The Pious Priest's Sinful Collection - Chapter 8
“Ah, there you are—huff—! I’ve been looking everywhere for you…!”
Just as Theodore was about to ask her to come to his office, and just as Daphne was hoping to escape, Bishop Caleb barged between them. Thanks to him, Daphne was freed from the hand that had been holding her.
“It took me a good forty minutes just to find Your Eminence! Oh, I’m out of breath…”
Judging by the sheen of sweat glistening on Bishop Caleb’s balding forehead, it seemed he was telling the truth.
“Come now, please, let’s go!”
“…Bishop Caleb.”
Theodore’s throat shifted with a visible gulp as he stared down at the bishop. The large-framed man cast a calm, heavy gaze that made Caleb’s shoulders twitch involuntarily.
“And where exactly are you taking me?”
“His Holiness is waiting for you.”
“His Holiness? For what reason…?”
“Well…”
Bishop Caleb, who had missed the chance to excuse himself, glanced awkwardly at Daphne before raising his voice deliberately.
“You saw that star rise the other night, didn’t you? Because of that, His Holiness has summoned all the cardinals. He’s terribly worried, you see.”
“……”
He said it loud enough for everyone to hear.
Sensing that nothing good would come from staying any longer, Daphne carefully bent down, making sure the blanket wrapped around her didn’t touch the ground.
“Then I’ll take my leave. May the Father’s grace be ever with you, Fathers.”
As she turned and briskly walked away, Bishop Caleb clicked his tongue in disapproval.
Gesturing with his chin toward her retreating figure heading back into the cloister, he muttered:
“It’s all their fault, isn’t it? If not for them, there wouldn’t be this uneasy air in the temple. And the cloister wouldn’t have had to be declared a restricted area.”
The prophesied saint had been interpreted as someone of high rank — anyone from a bishop to, at most, the Pope himself. That was why, whenever the three stars rose every twenty years, high-ranking clergy felt both a sense of relief and anxious tension.
There was relief that the current novices in the cloister would return to secular life without causing problems. But there was also fear — fear that if they failed to properly guide the incoming novitiates to become “true” priests, the prophecy might actually come to pass.
To become a bishop-level priest required a certain threshold of divine power. And obtaining that much holy strength was no easy feat — it often took a lifetime of training, if it was even possible at all.
Naturally, the stronger one’s divine power, the greater their responsibilities and authority within the temple. And the more irreplaceable they became as clergymen. Among them, the most exceptional by far was the man standing right here — Cardinal Theodore Valentino.
“Your Eminence, you shouldn’t remain in a place like this. Even if those ones are no longer considered part of the prophecy, their nature hasn’t changed. Do you think the cloister was made off-limits to priests for no reason? It was done to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled.”
Among the clergy, the prophecy and the purpose of the cloister were topics best avoided. But Bishop Caleb assumed it was safe to speak openly in front of Cardinal Theodore. After all, delivering punishment to sinners was among a cardinal’s many rights.
And Cardinal Theodore had never hesitated to deal harshly with priests who strayed from doctrine or abandoned the Holy Father’s teachings. Caleb believed he would be just as unforgiving to those born under the three-star sign.
But Cardinal Theodore Valentino’s reaction was not at all what Caleb had expected.
“I understand your concerns, Bishop Caleb, but those individuals are proper clerics as well. They’ve trained in devotion, offering daily prayers and sustenance to the Holy Father. It would be best to refrain from speaking ill of them.”
