by Funa
“Without any permission?”
“That’s right. No one gave me anything after all.”
The guard was dumbfounded; shocked to the core, even.
Did they drop her on her head when she was a baby or something?
But even if the look in her eyes was a little...okay, really harsh, she was still pretty cute.
I might be able to make this work, the guard thought to himself with a sneer on his face.
“I can’t let you into the palace to meet the king if you don’t have the paperwork, missy.”
“B-But I have to get in!”
All right, that’s the way...
“If you’ve got the cash, though, I think I might be able to do something about it for you...”
It should go without saying, but a simple guard didn’t have the authority to do anything of the sort.
“Huh? But I don’t have any money...”
Yeah, anyone could tell from just one look at you.
“All right, guess I can throw you a bone... Think you could listen to a little favor I have for you? The guy relieving me should be coming soon enough, so all you have to do is spend a little ‘quality time’ with me after my shift’s finished.”
“Huh? W-Wait, do you mean...” The girl placed her hands on her chest, tears forming in her eyes. “N-No, I can’t do that!”
“Oh come on, it’s not that big a deal,” the guard pressed, laying it on thick as he pressured the girl. “All you gotta do is spend a little bit of time with me, and I’ll get you in to meet the king!”
“No, please, forgive me! I’ll never try and get into the castle again! I swear to the Goddess, I won’t do anything the important nobles here say, or even the royal family!” she cried as she ran away.
“Tch. No good, huh... Ah well, it only works once every few dozen times anyway. Man, and just when I got a cute one too!”
This happened all the time, so the guard failed to realize just how strange the girl’s parting words were as she fled...
Achille had spent the night at his family’s home, and arrived at the workshop later than usual. It was standard fare for people to spend the night there, so no one was too concerned about when they clocked in and started working though.
“Oh, good morning, Achille.”
“Yeah, morning, Kao... Wait, WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” Achille yelped. “D-Didn’t you have an audience with the king this morning?” The color was draining from his face as he stammered.
“Well, I did go to the castle, but the guard wouldn’t let me in unless I paid him money or I went with him for some very dubious reasons. That’s why I swore to the Goddess that I would never go inside the castle or listen to what any noble or the royal family had to say ever again.”
And with that, Achille passed out cold on the spot. As soon as he regained consciousness, he sprinted back to the Lyodart household, a look of frantic desperation on his face.
After the king and his cabinet ministers had finished their morning conference together, they headed to the audience chamber together. They took their seats, waiting anxiously for the girl said to be the messenger of the Goddess to arrive. It had been fifty-three years since the last time the Goddess Celestine had shown herself. There had been several claims of “divine revelations” from the Holy Land of Rueda, but they were only things that were beneficial to the Holy Land and the temple of the Goddess. That wasn’t to mention the Goddess herself hadn’t made these announcements, who had managed to appear in every country simultaneously in the past, but were made by those working with the temple. No one believed these to be true revelations.
That’s when two incidents had come into the picture: The first was a claim that a goddess from another world had appeared, who also happened to be a personal friend of the Goddess Celestine. The second had only happened the other day, and was said to be an angel sent down by Celestine herself. Was it really just coincidence both of them happened within the kingdom of Balmore?
Though the friend of the Goddess had appeared in a neighboring country, it only involved citizens of Balmore, and even the latest incident involved a girl who was said to have come from a foreign country that had taken up residence here. Was this an omen that Celestine would descend upon the world once more? Was there going to be a new divine revelation, and could that be a prediction for some sort of great and terrible disaster?
Of course everyone would be on edge about that.
...This is taking too long.
The king had already taken his seat, and it had been several minutes since he gave the word that he was ready to receive his guest. It was unheard of to keep a king waiting like this.
The sounds of burgeoning unrest had already begun in the room by the time they received an unthinkable report:
“The girl isn’t here.”
Inconceivable! She’d ignored a royal summons to have an audience with the king! Even if she were a messenger from the Goddess, this wasn’t something she could easily get away with.
The commotion in the audience chamber was only growing worse when a panicking soldier came rushing into the room.
“Your Majesty, Viscount Lyodart is requesting to meet with you immediately! He says he has urgent news regarding the girl!”
“Let him through!”
The king had a bad feeling about what was coming next...
“So what you’re telling me...is that the guard watching the gate demanded the girl pay money or with her body to be let through, which is why she left without entering the castle...?”
“Yes, it appears so, Your Majesty...”
“And she also swore to the Goddess she would never enter the castle, and wouldn’t listen to anything the royal family or any noble would say...?”
“Yes, Your Majesty...”
An atmosphere of shock and despair fell over the entire room.
“What is the meaning of this, Amoros?” the king pressed the supervisor in charge of handling important guests.
“W-Well, Your Majesty, I made sure to inform the person in charge of the main gates to immediately let any young aristocrat girl from another country through if she were to show up, and I even dispatched someone to guide her for when she arrived!”
“Which is when she showed up at the back gates, and early enough that the guard hadn’t been changed yet. And she showed up dressed as a commoner, no less... Why would she do something like this, Viscount Lyodart?”
