Awakening Moment/Champagne

## Eye of Truth

File:Sprite-Moment of Awakening Champagne.png

"We cannot."

Champagne sat on the throne, his tone resolute, leaving not even an inch of room for a rebuttal.

Fondant Cake let out a light sigh, but very quickly, she opened her mouth again with a determined look in her eye.

"Your Majesty, the Gloriville royal family has already publicly abandoned the island of Sicilee. This is a request their local church has sent to us. If our church can oblige, the empire will surely gain international acclaim, and those refugees on the island will have a place to go to. Isn't that killing two birds with one stone?"

--I should've known. When has she ever been persuaded so easily?

Champagne put his chin in his hand and leaned back in the chair, hiding the smirk on his lips before nonchalantly saying:

"Those islanders infected by Flower of Evil are already beyond saving. I cannot expose my own country's people to the threat of widespread infection just to prolong their lives temporarily."

"They won't infect others. I'll be very careful in caring for them! Your Majesty, you need only give them a quarantine space--"

“Enough, Miss Priestess." Champagne cut off Fondant Cake, adding, "Do as I say. Write a gently-worded rejection letter to their church. You have done your duty. There is no need to discuss this matter."

Fondant Cake looked at Champagne's proud demeanor, balling her fists tightly and struggling to hold back her rage.

Champagne pretended like he didn't notice and took out a pocket watch to check the time.

"I have an important meeting with my minister. If there is nothing else, then you may go."

"--Champagne! You've gone too far!"

Fondant Cake shouted angrily.

Champagne froze.

--What did she just call me?

Ever since Fondant Cake came to live in the palace, even though they often butted heads on all kinds of political matters, at least in the way they spoke to each other, they always maintained a level of respect and deference.

Your Majesty, Miss Priestess... It seemed like this way, no matter how contentious the words that came after these appellations, in the end there was still some room to maneuver.

It was like the relationship between them, a partnership that was always polite and civil.

Champagne always thought this was only right and natural, with nothing wrong about it, that is until--

"You're always like this! Always! Could it be that I'm just a symbolic figure to you that lets you sit on your throne feeling perfectly justified?"

"...Hey!"

Watching Fondant Cake leave in a rage, Champagne got up, wanting to call her back. But having just been called by his own name, he suddenly couldn't bring himself to say the words "Miss Priestess". However, just yelling out "Fondant Cake" also seemed somewhat too undignified...

And so, all he could do was yelp out a gruff "Hey". Although, seeing Fondant Cake quicken her pace as she left, it was clear that this brusque attempt at getting her attention only added fuel to the fire.

"Hmph. I was just being matter-of-fact, that's all. When did I ever say anything of the sort?! Pesky woman! Who knows what's going through her mind!"

Champagne suppressed the troubles that were tumbling in his mind.

"Heh-heh." Suddenly, a snicker sounded from a corner of the palace.

Champagne turned his head and strode toward the place where the sound came from.

"Lou, your area of supervision includes me now?"

A long-haired man walked slowly out from the corner, with an indifferent smile on his lips and a scepter in both hands.

"Apologies, Your Majesty. I just happened to be in the area."

Without a word, Champagne strode over to Lou's side, took the scepter, then walked over to a wall and channeled his spirit power into the scepter.

A light golden spirit power flowed from the top of the scepter like fine wine, pouring into the wall. Soon, a golden eye design emerged before them. The eye scanned over them, and after verifying their identities, a hole opened in the wall, revealing a space within.

It was a large conference room, with eight chairs placed around a round table.

Champagne sat in the main seat, and Lou sat across from him, placing a gift box upon the table.

Champagne: "Alright, start."

Lou nodded. He pulled open the ribbon on the box and pushed it to the center of the conference table. In a moment, the box opened by itself, and a ray of light shone out of it, projecting a person's image.

"Your Majesty, Instructor Lou, long time no see. In this communique, I will relate to you the most recent developments on the island of Sicilee."

The person in the projection was none other than Sachertorte, an inspector in Midgar's inspection agency "Eye of Horus".

Practically no one knew that the behind-the-scenes organizer of the Food Soul inspection agency "Eye of Horus" was actually Champagne.

On the surface, they have long dealt with cases in Midgar arising among humans, Food Souls, and Fallen Angels. But in reality, they have all the while been working for Champagne, investigating clues into an organization called "Ark".

