that area.

As I waited in a daze for my guide, a familiar sister walked up to me. Uh, I think her name is.

“Amalie-san?”

“Yes, I am Amalie. It’s been a while.”

The sister smiled benevolently as she said so. As I recall, she was the sister who was pulled up by the outrageous saint who was covered with the crown that made that luminosity and such visible. She was also the sister who took care of me when I fell to the poison dagger.

“Eleonora-sama is waiting for you. Please come this way.”

“Yes. Thank you for coming.”

“No. Eleonora-sama is already looking forward to meeting you. She’s been so anxious to see you since yesterday.”

“Huh.”

Ellen, they’re going to wonder how in the world you got in touch with me or something… Or have you explained the situation to Amalie-san? From her looks, she doesn’t seem to be harboring any suspicions or anything of the sort…?

“Eleonora-sama seems to be getting a lot of oracles lately, and she said that your coming was given to her by an oracle.”

“I-I see.”

It seems that Ellen is using the information she gets via Lime and others, calling it an oracle. Is that okay? In a religious sense.

After walking along the corridor for a while and climbing the stairs several times, I arrived at a rather luxurious, or rather massive, wooden door. Amalie-san knocked on the door.

“Eleonora-sama, you have a visitor.”

“Please come in.”

I heard Ellen’s reply. Then, for some reason, Amalie-san made me stand right in front of the door and look around to make sure no one was around before opening the door.

While I was inwardly tilting my head at her mysterious behavior, the door was opened, and suddenly a golden object jumped into my chest.

“Oooh!”

I tried to catch the object that jumped into my chest with an unintentional shout. However, before I could catch it, something tightened around my torso. This must be an arm. And the golden object that flew into my chest was probably a human head.

“Ellen, you startled me.”

“I don’t care about that. You should embrace me too.”

“Oh, good grief… okay, okay.”

I hugged Ellen, who buried and rubbed her face against my chest and stroked her back. After doing so for a while, Sister Amalie clears her throat.

“Eleonora-sama, Kosuke-sama, I don’t know when people will see you, so could you please stop right there? If you wish to continue, please do so only after entering the room.”

“…It can’t be helped.”

Ellen flinched, and I released my arms that were holding her back, and Ellen pulled herself away from me with an expressionless but somewhat regretful look on her face. I was, as a matter of fact, feeling pretty out of sorts because my motives had become so intense. I was surprised when she suddenly hugged me, but I couldn’t seem to stay normal when I touched Ellen. What in the world is this?

I entered the room as calmly as possible and found myself in an office-like room. The room was quite spacious, with a massive desk in front of it, a rather luxurious reception set to the left, and a door behind it. There seems to be another room on the other side.

There are not many furnishings, or rather none at all. There are some unnatural gaps as if something that was originally there has been moved somewhere else.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, I just thought it was neat for its size.”

“Of course it is. This was originally the office of the white pig bastard who calls himself a bishop. It was so overgrown with grotesque furnishings that we had to get rid of it.”

“Eleonora-sama, your language is a bit dirty.”

“I beg your pardon, but I have spent many frustrating days with so much bad taste in furnishings.”

Ellen walked toward the reception set with a blank expression on her face and sat down on a comfortable-looking sofa. Then she patted herself next to her, but I sat down on the opposite side.

“Why don’t you sit over here?”

“No, I’ve got something to give you now, and it would be easier to do it face to face.”

“I don’t care about that kind of position.”

Ellen, who keeps knocking on the seat next to her, is overcome with patience and gets up from her seat and moves to sit next to me. Ellen then leaned over to me with a somewhat satisfied look on her face and began to rub her cheek against my right arm. Are you a cat or something?

“Can I go now?”

“No.”

“As I thought… it’s okay, though, because you’re cute.”

After I let her do what she wanted for a while, she was satisfied with gripping me, and now she started using my lap as a pillow. I had no choice but to gently stroke her head, being careful not to mess up her golden hair.

“You look so spoiled… is that the kind of character you are?” [T/n: He said kyara here, kyara = character.]

“I don’t know about that “Kyara” you were talking about, but since you left, I have been waiting to meet you again. Each moment seems like an eternity to me. I think God will forgive me for this.”

Ellen turns over on the sofa and stares into my eyes with her crimson eyes. If it weren’t so public, I would have loved to kiss her, but I couldn’t let that happen. It’s a big problem for both of us. Maybe it’s too late for that.

