After Luna decides on a direct dialogue with the Saint Faith, Zel immediately makes contact with their priestess.
After prefacing it with ‘this is the Saint-sama’s wish,’ he proposes a meeting between Silver and the Pope——and they agree through tears.
They press to come ‘immediately, as soon as possible,’ but today is rather too sudden, so the conversation concludes with an agreement on noon the following day.
And so the next day arrives——
“Ughhhh, ahhhhh……”
A peculiar groaning sound echoes through the Holy Kingdom’s log house.
The source is Luna’s mouth, sprawled bonelessly on the sofa.
“Saint-sama, you must not lie about like that. Come, please sit up properly.”
Zel’s large wing pulls at her, returning her from collapsed sprawl to seated posture.
“Sigh……a precious day off, wasted on this kind of event……”
She has decided on a direct confrontation with the ‘nuisance fans,’ but now that the actual day has arrived, a heavy reluctance settles in regardless.
“I want to hole up in my own room, draw all the curtains, and read novels forever……”
The Saint-sama likes dark, confined spaces.
She has been spotted in gloomy corners of her room, inside closets, and similar dim hideaways, smiling contentedly with a book in hand.
“If you read in conditions like that, you will damage your eyesight.”
“It’s fine. My saint eyes have about 30.0 vision.”
She says this and blinks her large sky-blue eyes.
“Good grief, this person really……”
Zel sighs and glances sidelong at the clock.
“——Oh, look at the time. Saint-sama, please change into the Silver costume.”
“Mm.”
Luna activates the <Wardrobe Change> spell and puts on the usual plate armor.
With the anti-Saint-exposure measures taken care of, she takes her seat in the chair at the far end of the living room, while Zel positions himself standing behind her.
“Are you ready, Saint-sama? The purpose of this meeting is to admonish the Saint Faith’s radical activities. First, a self-introduction and brief greeting. After that, warm the room with small talk, then raise the main topic naturally. Exactly as we discussed last night.”
“Okay, leave it to me.”
They wait ten minutes.
The moment the clock hand points to twelve, there is a knock at the door.
“I am Wembley Wither, Pope of the Saint Faith. I have come before you to speak with Silver-dono.”
Luna turns her gaze toward the door, and Zel moves without a sound, opening it smoothly.
“We have been expecting you. Please, come in.”
Wembley, accompanied by three priests, gives a small bow and steps inside the log house.
Luna rises from her seat to project an air of welcome——and Wembley, receiving this, smiles warmly in return.
“A pleasure to meet you. I am Wembley Wither, Pope of the Saint Faith. I trust we shall become well acquainted.”
Wembley Wither, thirty-five years old.
One hundred and eighty centimeters tall, with a lean, tightly-built frame of painstakingly trained, wire-like muscle.
Ivory short hair swept straight back.
Large dark violet eyes, a face deeply lined, clothed in a jet-black robe.
“Wembley……Wither……?”
Luna narrows her eyes in a suspicious squint and stares hard at Wembley’s weathered face.
“Oh, is something the matter?”
“Ah——no, nothing at all.”
Luna gives a small shake of her head and clears her throat.
“I am Silver Glorious=El=Bloodfallenheart. And this is——”
“Zel Zezed.”
With introductions exchanged, Luna drops her gaze to the sofa.
“Please, do sit down.”
“Excuse me.”
Wembley gives a small nod and takes his seat, while the three priests arrange themselves behind him.
“Zel, coffee for our guests.”
“Yes.”
Receiving the master’s instruction, the loyal retainer moves swiftly and sets steaming cups on the table.
“Thank you for your consideration.”
Wembley expresses his gratitude and takes a sip of the freshly brewed coffee.
With the meeting thus set, Luna clears her throat.
“Welcome to the Holy Kingdom. You are most welcome here, Wembley-dono.”
“The welcome is mine. To have been invited on this occasion——I have no words sufficient to express my gratitude.”
With introductions and greetings behind her, Luna starts by making inconsequential small talk.
“We have long been mindful of the Saint Faith’s existence. Seeing that fervent prayer, the Saint-sama was smiling.”
It was less a ‘smile’ than a ‘strained smile’——but she is not saying anything untrue.
“Wh-what——! The Saint-sama saw our prayer——!?”
“Yes, of course.”
When that kind of spectacle is performed in the middle of the street, it enters one’s eyes whether one wishes it or not.
“Did the Saint-sama say anything at that time——!? If there is any way we fall short, please, we beg to be instructed!”
“Well, um……she said something to the effect of ‘what a prayer full of passion,’ I believe?”
“Ahhh……!”
Large tears spill down Wembley’s face.
