Chapter 428: Cracks in the Holy See
[At that moment, the Cardinal’s office at the Goddess Church’s Holy See.]
"Would you say that once more, please."
Cardinal Querbels gestured at the letter before him in a benevolent voice. The knight of the Marquis’s house who had delivered it spoke clearly, in a solemn and self assured tone.
"Most respected Your Eminence, as the Goddess guides us, the green grows lush and the sky runs clear, and as the world is filled with the grace of the Goddess, thus"
"...Please keep it to the point."
"Until it is clearly established whether Knight Commander Levis is a witch or whether this is a demon fabrication, the official position of the Marquis’s house is that we will not engage in any rash combat with the demons."
"..."
The Cardinal barely held onto his smile as his expression twisted.
"You will not subjugate the enemy when there are demons standing right before your eyes...? Are we to take it that the Marquis’s house has also thrown in with the Demon King’s Army?"
"Mind your words, Cardinal. Everything you say is being recorded on this voice recording magic stone. I come as His Excellency’s proxy, and I am obligated to convey your words exactly as spoken."
"...Forgive me. But the Church cannot help feeling wronged in this. Might it not be that the elves have thrown in with the Demon King’s Army and are deluding the world?"
"Establishing that is the Church’s job. Whether it was Levis acting alone or whether... at any rate, the Church will have to explain itself. Not only to the Marquis’s house, but to all of humanity."
The Cardinal’s face finally contorted.
"I have told you already, have I not. It is a demon manipulation. At a time when humanity must unite as one, it is the Demon King’s Army sowing division among us. Does it even sound plausible? That Dame Levis raped four elves and turned them into dark elves?"
"I saw the color of their skin with my own eyes before coming here. Why do you suppose the elves brought dark elves, whom they are supposed to banish, here themselves? Not because they fornicated with demons, but because they were violated."
The Cardinal and the knight talked straight past each other. However loudly the Church insisted on Levis’s innocence, it was hard to win out against the weight the elves’ name carried.
"...Very well. I understand the position of the Marquis’s house veeery clearly. Do take care on your journey back."
"Hm. Don’t trouble yourself. A knight of the Marquis’s house is not so weak as to die in some ditch along the road."
They traded barbs to the end, and then the knight took his leave. The Cardinal sat down with a sigh and picked up his quill.
"Levis... Levis...!"
He wrote Levis’s name over and over in ink like red blood. The problem Levis had set off had already grown past anything that could be handled at the level of a cardinal.
"Damn it. And where is the Saintess and what is she doing at a time like this?"
The Cardinal felt his impatience mounting over the Saintess, who still hadn’t sent word.
She had taken up with that hero of the Holy Sword Taurus who appeared out of nowhere, started traveling the world with him, and then, as though holy swords called out to holy swords, had begun turning up more of their wielders.
The Holy Sword Gemini.
The Holy Sword Cancer.
Over the past month or so, the master of the Holy Sword Taurus had awakened two new holy sword wielders. As if the Goddess herself had handed down an oracle to seek out the forgotten holy swords and awaken them, the master of Taurus was unearthing them with unstoppable momentum.
"The Saintess needs to stand before the people and speak...!"
Unfortunately, the Cardinal could not persuade the public with his own mouth. Within the Church, certainly, but to reach the general populace and the wider world, the Saintess’s power was desperately needed.
"If I only had divine power...!"
The Cardinal slammed a fist onto the table.
He had been raised in the church from childhood, had studied the doctrines of the Goddess Church for decades, had preached them to the people, and had climbed to the rank of cardinal, and then some black haired girl who came from who knows where suddenly displayed enormous divine power and became the Saintess.
All interest in the Cardinal evaporated, and the eyes of the masses fixed entirely on the Saintess. It made it easier for him to move about in the more discreet corners, admittedly, but that didn’t stop it from being aggravating beyond measure.
"Whew. I am full of torment. I should offer the Goddess my repentance."
