Arc 3 - Chapter 34: Cardinal of Aquarius

In this world, the first thing Yu did was to ruin things, and then he was given the task of fixing what he had ruined.

After that, they made money, bonded with the girl who was the person he loved most in this world, found friends to help them in their mission, and made more money.

And then they came to the Mora, where with a little luck they acquired a city. They removed the obstacles in the way of their goal and finally managed to form ten battalions that would bring them one step closer to their goal.

He was not well versed in medieval history, but he doubted that by twenty-first century standards a force of ten thousand could be called an army.

Still, he did not think it was a small group for the Mora. Six thousand men, divided into two archery battalions and four infantry brigades, were about to set out to liberate Vermia from enemy occupation.

"Link, you were joking about the dragon, weren't you?" Sivina asked.

"Yes and no."

As soon as possible, he would sail from Jade Lake to come to the aid of Cornelia dri Vermilia and they would enter the Jade River and reach the Vermilia camp.

There were two other routes they could have chosen, but both were long enough to take them two months to reach Vermia. Moreover, the northern route had its own dangers.

"Jade Lake is home to an island, Jade Island. There is a dragon that lives there. This is not a story, it is a known fact," Link said.

"I'm wondering if we should take the safe route with Yurine."

"I will come with you to ensure the safety of the lady."

Sivina and Yu were not the only ones disturbed by the dragon talk, Ana was frightened to learn that there was a dragon on their path.

"The dragon is not aggressive. Before Vermia fell, there were trade and passenger ships using the lake."

Yu had learned that there was a dragon there when he was in Rolderhelm, but he didn't think much of it because he was told that it was not as aggressive as Link said.

"This is the first time I've heard of a non-aggressive dragon. We're talking about dragons, these creatures don't think like humans," Sivina said.

"You underestimate dragons." Yurine looked Sivina in the eyes.

She had been to Mora before, so she knew about the dragon in the lake. Since she spoke with a confident expression on her face, she must also know about dragons.

"Dragons are as intelligent as humans, some are even smarter than humans."

"They are animals. These animals terrorize people in Elhaven. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of us go after them and kill them."

"Just because your dragons are stupid doesn't mean all dragons are stupid."

「You bastard!」

Yurine and Sivina continued to argue about dragons. Yurine insisted on the intelligence of dragons. Sivina argued that dragons were mindless monsters and that they only killed people.

「So beautiful!」

"Dragons are ancient creatures. Beings that have lived for thousands of years cannot be stupid, my mother told me that some dragons speak the human language."

「I'm sorry.」

"If that's what her mother said, you should stop arguing, Sivina. There is no way to convince Yurine at this stage. The absolute truth is that dragons are intelligent."

「You bastard!」

"I don't understand the logic of this," Sivina said.

Yu didn't understand, but for Yurine, her mother's words were true and there was no way they could be wrong. Yurine didn't just believe that her mother was telling the truth, she accepted everything her mother said as irrefutable truth. It was very difficult, even impossible, to change such a person's mind.

But Yu thought that what Yurine said might be true, but he also gave Sivina the benefit of the doubt. 

The dragons Sivina knew ate farmers' livestock and terrorized fields and people by burning them. If the dragons in Elhaven were like that, she was right to think that dragons were terrible and stupid monsters.

Yurine's words were more in line with the dragon mold Yu had in mind. There were a lot of things in this world that were like in his world, and in the popular culture of his world, it was common for dragons to be intelligent.

"It has even recently been discovered that dragons can make great waifus."

Dragons that transformed into human form were very attractive. Who knows what would have happened if medieval people had come up with such ideas?

「His Eminence his here.」

"Let's get back to the point," Link said. "Whether the Jade Dragon is good or bad, as long as we want to get there early, there will be no change for us, we will still use the lake."

He agreed with Link on that. They had to use that lake.

「Can you understand me?」

"We can go north of the lake, but then we will encounter both forest and hills. And since it's in Royal territory, we might encounter enemy troops when we least expect it."

There was a mountain to the north of their northern route and behind that mountain was a royal city close to Peloponnese, the capital of the Peloponnese. They could not move at the risk of an enemy force descending from there.

「Is that you talking?」

"The forest in south of the lake, west of Virgo, is so densely wooded that even if we could somehow get our army through it, we couldn't get the cargo through."

Link was right about that too. Going through the forest would take too much time and would be very difficult with their current burden.

