Volume 2 – The World Sneered
Mary returned to the inn and saw Calaria and Ami waiting in the corridor.
They smiled when they saw Mary, and welcomed her at the same time.
“I’m back…… What are you doing?”
“We’re worried about Cutie.”
“We’re trying to think of something we can do.”
Calaria spoke after laughing at herself.
She was quiet, perhaps worried about Cutie hearing her.
“We couldn’t come up with anything, though.”
“But we still wanna do something.”
“So that’s why you’re standing here?”
They had no idea what to do.
They knew the pain Cutie was going through, so they could not just ignore her.
Mary also felt the same way.
So she lined up next to Ami and leaned back against the wall.
The three definitely made a strange scene.
Fortunately, there did not seem to be any other guests in the inn.
“How did it go with Philias?”
“She was surprised. But, she said that from her point of view, it doesn’t change the situation.”
She was surprised, but Philias was still relatively calm.
Perhaps one could say she was used to getting surprised.
“Despite how much of a pinch we’re in?”
“Does that mean she never counted on Majoram in the first place?”
“Rather, maybe she thinks that even if Mr. Clive and his group joins the battle with their weapons supply, they still wouldn’t be much of a fighting force.”
“I see. The Liberta Liberation Front guys were quite useful, though.”
“Our foe’s fighting power is too much this time. I’m sure she always calculated things while only considering the arcana users.”
Last time, a large group fought against one angel.
And there were still many casualties.
If the next battle was going to be on an even larger scale, other than a few exceptions, only arcana users would be able to keep up.
“It seems my father elected 500 names from the army and formed a unit under his direct supervision.”
“Another unexpected development. Can he really gather 500 people so quickly?”
“I’m sure he did, by force. The commanding officer is Johanna Anglis.”
“That name……”
“She’s
High Priestess
’s arcana user, right?”
Mary and the others had only just learned of Johanna’s existence.
Even Philias did not know about her, so most people among the army likely did not know about her either.
Such a person abruptly being put in command of the army was probably hard to accept for the soldiers.
“Yes, a unit to protect the royal capital was formed with her in the top position. I think they’re getting ready to fight us.”
“But those 500 people are just soldiers, aren’t they? I think Cutie can beat them all in seconds.”
“……They’re probably angels.”
If they had no countering opinions to what happened, they could not be normal human beings.
They were meat dolls with their bodies, souls and wills taken away from them. That was the true form of the new unit.
“Whoa…… and there’s 500 of them?”
“Only the trained soldiers would be turned into angels, so I’m sure they’re more capable fighters than the researchers.”
“That depends on the concentration of their blood, right? If there’s exactly 500 of them, that means that’s the limit of the number of angels that can possess more than a certain amount of power.”
“And on top of it,
High Priestess
is with them……”
Getting surrounded by a few dozen angels was hard enough.
There was no way they could fight against so many at the same time.
However, the citizens were not ignoring the king’s abnormal conduct.
“There’s been large-scale anti-monarchy protests in the royal capital since the unit’s formation. More than that, Miss. Philias said things almost got violent a few times. She believes Mr. Clive and his group are the ones inciting things.”
“I understand why there are protests, but…… most of the people living in the royal capital are wealthy. Would the formation of that unit alone cause such a disturbance?”
“They need the Grim Religion’s approval to have Johanna Anglis’s support.”
“There it is, that dangerous religion!”
Ami spoke with disdain in her voice.
A cult which spread extreme ideas and seeked salvation by radical means – that was the Grim Religion Johanna was a part of.
“The newspapers say that my father
sacrificed
a hundred soldiers from the army for them.”
“That’s crazy!”
“Of course everyone will be angry!”
Even a simple connection between the king and the Grim Religion was enough to cause a huge scandal.
Offering up sacrifices on top of that was like asking to be beheaded in the guillotine.
“I suppose he can only commit such foolish acts because he plans on destroying everything…… and the army obeyed?”
“The main force is already outside the royal capital.”
“I see, they’re on the move to get ready for their drills…… I can’t believe Henry himself used that to his advantage.”
“At least we won’t have to fight the soldiers that aren’t under his control.”
“The enemy’s numbers decreased, but they’re definitely stronger than before since they have angels on their side.”
It was doubtful how far the army would follow the king now.
It would not be a surprise if they fled without even conducting the large-scale drills.
No one among the populace would blame them for that.
