Clark dropped his shoulders and turned his gaze outside.
The hues of evening were starting to creep into the afternoon sunlight, which illuminated the man’s profile as he reminisced.
“What happened?”
Col prodded him to continue, and Clark closed his eyes, not bothering to turn back to him.
“You happened, Your Eminence.”
He then turned to Col, his tone and gaze completely different from the first time they’d met—they were filled with anger.
“You raising the beacon for reform in Atiph was the cause of all this. The priests remaining in the Kingdom were thrown into confusion and asked for instructions from the papal office on the mainland. The response was to absolutely not compromise. But then, after the commotion in Atiph, there came word that the northern islands, which could be seen as allies of both the Church and the heretics, were starting to work together with the Kingdom. Word of how the archbishop who the papal office had directly dispatched had been chased away and pulled back in dejection was talked about all throughout the city.”
The archbishop was the one who had been on the Ruvik Alliance ship and had tried to get Autumn and company on his side with money. Rausbourne was a port city, so the news had probably reached here through the sailors’ word of mouth.
“By then, an air of unease had enveloped the city, where a lot of merchants from abroad come to stay. The Church will not allow the Kingdom to hold the dominant position at this rate. There is a rumor they will surely start a war sooner or later.”
The powers had to protect their power.
And Col and Hyland sought to reform the Church, which endangered their authority.
“Sharon and the others still saw hope. If the situation got so desperate that war ended up breaking out, then their ‘uncles’ would likely cross over to the mainland in order to avoid being taken prisoner. If that happened, in the end, they might at least listen to what their children had to say.”
People expected goodwill from others because they had the same kindness within them.
Sharon seemed to be naturally realistic and could not ignore other people in trouble.
That was why she hoped for the best.
“And they were betrayed?”
Clark smiled sadly, restlessly clasping his hands together and then separating them.
“The decision the archbishop and company came to was not to set up an opportunity to talk with Sharon and the others but to make the merchants their allies.”
Col recalled the commotion in the harbor, and it had not felt at all like they had mutually approached each other.
“The Kingdom is getting stronger every day, thanks to all you’ve done, and the tax collectors they back have deduced that they should be able to push through to the Church as they are now. Do you understand how shocked Sharon was when the cathedral placed the traders’ association on their side to stand against them head-on? Even though their ‘uncles’ could see war brewing on the horizon, they still refused to bear the brunt of the attack.”
Clark’s accusatory gaze did not so much seem like one of a foolish lamb who had been innocently at the whims of the world but one who blamed himself.
It was clear that when Sharon heard the archbishop’s answer, she came here to the orphanage and suffered before Clark. And perhaps that made him aware of his weakness.
Col knew, too, that prayers were entirely powerless in real-world problems.
But Clark continued to speak, signaling that there was more to it than that.
“But…but Sharon and I were disappointed in them because they’re really not bad people.”
They were not bad people?
As Col found himself bewildered by that, a vexed smile crept into Clark’s expression.
“The priests know I am taking care of children at the orphanage Sharon maintains. It might be a big city, but you can’t really hide anything. But instead of reprimanding me, they went through people to even give donations to keep the house running. Sharon probably has a faint idea of what’s happening, too.”
Col’s mind was filled with confusion.
The archbishop and company were donating to this orphanage? Even despite how they refused to talk, rejected the notion of fighting themselves, and even got the traders’ association on their side in order to strong arm the tax collectors?
While Col did not understand it all, Myuri murmured.
“Real bad people are hard to find.”
Clark’s eyes widened; then he slowly nodded.
“Right. As Sharon and the others toughened their attitudes and got even more radical, I listened to the thoughts of the high-ranking priests and the archbishops, and I didn’t know what to say. They did not put the merchants on their side because they thought Sharon and her friends were getting in the way.”
When Col saw Myuri shrug in annoyance, he interjected in spite of himself.
“P-please wait. I do not understand what you’re saying to me. According to what I’ve heard, the cathedral got the merchants on their side and were planning to go ahead with the war with the Kingdom now that they had the advantage. Not only that, but you say that is the priests’ plan, and they refused a direct confrontation with Miss Sharon and the others. And yet—”
Was it not to antagonize Sharon and the tax collectors?
Col was tormented by something that felt like seasickness, as if he was standing in a swamp and did not know where to place his feet.
Clark flashed a kind smile, as though signaling he understood his confusion.
“It is perplexing, isn’t it? I was the same. But when I listened to them, I understood where they were coming from. The priests are not all evil, but of course, they are not all good, either.”
After a brief pause, he continued.
“The archbishop and company need to show the papal office that they are fighting with the Kingdom so they don’t lose their position. That being said, they are afraid a real war will evolve from this and that they will have to cross swords with Sharon and the tax collectors. While the Kingdom might be gaining momentum, the power of the Church organization is massive. The priests higher up thought that if they end up going to war, they will, without a doubt, win, even if that isn’t in anyone’s best interests. What do you think would happen then? The priests, now on the winning side, would be made to burn at the stake the heretics who bared their fangs at the Church.”
