What exactly had been his reason for joining the Paladin Order in the first place?
Gustav Montagnés, the Order's deputy commander, had long since forgotten.
Over the years, the things he had needed to remember and think about had become as numerous as the stars.
If his original reason had faded from memory, perhaps it had never been that important to begin with.
Maybe he had once regarded joining the Paladin Order as the highest possible honor and, fueled by youthful passion, had embarked on this path without a second thought.
Or perhaps he had simply wanted to distinguish himself, dreaming of becoming someone important and joining the Paladin Order in pursuit of that ambition.
Whatever the case, one thing was certain.
He definitely had not joined the Paladin Order because he wanted to torture his stomach.
[The Brain of the Paladin Order]
That was the nickname his close comrades had given him.
To be honest, he did not feel the slightest bit proud of it.
If anything, he felt that very nickname was what had condemned his stomach to purgatory.
Even so, Gustav had no complaints.
After all, "Endure suffering and serve with integrity" was a creed the Paladin Order had always upheld. What was a little stomach pain compared to that?
It was precisely because he was willing to shoulder such burdens that the Paladin Order, and the Holy Kingdom it protected, could enjoy greater peace and security.
His martial skills were nowhere near the finest in the Paladin Order. His real strength lay in his quick mind.
There were only a handful of people in the entire Holy Kingdom who could rival the Commander in combat.
That was why the best arrangement was for him and the Commander to divide the work according to their strengths.
And speaking of their Commander, how should he describe her?
Her short flaxen hair and cold, gleaming armor complemented each other perfectly, making her resemble a hardy rose blooming on the battlefield, valiant and striking.
That was on the battlefield, at least.
In everyday life, she was careless and rough around the edges, without a trace of the reserve one might expect from a young woman.
Sometimes, Gustav could not help wondering.
When their Commander was born, had she somehow left her wisdom and beauty behind in her mother's womb, only for both to be generously bestowed upon her younger sister instead?
If the Commander were as clever, perceptive, and resourceful as her younger sister, perhaps his work would not be nearly so exhausting.
Maybe the source of his stomachaches would disappear as well.
But then again, if that happened, wouldn't his own position gradually lose its importance?
After all, if the Commander could handle everything herself, what purpose would a deputy commander like him still serve?
At that thought, Gustav gave a wry smile.
It was not as though he coveted the position of Commander of the Paladin Order. He simply felt a certain indescribable helplessness.
Life really did have a way of refusing to give people everything they wanted.
The Holy Kingdom's current situation was like an old man in the final stages of a terminal illness, deeply worrying to anyone who looked at it.
Just how bad was it?
It was like a rotting apple, flies buzzing around its skin while maggots feasted on the inside.
Far from easing with time, the division between the Northern Holy Kingdom and the Southern Holy Kingdom had only grown worse.
The whole situation was absurd.
In the past, the threat of the Demihumans had at least allowed the North and South to maintain a relative peace. Yet now, with the rise of the Sorcerer Kingdom and the Demihuman threat somewhat diminished, tensions between the two regions had immediately sharpened.
When all was said and done, the Sorcerer Kingdom was at the root of it.
Had the Sorcerer Kingdom never been established, the Holy Kingdom under Her Highness Calca might have continued maintaining a superficial peace between North and South, keeping its internal discord buried beneath the surface.
After all, no matter how powerful the great nobles of the south were, they could not compare to the Kingdom of old.
Furthermore, now that the Temple faction had shifted its support toward the Holy Royal Family, the southern nobles simply lacked both the courage and the strength to oppose those two powerful forces at once.
That did not mean the southern nobles had completely lost their ability to rebel.
The fact that the Holy Queen had no authority over the armies of the southern nobles was proof enough.
Only while neither side was completely confident that it could swallow the other could Her Majesty the Holy Queen maintain a lasting peace.
That delicate balance might have endured for roughly a hundred years.
When the next transfer of power between an old and new Holy King arrived, however, the Holy Kingdom would inevitably enter its most turbulent period.
The southern nobles would never willingly accept another loss.
But now, forget a hundred years. Even ten seemed impossible.
And the root of the present crisis was none other than Her Majesty the Holy Queen's elder brother, the former lawful heir to the position of Holy King and the man fully backed by the southern nobles.
His Highness Caspond Bessarez.
For years, this member of the royal family had been trying to establish trade relations between the Holy Kingdom and the Sorcerer Kingdom, but unfortunately, his efforts had achieved little.
The fundamental obstacle was the Temple.
The establishment of the Sorcerer Kingdom had provoked strong dissatisfaction among the Holy Kingdom's Temple faction. Only the realities of the domestic situation had prevented them from taking substantive action.
Sending one of the Nine Colors to attend the Sorcerer Kingdom's coronation ceremony and offer congratulations had already been the Temple's absolute limit. Going any further was out of the question.
In Caspond's eyes, that attitude was utterly foolish.
He had tried to persuade his younger sister, the Holy Queen, to change her position, but he had never received a satisfactory response.
In the end, the only compromise he could come up with was the so-called "Sorcerer Kingdom Student Exchange Program."
The program was intended to send students to study in the Sorcerer Kingdom, increasing mutual understanding and interaction between the two nations while laying the groundwork for possible trade cooperation in the future.
It was not the direct trade relationship Caspond had originally wanted, but at least it offered a way to move relations between the two nations forward.
That alone would have been enough.
Then something happened that forced him to approach the Holy Queen again.
The return of the God of Death!
Its significance to humanity went without saying.
After all, this was one of the Six Great Gods!
It was no exaggeration to say that without the protection of the Six Great Gods, human society could never have achieved the prosperity it enjoyed today.
