Chapter 22: Island of Messenger (part four)

Ignitia was the only country that brought the faith of God to this Union Kingdom.

It was not the dragons but also the home of the church and the cathedral.

However, it couldn’t be called a religious nation.

Ignitia who was a former country of the Romulus Empire – the ancient empire of the southern continent Karkinos – learned the open-mindedness way of religion and freedom from the empire and practiced it when they became the ruler of Ichthyes continent.

They were integrating with the local religions by god’s syncretism or incorporating their gods as a saint or angel.

Religious circumstances of the Union Kingdom were established by a policy not to completely overwrite the local religions.

Thanks to that, the northern Lucanrant continued the faith of wolf god Holle, the east polytheism was still valid, and the western faith of Bren was also active.

The god of the northern Lucanrant, Holle, became St. Horatius.

The eastern Harvan practiced polytheism, but the goddess was the only one identified as a God and the rest of the gods were regarded as an angel or a saint.

Bren the god of the western Aurelia, as you know, also became St. Brendan.

Apparently, before Ignitia arrived on Ichthyes they seemed to have a pagan god.

That made me quite understand the interior of this cathedral.

The cathedral of the royal capital of Ignitia was originally the building for Ignitia’s royal castle.

Therefore, it was especially more complicated compared to the other cathedrals.

In this vast cathedral with complicated structure, many paintings, sculptures, and mural paintings were displayed.

But, for the moment there were no God’s figures in the exhibits that I had seen so far.

Because there was no circumstance like a ban on statues, he seemed to be a low-key God.

Instead, the interior of the cathedral was a treasure house of phantom beasts and magical beasts that should be originated from paganism.

A relief of a beast that looked like a centaur whose upper body was a person and its lower body was a horse.

A religious painting with a drawing of a man with four heads on one torso that had a mouth on his abdomen.

A cup in which a humanoid monster like the first one was carved.

A statue of a goddess with ten or more breasts.

Just by looking around, I found lots of such things.

Even an angel had been designed with the motif of another god on the southern continent.

I was able to see the familiar story of Kingdom of Ignitia on the scriptures as I proceeded along the way, and if I veered away a little from there I would be able to follow the story of each ethnic derivation.

“Church-related buildings are also a huge book for faithful readers who cannot read letters, Tir.”

『Is this an alternative altar? It’s a bit of a mess.』

The scriptures were only allowed in manuscripts in the language used in the ancient Romulus Empire.

Therefore, I couldn’t read the scriptures yet.

I only knew within the range that Otou-sama and Onii-sama had read aloud.

That was why these scriptures that had pictures to go along with were very fresh.

We went around the complicated cathedral aimlessly while ignoring the regular route.

Somehow, maybe because I struggled for a niche hobby and that there were only Tirnanog and I in the surroundings, I didn’t worry about it.

Even if something happened, there was the reliable Tirnanog.

In the first place, I hadn’t raise a death flag yet.

In the meantime, we arrived at an area where it was excessively splendor and seemed to use a staggering amount of money.

Moreover, there was a familiarity with the story which was painted on the wall somehow.

What appeared before our eyes was a mural painting of a saint who was swallowed and drifted by an enormous sea creature.

No matter how I looked at it, it closely resembled the content of this iron golem.

No way, was the huge monster Zaratan a famous being?

『What’s wrong, Erika.』

“This, what do you think?”

『Oh, ooooohhh! It’s my figure!』

“However you look at this, this is Tir, or Zaratan…”

『Kukukuku! So the barbarians in the South worship me! Of course!』

“Well, I wonder how did it happen……”

I felt like I couldn’t afford to buy this bad taste.

I believed it was made by craftsmen from Aurelia who was brought in during the cathedral construction.

There had been harmoniously crafted Harvan’s craftsmen areas, which were rather tasteful and astringent, and the areas of Lucanrant’s craftsmen had a simple and warm style.

There were many Zaratans in other mural paintings in the surroundings.

A story where a ship carrying a saint mistook Zaratan who was floating in the sea as an island and landed.

A story where the people that rode on the back of a huge creature were hit by great flood caused by a divine punishment.

Etc. etc.

The subject itself was a common story all over the world, but it was Zaratan, not a whale or turtle, that was drawn.

This beast was surprisingly loved.

“Do you like this mural?”

『Umu. The form of these horns are good. The painters were the ones who understand my coolness well.』

“That’s good.”

『Umu—that’s right, do not worry about me, you can go looking around. I will know about the place where you are by the smell. I will enjoy my mural a little longer.』

“Is that so? Well then, I’ll accept your kind offer.”

While leaving behind Tirnanog who was appreciating the mural painting of Zaratan more than the painting itself, I also continued to follow the works and steadily progressed along the monster pictures route.

Because it was the point, I wanted to appreciate what could only be seen in Ignitia.

So, it was the inherent belief-like part of the South that I mainly checked.

I also thought of it while preparing, but the original belief in Ignitia had a sense of not being very holy monotheism.

A flock of monsters that looked like Hyakki Yagyō¹.

History of saints suffering from such thing like martyrdom.

Heroes who had helps from angels, dragons, and strange-looking monsters.

Except for the saints and heroes, all of them were depicted as monsters with bad aftertaste in elaborate artworks.

“How unusual. No way, I haven’t seen any visitors looking at those artworks except for me.”

I heard someone’s voice.

I looked back toward where the voice coming from.

From the stained glass, a light shining in seven colors was cast.

A boy was walking in that light.

Looking at him from inside the dim room, it looked as if the backlight was surrounding him.

