East Road Quest

Chapter 9 Vesuvius Volcano

Jade and Daniel climbed Mount Vesuvius. Although it was a volcano, the path to the crater was well-maintained and the slope was gentle, making it easier to ascend than a typical mountain. Riding on horseback, they could reach the top within half a day.

Many tourists risked danger to witness the spectacle of the boiling lava in the crater, but no one else came at midnight like Jade and Daniel.

“Isn’t it a bit dangerous to come at night?” Jade asked.

“We don’t have a choice, do we? We were supposed to stay at Zuphea Cathedral tonight and climb early tomorrow morning, but it’s already late,” Daniel replied, implying that it was Jade’s fault.

“Was Zuphea Cathedral off-limits at night?”

“Try taking you there at this hour. Bishop Ducar will make a fuss about bringing an excommunicated priest to a sacred place, and I’ll have to spend an hour calming him down with the Emperor’s pardon. Then I’d probably have to debate the theology of the Emperor’s clemency for three hours. It’s better to push ahead even if it’s tiring, don’t you think?”

“We shouldn’t have gone for wine in the first place.”

“You didn’t have to visit the tomb either.”

“I had no choice but to go.”

“I had no choice but to drink.”

“Does Bishop Ducar still resent me?”

“A lot.”

“To what extent?”

“He believes you’ve tainted the sanctity of Zuphea Cathedral.”

“Did I taint it?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that the number of believers has increased over the past three years.”

Jade was surprised by the unexpected news.

“Increased? Not decreased? Why?”

“How would I know?” Daniel pretended not to know and then continued.

“People are drawn to mysterious things. Didn’t you use the power I told you not to use in front of everyone? There were many witnesses. So, among the people, there was a lot of controversy about whether it was an evil power or a holy one.”

“It’s more surprising that such a thing became controversial.”

“You are depicted as both a saint and a demon. When there’s a lot of talk, people gather, and where people gather, money gathers. Zuphea Cathedral has probably received more donations in the past three years than in the previous ten years. And Bishop Ducar sees that money as very dirty and can’t bring himself to like you, who caused his worldly troubles.”

Daniel continued, his voice barely suppressing laughter.

“Speaking of which, it’s more likely that he won’t acknowledge your reinstatement as a priest by the Order of Rome.”

“That’s true.”

“What’s true about that?”

“Look at us. We look like exiles fleeing under the cover of night.”

“That’s due to circumstances beyond our control…”

“I’ve thought about it for three years and concluded this: I renounced my priesthood that day. Even if the Emperor of Rome pardoned me, and even if Bishop Ducar acknowledges me, my decision won’t change.”

“Why are you so eager to torment yourself? The people of Zerba seemed to like you. I’ve heard rumors a few times. You’re reputed to offer good prayers. Even Cardinal Pietro praised you…”

Jade interrupted Daniel.

“I never prayed. When people came to me, I listened to their stories and gave them advice. That’s why more people came. Father Thomas speaks too difficultly.”

Jade looked down into the crater and continued talking.

“Once, someone came to me with a broken tray. They said it was a gift given in the name of God and asked me to make it whole again in God’s name. So, I told them it would stick together if they called upon the name of a blacksmith, not God, and introduced them to a good blacksmith. His name was Holson, a man from the North, and he was very skilled. There was nothing he couldn’t fix. He repaired the tray well, and then people started calling me a priest who performed the miracle of mending a broken tray.”

“People believe what they want to believe and see what they want to see. So, what miracle did you perform after that?” Daniel asked teasingly.

“I didn’t do anything. People began to expect real miracles. Someone even brought a dead goat, asking me to bring it back to life.”

“Did you refuse?”

“What else could I do? Tell them to roast and eat it since they raised it for food anyway?”

Though he hadn’t meant it as a joke, Daniel laughed so hard he seemed like he would die. Whether Daniel laughed or not, Jade continued talking.

“That was when people started to doubt if the previous miracles were not the work of a demon.”

“It’s understandable. You can’t blame people for thinking that way.”

Jade suddenly remembered and asked, “By the way, were the villagers happy or opposed when they heard I was to be burned at the stake?”

“I didn’t stay to see that, but do you care?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I care or not. I don’t even know if I want to know.”

“You think too much.”

“That’s true.”

“You said you don’t pray, but what prayer did you offer Lord Browne earlier?”

Jade glared at Daniel. He felt like Daniel was asking about something he wasn’t really curious about. But Daniel’s expression seemed genuinely curious. Though, with Daniel being such a good actor, it was hard to tell if he was sincere.

“Weren’t you eavesdropping?”

“I tried to, but I couldn’t hear well. I only saw Lord Browne kneel before you after you finished talking. It was dark, so even that was hard to see.”

Jade picked up a stone and threw it into the crater. Due to the heat, the stone disappeared midway without being seen falling into the lava.

“It seems Lord Browne knew that Mitchel was a demon.”

“Knew?”

“To be exact, his mother noticed first, and his father followed. Mitchel wasn’t as good a child as he appeared.”

“That’s typical for a noble’s daughter.”

“It seems it was worse than that. He said she was so mischievous that it was hard to believe she could be so bad.”

He had heard something similar three years ago.

This time, he just heard more details.

“She treated the servants and slaves like animals and was very greedy. Once, while eating, she threw a plate at a slave boy because her piece of cake was late. Such a child suddenly became kind after collapsing as if dead and then waking up.”

