Chapter 26: The White Darkness

Cough, cough!
He choked on his drink and coughed for a long time.

Axel Mirgas finally calmed his coughing.
“A-a man, you say…”
“Yes.”

“Actually, strange things have been happening in the territory for some time now… so we are short on young men. I’m not sure if there will be a satisfactory human… but what kind of man do you prefer?”

“Someone like him.”

Bel pointed to Lema.

Lema, knowing what she meant, blushed, but it was not a place to be overly humble.
Nor was it a place to deny it.

“Aah…”

There was no need for a brief, appraising glance.
Axel, who recognized his value immediately, nodded in understanding.

With that face, anyone would think so.

The Supreme God Luxlon was the god of light.
Gold and silver were considered the representative colors that symbolized him.
Blond hair that seemed to be made of molten gold, and sharp features befitting a knight.

However, compared to his light-colored body hair, his eyebrows were dark, and his gaze beneath them was deep.
A high nose and a strong jaw where muscles stood out every time he closed his lips.

It was ironic that he served a god at the opposite pole with a body that could be considered an incarnation of the Supreme God Luxlon.
In a word, it was not a common appearance.

“…Haha. As expected, you desire a rare sacrifice. It would have been difficult even when the territory was fine. But that’s not what you meant, my lord.”

Axel Mirgas paused for a moment.
Instead, Beata, who had been shining her eyes in this place, opened her mouth with a slightly trembling voice.

“…Lady Belmias, how about the lord of Mirgas? Isn’t his face at least comparable?”

Bel stared at Axel Mirgas.
He didn’t seem much different from Lema Valkite, except that his body hair was darker and his impression softer.

“So-so.”

Axel smiled awkwardly, blushing, and Beata quickly changed the subject.

“If not, then perhaps… do you want those who were fanatical about Luxlon like Valkite and then turned away?”

At those words, Lema Valkite flinched.
“…You knew I was a Valkite?”

Reflexively, Lema looked at his own body.
The pattern that the apostle had branded on him as a heretic should have disappeared by now.

“Of course not. I just thought of one of the knight families that do not serve Luxlon.”

In a word, she was testing him.
The overly sincere Lema had unwittingly taken the bait.

Lema, who realized it almost immediately, made an “oops” expression, but it seemed Beata had already made her judgment.

“You should be more careful to hide it in the future.”
“…I apologize, Master.”

Lema apologized to Bel, but Bel shrugged, not knowing the reason.

“However… if you really are a Valkite, there is one thing I am curious about.”
“What is it?”

“How… did you get caught as a heretic? Did you, by any chance, break the doctrine? As far as I know, Valkite was good at pretending to be more faithful to the Supreme God Luxlon than anyone else—”

“Pretending to be faithful?”

Lema, who had been unsettled for a while, raised his voice at those words.

“What knight or priest can feign faith for generations? I don’t know the reason why Valkite was designated as a heretic.”

“You don’t know the reason?”

Reflexively trying to show a wronged expression, Lema glanced at Bel’s reaction and firmly shut his mouth.
It seemed he considered it inappropriate to show grievance now that he was serving Bel.

Every time Beata opened her mouth, it seemed Lema couldn’t stand a certain part of it.
A feeling that the two of them were not a good match.

“Then.”

The siblings looked at each other for a moment, then turned to Bel with even more sparkling eyes.

“In that case, may I… tell you the reason I have inferred?”
“You infer such a thing?” Bel tilted her head and asked.
“Yes. Mirgas is an atheist family. Among them, we are a family that particularly studies ancient civilizations. In the prophecy from the last New Year’s Holy Festival, there was a word that we found noteworthy.”

An atheist.
Surprisingly, even in an era where the Holy Empire of Lucilonia and the apostles of Luxlon wielded the power of a god, atheists existed.

However, it didn’t seem to be a great belief or anything.
At most, they might find a religion to rely on when their life was on the line, or believe in a new god if someone saved them.

This incident seemed to have been impressive enough for them to choose a religion.

