WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
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Chapter 107: Grand Temple (3)
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“So, how are things going?”
At the Pontiff’s yawning question, the priest hurriedly shuffled through the documents they had brought.
“The move to the Grand Temple has been completed successfully, and the estimated number of people is...”
“Not that. That’s not what I was asking.”
After serving someone important for a long time, the first skills people naturally developed were reading the room and knowing how to behave. After serving the Pontiff, this priest had practically maxed out those abilities.
They knew perfectly well what the Pontiff’s sole interest had been lately.
“I’ve heard that Aiden Kellermain and his companions arrived safely inside, Your Holiness. However...”
Sure enough, the Pontiff sat straight up the moment she heard that.
“However?”
“He made an interesting move as soon as he arrived at the Grand Temple. I’m told he tried to approach Princess Milene.”
“...Hmm.”
The Pontiff let out a breath through her nose and swept her hair back.
Of course, watching her made the priest feel their blood run cold.
...For some reason, they could immediately tell that she looked displeased.
“What a smooth little womanizer. Does he make a move on every woman he sees?”
Hearing her mutter something so baffling only doubled that fear.
In fact, the priest was so frightened that, upon seeing the details of the Succession Ceremony’s first event that she tossed over a moment later, they even entertained a disrespectful thought.
Had she let her feelings dictate this decision?
“Um, Your Holiness. If we proceed with this format...”
The priest stammered, face turning pale as they read through the rules of the “Competition.”
“A lot of people will get badly hurt.”
The Pontiff finished the sentence for them, sounding bored.
“But so what?”
“...”
“It was worse when I became Pontiff.”
She casually delivered a line straight out of the “back in my day” handbook, but the priest didn’t dare object.
Not simply because she was the Pontiff, but because, having witnessed the previous Succession Ceremony, the priest knew that every word was true.
Casualties had dropped sharply since the reform of the ancient succession process, which had been brutal enough to call a massacre. Yet Abigail III’s succession was famous for producing almost as many bodies as those ancient ceremonies.
This was the person who had broken all sorts of records in that ceremony and become Pontiff.
There was a reason she ranked among the greatest Pontiffs in history.
‘...’
With that in mind...
“Then what will you award those who distinguish themselves in the Competition? Unless the prize is tempting enough, everyone will simply withdraw.”
“We already know who’s going to get the most points. We can just pick something that suits him.”
“...Pardon?”
“Aiden Kellermain. That guy.”
The very existence of a man she spoke of with such confidence was strange in itself.
For her to arrange an event this... “violent” and still be certain he would perform the best, he had to be far from ordinary.
And the reward she intended to prepare for him was every bit as extraordinary.
“Tell them the winner gets one visit to the altar.”
The priest’s eyes went wide.
The altar held the First Vow, the most fervent divinity. It was the place where Seer and humanity had first made contact. Calling it the most sacred place in the Holy Empire would be no exaggeration.
Even among the royal family, very few had ever been allowed to enter.
‘...This woman.’
The thought came out like an inward groan.
She truly intended to make this Aiden fellow a major player in the Succession Ceremony.
In terms of symbolism, granting someone access to the altar gave them enough “power” that it wouldn’t be strange to name them the next Pontiff.
“...”
Honestly, the priest had no idea what she wanted.
While they turned over those thoughts they could never voice aloud, the Pontiff continued.
“Oh, one last thing.”
She spoke as though something had just occurred to her.
“Who’s that?”
“...Pardon?”
“There’s someone who keeps obsessing over the promising young man I’ve already called dibs on.”
“......Pardon?”
As the priest stood there in confusion, unable to make any sense of that, the Pontiff continued impatiently.
“I put together a spell and attached it to him so I could see who approached him. But there’s someone who keeps watching him from a distance.”
“...”
“I’m asking who that is.”
...Really?
Just how obsessed was she, to monitor him personally on top of the surveillance she had ordered the priest to carry out?
And what kind of mindset let her resent someone else watching him when she was keeping him under such close watch herself?
“...One moment. I’ll look into it.”
But that was beside the point. An order was an order.
After searching through the documents using the appearance the Pontiff described, the priest haltingly read out the person’s details.
“The name is... Elisha Gillius Craven. There is something rather unusual in the information.”
“What’s unusual?”
“...Apparently, this person came to the Succession Ceremony to find someone to become family.”
“...”
The Pontiff’s expression turned bizarre.
...That was a rare sight.
▣
“Hmm...”
Under the pitch-black night sky, Aiden sat on a coastal cliff above the crashing waves. Rubbing his chin, he added a check mark to the rough map he had been carrying.
Similar marks already covered the map.
He had spent the entire day turning the building upside down, but had found little of use.
‘The layout’s the same...’
He scanned the map with an uneasy look.
