"I never expected to encounter someone blessed by the Lord in this desecrated land. It is both an honor and, in a way, rather amusing."
A trace of surprise appeared on the tall man's face when he saw Cid. Then he shook his head and muttered something Cid couldn't make sense of.
"Um… hello. Excuse me, sir, who exactly do you mean by 'someone blessed by the Lord'? Is there anyone else here?"
Cid glanced around to confirm it.
There were only three of them here.
"There is no need to doubt it. The one I mean is you. May I ask how Your Majesty is addressed?"
"Uh… Cid. Just call me Cid, sir. Also… I don't have any money."
Cid felt pretty sure he had run into a scammer.
He had seen this kind of act many times in his previous life. The whole mysterious-sounding routine used to swindle old people or teenagers deep in their chuunibyou phase was nothing new to him.
After all, he had pursued supernatural powers in his previous life, and his family had been fairly wealthy. That naturally attracted the occasional fraud who came to fleece him.
Of course, every last one of them had gotten beaten up by him.
It wasn't that he didn't believe.
If he didn't believe, he wouldn't have gone searching in the first place.
They were just too weak.
If they couldn't even beat him, how could they possibly have the nerve to claim they could teach him magic? The whole thing was ridiculous.
"Your Majesty Cid, I am an Armed Apostle of the Western Church, Rudolf Eustach. I am not deceiving you. You truly are one blessed by the Lord. Had I met you sooner, I would have brought you to the Church and recommended Your Majesty as the new Holy Son."
This really is a familiar script.
What comes next?
Are you going to tell me there's something wrong with my body, and because of that, my God-given talent has been sealed away? That it would normally cost an enormous amount to remove the seal, but because you want to take me in as your disciple, all I need to pay is a token apprenticeship fee of a few million, or maybe a few hundred thousand yen?
And seriously, you even made up the name of the Church and a job title. Worse, you used the name of a real Church.
How bold are you?
Aren't you afraid the real Church will find out and come after you?
"What a pity…"
Ah, here it comes.
Go on, say it already.
My fists are starving.
After putting up with an entire day of frustration, I finally get a punching bag to vent on.
"Unfortunately, I am burdened with an urgent duty at present, and I cannot say for certain whether I will still be able to carry out my role afterward."
Have you eaten? If not, then have a taste of my fi...
You're not following the script at all.
That makes this difficult.
Fine.
Just in case I really did misjudge you, I'll let you stay conscious a little longer.
"Your Majesty Cid, I must carry out my duty, so I cannot bring Your Majesty to the Church. But neither should Your Majesty continue living on this cursed land."
Oh, oh, oh, here it is.
Now it's really here.
So that's it. You just changed the wording to keep scamming me.
And here I was worrying I might have gotten it wrong.
Let me guess.
Next you're going to say this island is about to sink, that some Noah's Ark is about to arrive, and that I should spend money to buy a ticket off the island.
"And I will use this body to drag this cursed land into the bottom of the sea…"
Wow.
I actually guessed right.
Alright, let's begin.
Time for one of my favorite activities from my previous life: beating up scammers.
Trash like you deserves a thorough beating before being handed over to the guards.
"This is my identification token as an Armed Apostle, Your Majesty Cid. Just in case, a ship headed directly to Western Europe will depart tomorrow night. Once it arrives, show them my token and someone will take you aboard. Pack your belongings, gather your family, and leave this island as soon as possible."
Ha.
You slipped up, didn't you?
So not only do you scam people out of money, you also traffic humans.
Aren't you afraid you might try this on someone who actually has supernatural powers?
Oh, right.
I forgot you're bold enough to impersonate the Church itself.
Never mind, then.
Enough of this.
Scammer, die, die, die...
"Gulp."
Cid swallowed hard, staring fixedly at the hand of the so-called Armed Apostle in front of him.
In that hand was a pure gold cross necklace.
Gold alone would not have shaken him like this.
What mattered was the Church's anti-counterfeit mark on it, along with the series of magical formulas engraved into it.
And what did that mean?
It meant this was a cross necklace officially authenticated by the Church and now lost to the outside world.
A world-class collector's item.
"M-Me? D-Don't joke like that. H-How could that be? H-How could I possibly be someone blessed by God?"
"Your Majesty Cid, of course you are. The Lord told me so."
"I-I don't believe it. I've been ordinary my whole life."
"No, you are not ordinary at all. You are one blessed by God. You are a born child of God. You are a born saint. What you lack is only confidence and proper guidance."