The viscount relayed what his son had told him earlier.
“It seems that the girl in question, Kaoru, had left her home country long ago, and has been living as a commoner in our country. For that reason, I was told it was only natural for her to think and arrive as a commoner as well. That is why she tried entering through the gates meant for the common citizen. It seemed she borrowed a dress from an acquaintance for the party we held at our household so as not to cause a disturbance...”
“Which is why we didn’t think to give her any proof to get through the gates, since we were expecting an aristocrat girl to come in her own carriage... You still made sure to inform the guards beforehand, and you even had someone ready to lead her in, so the fault does not lie with you,” the king said to the supervisor. It would be cruel to blame him for this incident, and the king made sure to absolve him of any wrongdoing.
It wasn’t going to be the same for whoever was in charge of the guards though. The king ordered harsh punishment be dealt to not only the guard responsible for what happened, but decreed for a thorough investigation to be opened into his superiors, the people above those superiors, and anyone else involved with security who’d given or taken bribes or other crimes, dealing the same unforgiving punishment for anyone found guilty of wrongdoing. He also ordered the same strict investigation be performed on those who had influence over whom the king held audiences with.
“But now, we won’t be able to call the Goddess’s messenger to the castle. No one from the royal family or any of the cabinet ministers will be able to order her to d
o anything, and that includes myself. What do we do now...” the king spoke in agony, clutching his head in his hands.
The temple of Balmore; also more commonly known as “the temple,” there was no need to specify exactly who was being deified in the name since it was obviously going to be the Goddess Celestine. To make a distinction between the minute differences in the religions found across the other countries, the worshipers would either call themselves Traditional, Orthodox, or Fundamental, though they all worshiped the Goddess just the same.
The highest ranking member of the temple in the kingdom was the archbishop, Saulnier, with a variety of bishops, head priests, priests, and monks working under him. Various clergymen and women who were a lower rank than head priest worked at the local temples scattered throughout the land, with anyone ranked higher than a minister usually going to work at the temple in the royal capital. Gender didn’t matter in any of these ranks, but only women were allowed to fulfill the role of “divine oracles.”
Since the temple worshiped a goddess, it didn’t mean these oracles became brides of God or anything like that. Celestine took the form of a young maiden, and would sometimes speak with other young girls, which was why it was crucial for shrine maidens to be divine mediums themselves so they had something in common with the goddess. Anyone who married or turned twenty had to step down from their role as a medium, and anyone who made it past that point could either become a nun or priestess, or would return to secular life. However, any divine oracle who made contact with Celestine would keep their title for the rest of their life, no matter how old they became or if they were to marry.
Only the Cardinal and the Pope held higher positions than the archbishop, who could only reside in the Holy Land of Rueda.
Balmore was on constant alert that Rueda would attempt to issue an order in the name of the Pope should something happen, and did its best to weaken the relationship between the Holy Land and the Balmore temple. Those efforts were futile for the most part, which was why the country took every effort to make the temple rank lower than the king to keep their influence away from politics.
Once every few years to a few decades, the Goddess Celestine would take the form of a young girl to hand down divine revelations for the people to avoid disaster and other dangers. It had been over fifty years since the last revelation had come, however, and there was no longer anyone in the temple who’d been present the last time the Goddess had descended. The faith of those still present had waned, and the temple became nothing more than a way for them to line their own pockets. The tendrils of depravity spread like a disease throughout the religion as a result.
The Pope of Rueda had made public other divine revelations that the Grand Temple had curated, yet they weren’t faced with divine punishment. Those who were part of the temple took that to mean they wouldn’t face the Goddess’s wrath so long as it meant propagating her name.
At present, the masses had deeper faith than actual clergymen. Bishop Sarrazin was one such person. He’d never seen the Goddess with his own two eyes, and only saw his position in the temple as a way to support his lavish lifestyle. The image of the Goddess, a cheerful, smiling girl, was another one of the reasons Sarrazin didn’t see her as something to be feared, but rather as a compassionate being to them.
“An angel?” the bishop Sarrazin growled. A scowl grew on his face as he listened to the head priest who brought him the news the priest had heard from a lower-ranking aristocrat.
“Y-Yes, it appears several nobles claim to have seen her perform a miracle...”
What foolishness. It was stated in the old records that the Goddess would hand down her revelations personally. There wasn’t a single mention about an angel or messenger serving as her intermediary. She would appear in every country at the same time to deliver her message directly to a divine oracle or a priest, something which hadn’t happened in fifty-three years. There must have been some sort of fortunate coincidence or fancy trick the girl used to put the girl in the favor of all those nobles.
But wait just a second... It shouldn’t matter if she was a real messenger of the Goddess or not. If all the fat cats believed her when she called herself that, it was only a matter of using that to the bishop’s advantage. Even if she was found out to be an imposter, he would just end up being one of the victims tricked by the girl. He should get off scot-free so long as he said he couldn’t doubt anyone who claimed to be the messenger of the Goddess. Until then, he would use her for all she was worth to squeeze every last coin out of this fortunate coincidence.
