No One Listens to the Voice of the Loser

Kyle, who was attacked in the heart of Artas, the capital of the Empire, had no choice but to quickly take Sylvia and seek refuge in the Imperial Palace.

His audience with the Emperor was scheduled for tomorrow, so first, they were guided by the servants of the Imperial Palace and assigned rooms where they would be staying for the time being.

The inside of the room was so luxurious that the phrase, ‘It’s truly the Imperial Palace,’ naturally came out, and the expression ‘splendid’ suited it better than ‘cozy.’

Even the room Kyle used in Kaintreche Castle wasn’t lacking, but this one seemed twice as big. The fact that the shower facilities were inside the room so they wouldn’t bump into other people was also quite satisfying.

“Huu….”

Thanks to that, Kyle was able to completely relieve his travel fatigue by soaking in warm water as soon as he unpacked.

After entrusting the dusty clothes he wore on the way here to the servants in the Imperial Palace, he changed into new clothes from his luggage and decided to leave the room.

It was to fulfill his promise to tour the Imperial Palace with Sylvia before dinner.

Since the Imperial Palace was so vast, Kyle moved towards Sylvia’s room, which he had remembered earlier, in case they headed in different directions and got confused.

It might not look good to others for a man to be standing alone in front of a woman’s room, but he thought it would be better than Sylvia taking an unnecessary trip.

“Ah, Kyle!”

“Sylvia, you were out early.”

But when he arrived in front of the room, Sylvia was already standing in front of the door in a demure posture, waiting for him.

Since women generally take more time to groom themselves than men, he thought he would have to wait a while, so he was a little surprised and widened his eyes.

Sylvia noticed that and explained the situation with an awkward, ‘Hehet….’

“Women tend to take a little longer to groom themselves. I didn’t want to make Kyle-ssi wait, so I finished grooming as soon as I entered the room.”

“I see, that’s why.”

In Kyle’s case, he lay down on the bed for a while to relieve his fatigue, while Sylvia, as she said, went straight into the room and finished bathing without doing anything else.

But the reason wasn’t personal, like ‘because I felt uncomfortable’ or ‘because I was sweating,’ but because she was worried he would wait.

As Kyle, I couldn’t help but feel a subtle emotion.

“But why were you waiting here? It seems like quite some time has passed.”

However, one of the questions that still remained was why she was standing blankly in front of her door, waiting, instead of looking around the Imperial Palace while waiting for him, or even coming to find him first.

Judging from the fact that her hair was almost dry, it seemed like some time had passed.

“Well, that’s….”

“……?”

When he expressed his curiosity, Sylvia fidgeted with her hands and trailed off, unlike her usual self.

“I’ve always been the one to go find you, so I wanted to wait for Kyle-ssi to come find me. W-was that too petty of me?”

“Ah.”

Kyle exclaimed and widened his eyes at the unexpected reason.

I thought she was worried about confusion in our movements, like myself, but to think it was such a cute and trivial reason.

If that’s the case, Kyle thought he would go find her dozens, hundreds of times.

“Not at all. It’s okay. In the future, whenever this happens, I’ll come to your room, so please wait comfortably.”

Then, he said that with the intention of purely fulfilling what she wanted, but Sylvia, mistaking it for sarcasm, was startled and waved her hand.

“I-I don’t want you to go that far, so it’s okay…! We can just decide on a meeting place next time.”

“I’m okay with it.”

“I’m not okay with it…!”

The two people, who clearly started off warmly, somehow ended their conversation bickering, left the annex built for guests and stepped outside.

＊＊＊

Kyle doesn’t really like the expression ‘magnificent.’ It’s too abstract, and he thinks it’s the least relatable expression when you tell that impression to a third party.

However, the Imperial Palace was truly a place full of majesty, so much so that there was no other way to describe it other than ‘magnificent.’

Because of the Emperor’s words, the two were able to see even the quite deep parts of the Imperial Palace’s main building, which are not allowed for ordinary outside guests, and it was so amazing that they had a fundamental question of how they could create such a space indoors.

The ceiling was so high that, to exaggerate a bit, it seemed like 50 Kyles would have to stand on top of each other to reach it, and each place they stepped on was armed with completely different colors, surprising the two.

