Chapter 264

[To Ren-sunbae.

I received your worry-filled letter well. It was especially impressive how you worried that I, not my husband who went to the battlefield, might be too afraid of the enemy to eat properly.

Thank you for your concern. I am really doing very well. The people around me tend to meddle a bit excessively, but I heard from women who have had several children that it’s normal for the first child. I need to filter out some of it, but apparently, I can only distinguish whether someone’s words are helpful to me or not from the second child onwards. Until then, everyone who thinks they are helping me will say different things and try to change my lifestyle.

Do you know who I’m talking to? Please stop finding and sending me folk remedies and herbs that are supposedly good for the baby. A package bigger than the letters my friend Dianne sends arrived, and at first, I thought it was misdelivered. But then, when three more carriages arrived, I didn’t know how to react. I’m sorry, but I reassigned the high priest you sent twice to rear support and sent him to the battlefield. Not to fight, but I wanted his help in treating the wounded soldiers left behind.

Oh, just in case you misunderstand, I really appreciate your concern. I know you’re very busy, but you’re still paying a lot of attention to me. And among the things you sent, the consecrated herbal tea was really helpful. I started having morning sickness, and it calmed it down when I drank it.

That’s all for the reply to your last letter. Now, I’ll talk about the most important part of this letter.

Princess Camille will attack the temple.

With her personality, she’s been patient for a long time. Knowing full well whose side Pope Renus is on, letting the play ‘Betrayal’ spread so openly.

In the meantime, Camille has been quietly exposing the Crown Prince’s foolishness enough to weed out the dregs among the nobles and pick out those who will be on her side. But according to the intelligence that came in this time, that process is completely and cleanly finished. With the Maindulante army approaching, the frightened nobles are supporting Camille and have all joined together to drag Abelus out and lock him in a tower. Nellusion has made so many accusations about Abelus’s weaknesses that there is enough justification.

Her Majesty the Empress was shocked, but well, what power does she have? She let her daughter kill and bury others without it having anything to do with her, so now that her son has become the target of that purge, she has no power to step in either.

To be honest, I didn’t know Camille could throw away everything she cherished before to this extent. I expected her to overthrow the Imperial Family, but I didn’t think she would be so thorough and unreserved.

So, I must warn you to be careful, Sunbae.]

“An envoy from the Imperial Family has arrived, Your Holiness.”

At Priest Adams’s words, Ren took his eyes off Nerys’s letter.

The atmosphere in the Papal State had not been good lately. The war that had been going on in the Bistor Empire for months was affecting this administratively independent land as well.

Even if they had vowed to dedicate their lives to God, priests were still human. They had hometowns and parents. In particular, high priestly positions were usually inherited by a handful of long-established families, and those families were often deeply intertwined with secular power.

Because of the Grand Duke’s inhuman feats of arms and the Bistor Imperial Family’s surprisingly weak performance, the situation on the continent was changing by the day. The priests of the Papal State watched one another closely, each trying to secure even a little more benefit for their families of origin.

Among the priests, busy with their calculations, there was one premise nearly everyone agreed on.

Pope Renus had been rash.

Just because his first sacred duty was the marriage of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, was there any reason to take their side in the current situation as well? Even if the Imperial Family was only being pushed back temporarily… he didn’t stop a play that insulted the Imperial Family from being performed, and he even went out of his way to dispatch a high priest to the Grand Duchess.

It wasn’t that the Pope had to raise his voice for the Imperial Family. When secular rulers fought each other like this, the best way for the Pope to gain the most benefit was to remain silent. Wasn’t it the Pope’s role, in times like these, to make those eager for his support compete and then extract the highest price?

Because the Pope had overwhelming support from the believers, no one could say it outright. Still, the priests subtly revealed their desire for him to restrain himself. However, Ren did not auction off the Imperial Family and the Grand Duchy the way they wanted. He simply continued doing what he had been doing.

So it was only a matter of time before an envoy arrived from the Imperial Family like this.

With no surprise on his face, Ren spoke softly.

“Let them in.”

Priest Adams, who knew Ren’s true nature, showed no particular change in expression. However, the Holy Knight guarding the reception room door of the Lily Palace was moved once again.

How could His Holiness be so humble? No matter who came, no one was of such status that the Pope should tell them to come in.

The Holy Knights were of lower social standing than the priests. Unlike priests, who needed some means to support themselves during their long training period, Holy Knight training was grueling, but they received living expenses by doing odd jobs for senior knights even while they trained.

The Empire’s complicated situation did not greatly interest the Holy Knights. They were ready to believe and follow whatever the Pope did at any time. Especially when it was someone as noble and virtuous as the current Pope, why would they have any reason to doubt him?

By this evening, the Holy Knights finishing their shift would be spreading yet another anecdote about the Pope.

Through the path opened by the impressed Holy Knight, a man in luxurious clothes strode in.

“Your Holiness.”

The man greeted him perfunctorily. Despite the rude attitude, Ren kept an angelic, gentle expression.

“Since you have come from the Imperial Family, you must have had a long and difficult journey. What brings you to me?”

“I believe Your Holiness knows very well why I have come.”

The man spoke coldly.

The conversation carried clearly even into the hallway. The Holy Knight outside the door glared in anger.

Just then, a high priest passing by approached.

“Is His Holiness inside?”