The Grand Temple’s actual layout was almost identical to what he remembered.
“And the facilities inside were the same too?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Aiden frowned more deeply as Alex answered, rubbing their hands together.
In other words...
There was a good chance the scheduled events would also follow the format he remembered.
‘The first event was...’
The Competition.
A fight over territory, with each side establishing a base.
It could easily be called a mock war. Throwing the royals straight into something like that, even after the preliminaries had weeded out the riffraff, showed just how vicious the Succession Ceremony was.
But it was also an important event.
‘...This is where things mostly take shape.’
Alester, Milene, Julius.
The participants would most likely end up divided into camps under the three leading candidates in the Succession Ceremony. Still, a few others would stand out through their own abilities.
And Aiden suspected that the “wild card” would most likely come from among those people.
‘Who is it...?’
The traitor.
Someone who had entered the Succession Ceremony not to become Pontiff, but to “kill as many people as possible.”
For now, anyone could be a suspect. Not a single person entering this event had a completely clean background.
And, as far as he could guess...
Tomorrow’s Competition was an event a traitor like that couldn’t possibly let pass without trying something.
Someone would definitely make a move.
“...There was one small but unusual thing, though.”
With that in mind, Alex’s hesitant remark was enough to make Aiden’s eyes widen.
“Something unusual?”
“There are people targeting you.”
“...”
Aiden narrowed his eyes and looked Alex up and down.
“Other than you lot?”
“...”
Of course, Alex would have loved to deal Aiden a good, solid blow to the back of the head if they could get away with it. But their royal status, their entire fortunes, and everything else were tied up with him.
If they acted rashly, the consequences would be more than they could handle.
“...It isn’t us.”
“Then who?”
“Someone called Pierce. We know each other... It seems word has spread that you spoke to Princess Milene.”
“Why would people spread rumors about me talking to her?”
Surely exchanging a casual greeting wasn’t such a big deal.
But Alex gave him an odd look instead.
“...Weren’t you trying to hit on her?”
“...”
“...All your attendants are women, for that matter. Lionheart and Deathwish, no less.”
...Apparently, that image of him was now firmly established in the public eye.
Before Aiden could explain that they had it wrong, Alex shrugged and continued.
“Anyway, Pierce has admired Princess Milene for a long time. The sort who’d volunteer to be her knight in shining armor when nobody asked.”
“That sounds... exhausting.”
There was little else he could say.
How else was he supposed to judge someone who stuck their nose into things that had nothing to do with them?
“But I thought you were friends. Why are you telling me every last detail?”
Alex’s tone was oddly negative too.
Alex gave a short laugh.
“There’s not much loyalty between us.”
“...Huh?”
“The moment I ended up like this, Pierce laughed at me and said I’d completely lost my touch. I wouldn’t mind seeing them take you on and end up the same way.”
“...”
What a meaningless friendship.
As Aiden reflected on that, a voice suddenly came from behind him.
“That hurts, Alex. Though I always knew serving someone like that was about your level.”
“...”
Every syllable dripped with arrogance. The moment Aiden heard it, he pressed his fingers against his temples, which had begun to throb.
‘...Speak of the devil.’
When someone picked a fight this openly, it was more ridiculous than infuriating.
This was probably the Pierce they had just been talking about.
‘Another fight. Again.’
Why did people like this pop up wherever he went?
This time, however, things seemed set to unfold a little differently.
“Hey, you. You said you were Aiden Kellermain, riiiaaagh!”
Pierce had been swaggering toward him.
Thud!
Then someone appeared as if dropping out of the sky and kicked them, sending them tumbling noisily across the ground.
“...”
“...”
The group that had come with Pierce stared in confusion. The newcomer’s entrance had been far too sudden.
She was a girl who only came up to about Aiden’s chest. Shoulder-length orange hair, a headband holding it in place, scars all over her body, and firm muscles that brought a leopard to mind.
She gave the unmistakable impression of someone who had spent a long time on battlefields. In some ways, even more so than Noel, a veteran knight.
“...Um, who are you?”
The problem was that Aiden had absolutely no idea who she was either.
At his uncertain question, she promptly spun toward him.
“Uh, uh, uh, h-hello!”
The way she bowed to Aiden in a fluster made her look like a girl meeting someone she had secretly adored for ages.
“My name’s Elisha! It’s nice to meet you!”
“...Yes, nice to meet you. But what was that just now...?”
“I-it was nothing!”
Elisha pointed behind herself as she answered.
“I stepped in because I wanted to wipe out these nasty little pests clinging to you!”
“...”
“I’m just doing it because I want to, so please don’t feel you owe me anything!”
...Strangely enough.
It seemed Aiden had acquired one too.
A knight in shining armor nobody had asked for.
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