Guided by Lyra, they stepped inside — the archive of the Hidden Cathedral.
It was a place lined with countless bookshelves; a small-scale library was the only way to describe it.
While a vaguely strange atmosphere hung over the place, there was no sense of anyone lying in wait within. When Ermes confirmed this using her magic power detection, she and the others were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
According to Lyra, she had already sent a signal to their spy who was scheduled to meet them, and they would be arriving at this archive in roughly ten minutes to rendezvous.
That meant they had permission to browse the materials freely in the meantime. The time was short, but for Ermes and the others — who had been craving information about the Church above all else — it was an unexpected godsend. To make the most of it, she gathered the Third Princess's faction and set them to work.
"First, we don't have the luxury of thoroughly analyzing these documents. Ideally, I'd like to come back after we've defeated the Archbishop and go through them at our leisure, but according to Lady Lyra, there's no guarantee we can return here afterward. There's even a chance the Archbishop's people will burn it all down."
"...In other words, there must be something here they really don't want anyone to see."
"Exactly. So — let's start by gathering as many of the documents we think we need as we can carry. In the time before our contact arrives, we do everything we can."
"Right. If we can come back later, we'll go through everything carefully. If not, at least we'll have the essentials about the Church. Let's go with that."
To repeat — information about the Church, shrouded in mystery, was something they needed desperately, in order to understand the circumstances surrounding what had taken place in the Royal Capital:
the coup d'état.
It could even be said to be the ultimate objective of Ermes and the others' campaign against the Archbishop faction.
In that case, increasing the amount of information they could guarantee to bring back was only natural. With that in mind, they quickly divided up rough areas to search and got moving.
And so Ermes found herself standing before one of the bookshelves.
...Not to brag, but Ermes was genuinely skilled at this sort of document hunting.
The reason was that her Master, Rose, had demonstrated her trademark sloppiness to its fullest even in a place like this, never bothering to properly organize any of the research materials. Both Master and Ermes possessed extraordinary memories, so it had never hindered their research, but organizing the documents had fallen to Ermes.
Whether you'd call it a side effect or not, the upshot was that she had developed an instinct for it — glancing at a collection of documents, she could roughly tell which ones were important.
"...Maybe this one?"
Drawing on that ability, Ermes reached for one of the documents and opened it.
There were various types of documents like these. Whether they were mere notes, important research materials, or perhaps — forbidden texts recording secrets from the distant past.
And from details like the care put into the binding, the quality of the paper, and the way the writing had degraded — Ermes intuited.
What she had just picked up was... one of those things — something "recording secrets from the distant past."
"..."
A tense feeling settled over her.
To confirm the general contents, she began reading through the pages quickly yet carefully.
What was written there was —
"...Bloodline Magic's,
listing
?"
Just one after another, line after line.
Magic names were laid out across an entire two-page spread.
The reason she could guess they were Bloodline Magic was that familiar names like
Spirit Veil
and
Magic Bullet Archer
were listed among them.
""
Thunderclap Reversal
", "
Four Winds of the Heavenly Demon
', '
Messenger of the Faceless
'......"
After that, more of the spells Ermes recognized continued to appear one by one... but he couldn't find any common thread among them.
Was it simply a listing of known Bloodline Magic? No—he instinctively felt that probably wasn't the case, and so, to gather further information, he turned the page.
"—Huh."
That was where he learned the reason.
What was written on the next page was another list of spells.
Among those he recognized were entries such as '
Netherworld of Salvation
', '
Fairy's Dream Palace
' and others... but that wasn't the important part.
Unlike before... the characters used to write the spells were different. They were grotesque, as if some grudge had been given physical form, rendered in vivid crimson ink.
And above all—
The name of the classification denoting this list was written in the upper left corner of the page:
—'
Dark Magic
'.
"......This is"
"The 'Selection,' isn't it? Of Bloodline Magic."
"!"
Turning toward the voice, there stood a black-haired young man. Chrono looked down at the book in Ermes's hands and murmured with a solemn expression.
"The Selection, you mean?"
"Yes. Magic the Church has deemed 'evil' — magic they've decreed must never be possessed. Or rather, magic that is inconvenient for the Church. This must be a list of all of it."
"——"
"Do you know what the Church has done to this day in order to manage Bloodline Magic?"
"......Yes. Roughly speaking."
He had heard about it from Yurugen before coming here.
