novelraw Chapter 112
Chapter 112
Chapter 112. ……Did We Get Her? (2)
Where does the title of nobility originate?
Since Britannia is a monarchical nation, the answer is predetermined. The King, or Queen.
Even for a noble family with a long and distinguished heritage, if they were to inherit a title without the royal family's sanction, that would be treason.
However, the royal family too cannot simply act with reckless abandon.
The reason the royal family distributed power among the nobles was because the royal house alone could not govern the vast territories of the kingdom. Obstructing succession without due cause, or demanding excessive compensation, could serve as a very fine pretext for civil war.
Even so, negotiations over the succession of titles typically proceeded as a matter of formality.
The nobles would pay their inheritance tax and show deference to the royal family's authority. The royal family would say something along the lines of 'let us do well going forward' and stamp their seal with a thud—that sort of arrangement.
However, the circumstances of the Rosemore Count Family were different.
Nortaris was distant from the capital both geographically and in terms of conditions. This had in turn fostered the independent standing of the Northern nobles.
The problem was that in the course of this, Rosemore had come to hold too great a degree of power.
The Labyrinth Demon Realm, which had become the kingdom's bread basket after the Great Subjugation. The fact that nearly all of its produce passed through Rosemore's hands was something the royal family could not help but find disagreeable.
The royal family's objective in this succession was to strip Rosemore of as much power as possible.
It was for this reason that Clarisse had been dragging out tedious negotiations with Arthur, the Queen's representative. She came to learn of Bell's disappearance a week after the estimated date of disappearance.
The two of them had been bound together for over ten years. Bell was an irreplaceable presence to Clarisse. A faithful retainer to whom she could offer even her own heart.
"Bell……."
Clarisse bit down on her lip.
The possibility of betrayal was not even worth considering. The last order she had given Bell was to keep Y&P Trading Company in check……
Who the culprit was, was highly probable.
Y&P Trading Company. Penelope had finally done something rash.
She didn't know how they had disposed of Bell, who possessed such extraordinary power—even Bell, who held even 'False Familiarity'……
Clarisse slowly closed her eyes.
"Why has it come to this……."
Her heart wanted to leave for Nortaris immediately, but…… This was not the time.
She had to meet that impossibly fastidious Arthur shortly, and had a schedule with the Acting Minister of Internal Affairs as well.
Meanwhile, Y&P was growing in Bell's absence, and had even formed an alliance with other Northern nobles. At this rate, even the major and minor collateral branches might start hovering around Penelope, who had become the 'key.'
But the biggest problem of all here. The possibility that they might have detected the link between Black Magic and Clarisse.
If Penelope had caught wind of this?
This was no longer the time to be content with 'passive interference.'
"……."
Clarisse immediately picked up the telephone.
[What is it? Clarisse.]
The other party was Hector Rosemore. To Clarisse, her great-uncle, the man who was her grandfather's younger brother.
He was one of the few in the family who held Penelope in the lowest regard.
***
After some time had passed to allow things to settle somewhat. Jurgen and Penelope entered a meeting on a rather weighty subject.
The fact that Bell was a Dark Mage was a given at this point.
This gave rise to a number of possibilities.
"What of the possibility that my sister had been played by a Dark Mage without knowing it?"
It was the first thing Penelope had thought of. If Bell had been parasitising Clarisse using her unique ability, could it be that even the antagonism with her sister was all part of the End Order's design?
"Honestly, that possibility is low."
Intuition, and experience, told him so.
Dark Mage types had shattered souls. The majority were lunatics incapable of even ordinary interaction, let alone living a normal life.
In that sense, Bell had been far too 'rational.'
She had carried out Clarisse's instructions with remarkable diligence, and even after inserting false memories, she had naturally blended into the dining gathering as 'Mel.' She was connected to Black Magic, but not to the 'End Order.'
This was the tentative conclusion Jurgen had reached.
"Above all else, time has passed since Bell's disappearance. If Clarisse's antagonism had been Bell's doing, wouldn't you have heard from her by now?"
"That……. That's true."
It was a hope Penelope had harboured, but Jurgen's words were correct.
"In that case……. That means my sister is truly sparing no means or methods whatsoever, to the point of using someone connected to Black Magic as her right hand. We are in an extremely dangerous position."
"My view is the same."
It was a simple truth.
Through no intention of her own, Penelope had ended up eliminating Bell, who was Clarisse's retainer and vulnerability. Even before this, Clarisse had been sending interference their way, but this was nothing short of plucking out a dragon's reverse scale.
Going forward, she might attack Penelope with even greater recklessness.
"What if we simply expose the fact that my sister is connected to Black Magic?"
"Would that be all right with you?"
"I'm not that saintly a person either. After all the blows I've taken until now, there's no reason to endure any more. Honestly…… I don't think my sister would receive a death sentence or anything like that over something of that degree."
"That's probably true."
Penelope seemed to have made a more decisive resolution than expected.
"However, it isn't possible. There is no evidence."
"But in its place there are six witnesses. Myself, you, Serena, and so on."
"Given how grave a matter this is, witnesses alone are insufficient for credibility."
"Then……."
This was a genuinely bigger problem.
The greater the difference in weight class, the more one must seize the opponent's vital weakness. A clumsy counterattack will only invite a greater reprisal.