Jingle, jingle. The Cardinal gave a small shake of his bell. A nun with brown hair dark enough to pass for black stepped into his room.
"You called, Your Eminence?"
"I did. ...There is no one else here. Lock the door."
The nun’s face nearly twisted for an instant, but she locked the door and stood before the Cardinal. Wearing that benevolent smile, he lifted the hem of her skirt.
"Such lovely legs."
"Th, thank you."
"If the thighs were just a bit slimmer... hm, well, perhaps that is asking too much. Heh heh."
The Cardinal’s fingers traveled up along her thigh. Through the specially made habit, whose center panel could be drawn open to either side, black stockings came into view.
"That is a considerably valuable item. You should consider it an honor to be wearing it."
"It is an honor."
His fingers brushed her crotch. Still smiling benevolently, the Cardinal wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Why do you make such a face? All of this is the will of the Goddess."
"...Hnngh!"
Filthy wet sounds began to seep out of the Cardinal’s room, little by little.
***
"There’s one thing every pair of stockings has in common. What do you suppose it is?"
"The part at the crotch that tears easily so you can stick a dick right in?"
"...That’s a special case. Fundamentally, every pair of stockings has this."
I lightly snapped the band on the white stockings Lune was wearing. They weren’t pantyhose but thigh highs, so the band popped against Lune’s thigh with a "pop."
"We’ll stitch our legion’s symbol into this band. Exactly as it’s written here."
"Hm... that phrase looks familiar."
"It should. Las Vegas. It’s the image that represents Ras Vegas, the capital of Rastopia."
The English, scrawled in something close to a formal calligraphic hand, had a strikingly novel look to it. The combination of English and calligraphy was bound to hit the people of this world as a genuinely fresh shock.
"What matters is branding the image into people’s minds. And stitching this in is easy. You just weave in a different thread."
To secure the material for that thread, I gathered the elves together for a bit. The Cream Elves outside the dungeon and the Cookie Elves inside it sat down and stared at me blankly.
"I want to ask a favor of you regarding that symbol."
"A favor? An order from the Queen settles it."
That was fairly heavy handed of Luna, but this was the sort of request that would leave people somewhat, no, definitely dissatisfied if it came as an order.
"No. This is something that only works if I ask it as a favor."
I bowed to the elves, bending forward at the waist.
"For the thread that will stitch our legion’s symbol into the stockings, I want to use your hair."
The elves’ faces went stiff for a moment. Even Lune and Luna fiddled awkwardly with their own hair the second they heard it.
"I know it’s an unreasonable thing to ask. I’m not saying I’ll simply take your hair. I’ll compensate you accordingly."
"By compensation, you mean sex with orcs, Legion Commander?"
"Correct."
"..."
The elves looked at each other, apparently deep in thought.
The gold of the Cream Elves and the silver of the Cookie Elves would give the Las Vegas lettering a truly beautiful texture. Set into black stockings especially, the effect would stand out even more.
"I’m not asking you to shave your heads. If you’d cut it to about... a bob, I’d be very grateful."
"Master, if it’s simply a matter of contrasting colors, couldn’t you just stitch thread spun from harpy feathers into the black ones?"
"Same goes the other way. Stitch the band on the white ones with Andras thread."
"Those are already in production. Those are the standard grade."
I pulled out a sample Cost Humphrey had made in advance. The elves nodded at the crisp Las Vegas lettering set into the band of the stockings.
"Seeing that would definitely make people curious. Like, what’s Las Vegas?"
"I like them better plain, though...."
"Can’t you stitch the lettering onto the white ones with white thread? So it doesn’t show."
"Which elf just said that?"
One of the Cookie Elves raised her hand. It was Sola.
"A good idea. I’ll grant you a reward for it."
"A reward? What sort of reward?"
"Have your way with Galahad. I’ll give you the right to use Galahad however you like for one full day."
Sola vanished into the depths of the dungeon like a beam of light. I cleared my throat and drew the elves’ attention back to me.
