Chapter Ninety-Nine: “Miss Kate, I Have Some Proper Ideas”

At the long table, Louis and Count Crowley spoke at length about the Holy Image Tree Seminary.

When he heard that Louis’s mentor was Her Highness Osyclis, the count was both astonished and deeply moved. It was far too coincidental, and it only sharpened his suspicion that the Holy Image Tree Seminary was a place devoted to the study of the occult.

As an old politician and a former "king" who had once ruled an overseas dominion, Governor Crowley also noticed something else.

After a moment’s thought, he said, "Her Highness Osyclis is someone I’ve practically watched grow up. I was a knightly page to His Majesty Ige in my youth, and in the year Ige married Queen Francisca, I had just taken up the sword in the Three-Continents Province overseas."

"When Kate’s mother was carrying her, I even arranged a marriage alliance with Ige. In the end, both our firstborns were daughters, and Kate was three years older than Osyclis..." The count said many more things besides.

Louis also picked up a few clues from this. Count Crowley not only came from a family whose history stretched back to great antiquity, but he himself had once controlled a domain of power, and was moreover a brother to the king in all but blood, having grown up at his side. Their relationship was so close that he instinctively called the king by his name, Ige, rather than by "Your Majesty."

But it seemed that after Queen Francisca died, Count Crowley remained overseas for many years. By the time he returned home, his wife had fallen ill, and he hardly ever went to the imperial palace.

Otherwise, with the king’s evident favor, Count Crowley would surely have gone one step further. Even the office of prime minister would not have been beyond his reach. The man was both learned and martial, and he had even served as governor, with ample experience in ruling a region. The saying that great generals rise from the ranks and great chancellors from the provinces was made for someone with Crowley’s background.

As for Crowley’s years of convalescence at home, the king seemed somewhat vexed. On the one hand, he thought it was probably for the best if the count stayed away for a while, since the situation was unusual at present. The count and the queen were not entirely at ease with one another, and his political views also diverged somewhat from the king’s. So if the count were to return to court and stir things up, His Majesty would likely be rather pained.

On the other hand, the king was also hoping that the count would manage to get that rather unusual Seventh Fleet up and running again, so it could serve as a money tree for him.

Thus, if the count were to return to court, the king’s feelings would likely be rather complicated.

"This morning, His Majesty even said that after the queen returns to the country tomorrow, he will come with her to see to my wife’s condition. It is said that the queen has specially sought out some foreign magicians, all of them relatives from her own family... They have certainly gone to a great deal of trouble."

Louis’s eyes flickered slightly. "Did His Majesty know that the lady’s condition was so serious?"

"I have always found it hard to speak of it. This matter is far too damaging to my wife’s and my family’s reputation, and it would also affect Kate’s future." Crowley shook his head. "However, yesterday Sir Bach seems to have spoken to the king by phone, so this morning His Majesty specifically summoned me to ask after it. He has been worried..."

Crowley shook his head again.

Louis took a sip of wine and fell into thought.

From the surprised expressions of Bach and the others today, it seemed that no one had known before that Count Crowley’s wife was in such a grave state. And Crowley himself understood nothing, so until today, when Louis described the fallen angel, he had never realized just how dreadful his wife truly was. To him, after all, she was simply the sort of being who could crush him with one finger.

He also had no idea what the consequences would be once she awoke.

So the king may well have never fully understood Lady Crowley’s condition, or at least not realized how severe it was.

But the Witch Queen might very well have known...

And she clearly had no desire to come here. It looked as though she had deliberately gone abroad for a holiday lately, only to be summoned back by the king.

Was this business truly the work of the Witch Queen?

Or did she simply covet Count Crowley and wish nothing more than for him to die as quickly as possible?

That matter would probably only be answered later, when he met the Witch Queen in person.

Crowley also brought up the matter of an audience with the king. In his words, there was an implication that he hoped Louis would abandon his identity as a priest and be ennobled as a Sorendo nobleman.

At the same time, Crowley made another request: he hoped Louis would go to the palace together with Osyclis.

"Her Highness Osyclis has not been home for a very long time. And in a few days, it will be His Majesty’s fiftieth birthday. Queen Francisca was much older than the king, yet they were born on the very same day and month. It is both the king’s birthday and the late queen’s birthday, and it means a great deal to Osyclis."

"And the Berlif family, Bishop John, and many of my friends will all be there. I think it would be best if you could attend together with Her Highness. After all these years, the court has changed greatly. She needs someone beside her."

Beneath Crowley’s words lay an unspoken meaning: if you are one of the princess’s people, then by all means stand by her side and show your support. I will work from my side and lend my backing as well.

"I’ll be staying in London City for a while, Your Lordship," Louis said with a nod.

The count was overjoyed.

There were some things he did not say openly today. The princess had not returned for six or seven years and had all but vanished from sight. It was unclear whether she even knew what changes had taken place at court.

The count felt they had already spoken enough for one day. If they kept going, they would inevitably come to the matter of the crown prince, and then it would sound as though he had an agenda. So it was best to wait until the princess returned home and learned the situation for herself, and only then have her take the initiative to come speak with him.