“His Holiness has a visitor at the moment.”

Priest Adams answered in place of the guard. The high priest frowned.

“Is it someone from ‘that side’ again?”

The ‘that side’ he meant was Maindulante. Before Priest Adams could shake his head, the voice from inside reached the hallway again.

“The Imperial Family considers Your Holiness’s attitude to be very serious. What on earth are you thinking?”

So it really was an envoy from the Imperial Family. The high priest sighed quietly.

Yes. He knew trouble would come.

Inside the room, the envoy’s voice kept rising.

“Wasn’t it the first Pope who said the warrior Bistor was a leader sent by God and blessed him? How can you be so close to the rebels?”

The high priest’s expression turned strange.

He was the uncle of the ruler of a small duchy, and when his father had been duke, he had been taught countless times how important it was to maintain balance in international politics.

And because the country was small, he had been educated with a national identity that placed more weight on the nobility of the title bestowed by the Bistor Imperial Family than on sovereignty earned on its own. Naturally, he was one of those most dissatisfied with the Pope’s current actions.

But that didn’t mean he would feel good about some envoy acting rudely toward the Pope.

“Why are you so agitated? It is difficult to understand what you are saying.”

Despite the envoy’s harsh tone, Ren only responded with maddening calm.

The high priest openly stood before the door and looked inside. Other priests who noticed began to gather nearby and peek in as well.

“I am saying that you must clearly decide whether you support the Imperial Family or not!”

“How can the temple interfere in political matters? Such a statement is difficult.”

“You are acting politically even at this moment! The rebels deny the Imperial Family’s legitimate rule, and what else is it if not a political act to allow plays with such content to be performed freely?”

“How could our believers sincerely believe such a fabricated story?”

Not only by voice but by face as well, the envoy was growing more agitated by the moment, while Ren remained consistently docile.

The high priests knew that Ren speaking gently did not mean he was truly being pushed around. In fact, the envoy’s face was turning red and blue because it felt as if his words weren’t getting through at all, while Ren simply kept saying what he wanted. Like many others, the envoy seemed to be falling for Ren’s polite honorifics and youthful face, gradually exposing an opening.

Still, the structure of the conversation itself was the problem.

The attitude of a mere envoy—someone who merely followed secular authority—toward the representative of God was the problem.

Every priest felt antipathy toward the Imperial envoy. It didn’t matter whether they supported Ren or not. They had heard the Imperial Family was in dire straits, so what made them think they could treat the temple with such force?

Was it because Princess Camille—who had seized power by driving out her father and brother—was that confident? Confident she would win the war for certain and turn all public opinion in her favor?

Ren, of course, knew the high priests outside the door were watching him with sharpened eyes. He smiled angelically at the envoy, who was arrogant before him.

He decided it was time to draw out that word.

“I also enjoyed watching the play you mentioned, so I understand your concerns. However, it is merely a folk play our believers watch for fun. Please do not think the temple denies the achievements of the ancient Three Heroes.”

The envoy glanced toward the door and moderated his expression. His eyes flicked to the portraits of past Popes hanging on the wall, lingering especially on the first Pope.

“…What if it is not just for fun?”

“If you are saying that a play popular only in the Papal State has more power than that…”

“No. I am talking about the power of truth.”

Ren’s expression twisted slightly. The envoy fell for that innocent look completely.

The current Pope did not know the truth of the Three Heroes.

Well, who would have known before the Grand Duke spread that blasphemous propaganda?

Even the envoy himself had been shaken when Camille told him the truth, just before dispatching him here.

He had not been sufficiently indoctrinated with loyalty to Camille, like Silver Moon. Even so, he was a man who believed it was best to pretend the past that would trouble the Imperial Family did not exist.

Lowering his voice so the priests outside could not hear, the envoy whispered quietly.

“The sins of the past do not disappear just because Your Holiness does not know them. Yes, if the play was truly made only for fun, why would I be so concerned?”

In the play ‘Betrayal,’ and in the complete novel ‘Betrayal’ spread by the Maindulante army, the character corresponding to the first Pope stood on the side of the violet-eyed girl—the protagonist—unlike in actual history.

It was an understandable adaptation. There was no need to invite animosity now that the Pope was friendly to Maindulante, and the general public—believers of the Timaeus Religion—found this version far easier to accept.

However, the real first Pope had praised the warrior Bistor as a leader chosen by God.

If there was truth in the play, and sin in the past, then what truth would the temple have to explain to the people?

The current Pope should have been able to calculate that much.

The envoy rose without another word. He judged it would look more threatening that way.

The high priests gathered outside watched the envoy in discomfort as he strode out without receiving the Pope’s permission to leave.

A moment later, the high priest who had arrived first approached Ren and asked,

“What did you speak about, Your Holiness?”

“That is…”

Ren—wearing a pale expression he had produced after hearing the envoy’s whisper—let out a sigh.

“I don’t know where to begin explaining… First of all, I believe we need to hold a meeting. Perhaps our fate is at stake.”

The letter Ren had held throughout the conversation fluttered briefly in the autumn breeze blowing in through the window.

The postscript Ren had read over and over was exposed for a moment before he quietly folded it away again.

[And at the same time, congratulations to us. The key we need to push the stiff high priests and unite them will finally arrive.

Good luck.

Nerys.]