And not only that, but this theory cleanly explained Eve’s actions as well.
To put it simply, one could also say that Eve thought reconciliation was possible.
“Then, um?”
There, Myuri made a clueless noise.
“Right. I don’t see our next step. The cathedral is literally unapproachable. It would be hard to get in contact with them in the first place, so what will you do? You forcing your way over to knock on their door could be enough to light the fire on its own.”
Col could see what the next step was.
“There is someone who sympathizes with Miss Sharon but who also supports the cathedral’s side.”
And that person even looked upon Col favorably.
It was Clark.
“Heir Hyland.” Col looked straight at Hyland and spoke. “I believe we might be able to avoid war without relying on Miss Eve’s intentions.”
Next, he turned to Myuri.
“And without getting in Miss Sharon’s way.”
Myuri’s face immediately lit up, and she nodded.
CHAPTER FOUR
Because of who Sharon was, Col could easily imagine her being repulsed if they brought their plan to her directly. Not only that, but she had a lot of people on her side. To show any cowardice in her position could be perceived as a betrayal to all those siding with her.
That might not necessarily be the case, however, if the cathedral showed they were in a position to accept talks.
And while his situation was the same in relation to the cathedral, it was Clark who could tie the two together.
“But…to think things would turn out like this.”
Col and Myuri were on their way to see Clark, crawling on all fours in the darkness.
Since they could not predict what Eve and the others were going to do, they needed to get things rolling as quickly as possible, so they decided to head straight for Clark, but there was a problem. There were people keeping watch over the manor that Hyland was borrowing.
They were probably working for Eve. If word got out that the two had gone to see Clark, they could figure out what they were up to and possibly cut them off from him, even if that meant putting him directly in danger.
What Col suggested was a disguise or to escape by hiding in the cargo of the merchant carts as they came and went.
But Myuri flatly rejected both ideas, and what she instead suggested put them in this situation.
“Myuri…Do you know where you’re going?”
Since they had passed through countless junctions, and the paths themselves bent and curved, Col’s sense of direction had long since been rendered useless. A faint ray of sunlight occasionally peeked through the ceiling, allowing him to make out Myuri’s fluffy silver tail as she crawled ahead of him. Though he knew that if Myuri, who had her ears and tail out, was using her powers as a wolf, then they would not get lost, he was still uneasy.
They were currently in the remnants of a sewage system, left behind by Rausbourne’s long history.
“Almost there.”
Soon after she replied with that, Myuri suddenly stopped and stuck her nose into that fluffy tail of hers.
“It’s around here…What’s wrong, Brother?”
Col sneezed and responded, “It’s nothing.”
“Ummm…Oh, so there is a board in this spot. Oof,” Myuri said as she raised her back to the ceiling, as though she was going to carry it, and moved it to the side.
She then stuck her head outside and looked around, then motioned for Col to follow.
“We’re here, Brother.”
Myuri lightly hopped into the sunlight and Col followed, sticking his head out of the hole, and there he saw a household garden, overflowing with so many colors, it almost hurt his eyes.
“This is incredible. Look at all the flowers they have at this season.”
“I think I would’ve gotten lost if it wasn’t for this smell.”
Col crawled out beside Myuri, who was brushing away at her knees and untucking her traveler’s cloak, then looked back down at the darkness from which they traversed. It was a holdover from an old era, long before the city was as densely populated as it was now, a waterway that took water from the rivers to feed the nobles’ massive gardens.
When several of the massive plots for the manors went on sale, which came with the development of the city, it seemed to be too much effort to fill the sewers, so they left them as is, but that was how nobles were. They seemed to have let them be for a turbulent situation, and they connected the manors, covered in wooden boards here and there. It also seemed as though there was regular cleaning of the remains themselves, since there were not even any cobwebs to be seen.
“Why did you know about this passageway?”
It was not Hyland but Myuri who said they should go see Clark through this passage. Hyland did not seem to know about it, either.
Myuri moved the board back with her foot, then stomped it in, fixing it in place, then shrugged.
“It’s because you always hear about underground passageways in stories about big cities. And in the courtyard, there was like, this stone pathway thing that suddenly went under the building, so I thought that might be it. And when I was putting my juice-stained clothes away, I asked one of the people from the manor.”
Col had noticed she came back a little late, and that was why. She had been just as filled with curiosity when they went out into town, but she truly was seeing a world totally different from what he saw.
“I didn’t think it’d be useful right away, though. Oh, and I heard Mother and Father used one like it once, too. That’s also what made me notice it.”
Now that she mentioned it, Col felt like he had heard that story from them before.
“Our adventures will be just as great as theirs!”
He was not sure what sort of competition this was supposed to be, but it was true that she had been a great help.
“It doesn’t seem like anyone is staying in this manor at the moment, but we should go before anyone finds us.”