“Saint-sama, please do not go any further.”

“It can’t be helped… now that I’ve had a little satisfaction, let’s get down to business.”

“I like that mood of yours, Ellen, yes.”

Ellen, who tries to be pompous to no end, is somewhat comforting to watch. When Ellen stopped lying on my lap and raised herself up, I smelled a soft and pleasant fragrance. I was strangely thrilled. What is this?

“Well, for now, I’d like to talk about something that we’ve been talking about for a while now…”

I glanced at Amalie-san.

“What is it? Are you making eyes at Amalie? In front of me?”

“No, it’s not like that. I just wasn’t sure if it was okay to talk in front of Amalie-san.”

“That’s fine. I’ve already told Amalie everything that happened.”

“Is that so…? Then… here’s the stuff.”

Saying this, I took from my inventory and placed on the reception room table an original, a manuscript, and a translation of an Adol scripture from the time of the Omit Kingdom. Amalie-san seemed surprised because it was the first time for her to see my ability.

“I see; these two books are of old make, as you can see. Only the making.”

“Since it was kept in the underground archives under the preservation magic. This is the original, this is the manuscript, and this is the translation that I translated, and Isla scribbled. I’m sure there are no mistakes in the translation, but I think it’s better to do some research and translation there as well. There are sticky notes between the translation and the manuscripts, where we have written the differences from the current Adol teaching, from what we can tell. You can check them against each other and refer to them.”

“I see. May I have a look at it?”

“Of course.”

When I said this, Ellen picked up the original and began skimming through its contents. I wondered if she could read the script of the Omit Kingdom.

“Can you read it?”

“Yes. It’s part of our job to read the scriptures. Hmm, the phrases and such are still a bit old… I see.”

As she flipped through the pages, Ellen’s red eyes narrowed as if she had found a section that contained a different description from what the mainstream advocates today. It seems that she is intensively checking the parts of the current scriptures that suggest the exclusion of subhumans.

“Amalie, please inspect the contents of that manuscript as well.”

“Yes.”

Amalie-san sat down opposite Ellen and me and, with a careful hand, began to check the contents of the scripture manuscript in her hand. Eventually, she reached the description in question and slightly wrinkled her brow.

“What’s it like for you as an expert?”

“Yes. I’m still convinced that the current mainstream claims result from falsification.”

“Do you have any concerns about the authenticity of the scripture, or evidence that it is authentic, or anything like that?”

“I don’t think that will be a problem. The original was issued by a cathedral in the then-famous Omit Kingdom, and the seal seems to be legitimate. However, if we were to hand it over to the mainstream, they would probably suppress it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We need to think of a way to make it work, but that’s our job, so you can leave it to us. Regardless, this scripture will be a powerful weapon that will cause a major crack in the mainstream’s argument. It may even be the move that gets that obnoxious bastard Pope and the Cardinal Pigs on the firing line.”

Ellen’s crimson eyes cloud over, letting out an eerie laugh. Amalie-san smiled wryly at the situation, but she didn’t seem to be paying attention. She used to warn her about such comments, but it seems that she has reached a point where she feels something about it.

“These three books will be kept in strictest confidence.”

“I’d like you to do that. And don’t let it ever get stolen.”

“Of course. Only I and Amalie know that this is here, so it should be fine. If no one knows it exists, it cannot be searched or stolen.”

With that, Ellen put the scripture on the table and looked at me.

“Now that the scripture thing settled, what’s next is four days from now?”

“Oh, you’re talking about your boss coming over.”

“Yes. I would like you to meet with…”

In the middle of her words, a thump-thump sound came from the door, a very rough knocking sound for a knock.

“What is it?”

Ellen tilted her head, and Amalie-san quickly got up from her seat and headed for the door. As the extra person’s eyes seemed to be on me, I quickly got up, stowed the scripture in my inventory, and moved to the seat opposite Ellen.

“How can I help you? Our saint is in a meeting with a guest right now.”

“A messenger has arrived from Her Eminence the Archbishop and her delegation, who are on their way here.”

“A messenger…?”

“Yes, may I escort him this way?”

Amalie-san gave Ellen a look. Ellen thought about something for just a moment and then nodded.

“Please let him through.”

I don’t know what is going on, but something seems to have happened with Ellen’s boss, who is heading this way. I have a bad feeling about this timing… or something.