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Wake Not a Sleeping Lion – Part 03

Once Luvain returned to his private quarters, he dismissed his attendants. Stripping off his large robe, he hurried to the restroom, where he vomited violently, so much so that he feared he might expel even his internal organs.

After a while, the nausea subsided. He wiped his mouth, drank some water from a pitcher, and returned to the room.

“Ah, Silver Face. You’re here.”

Even when he saw Hikaru sitting on one of the two chairs next to a small table, Luvain remained calm. Tears welled in his eyes, likely a physiological response to vomiting, but aside from that, Hikaru couldn’t help but notice the lack of reaction or emotional turmoil after his recent actions.

His body is showing signs of rejection, but his mind is suppressing his emotions.

Hikaru was now certain. Luvain had knowingly let the Pope die and purged all the archpriests. He had made a decision to bear the weight of leading this vast organization and nation as the Pope.

“You weren’t supposed to be that kind of person.”

Holding a porcelain cup, Luvain blinked. He didn’t expect to hear such words from Silver Face.

“When pushed to the limit, even a mouse will bite a cat. I suppose I was no different.”

“But you’re not just a mouse, are you?”

“Silver Face, I’m grateful to you, from the bottom of my heart. You gave me a choice when I had lived my life without ever thinking too hard about things.”

“Was taking control of a country in the midst of a war really that enticing to you?”

“No… To be precise, I had desire at first. But now, I have no craving for power. Strangely enough, my heart is at peace.”

Hikaru wondered: was this the face of a man who had killed so many just moments ago? It wasn’t only the archpriests that he executed, but also their retinue of priests.

“I sense something within me has been shattered. Something that makes me human. This is partly your fault, you know?”

“…”

“Even if the former Pope had recovered, the Church would have continued along the wrong path.”

“The wrong path?”

“The former Pope was determined to ostracize non-humans. All because the blood of the first Pope, Agia, coursed through his veins.”

Hikaru gave a start. He had wondered why the Pope was so irrationally aggressive in spreading the poison, but learning that he bore the blood of the first Pope, Agia, shed new light on the situation.

Agia had sacrificed dozens of Man Gnomes to close the massive hole from which evil spewed forth. He also stole Funai’s honor of being the developer of the soul card.

Agia didn’t want to leave any traces of Funai’s existence, for he symbolized the dozens of Man Gnomes he had killed.

Agia’s ideas were passed on to the Church, a massive organization, and gradually, the Man Gnome’s existence was erased from history.

If the previous Pope inherited Agia’s blood and beliefs, then his inexplicable and aggressive stance toward the Quinbrand Empire, a nation ruled by a Man Gnome, might have been a statement that he would never yield under any circumstances.

Agia’s sentiments, which had persisted for thousands of years, was like a curse.

“Silver Face, I take it you know the secret behind the soul card?”

“Yeah. If you know about it too, does that mean it’s something known to the upper echelons of the Church?”

“Who knows? At least it didn’t seem like the other archpriests knew about it or that the previous Pope had Agia’s blood. I happened to learn about it from the previous Pope’s diary.”

“What do you plan to do now?”

“Nothing. I will simply return the Church to its proper form. A place where people gather and extend a helping hand to those seeking salvation. A place where they can cry together, suffer together, and laugh together.”

He seemed to genuinely believe in the future he was envisioning. However, Hikaru couldn’t help but wonder if Luvain was planning to die for this cause.

Luvain intended to bring about reform. But it would come with many challenges and casualties. He was willing to get his hands dirty to carry out a bloody reform because the Church had become so corrupt that there was no other way to restore it.

“Once the Church returns to its original state, what will you do?”

“…”

Luvain smiled faintly, but gave no answer.

“Are you—”

Sensing someone rushing to the room, Hikaru paused.

“Your Eminence, we have an emergency!” the visitor said, pounding on the door. A temple guard entered the room, panting heavily. “Einbiest’s Beastmen army has invaded our country. They were only pretending to withdraw. Two weakly defended cities have already fallen.”

The situation was rapidly escalating.

“I see…”

Hikaru, his Stealth on, was in the corner of the room, observing Luvain as he listened to the report. A chill ran down his spine.

Luvain was smiling.

---

The Confederacy of Einbiest wasn’t like any ordinary nation. It comprised a collection of races and cities, each one operating autonomously. Most of its inhabitants were demi-humans—Beastmen, mostly—non-humans ostracized in human-dominated cities and found refuge here.

Though they lived separate lives during times of peace, they banded together when confronted with external threats. This time, the looming danger came in the form of the Theocracy of Bios. The previous Pope’s radical obsession with eradicating non-human races had fueled the invasion. Not that the relationship between Bios and Einbiest had ever been smooth from the start.

However, Bios lagged behind Einbiest’s army in terms of physical prowess. Frustrated by the situation, the former Pope resorted to a drastic measure formulated by Ranna: the Angelization Project—the unethical attachment of wings to humans.

While the project yielded some successful cases, it also resulted in numerous deaths due to experimentation failures. Nonetheless, knights who gained mobility through these wings became formidable, resulting in a deadlock between Einbiest’s army and Bios’ forces—that is, the Knights Templar.

That’s when the Quinbrand Empire’s forces struck Bios from the north.

Though Bios themselves had sown the seeds of conflict, no one had seen this move coming. The Kingdom of Ponsonia, situated between the northern Quinbrand Empire and the southern Theocracy of Bios, had long been embroiled in minor skirmishes with the Empire along their shared border.

However, Quinbrand, prioritizing their assault on Bios, forged an alliance with Ponsonia. Both nations quickly solidified their relations, finding common ground in overcoming the damage caused by the Accursed Toxin sanctioned by the former Pope, putting aside years of grievances.

In these shifting circumstances, Bios abandoned their plans to invade Einbiest. The theocracy pulled back its national army, led by the Knights Templar, and sent them north to counter Quinbrand’s advance. Although no formal agreement was made with Einbiest, mutual losses led Bios to believe that one side’s withdrawal effectively meant a ceasefire. Bios assumed that Einbiest would have no knowledge of the Empire’s offensive, at least not anytime soon.

However, Bios’ read on the situation proved to be incorrect. Imperial spies had infiltrated Bios’s holy city, Agiapole, and even had ties to Einbiest’s deputy leader, Jillarte Kostenlos Jäger.

Jillarte was a former Half Dragon whom Hikaru had rescued and to whom he had bestowed exceptional swordsmanship skills. Hikaru had also lifted the dragon’s curse that plagued her race, a curse that gave them cloudy eyes and dull scales all over their skin.

Unken, a former imperial spy, had contacted Jillarte through Hikaru.

In short, Jillarte learned of the Quinbrand army’s advance almost simultaneously with the Knights Templar.

Jillarte advised Gerhardt, the commander of the Einbiest army, to feign a retreat. Then, once the Knights Templar were gone, relieved by their withdrawal, they should launch a swift attack on the holy city.

“This is a golden opportunity. It’s our best shot at freeing our enslaved brethren.”

“Let’s do it.”

Gerhardt’s decision was swift. The Theocracy of Bios considered humans the noblest race and oppressed demi-humans, making them work as slaves. The total number of enslaved individuals numbered in the thousands, if not tens of thousands.

Despite their fatigue, when Gerhardt shouted, “To rescue our comrades forced into slavery,” the Einbiest army brimmed with vigor.

And so, the Einbiest army marched towards the holy city. The fortress at the border, left vulnerable after the Knight Templars’ retreat, fell within a day. Beyond that point stretched several towns with no walls.