Ch.488I Have a Dream.

Lacy tried to snatch the cigarette from me, stretching out both arms, but after I burned through the tobacco with just a couple of puffs, she finally gave up her pointless interference with a deep sigh.

“Tsk…!”

She did give me a somewhat resentful look… but I’m not one to be swayed by such glances. When I shrugged my shoulders as if nothing was wrong, Lacy averted her gaze with a slightly reddened face.

“……”

Agnes looked at our little scene with contempt. It must have been amusing to see two Saint candidates older than herself behaving this way.

I tossed the finished cigarette into the ashtray and rummaged through my bag for a new pack. I had originally planned to smoke leisurely, but Lacy’s attempt to take it away forced me to rush through it.

“So, what were you going to say?”

I asked Lacy about the main point she had been trying to make while putting a fresh cigarette between my lips, as she soothed her irritated throat with a teacup filled with holy water.

Something about the future of the Holy State, wasn’t it? Quite a grand topic. Judging by how she had sent the others away, it seemed like it might be something serious.

“Right. Where should I begin…”

After a brief pause, Lacy spoke with a determined expression, as if making a commitment to herself.

“I have a dream. A dream that has taken deep root since my days as a novice nun, before I received the Stigmata of Elpinel… My dream and wish is to create a world where all non-human races are equal, a world where everyone enjoys peace.”

“…What?”

What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden…?

“Imagine it. Wouldn’t it be a beautiful sight? Young Werebeasts and little fairies, Dwarf and Dragonborn children forgetting all hostility, harmonizing together, running across golden wheat fields.”

“Uh… sure?”

It was a shocking statement. Harmony and peace among all races. Well, it was a dream befitting a Saint, but I never imagined Lacy would say such things.

Who are you? You’re not the Lacy I know.

Where did that human supremacist and racist against other species go, and who is this suddenly inclusive Saint?

“—In internment camps.”

“…Ah, right. In internment camps…”

I sighed at her follow-up statement, completely erasing my confusion and suspicion.

That makes more sense. I was wondering what she was talking about.

Indeed, this was the real Lacy after all.

—-

Her dream wasn’t a utopia where all races lived together in harmony, laughing happily. It was a future where all non-human races would be imprisoned in camps, becoming serfs harvesting wheat all day long. Equality for all non-human races, you might say.

“Lady Elmaine…”

Agnes was also looking at Lacy with an incredulous expression, as if her statement had come completely out of nowhere.

“Couldn’t we do without the Werebeasts?”

…What is she saying now?

Apparently, she wasn’t shocked by the declaration to send all non-human races to internment camps, but rather displeased with the part about sparing Werebeast offspring.

Well, I suppose that’s to be expected from a Saint candidate of the Church of Menes. She might become good friends with Frider if they ever meet.

“I understand your aversion, Menesilia, but Werebeasts can contribute many things for humanity. For example, if we teach them that donating fur is virtuous, we can secure large quantities of leather. Warm leather that radiates heat even in snowy fields. Therefore, preserving Werebeasts is absolutely necessary to expand human territory.”

Lacy tried to convince Agnes.

Her plan was to brainwash young Werebeasts to regularly donate their fur like blood donations, and use their leather to withstand the northern cold.

If things went as she described, humanity’s territory could indeed expand beyond the Sky Mountains. With the warmth of Werebeast fur, people might somehow survive even in those polar regions.

“So, what does your dream have to do with the future of the Holy State?”

“Listen. When I first received the Stigmata, I thought I could achieve my dream if I became a Saint. But… as time passed, I began to see the practical limitations. The cardinals don’t want a Saint from our church, and other denominations don’t want a crusade to cull non-human races.”

Lacy slightly bowed her head and fiddled with the holy symbol hanging around her neck.

“My dream… has too many enemies.”

Of course it does. Probably half the world, right?

Non-humans would obviously oppose it, and even humans would consider it too extreme.

“Eventually, I had to realize. As long as I’m bound to the Holy State, my dream will never come true.”

The emotion in her slightly lowered voice was either frustration or anger. Lacy viewed the cardinals of the Holy State as obstacles to her dream.

Well… she wasn’t wrong.

Even when Lacy was the only Stigmata bearer, the cardinals refused to elect her as Saint, keeping the position vacant while waiting for a competitor to appear.

It was blatantly obvious obstruction.

“…Even a united front would face a thorny path for such an undertaking, let alone a divided nation. That’s why I placed my hopes in the Empire rather than the Holy State, creating the Imperial Diocese. I believed that with unified dioceses and the Empire’s military might, I could someday achieve my goal.”

I’m not so sure… I think it would still be difficult.

Non-human races have grown stronger, while the Empire’s military power has weakened considerably.

“But… the cardinals interfered with even this. They ignored or neglected the corruption and chaos within the Holy State, focusing solely on holding me back. That’s why I returned to the Holy State. To remove all those who brought chaos and those who stand in the way of my mission.”

Lacy put down the necklace she was holding and moistened her throat again, as if preparing for the main point.

“Thanks to Elpinel’s divine protection, only three obstructive cardinals remain. Carnius of the Church of Saulite, Audius of the Church of Ceres, and Wolfgang of the Church of Volberg. Once they submit, no cardinal will stand in my way anymore.”