「Yu! Yu!」

"If we go further south, we would have to pass through Libra City and that would cost the army a lot of time. There were rumors that the Crown was preparing an army, by the time we get there the siege of Vermia may already have been destroyed and we could find ourselves facing a large enemy army."

Link spoke the truth here too. Moreover, given that the Church of Andromeda had left Vermia, the Libra leadership might not have allowed the Virgo Cathedral army to pass through the city.

「Why is this happening? Anyway...」

"One way or another that army will come, of course. We don't know how many people the royal side is bringing. They say it could be more than twenty thousand. Cornelia has twelve thousand soldiers, I think. Vermia was defended by about seven thousand soldiers and they have armies close to Vermia. So we're going to fight the royal forces, but it's one thing to do it with a Vermilian force of twelve thousand men, and it's another to be late to the battle and have an army of ten thousand." Link finished speaking and put his hand to his chest to catch his breath.

「His Eminence his here.」

"Our goal is to strengthen the cathedral by enlisting the support of the Vermilia family. If the Vermilia army is gone by the time we leave, we won't have to try any harder to take back the city. Without the Vermilias, the city is worthless to us..."

If Vermia is completely lost, Yu would consider joining Yu Zao Long's side and probably would do so because the Church of Andromeda would have no leverage.

"Yu, is something wrong?"

After he finished his sentence, he rolled his eyes and his face looked like he was in pain. His head ached, it felt like it was going to crack.

"Yu, is it a seizure?"

Yu took Yurine's hand and nodded. "I'm fine."

Link and the girls were sitting while Yu and Kigaro were standing. When the headache got worse, Yu grabbed Kigaro's arm to stand.

The last time he fainted was in Andromedia. Now he felt like fainting again.

「What more should I do?」

He felt like throwing up, so with Kigaro's help he walked to the window in the room and took deep breaths, sticking his head out and looking at Aqua's view of the bay.

"Yu, let me cast a spell," Yurine said. She got up from where she was sitting and came to Yu.

「Liar! You lied!」

「This will be the last time.」

「I don't want to die...」

「So beautiful! So beautiful!」

「This world really sucks.」

Yurine's spell didn't cure Yu's illness at the moment, but it removed the symptoms. Thanks to her spell, he started to feel better.

"His Eminence is here."

A handsome servant knocked on their door and entered their room, announcing the arrival of the person they were waiting for. Yu was used to having women as servants, but it was strange to see someone using men as servants.

"I'm a male servant though, and so was that bastard Bart."

Aqua was a city belonging to the Cathedral of Aquarius, with a harbor to both the gulf to the west and the Jade Lake to the east. They needed to use it to move their armies across the lake.

This was an average medieval city. There was nothing distinctive about it except that it had a harbor both in the west and in the east.

Outside the city, Yu could tell that the palace where the Cardinal of Aquarius resided was tastefully furnished.

But he couldn't talk about how beautiful the palace was because he was more focused on the staff than on the way it was furnished.

Yes, there were quite a number of male servants working here, but there were also female servants. The girls were incredibly beautiful and the boys were as handsome as the girls were beautiful.

Yu believed that the Cardinal of Aquarius had created a harem for himself. The cardinal's taste in women was also similar to Yu's.

Light colors rather than dark colors, melon-like breasts rather than watermelon-like breasts, shapely buttocks, long legs and, most importantly, an elegant and sweet face. Such were the general characteristics of the servants of this palace. They all fit Yu's description of the ideal woman.

「His Eminence is here.」

「My name is Yu Valarfin.」

Images in his mind, voices in his ears. Yu felt the headache again, but he didn't want to voice his discomfort and ask Yurine for help again, not when the Aquarian Cardinal was here.

"The Cardinal had blue eyes. He had cream-colored hair. Why... I know that?"

"I apologize for keeping you waiting, but I hope you will agree with me, I am a busy man in my office and I have other responsibilities. Let me introduce myself, my name is Livia von Qualeon, holder of the Aquarius Blessing and Cardinal of Aquarius. It has been a long time since I have seen anyone of my rank. The last time I met your mother, she was one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, if she hadn't been a cardinal I would have taken her with me. It's a pity, I wish she hadn't made the wrong career choice. Well, it must be what people call fate, there's nothing to do."

As he had expected, the cardinal had light blue eyes. His hair, combed back, was the color of cream. He appeared to be the same height and weight as Yu. His skin suggested that he was an albino.

