novelraw Chapter 117
Chapter 117
Chapter 117. The Saint (5)
Hector, arriving without warning, had a serious conversation with Penelope that lasted around ten minutes.
"Haah."
After the conversation with Hector came to an end. Only after he had left did Penelope breathe out the breath she had been holding.
They had spoken only a little further on the finer details. The conclusion of the conversation had been decided from the beginning.
She was to step back from Y&P Trading Company now.
Something similar had happened before.
When she had been driven out of The Richfield Hotel. Penelope had intended to fold up Y&P's management and hand over all her stake to Jurgen.
But in the end, she had chosen to stand against her elder sister.
The resolve she had carried at that time was half-made of sheer stubbornness. The family recognition she had wished for her whole life had come to nothing, and it was the stubbornness wrung out of her in the moment of that humiliating eviction at Bell's hands.
Even if it had been stubbornness, she had built some measure of resolve from it…… Penelope herself was well aware of just how unseemly it was to waver all over again now.
However, the situation now was different from then.
Y&P Trading Company was facing the greatest crisis since its founding. Having touched Clarisse's reverse scale by killing Bell, it was clear she would no longer look the other way. Whether the bluff of putting forward the Saint would even work could not be guaranteed.
Amid all of that, Hector's offer was in practical terms the only way out. Above all, unlike Bell's threats, his words carried with them a foundation of respect and assurance.
He had acknowledged Penelope's toil, and had promised to protect what she had built.
'You have worked hard, until now.'
Penelope did not like Hector. Every step he had taken had been undertaken beneath the banner of 'for the family,' but even so, the verbal abuse and contempt he had poured upon her could not simply be struck from the record.
However, he was a man who, in keeping with that very stubbornness, never broke his word.
If Penelope set down her stake and stepped entirely away from the family's affairs…… Jurgen's Culinary Revolution would no longer face interference.
Well, she would have to marry into some distinguished family somewhere, of course.
"……."
Was she being too greedy? Y&P was the first achievement she had built for herself, after countless failures.
Perhaps she was simply grasping for reasons, out of reluctance to let go.
Just a little more. If she had started even one year earlier and climbed just a little higher, she might have built enough strength to weather the family's interference……
"Really, a nuisance right to the very end."
Bell, whom she had disliked even before all this, had gone and wreaked havoc as a parting gift on her way to the afterlife. That alone was the one thing that made her blood boil.
***
The employees of Cola Factory No. 1 had been given one week of paid leave. It was a necessary procedure for the Consecration Ritual.
Stella, stepping into the empty Cola Factory alongside Jurgen, reacted with bewilderment.
"Han—, no, Jurgen. Is this really a Cola factory?"
"So it is, is it not?"
"Isn't this where they manufacture precision magical components?"
"We have taken care with hygiene."
The production machines lined up along the assembly line were one thing. Even to Stella, an outsider to the industry, they were undeniably too elaborate and automated, but coming from no one other than Hanbin, she could accept that.
But.
Swipe
Stella picked up a random machine and ran the tip of her finger along it, and was left speechless at the cleanliness—not a single speck of dust.
There was surely not a factory in the world cleaner than this. No, there was no need to go as far as other factories.
"……It's cleaner than my room."
"We clean for about two hours each day. During work as well, staff wear hygiene uniforms and enter after removing dust in the clean room."
"It really would be cleaner than my room."
For Jurgen it was nothing more than adhering to modern food hygiene standards, but it appeared to Stella's eyes to be a sight that left her utterly stunned.
"Jurgen does extraordinary things wherever you go."
"Well, to this degree."
"The Seasoned Ribs we had yesterday, and this factory too……."
There were now Bottling Factories in various Northern cities, but was this not the very first point of departure for Y&P Trading Company and the Culinary Revolution? He felt a satisfying pride at Stella's slack-jawed expression.
"In any case, shall we begin now? Is there anything in particular I should know beforehand?"
