“……Then, I shall willingly follow in this battle.”
Rena slightly bowed her head towards me as she spoke.
The atmosphere felt like she was trying to hide her expression a bit. No need to forcefully check her expression.
“Thank you.”
I politely thanked Rena and turned my gaze to Sophia this time.
Sophia’s pupils shook when they met mine.
“Sophia, you too—”
“Crown Princess.”
Just as I was about to speak to Sophia, Rena interrupted.
“Before you speak, may I voice my opinion first?”
“……Go ahead.”
I had a feeling I knew what she was going to say, but I nodded. If I were to bring both Rena and Sophia with me, it was important to clear up any misunderstandings that might arise… Well, calling them “misunderstandings” would almost be too charitable since they were very much grounded in ‘facts,’ but anyway, it was crucial to lay everything out as clearly as possible to avoid any friction.
In truly important moments, if I couldn’t trust my companions when I had to put my life in their hands, all that awaited me would be death.
What I wanted was to save all my party members while reaching the end of the story; I had no intention of creating a divorce in the party along the way.
“Well, someone might ask, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to go alone rather than dragging everyone along?’… But in the original story, heroines who were separated from the protagonist often meet tragic ends. In the original work, the maximum number of party members is four, and with two support characters, you can swap them out during battles.
Naturally, those who are left behind once you’ve formed a party for the final battle end up being ‘out of sight of the protagonist.’
Claire shows up as a guest character, destined to die for Alice, so that death is fixed, but characters who are ‘susceptible to death based on circumstances’ are locked into triggers that go out of the protagonist’s line of sight. By the time you finish the situation and return, there could be a character bleeding and dying, and the protagonist will be unable to prevent that death.
Of course, these out-of-sight triggers are somewhat fixed, so if you exclude Roti and Jake from the final party, then Jake is guaranteed to die to protect Roti, or Jennifer or Carolyn might sacrifice themselves to protect their apprentice… There were many conditions involved.
So, if this world follows the original even a little bit, the safest method would be to gather all the main characters near the protagonist, Leo.
In a game, this would be impossible due to system limitations, but here, there are no such restrictions.
“There’s a high possibility that Sophia Bianchi is connected to the cult we faced last night.”
That was a reasonable deduction. If anyone remembered what the Cardinal had said to Sophia at that time, they’d probably think along the same lines.
“Therefore, if we need to deal with the Papal State… I cannot say I trust her one hundred percent.”
What that essentially meant was, ‘I just don’t trust you.’
The reason Rena and Sophia were butting heads seemed to stem from the fact that Sophia had been secretly following me.
So did that mean Rena hadn’t been secretly following me? Huh, she might have been out looking for me just like I was searching for Jake and Roti. In contrast, Sophia might have been acting suspiciously out in the open.
“……”
Sophia couldn’t respond to Rena’s remark. It must’ve been exceedingly suspicious in her own mind.
So, this time, I decided to side a bit with Sophia.
“I was already aware of that fact.”
At my words, Rena turned her gaze towards me.
Should I say she looked surprised or more like she was demanding an explanation?
But before I could elaborate, Sophia spoke up first.
“Yes, that’s right. Crown Princess, you’ve already noticed my identity. In fact, the command to watch you might have lost its meaning at that moment.”
Whether Sophia was watching me or not, I was just living my life doing my own thing. Even if she was keeping tabs on my every move, I couldn’t imagine how she would have reported that, especially since she seemed to be aware of every step I was taking as if she could see the future and had even prevented the dangerous deeds the Papal State was trying to orchestrate.
“If so, then even more—”
“But.”
As Rena was about to refute Sophia’s statement, she interjected with her follow-up.
“I have my own thoughts to consider, you know?”
Maybe Rena’s irritation was rising, or perhaps she thought being somewhat assertive would help; Sophia’s voice took on a bit of a cheeky tone.
In a way, that voice was infinitely close to the original Sophia’s tone.
Honestly, I found that voice a bit amusing. If it were the original work, it would have been really annoying, but now hearing Sophia, who was always cautious around me, finally speak like this was actually kinda refreshing.
Well, the original version had a voice dub in Japanese, and here it was more like an artificial language closer to English, so the feel isn’t exactly the same.
“At this point, it’s clear that we need to stop both the Empire and the Papal State, right? And the Crown Princess is boldly stating she’s going to confront the Emperor. Even if I’m part of the Papal State, working against the Crown Princess now seems the most rational decision, don’t you think?”
I think it’s somewhat awkward to say, but yes, at this moment, it was indeed me who was openly opposing the Emperor.
“Even so—”
“Alright then.”
Seeing Rena still skeptical despite hearing Sophia’s words, Sophia brushed her front hem a little roughly with her hand.
She clearly wasn’t trying to take off her clothes but was instead pulling out the pendant hanging around her neck.
The small silver decoration in the shape of a droplet had the profile of a woman engraved on it. While the engraving only reached her neck, at least from what was depicted, it showed a beauty with incredibly long hair. Of course, it wasn’t hyper-realistic; more like an uncolored stained glass design.
The profile of a goddess with her eyes closed is a symbol of the Goddess Church.
“I swear to the Goddess. At least until that operation is over, I will not oppose the Crown Princess nor anyone else following her. I won’t betray you either. You know how heavy a vow to the Goddess is, right?”
“But then after the operation ends—”
“Ugh, seriously!”
Seeing Rena, whose expression didn’t change but continued to poke holes in her vow, Sophia once again got irritated and said,
“Even after the operation ends, for a while—let’s say a few days—no matter what happens, I will not oppose the Crown Princess and those who follow her. Regardless of my feelings or any religious reasons. And! Those whom I consider equal to the Crown Princess will be the same. I swear before the Goddess that I will never betray those who fight alongside us!”
Just as Rena was about to rebut again, Sophia exclaimed loudly before a word could escape her lips.
At the same time, a gentle blue light started to emanate from Sophia’s right hand, which was tightly clutching the ornament. In an instant, a translucent tattoo-like shape became vividly visible.
That was the Code of the Order of Knights.
In this world, there are many who speak sweet words while harboring deceit. Those who claim to be followers of the Goddess and vow false oaths in her name certainly exist.
But if that happens again and again, the value of an oath sworn in the name of the goddess tarnishes.
So, members of the Order of Knights, who play a crucial role in the Papal State, brand themselves with a symbol when they swear. This combines with the divine power of the pendant itself, and the vow binds the knight until the moment it is fulfilled.
While it won’t kill you, it will cause pain, or so they say.
One could say this is a weakened version of the magic used by the Cardinal. The magic placed on the Cardinal didn’t appear in the original work, but the vow shown by Sophia did show up once. For me, the latter was much more familiar.
“……Understood.”
Of course, Rena wouldn’t know all that, but she at least figured out that ‘some kind of magic’ was involved in that vow. The light must’ve been visible to Rena as well.
“Is that alright now?”
Sophia said with a haughty demeanor before sitting back down, lifting the now-cold tea cup to sip.
Well, I had thought about bringing her along without needing a vow.
Just when I was thinking it might be time to wrap this up and speak—
Knock, knock.
A sound of knocking came from the direction of the door.
“Yes, come in.”
As I spoke, the door cautiously opened.
And the person standing there was someone I had never seen before. Given her maid attire, she must be a servant of the Lutetia royal palace.
“Crown Princess, His Majesty the King has requested an audience with you.”
What the servant said was not a statement to be taken lightly.
Could it be that the report on the Papal State’s movements had finally come in?
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