Immortal's Ascending Path - 49
Episode-49< Royal Wedding >
"What in the world is going on?"
Count Mayer Willem asked as he stepped forward inside the dark temple. Splat. He looked down and saw blood pooling on the floor. The blood of the Archbishop, who had fallen from the platform, flowed down the stairs and soaked the floor.
"I don't know." Roberta looked down at the Archbishop and said, "He was already dead when I found him."
The Archbishop looked like a sleeping old man. His expression was peaceful. His eyes and mouth were closed, and his pale skin was obscured by the orange light of the oil lamps. The blood he shed only deepened the color of his originally red Priest robes, so at first glance, one could not recognize his death.
Roberta had come to the temple with Fritz to call for this old man, because Ulrich had sent word to him in the morning that he had something urgent to say, but there was no news.
However, when the two entered the temple, they smelled a fishy odor in the silence. The temple, with all its doors closed, was filled with the smell of blood, and they discovered the Archbishop's body.
"Didn't you meet him this morning?"
"Yes. I came to see him again to convey Ulrich-nim's message."
"Was there anything strange then?"
When Willem asked if there was anything strange about the surrounding situation or his attitude, Roberta shook her head silently.
The meeting in the morning had been uneventful. She had simply told him that the adopted son of Ditmarsken wanted to see him at night because he had something urgent to say. And the Archbishop had agreed.
"What about the guards?"
Willem asked Fritz.
"They're all dead."
It was too dark to see, but bodies were scattered throughout the temple. They were the ones who had been sent to the Archbishop's side as soon as the nobles arrived in the capital, Icelandburg.
Their bodies, like the Archbishop's, had traces of being stabbed and cut by weapons. There was no sign of the perpetrator's body or other traces.
"The Archbishop isn't as skilled in combat as a wizard, but…" Willem muttered to himself. "To take care of the guards so quietly like this?"
"Who could have done this?"
Fritz looked troubled.
"It's definitely not the Pantheon."
As Willem spoke, Ulrich climbed the stairs and knelt on one knee in front of the Archbishop. Then, he placed his right hand on the old man's forehead and closed his eyes.
"The Pantheon… Cormilius would never do such a thing. The Archbishop did refuse the summons, but not to the extent that he would resort to this."
Roberta inwardly agreed with that statement. Even if the Archbishop had committed a greater sin, it would have been the same. The Pantheon couldn't afford to do that.
They were preparing for a full-scale war with the Yocoster Dynasty's Empire. The Empire was different from the Osnober Kingdom. Because the Emperor's foundation was solid, there would be many Priests who would ignore the excommunication and the Priest summons and take his side.
"Likewise, it's neither the clans nor the nobles."
Then there was only one candidate left.
Heretics, under the name of non-divinity.
Ulrich had said it before. The heretics, those heretics, believed that the third era created by Cormilius and the Public Church itself were false. Also, they had been branded as heretics and hunted down for over a thousand years, so their hatred had reached its peak.
They had annihilated a village near the capital, Icelandburg, not just anywhere else. Now that their activities had been proven, there was no way that their group wouldn't be in this city.
Above all, from their point of view, wasn't the current situation a golden opportunity? If Osnover King Richard won, the Pantheon's power would be greatly weakened, and even if Richard lost, the damage would not be insignificant. Either way, there was no loss.
"The only ones who benefit from killing the Archbishop are those bastards."
The Archbishop was a mediator and a clue to the solution.
Ulrich was trying to persuade the emerging nobles by using him as a guarantor. Because there was no other evidence to prove it right away. No matter how much he talked about past connections, the inside story of the incident, there was no evidence or it was insufficient.
Unless it was someone like Roberta and the Hilderson clan who knew Ulrich's actions and had faith in him, the truth he spoke was just nonsense.
Therefore, the position of the Archbishop of the Public Church had to support the claim. But with the death of Archbishop Vinicio, the foundation disappeared.
"We have to hide the body right away. Fritz, go to the palace."
Fritz was surprised and asked, "Yes?"
"Hide it? The body?"
"Yes, we can't let the fact that the Archbishop is dead be known like this."
"Even if we hide it, we won't be able to hide the fact that His Excellency has disappeared. Wouldn't it be more problematic if it was revealed that we hid it?"
"Still, they won't think that the Archbishop is dead right away."
Even if an ordinary Priest died a violent death, there would be a big commotion, but Vinicio was the Bishop in charge of the dioceses throughout the kingdom. What if the group gathered here to seek forgiveness from the Pantheon realized the death of the Archbishop?
"It's better for them to think that Richard is holding the Archbishop hostage. Then, on the contrary, they might be quiet."
"But that's…"
"It's not a fundamental solution."
Willem looked at Ulrich.
He had been closing his eyes for a while, but he opened them again.
"Roberta, the seal of Vinicio."
"I haven't taken the seal yet."
Ulrich took out a circular seal from the Archbishop's chest. It had a similar appearance to the seal that the apprentice Priest Tapio had in the village blessed by Kunkan. However, the Archbishop's was made of silver.
It was given as a memento to those who received the Priesthood, and over time, a custom arose to dedicate the seal to the Pantheon if the Priest died in a foreign land.
