The nature of justice was difficult to contemplate. For instance, imagine if there were two children, one human and one demihuman. Being pure and innocent, they became friends. However, if the demihuman child was discovered by adults, he would be locked up, and the human child would plead for his life. However, if they let the demihuman child go, he might grow up to become a threat to humanity. Was killing the demihuman child just or unjust? This was not a question that could be easily answered.
Calca would have spared him without any hesitation.
Remedios, however, would kill him without any doubts. In addition, she would insist that she was righteous, and not feel a shred of guilt about it. In her heart, anything she did for the sake of the nation and people was acceptable.
When she took the throne of the Holy Queen, Calca had declared to her two close friends, “I will grant happiness to the smallfolk, and make a country where nobody will cry.” In response, she had said, “I will support you and uphold your just cause.” With that pledge in her heart, she was more forthright than anyone else, her heart filled with conviction, and the light in her eyes was like that of a fanatic.
Someone like that was clearly dangerous, yet Calca did not distance herself from her friend. The righteous impulses of loving others, loving peace, hating evil, and the desire to aid the weak were all things she ought to welcome.
And it was because of that nature of hers that what she thought and what she did were the same. Because she did not think about her words, everything she said came from her heart.
Any organization — particularly those that had stood for a long time — would become sluggish due to worries and cares. In addition, their original purity of purpose would tarnish and grow dim.
Since power rested in the hand of one person, it was only natural that power struggles would take place. Even if a victor was decided, the battle against suspicion, jealousy, and fear would continue, until one side eventually perished.
Calca had been freed from this curse halfway though. That was because she had attained magical power that ranked highly even when compared to the past generations of Holy Kings. Others had lauded her for it, and her heart was at ease. Therefore, Calca could put aside her mental preparations to take the throne of the Holy Queen, but her brothers did not feel the same way.
There was only one elder brother among her relatives whom she could trust: Caspond.
Since she lived like this all this time, Remedios was a spiritual oasis for Calca.
“Umu. Such unbelievable power makes me think of the might of the Demon Gods from the stories.”
“Nee-sama, even the Demon Gods weren’t this powerful. For all we know, Jaldabaoth might be a being superior to the Demon Gods.”
“...What a pain. Then how shall we beat him?”
“What are you worrying about, Calca-sama! They say he was defeated by the adamantite ranked adventurers of the Kingdom. Don’t you think we could do the same too?”
“...That is true. If adventurers comparable to us could do it… but the problem now lies in whether or not Jaldabaoth can repeatedly use that power which brought down the wall.”
“On that note, the adjutants feel that given the wall was only struck once, he ought to have problems using it in succession.”
“That’s understandable. If he could use it repeatedly, then he could have just done so. He didn’t because he could only attack once.”
Calca agreed with Remedios’s opinion. If there was a way to do it, there was no reason not to repeatedly use that attack.
It was the same with Calca. She lightly stroked the crown she wore. It was a magic item that was the binding focus for the grand ritual spell that had been passed down through the Holy Kingdom, the 「Last Holy War」.
“...Well, we can conscript high ranking adventurers, the kind who are used to defeating monsters and the like, as part of mobilizing our people. If we muster up our full fighting power, Jaldabaoth’s hardly an unbeatable foe. The fact is, he’s already been defeated once before.”
The Adventurer’s Guild had strongly protested the conscription of adventurers into the army, but Calca had not revoked her order. It was only to be expected — this was a matter of national importance, and splitting their strength was foolish in the extreme. In addition, the Adventurer’s Guild was hardly as powerful as the Holy Kingdom itself, so forcing them to obey was a simple task.
“That’s true. Though I guess we failed in that we didn’t gain detailed intelligence about Jaldabaoth’s activities in the Kingdom.”
“I apologize for that.”
“No, I didn’t mean that, Queralt. You’re not at fault. The blame lies with me, since I didn’t pay attention to news about other countries.”
“Certainly not, Calca-sama. It’s definitely Queralt’s fault.”
“Nee-sama…”
“Well, it’s certainly not my fault. I did my job by protecting Calca-sama and clearing away monsters! I didn’t mess up in my job. That’s what they call making appropriate use of talent!”
Remedios puffed up her chest and hmphed in triumph.
She was correct to say so. That said, it still bothered her.
“...Could it be that Jaldabaoth was behind those incidents where all the people from several villages went missing?”
“That might be the case…”
Some time ago, the residents of quite a few villages had all gone missing. In the end, they had not managed to collect any information pointing to a culprit, but it was possible that Jaldabaoth was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
“In that case, we need to sort this out before we defeat Jaldabaoth. Speaking of which, if only the Kingdom had properly finished him off, we wouldn’t have had trouble like this… did Gazef Stronoff fight him?”
Queralt looked at Calca with a puzzled look on her face.
Her eyes seemed to be asking, Didn’t you tell Nee-sama about it? Therefore, Calca gave her an answer which laid those doubts to rest, and then she smiled tiredly.
Translated, it meant, Of course I told her. I told her about how Jaldabaoth attacked the Royal Capital, how the adventurers defeated Jaldabaoth, the other demons that appeared, and how the Warrior-Captain defeated them all. I told her everything… so it must have been squeezed out by other things and gone in one ear and out the other.
“...I really feel sorry for Nee-sama’s Vice-Captains.”
“Hm? Why are you talking about them all of a sudden?”
Queralt did not answer that question, instead curling a lock of hair around her finger.
Since Remedios did not do any thinking, then there had to be someone to cover her ass. That would be them.
She could keenly appreciate the suffering they went through. However, Remedios’s innocence — or stupidity, if one were not inclined to be polite — also had a healing effect on the soul, so the positives and negatives cancelled each other out.
“...Hah. I only know the rough details, but apparently, he fought with another demon, which was covered in scales.”
“Really now. Well, if he had defeated Jaldabaoth, things wouldn’t have ended up like this. Or don’t tell me those adamantite ranked adventurers are stronger than him?”
“I’m not too sure about that, but I think that might be the case.”
Remedios frowned in distaste.
She was probably unhappy because someone whose strength she had acknowledged was being slighted by someone else.
“Well, all he knows is how to use a sword. If he had anti-demon attacks like we do, things would probably have been different.
In pure fighting power, paladins were a notch below warriors. However, that was not the case when fighting evil beings. Remedios was right, but Queralt still sighed quietly.