“Uh, uhh. Right now?”
Brukisel demanded proof just as Rou expected. Rou rolled his eyes around, wondering if he really had to show him transforming into a bumblebee.
“Immediately!”
“Ah, alright!”
Feeling there was no choice at the continued threats, he closed his eyes tightly. To be discovered as a bumblebee just a week after coming to the continent. It was embarrassing, but this seemed to be the only way. Rou was about to pray to the goddess to change his appearance to a bumblebee.
Just then, Het flung open the door.
“A high priest has come from the Temple of Goddess Kaine!”
His voice filled the room. The sound was loud but its end trembled, so it seemed to be Het’s first time raising his voice like this in front of Brukisel. Rou clearly saw Brukisel’s eyes shake for a moment.
The strength left Brukisel’s hand. Rou, who had become accustomed to standing on two feet, let out a sigh of relief when his soles touched the ground. It was a great relief that he didn’t have to transform into a bumblebee.
“Het. If you’re bewitched by this person and telling lies.”
Brukisel muttered so and glared at Het with a terrifying gaze. Thinking that even a falsely accused person would confess to nonexistent crimes if looked at with such eyes, Het barely answered with dry lips.
“What safety would make me tell false words?”
Rou looked back and forth between the two having a fierce conversation. To him who had lived for hundreds of years, Brukisel harshly pressing Het seemed a bit…… flustered.
‘His eyes were shaking earlier too. Why was he flustered?’
Rou blinked slowly. Though the timing was exquisite, it was something that Brukisel, who had been so cold until just now, would be flustered by such a thing. It was unusual.
Whether Rou blinked his big eyes beside him or not, Brukisel just irritably shouted at Het.
“Bring him here.”
“Yes, wha? The high priest…… you mean?”
Brukisel stared at Het without saying anything. Het thought he should bring the high priest, whether dragging or escorting him, and moved his steps busily. That would be the way to save both that goddess’s representative and his own life.
Soon Het entered with an elderly man. Whether his eyes were dim and his ears were dull, he drowsily opened his eyes and swept the room once, then upon discovering Rou, his eyes gleamed as if he’d never had cloudy eyes.
“Representative of the goddess!”
The high priest prostrated himself before Rou, then firmly grabbed his ankle like someone afraid Rou would fly away somewhere. Though Rou was a bit surprised by the grip strength unbelievable for an old man, this old man too was nothing but a young child before the goddess and Rou.
“That’s right.”
The high priest flinched at the natural informal speech but soon seemed to think even that was sacred and his eyes sparkled.
“Representative of the goddess. This humble servant’s name is Jes.”
His pure white hair and beard were poorly maintained, so it was hardly distinguishable where the beard was and where the hair ended. His long-grown eyebrows came down to his cheeks, half-covering his eyes, but Rou seemed to understand how he became Goddess Kaine’s high priest in this barren land.
His eyes were a vivid green more beautiful than summer’s new leaves. His sparkling eyes clearly showed the beauty he must have enjoyed in his youth.
“This old man was making a pilgrimage to the temples at the southernmost part of the empire during the last moments of his remaining years. Then a week ago!”
His green eyes shone fiercely. He too seemed to have deep faith in the goddess. Meeting a faithful believer was always a pleasant thing, so Rou watched the high priest’s passionate testimony with a pleased face.
“A week ago! I clearly heard the goddess’s voice. Hearing the goddess’s voice was the first time since I first received the command to become high priest, so how my heart pounded and trembled……”
“……So.”
The high priest, who had been chattering before Rou with flushed cheeks, slowly raised his body at the cold voice heard from behind. To forget that the emperor was there and rush in, excited by the appearance of the goddess’s representative. It wouldn’t be strange if that faithless emperor commanded his head to be cut off right now.
“S-so……”
The high priest thought about offering his respects belatedly, but that didn’t seem to be what the emperor wanted. Jes, who had spent his life as high priest in an empire that turned away from Goddess Kaine, lacked divine power but not tact, so he quickly answered.
“Goddess Kaine gave me an oracle. The goddess is sending one she cherishes to this barren land, so care for him devotedly and when the time comes, return him to the goddess.”
Het was relieved. This was it. Since the high priest’s mouth also said that person was indeed the goddess’s representative, no matter how much an emperor he was, he had no choice but to acknowledge it now.
“Were there no other words?”
“What? Yes……”
The high priest couldn’t understand the emperor. At the words that the goddess was sending one she cherished, he had run from the south of the empire to here without rest. With his old body, he had run on a swaying horse until his whole body broke apart.
Even on good days, it took several months to cross the vast Omanea Empire. Even if the emperor sent the fastest messenger, it usually took more than a month. So the fact that the high priest had run with his old body through land muddy from half-melted snow and arrived at the imperial palace in a week was itself already a miracle.