The Archbishop's seal had blood sticking to it. Ulrich wiped off the blood. The symbol of Nenus, the god of the sea, was revealed.
"······."
He looked down at it for a moment, then handed it to Roberta.
#
As dawn broke, people went outside the city.
There was a temporary structure in an empty lot a little away from the west gate, which was a rectangular jousting arena. It was built under the direction of King Richard immediately after the royal marriage was decided.
Roberta walked through the crowd entering the arena. She wore plain clothes instead of Priest robes, and Fritz, also in plain clothes, followed beside her. Ulrich was not there. He sent the two ahead, saying he would follow later.
She found a seat among the commoners. The seats were divided into three sections. The king and the royal family, as well as guests including dwarves, were seated at the top, centered on the jousting arena, and the Hilderson clan and the emerging nobles on the Pantheon side were seated on the left and right.
"There are a lot of empty seats." Fritz said.
More than half were empty. Because it was expected that chaos would soon break out, countless people had packed their bags and fled the city since the day before.
"It's strange that this many seats are filled."
The empty seats were the same on the noble side. Those who were not in their seats would be waiting at the garrison. So that they could bring soldiers and start a battle if necessary.
Roberta looked around at the audience. There were few people smiling, and tension and vigilance were evident in their expressions. Even when they spoke, they whispered closely, as if they were whispering.
"It's strange when you look at it that way."
"What's strange?"
"Both sides have brought troops. Isn't it natural that they should fight right away? Is there a case where they set up a jousting arena and play around like now?"
'No,' Roberta replied, licking her dry lips with her tongue.
As Fritz said, it was a strange atmosphere. To hold a jousting match while tens of thousands of soldiers were divided into two factions and confronting each other? Someone would have shouted that someone was playing a joke, but they didn't.
Both sides attended without objection. And they looked at each other cautiously. They glared at each other as if they had made a promise that if the other side didn't touch them, they wouldn't touch them either.
"Ulrich-nim said it, didn't he? That no one wants a civil war."
It was the fear that civil war had planted. The prevailing fear was that if they took a wrong step, they might fall into the quagmire of civil war again. They had drawn their swords because there was no other choice, but they were in a delicate situation where they didn't really want to wield them.
Because of this, the jousting match was held as scheduled in the midst of the confrontation, and a banquet was scheduled to be held when the darkness was soaked in. If nothing went wrong, they would attend the banquet while maintaining this subtle atmosphere.
The jousting match was quiet throughout. Even when the spears and shields collided and noise was made, cheers and jeers did not follow. Knights came out and fought, shedding blood, but at best, there were only grumbling noises among the citizens.
It was because no one could concentrate on the game. In particular, the secular lords were busy watching what moves the opponent across the street would make.
'Today, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.'
Roberta looked up at the gloomy sky.
It had been clear until yesterday, but clouds began to gather from the morning, and there was a smell of wet soil. It was a smell that foretold rain. A drop of rain fell on her nose.
'If we're going to cause chaos, now is the chance.'
She calmly looked at the scenery of the jousting arena. After a while, her eyes stopped on a certain man. He had a thick beard, a red face, and disheveled hair, and was mixed in with the commoners.
Intuition whispered that it was Ulrich. It was completely different from the disguise she had seen at the wizard's base, but she recognized him. That scruffy man was Ulrich, and he had his eyes fixed on a certain place.
Following his gaze, she saw a middle-aged man in neat clothes. He was watching the jousting match with his legs crossed without any expression.
'Why is he looking at that person?'
Ulrich, who had been carefully watching the other person, stood up one after another when the middle-aged man stood up and left the audience seats. Roberta also hurriedly got up from her seat.
"Where are you going?"
She silently conveyed only the shape of her mouth, Ulrich. Fritz widened his eyes and chased after her, and the two of them left the arena at their usual pace so as not to attract the attention of others.
Outside the arena, there were many tents. But there was no one there, and there was no sign of Ulrich and the middle-aged man they were chasing. Roberta pricked up her ears and passed between the tents.
On one side, the sound of metal clashing followed one after another.
"This way."
"Yes?"
"I can hear the sound from here."
When they approached a certain tent, the sound of metal became deafening. Roberta and Fritz put their hands on their waists and muffled their footsteps.
A wind carrying the smell of soil blew. Four people could be seen beyond the open passage, three of whom were surrounding one person.
The expressions of the three people were rough. They were sweating, their faces were red, and their breathing was rough. On the other hand, the man standing in front of them with a sword in his hand, the disguised Ulrich, stood silently.
"You have a deep mercy in your hands?"
"I still have a lot to ask you. Don't do anything foolish."
"Foolish things." The man in the middle of the three smiled. He was the middle-aged man whom Ulrich had been chasing from the audience seats. "It doesn't matter anymore, does it? You already know everything, don't you?"
Roberta and Fritz went inside, but no one paid attention. Ulrich looked at the three people, and the three people only looked at Ulrich.
"You know what we did, what we want, and what you have to do, don't you? Is there anything you don't know? Ulrich-nim of Ditmarsken?"