Caspond's thinking was simple. If the Sorcerer Kingdom was unacceptable, surely the Slane Theocracy would be different?
Reality promptly crushed that hope with a firm answer.
No.
And the reason was almost laughable.
Once again, the Temple refused.
Their reasoning was simple. The Holy Kingdom was a religious nation devoted to the Four Great Gods, and the God of Death, an Undead being, had no place within its system of faith.
Absurd!
It was utterly absurd!
His indecisive and impractical younger sister.
The Temple faction, which seemed determined to isolate the Holy Kingdom from the outside world.
The Paladin Order and the Clergy, who did nothing but blindly support his sister and stand with her...
For the first time, Caspond openly showed dissatisfaction with his sister holding the position of Holy King.
That dissatisfaction was still only beginning to take root, but the message it sent was dangerously clear.
And that was precisely why the southern nobles could no longer sit still.
The nobles did not dare openly rebel. The powerful Holy Royal Family and the Temple still held them in check.
But if they could find a legitimate pretext, that would be another matter entirely.
For instance...
What if they proposed that Caspond, the former heir to the position of Holy King, reclaim the throne?
Calca was a member of the Holy Royal Family, but so was Caspond. More importantly, Caspond had originally been the heir to the throne.
If Caspond truly intended to reclaim the position of Holy King, even the Holy Royal Family itself might have little grounds to object.
And so, when Caspond neither clearly rejected the idea nor openly accepted it, his ambiguous attitude, which seemed almost like tacit approval, brought the conflict between North and South fully into the open.
The increasingly chaotic situation gave the Holy Queen no end of headaches.
In order to resolve the Holy Kingdom's instability once and for all, the Holy Queen decided to travel incognito. Accompanied by the Paladin Order and several trusted aides, she entered the territory of the Sorcerer Kingdom in search of the elder brother she had not seen in a long time.
Gustav was among them.
[The Demihumans in the Sorcerer Kingdom get along even better than I expected~]
That was Gustav's first impression of the Sorcerer Kingdom.
No wonder Pavel Baraja, one of the Nine Colors, had taken part in the student exchange program three years earlier and resolutely sent his daughter to study in the Sorcerer Kingdom.
There really had been a reason for it.
Maybe he ought to buy a house here himself. Once he retired, settling down here with his two pets, [Milshe-chan] and [Amonna-chan], sounded like a rather pleasant option.
(P.S.: They are Bunnias, a cute little animal that resembles both a squirrel and a rabbit.)
He had also heard that the Sorcerer Kingdom possessed magic capable of curing stomachaches. Perhaps he could learn some of that Divine System magic while he was here.
After all, with a superior like his, the stress of the job was considerable. Stomachaches were practically routine.
Speaking of his superior, where was she?
"Isandro, have you seen the Commander?"
Gustav turned toward the companion beside him.
Isandro Sanchez, like Gustav, was a Deputy Commander of the Paladin Order.
His swordsmanship had earned widespread acclaim, and he had been granted the honor of becoming one of the Holy Kingdom's Nine Colors, [Pink].
Within the Paladin Order, his combat strength was second only to Remedios.
He and Gustav shared the burden of handling the Paladin Order's affairs in the Commander's place, so his workload was hardly light either.
"Why are you asking me? Weren't you the one keeping an eye on the Commander?"
???
The moment those words left his mouth, both men froze, then snapped their heads toward each other.
"Don't tell me you didn't know! ×2"
"I thought you knew! ×2"
...
They were finished!
The Commander was missing!
"Everyone, assemble! We have to find the Commander before something happens!"
This was not the Holy Kingdom. With their Commander's personality, if she caused some kind of trouble...
Gustav felt a chill run through him.
The two men immediately sprang into action, barking out orders at once.
Without wasting another moment, they led the Paladin Order through the streets in a frantic search.
Her Majesty the Holy Queen and Head Priest Kelart had specifically warned them not to wander around the Sorcerer Kingdom while the two of them were handling their business, lest they cause an unnecessary conflict.
Commander, please, for once in your life, show some restraint!
With Gustav and Isandro, the two deputy commanders, desperately searching everywhere, it did not take long for them to receive a lead.
Good news: They found the Commander.
Bad news: The Commander had already been tied to a stake for burning.
After making some inquiries, they finally learned what had happened.
It had apparently begun when a believer from the Theocracy clicked their tongue beneath a statue of the Sorcerer King.
Some devout followers of the Sorcerer King happened to hear it.
They immediately approached the offender to confront them, and after only a few exchanges, the two sides started arguing.
At first, that was nothing unusual.
After all, arguments between people from the Theocracy and the Sorcerer Kingdom over matters of faith were hardly rare.
Relations between them had not deteriorated to the point of outright hatred, but minor friction was constant, and every so often it erupted into a major quarrel.
This particular dispute had begun much the same way.
Then one person became involved, and everything started spiraling out of control.
That person was, without question, the Commander of their Paladin Order.
Remedios Custodio!
Once she joined the argument and began making one shocking statement after another, she immediately escalated the issue into an attack on the entire Undead race.
She not only cursed at the believers themselves, but even dragged the God of Death and the Sorcerer King into it and insulted them as well.
The two groups of believers instantly turned their hostility in a completely different direction.
In a bizarre twist, the followers of the God of Death and the followers of the Sorcerer King suddenly found themselves standing on the same side.
And because their Commander's words had gone far beyond the line, she was quickly subdued by the furious believers from both groups.
In the end, the two sides agreed that they could no longer tolerate someone openly insulting their faith.
So they decided to burn the blasphemer at the stake on the spot, preserving the dignity of their god and His Majesty.
...
Well.
The heart they had been holding in suspense had finally died.