Book 6: Chapter 6.1
Book 6: Chapter 6.1
Child of Disaster
★ Brunstalk Lake Country – Church Headquarters, “White Church” Large Conference Hall ★
The conference hall was in a circular form. It was incredibly wide, almost like a ballroom.
Stained glass was fitted in the windows like a slit. 32 from east to south and to the west.
Curtains were not hung around the hall. The idea is such that the approximate time can be perceived by the incoming light. However, the amount of light is not enough to evenly brighten the large conference hall, so candles were lit on the main round table and the waiting tables around it.
(Wow! Such a huge gathering.)
Eva sat at the waiting table together with nobles and civil officials.
There were representatives of 16 countries, including the Kruvan Holy Kingdom.
Among them—especially the small countries belonging to the Keith Gran Federation—the heads of states have personally attended.
Only one representative can sit at the round table, so Duke Grenjido, who is the representative of the Kruvan Holy Kingdom holding the crest of the Holy Queen, sat there. Standing quietly behind him was Earl Sillys.
「Miss Eva, please look over there. That’s the beastmen race… they stand out quite a bit.」
Sitting next to Eva was Ethan. He, a halfling, is part of House Ebene which tried to capture Reiji, and ultimately forced him to leave the Holy Kingdom. But now he has reconciled with Eva.
It was his father and the senior nobles who wanted to execute the “Child of Disaster”. Ethan himself didn’t feel that way. He deeply regretted the fact that his House drove Reiji out of the kingdom, and apologized to Eva.
「Yes. All of them have very large physique.」Eva said.
There was a man, who seemed like a human who modified his body to resemble a gorilla’s, donning a richly-coloured kimono. There were even feather decorations on the back.
The man seems to be the representative of the Beast King race. He was twice as big as Grenjido, who was already as large as a gorilla. The magnificent chair at the round table creaked under his massive weight, so now a bigger chair was being carried in by four people.
Besides that man, his attendants also had large builds. All of them were so close to being a beast that they felt more like “humanoid beasts” than “beastman”.
「If you look like a beast to that extent, you might be mistaken for a monster.」
「Indeed.」
「Where do those guys even live?」
High-ranking nobles were having such conversations at the same table as Eva.
(Our Holy Kingdom is a nation that recognizes diversity. But these people are having such conversations at this time…)
Eva felt like protesting, but she held herself back.
To begin with, there are already people like El-Gu-Larun, a high priest, in the Holy Kingdom. He looks completely like a rabbit, but speaks human language, and is an indispensable personnel to the management of the Holy Kingdom.
Eva just prayed that the extremely rude chatter would not be heard by the people of that race in the noisy conference hall. However, a beast woman, who looked closer to a human than the high priest El, was looking in their direction.
It seems that her two ears clearly heard the noble’s conversation. Even though she was about 30 meters away.
Eva decided to leave her seat and go to the table over to apologize, but a bell began to ring.
There were seats for representatives of 16 countries and representatives of 4 races.
However, there were 22 seats in total in the main round table—the people who should take the remaining two seats had arrived.
『The 320th Pope, Her Holiness Elmentraut Eirich Klausegut, and His Eminence Cardinal Thomason have arrived.』
A priest used a magic tool to announce their arrival. The conference hall fell silent at once.
The well-polished and shiny wood door in the back opened. Donning a gray-colored habit and a gray-colored veil, a woman — no, a girl appeared. Nuns followed her on the left and right.
She can be identified as the Pope because the silver scepter held in her hand is made of Mithril.
It radiated a mysterious light, enough to attract the 200 pairs of eyes in the hall.
But Eva looked behind her. And was about to raise her voice despite herself.
The man donning dark red clothes is Cardinal Thomason. There were deep wrinkles between his eyebrows. He brought along three people behind him. Two of whom were senior priests carrying bulky documents.
The other, however, was a boy wearing a colorful traveling outfit, which was not suitable for this occasion.
(Reiji……!?)
Did he stop dyeing his hair? The black-haired, black-eyed boy was definitely Reiji, who served as Eva’s escort.
**
Even in such a large conference hall, I quickly found the young lady.
My my… young lady, you’re becoming more and more beautiful with each day.
Next to her was Ethan. He was surprised to see me, but his face soon turned sour.
He probably feels guilty that his House was responsible for driving me out of the country in the past. But the people responsible for that were his dad and the escort Lelenore-san. So I don’t particularly hold any grudges against him.
The Pope advanced through the quiet conference hall. Cardinal Thomason and I simply followed behind her.
The Pope sat at the most gorgeous chair – though gorgeous, it was not gaudy; simply that the engravings on it were magnificent. As she sat on the chair, her attendants stepped back to the waiting table.
Cardinal Thomason sat next to the Pope. His attendants lined up the necessary documents in front of him. And as I tried to step back to the waiting table–
「Reiji, remain here.」
「Eh, but…」
「You shall be our escort. It is an honor to be able to escort myself and Her Holiness.」
Cardinal Thomason is a surprisingly playful person, though people tend to take him seriously because he says it with a strict face.
I chuckled and said–
「Okay. Please send an escort request to the Adventurer’s Guild later.」
「Good grief, adventurers always cling to money in every situation.」
Cardinal Thomason mumbled, but I also noticed that he seemed to be having fun.
I didn’t think people in such high positions could enjoy little jokes like these.
The reason why Cardinal Thomason values Riviera-san despite her improper attitude might be because she stands out in the serious and devoted Church organization.
The Pope was watching the exchange between the Cardinal and I, and seemed a little surprised.
『Here on, we will commence a world conference based on Chapter 18, Paragraph 1 of the World Interstate Agreement, Convocation proposed by the Church.』
A priest announced using the same loudspeaker magic tool as before.
Then he goes into more detail on the contents of the letter that Cardinal Thomason sent to nations and tribes representatives—something I already knew.