Chapter 119
Chapter 119
Burnt Offering
“……At the very least, I wish you had given us some notice before taking them away.”
As soon as we were led up to the surface by the Pontiff, I came face to face with Noel, who was emphasizing her displeasure with a sulky expression.
Since this entire territory belonged to the Pontiff, it was impossible to stop whatever he did inside it, but at least she had wanted some kind of announcement.
And indeed, the sight of people bustling about until such a late hour that it practically became a sleepless city showed how they had formed search parties and resolved to find Aiden and Katya no matter what.
……Of course, what they were dealing with was something that, even if you searched the entire continent—
“Then what do you want me to do.”
“…….”
“I swear to the God of Purification, if I hadn’t proceeded that way, something would’ve gone wrong. Anyone here have a problem with the oath I offered to Lady Sia?”
Ah, sister.
You really were someone who could kidnap people at will and return them at will, and still make sure no one dared utter a single word.
At the expression on the Pontiff’s face as if he were saying exactly that, everyone once again keenly felt the absurdity of a class-based society and dispersed. Among them was Noel as well, silently chewing over her resolve to someday smack that man on the back of the head…….
“By the way, what’s with that look on your face?”
The Pontiff, who had just performed the miracle of driving people away with a single sentence, noticed Aiden wearing a strangely thoughtful expression and asked him that.
“I just found it kind of interesting.”
“What did you find interesting?”
Come to think of it.
This person always used honorifics when addressing Sia.
It was only natural, if you thought about it, but since he was usually so arrogant and domineering, the mere sight of him using polite speech was shocking in itself.
Especially when watching him commit things like this without batting an eye.
“Does that really bother you?”
When I answered him honestly, since it felt like he would keep pestering me if I didn’t, Abigail III tossed out that question.
“……No, not really.”
Rather than bothering me, I was simply curious.
“From the position of someone responsible for a nation, can I really go around bowing my head carelessly to others?”
“……Ah.”
“If I attach honorifics, then unless the target is heavier and more important than the entire Holy Crown Kingdom, there’s no one worth it. You understand?”
“……I see.”
Well.
Whether it was the Emperor or the Crown Princes, the rulers of the nations across the continent all clearly had their own unique convictions.
In short, unless it was a god more important than the nation itself, it was practically impossible to receive respect from this person.
Conversely, that meant divine beings were just that important to them.
“So study hard.”
The Pontiff yawned as he casually dropped those words.
“The Tournament is over, so next is the burnt offering. It’s the most representative ritual offered to the God of Purification, so everyone will prepare diligently. But the rites are damn complicated, so even I mess them up sometimes…….”
As I was mulling over those thoughts, a sudden remark flew my way, and Aiden blinked blankly.
“Pardon?”
Study? What study was he talking about?
He couldn’t even remember the last time he had laid eyes on a book.
Yet in response to that question, the Pontiff frowned instead.
“Did you really think there wouldn’t be a single religious event just because you came all the way to the Grand Sanctuary of the Holy Crown Kingdom?”
“…….”
“It’s not as flashy as the combat events, but it’s still important in its own way, so make sure you prepare properly. The related classes start tomorrow.”
“……Do we really have to do that?”
“Is that even something to ask? It’s the Pontiff’s succession ceremony, and you’re asking whether we really need to hold religious events?”
As Aiden listened to those words, his face gradually drained of color.
‘Ah, right.’
He had half-forgotten amid all the intense incidents he’d been dragged into as soon as he arrived.
……This place was, at its core, a religious educational institution.
▣
The classes were far more serious than expected. From Aiden’s perspective, it was deeply regrettable.
So much so that even Noel and Katya, who were used to seeing him somehow squeeze out solutions no matter what situation he was in, were visibly flustered by how hard he was struggling.
“……I’m really bad at studying.”
That lifeless murmur leaked out from Aiden as he lay with his head buried on the desk.
The three of us had holed up inside the library set up within the Grand Sanctuary to undergo intensive study training, but we hadn’t made any progress at all.
Nearby, materials related to the burnt offering ritual, which the professors had forcibly drilled into us over the past few days, were piled up like mountains.
“You seemed pretty good at paperwork, though.”
“Sir Stella or Morrigan handled almost all of the actual work. Most of what I did was check whether the contents were correct and stamp them…….”
He had even done work where he gathered related information bit by bit and forged documents when scamming people, but that was more a matter of diligence and meticulousness than intelligence or memory.
Being told that even a single mistake could incur a god’s wrath, and then being forced to memorize knowledge equivalent to an entire dictionary within a few days, was a task that simply couldn’t be covered by that kind of ability alone.
‘……But I can’t exactly give up halfway either.’
Aiden sighed inwardly and ran a hand through his hair.
It made no sense to just brush off an event that even the Pontiff himself had told him to take seriously, simply because he was bad at memorization.
“After something that big blew up starting from the very first Tournament, I do think the Holy Crown Kingdom’s nerve in insisting on sticking to the schedule is impressive, though.”
Noel let out that comment in a voice full of disbelief, but Aiden also knew where that sense of stability came from.
Up until recently, the Pontiff hadn’t been present, but now he had come to the island in person.
With his bodyguard Magnus in tow.
