From the standpoint of watching the High Priest by his side, he had surprisingly no ambition for honor or wealth. All he desired was to meet believers who loved the Goddess, and to repay the Emperor. That heart was so pure it was transparent.
The problem was that even if he did so, even if he spoke on behalf of the High Priest, the King of Cana wouldn’t believe it. He was rather afraid it would only increase his suspicions.
After the questions toward each other and meaningless answers ended, only suffocating silence passed between them.
Having waited for the two humans’ unproductive conversation to end, Rou asked curiously.
“Theodore. How old are you this year?”
“……What? I’m twenty-six.”
Though Theodore was flustered by the sudden question, he answered the High Priest’s question for now.
“Jes, what about you?”
“……I’m seventy-seven.”
“Then what about Brukisel?”
“His Majesty is twenty-seven.”
“Mm. I see!”
Rou had a relieved face as if he’d let go of a worry. Theodore thought there must be a tremendous intention hidden in that question from the High Priest and pondered for a long while.
‘As expected. The High Priest has taken the Emperor’s side.’
The Empire’s Emperor and Cana’s King were of similar age. However, living in the same generation as one called a genius of the century was never a blessing for a ruler. If there were a difference of a few hundred years, he might have felt awe toward him, but now he was only filled with hatred and inferiority complex toward the Emperor.
One didn’t compare oneself to an overwhelmingly superior opponent. Just standing beside such a person made one feel shabby. However, he wondered if there was any need to deliberately remind him of it. Theodore clenched his fists. It was no ordinary ability to make someone feel miserable while wearing an innocent face.
‘This won’t be easy.’
It seemed the conversation would be long. The thought that he might return without any gains choked him. Feeling suffocated, the King removed his long robe and handed it to Yan. On his chest, as always, was pinned a single red cana, the national flower.
“Theodore. Can you give me that flower?”
Theodore couldn’t rashly offer the flower, wondering if there might be some other intention hidden. Offering flowers to the Goddess’s altar or presenting flowers to the High Priest wasn’t uncommon. If he wanted it, there was nothing he couldn’t offer.
However, the flower attached to his chest had lost all its vitality, unable to withstand the cold and wind during the journey to the Empire. Not wanting to do anything that could be criticized, Theodore hesitated.
“I will offer the most splendid cana flower.”
“No. That one will be fine.”
The High Priest’s insistence was rather welcome. If he brought this matter up later, he could retort that he had demanded it at that time. Theodore silently complied with the High Priest’s incomprehensible request.
Perhaps because the King of Cana was under the Goddess’s protection, that future was clearly and transparently visible.
The grief-stricken King of Cana was clutching Patricia’s belt in his hands. As if it had lost all its divine power, the belt no longer shone golden. The holy relic, returned to an ordinary leather belt, was crumbling into dust from the ends, unable to withstand the passage of time.
Watching this, the King of Cana was praying desperately, and that desperate voice resembled a wail. The prayer mixed with tears was so plaintive that even those who didn’t know the circumstances would find it pitiful, so Rou quietly listened closely to what was making him so sad.
Though there were few words he could properly make out as they were consumed by grief, even that was enough to clearly grasp the situation.
‘What sin…… does the child have……? Please, please…… O Goddess!’
The scene changed to a quiet room where a child lay. The child with a pale face couldn’t take their eyes off the falling snowflakes and the frost on the window as if fascinated. The sparkle of curiosity in their eyes was brief—after clutching their chest and coughing for a long while, the child vomited up a handful of pink phlegm. The coughing continued for a tediously long time. The child wheezed with labored breaths, as if struggling.
The bed was only a few steps from the window, but the child’s eyes were filled with despair, knowing they couldn’t reach there on their own. And when Theodore entered carrying steaming soup, the child had already returned to the Goddess’s embrace.
“……Hng.”
Golden light rippled in Rou’s eyes. The light that flowed out gently like twilight reflected on water was holy just to behold.
“Wh-what is this.”
“Shh!”
Theodore tried to ask what on earth was happening, but when Jes, Yan, and even Het joined in sending fierce glares, he was overwhelmed and shut his mouth. Jes and Yan quietly waited for Rou’s words. Even Het, who didn’t know what it was but somehow felt like he was witnessing something tremendous, kept his mouth firmly shut.
Theodore suddenly thought that light resembled the glorious radiance emitted from holy relics.
‘Why would such a blessing…… be given to such a person……?’
The Emperor lacked nothing. What could the Emperor of the most prosperous nation possibly want? To give such a person even a High Priest with such divine power. It was unjust. Theodore kept his fists clenched until the golden light in Rou’s eyes went out.