“Someone probably comes by to tend the garden and stuff, yeah. Um, this way.”
Myuri looked around, straining her wolf ears, then walked off toward the direction of the sun. They were not headed for the big road where carriages went by but toward the inside of the residential blocks.
They were in the garden of a large manor, but it did not seem to be of as high a standing as the one Hyland was borrowing, since the gate cut into the wooden fence had only a simple dead bolt on it.
Myuri pressed her ear against the gate to see if she could hear anything, then raised the bolt and opened the gate. Then, there was a small alleyway, much like the one that Sharon led them through on their way to the orphanage.
“Playing tag down here could be a lot of fun,” Myuri said leisurely, and he understood why. The alley was winding, rolling; it was either an un-floored part of someone’s house or a shared washing space, as an ambiguous lived-in atmosphere continued along down the alley.
This was a path that travelers would never find if they stuck only to the big avenues.
“Lead the way.”
“Got it.”
Myuri wore a cloak over her regular clothes, and her wolf ears proudly twitched beneath the hood. The luxurious clothes they borrowed from Hyland also suited her, but Col personally liked her popular attire better.
It was an odd time of day, a little too late for the afternoon but a little too early for evening, so the alley was quiet and empty, and Myuri confidently jogged down it. Col followed the glimpses of the silver tail he saw beneath the robe, in his chest pocket a letter from Hyland detailing their intentions to denounce Eve’s plan and a proposal for peace between the Kingdom and the Church.
In addition to the letter, they planned to persuade Clark to stand between Sharon and the cathedral.
Now was not the time for Col to be modest about the name of the Twilight Cardinal. He could be as humble as he wanted, but there wer
e people out there in the world who wanted to use his name and people who recognized his odd authority.
If he was going to be used and thrown around by anyone, he should at least use it for the path he believed in.
“Brother.”
Just as he was reaffirming his decision, Myuri stopped and turned around.
Behind her was a familiar building.
It was the orphanage Sharon owned.
Col was worried that Clark might be away, but that turned out to be a groundless fear.
He knocked on the door several times, and Clark’s face appeared through the peep window.
“My, my…”
The door opened for him right away, but Clark casually turned his gaze to the space behind them.
“Is it just the two of you?”
“We are here on matters that must be kept from Miss Sharon.”
Clark’s face tensed when he realized they were not there to relax.
“Come in, then.”
He let them in and closed the door behind them.
“Do you mind if we have a word with you?”
“No…I don’t mind. All the noisy boys are out busying themselves at the neighborhood workshop right now.”
No work, no dinner. Col remembered living in an institute like this a long time ago.
He noticed how Clark’s hands were dirtied from ink; he must transcribe while the kids are out.
“Please come in. We still have plenty of sun at this time of day, so it’s warm.”
Clark invited them in and they walked down the hall, and in one of the rooms along the way, little girls were spinning thread into yarn. Off to the side were very young children, who were not old enough to work, napping leisurely.
This sight alone made things seem peaceful, but it was not necessarily certain the orphanage would safely stay in business until these children were of an age where they could sufficiently take care of themselves.
It was depressing to know they had no blood relatives to rely on if things got bad.
“Please take a seat.”
They came to a room facing the courtyard, where there were chairs and a table where Clark had apparently been doing his work, relying on the light of the sun.
Col and Myuri sat beside each other in the rickety chairs, and Clark began speaking in a rather nervous manner.
“The most I can offer you is some cooled boiled water…”
“I don’t mind,” Col responded, then got straight to the point. “We actually came to talk to you about the cathedral.”
Still standing, Clark’s eyes widened for a moment.
The tension in his body then dissipated and he sighed, as though he’d struck upon an idea.
“The way you broached the subject and how you mentioned it needs to be kept from Miss Sharon says to me that this will not be a peaceful topic.”
Clark looked out into the courtyard through the open window, then folded his hands together before him like a scolded boy.
“I would like to know if there’s anything I can do to help…”
“Our goal is to have the cathedral and Miss Sharon and the tax collectors reconcile. I was hoping you would be able to pass the message on to a priest at the cathedral.”
Even with all her authority, Hyland was still apparently unable to open the door to the cathedral. They would not even open the outside gates if the Twilight Cardinal, the standard-bearer for Church reform, nonchalantly showed up.
But if Clark was the one to speak to them, then perhaps Col would be able to convey what he wanted to say.
That was what he had in mind, but Clark’s response was curt.
“That’s not possible.”
“…Passing on a message, you mean? Or—”
“Either.”
Despite how short and frank Clark’s words were, his gaze was weakly directed at the floor. When Col realized how inconsistent that seemed, Clark closed his eyes and spoke.
“I have a request as well.”
He then turned to look straight at Col, and what he said next stunned him.
“I have to ask you to leave this city.”