"A journalist is expected shortly, so I would be grateful if you would handle the interview well."
"……I'll do it for you, but you really shouldn't be using faith this way. What if you end up going to hell?"
"What do I have to worry about with you here?"
Stella grumbled as she undid her travel bag.
A Saint's package, one might call it. From what appeared at a glance to be an ordinary bag, ceremonial robes, an incense burner, bottles of holy water, and the like came tumbling out one after another.
"You came well-prepared."
"I am a Saint, after all, however it may look. Even if it's performative, I have no intention of doing it carelessly. I'll do the Consecration, Purification, and Dedication all properly."
Come to think of it, Stella had always had a remarkably mature and diligent character. Whether she was a perfectly flawless Saint was another matter, but at the very least she had always carried out her duties more properly than Kaylus.
Stella's childhood had not been easy by any measure. Because she had been chosen as a Saint, she had been made to traverse the Demon Realm from a young age. Of course, the team had made Stella's safety their highest priority, but……
It had been an environment in which she could easily have grown crooked, had she so wished. She had grown up well, and that was what mattered.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I was thinking you've grown up well."
Jurgen patted Stella gently on the head.
"Yes, yes, I've grown up well, so now all that's left is for Hanbin to settle down properly. It's time to start a family."
Placing a hand on a Saint's head without ceremony. Anyone else watching would have been aghast, but Stella herself was entirely unbothered.
Naturally. They were family.
"Is everyone getting along?"
"Everyone is furious. Is it not possible to at least stay in contact? Oh, do you know? Kaylus actually went and got married this time."
"Is that true?"
"You see? No one would have any grounds to complain if they cut Hanbin off completely, would they?"
There had been such a joyful occasion in the interval? He would have nothing to say if they cut ties with him.
"So then, that fellow Kaylus—who is the bride?"
"Ravina."
"What?! Don't be ridiculous!"
"I was so surprised at first. They were fighting every single day, and in the end—well, you know how it is."
Ravina had been Kaylus's personal tormentor, of all people. The two of them, married? He simply could not picture it.
"Could you at least deliver a wedding gift on my behalf for now?"
"No, that sort of thing you must give in person later. Do you genuinely want to be cut off from everyone?"
"Would it come to that?"
"Of course it would. Jurgen has always been rather oblivious about that sort of thing."
Stella chattered on, one topic flowing into the next.
"How are Old Man Brok and Isolde getting on?"
"Old Man Brok is still going strong, and Isolde is the same as ever. That person will probably be exactly the same even a thousand years from now."
In proportion to all the time the two had spent apart from each other, there was no pause in the flow of conversation filling the factory.
***
Had things gone according to the original plan, Hector would have needed to be considerably more busy.
Had Penelope held firm in stubborn resistance, he would have had to go and persuade the three young ladies in the CCC Franchise to sever their business ties.
However, the conversation had gone better than expected.
Penelope had relented.
Whether her spirit had been broken by how severely the situation had deteriorated, or whether Hector's concession had brought about a change of heart—that he did not know. But there had been no fight left in Penelope as she said 'I will think it over.'
Which meant all that remained was to wait for the signal from Penelope's lips: 'I will do as Great-Uncle says.'
In that interval, he was walking the streets of Nortaris together with his granddaughter Cecily.
Under ordinary circumstances she ought not to do anything that would strain her body, but Hector could not help but be troubled by the sight of his granddaughter always cooped up indoors.
Spending all four seasons in the same space—how desperately curious she must be about the world going on outside? Since it had just turned early autumn and the weather was fine, there seemed to be no great problem.
Cecily was peering curiously at a stall displaying harvests from the Demon Realm.
"Grandfather, look at this! The apple is red."
"Apples are red to begin with."
"Aren't apples white by nature?"
"……The skin is red."
Hector was lost for words. Then again, Cecily had only ever eaten apples that had been peeled for her, so it made sense.