“So what, you want to assassinate all three?”

Lacy shook her head.

“Of course not. There’s no need for such vicious acts. I can negotiate with the Church of Ceres over the ownership of Nashiriya, and the Church of Volberg is already unable to return to the Holy City, so simply leaving them be will cause them to lose influence and decline.”

“That’s…”

Agnes groaned quietly, as if stricken with guilt.

Her reaction was understandable. The Church of Volberg was expelled from the Holy City because they were framed for Cardinal Paulus’s assassination, but it was Agnes herself who had killed Paulus.

It was something she had to do, and the Church of Ceres was behind the framing, but she probably still felt sorry for the Church of Volberg.

“You don’t need to feel guilty, Menesilia. Even without the Paulus incident, the Church of Volberg is currently the most suspicious denomination.”

Lacy glanced at Agnes and offered something resembling comfort.

“Despite claiming they were framed, they fled without even attempting to cooperate with the investigation. They were allied with the Church of Grimnir, and they drafted plans to use Panam and Dane to check the Empire… Considering all this, it’s hard to see them as innocent or benevolent.”

“Is that so…?”

“It is.”

Rather than proper consolation, it was closer to saying they deserved what they got, so don’t worry about it.

“So, what we need to do now isn’t to worry about the Church of Volberg. We need to go to Arvil, burn those disgusting cultists along with the brothels they created, and hold the Church of Saulite accountable for neglecting them.”

“So that’s what this was all about.”

I flicked ash into the ashtray and smirked.

I thought she was making quite a long speech just to say we should take down those Ascension Advent people or whatever they’re called.

“Yes. Once we exterminate them, our work in the Holy State will be almost complete. Paulus is concerning, but… frankly speaking, it’s impossible to find someone who’s deliberately hiding without a trace in this vast Holy State. We’ll have to put that on hold for now.”

“Paulus? But I…”

When the name of the person she had killed suddenly came up, Agnes tilted her head with a puzzled expression.

Seems like no one told her yet. Someone should explain it to her when I’m not around.

“Didn’t the body disappear? Then you can’t be certain he’s dead. The witch Isabella resurrected several times, so it wouldn’t be strange for a priest of an ancient god to have similar abilities.”

“Ah…!”

Agnes nodded with her mouth agape, as if she hadn’t considered that possibility.

Well, it is surprising.

She said she had never left the cathedral of the Church of Menes, so she probably had never seen humans who could revive even after being dismembered. Even I’ve only seen Isabella in person.

I’ve met a few others in the game, though.

“Menes, I beg forgiveness for my foolishness…”

Upon learning that Paulus might still be alive, Agnes offered a prayer of apology to Menes with a gloomy face, lamenting that her rashness had failed to end the apostate’s life.

Hmm… I doubt even Menes would task a teenage girl with killing an apostle of an ancient god.

The throbbing Stigmata and dream-like suggestions were probably just warnings to stay away from Paulus, weren’t they?

After Agnes finished her prayer, Lacy shared more about her future plans with us.

Her plan was to make all the cardinals submit and guarantee the continuation of the Diocese, then relinquish her authority as a Saint candidate to elevate Agnes as the Saint, before returning to the Empire.

She said tracking down Paulus could take months, so she’d leave that to the Holy State for now.

Except for one thing, it was a fairly decent plan.

“…What about finding Isabella’s accomplice?”

The witch’s collaborator hiding among the cardinals. Wasn’t that the original goal? We ended up getting involved in all sorts of things, but still.

“Oh, that’s been resolved. While Baron Median was away, I investigated the ruins of the Grimnir Cathedral again, and I found an interesting journal there.”

Lacy pulled out a tattered notebook from a drawer and showed it to me.

The notebook had been caught in the cathedral’s collapse, with tears and dents all over, plus water stains, but there were still some legible parts here and there.

It wasn’t Lübitz’s handwriting that I’d seen before. Probably written by one of the priests of the Church of Grimnir. I don’t know who exactly.

I leaned in to read the legible sentences one by one.

/…It was a mistake to contact that woman, even if it was to research the abyss of dark magic…/

/…The knowledge she provided was certainly interesting, but because of it, we have an enemy we cannot handle…/

/…Soon, the Empire’s hero will come to kill us. We must find a way to stop him…/

“Uh… wait, could this be…?”

I shifted my gaze from the notebook to Lacy, with an expression asking if my suspicion was correct.

As if confirming my suspicion, Lacy nodded with certainty.

“A woman knowledgeable enough in dark magic to teach the Church of Grimnir magical knowledge. Moreover, a woman whose mere association would make one Baron Median’s enemy… there’s only one answer, isn’t there?”

Right. The witch Isabella. It could only be her.

Everything made sense when you thought about it that way.

Lacy continued, folding down her fingers one by one.

“The suicide ritual identical to that of Archbishop Trier. This journal. The fact that they immediately tried to kill us. Even if it’s just circumstantial evidence, when this many coincidences pile up, it becomes conclusive. It seems we’ve already caught and killed the ‘accomplice’ we were looking for.”

“My goodness.”

I laughed hollowly as I exhaled cigarette smoke.

It was absurd. We had racked our brains trying to uncover the accomplice’s identity, only for them to come out and die on their own.

Talk about a thief giving himself away.