The Main Heroine Likes the Extra

95 – Maybe I should break the pot

Just because I graduated from the academy doesn’t make me a count.

Because my father and mother are still in active duty, and I am too immature.

Above all, even Prince Andrew, who is almost 10 years older than me, has not officially ascended to the throne yet.

As the next count of Soga-ju, I was helping and assisting my father in his work, and studying for the time when I succeeded to the county someday.

Just at that time, two people from the church I met in the dukedom appeared in the county.

They showed up with dozens of subordinates, comrades who shared their hearts, and even a magnate called the Pope.

Even my father, who had heard the story in advance, would have opened his mouth when an old man claiming to be the pope appeared.

The Pope of the Church of the World Tree, Bertrand, was a very old man.

I heard later that he was over 70, but he was very old.

In addition to his advanced age, he was in very poor physical condition due to the treatment of the cardinals, which was almost confinement.

On top of that, the Holy Knights had taken good care of him, but the harsh climate in the north seemed to have made things worse.

My father tried to direct the pope to the doctor right away, but Pope Bertrand shook his head as if there were more important things than that.

“I want to meet the World Tree.”

My father winked at me at the pope’s euphemism.

Aware of my father’s intentions, I went to pick up Sir, who was playing with Mr. Leelu.

“Abba!!”

The moment Shir, who was playing with toys in the room where Mr. Leelu was watching, felt a presence and turned around, he smiled and ran.

No, it would be more accurate to say that he crawled because he was still unstable walking on two feet.

As I picked up Sir, who had approached my feet, Sir reached out his hand and pulled his hair.

…I need to fix this habit someday.

As I endured the slight pain of pulling my hair, I looked at Mr. Leelu, who was standing in the corner of the room.

“What’s up?”

“The people I met in the Duchy came to visit.”

“Oh, those people?”

Mr. Leelu jumped up from his seat.

The long skirt of the maid uniform he was wearing was slightly crumpled, probably because he was sitting on the floor.

“I’ll go too.”

“Yes, since I have to take Shir, of course, Mr. Lilu should also come.”

Now, Mr. Leelu’s official position in the count’s family is like Shire’s exclusive handmaid…

Well, she is a status based on her position, but it could be said that she was a position that suited her well, as she was originally the guardian of the World Tree.

However, compared to the clothes she usually wears, the maid outfit is a bit uncomfortable, though.

…It’s a dress that my mother has touched here and there so it’s easy to move around.

She took Sir and went to the place where the church party was waiting.

Perhaps she had already adapted to the low temperature of Count Shirdo, so she just looked around her with curious eyes.

“I brought it.”

“Hmm?”

When I arrived at the place where many people were gathered, Sir looked around and looked at me.

Well, from Syr’s point of view, I don’t understand the current situation.

However, the Pope was different.

As soon as he put Shir in his eyes, he slowly knelt down with her.

“His Holiness!!”

“Are you okay?!”

Some of the priests who assisted the pope were perplexed and supported the pope as if they were worried that something big might have happened to the pope at that appearance.

But the pope was silent, his head bowed.

And then he started to sob.

“There’s no doubt… There’s no doubt… It’s the power of the World Tree that I felt when I was young.”

Thick streams of water trickled down his decrepit face.

“I’m sure… You’re definitely the World Tree.”

At the Pope’s words, Captain Alma’s subordinate Paladins and priests belonging to the Papacy exclaimed.

Especially in the case of priests, like the pope, they knelt down and began to offer prayers.

…Hmm, I’d like to think so from a distance, but… Seeing that I’m holding Sir, I feel like I’m being prayed for, so it’s kind of like that.

The reverent atmosphere, in which even the paladins offered a short prayer accompanied by a light bow, ended after a while when the father took care of it himself.

Anyway, the pope’s health was not good, so the father ordered the attendants to guide the pope so that he could rest.

He didn’t even forget to call the doctor.

However, the treatment of priests and paladins was a problem.

Since there weren’t that many guest rooms, the question was where to house them.

…No, it wasn’t exactly nonexistent.

“Dad, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes. Duke Ignis seems to have entered a stable period recently, so it should be fine.”

