Chapter 203: "Holy Duties" |
One of the facilities owned by the Gnostic Order atop the Muslim Spirit Mountain in Wyrd, Medream Territory.
A room in one of these buildings, called the office building.
In the centre of the room is a large office desk piled high with documents.
Facing the desk is a nervous-looking man.
His eyes are slightly bloodshot and his expression is dark with fatigue.
Cathedral Knight Stanislas Etan Althusser.
One of the people in charge here - mainly in charge of administrative matters.
"Good to have you back."
Stanislas says in a slightly gravelly voice.
"May I ask why you called us back so quickly?"
"...That's so like you, Cathedral Knight Christella. Before we get down to business, let's have a quick chat. First of all, we have made the arrangements for the supplies you requested, but they are in such quantity that they are putting a lot of pressure on our savings."
"It's ......."
"No, you don't have to tell me. You are doing the right thing and I have no intention of complaining. But you also understand that we can't give you what we don't have, don't you?"
I was listening to Stanislas on the side, and inwardly I wanted to run away.
When he talks in this roundabout way, it's usually because it's a bad case.
"So, here's what I want to ask you three. I have two tasks for you three. Have you heard of the Oratorium?"
"...... I remember it as a territory to the north-west of Medream..."
Oratorium? Ah, that dreary place.
It's a territory at the end of the country, facing the Teadras Mountains.
To be honest, a territory facing a mountain range is more of a protective barrier than a revenue source.
Those mountains are home to goblins and other subhumans.
They are forced to keep them in the mountains, where they can be dangerous and where there is no telling how many of them there might be.
It's a double outlier territory, as you have to constantly hire mercenaries and the like because of the threat of goblins who might come down.
In addition, they also have to pay taxes to the state, which is a hardship for the lords.
Of these, Oratorium is particularly low profile.
To put it bluntly, this is because there is no special product to speak of.
To be honest, I had forgotten about it until it was mentioned.
The girl Christella has a quizzical look on her face, and the boy Marslan looks as if he's wondering where it is.
Stanislas takes a red fruit from his desk drawer and puts it on the desk.
With a heavy thud, the fruit lands on the desk.
...What is it? Heavy sound?
"Pumila...?"
I lift and look at the red fruit on the desk without saying anything.
It is darker in colour and heavier than normal.
I smell it, but it doesn't seem dangerous.
I pull out the dagger from my waist, cut off a bit of pumila and throw the pulp into my mouth.
...Oh my God.
"I'm surprised. Is this really Pumila? It tastes completely different."
He says and throws the rest of it to Mistress Kristella.
She checks with Stanislas and, like me, cuts it off and puts it in her mouth.
The Marslan boy follows suit.
"This is..."
"Great..."
It is sweet, but also fresh and has a not bad aftertaste.
What is this?
"I know this is a good quality fruit, but what about it?"
"It's oratorian in origin."
I see.
"I don't know how they did it, but the development of Oratorium has been remarkable recently. There's been a tremendous flow of money and goods, which means--"
"You want me to go and proselytise?"
I hate it, really.
I let out a sigh without hiding.
In short, he's going to ask for money.
They didn't look at it before, but when they get rich, this is what they'll do.
If I were over there, I wouldn't look good.
...Well, that's why this face.
Negotiations with a person with the status of cathedral knight sent in.
The other side will have no choice but to respond accordingly. It's doubtful that three people are necessary.
Stanislas' expression is not as bright as he might have guessed.
"Normally, I would have liked to take more time, but... we don't have the luxury of time."
"I understand. The other thing is that we have to be careful about what we say. And the other thing is..."
Stanislas straightens up.
Apparently, this is the main issue. Oh, I feel bad, damn it.
"Well, keep in mind that ...... this is unconfirmed information and we don't know for sure. There's a rumour that an unidentified monster has appeared in the Oratorium. I want you to confirm its veracity."
There you go.
Investigating an unknown monster is my least favourite thing to do.
For someone like me who puts a lot of effort into preparation, I want to avoid as much as possible the kind of situation where you can't plan countermeasures.
"Cathedral Knight Stanislas. Can you tell us a bit more about it, is it a new species?"
"No, we don't even know. The source of the story is nothing more than a town rumour, but since you're going to the Oratorium this time, I want you to check it out just in case. But if you discover a new species of monster, make sure you capture it alive for research purposes."
It's an absolute lie. I can assure you.
I was convinced that negotiating with Oratorium was secondary and that this was the main objective.
But what was the reason? I have a bad feeling about this.
I have a feeling I don't want it to hit me.
I guess I should check.
"Well, does that include checking out those monsters and stuff?"
"It does."
Hearing our exchange, Kristela next to me nodded in agreement.
"Okay. Then I will leave for Oratorium in two days to give everyone I brought with me a rest."
"Yes. I'm sorry, but I need your help."
You're a very understanding young lady, you know that?
The conversation is settled, and the little girl and the boy want to say hello and leave, but not me.
"Stanislas. It's been a long time, how about a drink later?"
I make a gesture to stir the glass.
The guy sees this and immediately gets what I'm trying to do and gives a small nod.
"No problem. Come here at night. I can't stay the night, but I'll keep you company for a bit."
"Sorry."
After saying this, I followed them out of the room.
"...... Let's just get you briefed for now."
The location remains the same: Stanislas's office.