Behind Livia were two priestesses. Both priestesses had sea-green hair and sea-blue eyes. Like the Cardinal, the priestesses wore light blue.

One of the priestesses was holding a bucket. It was a very ordinary looking gray bucket, only half full of water.

"I didn't realize that the Aquarian Cardinal's special power is the bucket. But don't you look stupid if you walk around with him all day? Anyway, never mind that, he's either a son of a bitch or a son of a bitch... Why are you messing with her mother? You cunt."

Yu didn't need to see Yurine to know she was angry. If she opened her mouth, she would definitely get into an argument with the other cardinal. She couldn't stand it when her mother was being talked about.

"Allow me to introduce His Eminence, Cardinal Neko of Virgo and holder of the Virgo Blessing. Her Eminence's two knights, Dame Sivina Ecues and Sir Link Yachi Long. Abbess Ana Rosegreen. Kigaro, commander of Her Eminence's guard."

Yu had to take the initiative to make sure that the Yurine did not get her claws out against the Cardinal of Aquarius in his house.

"The Virgo Cardinal can't promote herself? Does being a child mean that you can take the initiative in her place? If she has attained the cardinality, she cannot fail in such simple tasks and use the fact that she is a child as an excuse. And what right do you have to interrupt the conversation of two cardinals? It is unacceptable that you come to my house and treat me with disrespect."

"Fuck your mouth."

Yu spoke of thinking that Livia would get angry if Yurine spoke, but his plan blew up in his hands. Yu lowered his head as the possibility of Yurine's attack increased.

"Forgive my impertinence, Your Eminence."

It was humiliating to be scolded in front of his friends and to have to keep his head down. He couldn't have guessed that the man in front of him was a jerk.

"It's good that you realize your mistake, but if you had never made it, I wouldn't have to talk about it and you wouldn't be scolded in front of your friends. One should think about such things, because apologizing after making a mistake does not make it right. From now on, think twice before you speak, or even three times, given your level of intelligence. Or you may not think at all and leave the thinking to those who are smarter than you."

"I will take His Eminence's advice gladly."

He tried to be polite and smile. He couldn't ruin things by making a blunder because of his frayed nerves.

"I'll be a bird and flap my wings in your mother's pussy, motherfucker."

"You'd better obey. Lower people should know how to behave towards those above them. Not everyone is as compassionate and understanding as me. If I were an angry person I would punish you for this, but I am only warning you and advising you not to make the same mistake again."

"Sons of bitches like you only talk when they have power. Fuck you! If that fucking world was going to give me special powers too, see how I was getting blood out of your ass! You foul-mouthed whoreson."

Although he looked a little older than Yu, his physical strength did not seem to be greater than his. In an equal fight, he could have beaten him.

"Let's get to the point."

Yurine spoke more calmly than expected. Yu was sure she would stir things up, but Yurine had misled him.

"Yes, the butler must have learned his lesson, there's no need to go on any longer. I like to keep things short and to the point. I don't like unnecessary conversations and unnecessary prolongation. Let's get back to the matter at hand and finish our work. Did you get permission from the Church of Andromeda?"

The capital wanted to supervise and make sure that the army was not being built against them. When they started building the army, they reported to the Andromeda Church of and explained their plans. The Church of Andromeda then wrote a letter recognizing the legitimacy of the army.

Yurine handed Livia a letter from the Church of Andromeda with permission to use the port of Aqua City.

"If the Cathedral of Andromeda approves, I have nothing to say. As a cardinal, I know my position and who is above me. I can't do anything against an army recognized by the Pontifex, I will allow you to use my harbor. One silver per soldier."

"We are already paying for the ships," Yurine said.

"So what? I welcome you here and allow you to use my harbor, and you should be grateful and thank me, but you respond with ingratitude? How am I going to pay the people who work in this harbor and who have to deal with the problems created by your soldiers? I am telling you a much smaller amount than necessary because we are colleagues, you must learn this thing called gratitude. Since you are a fellow cardinal, I will ignore it for now and give you credit for your immaturity. Since there is nothing more to say, I will leave now, I have duties to attend to."

Livia turned his back on his guests and walked out the door he had entered. His servants were kind enough to bow their heads and curtsy to Yurine before leaving.

As the door closed and Livia's footsteps faded into the distance, Yu spoke in a deep voice.

"You mothe-"