"You lost because you belittled him as powerless. My blade, of all six elements together, will slice your soul apart." Julius Euclius, during the final showdown with the archbishop of Sloth in Elior forest.
Chapter 3: Some revelations, I suppose.
"Is is that hard to believe that I'm telling the truth?" Pride said, straining to keep the tone of annoyance from his tone as he face his fellow archbishops.
"My dear Petelguese... is alive...?" The archbishop of Wrath murmured, her usual cheer was rather muted and depressed after the death of her significant other.
"BAHAHAHA! What this insect is saying, my dear lady, is that not only your beloved has failed to accomplish his 'mission' on using the half-devil as a vessel for his lovely witch—"
"DON'T YOU DARE!" Sirius shouted, her eyes glowing madly, a wrathful tone to her voice juxtaposed by the tears running down her face at the mention of her husband's love for the witch. Just thinking of the witch made her blood boil.
Which in turn, made the room just the slightest bit hotter on account of her authority.
—the smiley trashbag has also lost his one and only gift from said witch!" A gleeful tint to Capella's voice did nothing to soothe Sirius's anger, instead making her even more livid at the archbishop. The bishop Wrath growled, a guttural tone as the chains connected to her arms began to levitate and vibrate, as if preparing to strike, which Capella paid no mind to.
"We have also seen something special about this boy tsu~" Lye Batenkaitos suddenly interrupted the two while wolfing down a full course meal at the table they were currently gathered around, presumably so they wouldn't spoil his appetite. Not that would actually stop them from eating of course, just make them more hungrier than usual which they hate.
"Oh, Do you have information you wish to share Lye?" The ethereal voice of the Pandora echoed softly, yet it was enough to crush any attempt at infighting as Sirius begrudgingly sat back down, ignoring the archbishop of Lust's victorious look.
The witch had her own reasons on stopping the archbishops from tearing each other apart which was mainly so that they wouldn't waste on such superficialities, after all, it was the sole reason why she had sent Bishop Corneas to galavant across Vollachia at this exact moment so as to not interrupt this meeting.
The gluttony archbishop nodded, he tilt his head upwards and slowly, his eyes turned vacant, as if he was searching for something far way beyond the stars. Wait... stars?' Pride thought, a sudden realization had struck him but he decided to stay silent for now. It was something to report to Pandora later.
"We came across the caravan that killed our dear pet that day, tsu~" a disappointment in Lye's face as he mourned the lost of his favorite pet. "There was someone special, a maid among them tsu~ while most them were a feast, this one was gourmet." The gluttony brother's mouth showed a wide grin revealing monstrous teeth.
"What does a maid have anything to with the White Whale's subjugation?" A scorn in her voice as Capella voiced her question, one that quickly earned her an annoyed look from the gluttony archbishop as well as a glare from Pandora, only the latter of which made the archbishop of Lust reconsider her options and she quickly stayed silent.
"All the while she hopelessly fought, she kept saying that her hero will come for her tsu~ and that one day, he will come and kill us, what an appetizing choice of words! Truly! Worthy of gourmet!" Lye was openly salivating now, much to the annoyance of Capella who much preferred his brother Roy instead.
"But this hero was so much more! So weak and yet, he always shows up at the exact moment every time. A man of excellent timing." Lye remarked, rubbing his belly which had which had managed to somehow stay flat even after eating that hearty meal. "Sooo appetizing! Scrumptious! Delicious! Fulfilling! Ahhh... we must have him..." Lye whispered, a crazed look of gluttony on his face. Hopeful even, that he will finally achieve his dream of a perfect life with perfect experiences.
"This meeting has gone off-topic." A cool tone to the Vain witch's interjection to the statement , giving a nod to the gluttony brother before turning her attention towards a distracted looking archbishop of Pride, who looked to be in deep thought.
"Bishop Pride, my sources have claimed that you have investigated into this boy's past, have you discovered anything worth mentioning?" The statement caused the archbishop to look conflicted for a moment, before producing a parchment from his black robes and placing it onto the table.
