Ch.147The City That Denied the Sun. Belfort (6)

“Nariakira Sayuri…”

A name I’ve never heard before.

Except for the surname, of course.

Although the Empire has fallen, the descendants of the imperial family that once led it still survive.

Enough so that they would deploy an imperial woman for such a trivial heresy inquisition.

“You… you’re the ‘real deal,’ aren’t you?”

“…?”

“The Sun just told me. That you really are His knight.”

“Ah…?”

“Hey. This guy is innocent. Release him quickly.”

And just like that, my verification ended in mere seconds.

Not only the judge but also my companions wore expressions of disbelief… but what could be done? We can hear the Sun’s voice, but they can’t…

“Can all members of the imperial family hear the Sun’s voice?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

Well, I suppose it’s natural since they’re descendants of his son, but I couldn’t deny the fact that my own rarity(?) as someone who had been chosen after surviving near-death experiences had been utterly shattered.

Moreover, she was the Sun’s granddaughter while I was merely the Sun’s knight, so in terms of hierarchy, wasn’t I below her?

It felt like I’d been hit in the head three times today.

First when I encountered the overwhelming army, second when I met the imperial woman, and third when I realized the hierarchy.

But being a wise knight, I decided to vent my frustration on someone more vulnerable.

“Can you not hear the words of the imperial woman? If you’re a judge, pass your sentence!”

“But… it’s difficult when you two are having a conversation only you understand… How am I supposed to know whether the Sun speaking to you is truth or fiction?”

“HAH!!! You fool! Do you deny the Sun’s protection of me even after seeing me fly through the sky, tear through clouds, and create halos?”

“That’s precisely the issue! This is Belfort! Belfort! The first city to deny the Sun! Any decent magician could do everything you’ve done! After staying silent for hundreds of thousands of years, suddenly choosing one knight, lifting him to the sky, adding some flashy effects, and saying ‘I forgive you now’ just once—who would believe that?”

“….”

Is that so?

Come to think of it, if I went back to Parcifal and told those criminal organizations, “Hey, let’s be friends from now on,” their reaction would be predictable.

Having lived in a city that denied the Sun not for years, decades, centuries, millennia, but for hundreds of thousands of years, it hardly needs explaining how the citizens would view me, a knight of the Sun.

But…

“Do not dare speak of proof before me. How can one prove what does not happen? Demanding proof of non-existence is attempting to defy the laws under the Sun with human power, which is blasphemy. Do you wish for me to condemn you as a heretic?”

It is impossible to prove something that does not exist.

This is an immutable law that anyone with common sense and logic would nod to.

However, the problem lies in meeting the prerequisite of “someone with common sense and logic,” which is surprisingly difficult—most commonly due to irrational fear or ulterior motives.

And the judge trembling before me with his gavel likely belonged to the former category.

I didn’t particularly harbor anger toward him.

Partly because he wasn’t worth it, and partly because I understood his feelings.

When I saw the Crusader, an apostle of Karil, in Parcifal, I rubbed my temporarily blinded eyes and trembled with fear, wondering what would happen if that Crusader came to kill me.

Fortunately, he didn’t kill me, but from that moment, I developed something like a trauma regarding overwhelming power differences that I couldn’t overcome.

That was the first time I witnessed a being I couldn’t kill, and the entity I feared didn’t even acknowledge my existence as it created a sea of blood, mocking all the corpses I had accumulated over time.

Thinking of it that way, it wasn’t strange that this man, who could barely lift a sword let alone use Aura, had a mind filled with terror.

To him, the irrational belief that I might emit light and erase this city could be a reasonable suspicion.

“But… evidence… we need evidence…”

By this point, I felt pitiful just looking at the judge.

It was like watching an unfortunate traveler begging a robber to spare his life… a truly sorry sight.

Fortunately for him, Nariakira Sayuri was by his side.

“Hey. That’s enough.”

“B-but…!”

“But what? You called me because the Sun’s knight appeared, and I’ve confirmed it’s true. Is what you know more important than what I know? You were the ones who asked me to verify in the first place, weren’t you? If you don’t trust me, why did you call me?”

“That’s….”

“Shut up and declare him innocent, damn it! How long must someone of my noble bloodline mingle with trash like you?! Want me to call down an orbital bombardment?!”

“….”

But even she couldn’t take his side.

Of course, this was the natural outcome since she was essentially on my side, but her distinctly feminine voice filled with irritation and dissatisfaction was delivering what amounted to a critical hit to the nameless judge who was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“The… the defendant… Victor Walker is found not guilty.”

In the end, the judge succumbed to external pressure.

The Sun’s granddaughter, having mercilessly trampled the legal system of an entire city, finally looked satisfied and smiled at me.

“This kind of thing will happen a lot from now on. People aren’t kind to gods who don’t bestow blessings upon them.”

“So it seems.”

I couldn’t deny that fact.

The Four Gods are invisible but bestow blessings and powers. Yet the Sun and Moon, despite being visible, do not bestow blessings and powers.

“Our grandfather and grandmother provide humanity with safe nights and safe mornings. Do you know why humanity abandoned the faith in the Two Celestials?”

“Because those times were different from now.”

“That’s right. Safety in an era without the Sun and Moon is different from safety in an era with them.”

Simply put, it’s a generational gap.

The light we receive from the Sun and Moon today is not something we’re entitled to by default.

It’s a right we enjoy because Nariakira Saburo burns in the sky, and Maria Taylor freezes in the sky.

Even if they protect humanity from monsters, people still get caught, torn limb from limb, and killed by monsters, whether it’s morning or night, so there’s nothing tangible to feel.

The crawling creatures of the earth don’t know how much the Sun and Moon burn and wither the dark predators from the distant deep sea that covet their souls, or the countless demons that try to invade the afterlife.

They can’t know, and they don’t want to know.

“Whether we like it or not, this is the era of the Four Gods. It’s unlikely we’ll see the Sun and Moon guiding human souls again in our lifetime.”

“Is it alright for an imperial descendant to say such things? I would think you all would be the ones most desperately wanting the rule of the Sun and Moon…”

“Hahaha…. All descendants of the Nariakira bloodline think that way. Even I do.”

“Then why…?”

“Everyone’s tired… From the era of the eclipse until now, for tens of thousands of years, humanity has grown accustomed to a world without an emperor and thirteen continents without an empire. I don’t know what the emperor did, so how would our fathers and grandfathers know?”

“….”

I could sense the already ended imperial era in her words.

Perhaps humanity might unite once more and establish a new empire, but that empire would not be called the Nariakira Empire.

Those born with the Sun’s radiance have now become merely a minority group that receives slightly better treatment, and humanity, like a broken rubber band, could no longer be reconnected.

“Does the Sun wish for humanity to become one again?”

“I don’t know. Grandfathers are good at understanding their granddaughters’ hearts, but granddaughters don’t know their grandfathers’ minds.”

If a seventh god were to be born, neither of the Four Gods nor the Two Celestials, would humanity establish a new empire centered around that god?

That’s unknown.

Once something is broken, it can never return to its original state.

It gets replaced, forgotten, and disappears.

Yet the fact that humanity hasn’t gone extinct yet means that we’re replacing all the broken things that have been forgotten and disappeared with something better.

“I’m leaving now. Let’s have a meal sometime, Knight of my grandfather.”

“…Sure.”

“You’re so stiff. Just like my dad.”

With those final words, the woman whose name started with Na and ended with Ri disappeared from my sight.

All that remained were the empty streets and my companions in the distance.

I looked up at the sky.

The sky was clear, and clouds mottled it like oil floating on soup.

What did that signify?

It meant it was a good time to depart for somewhere else.