Chapter 153: Suspicion
***
I grabbed Victoria's skirt with one hand and gripped the railing with the other, stumbled to my feet, took a deep breath, and stared at her urgently. "Theresa, saw... Abel give me, small satchel, stuffed in... mmph!"
Ahh! I bit my tongue. That really hurts...
I quickly covered my mouth with my hand. I'd been talking too fast just now, and that bite came down pretty hard. My eyes were already watering from the pain. But this wasn't the time to whine about it. I rolled my tongue around inside my mouth a couple times, and once the pain felt a little more bearable, I opened my mouth again right away: "Theresa, and the heretics... maybe there's a connection..."
When those words left my mouth, I felt all kinds of complicated feelings stirring inside me.
I didn't want to believe it, and deep down I was still holding on to a lot of hope. Maybe someone wanted us to think this way, to use it for their own ends... maybe in the end it would all turn out to be a misunderstanding, that was the most likely possibility. But no matter what, this was where we needed to start looking.
At the very least, I had to figure out the relationship between Cataloma and the heretics. I had to make sure Elle was safe.
That sweet, well-behaved little girl who dreamed of becoming a saint so that every child could have enough to eat. She always reminded me of the chatty, thin but lively girl from a small village in Sylgaria. Elia.
The two of them really were so alike. So... I wanted to protect her.
Thinking about it made me even more desperate as I stared at the breathtakingly beautiful face right in front of me.
Victoria remained completely composed. Her cool face was utterly still. She looked at me with an indifferent gaze, and after a moment spoke: "I know. Go rest."
Her tone carried a hint of dismissiveness. I could tell she wasn't taking what I said seriously, and I grew more anxious to explain myself to her: "What I mean is, Theresa—"
Suddenly, my eyes went wide.
"You said you know..."
What did Victoria mean? Had she already had her eye on Theresa?!
I suddenly remembered, yesterday on the rooftop, Tanis, the vice-captain of the Sword of Kanri, had told me that the Queen already had a suspect in mind. That suspect... was she talking about Theresa?
I stared at her, my gaze filled with uncertainty and suspicion, but then I saw Victoria respond with a calm, light sound.
"Mm."
"Uh... you already suspected..."
"I told you not to act rashly." Victoria said as she helped me walk toward the stairs, "Theresa is a public figure with tremendous influence among the people. A few years ago, the Church Herald named her 'the person most worthy of becoming a saint.' At the time, the current Saint Margaret was still quite young, and her votes weren't even half of Theresa's. Even though Theresa later gave up her candidacy on her own, the public's admiration for her has only grown since."
"Someone like that needs to be handled with care. Before we find decisive evidence, we can't make any rash moves, and we can't go around talking carelessly either. Do you understand?"
I listened carefully to everything Victoria said, then lowered my head and was quiet for a moment.
"You've already... confirmed that she is..."
"I'm not certain." Victoria answered, "Until things are settled, no assumption is absolute. The Gate of Truth's network of connections in the royal city is not simple. The people entangled with them are more than one or two. If you want to flush out all those rats, you need to keep your cool first. Understood?"
...How could I not understand.
"Then, the children at the orphanage..." I tilted my head and thought about it, "Is there any way... to protect them first..."
Victoria heard that and gave me a light glance.
Just that one glance, and I understood what she meant.
There was no way to take that kind of action, because it would be the same as telling the other side outright: I'm coming for you, so hurry up and hide.
I suddenly felt a little lost.
The information I had was way too one-sided, and I had no one I could really rely on. I was just one person, stuck in an unfamiliar city, and still sick on top of that... I had strength to spare, but my hands were tied... that feeling was truly awful.
I had no idea how Abel was doing either, he might already be in danger... If Carlos were still here, he'd definitely know exactly what to do right away... It'd be so much better if he were here...
Victoria helped me onto the bed, tucked the blanket over me, and as I lay down, waves of exhaustion began washing over me.
"What should I do..."
The words slipped out almost like a murmur, the question aimed more at myself than anyone else.
Victoria's face gradually blurred in my vision.
"Wait." She said to me. "The matter with the children, the Sword of Kanri is already on it. You don't need to worry. Focus on getting your body back in shape first. For what comes next, your involvement is going to be critical. If..."
Victoria paused, then shook her head lightly.
"Get some rest."
"...Mm."
That's... fine.
At least when it came to tracking and investigating, the experienced Sword of Kanri was far more reliable than me. Rather than worrying uselessly here, it'd be better to just recover properly...
Victoria left again not long after, and the room fell quiet once more. I stared up at the ornate chandelier hanging above me, trying to calm my thoughts, but a swarm of tangled ideas kept refusing to leave my head. Without realizing it, I found myself thinking again about Sister Theresa's face, not exactly pretty, but full of character.
A person that gentle... calling her a heretic, calling her one of those reckless fanatics, it was genuinely hard to believe.
I actually really admired her.
Whether it was the medals and awards she'd received in the past, or some of the things she'd said in the Abyss Studies class, all of it proved she was different from those people who only ever talked big. She was someone who actually did real things, someone with integrity. I could see that she carried a fierce belief all her own deep inside her, just like Carlos. Their eyes shone with the same light, that light I yearned for.
That kind of belief, which I once thought was the resolve to slay the Abyss. I thought she and I were the same kind of people, and I couldn't help but want to get closer to her.
Voluntarily turned down being chosen as a Saint... Theresa, what exactly is your belief...
............
When I woke up, rain was pouring outside the window.
It was already past noon. The sky was a heavy grey, and faint cool breezes drifted in through the half-open window onto my face, actually kind of nice... Huh, I'm not cold anymore?
My head felt unusually clear, and a lot of the weakness in my body had faded. My lower belly still ached faintly, but it was down to a level I could ignore. Was it that medicine working... probably not.
This illness had been strange from the start, it wasn't the kind of thing a single bowl of medicine would fix... I could feel that mass of Chaos Power inside me growing fuller and more abundant. Even though I hadn't eaten anything since morning, I wasn't hungry at all, no appetite whatsoever.
My body seemed to be going through some subtle change... or rather, it was still happening.
This was just a feeling. I wasn't certain. But my gut told me, this illness wasn't going to be anything good.
I shook my head and tossed all the messy thoughts to the back of my mind. My head had been a little scattered in the morning, but now that my body had recovered... I needed to find Victoria and discuss what to do next.
I climbed carefully out of bed, opened the bedroom door, and leaned over the stair railing with both hands. I called out tentatively into the empty living room below: "Victoria."
"Victoria!"
After 2 calls with no answer and no sound of movement, she was probably already gone. Come to think of it, that made sense, the Queen wouldn't have the leisure to just sit around at my place anyway.
I trotted down the stairs and made my way to the kitchen... I was going to force myself to eat something.
The leftover honey fruit pie from yesterday was still there. I picked it up and gave it a sniff... not spoiled yet, still good to eat. I grabbed one out and bit into it, then picked up the rest, planning to head back to the living room and finish them off quickly.
Right at that moment, I heard the sound of an argument coming from next door.