by Dojyomaru
Oh yeah. I had given the odachi we’d developed while researching Nine-Headed Dragon katanas to Kagetora, hadn’t I? I’d created it for improved sharpness and range of slashing attacks, but its length had ended up working against it. Unless a person was tall, they would have trouble using it well. (It was hard to draw it from its sheath, among other issues.) For someone as tall as Kagetora, I’d figured that would be no issue, so I’d given it to him. It was good to hear it was serving him well.
“Well, as long as you’re okay, that’s good enough for me,” I said, half in exasperation.
I heard a slight chuckle from beneath his mask.
“...What? Did I say something strange?” I asked.
He chuckled again. “I was just thinking I’ve been blessed with a good master.”
“Hm? Are you being sarcastic with me?”
“No, I meant that sincerely.”
Maybe it had touched on something he was thinking about, because Kagetora sounded pleased when he said that. I wasn’t entirely satisfied, but... Well, it wasn’t important right now. There was no way that the head of the elite clandestine operations unit, the Black Cats, was here to engage me in idle banter.
“So, do you have something to report?” I asked.
“Yes, sir. The grass has grown more active of late.”
The grass... Spies, huh. In other words, there were spies from another nation operating in the castle town.
“Is it the Gran Chaos Empire?” I asked.
“If it were the Empire, we wouldn’t have such trouble with them. We have some ‘connections’ with them, and we would come to terms before we came to killing one another.”
“Connections...? You make deals with them?”
“We frequently trade intelligence about other countries.”
“I suppose the darkness has its own rules...”
This was an area where I was best to keep my mouth shut and let him do his thing.
“So, these spies we have running around, what country are they from?” I asked.
“They’ve destroyed the evidence, so we have no proof, but... most likely, the Orthodox Papal State.”
“...The Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria, huh,” I muttered.
The Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria. It was a theocracy ruled by the Lunarian Orthodox pope. The most recent thing I’d heard about them was that they’d incited their believers in Amidonia to revolt, then tried to intervene.
“But we’re not openly hostile to the Orthodox Papal State, are we?” I asked.
“Spies do not exist solely to be dispatched to hostile countries. Even if it’s a country you want to establish friendly ties with, spies might be dispatched to gather intelligence and lay the groundwork for negotiations.”
“Hm... Well, if they’re becoming more active, that means...”
“It is likely that they may make some move in the near future.”
“That’s troublesome...”
I recalled some things that Roroa had said when I’d first met her.
“Because that country hates the Star Dragon Mountain Range and the Gran Chaos Empire, that’s why.”
“In Lunarian Orthodoxy, the pope is the only one who can recognize someone as a saint. In fact, there’s a woman in Lunarian Orthodoxy who’s called a saint. That’s why the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria sees Madam Maria as an unforgivable villain who’s misrepresentin’ herself as one.”
“That’s why, now that Elfrieden’s grown bigger by absorbin’ Amidonia, the Orthodox Papal State won’t be leavin’ you alone. Somewhere, somehow, they’ll try to make contact. Could be they’ll offer you some made up title like ‘Holy King’ and try to drag you into their conflict with the Empire.”
If it was like Roroa said... this was going to be another hassle.
And some days later, a request for an audience came from the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria’s saint.
◇ ◇ ◇
“...And that’s how I ended up agreeing to holding an audience with the saint of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria,” I finished.
“I see...”
I was in the Jewel Voice Room in Parnam Castle. For some reason, the face of Saint Maria Euphoria of the Gran Chaos Empire that was projected in the simple receiver there bore a look of anxiety. Though the Empire was the mightiest of all mankind’s nations, the maneuverings of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria must have concerned her.
It had been one week earlier that I’d received the request for an audience, and yesterday, I’d received word that the Orthodox Papal State’s saint had entered the country. Tomorrow, I was set to hold an audience with her.
When this situation had arisen, I’d immediately used Hakuya and her younger sister Jeanne as my intermediaries to arrange for urgent talks with Maria. There was no way the Lunarian Orthodox saint was coming just for idle chit-chat.
I didn’t know what the Papal State’s intentions were yet, but whether or not it was good for my own country, it certainly wouldn’t be good for the Empire, which the Orthodox Papal State was hostile to. That was why I’d wanted to notify Maria in advance, to strengthen the cooperation between us in our secret alliance. I wouldn’t want her to find out later that I’d met the saint, and to become unduly suspicious as a result.
I asked Maria, “Does even the great Saint of the Empire have trouble with the other saint?”
“...Please, don’t call me a saint, Great King Friedonia.”
“Urkh...”
She’d hit me with the perfect comeback. Yeah, being held up as some sort of paragon when it wasn’t something I’d ever aspired to be was nothing more than a nuisance. ...I mean, I wasn’t a squid, and I wasn’t Dedede.
