Children of the Holy Emperor Chapter 464

464. Remarks (4)

From the day she witnessed the meeting between the abbot and the suspicious guest, Dasha began going in and out of his office secretly. He was trying to find evidence to accuse the director.

“Dasha, let’s stop now. What are you going to do if you get caught? “Anyway, I need you to know one big thing about me.”

Of course, Ramira’s stubbornness, who followed her saying she would watch over her, was formidable.

The girls walked quietly through the hallways until they reached the deserted main building of the monastery.

“But the doors are all locked?”

“You can pick it. Ramira, give me a skewer there.”

“swimming… . “Where did you learn all these tricks?”

“It’s not a structure where there are things you need to learn. “The locks at this monastery are all simple.”

After grabbing a hungry stomach and robbing a few grocery warehouses, you can become a master at picking keys.

Ramira shook her head.

“Wow, what are you planning to become later?”

“Now you’re talking about something else on a topic we shared well together.”

Creak.

The locked door opens with a heavy friction sound, and the view of the office, which is unusually splendid for a monastery, comes into view.

While Ramira was distracted by the beautiful decorations, Dasha quickly walked up to the abbot’s desk and began shuffling through the papers.

“But Dasha, what are you looking for there? “Can you read?”

“Roughly. “Father Ellison reads the scriptures every Mass.”

“Huh… … .”

Ramira gaped.

Should we be surprised by the priest’s ability to match words with his pronunciation, or should we be surprised by his ability to distinguish dense scriptural letters from a considerable distance?

Meanwhile, Dasha was diligently looking through the materials, using the faint moonlight as a light.

“hmm… … .”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t as much content to salvage as I thought. It was not because the abbot was a more honest person than expected. Ridiculously, the abbot was so lazy and unplanned that he did not even keep separate ledgers.

It was so outrageous that there was not even a proper list of orphans being cared for at the monastery or records of their moving in and out.

‘… What should I do with this? ‘There is nothing to complain about other than the poor use of donations.’

Of course, how the donations are used is entirely at the discretion of the abbot. There was a high possibility that the church would not make a big issue of it.

‘Is the only way to report the abbot to the Heresy Tribunal?’

But it was no different from suicide. Even if the inquisitors accepted Dasha’s testimony as credible, there was a high possibility that she, too, would be handed over to the heresy trial on the grounds that the source of her information was questionable.

It was a week of going in and out of the director’s office without much gain.

One day, a bunch of documents caught Dasha’s eye.

‘Oh, this is…’ … .’

It was the measurement data of the monastery fields sent by Lord Dunstan to the abbot.

In the Dunstan Territory, the area of ​​the fields was measured every two years by order of the lord, and upon closer inspection, the figures showed a clear trend of decreasing over the past 10 years.

‘good. If this is… … !’

Dasha unfolded the hem of her previously torn clothes and quickly began to copy the contents of the ledger.

* * *

Although evidence of corruption was somehow found, reporting it was another matter.

Not only is it unclear whether people will believe Dasha’s words, but it also wouldn’t look good for an orphan under the monastery’s care to directly report the director who has received favor.

If so, it would be best to hand over the information to a trustworthy person, sow suspicion, and have him investigate the abbot himself.

After observing the priests for a long time, Dasha was finally able to pick out one person he could trust. He had recently moved here for a rotational shift, and was a straight-looking man who didn’t particularly flirt with the abbot.

“Priest Gustav.”

One day, not long before the feast day of St. Bastian. Dasha cautiously approached him while the priests were busy preparing for the mass.

“… Yes, honey. “What’s going on here?”

Priest Gustav seemed a little embarrassed, but fortunately, he waited quietly as the skinny Barshain orphan girl approached.

“Well, actually, I saw something strange while I was cleaning Director Mathieu’s room.”

“wonderment?”

“Yes, that’s why I wrote it here to ask the priests.”

“… … .”

He took the piece of cloth that Dasha held out with slightly narrowed eyes. Perhaps it was because he immediately saw that the child was hiding impure intentions by pretending to be innocent.

However, just because he did not immediately throw away the charcoal-covered piece of cloth, his personality was worthy of praise.

“… “Where did this come from?”

Priest Gustav, who had been looking at the crooked letters for a while, finally asked in a calm voice.