And as soon as he entered the imperial palace, everyone from the gatekeeper to the maids was looking at him with different eyes than before. One of them couldn’t overcome their curiosity and even asked if he had come to meet the representative.
Though he was an emperor particularly lacking in faith, since he too was a human born and raised on Goddess Kaine’s continent, High Priest Jes thought the emperor would naturally be treating the goddess’s representative with utmost hospitality. Upon hearing the representative was in the reception room, he thought that arrogant tyrant had finally returned to the goddess. But the emperor’s testing words were far from faithful.
“Yes. Certainly that oracle was given.”
Jes answered with a careful voice like someone afraid of being caught on something.
“If the oracle didn’t specify anyone, how can I believe that person is the representative?”
Het seemed desperate that even the high priest’s appearance couldn’t break the emperor’s suspicion. He turned his head with a bitter face. The high priest continued stammering.
“That…… th-the goddess said you would know when you saw. And Your Majesty, as you can see……”
Jes looked at Rou. Accordingly, Brukisel’s gaze naturally followed, but there was undisguisable mockery around his eyes.
“I wonder? I don’t know even after seeing.”
The air in the reception room chilled coldly. While everyone had gloomy faces, only Rou held his head up. Brukisel met Rou’s round eyes and furrowed his brow without even showing a sneer.
The moment when everyone resented the emperor and worried about the goddess’s representative’s life and death. Only Rou carefully observed Brukisel’s face. Though he had heard that a sharp face looks fierce when frowning, in Rou’s eyes, Brukisel only looked flustered.
‘Why was he flustered?’
Rou blinked slowly. Brukisel had continuously pressed him to present objective evidence. So when the moment finally came to have that evidence confirmed, shouldn’t he have a refreshed face rather than a flustered appearance?
‘Perhaps……’
Rou furrowed his brow with a maybe sort of feeling. It wasn’t simply because the timing was exquisite, but another reason existed!
‘Could he have been scared when Het raised his voice earlier?’
All sorts of tribute came to the goddess’s temple, and among them were many rare beasts. The snow leopard from the northern end and the lion from the vast southern plains expressed their wariness with fierce roars, but would curl their tails and tremble at thunder fierce enough to tear the sky.
Brukisel reacting so fiercely and sharply might also be a defense mechanism to hide his fear. Thinking so, Rou looked at Brukisel with a bit of pity.
When Rou’s peaceful expression broke, Brukisel, who had been leisurely looking down at him as if he knew it would be so, furrowed his brow again when Rou sent a careful and pitying gaze. Just before Brukisel irritably gave the order to drag away this fraud impersonating the goddess’s representative right now, Rou, who had been quiet until now, finally opened his mouth.
“Is there no other way to prove I’m the goddess’s representative?”
“Ah! That……!”
Jes seemed to have thought of something. He seemed to ponder for a moment whether the thought that just crossed his mind would actually help the representative, choosing his words. But there weren’t many options he could choose in this situation. He ultimately closed his eyes tightly and said.
“Y-Your Majesty! The Goddess’s Dew can give the answer.”
“Isn’t that something that can only be seen when selecting a high priest?”
“……Yes. That’s correct.”
It was a pathetic gamble. High priest was a position where only one existed on the continent. In the first place, the fact that a high priest existed on the continent now was also like a tribute obtained when the empire took over a small kingdom half a century ago.
Goddess Kaine had long since left the empire. The previous emperor served the goddess, so he kept the high priest alive and regularly offered tributes by collecting rare things, but Brukisel had no such intention at all.
Because of that, most temples in the north went bankrupt unable to overcome financial difficulties, and only the few temples in the south that the high priest had visited were barely holding on to life. There was no way a new high priest would descend to such land.
“Go ahead.”
Brukisel turned around, ridiculing the high priest’s foolish choice. Receiving Het’s guidance, the high priest looked at Rou with a face full of worry.
“Representative. Do you happen to know about the Goddess’s Dew? It is……”
“I know.”
Rou had seen beside her the dew the goddess bestowed upon humans she favored. Even if just a couple of small water droplets fell from the goddess’s fingertips, humans would rejoice, saying it was the birth of a high priest. What would the goddess say seeing himself sitting in that place? Rou smiled slightly, feeling somehow nostalgic.
“Ah, I-I see.”
Jes momentarily forgot what to say at the sight of Rou smiling gently. To not acknowledge him as the representative even after seeing this sacred appearance. Jes secretly beat his chest. The emperor, setting aside faith, clearly didn’t even have eyes properly attached. Though his eyes weren’t on his bottom, how could he not know even after seeing that face?
Thus Jes spent a while having disloyal thoughts that would be trouble if spoken aloud, and beat his own thigh in frustration.