Rou soon closed his eyes tightly. Just in case, Yan brewed warm herbal tea and dropped about five sugar cubes into it, placing it within Rou’s reach. Rou naturally drank it, drawn by the sweet fragrance.
It was a future incomparably more detailed and specific than when it involved Brukisel. It came across vividly how much the Goddess cherished Theodore.
“If a child is sick, shouldn’t you show them quickly? It seems like their life is in danger.”
“……What?”
“Didn’t you come to ask me for a prayer?”
“What…… what did you just see?”
The approaching future. Contrary to Rou’s calm voice, Theodore was greatly shaken.
“The future, you say. Do you mean you prophesy……?”
“Prophecy. That’s a grandiose word. I merely convey in words what the Goddess shows me. It was snowing, so is the child in the Empire? It would be good if I could see their condition directly and offer prayers.”
Though if you still have reservations, it can’t be helped. Rou said so, but in reality, it seemed the child didn’t have time to spare. Clutching their chest and vomiting pink phlegm was heart disease. Critical illnesses required swift action. Moreover, according to the future Rou saw, it seemed the child would have difficulty surviving the winter.
Theodore couldn’t hide his amazement at the High Priest’s prophecy. Prophecy. That was truly a tremendous ability. It was the power to change the fate of one person, or perhaps even the entire continent. There had been many who approached him claiming to be prophets, but this was the first who spoke only such truth.
Though he wondered if someone had been planted to investigate his background, the moment his eyes flashed golden kept crumbling his doubts.
“Why…… why on earth are you in the north? Why are you staying within the Empire that persecutes you! If you had been in the south, then no one would have dared question you!”
“When the Goddess is with you, why should I be there?”
“……”
“I am only where I’m needed most.”
Theodore flinched. It was true that the Goddess’s blessing was with the royal family. Cana was a small and humble nation, but all four seasons were warm, and spring and summer were filled with abundance. The Goddess’s breath could be felt without difficulty.
On the other hand, what about the Empire? A vast but barren land. If not for the buried minerals and the military power based on them, it would have already declined. Those who needed the Goddess’s blessing more than anyone were precisely those who spent winter in the north.
“And you came for that child, didn’t you? Let’s go to the Room of Declaration together to offer prayers.”
“Together with…… me?”
“There’s no one who knows the child’s condition better than you. Tell me as we go.”
Rou took the lead toward the Room of Declaration. Walking down the corridor, Rou carefully asked about the child’s condition, when the illness began, and whether the child had trouble sleeping at night. Yet he didn’t ask even once who the child was.
Theodore gradually came to think that he might be staying in the north not for any political ambition, but for purely genuine reasons.
The Room of Declaration was filled with an enormous amount of holy water. Theodore shut his mouth at that overwhelming divine power. While Rou walked without hesitation beneath the round ceiling and offered quiet prayers, Theodore couldn’t even think of immersing himself in it and merely watched the saint’s prayer from the doorway.
It was much later that Theodore began his own prayers.
Rou finished praying first and walked out cutting through the water. At the splashing sound, Theodore looked up, then hesitated and stepped back two paces at the sight. Water droplets fell from the ends of the High Priest’s long hair, and his indoor clothes clung to him, revealing his slender body line as it was.
Theodore’s mouth went dry and he swallowed his saliva.
Somehow it felt like he was stealing a glimpse of a secret moment he shouldn’t be seeing. At the same time, he felt terrible guilt. Of course, the Goddess had never forbidden the High Priest from marriage, and there were even cases where She gave blessings of fertility.
However, in this sacred moment, having dared to look at his flesh and think it beautiful weighed heavily on Theodore’s heart as a devout believer. Fortunately, the High Priest immediately asked a question that saved him from self-reproach.
“Is there still a Goddess’s altar within the kingdom’s garden?”
“What? Yes…… there is.”
“Ah! That’s fortunate. If you go a little past that, there will be an herb resembling mint. It’s a plant with seven leaves from one stem—if you cold-steep and drink it, it will help stop the coughing.”
Besides that, Rou rummaged through his memories to explain helpful herbs. It was a moment when watching over the kingdom from the Goddess’s shoulder proved helpful.
“……Why.”
“Hm?”
“Why don’t you ask who that child is?”
“I’m only interested in saving the child. That’s all.”
Theodore looked at Rou with quiet eyes. He was ashamed of himself for having doubted and interrogated him. He knelt on the floor and bowed his head, offering Rou thanks for a long time. Rou watched this with a purely pleased smile, like an old man looking at his newborn grandchild.
