Serris gave Noth an endless flood of hugs and nuzzles after his interaction with Mark. She repeatedly told him that he did the right thing, and thanked him profusely for letting the siblings come over. It felt excessive, and made Noth wonder in embarrassment why she felt the need to go to such lengths over such a thing.
Only minutes later after Mark had left, sounds of someone walking nearby reverberated out to the balcony. At first Noth thought that it might have been Mark once again, back with his sister that he’d now convinced to say hello, but sadly it was just an unknown man. The smile that had been threatening to come back onto his face quickly fell away as the man in servant’s clothes slightly bowed and spoke with his gaze on the floor.
“Count Noct, the Pope is sending for you. It’s time for the ceremony to begin.”
Noth straightened up and walked past the servant, back into the halls of the building. His face grew more and more stiff with every turn he took, and his beating heart was loud enough to overpower every other sound. It was time. It was finally time. In both of his lives he’d never met the man in the background who’d sent all of this ill-will his way. He’d imagined what the Pope would look like several times; Maybe a sickly looking old man, or perhaps a dignified gentleman who commanded respect with a glance. So many different images of the clergy he’d heard about or met had fluttered through his mind’s eye whenever he thought of the Pope. And now, he’d finally have a face to put with all of the animosity.
Unlike the main room where the noble meeting was being held, the ceremony was to be held inside a chapel, so that the God-dess could preside over it and bless whoever was being awarded. Noth was sure it was all just tradition, though, and he highly doubted that the busy and uncaring God-dess actually handed out any ‘blessings’ in such a place. Odessia being a theocracy named after the holy being didn’t somehow make it more special than anywhere else, and this wasn’t considered some kind of holy land, and there were at least 3 other countries that also had Popes born into them, although they were all decently far away from each other.
Even the angel floating next to Noth laughed at the idea that the God-dess would care about some silly medal ceremony.
The nobles who had been so busy gossiping and tittering about Noth before were now sitting quietly with respectful looks on their faces, conforming to etiquette. It made Noth want to roll his eyes to see them all pretend that they were good and fair nobles while they sat in this ‘holy’ space. He was sure more of them did it out of fear of the church than they did out of fear of the God-dess. Or maybe they really thought that the two were the same thing.
Yes, Noth had to agree with her words. In a way, this was even more eerie and off putting than them openly showing their hostility. He was certain this must be another one of the Pope’s schemes to unnerve him, but unlike the previous one, he wasn’t really sure how to respond.
With his body tense, Noth came to the bottom of the long stairs leading up to the lectern, and knelt down in front of it just as his etiquette lessons from years ago had taught him to do. A short while after, a clattering sound of doors opening filled up the vacant air of the chapel, and finally, for the first time since the gathering had started, the Pope made his appearance. Noth’s eyes locked on to him, taking in every single speck of his visage as he could. Oddly enough, even though he tried his best to not let a single possible clue about the man pass him by, Noth sadly could only make a single judgement about him: The Pope really looked like he was just a kindly, ageing old grandpa. He looked harmless and carefree enough that Noth almost wanted to believe that there must have been some other kind of dastardly villain behind the Pope, forcing him to do all those awful things to Noth.
“Ah, we finally meet, young hero.”
The Pope smiled as if he were meeting his young grandchild that he hadn’t gotten to see in a very long time. Noth had to fight against himself not to show his confusion on his face. Nothing he’d imagined had seemed so friendly and kind. He’d expected his archenemy to look like a cunning mastermind, or a seedy and perverted looking old man, but… He really wasn’t sure how to respond to this. He had to keep reminding himself that this man was the one who repeatedly ripped his life to shreds, lest he be disarmed and fall into the trap of this sinister Pope.
Despite Noth’s lack of a reply, the Pope simply kept giving his carefree smile. He looked past Noth, to the crowd of nobles sitting quietly in the pews, and raised his arms elegantly as he addressed them.
“My dear nobles, thank you all for coming on this glorious and auspicious day. I hope that you’ve all been well in the time that I haven’t seen you, and I pray that this meeting has helped you all to continue your bonds as nobility, and to strive for even higher and greater heights together.”
Noth’s eyes narrowed at the Pope’s slowly recited words, and he could hear Serris a short way behind him make an unimpressed gagging sound. Perhaps it could have been passed off as just a typical start to a speech, but having gone through the organized taunting that he’d experienced earlier, Noth couldn’t think of it as anything but the Pope lightly rubbing what he’d done in Noth’s face.
“We are gathered here, today, in this most sacred of chapels, to recognize the deeds of Count Noct, who has done a great service not only for his own territory of Sleekka, but also for Odessia as a whole. Young, and new to the ways of a noble though he is, he willingly chose to risk himself to protect us all, and wiped out the demonic threat that had made its home in the volcanic region. Now the vast lands of Sleekka will be open and safe for all residents and visitors, and our country can once more feel at peace!”
