Chapter 3: Jam, Tea, and Chaos Serpents

"My, Miss Rafina! These cookies are absolutely delicious!" exclaimed Mia after taking a bite.

Whatever ill premonitions she may have had were quickly forgotten in the face of tasty sweets. Mia, after all, was not one to dwell. It was one of her virtues. Or maybe one of her vices. It was hard to tell sometimes.

"Are they now? I'm glad you like them," said Rafina, bringing her hands together in an enthusiastic clap. She smiled pointedly before continuing. "By the way, about that Jem fellow you sent here to be placed under my care... I'd just like you to know that I've been taking very good care of him. As you instructed, I've been giving him daily lectures."

The poor man. Mia took a sip from her cup to hide a smirk. Hah. Serves him right.

The thought that she'd seen the last of Jem's despicable face made her all the smugger, and she relished the moment as the savory aroma of black tea filled her nose.

Ahhh, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I feel better already. Silly me, thinking something seemed off. There's nothing wrong here.

Seeing the satisfied grin on Mia's face, Rafina gave a knowing nod.

"Aha, so you did indeed know about who he was working for. I expected nothing less from you, Mia."

...Huh? Who's working for who now?

Fortunately for Mia, Sion spoke up, drawing everyone's attention away from the clueless expression on her face.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Miss Rafina. The perpetrators were all my own people. They belonged to Sunkland's spy agency."

"Indeed, they were Wind Crows. White Crows, to be exact. Sunkland's premier specialists in information warfare." Rafina smiled. "All of whom were upstanding, purehearted people."

"Upstanding and... purehearted..."

Even Sion lifted an eyebrow at that. Those were not the kind of adjectives usually associated with spies.

"All except Jem," continued Rafina, pointedly keeping her tone light and playful, "who was a little different. Everyone else was quite happy to listen to me read from the scriptures, but Jem didn't seem to appreciate it at all. He reacted rather negatively to my sermons."

"Rather negatively?"

"Yes. His antagonism seemed quite visceral."

That made Mia curious. All of the nations in this region were part of a single prevailing religious sphere centered around the Holy Principality of Belluga, which was the home of the Central Orthodox Church. Their morality and beliefs were based on the Holy Book of Belluga, and while the particulars inevitably differed from individual to individual, the overarching value system was deeply embedded within the vast majority of people living here. Therefore, while Rafina's lectures could certainly bore her audience through the tedium of familiarity, they shouldn't elicit such a strong sense of antipathy — especially from spies, whose work demanded a great deal of pragmatism. It was entirely possible that they weren't even religious to begin with, in which case a young girl's sermons on morality should simply enter one ear and leave straight out the other. Jem, meanwhile...

"In fact, he seemed to be gripped by panic," Rafina added.

The religious should welcome her lectures. The secular could feign interest or, should that require more effort than they could muster, display overt apathy. To be incapable of even ignoring her suggested a belief in an opposing faith. In other words...

"Oh no... Is he... a demoniac?" asked Tiona, her voice a fearful whisper.

The question caught Rafina off guard, and she blinked the surprise out of her eyes before saying, "Ah. Right. I suppose there are such people."

God was opposed by an entity known as the Archdaemon, and lower-ranking demons in its service could possess people and cause them to act maliciously. Those under such malevolent influence were known as demoniacs. In Belluga, people called exorcists were tasked with handling the victims of possession.

"To my knowledge, demoniacs don't act like he does. They thrash about like wild beasts. Cerebral undertakings such as gathering accomplices to plot conspiracies seem to be beyond them. That's why I suspect that whatever is fueling Jem's actions is something else entirely."

"Something else, huh..." said Abel, joining the conversation with a serious expression. As a victim of the plot in Remno, the culprit's true identity was of great relevance to him. "Judging by your tone, Miss Rafina, it sounds like you already know who or what this something else is."

Meanwhile, his trans-dimensional counterpart, Mia, who'd played his role in the previous timeline, was preoccupied by thoughts of jam. Having discovered a jar of it on the table, she had been eagerly awaiting the chance to add it to her tea and had little mental capacity left for its phonemic cousin. Mia preferred jam over Jem.

Ahhh, I thought this tea would go great with wild strawberry jam, and I was right. In fact, it tastes even better than I expected.

