Immortal's Ascending Path-51
Episode-51< Royal Wedding (Revised) >
The heavy rain briefly paused and became lighter. The drumbeats and trumpet sounds that had pierced the rain also ceased.
Having climbed all the stairs, Roberta silently gazed at the back of Ulrich, who had his hand on the railing. He was contemplating the scene from the royal box at the jousting arena.
Silence still lingered in the arena. Although there were hundreds of people, they were quiet and speechless. The anomaly had stolen their souls. Each person was trying to understand the anomaly.
They wanted to know why mana couldn't be felt, why mana had disappeared, and why mana had returned. However, few people here knew the reason, and Roberta was one of those few.
'He touched the celestial registry.'
As before, was the unspoken thought that followed.
She remembered the village of Tapio, the apprentice Priest. What had Ulrich done in that village blessed by the evil god Kunkan? He had taken the names listed in Kunkan's registry and newly inscribed them in the registries of Dieus and Ganymea.
Lord Matthias's wife, Oxana, was the same. The witch who had turned her stepdaughter into a four-legged beast had transformed into a crow and fled, only to lose her mana and collapse.
At the time, it was assumed that Oxana had made a ridiculous mistake, causing the magic to unravel. But looking back now, he had been tampering with the celestial registry right in front of her since then.
"Ulrich, my Lord."
As Roberta approached, Ulrich turned around. He hadn't removed his disguise, so he looked like a forty-year-old man with a thick beard. No matter how many times she saw it, his disguise was skillful.
"How did you leave Moretti?"
"Fritz is in charge with the patrol. Shall I bring him?"
She added that they were interrogating the captured three conspirators.
"No, there's no need. It won't mean much."
"Meaningless?"
"They are the tail. Not the masterminds behind the incident we witnessed, but severed tails. Don't you know? Is the skill of those three enough to harm the Archbishop?"
"Not to that extent… They were quite skilled, though."
Archbishop Vinicio, who was assassinated in the temple, had several guards. To kill him without causing a stir, considerable skill would be required, but in her opinion, Moretti and his companions were not that skilled.
"That's right. The mastermind we're looking for is someone else."
Besides the three captured conspirators, there was another mastermind. The person who created the massive flow of mana when confronting Moretti, Ulrich identified that person as the key mastermind behind the incident.
"A person who can easily kill the Archbishop along with his guards, and also create a massive flow of mana while evading the watchers' eyes."
"Could that person still be here?"
"I believe they have left for the time being."
Hearing the words 'for the time being,' Roberta surveyed the arena. The silence was breaking with long-winded conversations. People who had recovered from the shock and regained stability were murmuring.
The Hilderson clan and the rising nobles on the Pantheon side stared at each other with wide eyes. The hands gripping their weapons tightened.
The civil war was not over. Because nothing that caused it had been resolved. They were just bewildered by the unexpected anomaly, and it would soon resume.
"Then they will come again."
"If we don't settle it now, they will."
She asked in a low voice, her gaze fixed on the arena.
"Are you going to reveal it directly here?"
Instead of answering, Ulrich smiled lightly. Then, he reached behind his head, tied up his rain-soaked brown hair, and removed some of his beard to tidy up his appearance.
Having transformed from a scruffy forty-year-old middle-aged man into a neat thirty-year-old man, he turned his body and placed his hand on the railing. Then, Count Meyer Willem, who had been watching him intently since he arrived here, shouted.
"Silence!"
The commotion stopped abruptly.
People turned their gaze to Willem, then realized that his and King Richard's gazes were directed at the same place. Heads moved following that gaze.
And they found Ulrich. Receiving countless gazes, he looked around at the audience once before finally opening his mouth.
"Greetings. I am Ulrich, Ulrich of Ditmarsken."
Many people were surprised. Most of the audience looked at Ulrich with disbelief, and among them was the Hilderson clan. However, they silently gasped and closed their mouths.
"It's hard to believe, isn't it? You must have thought of me as a wrinkled old man, doubting whether I am truly Duke Ulrich of Ditmarsken. And if I am, you must want to ask how my appearance can be so young."
Several people nodded.
"This appearance is due to my inner power. That inner power is special but not singular, and another part of it is what you have just experienced."
The audience soon widened their eyes.
"I temporarily took away the source from which you can hold mana. Of course, I returned it because I had no intention of harming you."
Roberta saw someone opening their mouth to utter a suspicion. He was about to shout but flinched and turned his face away when he met Ulrich's gaze.
They doubted how a human could do such a thing, but the thought that it might be true caused fear. This was true for all the audience except for the clan.
Ulrich briefly scanned the audience before asking.
"Let me ask you one thing. In the history you have learned, has there ever been a person who performed such a feat?"
There wasn't. Even Roberta, who had studied at higher institutions, had only read passages in the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha about the registry being changed. She had never seen a passage where someone used their power to move the registry.
If she was like this, there was no way the rising nobles, who were not well-educated due to the civil war, would know.