"By now Clarisse will be slowly catching on as well, but we still have some time. She doesn't know how firm a 'grip on her weakness' we actually hold."
"And when that grace period runs out?"
Turning the situation around, it was as if Clarisse had killed Jurgen.
If such a thing were to happen, how would Penelope act?
Her eyes would roll back in her head. Setting aside rationality and calculation, she would tear into Clarisse.
Wouldn't Clarisse be similar? Disregarding even the alliances she had painstakingly forged with other young ladies, retaliation might come.
So before it came to that, concrete evidence had to be secured. At the very minimum, they needed to hold a weakness sufficient to make Clarisse hesitate.
……Was that even possible……? Against her own sister, of all people?
Honestly, it was frightening.
Making a truly enraged sister into an enemy was the sort of thing that made one's breath catch in one's throat.
Even so. This matter was something Penelope had to see through to the end herself.
The reason Y&P was being attacked by Clarisse was because of Penelope too. For the sake of Jurgen, who had very nearly been in danger because he hadn't cast Penelope aside despite all of that, she could not show any sign of fear.
"I'll find a way to handle this myself. It's my area of expertise."
Penelope pressed her lips together firmly.
***
Veritas, the state religion that governed Britannia.
Once, it had threatened even the authority of the royal family, but it had since been reborn as a religion that practised poverty and charity.
The hierarchical clerical system, divided into Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests under the Pope, was more rigid and conservative than any secular power.
Yet there existed a unique presence that fell outside of this hierarchy……
A representative who heard the voice of God directly and exercised divine authority, rather than through procedures or doctrines set by the Church.
A Saint.
A chapel bathed in the rainbow-hued radiance pouring through stained glass. Stella, quietly holding her hands together in prayer.
"She's come out since the crack of dawn again today……."
"How holy she is……. Just looking at her fills me with faith."
"To receive the title of Hero at such a young age. She's truly remarkable."
"And yet despite such feats, she lives alongside us. What a tremendous blessing this is, isn't it?"
Around her, bright eyes gleaming beneath black veils sparkled.
Eyes filled with admiration and reverence.
There was no small number of people who joined the Church not for God, but for wealth and power.
Yet Stella, despite being a Saint, lived exactly as the other monastics did in a quiet rural convent. And this despite being a 'Hero' who had participated in the Great Subjugation and restored the Church's prestige, even before she had grown out of adolescence.
When Stella finished her prayer and rose, the nuns bowed their heads and offered their prayers as if nothing had happened. There was no one who spoke to Stella directly.
Because she was so holy it felt burdensome.
Stella glanced around at them, then vacated her spot as though she had no wish to disturb their prayers.
"Hwaaaaam……."
Only after leaving the chapel did Stella let out a long, leisurely yawn.
The weather was truly fine today as well.
Today's schedule was morning prayers, a meal, followed by sewing to supplement the convent's finances. Lunch, religious study, dinner, evening prayers, religious study, sleep.
It would be a schedule that left anyone else breathless, even suffocatingly so, but it was all familiar to Stella, who had been born and raised in the convent.
Stella's faith had never once wavered either. Even if days like today were to repeat themselves until the day she died, Stella would live on with gratitude toward her God.
But.
From time to time, she thought of them. The comrades she had fought back-to-back against the monsters alongside in the Demon Realm. Every day had been gruelling and difficult, but they had been rewarding days.
"I wonder what everyone is up to……."
She hadn't seen Hanbin during the last Red Moon either.
She had missed him. She would at least catch a glimpse of the other comrades during each Red Moon, but Hanbin alone she hadn't seen since the Great Subjugation.
Hanbin in particular had been a deeply meaningful comrade to Stella. To Stella, who had been born an orphan and had never known the warmth of parents, Hanbin had been a father figure.
Surely Hanbin knew that too, so it was quite heartless of him. No matter how busy he was, to not even show his face to an old comrade.
If he had even quit his post as Minister of Internal Affairs, he surely wasn't as busy as before.
"Sister Stella. A letter has arrived."
The convent director approached Stella as she was sighing and making her way back to her room. In her hands was a single white envelope.
"A letter?"
It was nothing unusual. From personal confessions of faith, to requests for participation in official events, to pleas seeking blessings and wellbeing. The letters that poured in for the kingdom's one and only Saint were enough, if gathered for just a single day, to build a library.
"It was addressed under your old name, Sister. I set it aside separately. I didn't read the contents, of course."
"Ah, thank you. The trouble……."
"Think nothing of it. Then, may you have a peaceful day in the Lord's grace today as well."
"Yes, and you as well, Director."
A letter addressed under Stella's old name? That meant the sender was quite close to her.
"Who could it be……?"
Stella opened the letter and leapt right up from where she stood.
And then—
She gathered up a large bag of luggage and dashed out in a great hurry.
"Wh, where are you going?"
"I have somewhere I need to be for a moment!"
The convent director, who had watched over her since Stella was a small child, was taken aback by her full sprint, which she had never once witnessed before in her life……
"I'll be back soon, so please wait without worry!"
Stella had already vanished far beyond the blue hills in the distance. There was no one within the convent who would dare stand in the way of a Saint.