In any case, the two were enjoying a pleasant time together, but Hector's heart was not entirely at ease.
Initially, Hector had not believed Y&P Trading Company was Penelope's own doing. And he had thought even its reputation was overstated.
However, having seen it with his own eyes, felt it for himself, and spoken with Penelope—he felt he understood now.
Y&P Trading Company was a proper enterprise. A business that Penelope—who had until now been nothing but a nuisance—had stretched up onto her tiptoes and built for herself.
It had simply been bad timing and unfavourable circumstances. Hector's recognition of Penelope was genuine.
Yet in living one's life, one could not hold everything at once. There were times when one had to leave behind the most important thing and let go of the rest.
For Hector, that had always been the family.
Look at his beloved granddaughter Cecily. Without the fence of family to shelter her, she was a fragile flower that would wilt at the first small shower.
Penelope had, belatedly, proved her potential. But what if that potential were to create even the smallest crack in the fortress walls?
When the walls came down, the first to be trampled were not those like Penelope, who had the strength to flee on their own. They were precisely the most vulnerable—those like Cecily, who depended on the fortress walls for their protection.
And so Hector's answer had always been decided.
"Cecily, come along now—what are you doing standing there?"
What met Hector's eyes as he turned around was……
"Cecily!"
There, some way behind him, Cecily had collapsed on the road. Hector dashed over and caught her up in his arms.
"Cecily, Cecily! Look at your grandfather! Come to your senses!"
"A, aa…… ah……."
Cecily let out a moan, her pupils unfocused, her entire body trembling like a leaf in a gale. The focus in her eyes clouded over in an instant, and her body temperature could be seen dropping rapidly.
Her chronic illness was Magic Circuit Collapse Syndrome.
A condition in which the innate Magic Circuits are too narrow and coarse, meaning that rather than being able to master magic, even the routines of daily life can cause the Circuits to tangle and trigger a seizure.
"Why, a, a seizure……!"
However, her condition had improved of late, and no seizures had occurred. Her attending physician had even given his assessment that if she continued to take her medication regularly, she could gradually begin to venture outside.
Hector felt every hair on his body stand on end.
It was a more vivid terror than anything he had felt when an enemy's magic had grazed past his ear on the battlefield. The terror of possibly losing Cecily.
"A doctor! Someone fetch a doctor! Or a priest! Is there no priest here?"
When he called out in a voice close to a desperate cry, a murmur began to swell among the passersby. But no one stepped readily forward.
Everyone could see from Hector's bearing that he was a high-ranking noble, and seemed to feel a corresponding pressure. Perhaps they were thinking that if they stepped in and something went wrong, they would end up shouldering the blame.
"You, damnation! Cecily, come to your senses…… Cecily!"
Could any proper treatment even be carried out in a place like this on the side of the road? And how could he trust a physician who was not even her attending doctor?
But at this rate……! It was the very moment his judgement was about to break down entirely and his reason was threatening to fail him.
"Excuse me. May I take a look at this young lady's condition?"
A clear and composed voice parted through the murmuring crowd and reached his ears. A woman of unknown identity, wearing a worn robe pulled down over her head to the very tip.
What Hector felt was not relief, but wariness and resistance. How could he possibly entrust Cecily to someone he had never met?
Looking at his reaction, perhaps the adventurers who had been hesitating and holding back had been right after all.
"Please leave her to me. I am capable of most emergency first aid."
The woman who had approached removed her robe and showed her face. The water-coloured hair that had been clinging with static electricity scattered loose in a gentle drift.
"Ah……."
A compassionate voice and clear eyes unsullied by the world. A holiness that made one instinctively bow one's head despite a face that appeared nothing but youthful.
The murmuring of the crowd ceased. Someone unknowingly dropped to their knees, and someone else gasped in reverent awe and made the sign of the cross.
"……Saint Stella……."
Hector, a devout follower of Veritas, recognised her identity at once.