"Let me ask you one more thing. If you were the head of the Public Church, or the direct descendant of Cormilius, what would you do with a human who has such a talent?"
There had never been anyone in history with the same abilities as Ulrich, but there had been several people with strange talents.
Each time, the Public Church judged the talented person and questioned the source. Whether the source of the talent was with an evil god or a good god. If it was with an evil god, they were considered a minion and beheaded, and if it was with a good god, they were revered as saints.
"Since I have lived for a long time as a human and have not been evaluated as a minion of an evil god, and since you have heard whispers from the Priests that you should offer the throne to me, you can roughly guess the Public Church's judgment."
Several people in the audience groaned.
"There's no need to be flustered. Who would just watch such a talent quietly? The Pantheon would be no different. Because of this, I have been receiving offers my whole life, and I have been rejecting them until now. One of them was refusing the throne even after ending the chaos that occurred in this country."
But, he added.
"At that time, what the Public Church, no, the Pantheon, offered me was not just a simple throne. You Priests believe that the Pantheon behind the scenes granted me the legitimacy of Osnover, but the crown I received was the crown worn by the Emperor."
Beyond surprise, astonishment erupted. The audience swallowed their breaths. It was the same reaction Roberta had when she first heard the story.
It couldn't be helped. The owner of the Pantheon was the Cormilius clan, and they had established the Third Empire. The fact that they handed the imperial crown to Ulrich meant that he had received a proposal to overthrow the Third Empire and inaugurate the Fourth Age of Humanity.
"Can you prove it?"
A noble who couldn't stand it any longer raised his voice.
"Can you prove that your words are true?"
"Unfortunately, there is no material evidence. The situation proceeded verbally, and the only evidence, the imperial crown, was melted down as soon as I received it. And I made it into the crown that my son is wearing now."
However, he continued and turned his head. As the audience turned their faces following Ulrich, a dwarf was standing in a certain part of the audience. Toruhel Alladelione, a dwarf from the Peira Pass.
Roberta remembered Toruhel sitting as a guest in the royal box. Unfortunately, he had not been able to escape outside before the civil war broke out, and he seemed to have fled to the corner of the audience to avoid being caught up in the fighting.
"Toruhel from the Peira Pass, would you tell us what you made?"
The dwarf Toruhel flinched as hundreds of gazes were simultaneously directed at him, but he cleared his throat, trying to ease the tension.
"···What Duke Ditmarsken said is true. We brothers made the imperial crown. We received a request from the Cormilius clan, and they said it was an imperial crown to be given to the Emperor who would newly reign in Osnover."
Following that, Toruhel explained that the reason he came to Osnover was that he had received the sad news that the imperial crown he had made was damaged, so he came to check.
"Thank you for telling us. Now, does anyone else have anything to say?"
There were no further comments. The audience hardened their expressions and avoided eye contact. Would it be difficult to set up one dwarf actor? However, the anomaly they had experienced was too great to dismiss Ulrich's claims as nonsense.
Ulrich said that he had taken away the source from which they could hold mana, and there was no one who did not know what that meant. And when their thoughts extended to this point, the reason why the Public Church had recommended him was also resolved.
A person with such power, and he is young even though he has lived for hundreds of years? Would the act of making him Emperor be absurd?
In today's world, where the conflict between the Cormilius clan and the Yokaster dynasty has reached its peak, it was natural to look for a substitute, and wasn't he the most suitable person?
Even if the audience did not know the secret stories that Roberta or the Hilderson clan had encountered, it was not difficult for them to understand and sympathize with what Ulrich was saying.
"The story I have told so far is the reason why my son, Richard, is at odds with the Public Church, and the inside story of the chaos we have experienced today. It's because of my talent and my vague nature. I apologize to you."
Ulrich briefly lowered his head. Then, an uncomfortable groan flowed from among the Hilderson clan.
"If you wish, my son will step down from his position. If there is someone to receive the abdication, I will hand it over. But keep in mind. If you have risen up hoping for the forgiveness of the Pantheon, it is a futile act."
He hinted that the Public Church would not change its stance unless someone wore the imperial crown. There was no one who did not understand the meaning of those words.
"There is no reason for us to fight any more. If you promise to sheathe your swords and grant a grace period, I will also promise. I will visit the Pantheon to withdraw the excommunication issued to my son and also withdraw the Priest summons issued to this country. Of course, it will take time. But it is nothing compared to the act of us spilling blood on this land again."
When the words were finished, only the sound of drizzling rain was heard.
With his mouth shut, Ulrich waited for the audience's answer, but even after waiting for a long time, there was no response. Just as he was about to turn his back, the noble who had raised his voice a little while ago asked.
"Why did you refuse?"
Ulrich showed a faint smile without a sound.
"I've already tried it. It was futile."
Roberta faintly felt bitterness in his smile. He turned his body completely and left the place. As she looked around at the remaining people, they were only staring at the place where he had left with expressions that were difficult to describe.