No one would bash someone for escaping an obviously sinking boat.
“What’s Philias going to do next?”
“She said we should wait a while longer since the king’s next move is unclear.”
“They’re both in the royal castle, so can’t she kill Johanna in secret?”
“It seems she went into hiding after her new position was announced.”
“Hmm, so Philias is closest to the king, but she doesn’t know where Johanna is either.”
“Does that mean they don’t trust her?”
“Considering who she is, I’m sure she would immediately escape if the king realized her intentions. I doubt
World
trusts people who aren’t under his control.”
“He’s a strict guy, huh?”
“You can’t trust others when you’re all-powerful, huh……?”
It was not possible to see the hearts of others.
Trust was never a 100% thing.
Without breaking the rules of human intellect and putting others under one’s control, of course.
“Miss. Philias said we should wait a little until we can see what the king is doing.”
“That’s slow.”
“We have no choice if we don’t understand what he’s doing.”
“I suppose we’ll be staying here for a few days.”
“Aren’t we going back to the royal capital?”
“It’s too dangerous to be in the royal capital right now.”
“I suppose we can’t take advantage of the confusion of the uprisings. The people will carry Mary on their shoulders if they find her.”
“That’s why we’ll sneak in on the day of the assassination.”
“By what route?”
“We’ll use a hidden passage with the Liberation Front’s help. The plan is to sneak straight into the castle without anyone noticing us.”
“What will Johanna do at that time, I wonder?”
“Her power is to use two pillars and create consecrated ground, right?”
“The royal castle will definitely be protected. If we can’t interfere with what’s inside, it’s highly possible that we can’t even touch my father without killing her first.”
“There is no power that is impossible to defeat. We should probably go after the practitioner herself, or the ‘pillars’.”
“We have to see for ourselves to understand the small details, but let’s focus on thinking about a way to disturb the ‘condition’ that forms this power without recklessly attacking the consecrated ground itself.”
“What if we sneak into the castle before she activates her power?”
“That would be ideal. If things go well……”
“Rather than
High Priestess
,
World
is the bigger problem.”
The three spoke quietly in front of their room.
Their conversation started slowing down after they were finished talking about Mary’s call with Philias.
Calaria and Ami were standing up, while Ami sat on the floor, and they were all single-mindedly worried about Cutie.
After an hour of this, the owner was not able to ignore this and brought them chairs.
“Umm…… Please use these, if you’d like.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. Thank you.”
Mary shyly bowed her head.
The three lined up and sat down on the chairs.
Mary had the center position, of course.
Calaria was within arm’s reach, while Ami clung her body close to Mary’s.
Two, three hours passed this way.
The evening sunlight changed the color of the cloudy skies to purple.
Time passed by quietly with the sound of the trees shaking in the wind and the voices of the children coming from far away as background music. When night approached……
“……Mmh.”
The room’s door slightly opened, and Cutie with her hair down poked her face through the gap.
“Ah, Miss. Cutie!”
“What are you people doing……?”
Cutie glared at Mary and the others with her red eyes after weeping her eyes out.
“Sorry, were we loud?”
“I didn’t hear much, but I could feel you were there. Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?”
“That’s why we didn’t call out to you.”
“Yeah, but……!”
Cutie was very discontent.
Mary and the others did not understand why.
Figuring that they would not come to a settlement, Cutie loudly sighed and spoke up again.
“Ugh…… When did we turn into such a close-knit group?”
“I always wanted it to be like this from the start.”
“It’s your fault. It’s because you wanted it to be like this, Mary!”
Cutie pointed at Mary after snapping her fingers.
Mary was a little taken aback.
“Anyway, shouldn’t you two be depressed too!? This isn’t the time to worry about me!”
“This is no time for us to be depressed, especially after seeing you.”
“……Ugh, so annoying! So you’re saying I have to be comforted by someone? You’re too worried to sleep otherwise, right!? You’re way too overprotective, you know!”
Cutie was probably trying to say, ‘Stop worrying about me and take care of yourselves’.
But, fully realizing that this was not being conveyed, she sighed again and sharply called out to Mary.
“Come here, Mary!”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me! Come here!”
“O-Okay…… Aaah!?”
Cutie firmly grabbed Mary by the arm and dragged her into the room.
“I’m going to borrow Mary for a while, so you can go rest. See you…… thanks.”
She closed the room’s door after a final embarrassing remark.