The time is night. Moonlight, not sunlight, shines through the window.
The light source in the room is a few lights using magic stones.
The reason is that after I parted with the two of them for some reason, I waited for the night and came back here.
Me and Stanislas were facing each other across the office desk.
On the desk were two glasses and a bottle of alcohol.
"Well, drink anyway. It's not a very interesting story and I can't do it without a drink."
Stanislas pours the liquor into the glasses.
The orange liquid is poured out in lines, and we each hold a glass in our hand and give it a small clink.
We say 'cheers' to each other and stir.
Excellent sweetness and freshness down the throat.
Delicious. And this sweetness is -.
"Is it made from the fruit?"
"Yes, they're doing a lot of work there."
When he said this, Stanislas leaned back in his chair.
"Now, where to start..."
"First of all, let's start with what's behind this story."
I want to clear things up for now.
"...... Well, as you probably guessed, the latter of the two requests is the real deal."
I'm sure you're right.
Otherwise, there would be no need to send three people.
The first is the one that is the most important, and the second is the one that is the least important.
"...you may have heard of monsters that speak strange languages, have you?"
"Yeah, I've never actually come across one."
I thought it might be a matter of eyebrows, but when you've been in this organisation for a long time, you hear all sorts of information you don't want to know.
I had heard that on rare occasions some cathedral knights were given the task of capturing certain monsters.
Only the best fighters are selected, and I have heard stories of death and return.
...What does it matter?
"...... Last year, I received information via the Adventurers' Guild. Ruins have been found in Oratorium. The adventurer who went in to investigate was missing and probably died in the ruins, but afterwards, I received word from the client's master that he was withdrawing his request, so that was the end of the matter, but the master..."
"Oratorium?"
"Well, to be precise, his fiancée, the daughter of Liard ......, or rather the current head of the family. The request was broken and the information came to us."
Liard is, I believe, the neighbouring territory of Oratorium.
The current head of the family is a lady? What do you mean?
"What? Has there been a change?"
"I don't know the details, but there were some scandals, so the parents stepped down and the current head of the family, the second daughter, is now in charge."
...What a fishy story.
The second daughter is also suspicious.
"It was shortly after that that the oratorian economy started to pick up..."
In fact, it seems that it wasn't even a positive development at all.
By shipping example fruits one after another in an incredibly short cycle, they rebuilt their leaning finances, established relationships with a number of trading houses and made significant progress in a single year, rather than a generation.
In addition to this, they have recently started dealing in weapons and are said to be increasing their profits at a tremendous rate.
"Now that you know what the current head of Liard is capable of, how does that connect to this case?"
"Well, they think the head of Liard might have gotten something from those ruins or something."
"Something... yeah?"
It's a very fluffy story.
Would you send in a force with such vague information?
Let me guess, the ruins are involved with monsters? I can't read the story.
"Are you saying there's a talking monster in those ruins?"
Why are you interested in talking monsters again? Are you going to teach them tricks?
Stanislas takes out a magic stone the size of a clenched fist and channels magic power into it.
I felt something fill the space.
"Is it a listening block?"
"Yeah, it would be really bad if anything else leaked out from here, so listen carefully."
I nod, and Stanislas resumes his story.
"Have you ever heard of the Gentile Etruscans?"
"Ah, you know those stinking bastards?"
The Gentiles.
They are a group of people who have all been given the prestigious treatment of being cathedral knights, "chosen knights" who are appointed by skipping the process of being a holy knight or a knight of the Holy Temple, a strange group of people whose faces no one has even seen because no one takes off their armour, let alone their origins.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
I have a bad imagination when I hear that much.
It's the only way the story could have happened. Otherwise, I wouldn't be talking about gentiles.
I knew it was a bad story, but it's more than I imagined.
"...You don't think that talking monster is the true identity of the Gentiles?"
"...... That no way."
"It's certainly a story that can't be passed on anywhere else."
The cathedral knight is the pinnacle of the holy knighthood. His true identity is that of a monster.
It sounds like a joke of a bad nature, but if word got out, it would be nothing short of a riot.
The number of gentiles is shrouded in mystery, but at the very least there should be more than one or two.
"What are they going to do with such a large number of monsters?"
"I don't know. It's not worth objecting and being taken as a breach of trust, so I silently nodded my head, but the obsession with the higher-ups is extraordinary. I was informed of the situation because I was the one in charge this time, but it seems that there is a record of missing a talking demon in the vicinity of the area in the past."
"In the past... from the way you're talking, it's been quite a while, hasn't it?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't seem to matter. If there's a possibility, he wants us to catch them at any cost."
I understand what's going on, but the story has gotten a lot more complicated.
If the main purpose is to capture monsters, then it is necessary to investigate the Oratorium.
It's possible that they're surrounding the monster in question.
"...... I'd like to complain about a lot of things, but I don't see why you should tell me. What about the other two?"
"I'd prefer not to inform them, but I'll leave the final decision to you."
...If you don't know, what's the point?
So you're saying my job is to keep those two in the dark about what's going on and get them to move to capture the monster?
Damn it! It's really a non-stipendiary job!
"Incidentally, I was told to tell this story to either you or Cristela."
"...I bet."
Fuck. My head hurts thinking about tomorrow.
I'd like to forget everything and drink painfully, but I thought I couldn't even do that considering my physical condition - all I could do was sigh.
