Could Carlo tell it was Vilka just from her outfit?
Isaac certainly couldn't. The clergy of the Church of the Golden Bough all wore the same masks, and their nun's habits were identical too. There was no telling them apart by appearance.
Or did Carlo have some special way of identifying her, such as memorizing her figure and gait, or perhaps sensing her through some supernatural means?
Carlo lowered his hand and glanced at Isaac. "Guess. Is she here to invite you to tea, or to settle accounts with you?"
Isaac was taken aback. "Settle accounts with me?"
"Look at you. You don't believe in her goddess, yet you used her goddess's prayer and borrowed her goddess's power, then dusted yourself off and walked away." Carlo spread his hands. "Isn't that a tremendous blasphemy? And now a cardinal has come to invite you to tea in person."
Isaac's mouth twitched. In theory, this was a matter that needed to be taken seriously, but Carlo made it sound so casual...
Vilka crossed the street and stopped in front of them. "Good morning, both of you."
Carlo raised an eyebrow. "You've had a lot of free time lately, Cardinal Vilka. First you spent a pound on a sightseeing dog cart, and now you're waiting to corner someone on the shopping street."
Vilka didn't respond. Seemingly ignoring Carlo's words, she tilted her head toward the street corner. "Let's talk somewhere else."
Carlo didn't object, and the three turned into an alley.
Vilka stopped and turned to face Isaac. "A moment ago, I sensed Vicania's power descend here."
She came looking for me not long after I used the prayer... Isaac weighed his words.
Considering that the mercenary Fenn was Vilka's subordinate, she might already have learned that he had used a prayer of the Church of the Golden Bough to disperse a resentful spirit at the Palmer Amorin Mansion. If he pretended not to know anything now, he would probably have a hard time getting away with it.
Before Isaac could decide how to explain, however, Carlo cut in. "So this is a serious problem."
Isaac and Vilka looked at him. Carlo shook his head. "You can tell Vicania really has no principles at all."
Isaac: "...?"
Vilka: "..."
"Other clergy spend years in arduous cultivation before finally earning the right to request a blessing. But Asa casually recited a couple of lines of prayer, and she lent him her power." Carlo sounded somewhat indignant. "Isn't that a slap in the face to the other clergy?"
"If you ask me, could Vicania be obsessed with looks? Everyone else isn't that good-looking, so she covers them with masks to spare her eyes. Then she sees that Asa's a handsome young man and becomes especially generous. Tsk, tsk. With a face like mine, could I ask the goddess for a blessing or something too?"
Isaac's gaze shifted back and forth between Carlo and Vilka. Was it really all right to slander her deity like that in front of a cardinal? Would he be wanted throughout the city the next second and then tied to a stake?
Vilka was silent for a moment. Her mask hid her expression, but she seemed to give off a dark air.
Then Isaac heard Vilka say, "Carlo Schuster."
"You suddenly used my full name..."
"If you say anything else that displeases me, I'll have no choice but to shoot your dog head off."
Her tone was flat, but her words were vicious.
But... was that really something a cardinal should say?
Isaac began to seriously consider whether he should pretend he hadn't heard or put on a shocked expression.
Carlo, on the other hand, didn't care in the least. "Touchy."
Vilka promptly drew her revolver and pressed it against Carlo's chin.
Carlo raised both hands in surrender and smacked his lips. "Hey, hey, calm down. If you blow my head apart, it'll be very inconvenient for me. Putting it back together piece by piece is a real hassle, after all."
"It's all right. I can help chop it up and feed it to the dogs."
"You're a cardinal, at least. Don't be so violent. If the pope sees you, he'll start nagging you again."
"The Holy See won't see."
"Then should I go tell on you?"
"And even leaving the pope aside, think how bad it would look if the believers saw. Look, you've frightened Asa."
Isaac stood to one side, staring at the scene in stunned silence, unsure what to think.
Boss, are you some kind of extraordinary person, chatting and laughing with a gun pointed at your chin? Or Cardinal Vilka, are you really this kind of person...?
He tried to smooth things over. "Um..."
Neither paid him any attention. Vilka's gun didn't budge. "As for the effect on believers, your blasphemous words have a hundred times worse an effect. If believers had heard what you just said, how do you think they would feel?"
"So you admit your behavior has a very bad effect too."
"You blasphemed Vicania first."
"I merely stated a possibility. If Vicania really takes offense, then she's not only obsessed with looks, but also petty."
Isaac tried once again to ease the tension. "Cardinal Vilka, about my borrowing Vicania's power just now-"
Vilka snorted coldly and withdrew her revolver. She took a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped the gun, then glanced at Carlo. "If I hear similar remarks from you again, I'll shoot you on the spot. I won't waste words with you."
"Don't worry. Next time I'll say it when you're not around." Carlo used his raised hands to straighten his collar, then lowered them. "Tsk, but look how frightening you are. You scared Asa into changing the subject by bringing up what he did."
Isaac: "..."
To be honest, in front of these two, he suddenly felt that his own "blasphemy" was nothing worth mentioning.
Vilka turned to Isaac. "Isaac Lessing."
"Yes." Isaac responded instinctively.
"As a nonbeliever, you have acted on your own authority in Vicania's name. Twice."
Isaac chose his words carefully. "Cardinal Vilka, although I'm not a believer of the Church of the Golden Bough, on those two occasions..."
"I know you're not a believer," Vilka interrupted. "Performing clerical duties without consecration is overstepping, and a nonbeliever invoking a deity's name is blasphemy. But Vicania answered your prayer, which means she has acknowledged you. Since the goddess has granted her permission, the church will not hold you accountable."
Isaac breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's what I was saying about Vicania..." Carlo said from the side.
Vilka raised her revolver and waved it again. Carlo shrugged, and Vilka smoothly slipped the revolver back into the holster inside her nun's habit.
The holster was carefully positioned; its outline was almost invisible beneath the loose habit. But judging by how quickly Vilka had just drawn her gun, she had clearly received professional training.
"You will not be held accountable for your actions, but remember this." She spoke to Isaac. "You must not overstep within Vicania's sanctuaries, nor may you personally conduct rituals that require divine power when clergy are present. You have no faith, yet you borrow divine grace. That shows contempt for the clergy present."
Isaac nodded. It meant he couldn't demonstrate these abilities in a church or monastery in front of clergy. That was a reasonable demand.
Moreover, behind the demand was essentially permission: as long as he was not at an official church event or in the presence of clergy, he was tacitly allowed to request divine grace from Vicania at other times.
For the church, this was quite a tolerant attitude.