It has been too long since we last met, haven't we? It's a great pleasure to see you back from the magical land known as the Catalan Desert, Sora-dono.


　The one who smiled a small smile was Pope Noah Carnelius, the supreme leader of the Dharma God Sect.

　He had glossy flaxen hair, jewel-like green eyes, and fair skin that seemed to break through. He had the same neat appearance as when I had met him before.

　The only thing that had changed was the outfit Pope Noah wore. Unlike in the past, when he wore a simple priest's uniform for travel, Pope Noah now wears the solemn vestments appropriate to his position.

　The white vestments are made of holy cloth - cloth woven with threads made from holy water - and if you look closely, you can see that they are embroidered with amazing skill. The embroidery is inconspicuous because it is sewn with thread of the same color as the clothing. It was obvious that the embroidery was not just a pattern, but a design with magical implications. Naturally, the blessings of the Dharma God would also be included in the design.

　Perhaps this garment was physically and magically much stronger than those walls.

　Pope Noah is wearing this vestments to warn me - not to warn me, of course, but just to wear clothes appropriate to his position. I can understand that, but even so, the thought of "maybe I'm being warned" for a moment flashed through my mind, undoubtedly due to the effects of my contact with Lascaris.

　I let out a small breath so that my opponent wouldn't notice me.

　Five days have already passed since I defeated Behemoth and heard about Lascaris. This is Horus, the royal capital of the Canary Kingdom. I was in the process of meeting with Pope Noah, who had been a guest in the royal palace.

　By the way, Cardinal Sairala is also in the royal capital, although he's not here. He was there to attend the wedding ceremony of Crown Prince Azar and Princess Sakuya.


　--I'm not sure if this is a bit of a mess, so I'll explain the events that led up to this point step by step as follows.


　First of all, by the time I returned to Belka from Leerlo Oasis after defeating Behemoth, the cardinal had already left for the royal capital.

　According to the temple gate guard, the day after I left for the desert, a dragon knight arrived from the Canary Royal Palace to greet me. When I learned of this, I left Belka in the form of following the Cardinal.

　On the way, I met Lars in the village of Merte and told him about Katia, and from there I went to Ishka. I heard from Miroslav, who was staying at home, that Pope Noah had finished his preparation for his witchcraft and that he had left for the capital in exchange for the shadow warriors.

　After arriving at the royal capital, I visited Duke Dragnaut's residence and arranged a meeting with Pope Noah through Claudia, who is acting as the Pope's maid of honor - that's how we got to this point.

　The reason I'm here is to give the Pope the Philosopher's Stone that Lascaris gave me. The horn of Behemoth is gone, but the Philosopher's Stone is a good enough substitute. By handing this to the Pope, I should have been able to put away one of the pending issues that had been bothering me for a while now.

　However, when I thought of the hostility shown to Lascaris by Cardinal Sairala, the overlord of the Dharma God religion, I hesitated to speak openly about the situation. The cardinal is not the only one who has a hostile view of Lascaris and his presiding officer, Lascaris. In fact, Pope Noah, who has fought the Immortal King in person, must have a much deeper hatred for Lascaris than the cardinal.

　Would the Pope ever accept the Philosopher's Stone that his opponent had given him?

　The natural reaction would be to suspect that it's a trap. In the worst case scenario, I would be under suspicion as well.

　But even if I tried to give him a national treasure without saying anything, the Pope would certainly not accept it. He would definitely question the circumstances of acquisition. If he responded to that question with a lie, the Pope's keen eye would easily see through the lie.

　After thinking this and that, I decided to tell Pope Noah honestly what happened.

　Rather than trying to trick us into falling out, it was better to confront him with the facts from the start. If, as a result, I ended up in opposition to the Hokage, then that was the time to do it.

　I took the Philosopher's Stone out of my pocket and placed it on the table. There was a rumbling sound and a small bent of the stone.

　When Pope Noah saw this, his right eye widened slightly.


''It's...''

"The one who gave it to me said it was a wise man's stone. He said it was of the finest quality from the Golden Empire (Imperium) and would be a sufficient substitute for a behemoth horn.


　As if that alone was enough to give him an approximation, the Pope let the surprise leave his eyes and nodded, "I see.

　Then he said.


'So Lord Sora met with Laskaris? With that rotten (dark) elf.

Yes, Your Holiness.


　After nodding at the other person's question, I nodded my head, wondering if that wasn't a strange thing to say.

　But Pope Noah didn't care about our reaction and continued on with a clear face.


I have received the report from Cardinal Sairala. Cardinal Sairala has informed me that he and Lord Sora have had a disagreement in Belka.

I did have a bit of a disagreement with your eminence over the custody of my fellow artists.

Friends, huh? You're the one who took a demon into your heart.


　Then Pope Noah smiles thinly. As I thought before, the Pope's change in expression is so small and short that it's hard to capture the change in emotion.

　What kind of emotions did the Pope have for me when he heard Cardinal Sairala's report? And how does he see me now that I have the Philosopher's Stone given to him by Laskaris? It's hard to know this from the outside.

　The Pope took the Philosopher's Stone on the table and quietly squinted at it.


''........It seems that there are no strange devices. And indeed, this magic stone has enough magic power to act as a catalyst for the wards.


