Nothing to do With Me

Setting up a meeting with the big cheese himself wasn’t as difficult as you might be expecting. Actually, it was incredibly easy. With a little groundwork you could accomplish anything.

And he wasn’t anything like what I was expecting. I’d never met a king before, but I had a pretty strong idea of one in my head. This guy wasn’t it. He just looked like any old man you’d find walking around on the street. His clothes weren’t impressive in the least.

“Well, you broke into my home, assaulted my staff, and refused to leave until I agreed to meet with you. After all that I feel that you at least owe me the courtesy of giving me your name.”

Alright, so maybe I took some liberties with the concept of ‘setting up a meeting.’ That doesn’t matter. The important thing was that I managed to get in contact with the chancellor. I initially planned on bringing Sanson for this meeting, but I decided against it. With how much armor he wore, and how frequently he took it off, he just wasn’t suited for a stealth mission. He seemed perfectly happy to go visit his family’s primary residence instead. With the way things were going I figured I wouldn’t have much time to look for souvenirs, so I asked him to get something for me if he saw anything interesting.

Anyway, it turns out I wasn’t suited for a stealth mission either. The moment I climbed over the wall of the property I was spotted by multiple members of the staff.

Well, what can you do about it?

“My name? You can call me Jessebell.”

Giving my real name was probably a bad idea. I mean, Remnant Blanche just broke out of prison. We’d never met, so there’s no chance this guy could recognize me, but he might have been able to recognize my name.

“Jessebell? How unexpected. I could have sworn it was Remnant Blanche.”

“How did you know? And why didn’t you just say that in the first place? You made me look like an idiot by trying to lie about it!”

“Madam, the only one causing you to look like a fool is yourself. Both your dress and left hand are displaying the Blanche family seal.”

“Impressive. I didn’t think you’d be able to recognize a noble seal from a foreign kingdom.” Obviously I hadn’t been thinking anything like that at all, but I needed to say something like that to preserve what gravitas I had left.

“Valieris and Ciel have always had a close relationship. Besides, how could I not recognize the family of your kingdom's holy lady?”

“Well let me just tell you right now, this has nothing to do with Anelace. No matter how this conversation goes, leave her out of it.”

“Nothing would make me happier. Frankly speaking, learning that a member of her family was accused of heresy has caused me nothing but stress. Someone in my position has nothing to gain by antagonizing someone many revere as a saint. Personally, I was hoping you’d quietly leave my humble city and we’d all be able to forget all of this trouble, but let me give you the same offer we keep giving the youngest Sacrés boy: just leave and all charges against you will be dropped. Keeping either of you locked up is more troublesome than setting you free.”

Clearly I was right in thinking that rumors about Ane hadn’t reached the Holy City yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if Valieris was doing everything it could to keep the rumors, or rather, the truth about her from spreading out of the kingdom.

“I’ll gladly take you up on that offer, but first, there’s something else we need to discuss.”

“I was worried that would be the case.” Why did so many people have that reaction when I tried to talk to them? “What is it?”

He already seemed a little annoyed with our conversation, so I decided to skip right to the important part.

“Tremble with fervor, for I have a message from god!”

Exactly. The perfect plan. If I convinced him that a god told me that he needed to set Rakki free, he’d have to oblige.

Actually, couldn’t I just ask him to let Rakki out? Based on how much he seemed to just want me to leave, wouldn’t he let Rakki go too if I explained he was part of my party? Maybe, but that would be plan b. I already made a big deal about the message from god, so I’d look like an idiot again if I instantly backed down from that.

“A message from god?” He didn’t sound impressed. “Which god exactly?”

A hurdle from the get-go, but one that I was prepared for.

“Does it matter?”

Exactly! I didn’t know the first thing about the religion of the Holy City, or any city for that matter. The only gods I ever cared about were myself and that harlot god of the harvest that stole all of my followers. And I didn’t even know her name, or my name for that matter. That’s a different story though. When it came to the most common gods worshiped by humans, their names were almost never used. So there’s no way that a person like me would have ever learned what they are.

But what I did understand was the temperament of gods themselves. If this guy was as close to them as his position indicated he’d understand where I was coming from.

“Perhaps not, but I’d still like to know.”

“And that desire for knowledge is the origin of all suffering.” Again, I had no idea if his religion believed something like that, but I was willing to bet it did. No matter who they worshiped, I could guarantee that the last thing their gods wanted was having to respond to difficult questions. “It could’ve been a small black bird or a spider the size of this mansion. Who it was doesn’t matter.”

“I see.”

“But, well, if you want a name, let’s just use Silvias. You should know as well as I do that these so-called ‘gods’ aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”

I didn’t think he’d recognize the name, I just picked it because it was the only god’s name I could actually remember. Not that Silvias was even a real god. The point I was trying to get across was that the god in question didn’t matter. All that mattered was it was a message from up high. If this guy really was some big shot in this religious city, he’d definitely know what I meant. The gods didn’t care one way or another. Any message from them was basically just a whim, so it was pointless to think about the details.