Because of that, the way the event was being run gave off the feeling that no matter what happened, they would somehow handle it on their end…….
In other words, it meant I had to memorize everything here with a do-or-die mindset. Regrettably so.
In my head, the Pontiff’s advice from not too long ago kept circling around.
* The high-ranking priests will come swarming in groups and nitpick everything, saying this is wrong, that is wrong, and generally make a huge fuss. If you fall out of favor with them then, that’s where things really start getting difficult. They also have a say in the succession ceremony.
* What happens if I mess it up completely?
* Elimination.
* ……
* But, well, would it really come to that? You’ve handled much harder things just fine before.
……From the standpoint of someone actually studying now, it really did feel like it could come to that.
I had come here in the first place to save people, but in any case, even that was something I could only accomplish under the assumption that I would continue participating in the succession ceremony.
‘……Isn’t there anyone who can help?’
For Noel and Katya, the best they could do was help me with memorization. They couldn’t do anything in my place. To begin with, the ritual was something the participating royal had to carry out alone.
But, as always, it seemed there were exceptions.
“You look like you’re having a hard time. Want some help?”
When Katya saw who it was that said that and cut in, her face slackened sideways.
The fact that her expression relaxed rather than souring or twisting was an extremely rare reaction, so much so that I also checked who it was that could draw that kind of response from her.
“Hello, Katya.”
Alester greeted her with a bitter smile.
“Brother, it’s been a while.”
Katya even returned the greeting in a calm voice.
The exchange gave the impression that they had interacted fairly often on a person-to-person level.
‘……Ah, now that I think about it.’
Among all the other royals, the only one Katya had been relatively comfortable with, the only one she hadn’t avoided talking about, was Alester.
That meant I didn’t really have any particular reason to be hostile toward him either.
“What brings you here?”
When I asked that straightforwardly, Alester pulled out the chair across from me, sat down, and replied.
“I’m here to help. You looked like you were struggling from earlier.”
“…….”
I silently looked around.
An almost painful number of gazes were flying toward us and fixing themselves here. Most of them were looks saying, who do you think you are to be talking to that person?
I had secured quite a bit of standing through my performance in the Tournament, but even so, the one fundamentally running at the very front of the succession ceremony was Alester. There was no way it would be easy to overcome someone who had already gathered supporters bordering on devotees, just based on a few days of achievements.
And yet, that very person was the one coming to me first and extending a hand……
“And why would you do something like that?”
“Honestly, I didn’t want you to end up sitting in the Pontiff’s seat. But I didn’t want you to be eliminated outright either. I figured Katya would be sad.”
……Hmm.
Honesty plus fifty points. Reason for helping plus fifty points.
A perfect hundred-point answer. His conduct was as upright as his model-student-looking appearance suggested.
“We’ve been exposed to this kind of knowledge at least secondhand since we were young, but for an outsider, there’s probably nothing more disadvantageous than this.”
The burnt offering ritual.
A ceremony where the offering is burned in its entirety and presented to the god.
There was even a legend about how, in the past, they tried to burn a living creature, only for an enraged Sia to incinerate the entire altar.
Thanks to that, compared to the brutal original form of the burnt offering, it had become a ritual where each participant simply burned the ‘offering’ they had prepared.
According to the rites, the goal was to burn the most precious item one could obtain and draw out the best possible reaction from Sia.
“People call it a religious event, but in reality, it’s an evaluation of the person’s competence, political influence, and intelligence. All three are essential qualities for a leader.”
The crux was to obtain the ‘best’ item possible and carry out the mind-numbingly complex ritual without a single mistake.
Securing a good item evaluated how well the person could leverage their human network, while making use of the massive amount of memorized knowledge evaluated their intelligence.
As Alester said, while nominally a religious ceremony, it was in practice no different from a comprehensive evaluation exam.
As Aiden listened to Alester’s extended explanation, he gloomily scratched his chin.
The more he heard, the more depressed he became. He had neither the means to obtain a good offering nor the ability to memorize all of this.
‘I don’t like this…….’
If he were truly that cornered, he would end up clinging to someone offering help.
And honestly.
He still hadn’t identified who the ‘traitor’ on this island was. Alester wasn’t completely free from suspicion either.
Assuming he was sincere, he was grateful for the sentiment, but the problem was that he couldn’t tell whether it really was sincerity.
Sooner or later, it meant he had to find a way to push through on his own.
‘……Oh, wait.’
As Aiden listened to the explanation, he suddenly widened his eyes as if something had just occurred to him.
“What is it?”
Alester tilted his head and asked, but instead of answering, Aiden quietly rubbed his chin.
In front of his eyes was a window he had seen not too long ago.
-System Log
▶ Sia likes you.
▶ Sia really, really likes you.
After staring intently at the message, Aiden turned his gaze back to Alester.
“So, basically. All I need to do is make the God of Purification show the most intense reaction possible, right?”
“……No, I said a good reaction.”
“Isn’t an intense reaction also a good reaction?”
“…….”
At the question that sounded like he had already decided on the answer, the faces of everyone around, Alester included, went pale in an instant.
……Because they had learned by now that when Aiden became this unreasonable, he always ended up doing something.
‘Something I can do……’
There was.
Something that could overcome all the disadvantages he was facing right now.