The three priests standing behind him screw their faces up completely, scattering tears and saliva across the floor.
The Saint-sama whom they worship as a deity had not only witnessed their prayer but had even offered words of praise.
For Saint Faith believers, that fact is immeasurably enormous——a tremendous wave of joy envelops their entire beings, happiness hormones racing through their minds.
(Oh, goodness……!)
Four grown men weeping with expressions of rapture——conservatively speaking, it was a vision of hell.
(But the opening is going well, isn’t it?)
Judging this, Luna gradually broadens the conversation.
“We hear much about your activities. That you work yourselves to the bone spreading the Saint-sama’s faith.”
“Yes, absolutely! In our efforts to carry the Saint-sama’s noble teachings to the masses, we are engaged in missionary work all across the world!”
“I see, a most admirable dedication. (I haven’t left any teachings behind, though……!)”
What she left to posterity was her own creative works, nothing more.
“Incidentally, approximately how many Saint Faith believers are there at present?”
“Let me see……. Myself as Pope overseeing the whole, assisted by ten senior priests. Then one thousand missionaries, fifty thousand evangelists, one hundred thousand monks, and over one hundred and fifty thousand general believers. Setting aside candidates who have not yet completed their baptism, the comrades scattered across the world number roughly……three hundred thousand, I would say.”
“Th-three——hundred——thousand——”
Luna uses <Transmission> to send a thought to Zel.
(What should we do, Zel——the Saint Faith is much, much larger than I thought……!)
(Even the kingdom’s largest city has a population under one hundred thousand. Three hundred thousand believers is literally three times that figure. I had no idea the scale had reached this……!)
A brief silence falls, and Luna works to keep the warmed atmosphere from cooling.
“S-still, with an organization that large, surely suspicious infiltrators must creep in as well?”
“No need to worry on that account. To join the Saint Faith, one must undergo a baptism process that takes three years.”
“Baptism……?”
“It begins with voice exercises, then progresses to chanting aloud from a reproduced copy of the Red Book, and eventually to learning the forms of prayer. Only those who have overcome a great many additional forms of instruction are received at last as general believers.”
“I see……!”
“Well, just between us, a handful of heretical filth did manage to infiltrate in the past. However, every single one of them suffered a mental breakdown during the instruction process. Without a genuine faith, one cannot complete the baptism.”
As Wembley says this, the priests behind him nod in confirmation.
In the meantime, Luna fires another thought to Zel.
(Wh-what do we do, Zel……. The Saint Faith believers are so much more unhinged than I thought……!)
(I had heard from several sources to ‘never get involved with the Saint Faith under any circumstances,’ but……I had no idea they were this abnormal……!)
The Saint Faith believers’ faith had, at this point, burst clean through the ceiling.
As Luna and Zel are left speechless, Wembley opens his mouth with a serious expression.
“May I raise one matter of my own?”
“Yes, of course.”
“The reason we have come all the way to the Holy Kingdom today is none other than this. Please, just one minute——no, ten seconds will suffice. We wish to be granted an audience with the Saint-sama.”
Wembley says this and gives voice to his earnest hope.
But Luna gives a small shake of her head.
“I am sorry, but that is not possible.”
“……May I ask your reason?”
“As is widely known, the Saint-sama sustained damage from her reincarnation and is currently focused entirely on her recovery. Until she regains her former power and memories, she will not meet with anyone outside the Saint’s party members——this is her wish.”
Receiving this clear refusal, Wembley says nothing, tilting his face up toward the ceiling——and quietly lets a tear trace down his cheek.
“Are you all right?”
“Just now——my suspicion has become certainty.”
“Suspicion?”
“To be honest, I had been thinking something was wrong. But I did not want to believe it. I wanted to stay in a brief illusion. I did not want to accept……the cruel reality——!”
He clenches his fist tightly, his expression full of grief.
“Um……what exactly are you——”
“The Saint-sama——she has not actually reincarnated yet, has she?”
“……I beg your pardon?”
The conclusion comes from so far out of nowhere that Luna lets out a completely undignified squawk.
“Because it doesn’t make sense! If she had truly reincarnated, she would be here to guide those of us who are lost——! Right, everyone!?”
The priests behind him nod repeatedly, over and over.
“No, that would be, well——”
Luna is at a loss for an answer. She could not very well say ‘you people frighten me and I simply do not want to be involved with you.’
“And above all else, Silver-dono’s very existence clouds everything!”
“Me?”
“From all our investigations, there was no man in full plate armor in the Saint’s party three hundred years ago! Silver Glorious=El=Bloodfallenheart——just who are you!?”
And with that, Wembley delivers his pointed question.