That night, at the church.
Matyos could not talk Tiana out of becoming a nun.
No. There was no talking her out of it.
Her eyes held no wavering. There was no room for persuasion, for pressure, for words that appealed to emotion. It was the face of someone who had already made up her mind.
She said she would follow Cardinal Teo to the Holy See next week.
Matyos returned to the dormitory and sat on his bed for a long while without lighting a lamp. Only the faint moonlight through the window cast a thin glow across the room. His thoughts were too tangled for sleep.
The next morning, Taibeon came rushing to find him.
"My sister says she's dropping out of the academy. Is this for real…?"
"You didn't know?"
"…She said it out of nowhere this morning. I thought she was joking, but it seemed like she meant it. I've never seen her that serious before."
"What do you want to do about it?"
"…What?"
"Do you want your sister to become a nun?"
"Of course not!"
Taibeon's voice rose for a moment. The hand he'd balled into a fist trembled faintly.
"…Honestly, I don't usually care what she does. But. She's still my family. She's my sister. We've been together since the day I was born, and now suddenly she's going to be a nun…."
Becoming a nun meant leaving the secular world behind.
A life of lifelong service in a convent, as a servant of God.
Convents, in particular, were places strictly forbidden to men.
No exceptions, not even for family.
If Tiana became a nun, Taibeon would never see his sister's face again for the rest of his life.
He didn't want that.
Even if he grumbled at her on any given day, she was the only blood he had in this world.
The thought of that sudden severance alone was enough to make it hard to breathe.
"Haah… what can I even do."
"Let me try to handle it."
"You really mean it…!?"
Matyos gave a quiet nod.
*
If you let time slip away in the middle of a rapidly changing situation, you lose your chance.
Matyos decided to play his best card.
Through Yuri, he secured an audience with the Sword Saint.
"Good to see you, Matyos. I didn't expect to meet again so soon — have you been well?"
"Last time, you said you would grant me one favor. Sword Saint."
"Of course. Go ahead."
"I have a request, Sword Saint. In a few days, someone I know will follow Cardinal Teo to the Holy See and become a nun."
"And?"
"…I'll be direct. Stop Cardinal Teo. Make it so that my acquaintance cannot become a nun."
Sword Saint Sharlot took a sip of her coffee, her expression unreadable. The cup met the saucer with a small clink.
"This acquaintance of yours is choosing to become a nun?"
"Yes."
"Is it… of her own will?"
"…It is."
"Then I'm afraid I cannot help you."
"….."
"Any other request, I would have gladly granted. But I cannot stand in the way of another person's choice. Becoming a nun is her decision, Maty."
"It's the wrong decision."
"Why do you think that?"
"That's…."
To answer the Sword Saint's question, he would have to speak of the conspiracy Cardinal Teo and the Pope were weaving.
That they intended to create an angel in order to restore the Holy See to its former glory —
But he had no proof.
'…There's no way she'd believe me.'
His sister's reaction came back to him.
'Pfft….'
'Maty… my little Maty.'
'An angel? There's no way they'd do something like that. The Holy See was perfectly content with their position. But an angel? Have you been reading too many novels?'
That face, laughing at him as though it were beneath contempt, shoulders shaking with suppressed amusement.
Looking back now, it had been a perfectly normal reaction.
He'd insisted he was right without a shred of evidence — how ridiculous must he have seemed.
He must have looked like a lovesick adolescent spinning lies.
But it was the truth.
If things continued as they were, Tiana was in danger.
"Please believe me."
"Maty."
"I can't explain it to you right now. But when everything is over, you'll understand."
"…."
Sharlot studied Matyos for a moment.
Steady eyes, lips pressed firmly shut. His was not the face of someone telling a lie.
"Cardinal Teo lured Tiana into becoming a nun with ill intent. Think about it. A cardinal, taking a single student to the Holy See?"
A brief silence fell.
"…Very well."
"Then…."
"I'll help you."
"…Thank you."
The tension drained from Matyos's shoulders.
Not everything was resolved yet — but at the very least, there was now a chance of stopping it.
Immediately after her conversation with Matyos.
Sword Saint Sharlot wasted no time. She set out for the imperial capital and requested an audience with the Emperor.
Emperor Friedrich the Great was a man who would not spare time even for his own blood — but the Sword Saint was an exception.
"Sharlot Ayende."
"I come before the rightful sovereign of the Empire."
"You coldly refused my proposal as though you never intended to look upon my face again — and yet here you stand before me once more. Why?"
The Emperor's gaze was sharp as a blade.
"I have a request to make of Your Majesty."
"And you believe I will grant it?"
"At the Battle of Ratihi, Your Majesty owed me your life. You swore to grant me one wish in return."
"And so?"
"Cardinal Teo intends to take a student from Porca to the Holy See."
The Emperor tilted his chin, signaling her to continue.
"I ask that Your Majesty lend your authority and speak a word to them."
"That is all?"
"Yes."
"Trivial. You would have me spend my imperial power over a single child."
The Emperor gave a cold smile.
He laughed, cold and unhurried.
"So be it. Chiten."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Go and summon the Holy See's ambassador."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Moments later, the ambassador hurried in with hastily arranged attire and dropped to his knees.
Emperor Friedrich the Great addressed Cardinal Teo's matter in a voice heavy with authority, issuing a clear warning. He then composed a letter to be sent to the Pope.