“Wow, this place seems to be a chapel, Kyle-ssi.”

“It seems so. After all, it would be difficult for those inside the Imperial Palace to go to temples or chapels outside.”

In particular, the place that the two were most fascinated by was the chapel. Unlike places that usually decorate only a part of the light coming in behind the platform with stained glass, this place was made of stained glass on all sides.

However, not all places were like that, and parts of the ceiling and walls were like that, so the light shining from there covered the surroundings in various colors, making them feel a sacred atmosphere.

“But that’s unexpected. The statue erected there isn’t Erze, the Goddess of Peace, but Lethe, the Goddess of Dawn, is it?”

However, even in this sacred space, if there was only one question for Kyle, it was that the statue, which could be said to be the symbol of the Order, erected on the platform was not Erze, the main god of the Order of the Sun, which is virtually regarded as the state religion of the Empire, but Lethe, the main god of the Order of the Moon.

“It seems so. It seems this is a chapel made for the followers of the Order of the Moon to use.”

“I thought the Order of the Moon was quite ostracized in the Empire, but that’s unexpected.”

“That’s probably a relatively recent thing. In the past, the Order of the Moon also had as many followers as the Order of the Sun, I heard.”

As a born atheist, Kyle, who once tried to delve into theology but threw it away, found it quite a strange story. Then why did the Order of the Moon collapse so quickly?

“I also heard from my mother that about 40 years ago, the oracle of the Goddess Erze was cut off.”

“The oracle? That means….”

The oracle was cut off. It was a simple phenomenon, but Kyle wasn’t stupid enough not to know what it meant, so I widened my eyes.

“Yes, so the followers of the Order of the Sun went crazy. But later, the Goddess Erze returned and left a message, saying, ‘The moon is bright, trying to cover even the sun.'”

“…That’s a dangerous message.”

“That’s right, it is said that the armed conflict between the Order of the Sun and the Order of the Moon was also because of that.”

Does that mean that Lethe, the Goddess of Dawn, posed some kind of threat to Erze?

There are several directions depending on how you interpret it, but anyway, the important thing is that it provided the followers of the Order of the Sun with sufficient justification to attack the Order of the Moon.

“But as you know, the current Hespia Empire doesn’t have a separate state religion, right? It strictly guarantees freedom of religion and harmonizes each other within it.”

“That’s right.”

“So the late Emperor, who was the Emperor at the time, stepped in to resolve the situation. But it was already quite late at that time. Even after that, the oracle of the Goddess Lethe was cut off, so they couldn’t stop the followers of the Order of the Moon from leaving even more.”

“Hmm….”

Indeed, if that’s the case, it’s only natural that the power of the Order of the Moon would decline.

In the first place, the oracle is virtually the only place of exchange that connects the main god and the followers. If that is cut off, the followers will have no choice but to lose faith in the god.

Moreover, if there is a rumor that the god himself may have harmed the main god served by another order, even more so.

“But I sometimes have such thoughts.”

“What kind of thoughts?”

“I wonder if the Goddess Lethe really did something wrong. Of course, it doesn’t mean I distrust the Goddess Erze-nim….”

“You think it’s unfair to unilaterally trust only one side.”

“I guess so.”

But Sylvia’s words also made sense. In fact, Kyle also felt uncomfortable somewhere while listening to her story.

Just as there is a saying that history is a story written with the winner as the protagonist, in any story, whether it be mythology or history, the loser always had to shut up. They weren’t even given a chance to speak.

In that sense, Erze can be regarded as the current winner.

Then, thinking back, if Lethe is called the loser, where did she lose?

What was the biggest reason that became the cause of that defeat?

When did she fight a war without anyone knowing, and how did she lose in it and bring about this ending?

I don’t know. No one knows. Because she had to shut up because she became a loser for some reason, and the rest was recorded only in the description of Erze, the winner.

It’s a really unsettling story.

‘The Order of the Moon.’

Suddenly, Kyle was lost in thought for a moment, recalling the stories he had heard from the informant when he visited Ruben last time.

The Order of the Sun and the Order of the Moon.

What kind of story is intertwined between these two religious groups that look like light and darkness as they are?