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The speech sounded so good and proper on paper, but Noth was smart enough to read between the lines of the Pope’s words. The demons might have been an insurmountable problem up until now, but they really only ever interfered with Sleekka, which wasn’t all that important of a territory, so Noth’s contribution to the entirety of Odessia was actually quite mediocre. He was also being referred to as young and, just like the rude duo he’d met earlier had repeatedly said to him, under-educated. And then there was the final snide remark hidden in the speech where he said the land would now be safe for visitors, although everyone knew full well that few would actually want to go to such a hot and humid wasteland like Sleekka.
Yes, appearances were quite deceiving.
This old man indeed disliked Noth, no matter how shinily he dressed his words up.
The crowd politely clapped for the Pope’s speech. Noth was sure that it didn’t matter at all what the Pope had been talking about, let alone Noth's own demon slaying heroics; They would have all clapped even if the Pope had just told them he was going to burn down every orphanage in the vicinity, just to keep up their appearances.
When the clapping was finished, the Pope slowly descended the stairs, stopping one step above Noth, as per tradition. Noth gladly bowed his head, not wanting to have to look at the old sloth in front of him anymore. The first impression that he’d had upon looking at the Pope had already quickly morphed during his condescending speech, and now instead of the kindly old grandpa that he’d seen before, only a slow and drooping sloth with its face stuck in a smile remained.
Noth could feel the sloth gently pinning the medal onto his shoulder. He held in a sigh, wishing that this could all be over faster, and finally raised his head when he thought that the Pope was moving away from him. However, unlike what he’d thought, the Pope hadn’t moved quite as far away as he would have liked, and was instead still close and looking down on Noth from within whispering distance away.
“There. Wear this lovely medal with pride, young one. Take it back home and show it to your family; I’m sure the Earl would be delighted to see such a thing.”
It was hard for Noth to keep his face composed with such a taunt said to him by the very man who’d sent his father off to war just weeks prior. He wanted to say something back, something witty and knowing, something that would sting the Pope in a similar way as he felt he’d been stung. If anything, what he really wanted was a clear victory over the old Sloth who’d been harming him his whole life, even if it was just a tiny, verbal one.
At times like these, Noth tended to rely on his angel.
Noth glanced back at Serris, hoping to prompt her for her help. However, his gaze met with something he rarely ever saw: His angel was biting her lip, looking aggravated as if she were stuck between a rock and a hard spot. It almost seemed as if something were blinding her, or maybe she just had a hard time looking at it. When her semi-closed eyes noticed his worried glancing, Serris shook her head and turned to look away so he couldn’t see her face anymore.
Seeing her shoulders lightly shake, Noth quickly forgot any frustration or malice he felt towards the Pope in front of him. Instead, worry blossomed from deep inside of him for his angel. What did she know, what had she seen, that seemed to have shaken her so? He knew he should be fearful of the Pope, but was he really so scary that even Serris, who only ever seemed to fear the God-dess, would also be afraid?
Or… Was it perhaps the Pope’s protector behind him that she was fearful of?
Noth looked warily back to the Pope in front of him, who had been tilting his head softly, once again looking like a harmless old man as he calmly awaited Noth’s response. What choice did Noth have but gritting his teeth and nodding in agreement? This was the Pope’s home turf, where he held all of the power, and the peons watching behind Noth that the Pope had handed positions of power to were not going to let him get away with a single bit of disrespect here.
“...Yes, thank you for the honour, my Pope.”
***
“Huh… I didn’t think he’d give up so easily. It’s kind of sad to watch, right Rilly?”
Mark peered in through the back door, lazily resting himself against the doorframe. He thanked his lucky stars that only Counts and above were required to sit in the chapel and attend such boring ceremonies. There should have been a guard here to stop eavesdroppers like them from peeping in, but-
“Come, it’s time we make our leave before the rest of them decide the same.”
“Yes, sister.”
Mark stood up straight in reflex and bowed his head to his sister Riln. She turned her head for one last long look into the chapel before walking past Mark and heading towards the exit. Mark followed after her obediently, a few steps back, but he could only manage to hold his tongue until they’d made it to the next hallway.
“Sister, are you sure you want to leave without meeting him? You were so adamant about getting in contact with him.”
Riln didn’t stop her march towards the exit, but Mark could tell that her steps had indeed slowed down a tad at his words. She never turned to look back at him, but the smile on her lips was easy to hear, even through her veil.
“Yes… It’s a pity, but now’s not the time. We’ll be seeing him in a week, won’t we? Waiting that long for a chance to pick such a brilliant gem like him is well worth it, don’t you think?”
Mark smiled wryly, having nothing to respond. Soon his sister swirled around, the mass of the black lace that decorated her skirt spinning beautifully after her. She put her hand on his cheek tenderly, and he could make out the shining purple irises of her eyes peering sinisterly at him through her veil.
“You’ll help me, won’t you Mark? You’ll help your sister get the pretty new gem just like always, right?”
And just like always, there was no option for Mark to say no.