Watching it unfold, Sharlot felt a quiet certainty settle in her chest.
'It is finished, Matyos.'
The power of the Empire was formidable.
With the Emperor thundering like that, singling out Cardinal Teo's actions and pressing down on them directly, even the Pope would tuck his tail.
But a few days later.
A letter from the Pope arrived for the Emperor.
The Emperor read it with a composed expression, then summoned Sharlot and spoke.
"I have, without question, fulfilled your request."
It was a strange way to phrase it.
'Fulfilled.' Past tense.
Why past tense?
"…What do you mean by that, Your Majesty?"
"The Pope says he will finally anoint me with oil."
"Anoint you with oil. Surely not."
"He means to consecrate me."
In ages past, kings and emperors had been proclaimed 'rulers recognized by God' through the Pope's consecration.
A sacred ceremony held in a great cathedral, where holy oil was poured to confer legitimacy.
Emperor Friedrich the Great had never received that consecration.
His relationship with the Holy See had been poor.
The ceremony itself was not strictly necessary, of course — but it was something worth having.
There were still many deeply devout people within the Empire.
There were those who could not fully accept an emperor who had not been consecrated.
But this offer was different.
To receive a proper consecration would be to gain the support of the religious factions.
A politically advantageous condition beyond compare.
"In exchange for consecrating me, he asks that I retract what I said."
The Emperor spoke with cold indifference.
*
Even after reading Sharlot's letter to the end, Matyos could not set the paper down for a long while. The strength left his fingertips, and the letter crumpled softly.
"Huu…."
A deep sigh rose from somewhere deep inside him.
His best move had failed.
He had tried to use the Emperor to save Tiana, but the Holy See had no intention of giving her up so easily.
The fact that they were willing to spend even the consecration — a card they had hoarded so carefully — told him everything about their resolve.
'Once they have their angel, they won't need to fear the Emperor anymore.'
Over Matyos's field of vision, a scene he had glimpsed once before overlapped with the present.
A bad ending. A conclusion he had seen only once, as if by accident.
A colossal form rising to cleave the heavens.
Six wings scattering white flames, and countless eyes embedded in every direction, gazing down upon the earth with no emotion whatsoever.
A monster stripped of will, obeying only Cardinal Teo's commands.
The world crushed beneath it.
It was the bad ending that played out when Tiana Pilrn was not rescued.
The Holy See, having regained its dominance through the angel, would come to rule the world.
Time was running out.
His chest tightened.
There was no time. In a few days, she would leave for the Holy See.
He had to stop it.
No matter what.
But.
'How on earth….'
There was no way. All he held in his hands was a crumpled letter.
With no answer in sight, the corners of his eyes burned hot. The emotions he had forced down scraped their way back up his throat.
Helplessness pressed down on his shoulders.
Then.
Knock. Knock.
The sound of knocking at the door rang out with unusual clarity.
Matyos sat still for a long moment before finally forcing himself to his feet.
His steps were heavy. The hand that gripped the door handle slipped with cold sweat.
He opened the door, and his sister was standing there, leaning to one side with a crooked posture.
Eyes fixed on him in a glare. The corners of her lips curved up sharply.
"What, are you staging some kind of sulk protest?"
"…."
Words wouldn't come. Even meeting her gaze head-on felt like more than he could manage.
"If you're going to leave me standing outside like this, at least give me a key."
She kicked off her shoes and shoved them aside carelessly, then stepped into the room with a decisive stride.
Her familiar perfume cut through the air.
For some reason, it put him at ease.
"What's wrong with your face?"
"…What do you mean."
"You look like you're about to cry."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Don't tell me it's because of that country girl again. Because she's dropping out and becoming a nun?"
Matyos's hand clenched into a fist without him realizing it.
"Sister."
"You really don't know when to give up, do you, Maty. Just let her go. You let people go."
Let her go.
Those words scraped against his heart.
That easily?
Without doing anything at all?
"…Help me."
The words came out before he'd thought them.
Smaller than he'd expected. More desperate than he'd expected.
He hadn't even thought he would ask his sister for help.
"Just forget about it cleanly and—…what did you say?"
"…Help me."
Matyos couldn't lift his head. Instead, his eyes grew wet. The despair he had been holding down finally found a crack to push through.
Ofilienne stopped breathing for a moment.
Without even blinking, she looked down at her brother.
His shoulders were trembling, just barely.
Bowed brows, eyes brimming with moisture.
The expression of someone gritting their teeth and holding on — it only made him look more wretched.
Her heart lurched, beating with a strange, unfamiliar rhythm.
This child.
Had he ever come to her with a face this broken before?
"…You're asking me to help you?"
"Yeah…."
Matyos answered in a single syllable.
Like a four-year-old child.
Ofilienne forced a scoff.
"Hmph… I have no reason to help you. No reason to make an enemy of a cardinal, either."
That was what reason said. The calculation was clear.
"An angel. It's absurd. You expect me to step in because of something that ridiculous?"
But Matyos didn't lift his head. He didn't argue back.
He only stood there, biting his lip.
"Well, if you're that desperate, you could always take my hand properly and ask again. 'Please help me, Sister.'"
It was meant as a light jab. A throwaway taunt.
After those words left her mouth.
Matyos carefully, gently took his sister's hand.
It was a small hand, trembling ever so slightly.
And then, looking up at her with glistening, pleading eyes, he said in a small, imploring voice:
"…Please help me, Sister."