Luckily enough for him, the news hadn’t spread to the archbishop or any of the other bishops. All he had to do was be the first one to contact the girl and “take her under his wing.” The lower-ranking aristocrat had also mentioned that the royal palace was looking into the whereabouts of the girl. Another stroke of luck for Sarrazin, since they had some very pious people inside the castle as well.
“Call Minister Dorn,” Sarrazin ordered, wearing a vulgar sneer that no man of the cloth should ever make.
It was the day after Kaoru had been turned away from the castle gates. She was outside cleaning, right in front of the front door to the workshop, when a gaudy carriage pulled up in front of her.
The window opened, and a voice called out from the inside. “So, this is the Maillart Workshop then?”
Welp, I’ve already got a bad feeling about this...
Kaoru could feel a sudden sense of déjà vu coming on. She stopped sweeping, hanging her head in exasperation.
“Yes, this is the Maillart Workshop, and I’m Kaoru.” It was such a pain to go through this every time, so she just skipped right to the important part.
A man stepped down from the carriage as soon as he heard Kaoru’s answer. He was overweight and pudgy, and was wearing a luxurious outfit, though it didn’t appear to be anything an aristocrat would wear.
“I am Dorn, a minister of the Grand Temple. The bishop is calling for you, so you will come with me!”
Yeah, that’s what I thought...
Minister Dorn was an accomplice of Sarrazin, and the fact that Sarrazin had ordered Dorn to drag the messenger of the Goddess back with him meant that they were practically on the same wavelength over what to do with her. Dorn was absolutely expecting to get a share of the profits for supporting Sarrazin of course. He also didn’t believe that Kaoru was actually a messenger of the Goddess, which is why he didn’t hold even an ounce of respect for her. Sarrazin had told him to “drag her back” instead of “lead her” or something kinder, so that should have gone without saying.
“No thanks.”
“What...?”
For an instant, Dorn didn’t seem to comprehend what Kaoru had just said to him. The thought of a mere commoner refuting a minister such as himself had never even crossed his mind.
As he slowly came came to understand the words Kaoru had said, his face began flushing red.
“Wh-What are you saying?! This is an order from a bishop! A-And you...”
“But I’m not even a citizen of this country. I don’t believe I have any obligation to listen to whatever someone from a different religious sect than my own country has to say. Normally, clergymen don’t go around giving people orders anyway, right?”
“Wh... Wha...” Dorn’s increasing rage over what Kaoru just said robbed him of his ability to speak.
People were beginning to gather to see what all the commotion was about, right as Kaoru followed up with another verbal thrashing.
“Who knows what you’ll try to do after dragging a girl like me into the back of your temple. I can imagine it now: ‘And no one ever saw the girl again,’ or, ‘She ended up washed up on the riverbank, completely unrecognizable from how she looked before.’ I don’t want to end up as a tragic news story, thank you very much!”
“Y-You...little...” Face now completely red, Dorn finally managed to squeeze out those words. “Do you not fear divine retribution from angering the Goddess?!”
“Divine retribution? Do you mean...” Kaoru grinned. “Something like this?”
KABOOOM!
The sound of an explosion accompanied the roof of the carriage being blown off, and was caused by something that seemed awfully similar to nitroglycerin falling on top of it.
“E-Eeek!”
Dorn collapsed to the ground. The driver who’d been sitting on the coach ran away as fast he could, while the two others who’d accompanied Dorn could only stand dumbfounded behind the minister.
BAM! BAM! BAM!!!
A succession of smaller explosions erupted around Dorn as he stayed motionless on the ground.
“Just who do you think the Goddess is actually angry with? Who do you think will be facing divine retribution here, hmm?”
“E-Eeeeeeeek!!!”
Dorn scrambled to his feet, fleeing as far as his legs would take him as his attendants frantically followed after him.
And so, the rumors spread like wildfire...
“A minister from the temple angered the Goddess by trying to kidnap her messenger, and faced divine punishment for insulting the girl.”
“Your Majesty! The temple attempted to interfere with the messenger of the Goddess, and they were met with divine punishment!”
“Wh-What was that?!” The guard Serge had assigned to watch over Kaoru came back with an urgent report, shocking the young king.
Divine punishment?! A few hundred years ago, an entire country was annihilated when Celestine was angered... Th-This is bad!
“Wh-What do we do, Roland?!”
The king usually had things under control, but still couldn’t get rid of his habit of turning to his brother for help when he felt like he was backed into a corner.
“Calm down, Serge! For now, we have to secure the messenger and put her under our protection! According to what we heard from the gatekeeper and the viscount, she said she would never enter the castle or listen to anything the important nobles of this country had to say, right? That’s why all we have to do is find a place other than the castle, and a noble who isn’t of import, and there shouldn’t be any problems. And even if she says she won’t listen to what they have to say, that doesn’t mean we still can’t talk things over with her!”