In fact, no matter how hard she racked her brain, there was no good excuse for this, so Dasha answered while trying to look as harmless as possible.

“Well, I happened to see it while I was cleaning the director’s bookshelf. It had the lord’s emblem engraved on it, so it caught my eye. But the numbers written there are strange… … .”

“… … .”

“The priest, as you can see, it keeps getting smaller, doesn’t it? “Why is that like that?”

Priest Gustav looked at Dasha for a moment as if assessing something. Long bangs messyly covering the girl’s face, and bright emerald eyes shining through them.

“How old are you, kid?”

“Ah, eight… “Salt?”

“Yes, you must have never had a chance to learn anywhere, but you can read letters and numbers. You are truly a bright child for your age.”

He seemed complimentary at first glance, but in Dasha’s experience, it didn’t bode well.

“But you’re still too young to get involved in adult matters. My child, do you know why Lord Dunstan measures the land so often?”

“… yes?”

“Do you know that the method of measuring land and the scale that serves as the standard for measurement are constantly changing?”

“… … .”

Dasha could not help but be speechless.

The area of ​​the same land changes depending on the measurement method? I had never even thought that such a thing was possible.

“okay. So, it’s no wonder that these numbers look strange to your eyes.”

Priest Gustav folded the cloth neatly and returned it to Dasha.

Of course, it is true that the area of ​​rice paddies that is decreasing all at once is highly questionable.

However, there was no way for him to determine now whether the area had decreased due to the changed measurement method, or whether the abbot had really taken advantage of this and sold the church’s property.

“Anyway, I don’t think it’s something to raise an issue right away. Still, I’d like to say something to the senior priest. “Anyway, there will be a large-scale church audit around next year, so everything will be clearly revealed by then.”

“but… … !”

When things didn’t go as planned, Dasha became anxious.

Next year is too late! Just yesterday, Peter, covered in freckles, and two new pretty girls disappeared. If this continues, we can no longer guarantee the safety of not only ourselves, but also the safety of ugly Ramira.

So Dyasha-

“Priest, help me!”

He had no choice but to bring up an extremely primitive method that he had previously denied. He was holding on to the priest’s collar without restraint.

“In fact, children from orphanages are disappearing every day! Did you know? Everyone is hissing, but in fact, there is a rumor going around that most of those children were sold to the red-light district!”

“Wait a minute, what do you mean… … .”

“Of course, the priests at the monastery probably don’t know much about the circumstances of the orphanage. “There are no records of children coming in and out, and even the names of those who came in are not kept properly!”

Perhaps it was because of her anger toward herself for being helpless, but Dasha’s eyes began to fill with tears.

“But there’s no way the priests who manage the orphanage wouldn’t know, right? Even though those bad people know all the facts, they are pretending not to know, just looking at the thoughts of the abbot! Now the only people you can trust are circulating priests from elsewhere! So please, please help us!”

“… … .”

“These are not empty words! I heard it clearly with my own ears. Director Mathieu himself said that children are being handed over to red-light districts or underground cults… … !”

“Hey.”

From Father Gustav’s suddenly cold gaze, Dasha realized that she had gone too far over the line in her haste.

“You have just dishonored Director Mathieu and all the priests who look after you. “Even though they are faithful priests who have sworn to follow the will of the Lord throughout their lives.”

“Well, I… … !”

“Okay, let’s just say that what you say is actually true. “Do you have any evidence to prove it?”

“… … !”

It was a harsh reality, but Dasha quickly came to terms with her situation. How could she accuse her priests without any solid evidence? He would have been grateful if Father Gustav had not immediately told the abbot about the arrogant orphan’s atrocities.

“What on earth is this, even bringing in underground religious denominations? If you say something like that again in the future, you will no longer be forgiven just because you are young. Do you understand?”

“… Yes, I understand. “I’m really sorry for disturbing you when you were busy.”

Dasha looked at him blankly for a moment, then resigned herself and politely greeted him. And she quickly ran out of the place. It felt like I would burst out crying uncontrollably if I stayed there even for a moment longer.

Priest Gustav looked at the back of the girl with tired eyes for a moment and then turned around.

And in the future, he would regret what happened that day for a long time.