The rest of her companions continued discussing the far more serious topic of Jem.

"You're absolutely correct, Prince Abel. I do indeed have my suspicions already, and it's not demoniacs. I believe the threat we face is far more grounded in the material world."

"And what do you mean by that?"

Rafina paused for a moment to take an elegant sip of her tea before declaring in a quiet but potent voice, "A group of destruction-seeking vandals who are a menace to Belluga, the Central Orthodox Church, and quite possibly the whole world. They are a secret society that has been operating in the shadows throughout history, and they are known as the Chaos Serpents."

She spoke their name with a rare grimace, as though the very sound of it disgusted her.

"Chaos Serpents... The name is foreign to my ears. Are they some sort of demonic cult, then?" asked Sion with a frown.

The worship of the Archdaemon or its subservient demons was hardly unheard of, and there was a constant cycle of heretical cults popping up, only to be shunned by the populace before fading away into obscurity. At Sion's question, however, some hesitancy entered Rafina's voice.

"Probably... Unfortunately, the particulars of their doctrine remain a mystery. In fact, nothing is known about them except two things. The first is that they hate the Holy Book of our God, from which we can infer that they likely worship the Archdaemon." She took a moment to look around, meeting the gazes of everyone present before continuing. "The second... is that their goal is the complete destruction of all man-made order. The latter, while less theologically significant, is in my opinion a far more concrete threat."

"The destruction of order..." echoed Sion, his tone matching her in graveness. "Care to elaborate?"

"Of all order. Nations, laws, cultures and academics... Everything up to and including the peaceful mundanity of our everyday lives."

Abel looked incredulous — and for good reason — as he considered the implications of this ideology when pushed to its logical conclusion.

"These people sound like they'd be the enemy of all nations. Hell, the enemy of humanity as a whole. Are you telling me there are people this dangerous in the world, and everyone just lets them be?"

"Of course not. We certainly haven't been letting them be. However, they are everywhere. They could be a noble or a merchant, a peasant or an official. Send out an army to stamp out heretics, and you might later discover the commander was one of them," said Rafina, shaking her head as she let out a sigh that contained a bit too much frustration for her examples to be entirely theoretical. "They have embedded themselves within our nations, melting into our society and hiding amongst us with incredible cunning. I suppose you could say they're almost like spies, though I must admit I never expected to find one of them working as the real thing."

They could be anywhere and anyone, and there was no way to tell, making it exceedingly difficult to weed them out.

"And when it comes to Demon-worshiping cults, normally, their members live together at some shrine or temple," said Sion, thinking out loud as he continued her train of thought. "Sometimes, they can gather in large numbers and engage in hostile dissent, causing damage to nearby villages, but... I see. Whereas their tendency to congregate makes it easy to stamp them out, the elusiveness of these Serpents makes them a far more troublesome foe, which means... Ah. Of course. So that's why we're seated here today. Having already acted in direct opposition to a Serpent, you knew for certain that we were not among them."

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Rafina nodded with satisfaction. "Thank you, Prince Sion. It's so very nice to know we're all on the same page."

Then, she turned to Mia, who immediately felt all her sweat glands go into overdrive.

Huh? Why is she— Uh oh, this is one of those "I have no idea what's going on but I'm definitely not allowed to ask" situations, isn't it?

Mia's cowardly instincts promptly sounded the alarms in her head. Sadly, it was too late to be of any use. From the moment she chose to attend this tea party, or maybe even the moment she suggested shipping Jem off to Rafina to avoid having to deal with him, her fate had been sealed; she was already a part of this.

What has any of this got to do with me? How come she called me here too? Maybe she just wanted to keep us updated on what's going on with Jem. That has to be it, right? She's only telling us all this so we get the full picture.

This is just her padding things out with background information and has absolutely nothing to do with me specifically.

Holding on to what she knew was a thin sliver of hope, she looked back at Rafina, who smiled at her.

"I'm sure this will come as no surprise to you, Mia, but do allow me to indulge in a bit of formalities..." she said before clearing her throat. "I, Rafina Orca Belluga, formally request your aid in establishing a united front against the Chaos Serpents, as well as your participation in its efforts to counter their activities!"