A Divine Matter

Of course, the trials weren't the only thing he had to deal with.

He also had to clear the suspicions hanging over his companions under house arrest.

When they'd spoken briefly after that yesterday, he'd gotten a puzzling "Sorry about… all this" apology, they'd kept averting their eyes, and he'd been told, "You're probably better off not knowing," but Narikin believed they had to be innocent.

"So then, when will my companions be released?"

"Once the investigation's progressed a bit more, I'd say. Frankly, there's a whole lot we don't understand either. We don't even know if it's safe to just let them go yet."

"That is… mm. Certainly, you have a point."

Her reasoning was so sound that he had nothing to argue.

All the more so because their identities as the terrorists who had incited the Saintess to drive out the previous Pope had already been exposed.

"At the very least, promise me they will be treated with due courtesy."

"But of course. They're your people, after all. We've even arranged good feed for your pet bird and that kobold of yours."

"That is good to hear. Ah, as for the kobold, its favorite is a medium-grilled minotaur steak with plenty of wine sauce. Please don't forget some vegetables stewed nice and sweet on the side, and naturally, no onions."

"… Aren't you feeding your pets better than we eat?"

"Such is how it sometimes is with pets."

As Magni sighed in exasperation, Saintess Alka raised her hand.

"Hm? What is it, Alka?"

"Magni-dono. It is said that the First Saintess also gave only the finest food to the phoenix she had tamed."

"Isn't it a bit much to lump a Saintess's phoenix in with a kobold?"

"Beloved animals are to be cherished, are they not?"

"There's still a limit to the food budget, you know. If you're going to insist that much, Alka, you should foot the bill yourself."

"May I? Very well."

Alka smiled and readily agreed to cover the food expenses.

Narikin had no reason to refuse, so he gratefully accepted her offer.

"Ufufu… I'll support you, Narikin-sama."

"Ah. I shall accept it gratefully. However, only after you yourself have eaten your fill, Alka-dono. I do have income of my own, and I have a stock of minotaur as well."

"Mmm. No chance of 'Love-feeding'?"

"No chance at all."

The so-called "Love-feeding" was an act where one offered one's own meal to a beloved person; it was one of the ways of expressing affection in the Church of the Light God. There was no way he had a reason to go that far — especially not when he had a wifeRokufa.

"Well, in any case, if you can pull off a Resurrection, I'm sure they'll be freed right away… So? Do you have any leads?"

"Hmm. Saintess Alka-dono herself comes back to life even if she dies, but how is that done, I wonder?"

"I've inherited the [Revival] skill from the line of Saintesses, you see. I doubt that's a helpful reference."

"Fumu. The Saintess line, is it… Well, I'll look into it. It would be ideal if there were someone well-versed in how the previous Pope performed his Resurrections."

In any case, Narikin thought, this was something he had to consult with his MasterKehma about. He was, as expected, fully prepared to dump the whole problem on him.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

Narikin came to the room where we were being kept under house arrest.

Seriously, I really am sorry about this. I never imagined that lifting the curse would end in death.

I wanted Narikin to defend us with all his might while still in the dark — if he knew the truth, it would show on his face…

Oh, right. I'm still using Nerune's appearance and going by the name Kyou. Being under house arrest, I can't exactly drop the disguise. Rokuko is humoring me, staying possessed in Rokufa.

And Rokufa, in turn, is possessing the little bird.

As for Niku, she comes and goes from the kobold body whenever she feels like it.

"So, in order to clear your names, is there anything we can do about resurrecting the dead?"

"So that's the next trial, huh."

"So that's where this is going."

If it were a dungeon monster, I could revive it by spending DP… but resurrecting a complete stranger, a human on top of that, was another story.

How'd that Core No. 10 guy do it? From what I'd heard, it didn't sound like he was just staging the whole thing with his own monsters.

"This isn't the kind of 'Resurrection' you can fake by doing chest compressions to restart someone's heart after cardiac arrest."

The late Ronesky was long past that sort of level of "dead".

Plus, back in the dueling grounds, that old lady had made the late Ronesky perform CPR. The Church of the Light God in the Holy Kingdom clearly possessed that sort of medical knowledge.

It really felt like I was out of my depth here. What was I supposed to do?

Even if I was allowed to bow out right at the start since I couldn't provide any demonstration…

"Leaving the past Saintesses aside, the First Saintess is Leona, right? She might know a method."

"… Was that confirmed somewhere?"

"Soto's been bragging. Going around telling people, 'My girlfriend's literally a real Saintess,' you know. Only to dungeon-related folks, of course."

"I see."

Come to think of it, even setting the 'First Saintess' bit aside, it wouldn't be strange at all for Leona to know a way to resurrect someone.

Desecrating life was kind of her specialty, after all… She could probably just straight-up resurrect the dead. Or brew a potion that did.

"Master…! I was the one who asked you, but to think you actually had a connection to the First Saintess…!"

"If we're talking connections, I can get in touch with the Light God too, you know. By email."

"Huh??? Er, I was already moved when I heard you had ties to the First Saintess, but you just casually dropped an even bigger bombshell on me, didn't you? Isn't my Master way too amazing??"

Saying it out loud, I kind of thought so myself. Being able to talk to the god you're enshrining… that's about as perfect a connection as you could ask for in a Pope of the Church of the Light God. I even got told the Pope's true identity was Core No. 10.

In other words, when you considered that Narikin could make use of my connections, him becoming Pope was starting to feel like the right answer.

Anyway, first off, I'd ask Leona about resurrecting the dead. By email, since I couldn't go back.

 

 

"Resurrect the dead? I mean sure, but I don't guarantee the whole soul thing, alright?"

When I promptly asked Leona, that was the answer I got.

Short mail. At this point, it was basically chat.

"You can do it, huh… What do you mean you don't guarantee the soul?"

"The body and the soul are separate things. Normally, if you don't resurrect someone right away, their soul drifts off somewhere and you can't do a proper resurrection. Since there was a curse involved, I'd guess No. 10 had shoved a ghost into the body."

"… And if you do that, what happens?"

"They become a different person. It's effectively a resurrection if the ghost is the person themselves, though."

Effectively a resurrection, huh. That was… yeah, that would indeed be a valid method.

"And from the sound of it, you exorcised it, right? With that alarm of yours."

"So that black miasma was the ghost?"

"That's almost certainly it. No. 10's curse was probably what tethered the ghost to the body. With that gone, resurrecting the original person is pretty much impossible now, not that I know how it was to begin with."

Yeah, I definitely exorcised it. Yep.

Incidentally, the Saintess's resurrection apparently worked on a different mechanism altogether. By linking an altar with the skill, she respawned at a save point, or something along those lines.

There really were all sorts of ways to resurrect someone… Oh, right, my [Super Transformation] has resurrection capabilities built in too.

"By the way, you'll pay me for the info, won't you? Think you could take Soto off my hands for a day? I'd like some time alone to myself…"

"O-oh. Sorry that my daughter's being a handful."

"The fact that I don't dislike it is what's hardest to deal with… I'm in deep…"

Sounded like Soto really had Leona firmly in her grasp. It was reassuring and terrifying all at once. Just what are you up to, my daughter?