30 – Core Strength

The moment she was certain that Jonny was no longer paying any attention, Helen erected a soundproof barrier around her and Igrette.

“It’s not possible,” she said.

“He’s not lying,” said Igrette immediately.

“I know,” said Helen, rubbing her temples. “But the pope should know!”

“If he does, he hasn’t told anyone.”

“But why wouldn’t he?”

“Could he be the one who left Jonny here four years ago?”

“Why in the world would he do that?”

“I have no idea.”

The two were silent for a few seconds before Helen spoke again.

“This is bad.”

“I know.”

“It’s not like he’s hard to find.”

“Right.”

“And if the pope knows, and is willfully not doing anything… Why would he do that?”

“I wish I knew.”

“Maybe he has a plan. Maybe Jonny is meant to be here for some reason.”

“What kind of plan would involve…” Igrette gestured vaguely aroud. “This?”

“The will of God is rarely understood by us mortals.”

“And the pope is a mortal too, and he would be the first to tell you as much,” said Igrette. “I think we have to consider the possibility of the worst.”

“The worst?” asked Helen nervously. “What do you mean?”

“The papacy is compromised.”

“That’s not possible either. We know the pope. You fought with him! And last I heard, he was in excellent health.”

“It’s a lot more possible than Jonny somehow getting here without the pope’s knowledge. Either the pope knows about him, and feels it’s not safe to bring him in, in which case the central church is compromised, or the pope doesn’t know, which means that he has lost the divine favor, meaning the papacy is compromised.”

“That hasn’t happened in a thousand years.”

“But it has happened.”

Helen hissed in annoyance.

“What I don’t understand is why now?” continued Igrette. “The last Demon War wasn’t that long ago. The pope is a veteran of that war. The Hero is still alive, and not likely to die any time soon. Historically, it was only after the war generation passed on that the corruption and conflict really set in. The last corrupted pope was four hundred years after the previous Demon War. And I know Pope Metrus. I spoke with him just a year ago. He’s not the type.”

“What if it’s not that?” suggested Helen. “What if this is something completely unprecedented, and Jonny arrived here some other way?”

“But why?”

“Why indeed…?”

The two sighed and watched Jonny for a minute or so.

“Either way, we need to keep this quiet,” said Igrette. “No matter what, there’s no way that word getting out can be good.”

“Right,” she said. “And we’re going to have to rethink how we deal with him. I thought he was just odd, but knowing he’s reincarnated… No wonder he never tried to befriend the other children. Can you imagine that? An adult stuck for years with only children for company, and none of the adults take you seriously? We can’t just put him right back in. But we can’t just take him out either…”

Helen furrowed her brow and stroked her chin.

“Why not?” asked Igrette.

“Where will he go? To a separate room in the orphanage? What will the other children think? Won’t that only ostracize him more? He was at least able to befriend Tommy, and some of the other children like him. And it’s not like we can let someone adopt him.”

“Ah, I see the problem.”

“It might be best to just continue what we’ve been doing. Private lessons on internal mana techniques, and maybe some more one on one time with him, so he can get used to conversing with adults again. No wonder he’s so strange… He hasn’t had a proper conversation in five years!

“As he gets older, we can start giving him some more privileges, maybe. He did have a point about going into the woods alone. Maybe not about that specifically, but about loosening restrictions, and reducing supervision. Then again, leaving him unsupervised might not actually be a good idea… Maybe—”

“Helen.”

“Do you have an idea?”

“No. Look.” Igrette pointed at Jonny.

“What is it?”

“He’s absorbing mana.”

“What?!”

Helen focused her senses in Jonny’s direction. His body was the same as usual, rejecting all mana from the atmosphere. It was actually quite odd, because he seemed like a mana void to her mana sense. It was hard to notice unless she focused closely on him, but she had long since figured out what to look for.

She opened her mouth to tell Igrette she was mistaken when she suddenly realized what he was doing. Her eyebrows shot straight up when she watched him inhale a lungful of mana and exhale nothing but mundane air.

“Since when could he do that?”

“It must be a recent development,” replied Igrette. “But I’ve never heard of anything like this.”