Of course, Col had predicted that he would refuse to pass on the message.
But he had not dreamed of hearing what Clark had just said.
“Please don’t ask anything else and leave. And please separate yourself from the trouble with Sharon and the Church.”
Clark was a full-fledged priest who received benefices from the Church. The Twilight Cardinal, who was pressuring the Church to reform, was, in a sense, the enemy.
And yet, they came to ask Clark because he had been born in similar circumstances as Sharon, and he was helping operate the orphanage for her. Not only that, he was going against the Church’s will by transcribing the common-language translation of the scripture that Col had done and was placing them in chapels throughout the city. It was hard to think that his excitement when they’d first met was an act.
It was too much of a surprise to hear such a man tell them to step back and leave the city that Col did not know how to respond. Clark himself also seemed to be bewildered by the words that had come out of his own mouth, as his eyes darted left and right and he bit his lip.
There was that odd inconsistency again. The words he spoke were harsh, but he acted like a weak little lamb.
The sigh Col heard from beside him was Myuri’s, as though lamenting that there were now two of her meek older brother.
“My brother is on Sharon’s side. But we still have to leave?”
Clark looked like he’d had a wound prodded.
“…”
He silently nodded in response.
When Col looked at the other man’s expression, he suddenly noticed that all he could see was that his command to leave was not how he truly felt.
“Has the cathedral been threatening you?”
It was uncertain if the cathedral was aware that the Twilight Cardinal was in town, but it would not be out of place if he had been given strict orders to never listen to discourse from anyone who sided with the Kingdom.
There were plenty of children in the orphanage who could be used as hostages.
And Clark shook his head.
“No. They are still hiding behind the stone walls, holding their breath. They’re praying things will take care of themselves.”
Despite his sad expression, there were sharp thorns to his words. It was similar to the anger that came with exasperation.
“Then, why?”
When Col asked again, Clark shook his head slowly.
The deep breath he took next was his way of collecting something.
“Why do you think Sharon has placed me here?”
There was a clear hint of something akin to hostility in the gaze Clark gave Col.
“Because…you’re just like Miss Sharon…”
“Yes. But that is not all. You know what Sharon’s like. She’s so young, and despite being a woman, she’s gathered all the people who have been tossed aside by the Church, organized them, and displayed the genius that eventually made her the vice president of the tax collector association. She would not place someone like me here for that reason alone.”
He spat it out, deprecating himself in a way that even felt like desperation.
Col unconsciously turned to look at Myuri, and she looked at him in bewilderment.
“Sharon thought she could use me, so she left me in charge of managing this orphanage. When the benefices stopped, I was truly left out in the cold, so this was my lifeline. There was also a side of atonement to it, one where I might be able to do at least something about the dirty parts of the Church.” Clark spoke quickly, as though hurling out everything he had kept bottled up. He then took a deep breath and continued. “Sharon placed me here not at all because she felt an affinity for me because of our similar origins but because she needed my position. Just like you.” His face twisted in surrender when he said that. “Sharon was hoping to reconcile with the cathedral at first.
And so she placed me here as a liaison just for that.”
Col was both surprised and hopeful when he heard Sharon was thinking about reconciliation.
“In that case, that is all the more reason to help, is it not? I—”
“No, it’s useless,” Clark said, cutting him off.
“…Useless?”
“Yes. Do you know why Sharon has such darkness in her eyes…? At first, she was hopeful for her—no, for our father.”
There suddenly came the sound of a crying child from the hallway behind them. It soon quieted down; the girls spinning the thread probably calmed them down.
When the crying stopped and all became quiet again, Clark continued in a tired tone.
“Sharon and the others have not always been this radical. At first, when she was generously gifted with the rights to tax collection, she realized it was the perfect chance for drifters to reestablish their lives, so she wandered around to help those from similar circumstances and created an association in which they could help one another. It was not for bloody revenge at all.”
There was a side of Sharon that burned with the hatred to drag out the priests from the cathedral, no matter the cost, and string them up by the road, and the other side to her that looked on at the children of the orphanage with kindness.
For whatever reason, those two sides of her ended up splitting.
“But as she worked as a tax collector in the city, she came to learn that several of these ‘uncles’ worked in the cathedral. She used tax collection as her lead to try and talk with them. The cathedral gates had been closed and the high-ranking priests holed up inside, even back then, but she figured they would respond to tax collection, which had the backing of royal authority.”
It was the same logic that Ilenia had.
“But none of the high-ranking priests responded, including the archbishop. If they did, then they would have to acknowledge their own sins.”
Clark’s mouth twisted in irony; Col knew how he felt.
If they did not recognize it existed, then it did not exist—it was the same thing.
That was how the Church had accumulated so many evils.
“But if that was all, I don’t think Sharon and the others would have turned out like they did.”
Wolf & Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf, Vol. 4 Page 18