My eyes gradually got used to the light.

He was a bit older than me, maybe a little bit younger than the eastern young noble Klaus Harvan.

Sparkling sunshine, smooth blonde hair about the shoulder length.

Clear amethyst eyes.

Pure white skin that was not burned on the day.

Rose-colored cheeks.

He looked like a statue – or the neat facial appearance that came out of shoujo manga.

Among the people of Ignitia who were already reputed as beautiful, he was pretty beautiful.

A small golden dragon cuddled up on his shoulder.

I also felt that the color of its scales was in harmony with the boy’s golden hair, which was a dark color for those of Ignitia.

Huh? He was a boy, wasn’t he? He looked like a girl.

If that was a girl, it was a beautiful girl that was difficult to contend with, even in my previous life.

The neck ribbon on white shirt was black, the black trousers were knee length, and boots—judging from clothing, he was definitely a boy.

“Who are you?”

“Heeh, you don’t know me?”

His statue-like expression was broken, and he smiled like a mischievous prankster.

Was he a celebrity?

Certainly, he was a beautiful, eye-catching boy.

Maybe a son of a noble?

Or, was he a boy actor from a theatrical company that was famous in the royal capital?

“Hmm, this is convenient for me.”

He stroked the golden dragon with a gentle gesture.

Oh, this person was beautiful from his head until the tip of his nail.

When he looked down a little, I could see splendid eyelashes that few could match.

“……What do you mean? I wonder what is convenient for you.”

“Oops, about this. Please don’t mind it.”

How suspicious.

However, there were circumstances that people didn’t want to be questioned at any rate.

If it didn’t do extraordinary damage to me, I wondered if I could let him deceive me for a while.

He made me feel that way.

But, I’d like to hear about his name once.

“I am Erica, who are you?”

“Oops, I’m getting ahead of myself. I apologize for my rudeness. I am the son of the clergy here and my baptismal name was ‘Angel’. What was Erica-ojousan doing in a place like this?”

He called himself an angel.

Usually, if someone else was saying that, I would burst into laughter.

But, I felt like I could forgive him since he was this beautiful.

I didn’t know the custom of Ignitia, but it seemed likely that the clergy’s son’s name was ‘Angel.’

“I just came from the West……Um, I’m just sightseeing.”

“Well, if you are an alchemist of Aurelia, then that energetic iron golem that I saw over there is Ojou-san’s?”

“Y-yes……”

“Heeh, amazing—. To think that such a small Ojou-san can manipulate that thing.”

Kept affirming while diverting my eyes.

If I kept telling lies forever, it seemed that I would become surprisingly stressed out.

『What’s wrong, Erica. An enemy?』

While making light footsteps, Tirnanog came closer.

Oh, he was fast.

I should have walked around quite a while, but he found me already?

As expected from our family’s guardian beast.

“Do not attack. This person is the son of a priest of this cathedral……in other words, he is safe.”

『I see, that’s too bad.』

“Also, please be quiet a little bit.”

『Umu. Leave it to me. I am always quiet.』

The self-proclaimed Angel-san suddenly held Tirnanog to his chest.

Angel-san was looking inside from the gap between armor.

For some reason, his golden dragon also looked at the eyes of Tirnanog with somehow an overwhelmingly suspicious expression.

Hii, it would be bad if his identity was exposed.

“Heeh, this is interesting. So golem can move naturally like this……Oh, does Goldberry also interested in this?”

“Um, wait—”

“How does it work? Hm? It looks like there is something inside—”

『……!?』

“U-um, I……I am from Aurelia, but I am not good at alchemy.”

“Heeh.”

“I cannot do the conversion of magical power well, so I used a golem creation technique by directly engraved spells on the metal.”

“I see, even within your weak field, you made efforts to do what you can and made it this far. You’re a hard worker, huh~.”

“That’s why, I feel embarrassed if you keep looking at that child so much. My coarse work may be seen.”

“Hm~, I think it’s a good idea. I don’t know much about golems.”

With a mysterious expression, he kept looking at me and Tirnanog alternately.

Uh, it was painful to be seen with those pure eyes.

I felt that the lie in my heart was becoming a burden.

Let’s change the topic.

“A, ah! Excuse me!”

“Hm~?”

“Is there any suggestion on the murals of the cathedral? I would like you to tell me if there is a place that I would regret if I didn’t see it!”

I diverted the conversation with a lack of casual topics and recaptured Tirnanog from the arms of Angel-san.

Fuuh, it was better to be slow and steady rather than being hasty.

Especially this time, I felt like the golden dragon named Goldberry was already suspecting something.

I was afraid of the intuition of the wild, so I had to take a precaution.

If Tirnanog was kidnapped, I would have no excuse for my ancestors.

“Yosh~. You have shown me interesting things. In return, I also have to show a great thing to Ojou-san.”

“Thank you.”

“If you like this kind of slightly disgusting things, then there is only that place. I will show you the place with the rarest and strangest things.”

“Eeh……, is it alright?”

“But I will get angry if it leaked out. It’s a special service for Erica-ojousan only, a big service of lavish hospitality!”

In a dramatic gesture, he bowed exaggeratingly.

This was a good omen.

I got a beautiful and friendly sightseeing guide who was familiar with the church here.

Wasn’t this quite lucky?

Thus, I decided to ask the boy named ‘Angel’ to be a guide in the cathedral tour.

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¹ Hyakki Yagyō or Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is a concept in Japanese folklore. It is a parade which is composed of a hundred kinds of demons.