"Sniff… R-Really? Really?"
"It is true, Your Majesty Cid."
"I-If that's true, then… will I be able to see you again in the future?"
"I am sorry. I must complete my own mission. It is my honor to have met you in the final chapter of my life. To guide a child of God toward the light... what greater glory could there be?"
"Thank you, thank you. You're the first person in my whole life to encourage me like this. That alone is enough to make me believe you."
"Sniff… sniff… uuuugh… sob, sob…"
By using Magical Power to force his tear ducts to produce tears, stammering so badly that even his pronunciation came out crooked, and repeating his lines at just the right moments, he perfectly conveyed the nervousness and unease of a clueless side character being scammed without realizing it.
In the end, he even used the excuse that he'd grown up being looked down on and developed an inferiority complex to explain why he had believed him so easily.
The only reason he had gone that far was because, while he was lying just now, the image of his sister suddenly popped into his head and made his conscience sting a little.
Oh, right.
He doesn't have a conscience.
Never mind, then.
Although Cid had his head lowered and one arm raised in front of his eyes, so he couldn't see Rudolf's face clearly, he didn't need to think about it to know what kind of expression the man must be wearing.
It had to be the sort of mocking look one gave a stupid prey animal.
A faint sneer curled at the corner of Cid's lips.
Heh.
Who was the hunter and who was the prey was still up in the air.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a gaze swept over him, startling him so badly that the smile instantly vanished from his lips.
He closed his right eye and turned toward the source of that gaze, channeling Magical Power into the closed eye.
The vision that should have disappeared reappeared in his mind, as though a new lens had been laid over it.
What he saw was a pair of pale blue eyes staring at him.
Their owner even seemed to notice that he was peeking and gave a blink in response.
...Looks like I put in too much Magical Power.
The image zoomed in too far.
Cid reduced the amount of Magical Power, and the image in his mind drew back several steps.
Only then did he see the full figure of the one staring at him.
It was a petite girl with long, icy blue hair.
She possessed an unusual kind of beauty, like a piece of porcelain sculpted to perfection, flawless in every detail. Her skin was pale and translucent, and her whole presence gave off the feeling of a silent elf-like beauty.
Wow.
Are scammers this high-quality these days?
First a world-class collectible, and now a beautiful girl specifically designed to be devastatingly effective against teenage boys.
An ordinary person would probably start believing they really were some "Child of God" or "one blessed by God" the moment they saw that pure gold cross necklace.
Then if you added a silent beauty like this on top of it, they would probably get so rattled they forgot even their own name.
If an actual chuunibyou teenager had been standing here, he probably would have gone with them on the spot.
Unfortunately for them, they had run into him.
It wasn't that he couldn't be deceived.
He just happened to possess some exclusive information.
In this world, there were only three beings whose outcome he could not determine.
He had seen one of them when the worlds first fused.
It was a crimson dragon.
He had not seen the other two, but one of them had an aura very similar to that crimson dragon's, so it was probably also a dragon.
As for the last one, according to his senses, it resided inside a completely sealed-off alternate space.
Like some kind of shut-in, it hadn't even come out to take a look despite an event as massive as the fusion of worlds.
But the small trace of aura leaking out from it was virtually identical to that of an Angel, only nobler.
So the final one was most likely the "God" of the Biblical God faction.
Which was exactly why this whole thing made no sense.
That "God" had never once shown himself, so where exactly was this "one blessed by God" or this "Child of God" supposed to come from?
Cid hadn't even seen "God" himself.
Sure, he did own a few collectibles with extremely high holy attributes, but he hadn't brought them out with him.
It couldn't be helped.
Such was the overwhelming dominance of Shadow Wisdom in an intelligence war.
Fu-hahahahaha.
Fu-hahahahaha.
"What is it, Your Majesty Cid? Are you interested in Astarte?"
Crap.
In his moment of smug triumph, he had unconsciously made a movement that probably looked downright perverted.
What now?
What now?
Should he just beat these two down right here?
But if he did that, the Church-certified pure gold magic cross necklace would slip right through his fingers.
And the moment he imagined the future after defeating them...
The necklace would be confiscated by the guards, recognized by some upper-level official, embezzled, sold off, and in the end he would have to spend an enormous sum to buy it back himself...
No.
No!
That was a future he refused to accept.
Come on, use your brain, Cid.
You can do it, Cid.