An Ominous Opponent

The commotion over the Thorn Staff had delayed us, so we arrived at Queen Tianis's office later than the others.

Evalin was with me, of course.

The dangerous Thorn Staff had been wrapped in cloth so that nobody could accidentally touch it.

As long as Evalin was the one holding ownership of it, she could properly control it, so apparently this would do for now.

The inside and outside of the castle were in complete chaos, like a beehive had been knocked over.

Everyone was likely scrambling to clean up after the concert incident.

If there had been a lot of injured people on top of all this, they definitely wouldn't have had enough hands.

"This way."

Evalin was looking around the castle interior with mild curiosity.

I thought it was fairly standard architecture, but perhaps it seemed novel to her?

"… It's just been a very long time since I was last inside a castle, so it caught my attention a little. Plus, I feel like people are staring at me."

"I see."

Well, of course they were. She was strikingly beautiful and showed quite a bit of skin, making her a sight that was hard for young soldiers to ignore.

Come to think of it, relations between humans and elves weren't exactly great.

It was ancient history, though, so I couldn't really relate to it even when told about it.

Hardly anyone would have ever actually met an elf.

And since she had helped save the Royal Capital, people were even favorably disposed toward her.

I also noticed the court mages paying close attention to Evalin.

Unfortunately, much of Evalin's strength came from her innate disposition, so I doubted talking to her would be of any use as a reference.

I still remembered Alexia holding her head in her hands when they'd discussed magic.

We finally arrived at Queen Tianis's office.

I knocked, waited for a reply, and entered.

Inside were Azu and the others, Queen Tianis, Lady Anatia, and Princess Yupe.

There were also maids preparing for a tea gathering.

They were the newly hired staff. Their movements were still a little awkward, but they seemed to have learned the job already.

Azu alone had changed back into her usual adventurer outfit.

That was probably because her dress had been reduced to little more than a scrap of fabric barely hanging on.

"That's everyone, then. I expect Commander Mani will come to report once the cleanup settles down."

Queen Tianis, who had been sitting, stood and walked over to Evalin.

Then she gave her an elegant bow.

"Evalin-san. Thank you for protecting the Royal Capital. I'd like to express my gratitude not as this nation's queen, but as one of the people who lives in this city."

"I don't mind. Protecting this place was more of a side benefit for me."

"Even so, it doesn't matter. You are undeniably our benefactor… And I have a difficult request to make of said benefactor."

Queen Tianis wore an expression that said she found this very hard to bring up.

The worry of being refused was almost palpable.

"I'd like to frame what happened as me having officially requested your assistance, Evalin-san, in repelling that creature known as the Sky Whale. I will, of course, provide appropriate compensation. Azu falls under Yohane's command, and Yohane is my subordinate, so there's no issue there. But since you're an elf and a guest from outside, handling it this way would be much more convenient."

Evalin had improved the barrier protecting the Royal Capital and unleashed a barrage of spells directly above the city.

That had prevented damage from the Sky Whale and successfully driven it away.

However, the fact that all of this had been done by an outsider who wasn't even part of the military posed legal problems under the kingdom's laws.

So if everything was framed as Evalin cooperating under Queen Tianis's orders, it would wrap things up neatly.

That said, this also had the side effect of using Evalin's accomplishments to bolster Queen Tianis's popularity.

In reality, it was Evalin and Azu who had defended the Royal Capital, not Queen Tianis.

That was probably why she'd found it so hard to bring up.

"…?"

Evalin looked at Queen Tianis with a puzzled expression.

"What an odd thing to worry about. You did ask me for help. That's the truth, isn't it?"

"But I made a guest fight while I just watched."

"Now that's the odd part. I have the power to fight and you don't, so it's only natural. Besides, if the queen dies, the country suffers, doesn't it?"

It seemed this wasn't even worth worrying about, as far as she was concerned.

It wasn't carelessness so much as a kind of transcendent detachment.

Come to think of it, when we'd stayed in her forest, she had readily listened and cooperated with us. She was truly a good person.

Even blocking the mine shaft had been done for a proper reason.

"Thank you. Now I can give the citizens a reassuring explanation. On a somewhat different note, what exactly was that thing? All I could tell was that it was related to the Church of the Sun God."

"Those who know of it call it the Sky Whale. It's one of the Sun God's apostles, a pet of sorts. It devours any flying creature it comes across, be it a Dragon or anything else, and bombards anything on the ground in its way with magic from above, obliterating it without a trace. To anyone with no means to fight back, it's essentially a natural disaster."

"… That's terrifying. I had no idea such a creature existed. Without the barrier, I can't imagine what would have happened to the Royal Capital."

"Even for the elves, it was an opponent we couldn't afford to ignore, so the timing worked out. Next time, I won't let it escape."

There was a fierce emotion behind those last words.

Perhaps the Sky Whale had something to do with the decline of the elves.

Queen Tianis let out a sigh.

"What even is the Church of the Sun God? At first I thought they were a religion passionate about charity, but once the lid came off, there was kidnapping and now that monster. They're far worse than any magical beast. I can't even figure out what this 'Sun God' deity is after."

"Eradication, most likely. They talk about guiding people to paradise, but what they actually do is certainly nothing good."

Elza responded to Queen Tianis's complaint.

Among everyone here, Elza, a follower of the Creator King's faith that had been persecuted by the Church of the Sun God, likely knew the most about them.

"A flame that came from beyond to burn the world to ash. That is the Sun God."

"… And people worship that? It hardly seems like something worthy of faith."

"Power, even when evil, has a way of captivating people. Besides, after being thwarted once, they drastically changed their approach. To something safer and more reliable."

"And that's the benevolent facade. We nearly invited them into the heart of our government."

Kassad had been practically taken over by the Church of the Sun God.

I thought it, but didn't say it.

There were likely several other cities that had been in a similar position.

The statue incident had been the catalyst that allowed us to root out their influence.

Without that, we might never have suspected them even now. That was how thoroughly they had blended in.