The Church had absolutely refused to tolerate the existence of any Bloodline Magic classified as "evil," and had done everything in its power to track down the bearers of such magic — confine them, imprison them, and in the worst cases, even destroy entire territories along with them.
——And whichever Bloodline Magic one is granted,
is something one has no power to choose.
"......That's terrible."
Sensing from Chrono's gaze that his opinion was being sought, Ermes answered.
Chrono's objective was to observe the Third Princess faction's moves regarding this operation and determine whether to bring the Neutral Nobles under their wing. Knowing this, Ermes chose his words with a measure of care.
"The magic you're granted isn't something you can choose. The person's aptitude, whether they're good or evil — none of it matters. To exclude someone simply for 'possessing magic' is far too cruel."
"......Yes."
"People and magic are both innocent. Even if"
"good"
"Even if it was magic born from impure intent—"
good
"use should still be possible. Because magic is supposed to be beautiful."
The 'Dream Palace of Fairies' that once existed here too—
Dream Palace of Fairies
—by the Church's standards, it would be called 'evil magic,' and this was his conclusion after thinking about Nina's Bloodline Magic, a conclusion he shared with Nina herself.
He repeated this once more. Chrono quietly nodded. "...I see."
"My apologies. It seems I've asked an unnecessary question when time is short."
"N-No, not at all."
"To make up for it, let me help you search for materials. Should I look through that bookshelf over there?"
"...Yes, please."
With that, Chrono, still wearing his unchanged smile, headed toward the spot Ermes had indicated and vanished behind the bookshelves.
...He was curious about what kind of person Chrono was, but—
What he needed to focus on now were the materials at hand. Pushing all other thoughts aside, Ermes resumed his search.
After that, he found several more documents.
It seemed the shelves in this area contained records about the Church's Bloodline Magic and how its bearers were treated.
"'—A good Bloodline Magic is a Heavenly Gift bestowed by God—"
Heavenly Gift
"—and must always be used to demonstrate God's glory, never forgetting His grace.'"
It was a phrase that anyone living in this country would know.
Rose, upon meeting his master, had realized this phrase was a blatant error, and now he reconfirmed that it also originated from the church.
What was written next was about the handling of "Dual aptitude".
"──'Those who host multiple Bloodline Magic within themselves are saints bestowed with God's special favor. They should be treated as interpreters of God's will.'"
This also made sense.
Given how Sara was treated in this country, the rumors about Sara at the church headquarters, and the rumors about Laila, one could understand such a statement.
And then.
If it spoke of multiple aptitudes──the next thing to mention would be one.
"──'Conversely, if there is a person who possesses no Bloodline Magic'"
About "Incompatibility".
"──'Especially if a person who is a member of the royal family, of the royal blood, yet possesses absolutely no Bloodline Magic appears──'"
To read on, Rose turned the page.
And looked.
"──'That person is a true child of God, loved by God.'"
It was written exactly like that.
"'A saint bestowed with God's favor' and 'a child of God loved by God'... they seem the same, but contain a subtle difference in nuance.
A "saint" is an entity that interprets God's will.
A "child of God" is an entity loved by God.
In other words, a "saint" is closer to God's proxy or errand runner.
In contrast, a "child of God" carries the nuance of a child loved by God.
"Incompatibility" is an entity especially loved by God──in other words, it is the polar opposite of a "saint."
and
a shrine maiden
she is.
——
the king
shall be
treated
more courteously
than.
']
………………
……eh
My thoughts.
Stopped.
Because, if this description is to be taken seriously—
Incompatibility—the "Incompatibility of the royal family"—is worth more than multiple aptitudes, worth more than the king.
Impossible in this country, but
here alone
as a fact
it is.
—the fact that incomprehensible values like these once existed in a church.
His first instinct was to suspect a transcription error.
But no. There was no trace of anything having been rewritten or overwritten.
The possibility of it being some kind of prank was equally slim. The format of the text made it unambiguously official—there would have been no point in pulling such a prank in the first place.
In other words—
*If there existed a member of the royal family with Incompatibility, that individual was considered more valuable than the king.* This value judgment had, at some point and in some place, genuinely been held by a church.
"…No way."
It would be easy to dismiss it out of hand as an error.
But his temperament would not allow him to do that—and more than anything.
The moment he heard it, something he had been ignoring as a minor nagging inconsistency suddenly surfaced in his mind.
What rose to the forefront of his thoughts was, naturally, the person who embodied this very description—their figurehead, Liliana, a member of the royal family *without Bloodline Magic*.