“Well, I figured that’s what you were really here about, but I’m still impressed with how brazenly you’ve shown your hand.” Huh? I had no idea what he was getting at, but at least he seemed impressed. “What’s stopping me from just having you killed before you can tell anyone else?”

Um, alright. He certainly elevated things a little bit more quickly than I intended.

“Killing me won’t change anything. Do you really think I would have come here if I was afraid of dying?” If he thought death threats meant anything to me, he had another thing coming.

“So you have someone ready to spread the information if you don’t check back in? I figured as much. I suppose the real question is how involved Valieris is in all of this.”

Well, not quite, but the idea was the same.

“If you understand that, then let’s get down to business.” It was finally time to redeem my status as a bad negotiator.

“Before that, there’s one thing I’d like to know, if you’re willing to humor this old man. How did you connect things back to us? Once I’d learned of the report you made to the current lord of Ah’Ruh, along with the fact that he failed multiple times to kill you, I knew you’d connect Thera to the plot, but any connection to the Holy City should have been untraceable. From the report that I read, only one outsider should have known, and according to my predecessors he was to be trusted absolutely.”

What? My report to the lord of Ah’Ruh? Was he talking about the whole desert thing?

“You’re the one who sent Silvias to Antia?”

I was trying to ask a question, but the chancellor seemed to take it as an accusation.

“That was done over a century ago. I hadn’t even been born, let alone be in a position to have any control over something like that. But, yes, it was the act of a previous Chancellor Garris, so perhaps along with inheriting his name I should inherit his guilt as well.”

“What are you saying?” I was trying not to bring it up, but this whole ‘Garris’ business was really starting to confuse me. Rakki’s friend was Garris, this guy is Garris, some other guy was Garris. Who exactly is Garris supposed to be? “Are you Garris or not?”

“I am, and I understand what you mean. If I actually felt any guilt there were plenty of things I could have done. I wasn’t the one to craft the plan or give the order, but in their situation I would have done the same. No one expected that spider to stick around for as long as it did, but that accomplished our goals just as well. I imagine those Therans were the only ones disappointed with the outcome.”

“The only ones disappointed were the Therans? Are you even listening to yourself? Have you really forgotten the biggest victim in all of this? Even if they forgave you, I never would.”

He wasn’t even considering Silvias at all. This whole thing revolved around taking advantage of her feelings, and that just didn’t sit well with me. I might be a femme fatale who perfectly seduces a gate guard, but none of those feelings are real. I’d never take advantage of someone’s genuine feelings.

“You expect me to feel anything for those heretics from Antia? They got what they deserved. Those fools thought they could create their own gods? Gods are gods, simply because they are. An object or animal given divinity because humans choose to worship it is nothing more than an insult to the real gods that watch over all of us. We couldn’t risk that behavior spreading. In that regard, the spider that claimed their position as a fake god worked better than intended. Replacing them with a tyrant was far more productive than simply removing their gods outright.”

Alright. I still had no idea how or why we started talking about any of that stuff, but I was starting to piece together the whole Silvias situation at least. So basically, Thera wanted to destroy Antia and the Holy City wanted to stop them from creating new gods. They worked together to trick Silvias into killing the gods and destroying Antia, but Silvias decided to stick around longer than expected.

Except somehow Rakki is involved with this as well. Silvias has no reason to lie, and she said that Rakki was the one who actually did the tricking.

Wait a minute. If this involves Rakki then it might not be as unexpected as I thought. Did the chancellor know what I wanted from him, so he brought up Rakki ahead of time? Maybe, but probably not. It’s not like he actually mentioned Rakki at all. Besides, he shouldn’t have any idea that Silvias told me about her relationship with Rakki in the first place.

Wasn’t I just overthinking this? The hows and whys didn’t matter. Well, I certainly didn’t care about them. I needed to stay focused on what this was all about.

“Well, it’s been nice to talk, but let’s skip to the end. How much are you going to pay me?”

Exactly! Did you forget? It’s all about the gold. I made my thoughts on his whole situation perfectly clear in my conversation to Crow a long time ago. Everything with Ane back in Valieris distracted me from my mission, but the chancellor reminded me of one of my primary reasons for leaving Ah’Ruh in the first place. I could smell the gold!

I certainly wasn’t expecting this old guy to be the one to pay out, but I knew that there was someone out there who would pay me to keep my mouth shut. It didn’t sound like there was anyone else involved, so I wouldn’t be able to use this strategy on anyone else. That meant I needed to make enough to last me for a while. With how fast Ane’s stock was falling back in Valieris, I couldn't rely on her to cover our living expenses forever.

“So this is just simple blackmail? I’m far more relieved to hear that than I ever thought I’d be. With Valieris sending two nobles I’d never heard of to this city, both of which completely destroyed the divine barrier around the city, I assumed you two were sent here about the situation with Aizus.”

“With Aizus?” The name felt familiar, but I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Yes, but I can assure you that situation is entirely the work of the Archbishop. I couldn’t stop it if I wanted to.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Listen, I don’t care about things that have nothing to do with me. Now are you going to pay me or not?”