Volume 7 - CH 8

Chapter 8 – Veil Cathedral

It was decided that the talk about giving the position of the contact personnel of the Knights in the kidnapping victim support activities to the female knight Salina will be handed to Captain Andrea. The reason being that although Eto can’t say anything about a personnel within the Knights order, Captain Andrea should be able to do something about it in a way that suits his request. And until the Knights had a contact personnel, Eto intended to act as a bridge between organizations.

The thing that they have to think about is the contact with the church, which will be one of the pillars that supports the support activities. For that, Eto was heading to the Veil Cathedral in the center of the town to meet Pastor Teilhard, whom he met during the initiative.

Veil Cathedral is one of the symbolic buildings of this town with a long history. A pilgrimage route to the holy grounds where the followers of the Goddess religion can go was also placed there, and many believers visited it and prayed there. It also plays a role in unifying the churches in the Margrave territory and is the center of the missionary work of the Goddess religion.

Just like before, Kohaku and the other two were also out of the town to complete the guild’s request. That made Eto seriously worried that if he is the only one away from the adventure, he might become a burden in the actual battle. It was also because of this sense of crisis that Eto put a lot of effort in morning and evening training.

Still, Eto was surprised when Amou began to say that he would be guarding Eto during this morning’s training. Apparently, it was because of the talk that there was a shadow of the Empire in the bombing of the Great Frederick Bridge.

Of course, Eto was sure it would be safe to have Amou followed him as a guard. However, he also felt it was shameful for an adventurer to be afraid of walking alone in the city just because he is afraid of the shadow of an invisible enemy. Thus, although he was grateful for Amou’s suggestion, Eto decided to decline it.

However, if even a calm and collected man like Amou said he will escort him, that just means that the situation was that dangerous, which made Eto worried. Because of that, even though he was able to walk around the city without thinking about much until yesterday, today Eto chose a busy road while still paying attention to the surroundings.

Earlier, Eto even hid in the shadow in response to the shadow of a bird so much so that an old couple behind him looked around their surroundings, seemingly asking what happened, but, there is no way an arrow will fly toward him in the middle of such a busy city. In the end, Eto apologized to the old couple, while enduring the embarrassment.

Even after that, Eto was tired because he was so guarded to the point he was surprised by a child who jumped out of the alley and was overly cautious of a passerby with sharp eyes walking from the front.

“This is because Amou suddenly said he will guard me…”

Eto whispered as he walked. However, he was relieved that his party members didn’t see his pitiful appearance.

Once he arrived in the center of Veil, Eto followed the main street leading to the Margrave’s castle. Along the way, he can already see the Veil Cathedral with many spires on his sharp left.

The Veil Cathedral was built more than 100 years ago, when this territory was still the territory of the Principality of Eeven. Although the rule of Veil was transferred from the Erven Empire to the Carmine Kingdom after, the Veil Cathedral has continued to gather believers from the three nations.

Each spire was built using the donations of Royalty and Nobles who ruled Veil at that time. Some spires were donated by the Nobles of the Principality of Eeven, while others were specially ordered by the Emperor of Erven Empire at that time. Even after becoming the territory of the Kingdom, construction of a new spire continued.

As Eto stopped in front of the grand staircase leading to the Veil Cathedral and looked at its majestic appearance, Pastor Teilhard came down the stairs from the entrance. Looks like he has been waiting for Eto for a while.

However, Eto stopped him with his hand and gave him a sign saying that he will be going up the stairs. There was a considerable distance between Eto and the Pastor, so he refrained from shouting, as the Pastor might not hear it. Fortunately, the Pastor nodded and gave Eto some gestures telling him that he would wait there. But when a tall, lean and long-limbed Pastor like him does that, his appearance was like a scarecrow that gained a will and began to move.

“Welcome, Eto-san.”

From the first time Eto met the pastor, he had the impression that the Pastor was more like a researcher than a Pastor. The brilliance in his eyes reminded Eto of the leader of the Kingdom Magicians, Puke, which actually relieved Eto that Pastor Teilhard wasn’t as greedy for knowledge as Puke. Otherwise, he would be worried about leaving the victims to him.

Eto had already told Pastor Teilhard about the reason for his visit, which is to ask for cooperation in the victim support activities and to ask about the self-help groups in the church.

After that, Eto stepped into the Cathedral under the guidance of the Pastor. Long benches are lined up all the way to the end, and he can also see a huge circular stained-glass at the top of the front. A picture of a Hero who bowed his head in front of the Goddess was drawn there, which is actually a typical religious painting in the Kingdom. Looking up at the high ceiling, there was also the figure of the Goddess who appeared in front of people, giving them grace and mercy.

Rather than the meaning of the religious paintings, Eto was more fascinated by the essence and artistic beauty of human-made architecture.

“What wonderful stained-glass. Isn’t it quite rare for Goddess-sama to be drawn so colorfully?”

“Ee, that’s right. People who go on a pilgrimage to the holy ground also pray enthusiastically in this chapel before embarking on their pilgrimage journey. There is also a large statue in the prayer area of the Great Temple, which is said to be one of the parts worth seeing along with the stained-glass of this Veil Cathedral.”

“A part worth seeing? You said it as if you were a traveler.”

“Pilgrims are also human beings. Of course, they will be delighted to see interesting and wonderful things. I think it’s important to bring the heart of faith from there.”

“What a suggestive sentence.”

Eto liked the way Pastor Teilhard was thinking. It may be the Priest’s way of controlling himself by the doctrine and customs, but Eto thought if a Priest wanted to be close to people and guide them, having such a flexible way of thinking like Teilhard might be desirable.

“Oh no, Eto-san, please come here. Priest Francesco-sama is waiting.”

Pastor Tailhard then brought his feet along the right wall of the chapel.

“Ano… Pastor Teilhard. Am I really going to see Priest-sama?”

“Yes. At first, I was going to explain to Eto-san, but Priest Francesco-sama seemed to really want to meet Eto-san. Is it troubling?”

‘If you asked whether it is troubling or not, I could only say that it’s always troubling to meet someone with high status, which I don’t want to, but…’

However, Eto knew that he cannot be selfish when he came there to ask for their cooperation. So, even if he has to force himself, Eto thought he should accept it with a smile here.

“No. I would love to see him. By the way, that Priest Francesco-sama is this Veil Cathedral…”

“Yes. He is the person in charge of the Goddess Religion in this Veil Cathedral and the territory of Veil.”

Pastor Teilhard said, as if it was a normal matter.