This is the annex where Duke Ignis is recuperating.

The annex was large enough to accommodate all the new books and paladins.

Originally, there was a concern that Duke Ignis would have a seizure, so he wouldn’t visit the annex except for a minimum of attendants, but fortunately the Duke’s condition has recently recovered.

I am still delirious, but in the past half year I have had almost no seizures, to the point where even the doctor said that I seem to be on the verge of recovery.

Recently, Riel told the story that Ayer Riel visits her every day and talks to her, but she doesn’t respond, but she even holds her hand when Riel holds her hand.

“But just in case, I will place an attendant near the place where Duke Ignis resides.”

“Okay, I won’t leave that part up to you.”

“Yes.”

That’s how the papal figures of the central church and the Holy Knights stayed in our county of Wentos.

Central Church.

Cardinal Gerald’s expression was not very good.

Of course, the quiet 1st Star Knights rebelled against him.

I didn’t exactly say it openly, but it was the same thing at the point of defeating his men and fleeing with the Pope and his aides.

The situation in the church was not good.

No matter how much he is the Pope, he is an old man in the back room who has been deprived of real power, but he is not completely without that authority.

By losing him, it’s clear that there will be setbacks in many ways.

Is that all, all the influential figures of the Papacy under his watch have escaped.

Anxiety that they might do something gave Gerald stress.

A bigger problem was that they had no idea where they had gone.

I interrogated several members of the 1st Order of the Holy Knights who did not participate in Alma’s rebellion, but they did not give an answer either.

In the first place, Captain Alma didn’t tell his men where they were going.

Even the subordinates who sympathized with her rebellion simply followed Alma without knowing where they were going.

Even among the remaining members of the church, those who were not originally their own questioned Cardinal Gerald.

They are simply reserved for families living in the provinces governed by the church.

They still adored Captain Alma, and that’s why they looked down on Cardinal Gerald, who was the reason for Alma’s rebellion.

By turning the story around, the location of the 1st Order of Holy Knights, who escaped the central church with the Pope’s personnel, was unknown.

In fact, it is safe to say that the eyes of the Church are in the entire country and all the territories.

Even so, the location of the 1st Order of the Holy Knights was difficult to ascertain.

If so, either the Kingdom has lost contact with the Church, or the Empire has been slowly pushing the Church away for the past year.

However, Cardinal Gerald assumed that the 1st Holy Knights were in the kingdom.

He knew that the 1st Knights had gone to the kingdom before they rebelled, so he guessed that something had happened in the kingdom.

And then, I was able to hear a powerful story from one of the cardinal faction paladins who belonged to the 1st Order of Knights.

“When Captain Alma went to the capital, he had a conversation with the royal family.”

Then, couldn’t this be the result of cooperation between the Palaginian royal family and Alma?

It is also a certain fact that the Palaginian royal family is hostile to the church.

Anyway, it seems that they need to dispatch someone to the capital too.

“Gather all the great cults.”

Cardinal Gerald gave orders to his men with a hard face.

“Go back to the capital for a while.”

At my father’s words, I looked at my father’s strong face with a blank expression.

“Father, it hasn’t been long since I returned from the capital.”

“I know.”

“But what the hell is going on?”

At my words, my father let out a deep sigh.

“…Do you know the Marquis of Gliaes in the capital?”

I know the Marquis of Gliaes.

It is a famous family with a long history, and it is also a traditional samurai family in the royal capital.

If you are a young man in the kingdom who walks the path of nothingness, you will hear at least the name of the family.

But why does the story of the Marquis of Gliaes appear?

Are you going to break the seal?

“Of course I know. But why are you going there…”

“…The Marquis of Gliaes contacted us.”

Would you like to contact us from Marquis?

Since it is a traditional samurai song, is it possible that you are interested in our family of counts, who are always on the front line fighting monsters?

But if that’s the case, why does your father look like he has to swallow something bitter like that?

A super-sized bomb came out of my father’s mouth that would paralyze my mind while I was thinking about it.

“The marriage talk came in. To Kino.”

“…Could you elaborate?”

Anyway, I needed information about the situation in detail.

…It’s not about breaking the seal, maybe it’s about breaking the earthen pot.