And one word stuck in Bel’s ear.

“Prophecy?”

Having awakened in this era without a summoner and having been indifferent to everything, Bel showed interest in that word.

“You see the future?”

Lema answered that question.
“Yes, Master. It is one of the holy laws that the apostles of Luxlon can use. However, I remember that there was no prophecy at that time that was particularly noteworthy…”

“What we paid attention to was just one word that came out in passing.”
“What word?”

“White Darkness. It was inserted between the words that we would have a prosperous era as usual.”

The era of the peaceful White Darkness will come.

But it was a word that Lema didn’t even remember, a word that had just passed by.

“What is that?”
“The era of the White Darkness is… an era of gloom that is passed down only to scholars of ancient civilizations like us. It refers to the white darkness that did not lift for a long time after the ancient civilization of Pranazenis was destroyed.”

Lema tilted his head.
“How can a darkness be described as white?”
“It is a white darkness because it is a darkness cast by a white moon.”
“…I don’t know what you mean.”

Beata looked at Belmias rather than Lema, who was demanding an explanation.
Her gaze lingered on Belmias’s white hair for quite a long time.

“In the past… it is said that Pranazenis had two moons. One is the only moon that is still visible now. But in the past, there was another moon with a different name.”

One is the moon that is still visible now.
Since there is only one, the current moon is just the moon, but in the past, the two moons each had their own names.

“Of course, the moon still has many names now. Crescent, gibbous, new moon, full moon, etc.… If you include the different names in other languages, there are even more. But no one thinks of them as separate moons. They are just different names for the same moon.”

Lema thought as he heard those words.
The one and only god that exists at all times, in all places, with different names.
It was just like Luxlon.

“However, in the past, there was one more moon. One with a different nature from the moon we know now… It is said that it shone white and bright in any weather phenomenon, serving as a landmark for travelers, and at night, it even took the place of the sun. And the biggest feature is… it is said that when that moon existed, humans could use special abilities.”

The power of the moon.
That was the holy law used by the apostles of this era.
It was the reason why people who knew the fundamental nature of divine power had no choice but to become atheists.

“Pranazenis achieved a highly developed technological civilization by relying on the power of that moon.”

Some of those technologies had not even been lost to this day and were still functioning, and such things could not even be rebuilt with modern technology.

But even after achieving such a high-tech civilization, Pranazenis was destroyed.
It had turned to ashes in an instant.

“In the past, when Pranazenis was at its most brilliant, it is said that that moon descended to the ground. And Pranazenis was destroyed just like that.”

The story that had started with interest ended absurdly.
“…Why are you suddenly saying such a ridiculous thing?”

He had asked her to listen because she had said she had inferred the reason for being branded a heretic, but she was just talking nonsense.

The idea that there were two moons in the past was absurd, and Lema had never even thought of connecting it to ancient civilizations.
What’s more, that such a great ancient civilization was destroyed because that moon fell.

It was truly an idea that only an atheist would have.

Moreover, what Lema could not accept the most was that point.

“Because of a prophecy.”

The Holy Empire did not even ask for a reason.
Without even giving a chance for a proper explanation, Valkite was cut off.

But that a family of atheists, not even people of the Holy Empire, had inferred the reason?

“No, isn’t it not even a prophecy? It was ordinary, as always.”

There was no particularly noteworthy prophecy.
It would be different if they had outright said that Valkite were people who would become heretics in the future, but this was too absurd.

“Well. But in reality, you did become a heretic and are now serving Lady Belmias, not Luxlon, aren’t you?”
“That’s…”

Isn’t that contradictory?
In the first place, if the Holy Empire had not designated Valkite as a heretic and had not done such a thing…

Beata, seeing Lema at a loss for words, asked as if to make sure.
“Sir, do you perhaps know what Belmias is?”
“What?”

“It is the name of the second moon that is said to have fallen in the past. The name of the moon that destroyed the ancient civilization.”

Lema’s trembling eyes looked at Bel.

“You are now serving the one who brought the era of the White Darkness.”