Even before meeting Ermes, she had been kept in what amounted to virtual house arrest… yet even so, she had been guaranteed a certain degree of status and freedom of movement.
Ermes, on the other hand, had been locked away in an underground cell as soon as it was determined that he lacked Bloodline Magic, treated as little more than a prisoner.
…No—if it were only that, it might still have been tolerable.
If it were only that, then the reasoning that Liliana still held value *as royalty* would at least have made a kind of sense.
But.
Then Ermes remembered—what Liliana had told him when they first met.
*Incidentally. I believe I referred to you as my 'new tutor,' did I not?*
*"Er—"*
*Which is to say, there was also an 'old tutor.' Yes—quite a few of them, actually.*
Before Ermes, Liliana had also had a tutor to teach her magic.
But it was already well known that Liliana had Incompatibility.
She was someone who was told it was futile no matter how much she trained in magic — though the truth was different, at least in this country, everyone believed it to be so.
Then.
Why
,
a tutor
of all things—
was there
any need
to bring one in
?
If training in magic was pointless, and she was thought to have value only as a member of the royal family...
Would there really be any need for someone to teach her something — especially magic?
He couldn't make sense of it, and couldn't even gauge how much of this information to believe in the first place.
What did the royal family possess? What exactly was Liliana? What was the Church hiding, what did it know, and what lurked beneath?
Summing up all those questions that had erupted at once,
Ermes murmured, unable to help himself.
"…What does this mean?"
"—Ah. That,
Church
"But I do have questions, you know."
He bristled all over.
Because, you see.
That voice was——right beside Ermes's ear.
Completely
unknown
a stranger's voice
——that was how it reached him.
He immediately assumed a combat stance, and then.
"——[
Burst!
]!"
Aimed at the source of the mysterious voice, preparing for the worst—
maintaining
the Bloodline Magic he had kept in reserve, and released it instantly. Without a moment's hesitation, he unleashed the full force of his Bloodline Magic to neutralize the voice's owner——
"Oh, your split-second judgment is quite impressive. As expected of someone who's come this far."
The voice's owner showed not the slightest sign of agitation.
Calmly, they drew a certain magical tool from their pocket. The barrier it generated deflected Ermes's magic as though it were nothing at all.
(——Why)
Having recognized that outcome, Ermes thought. ...He had roughly deduced the true identity of the man present here, based on his current actions and words.
What remained unclear was—why hadn't he, himself, noticed this approach until this very moment?
He quickly realized the reason as well.
(—The trick is "this very room" itself!)
A sense of wrongness that could only be perceived by focusing one's attention, even after consciously recognizing it.
Some kind of barrier was erected across this entire room. He surmised its effect was likely something along the lines of "drastically reducing the ability of anyone within the barrier to sense magic power."
...Under normal circumstances, he might have noticed.
But this moment—catching his breath after weathering an assault. Furthermore, with the suggestion of a break dangled before them, offering the information about the "church" they desired most, even Ermes and his group had let their guard slip ever so slightly.
Without a doubt, all of this was calculated... over there, they had laid the trap in this exact moment.
And therefore.
If they could be ensnared, it meant there was someone who knew what they were seeking and had guided them all the way here.
As if waiting for Ermes to reach that conclusion, the voice's owner—the man exuding a languid dignity—
"Princess Lyra guided them quite well."
He revealed the truth, just as they had anticipated.
Just as Liliana and the others, sensing the disturbance, gathered around, the barrier was dispelled. In that instant, sensing the countless streams of magic power that had already surrounded them perfectly, they understood their situation.
The man gazed at Ermes's group, now clustered at the center, with an expression like one watching cornered rats.
With an elegant gesture, he introduced himself.
"A pleasure to meet you, you insolent wretches.
—I am Archbishop Gregorio, 'the most benevolent Archbishop,' and the voice of the God who will most gently correct this nation's contradictions.
I 'welcome' you, members of the Third Princess's faction, who so foolishly flew into our very stronghold?"
This, too, was exactly as predicted.
Ermes and his party, their expressions composed as they suppressed the chaos and organized the information, looked out at their surroundings with solemn faces.
The man—Archbishop Gregorio, true to his epithet—simmered with an unmistakable, barely concealed hostility beneath his gentle smile.
Next time: a battle with Gregorio! The Katia side might have their say, too? Stay tuned!