"We’ll be separating standard grade stockings from premium ones. The standard grade will use a mix of the existing threads, just as Sola said. But premium stockings are different. Stockings woven with your hair as the thread are what truly deserve to be called premium."
"Is there a reason to split them up like that?"
"I don’t welcome stockings trading at high prices. Stockings belong to everyone. The Goddess handed me the mission of distributing stockings to all of humanity, and they must not become the exclusive property of nobles and capitalists."
"So the standard grade sells cheap like before, and you plan to sell the ones with elf hair in them as a luxury item!"
"Exactly. There’s an orc walking by over there. Grab him and use him however you like for a day. If you kill him with it, I’ll resurrect him with a magic stone."
This time a Cream Elf abducted the orc and disappeared into the woods.
"Ahem. And someday I’ll make a top grade pair as well, one only royalty may use. What do you think that would be?"
"You weave the whole stocking out of elf hair thread!"
"A perfect answer. I see three orcs over there hauling goods for the market. Use those three however you like."
The Cream Elf licked her lips and climbed on top of the load the three orcs were carrying. With a sigh, the orcs hoisted the elf up and vanished into the woods.
"I’ve already run tests with help from Lune and Luna. The stockings that came out were fine enough that I’d want to wear a pair myself. So then...."
I mimed a chopping motion with the edge of my hand.
"Anyone want to cut it to a bob and get an orc to do whatever they want with for a day?"
I sold orc bodies to buy elf hair.
***
[At that moment, Regulus Castle of the Marquis’s house.]
"Hmm hmm hmm~"
Electra baked bread, humming to herself. The firm baguette she picked up was thick, hard, and packed solid all the way through.
"I wonder if Father will like it~"
"...Electra."
Behind her sat Andaihal, looking haggard. Exhaustion filled both his eyes; he looked ready to collapse at any moment.
"What is it?"
"It’s awkward for me to have to say this, but... we’re married, right?"
"My goodness. It’s rude to ask such a thing. Whose wife would I be otherwise?"
"Right. B, but you see."
Andaihal fidgeted with his fingers, watching Electra’s expression.
"I, it’s been a while, so tonight maybe we could"
"Lord Andaihal."
Electra cut him off with a stern face.
"I hear you still go out at night these days."
"That’s!"
"Didn’t you agree to put down all your bad habits when you married me?"
"...Yes, I did!"
Andaihal lost his temper and shouted.
"I promised I’d never go to those places again! And I’ve tried my hardest not to go!"
"You tried, but in the end you went. Lord Andaihal, do you understand how terrifying a bastard child is to a noble house?"
"..."
Andaihal fell silent. Nobody knew better than he did about the trouble stirred up by the follies his father had committed in his younger days.
"Why do you think I go to the trouble of bringing this up to warn you?"
"...So that no problems come of it later."
"Exactly. The man who is to become Marquis cannot go scattering his seed all over the place. I told you plainly, I’m sure. That if you were going to marry me, you would have to live looking only at me. That is what a husband owes his wife."
"..."
Andaihal didn’t answer. Judging by his face, he was nodding along to her face while grumbling on the inside.
We share the same blood, so why is this man like this. Electra let out a deep sigh inwardly and turned her attention back to the cooking.
"This is the first meal we’ve all shared in a long time. Shouldn’t we greet one another and eat with glad hearts? Smile. Are you really going to act like a child?"
"...You’re lecturing me again today, Electra."
Andaihal rose to his feet, anger in his voice. His frame was so slight there was hardly any difference between him and Electra.
"Really... you make me into nothing at all. I am your husband. Do I need permission to take you?"
"It’s the bare minimum of decency between a husband and wife."
"Then let me ask you something. Do you remember what you said on the day we married?"
"Of course. I still wish for it with all my heart."
Electra laid a hand on her lower belly and licked her lips.
"That I would take the great seed of House Leo into me and become the mother of the next Marquis Leo."
Why was it.
All at once, Andaihal felt the Electra he loved so dearly grow a little distant.