　Putting the sage's stone back on the table, the Pope bows his head deeply towards me.

　In response to the movement, the girl's flaxen hair cascaded down her thin shoulders to her chest.


''Thank you, Sora-dono. Now the people of this country will no longer have to suffer from deadly poison.''

'Give me your head, Your Holiness. I have done what I can as one of the inhabitants of this country. Please take care of the rest.

''Leave it to me. I will definitely build a strong boundary to show you the prestige of Dharma Goddess. I'll make sure that your boundary will remain unbroken for many years to come.


　Pope Noah looked up and gave a firm nod.

　Then he continued to speak while staring at me.


''By the way, I'm talking about that rotten (dark) elf. You didn't just hand the magic stone to Lord Kukden and then walk away, did you? There's something you want to ask me, isn't there?


　It was a sincere voice and expression. For some reason, when he called Lascaris a "dark elf", I could sense something black, but there was nothing else that smacked of ill-feeling towards me.

　I nodded in response to this question from Pope Noah.


''There is one thing I would like to ask you.


　What I wanted to hear was not the details of what the Dharma God religion was planning to do with the dragon hole - that was not what I wanted to hear.

　I don't trust any of the information Lascaris has given me. I'm not saying that everything that the Immortal King told me is a lie, but his true intention in conveying it to us is to use me. As long as I know that, I'm not going to make any moves based on that man's information.

　In fact, I didn't tell anyone, anything, about this. If I were to tell others about Lascaris's story, it would be after I had firmly corroborated the information.

　Naturally, I'm not going to let my doubts about legal deity out of my mouth. To begin with, I can't say that I myself have lived a flattering and honorable life. I am not qualified to condemn the Dharma God religion, no matter what it is planning to do by securing a dragon hole.

　However, there was still one thing I wanted to make sure of.

　Phototheism.

　The last words of Lascaris. It was also the word uttered by Auken, the demon man who fought at Onigashima.

　Two people who belonged to completely different forces uttered the exact same words.

　If it was just a coincidence, that was fine. Because the divinity of the God of Light was an existence that would not be surprising if it overlapped in different cultures and different myths.

　But if it wasn't a coincidence--


His Holiness, have you ever heard of the term light deism?


　I asked the Pope Noah with nervousness and a certain determination.

　The answer came back unexpectedly easily.


'Yes, I know. There is no way I could not know. Because Light Shintoism is the forerunner of Hojin-kyo.

Its predecessor organization?


　The Pope nodded his head in reply to my question. The action he took afterwards was, again, the same as Lascaris.

　He recited the scripture of the Dharma Goddess.


The law is what preserves order. And order is the light that illuminates the dusk of the human world - light is the other divinity of our Dharma God. I have heard that the Light God religion was rejected as an evil religion because it sought so purely righteous.

'Paganism is not a gentle word, is it? You say you genuinely sought justice, but what exactly did you do?

In the battle over 300 years ago, the Light God Sect sided with the demons. They thought that the war was motivated by human greed, so they joined the demons for their own justice. But the fact remains that they betrayed their own people, no matter the circumstances. That is not the whole reason, but it is probably one of the reasons why Shintoism was renamed Law God Religion.


　As he said that, Pope Noah looked at me quietly.

　My face was reflected in his Midori eyes that seemed to be sucked in.


''I can't dismiss their actions as a mistake. I take the liberty of suggesting that you might be of the same mind.

You're right, sir.


　It was obvious that Pope Noah's words were referring to the sparrow, and that's why I had no choice but to nod my head.

　To me, the Pope continues his words.


The remaining followers of the Light God were accused of being traitors and were ostracized as pagans, and suffered the pain of charcoal burns. If this is the case, both people and teachings will melt into the soil. At that time, the high priest took a desperate measure. He changed his name to Hojin-kyo and joined Ad Astera, which at the time was only a small country. I'm sure Lord Sora is well aware of the path that the Law Divinity has taken with the Empire since then.


　When Pope Noah spoke that far, he closed his mouth, as if he had said all that needed to be said.

　A curtain of silence fell over the room.

　I was about to open my mouth when there was a discreet banging on the door of the room, interrupting me.

　A Dharma priest appeared and said he wanted to confirm the arrangements for the wedding ceremony. In addition, it seemed that the priest was not the only one who had business with the Pope, and more than one presence could be sensed from behind the door.

　Needless to say, the Pope must be busy enough with weddings between countries to want to help. Just finding the time to talk to me in this way must have been quite a stretch.

　The thought occurred to me belatedly, and I stood up in a hurry.

　I was able to hear about what I wanted to know. If I wanted to go any further, I would need to be prepared. I can neither deny nor affirm the Pope's story based solely on the untruthful information that Laskaris has mentioned.


'Thank you, Your Holiness, for your valuable talk. I shall now be excused.

I'm sorry to rush you. I would have liked to talk to you a bit more if that were possible.

Thank you, sir. We'd love to have the opportunity to meet you sometime.


　Bowing deeply to the Pope, I turned on my heel and headed for the door.

　A voice played at my back. A voice so low as to whisper, and yet so deep that it lingers in my ears indefinitely.


　--Please don't be my enemy.


　That voice was indeed saying that.