* * *

Several months have passed since then.

Eventually, the rotational priests’ period of service came to an end, and Priest Gustav quietly left the monastery. It was inevitable that Dasha was completely discouraged.

“Cheer up, Dasha. It doesn’t have to be that priest, right? “Let’s find a good person among the new priests.”

Dasha sighed deeply at the comfort that was not Ramira’s.

“Is that going to work? “At least Father Gustav listened to me, but other people hate orphans like us talking to them.”

Dasha wasn’t just playing around either. I constantly went in and out of the abbot’s room to find information to persuade Priest Gustav. I found and reviewed every single document and even a single piece of scribble.

However, Director Mathieu was not a great person to carefully organize messy materials in the first place.

‘It’s a big deal. Should I just take the opportunity and run away… … .’

But even if you run away, where will you go? Is there any place other than an orphanage or a red-light district where you can get even a rotten potato?

No matter how hard you think about it, the future that comes to mind is only bleak. That was when Dasha lowered her head in despair.

“Dasha.”

Ramira shook Dasha’s shoulder.

“Look, that lady is here again.”

I raised my head and looked at the direction she pointed to, and there I saw a young woman wandering around the orphanage with a small baby in her arms. She is a rather pretty-looking woman with lots of freckles on her face.

“Who is that?”

“The village gravedigger’s wife. “Recently, they always come to the orphanage at this time.”

While Dasha was busy thinking about how to oust the abbot, the gravedigger’s wife seemed to be visiting the orphanage every day.

And she stares intently at each of the boys’ faces and returns home only after the sun has set.

“why?”

“I heard that he left his son here for some reason. Then, not long ago, I took a job as a graveyard worker, and I was finally able to make ends meet, so I came to pick up my child… … .”

After saying that, Ramira closed her mouth with a complicated expression on her face.

Dasha could quickly guess the reason, it wasn’t that it wasn’t-

“When I look at those freckles, I somehow think of Peter… … .”

“As expected, that woman resembles Peter in some way, doesn’t she?”

The two who opened their mouths at the same time closed their mouths like clams. This is because Peter was the child who disappeared from here a few months ago.

Whether she was sold to a red-light district or handed over to an underground cult somewhere, there would be no way for that woman to get Peter back if she found out his whereabouts now.

“… What should I do? Should I tell that woman the truth?”

“Say what? Your son was probably sold off to the red-light district? Hey, that’s so cruel.”

“But are you just watching me look for you like that?”

“… A.C.”

The two people looked at the woman pacing around with her back to the sunset with confused expressions for a while.

* * *

That night.

Dasha secretly woke up like any other day and hid in the abbot’s room.

However, when she picked the lock and entered the room without thinking, she was immediately startled. This is because a passenger I had never seen before was standing under the window where the bright moonlight was shining.

“I think it’s too late for a child to be walking around.”

“… … !”

The boy, who had been shuffling papers with his back to the door, looks back at her with a light thump. He was a boy whose silent movements and white face looked like a mirage.

Dasha looked up at him with wide eyes.

‘what? It was obviously locked. How on earth did you get in here? ‘Could it be a ghost?’

Maybe it really is a ghost. His complexion under the moonlight was too pale to be considered a living person.

The reason Dasha did not reflexively scream was probably because the boy had a fairly neat and upright appearance for an evil spirit.

The same goes for the strangely calm air that surrounds him.

“Who are you?”

As he opened his mouth in a trembling voice, the boy moved his still hands and flipped through the documents.

“I received a request. “I was asked to properly investigate Abbot Mathieu’s corruption, so I was searching his room first.”

“… Request? “Who is it?”

“well. “It’s probably someone you know well.”

widely.

The boy, who closed the document loudly, soon focused his gaze directly on Dasha. In the dark room, the boy’s bright gray eyes glowed with a strange silver color.

“Anyway, I guess you are the collaborator the client mentioned.”

“… yes?”

“The priest who commissioned me said so. If you find a smart Barça girl here, she will probably be able to explain her situation well.”

“… … !”

I’m not a Barçaite, and such a protest never occurred to me.

Dasha shouted at the boy, unable to hide her surprise and joy.

“Father Gustav! “Priest Gustav sent you here!”

fantasy,