And who was at the forefront of it all?
Sharon and the tax collectors.
“No parent could hang their own children and let them burn. They are good at their core. They donate to this orphanage—that means they haven’t forgotten their sense of guilt. If they are guilty of anything, it’s their reluctance to commit to anything and their attachment to their positions. As a result, they’ve turned into pitiful lost lambs who don’t want to do anything in particular, and unluckily for them, they’re clever. They have power. So they organized the traders and worked out a plan to put the Kingdom in a disadvantageous position, then prayed the Kingdom would compromise.”
What for?
It was obvious.
“It’s so they don’t have to go to war with the Kingdom, Brother.”
So that they would win the war and so Sharon and the others would not be burned at the stake.
If they could lead the Kingdom into compromising by creating an absolutely advantageous position, then they could win without fighting; that was the possibility that Myuri had mentioned straightaway. Most of war was the fighting before the actual exchange of fire, an exchange of bluffs to make the opponent think that fighting would be unproductive for them.
In that regard, the idea of getting the merchants on their side was a brilliant step.
They protected their position on the outside while also making sure that Sharon and the others were safe.
“But when Sharon and the others heard that, it was instead almost like their last hopes had been severed. They knew they could not separate the pr
iests as truly evil, nor could they expect them to repent for reconciliation. They were lost, unable to forget their anger regarding the very people who had dropped them into misfortune but also unable to confront them, and that lost feeling easily turned into hatred.”
Sharon had said the only way to set them straight was to crush them all at once.
That was what that meant.
Their noncommittal attitude certainly must have been irritating to Sharon and the others. In the end, the priests continued to turn away from their past sins and continued on stringing together flowery words on the surface.
However, after hearing all that, the anger Col felt was not toward the selfishness of the priests but toward Eve and the merchants.
While it was born from a warped conscience and a weak heart, the priests were still making plans to avoid war with the tax collectors. On the other hand, Eve and company were almost sneering at them, trying to use them.
Eve and company were making plans on the presumption that war was already going to be happening, and they were even thinking about starting it themselves. Were they unaware of what the archbishop was planning? Unlikely.
They were trying to turn blood and tears into money.
For a moment, he thought about telling Clark. If he told him that the merchants were using the priests’ intentions, then he might relay the message to them.
But then what? The only result he could imagine was that the priests would cut the merchants off and then stiffen up, unable to trust anyone else. The only thing that would happen was that his small sense of justice would be fulfilled. That would just be an inconvenient reality for the merchants, and they would only wish they could have used them more effectively.
Could they leverage that reality to keep Eve from acting? Even if reconciliation was impossible, perhaps they could at least create a platform for them to talk with the archbishop. Otherwise…
“Brother?”
Myuri called out to him, and he snapped back to reality.
“S-sorry…There’s a lot to think about…”
Myuri sighed lightly, then turned to Clark.
“Okay, but why?”
“Huh?”
“What about that whole thing makes you want my brother to leave? Reconciliation might not be possible, but there’s no questioning that he’s on the chi…Sharon’s side.”
She was right. Or maybe it was her way of asking him not to throw the place into any more confusion.
The Twilight Cardinal was a big deal to society.
However, if he were just big and did not move quickly enough, he would be like a bull in a china shop. No matter what he tried to do, it would just make a mess of things.
Clark raised his head and gave a tired smile.
“Don’t you understand? It’s because I can’t renounce the priests. I’m at fault for the same sins.”
The smile he wore was one that was beginning to melt, one that appeared only after crying one’s heart out. Myuri looked as if her heart had been broken when she saw Clark like that.
It was a grown-up expression, different from the ones Col knew well.
“Do you like her?”
When she asked that question, Clark gulped, closed his eyes, and gritted his teeth.
“…Yes. That is why I have no right to renounce the priests and the archbishop. I’m a priest, but I’m attracted to Sharon, and that is why I agreed to manage the orphanage. At the same time…” Clark’s lightless eyes turned to Col. “I cannot stand the thought of you being her ally instead of me. It’s such a pity. It’s nothing more than jealousy…”
There was no such thing as a guiltless priest. The scripture even said that people are born with sin in the first place, and that is why everyone must constantly pray to God for salvation.
Clark was not a saint; he was a regular, kind young man.
What pained him was that he was earnestly thinking of Sharon, but at the same time, he had true faith.
When Clark closed his eyes and hung his head, Col found himself reaching out to him, but Myuri grabbed Col.
She looked at him and shook her head.
“Let’s go, Brother.”