"As you might expect, not long after the Flower of Evil incident occurred, the royal family of Gloriville broke off all contact with the island. However, before that, as per your orders, Eye of Horus got to the island first and saved a group of survivors, then settled them in an old church in Midgar to quarantine. That church is being guarded by the powerful Food Soul Cookie. It will not be discovered by humans."

The hologram of Sachertorte recounted these facts with a reserved calm.

"In our communications with the survivors, they told us that the reason the royal family abandoned Sicilee was because they wanted to cover up a secret. Dozens of years ago, the residents of Sicilee collectively sold Food Souls to a secret organization under the Gloriville royal family's control in exchange for plentiful development resources."

Upon hearing this, Champagne's expression grew alert.

"...Trafficking all the same."

"Moreover, these residents informed us, the perpetrator of this Flower of Evil infestation was a Food Soul that was sold out of Sicilee back then, doing it for revenge. His name is Minestrone. As it just so happens, we have crossed paths with Minestrone several times before. We know that his spirit is broken, and that he exhibits characteristics similar to that of the Fallen."

"Piecing together reports from the residents of Sicilee, I suspect Minestrone has undergone some kind of modification, and that this organization and the Gloriville royals are connected, very possibly the very same "Ark" that we have been after all along."

……

The light from the box disappeared, and it flew back onto Lou's hand.

"Tell Sacher, keep investigating at full force. If there is any need of funds or equipment, I will take care of it."

"...Very well." Lou replied warmly. "Well then, that concludes the report. Your Majesty, if there is nothing else to discuss, I'll be on my way."

Champagne waved a hand, and Lou turned and left.

"...Lou," Champagne suddenly called out to him

Lou turned back, a bit uncertain.

"Is there something else, Your Majesty?"

"I very much trust you, but I'd like to once again stress... the confidentiality of this matter."

A flash of understanding immediately showed across Lou's face. He laughed and said, "Don't worry. I don't usually have dealings with Miss Priestess, and I won't go seeking out her company in the future."

"Pff, I never said that this was about her!"

"I understand. I also won't actively avoid her, so as to not arouse her suspicion."

"I said that's not what I meant!"

Champagne looked at the innocent and puzzled look on Lou's face, knowing full well that his counterpart was merely teasing him. He waved his hand agitatedly, shooing away this mischievous minister.

Now only Champagne was left in the deserted secret room.

He ran his fingers over the scepter in his hand. There was no sunlight anywhere, only candlelight illuminating this room.

But he was well accustomed to that.

Just as this world contained not only the light, as a ruler, Champagne had to master not only one way of doing things. He was also responsible for plumbing the depths of the darkness.

And that was something that a creature of the light such as Fondant Cake need not know about.

Back then, Champagne took the royal scepter of this empire from the hands of the general, making this empire the first country to be ruled by a Food Soul.

For a time, international relations were an ever-changing landscape. In addition to maintaining stability internally, he had to deal with the myriad international diplomatic relations and do all he could to establish essential partnerships between the empire and those human nations.

Fortunately with the help of Fondant Cake, through the Church in which so many have a shared faith, the empire in its infancy was able to navigate safely the dangerous waters of diplomacy. It then established new diplomatic relations with the various countries.

However, during this period, there was one enormous allied organization that flatly refused to cooperate with Champagne's empire the entire time.

That organization was none other than "Ark".

"Ark" is an international charitable organization with a sterling reputation among human nations. Its establishment can be traced back to the end of the Elven Age, at the very beginning of human history.

When the first large wave of Fallen Angels appeared in this world, some humans took it as a sign of the end times. The largest human nation at the time, "Gloriville" led the way in initiating the "Ark" plan, attempting to assemble the forces of every nation and establish a last line of defense for human civilization.

When Champagne took the reigns of the empire, the Ark organization had already been developing in this world for a thousand years. Through all the successive governments during that time, no one had ever heard of Ark completely severing relations with any one country.

And so, Champagne felt it was a bit odd. When he finally dug into the royal archives and read in detail what this organization had done in the past, he realized that a large amount of documents had been tampered with, and the members of Ark in his own country were already gone without a trace.

Not only that, in further investigations, he also discovered that the bizarre deaths of some Cooking Attendants, the fall of Food Souls, or the disappearance of old cases all had some murky connection with the Ark organization.

All of these fishy phenomena had occurred in the past one hundred years.

During this period, the supreme authority of Ark was none other than the House of Clemens of Gloriville.

In order to ascertain what Ark was actually doing behind the scenes and determine if they were harming the existence of Food Souls, Champagne deployed an investigation squad led by Sachertorte to the capital of Gloriville, Midgar.