While I was thinking about that, Maria let out an alluring sigh. “I’ve never met the Saint of the Orthodox Papal State, so I can’t say much about her, but... When the people of my country just started calling me something on their own, it seems unfair for her to complain to me about it.”
“Didn’t the Orthodox Papal State try to find out how you felt about it?” I asked. “If I were with the Orthodox Papal State, and you had become famous as a saint, wouldn’t it be faster to name you as an official saint rather than try to push my own candidate?”
“Oh... Now that you mention it, there was talk of maybe doing that. I refused, though,” Maria said indifferently.
“You refused?” I asked, startled.
“Let me answer that with a question of my own. Would you have accepted?”
“Yeah, I’d definitely refuse.”
“I know, right?” Maria smiled softly, but with a slight sadness. “What would they have me do as a saint? Who would I be giving orders to, and about what? The Orthodox Papal State always finds some just cause, and then they send people off to war while saying it’s defending the weak. I don’t want to carry a banner for people like that.”
In those words, I could see the determination of a woman who carried the weight of a superpower on her shoulders.
“I may be an empress, but I’m still just a human being,” Maria said. “Instead of being worshiped as a saint, I want to remain a person, and to be loved as a person.”
To remain a person, and to be loved as a person... huh. Telling her that I agreed with her, I carved those words deep into my heart.
◇ ◇ ◇
Let me go into some more detail about the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria.
The headquarters of Lunarian Orthodoxy was a theocracy ruled by the Lunarian Orthodox Pope, and it had a history that stretched back about as long as Elfrieden’s. It was said that, in the time when the continent was in chaos, the first King of Elfrieden, who was also a hero, had succeeded in building a country by uniting various different races. Meanwhile, the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria made it through the nation-building process by uniting people with the power of religion. Their teachings, such as offering salvation to the weak, were based on their experience from that time.
It seems that Lunarian Orthodoxy had
originally been the religion regarding a race called lunarians, the people of the moon.
Now, about these moon people: It was said that they weren’t native to this continent, and they actually came here from outside. I don’t know if the “outside” in this case was from an island like the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, or from another world like mine, but the legends said they had come from the moon floating up in the sky, and so that was where their name had come from.
The object of the lunarians’ worship was the moon that was said to be their homeland, which they prayed to as the moon god Lunaria. Because Lunaria was shining in the sky, it was forbidden to construct idols of her. Furthermore, in the inner sanctuary of the central church in the capital of the Orthodox Papal State, there was something called the Lunalith, the lunar inscriptions, on which the divine revelations of the moon were carved.
At first, only lunarians had belonged to the faith, but it had spread to other races and peoples who’d leaned on it for support in chaotic times, and the number of adherents had grown. After that, there had been factional strife within the religion, as well as conflicts between orthodox and heretical interpretations. By the time Lunarian Orthodoxy had settled into its current form, it had stood next to Mother Dragon worship as one of the two most popular religions on the continent.
Their doctrines included salvation of the weak and mutual aid.
Those doctrines being as simple as Let’s all help one another in times of need likely helped them to gain new believers. The adherents did as their teachings encouraged and raised money for those less fortunate, providing food to the poor among other operations.
I’m sure you can understand from seeing this, but Lunarian Orthodoxy and the believers themselves were harmless. However, when it came in the form of the Orthodox Papal State, things suddenly started to smell fishy. From what I had heard, they used their believers in every country to influence politics, or they incited them into rebellion.
Let me stress again, there were also harmless believers who were pure in their devotion to helping the weak. I couldn’t clamp down on those together with the troublemakers, and religion is the sort of thing that burns all the hotter when you try to stamp it out anyway. No matter how much military power a country had, if their soldiers were followers of Lunarian Orthodoxy, the moment they became hostile to the Orthodox Papal State, public order would start to degrade.
As you can see, power tied to religion makes for a dangerous combination.
End of the 3rd month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar
On this day, the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria’s saint appeared before me.
I see, I thought, looking at her. Yeah, she certainly is a saint, all right...
Now, you might be thinking I ought to have more to say, but there was no word more suited than “saint” to describe that girl. That was just how much she embodied her title.
She was around eighteen, give or take a year. She had regular features and moistly sensual eyes. Her hair was silver, tied back in two tails. Her beauty was such that Aisha, who was standing next to me, let out a sigh of admiration. Clad in a habit, she truly looked the part of a holy woman.
Right now, there were very few people in the audience chamber in Parnam Castle. That was because the Orthodox Papal State had requested the audience be held with as few people present as possible. The saint from the Orthodox Papal State would be attending the audience with me alone.
I was seated on the throne with Liscia, the candidate to become my first primary queen, on my left; and on my right was Aisha, my bodyguard and the candidate to become my second primary queen; while Prime Minister Hakuya stood in the middle between the saint and me. If this woman turned out to be an assassin in the guise of a saint, I had Aisha here, so I would probably be fine.
