The divine beast studied Riersha slowly, taking her in from head to toe.
That child is the sharpest of all the humans here. She’s right. This is a leash made through dark magic. And more precisely… it’s not a leash at all — it’s a ‘control collar.’
Moreover, it was dark magic constructed from an intricate set of spells that most humans would struggle to handle.
Its effects were so horrific that even in the ancient era, when magic had been at its most openly practiced, the technique had been banned. The thought that he would encounter it again a thousand years later — and in a temple of all places…
The divine beast narrowed his eyes.
He had assumed this forbidden art was entirely lost to history.
What was strange was…
Is that child truly of Arachrene’s bloodline?
Isierd looked at him as though he couldn’t imagine what that was supposed to mean.
No, never mind. It’s probably just my imagination.
The divine beast shook his head.
Yet a nagging unease lingered in one corner of his mind, and he continued to stare up at Riersha.
Caught suddenly under the divine beast’s scrutiny, Riersha shifted only her eyes, rolling them awkwardly to the side.
“Why is the divine beast staring at me like that?”
“I was wondering the same thing. Maybe he can see something we can’t? They say divine beasts can see the future, don’t they.”
Ricador murmured.
At that, Riersha’s eyes went wide with genuine wonder.
And then, abruptly, the divine beast let out a small, sharp laugh.
It was unmistakably a snort of disdain.
Hmph. Comparing me to some low-rank divine beast. Then again, when would ordinary people ever meet someone as remarkable as me in their lifetime? …I can’t see the future, but I’m capable of far greater things.
“What’s he saying?”
Ricador frowned. The divine beast seemed to be going on at length about something, but none of it reached him.
Isierd let out a quiet sigh and shook his head.
Then he explained the reason the divine beast had been staring at Riersha so intently.
“He says you were right, Riersha. This control collar is a forbidden technique — even among dark magic.”
“…What? So it really is dark magic?!”
Riersha was startled.
She had only been guessing, and somehow she had landed on the right answer.
“A forbidden art?”
Just then, Pernoa, who had been quietly lost in thought, furrowed his brow and spoke up, his expression uncertain.
“Dark magic shouldn’t be usable within a temple.”
The temple where the Pope resided was under the absolute blessing of the goddess Rafella.
And even setting that aside, something else felt wrong.
If what the divine beast said was true, there must have been high-ranking priests sensitive enough to have noticed the aura of dark magic.
So how had the control collar been in use without anyone catching on?
“It’s unlikely that everyone affiliated with the temple knows about that collar.”
There were far too many priests who were genuinely devoted to the goddess Rafella for that to be the case.
Pernoa glanced briefly at the window, where the first pale light of dawn was beginning to creep in, then turned his gaze to Isierd.
“I’d like to hear more. From those lips, if possible.”
…It’s possible, but for that to happen, my master will need to keep supplying me with holy power. In my current state, the moment I speak a single word, I’ll collapse.
As the divine beast explained this in his quiet, measured way, Isierd exhaled slowly.
“What did he say?”
Ricador asked immediately, his attention sharp on Isierd’s every reaction.
“He says he can explain in more detail, but he’s asking for holy power while he does.”
“Right, it’d be a problem if he collapsed again like before.”
Riscal looked at the divine beast with an expression quite different from when they had first encountered him. The creature turned out to be far more limited than expected.
He was nothing like the records had described.
Riscal quietly drifted to Risideon’s side and whispered.
“Is that why every historical record involving a divine beast was so short, brother?”
Risideon gave a small flinch but said nothing.
⁂
I don’t know exactly what you want to know, but ask me anything. I’ll tell you everything I can within the limits of what I know.
Having received holy power from Isierd, the divine beast moved forward and settled down in front of Pernoa.
“I’d like you to answer what I asked earlier, first.”
Ah. How it’s possible to use dark magic inside a temple?
The divine beast gave a small twitch of his nose, as if it were nothing of particular consequence.
Then he answered lightly.
It’s simple. The goddess Rafella’s blessing over this temple disappeared long ago.
“…Pardon?”
The casualness of it nearly made her nod along without questioning it for a moment.
Riersha blinked at him in bewilderment, and the divine beast began thumping his tail against the blanket.
The reason dark magic couldn’t function inside a temple was because the goddess’s blessing protected it.
“…”
But if dark magic is now moving freely within temple walls, there’s no other explanation except that the blessing has vanished. The priests here don’t seem to be aware of it.
“So that’s why even the high-ranking priests never questioned the control collar.”
It felt suspicious, perhaps, but it was functioning inside the temple — so they had no grounds to doubt it.
“I see.”
While everyone else stood frozen in shock, Pernoa alone remained composed.
Everything the divine beast said was difficult to believe, and yet it was also the cleanest explanation available.
Then Riersha raised her hand and asked a question.
“Why did the blessing disappear?”
The goddess’s blessing, it was said, had been bestowed upon the founding of the Declair Empire as a divine grace.
That, even I don’t know.
The divine beast shook his head.
Since I was born, the blessing hasn’t vanished entirely. But it’s clear that the divine grace Rafella bestowed has stopped functioning as it should.
“…”
Human — do you have any idea why?
The divine beast turned its gaze to Pernoa.
He had, from beginning to end, shown remarkably little surprise.
Pernoa opened his mouth quietly.
“Neither the previous emperor nor the current one, Calius Declair, had a divine beast. From around that time, the Pope’s sacred power began growing at a suspicious rate.”
…No divine beast was born?
“That’s right.”
That can’t be. A divine beast would have been born each time.
The divine beast rejected Pernoa’s words flatly, insisting it was impossible.
But Pernoa was telling the truth.
Through two changes of the emperor, a divine beast had never once made itself known.
“It’s not so implausible. The circumstances would have been exactly as they are now.”
Pernoa glanced meaningfully at the collar around the divine beast’s neck as he spoke.
“Then… you’re saying that control collar has existed for a very long time?”
Risideon asked, hardly daring to believe it, and Pernoa gave a single nod.
“A divine beast was born each time, and yet the imperial household never made any announcement… That possibility is the most likely.”
At those words, the color drained from Ricador’s face entirely.
Since the moment they had encountered the divine beast, nothing but staggering, corrupt revelations had kept arriving. Ricador let out a low, pained sound and covered his face.
“…Not a single old saying has been wrong.”
Truly…
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again to look down at the divine beast.
Just then, Riersha tilted her head, puzzled.
There was still the matter of the goddess’s blessing to investigate more thoroughly, but even so, there were several questions that remained unanswered.
One in particular stood out.
“But it’s strange, Papa. Didn’t you say the magic tower manages dark magic? Does that mean the tower made that thing?”
The temple and the magic tower had been bitter enemies for generations.
And yet, creating that control collar would have required access to materials on dark magic without fail.
If the technique had been classified as a forbidden art, the magic tower would have kept it under the strictest control imaginable.
First the dark magic altering Prince Adrian’s appearance, and now a control collar designed to steal a divine beast’s sacred power.
“Something may be happening inside the magic tower.”
Pernoa’s scarlet eyes cooled to something sharp and still.
None of this would have been possible without the tower’s cooperation — that much was certain.
“There’s something the Tower Master hasn’t told us yet.”
Everyone, after all, kept one absolute secret they could not speak aloud.
Riersha thought back to Sion, whom she had met just a short while ago.
Come to think of it…
He found the divine beast and tried to take him away immediately.
Even though, from the tower’s perspective, there was nothing they could possibly do with a divine beast.