Louis also felt that he and Crowley had already talked enough for today. Anything more would not be suitable for this evening.

Yet during the conversation with the count, Louis unexpectedly learned that Kate had in fact been Osyclis’s childhood playmate and schoolmate, though Kate had genuinely studied theology.

By Kate’s own account, "When Osyclis was little, I used to take her out to play all the time."

Louis raised his brows and smiled.

He liked older sisters best—twenty-seven or twenty-eight was perfect.

Along the long table, glasses clinked and crossed one another. One person after another rose to offer Louis a toast, their words brimming with warmth. Today, one could say that the entire Crowley estate had been saved.

Especially after the three Sorendo scholars began expounding at length over the long table, everyone felt a deep and lingering fear.

And indeed, in those old texts, the three had truly studied what was meant by the source of calamity and what was meant by the seed of a fallen angel.

Only then did many people realize what this thing really was: once it awoke, the entire county would become a land of demons. Within a radius of dozens upon dozens of kilometers, dense fog would shroud everything, and the dead would slowly claw their way up from beneath the earth.

Bishop John and the others, after seeing the shadowy apparition today and hearing the scholars’ conjectures, could not help but fully agree. They felt as if they were dreaming, and at the same time, they felt a lingering fear.

They were also somewhat exhilarated. Reporting this matter back would surely count as a great achievement.

After several rounds of conversation, the priests had all drunk rather too much.

Bishop John, his speech thick with wine, stroked his beard and said to Louis and the others, "Out there overseas, I once had the honor of working with several of the executive bishops from Holy Image Tree Cathedral. It left a very deep impression on me—the people of the Holy Image Tree old guard are anything but ordinary."

At this, John shook his head, no longer quite able to recall the details. He said with some emotion, "The priests in several of the old guard churches, though we did not have much contact with them, were certainly full of talent. But to speak plainly, Sir Louis, you are the strongest holy knight I have ever seen!"

Louis, who had only just been smiling, immediately put on a long face and turned to speak with Kate.

Today Count Crowley had not drunk, so many of the toasts were received by his daughter in his stead.

For the young man who had saved her mother’s soul today, Miss Kate’s warmth was heartfelt. At the table, this twenty-seven-year-old woman treated Louis with considerable care, almost as though he were a little brother in need of watching over.

And Kate was surprised to discover that this young man in his twenties was not only extraordinarily valiant, but also remarkably learned. He even understood the languages of many nations.

This astonished the young woman of letters, and it also made her somewhat excited.

The two of them spoke with great ease, and after she had drunk a little too much, Miss Kate, usually so demure, grew increasingly talkative. She even teased Louis a couple of times, implying that since Osyclis was his mentor, then she, too, was his elder.

Now and then, as they talked, she would smile and boldly meet the young man’s gaze.

Before long, the conversation inevitably turned again to Kate’s mother. The charming lady could not help but shed tears. Some of them were shed because her mother could return to heaven, moved by gratitude toward Louis; others were born of sorrow and longing.

After giving voice to her feelings, Miss Kate, now somewhat tipsy, began speaking of her husband, who had died after going to sea. That too was partly Kate’s father’s fault: the wedding had only just taken place when, on the very same day, her father had dragged her new husband from the church and sent him overseas to fight. The abbess had, after all, shown her so many albums for nothing, and the court ladies had spent so many days teaching her for nothing.

The colony had indeed been conquered, and her husband had received a decoration as well as a fief. Kate had gone happily to the Three-Continents Province, imagining that all she had learned at last had found a place to be used. At long last, she thought, she would no longer have to sleep with a pillow clutched between her thighs.

And then, as soon as she arrived, she heard that her husband, together with a group of foreign native women, had gone out to sea on official business, only to encounter a storm. To save those foreign young ladies, he had been offered up to the sea god.

When Kate arrived, she went straight to the funeral in mourning and met the corpse lying in the coffin. He did not look drowned at all. Looking at how much thinner he had become, he seemed rather to have worked himself to death—probably because he had spent so much time swimming in the sea, though he had no real skill at it, and yet was always trying to show off.

As for those foreign young ladies, once they had all been rescued, they were rosy-faced and energetic, plainly excellent swimmers, and they had somehow ended up drowning Kate’s husband.

Truly miserable.

At the time, perhaps they had indeed gone to sea for official business. But just how official the rescue method was remained unclear.

At any rate, the amount of water involved had certainly been considerable.

Poor little widow Kate was utterly vexed. She had met her husband only a handful of times, merely touched hands with him, and suddenly she was a widow. How could she not be upset?

Again she could not help but sink into desolate sorrow.

Seeing the lovely, haggard look on Miss Kate’s face, Louis was delighted in his heart. He took her hand and, rubbing and kneading it between his own, comforted her in a gentle voice.

"Miss Kate, you know that I have a certain fondness for magic. I happen to know some proper methods that can let you see the one you miss in your heart. Tonight is a full moon, and before midnight... oh dear, I seem to have forgotten a little. The method is rather complicated. After dinner, I’ll explain it to you in detail."