Myuri’s keen eyes told him that they could not expect Clark to help them and that anything they could say would only hurt him. Col dropped his hand, and relief crossed Myuri’s face, as though he had put down a weapon.
Nothing would get done if they stayed here. Despite knowing that, Col could not leave behind a man whose heart was about to be crushed by a giant stone mill.
He stood planted to the spot, but Myuri pulled at him and he finally took a step, as though his roots were being torn out.
“If only Sharon and I had been brother and sister like you two.”
The sudden statement froze Myuri in place, her shoulders raised and tense.
She had been trying to somehow overrule her little-sister relationship with Col.
She probably wanted to instantly correct him, but she must have thought that was not mature of her.
She walked off again without looking back, and it occurred to Col that her profile seemed terribly stiff.
“Myuri?”
As they made their way down the hall, Col unwittingly called her name, and she closed her eyes, slowly inhaled, then spoke.
“I’m not always going to be your little sister.”
When she looked up at him with her usual huffy expression, he relaxed.
“I hope you won’t always be such a handful of a little sister.”
Myuri puffed her cheeks in anger, and a girl just carrying sheep’s wool to the room stared up at them.
They left the orphanage without a send-off, and when a chilly breeze blew over them, a remnant of winter despite how bright it was, Col unconsciously sighed. He had totally made the relationship between the priests in the cathedral and Sharon and the tax collectors worse. And Clark, who was supposed to be their last hope to bring both parties together, was no longer able to reprimand the priests because of the affection he felt for Sharon.
But it had not been entirely fruitless.
“Also, Brother?”
“What is it?”
She tugged on his sleeve and he looked to her.
“Did you get the whole point of the conversation?”
She glared at him, the natural progression of the huffy look she just wore.
“That failure of yours taught us something super important.”
He did not think Clark was a failure of his, but he was ready to admit that they were of a similar pedigree.
“Is it about Miss Eve?” he responded, and Myuri puckered her lips and raised her eyebrow slightly.
“Huh…Looks like you’ve grown up a little.”
He was not sure how he felt hearing that from the girl whose diapers he used to change, but she had done good work at the Golden Fern, so he would not be able to argue for a while.
“That evil fox said she wasn’t planning on actually fighting with the people in the Church, but she tricked us! She’s awful!”
She cursed them—Myuri was full of mischief herself, so perhaps she did not like how similar they were.
“Miss Eve is trying to start a war, regardless of how the archbishop and the priests feel. They explained they were trying to make it so neither side wins, though…”
He was not sure if they truly would be able to pull off something like that, and he could imagine Sharon and the other tax collectors being made responsible for starting the war. Even though, most importantly, no one would be happy in the event of a war, Eve alone was sitting in the deepest, darkest place, under layers and layers of webs, elegantly sipping her wine.
But they found out where she was and had a grasp on the heart of their scheme.
“Myuri.”
Col called her name, and Myuri, who had been walking ahead of him, stopped and turned around.
“Yeeeaaah?”
She deliberately extended the word, responding with a childish tone.
He
r red eyes were like those of a puppy, and she knew they would earn her some playtime.
“I cannot overlook Miss Eve’s plan, and someone needs to save Miss Sharon.”
Both corners of Myuri’s mouth pulled taut in a grin.
Her ears and tail appeared, without her even bothering to look around and check their surroundings.
“I want you to stay the cool older brother you are. Of course”—she impishly clung to his arm—“on the condition that I’m your sword and your shield.”
They would be working together as one.
There was no set way for them to complement what the other lacked.
“If I ever feel like I’ll lose my footing, I remember I have you, and I can keep steady.”
Myuri’s ears and tail flicked about and she asked, “So what are you gonna do?”
“We will go threaten…Ahem. Request Miss Eve cooperate with us. On the audacious name of the Twilight Cardinal, that is.”
“Oh-ho? You finally said it.”
There was a hint of wickedness in her smile.
“We’re going fox hunting, Brother!”
But it was a smile he could rely on.
They quickly found out where Eve was in Rausbourne. The knights who acted as Hyland’s guard arrested the people watching the manor and got the answer out of them.
Eve apparently had no particular intentions of hiding where she was, however, so the watchers immediately gave up her location, which turned out to be one of Rausbourne’s so-called public buildings.
When Hyland inquired at the city council, they also learned Eve had gone through the proper channels to use it for trade, since she would be staying for a while.
It was very much like Eve to seem as though she was plotting all sorts of things and also to do everything that needed to be done properly.
“Speak up if anything happens. I’ll place my knights nearby.”
They came close to where Eve was staying and got off their horse.
There were three other horses of excellent build; Hyland rode one, two knights rode the remaining two, and there were also two guards on foot. When Col told her what Clark had said and how deep Eve’s foxhole went, Hyland completely regarded Eve as the enemy.
“The best of luck to you.”
Wolf & Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf, Vol. 4 Page 19
