act16side

That's right.

Is that your answer to both of those questions?

We aren't familiar. We're nemeses.

But don't you worry. I won't take it out on Cecelia. I don't really understand what was going on with her this morning... but she's still a kid.

What about you? You stayed there for two whole days. Did Andoain say anything to you?

Just a bunch of heretical nonsense.

I suggest you forget all of it, then.

You still have your whole life ahead of you, right?

Go home and take a couple days off, then keep up with your good work at the Notarial Hall. You are pretty qualified for the job if you ask me.

Cherish your life, you know? Life in Laterano is precious. Even I look back on it fondly sometimes.

My life...

Right, unlike them, I'm just a regular nobody.

Okay, let's clock out!

The Pontifica Cohors have taken over the border checkpoints, and the Apostolic Knights are keeping an eye out for us too. We won't be making it out anytime soon... We have a safehouse, but still...

I can't get in touch with Oren either... Dammit!

No matter. We can wait.

Cecelia?

Do you regret your decision?

I don't know...

But if I went with Miss Fiammetta... she would've taken me... to the Basilica, right?

I still haven't figured out... my goodbye to Mamma.

It's okay, Cecelia. You still have lots of time to think.

Mister Friar... There was a lady with horns and a halo in the Ecclesia Requietum just now... Is she... a Sankta?

Maybe. Maybe not. It's up to her to decide.

I thought... Sankta are Sankta?

That's true for most of us.

But some people get to choose. Or perhaps I should say they don't have a choice but to choose, because of some... unfortunate circumstance.

Incidentally, you too have to choose, Cecelia. As for whether that is fortunate or not... no one can tell.

Can't the Sankta be with the Sarkaz?

Of course they can. You are the living proof.

But... I'm causing everyone a lot of trouble, right?

Even Mister Ezell...

If you're always worrying about everything, you won't get anything done.

People will always fight. Neither 'gentleness' nor 'understanding' can stop that.

A lot of times, when people fight, it's not because one side is right and one side is wrong. It's because the things that both sides have to do conflict with each other.

In other words, the things that you and I need to do are different, and that means we're in somebody else's way.

Why can't we go the same way together?

Because, for a lot of people, the path that they take is determined by the path itself.

For example, the Sankta and the Sarkaz. No one can say why the two sides fought each other at first, but the hatred between them has paved the road for everyone.

Can't we choose our own path?

We can, Cecelia, but it's not that simple. If you want to leave the path you are on and find a new path forward, you must first make your way through a boundless wilderness...

It's vast and empty there. You might never find that new path, even if you give up everything you've ever known.

Then... why do we still have to look?

Right... why do we have to look?

Maybe it's because that's what we want.

'What we want...' Is that so important?

It's the only thing we still have.

Mister Friar... Can I ask a question?

Go ahead.

What is it that you want?

Cecelia, can I tell you a little story?

Sure, Mister Friar. Go ahead.

Many years ago, when I was still young, I ran into some... setbacks, and then I left.

Where did you go?

Anywhere. I traveled everywhere.

There was a place I stayed for a while. It was a very small town, and it felt a little like my hometown.

But it was even more run-down. Life was tough for everyone there.

(Huh? That doesn't sound like Laterano...)

Once, I passed by the town's pub and came across a humming drunkard. He threw up all over me and insisted that I'd tripped him, and that I should pay for his drink.

Everyone in the pub... no, everyone in town laughed at him and cursed at him.

Those who were scared of him avoided him. Everyone called him a dirty, filthy moron, a lowlife, a sick scumbag... He was a Sarkaz.

They never chased him out of the town, however. He kept living from one day to the next, doing little odd jobs.

Then, on one windy, rainy night, a night when no one would go outside, the church's bell started to ring. It was an alarm, and it woke everyone up... There were... some bad people in town.

It was lucky that the bells woke everyone. It was hard, but we chased the bad people away. No one knew who rang the bells, and we all thought it was a miracle...

I headed in the direction of the bell tower and reached the wastes beyond. There, I found the church watchman digging a grave. Next to him was a cart, and in it a thin coffin, with the Sarkaz drunkard inside, wounded all over.

I started to help digging. The watchman kept complaining as he dug. He said he was saving the casket for his mother and it was a waste to give it to a Sarkaz. Then he complained that he'd have to bury the sick Sarkaz...

The watchman said that, not long after the bells started ringing, the Sarkaz came and knocked on his door, telling him to run, before the man died at his doorstep.

The watchman said that since he saw it was about to rain, he couldn't bear seeing the Sarkaz man sleep out in the streets, and so he let him into the bell tower for the night.

He kept complaining and kept digging. Then, when he was finished, he stood in front of the grave and sang a song that the drunkard always used to sing, even though he didn't remember how the second half went.

In the end, he complained a little more, and poured half a bottle on the grave.

The winds through hills on high...♪ Tail the hero's farflung stride...♪ Over long ways long...♪ Over briars and thorns...♪

Sorry, I don't remember it either.

That's... the song that Mamma and Rosella taught me...

So... the Sarkaz man rang the bell?

I think he did.

So he was the hero that saved everyone?

Maybe. I don't know if someone like him can be called a hero, but I think most people probably wouldn't want to call him one.

Maybe he was just trying to help the watchman who helped him.

What about you, Mister Friar? Do you think he was a hero?

What is a hero, Cecelia?

I thought about it for a long time... but I know that the answer to this question doesn't tell us who the Sarkaz man was. Rather, it tells us who I am.

I don't think he himself climbed up the bell tower to be a hero.

But it doesn't matter if we sing his praises, look at him with scorn, or even forget about him. None of that changes anything about him anymore.

All the questions that I pondered have nothing to do with him. Only me. Why did I witness this? What does it mean to me? How is it going to guide me forward?

It is always the living who are questioned.

But I kept thinking and thinking, what if he didn't do what he did?

What if he did it, but led the fanatics... the bad people to the bell tower?

What if the townspeople couldn't fend the bad people off even after they got woken up?

And what if... what if he even died on the bell tower, and no one ever found him?

There are no guaranteed successes, and there are no choices that are certain to be right.

So I came to this conclusion. On that rainy night, he climbed up the bell tower because he wanted to.

It's the most straightforward conclusion, out of somewhat stubborn goodwill.

Whether that's true or not doesn't concern him.

He was a hero, no different from the hero in the song.

The winds through hills on high...♪ Tail the hero's farflung stride...♪

Over long ways long...♪ Over briars and thorns...♪

Everyone starts humming the song.

Their quiet singing drifts throughout the room.

I feel peace.

In this Lateran evening.