Lord Browne, kneeling before his daughter’s grave, had told Jade that he realized then that his daughter had changed. At first, he wanted to believe she had become a good child because of that incident.

His wife was the first to notice and began to fear Mitchel.

The moment she saw the perfect daughter she had dreamed of during her pregnancy, she realized something was wrong.

Then Jade had claimed Mitchel was a demon and burned her. His wife was greatly shocked, not because of her daughter’s death, but because her suspicion had been confirmed.

For the past three years, she had lived in silence without talking about it and had only recently confided in her husband. She had been afraid to speak for fear of being branded a demon herself, and the thought of having lived with a demon in her daughter’s form had kept her silent.

It was understandable.

The wealthy, nobility, and royalty of each city rarely fell from grace instantly.

Even if they lost a war and were captured by the enemy, they could recover within a few years if they paid a ransom.

If there was a drought or plague in their territory, the commoners suffered, but the nobles did not. However, religious condemnation could take everything away in an instant.

Skipping over these details, Jade spoke to Daniel.

“The question that troubled Lord Browne for three years was only one: What happened to the real Mitchel? I told him she was already dead. Then he asked if she had ever been possessed by a demon. I firmly denied it. He then asked if there was any pain in Mitchel’s death. I told him I didn’t know since I hadn’t seen her collapse in the garden. But I assured him that at least her death wasn’t related to the demon, so if there was any pain, it was a natural pain, not caused by the demon’s power.”

At the following final question, Lord Browne knelt before Jade and burst into tears.

“After that, his words were not a prayer but a question. He asked what the white light and fire that appeared when the demon was killed were. I told him it was the light that burned the demon.”

“That’s a technical and stiff answer. It would have been better if you had said it was a holy light that purified evil.”

“That would have been a lie.”

“That kind of lie is a good lie.”

“I don’t think it’s a good lie. The demon disappeared, and Mitchel just returned to her original dead state. I don’t want to use the word ‘purified’.”

“Even if you don’t want to, it can only be expressed as purification. So what will you call that power when you use it in the future?”

Jade took out a book from his pocket. He extended it toward the crater.

Daniel was so surprised he was speechless.

“I don’t plan to use it anymore, so I don’t need to name it.”

Jade continued, his arm still outstretched.

“Lord Browne and his wife wanted to visit me in Zerba several times, but they were too afraid of the public’s eyes.”

Daniel, looking at the book made of black leather reflecting a faint red light, responded.

“That’s understandable. If it were revealed that it was indeed a demon, they might become targets themselves. Since the start of the Holy Grail expedition, religious trials have spread like a trend.”

There were rumors that in the Kingdom of Farens and Gritten, burnings were held instead of worship services once a week. People joked that they were more familiar with the smell of burning bodies than incense. Although it was less intense closer to Rome, the grim atmosphere was certainly reaching Zerba.

Jade, not wanting to talk about such things anymore, changed the subject.

“Speaking of which, tell me about the Holy Grail expedition.”

“The Emperor spoke about Mount Vesuvius.”

“I’m asking about the Grail, not the volcano.”

“It’s related. He said he saw in a dream that the volcano erupted, burying Pompeii and burning Rome in the aftermath. Then an angel appeared and told him that finding the Holy Grail would prevent this disaster.”

Jade shook his head.

“Thirty years ago, the Holy Land Recovery War and three years ago, the Holy Grail expedition were also caused by such inexplicable ‘visions.'”

“Never say that in Rome. Not even the Emperor’s pardon can protect you from that statement.”

“So, Father Daniel, you were assigned the task of finding the Grail?”

“With you. That was my condition. And for that, we need that book.”

“Why? Is the Grail guarded by a demon?”

“That we don’t know.”

“I doubt the Grail could be found even by an army of thousands and dozens of knight orders. And we’re supposed to find it with just the two of us?”

“That, too, we don’t know.”

Jade finally returned the book to his pocket.

Daniel, slightly relieved, turned around.

“Let’s go. Before the volcano erupts while we’re still here.”

“If an angel said in a dream that finding the Grail would prevent the volcano’s eruption, doesn’t that give us at least a year or two?”

“What nonsense is that? Volcanoes erupt without warning.”

“Huh? The flow of the story doesn’t match,” Jade said, realizing belatedly.

“Oh! Father Daniel, do you also think the Emperor’s dream was a mere fantasy?”

“In fact, I think the Emperor might not have had such a dream at all.”

Daniel got back on his horse, and Jade followed suit. Under the moonlight, the two horses walked slowly down the slope.

“The Emperor is a clever man. If the Holy Pope of Lotikan proposed the Holy Grail expedition based on his vision, the Emperor could propose the same based on a dream. The volcano in Pompeii would be a perfect excuse.”

“Then why didn’t he raise an army like the Holy Pope and instead chose a weak old man and an even weaker young man?”

“He said he wanted to keep it a secret.”

“That doesn’t make sense either. If the Emperor is using his dream as an excuse to start something, he should announce it to the public. He should say something like, ‘An angel desires the Grail!'”

“That’s true. Then maybe the Emperor isn’t as clever as I thought.”

“Or maybe he really did have that dream.”

“That could be.”

Daniel chuckled.

Jade was deep in thought as they descended the mountain.

‘Father Daniel isn’t lying. But it feels like he isn’t telling the whole truth either. I should have thrown the book into the volcano. It might not have burned, but at least no one would be able to retrieve it.’