It was a picture, or rather, a very detailed black white sketch of a man's face. One with a confident smirk and a sharpness in their eyes that bordered on scary that was coupled with semi-spiky hair, all in all, they looked unremarkable. Darker lines also pointed to various points around the face detailing the colors of the face, hair, eyes and etc.
Pride also produced an accompanying second one, this one showing a full body image of the knight, strange clothes and all with the same lines pointing at different points in the body indicating color. Combined, these two painted a picture of exceeding averageness in the face department and bizarre eccentricity in the clothes section.
The latter of which made Pandora's eyes widen, as if in disbelief before it quickly disappeared, replace by her usual calm countenance.
"These two drawings have been procured by my local spymaster that have been made in likeness to the knight we are currently searching for. As you can see, his features are nothing special, with the exception of black hair, there is nothing to indicate a common trait that can aid us in our detection of this threat."
Pride paused to take a deep breath, which made some of the archbishops jump at the opportunity to make their own comments about the drawings.
"So~ this is the face of the knight who killed my dear, darling Petelguese..." a murmur came from Sirius as she longingly, that is, murderously, at the raven haired boy.
"Well, yes, but my sources further suggests that there was another who aided him, one Juli—"
"—HAHAHAH! Black hair, dark eyes and a poor taste in fashion? This lovely lady thinks you're projecting a lot on this meatbag." A loud shrill cackle came from Capella, which the archbishop felt very compelled to interject.
"Guy's probably from Gusteko like me, which, by the way, makes tracking where he comes from a lot more—"
"—That is it tsu~ the face of our hero!" A maniacal look of glee was plastered on the archbishop of gluttony's face as he eyed the sketch hungrily, causing Pride to hold them close to his chest while glaring at the boy bishop, as if daring him to try and pry them from his body. The resulting chaos, of the archbishops shouting and screaming over one another caused someone else to snap.
"Enough." A restrained shout called out, making everyone who was about to jump everyone else look towards the source of the noise, ready to pounce the intruding intruder, only to be frozen in shock as they gazed at the serene looking witch in the corner using the full force of her authority to release a ridiculous amount of miasma into the room. Its scent was powerful enough to even strike Capella speechless, which was saying something.
"Bishop Pride, while your work on identifying this knight is commendable, I am far more interested on this boy's origin. Where exactly did he come from?" Pandora remarked, a look on her face that suggests that someone was going to get the ground treatment if they didn't answer her question.
"W-well... that's the thing Pandora-sama." The archbishop admitted, a guilty tone in his voice. "We can't seem to trace his origins farther back than a random alleyway in the capital, and no sightings of a person that has similar traits have been recorded to have entered Lugnica before. Which seems to suggest that either that this boy has been living in the capital for some time, extremely unlikely as no one recognizes him..."
"Or?" Pandora egged Pride on, sensing great hesitation in his voice.
"First of all, to make a few things clear," the archbishop began, "this boy's name is Natsuki Subaru, can I get a confirmation on that Lye?" Pride asked the archbishop of Gluttony who nodded immediately.
"I had my suspicions before, but after perusing through my copy of the Astronomicon, generously provided by our lovely patron," the archbishop stole a glance at Pandora, who looked as passive as ever, making Pride curse his bad luck to be on the receiving end of the witch's ire. "I have confirmed that he is indeed, named after a star."
The revelation made a commotion around the chamber and, sensing another distraction, the vain witch put her foot down, which coincided with all the archbishop's in the room, excluding Pride to suddenly be knee-deep in stone, silencing any opposition within the walls of the underground cathedral.
"And what is the meaning of this... Natsuki Subaru's name?" Pandora asked, a flicker of emotion could be seen in her eyes, whether it was hope or malice Pride didn't want to find out, feeling a small measure of pity for this raven-haired boy who was truly born under an unlucky star.
"Subaru... it is the alternate name for the Pleiades formation of stars." The archbishop of Pride rasped out, much to the shock of everyone.
Though one witch, was decidedly more affected than the others.
Astronomicon (non-canon): A book detailing the various star constellations complete with their original meanings. While commonplace among witch cult members as of Subaru's arrival, it was first introduced by Pandora approximately centuries ago as a relic from beyond the Great Cascade.