Well... from what I could see of the beautiful young girl standing on the carpet a few steps below me, that wasn’t going to be a worry. If I hadn’t built up my resistance by being around Liscia and the others all the time, just looking her in the eye might have been enough to make me fall head over heels for her.
...Hm? I thought. But... what was it?
I thought her appearance was highly attractive, but for some reason I wasn’t interested in her at all. Not only that, when I looked at her, something felt off. I thought she was a charming girl, but... something was bothering me about her.
Even as I grappled with that off feeling, I worked to address her with as calm of a tone as I could manage.
“Welcome, saint of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria. I am the king, Souma Kazuya.”
When I did, the Lunarian Orthodox saint gave me a polite bow. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Great King Friedonia. I am the humble Mary Valenti. I am here today as emissary of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria. In place of our pope, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for granting our request for an audience, even though it was so sudden.”
Mary... Even her name was reminiscent of Maria’s. The way she spoke was polite, too.
I had expected her to be more high-handed, ordering me to believe in their god, so I was a little underwhelmed. Well... I guess when they’re dealing with the king of a nation, they can’t afford to be too overbearing on the first meeting.
When Mary raised her face, she looked me in the eye and said, “Word of your exploits has reached us in the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria as well. Having been summoned as a hero, in a mere year, you got Elfrieden back on its feet, destroyed the Principality of Amidonia, and incorporated its territory into your own. Truly, a heroic feat.”
“...You give me too much credit,” I said. “I haven’t done anything heroic. I was only able to rebuild the country because I was blessed with good subordinates; and though I drove off Amidonia, the annexation was just something that happened as part of the flow of events afterwards.”
“The flow of things is a fate beyond human knowledge,” Mary said. “Surely you must have been under divine protection, sire.”
Divine protection, huh... That was the sort of opinion I would expect from a religious person. Not that I bought into it.
“Nah, that flow was created by one person in particular,” I said. “I’m not the one you should praise, but the Sovereign Princess of Amidonia, who made the decision of a lifetime.”
“Roroa Amidonia, you mean. Though still young, she took on two countries and found the path to the greatest benefit for her people. I admire her as a fellow woman.”
I was pretty sure Roroa had hated her country, though.
When Roroa’s elder brother Julius had been Sovereign Prince of Amidonia, the Orthodox Papal State had incited their followers in the country into a rebellion. That rebellion had been put down by Julius, but Roroa was angry that her people’s blood had been shed as a result.
Honestly, I had wanted Roroa to be here, as the candidate to become my third primary queen and the one who shouldered this country’s finances; but in consideration of her enmity towards the Orthodox Papal State, I had decided to have her wait in the governmental affairs office with Juna and everyone else. Roroa wasn’t the type to let it show, but I didn’t want to make her hold her emotions back.
But... just how serious was this girl when she said that?
Her tone of voice was plain, and I couldn’t detect any particular emotion in it. She didn’t seem to be plotting anything, either.
If she could speak like this while knowing what her country had done, she was a great actor, but it was entirely possible that she had lived a sheltered life and knew nothing of her country’s actions.
...No, if it had been either of those two, she would have shown more emotion. She was entirely too quiet.
If it were the former, she would probably have appealed more to her sincerity in an attempt to deceive me. If it were the latter, she should have been more enthusiastic about being here to do the right thing. However, Mary’s attitude seemed to say she was here to do something perfectly normal.
That might have been how a
country’s emissary was supposed to act, but in her case, I felt like she took it to an extreme. I could feel that off feeling I’d had before growing in my chest.
In order to keep that feeling from showing on my face, I asked her straight out. “Well then, Madam Mary, what business are you here on today?”
“Oh, that’s right,” Mary said, and bowed her head meekly. “I did come here today with a request for you, Your Majesty.”
“A request?” I asked, having a bad feeling about where this was going; and Mary answered me with a smile that didn’t let me sense any ill intent.
“We would like you to adopt Lunarian Orthodoxy as the state religion of the Kingdom of Friedonia.”
A state religion...
State religions. They were a concept that had by and large been abandoned in the developed countries of Earth. I think countries used to use state resources for the defense and worship of a particular faith. They turned religious festivals into state functions, if I recall.
...Whatever the case, as long as we were a multiracial state, it wasn’t a realistic proposal.
“Madam Mary, do you understand what it is you’re requesting of me?” I asked. “If a multiracial country like ours were to give one religion preferential treatment, it would end up splitting the state. Are you asking me to make that sort of foolish mistake?”
I took a somewhat stronger tone as I said that. I did it to indicate that I was irritated with what she had said. I might not always seem like it, but I had gained enough authority that people called me a great king. If I hadn’t been such a big deal, getting mad over such a little thing would probably have worked against me. However, her expression didn’t change in the slightest.
“We aren’t asking you to give us preferential treatment. We would appreciate it if you would, but for now, just adopting us as your state religion is enough. In Lunarian Orthodoxy, we preach tolerance for others. That applies to other religions, too. We don’t drive out followers of other faiths or demand they convert.”