In this world, the church of fate was one of the most influential powers.
Its influence was not limited to the human lands. Rather, it had churches also in the territory of the elves, beastmen, and demons. Even some intelligent monsters had accepted the teachings of the Goddess of Fate, Axalia.
And the biggest dogma of the church of fate was "Protecting the World".
Each high-ranking member of the church of fate was a zealot whose only goal was to make the world a better place and to destroy anything that could threaten the world.
In fact, the knight order of the church of fate, [The Order of the Guiding Light], had as the goal "Correcting dangerous fates".
That was the reason the church of fate was so widely accepted throughout the world. And after the disaster of the Blight one hundred years ago, the number of people that believed in the teachings of fate increased even more. Nobody wanted to see another disaster like that again, after all.
But despite its wide acceptance throughout the world, the Church of Fate was also one of the organizations less liked by other organizations and countries.
The reason? Because nobody liked having someone interfering in their affairs.
And with the Goddess of Fate's ability to peer into fate and the church of fate zealousness to protect the world from any threat, they constantly meddled with the affairs of other organizations and countries. A lot.
Several times they even threatened the sovereignty of a nation just to "correct a fate".
'A troublesome bunch it's better not to mix with'. That was how the zealots of the church of fate were normally described.
Thus, when the nun-like girl in front of Bloed introduced herself like the saintess of the church of fate, Bloed's first reaction besides surprise was wariness.
Charise's appearance matched the stereotype of a saintess. She wore a white habit that covered her entire body, only showing her hands and face. But even that habit could not hide her otherworldly beauty.
With around twenty-two years, she had a pair of green eyes that seemed to see through any lie, and her oval face was the very definition of gentleness. Her face carried a sincere smile that made it hard to distrust her.
Fortunately, Bloed was used to seeing beautiful women, so Charise's beauty was not enough to make him lose his wariness.
And perhaps noticing that the saintess who called herself Charise put on a strained smile.
"Don't worry, Mr. Bloed. We don't come here with bad intentions. We only want to chat with you for a bit."
"… And why would the church of fate send the saintess herself to speak to a nobody like me?"
"A nobody? I'm not so sure about that." Charise smiled gently. "Mr. Bloed, it looks like several people here don't know about your true identity, however, the goddess knows about it well. A nobody, hehe, definitively not."
Bloed was stunned. The next instant, his face turned ice-cold.
"... I don't know what have you heard about me, but the current me is just a nobody. I have nothing to do with them."
"… Rather blunt, huh. I like that." Charise said smilingly.
Bloed grunted. Although he did not know how much this saintess knew, he was sure about something.
She knew about his true identity.
His identity as Glenn Skysword.
He could see Liu Ying looking confused at him. She probably was curious and worried after hearing the saintess.
However, now was not the moment to pay attention to her.
"Calm down, Mr. Bloed." Charise smiled softly. "As I told you before, we don't have bad intentions." She then shivered briefly and looked at Regina. "Also, can you ask your friend to stop? I can barely endure her killing intent."
Regina snorted, but she retracted the pressure she had been releasing until now. Her eyes, however, were fixed on the knight behind the nun-like girl.
When Bloed saw that, he looked at the knight too. Instantly, his eyes shrunk.
That man, he was incredibly powerful.
Definitively a demigod.
Things had just turned more serious than before.
"But your group sure is unusual, huh," Charise said with a look of interest. She first looked at Regina before moving her gaze to Liu Ying. Instantly, she smiled as though she saw something very funny. "I heard that people with similar fates gather together, but it's the first time I see a real-life example as accurate as this."
"… What are you speaking about?" Liu Ying said with a frown. Since a while ago, she had been unable to follow the rhythm of the conversation.
Liu Ying now understood why his father disliked the church of fate so much. He always said he hated how they never talked clearly.
"Anyway." Charise stopped looking at Liu Ying and moved his gaze at Bloed again. "Why don't we search for a more private place to have our conversation."
Bloed's expression was cold. "You have not told me yet the reason you are here."
Charise nodded. "You are right." Instantly, her expression turned serious, and the smile of before disappeared completely. It was as though her gentle look of before was a lie.
"I'm here to talk about the Blight." Charise's gentle voice reached the group's ears.
'As expected' Bloed sighed inwardly. "So it was that after all."
The saintess nodded. "I hope you can tell us everything you know about the Blight, Mr. Bloed. It's something that concerns the future of this world, so I hope you cooperate."
Bloed fell silent.
To be honest, he wasn't against cooperating with the church of fate.
The thing is, he was not sure how much the church of fate knew about him, and which was the church of fate's position regarding his abilities.
After all, Bloed's true identity was that of a manaless child. A child of the Blight.
… And it was the believers of fate the ones who discriminated against people like him the most.
Currently, he was using a ring to disguise his psychic energy as mana. But the truth was that he did not have even a drop of mana. If Charise learned about that, Bloed did not know how she was going to react.
Charise frowned. She did not seem very happy that Bloed was taking so long to reply.
But at that moment, several people appeared in the street, surrounding the group.
"Stop!"
An imposing voice boomed. Then, a black-haired cat woman appeared suddenly and stood between the saintess and Bloed.
"Miss saintess, it's an honor to have you here."
"You are… Madeline Sharpclaw, right?"
Madeline bowed slightly. "I'm honored that someone like you remembers my name."
"You don't need to be so cordial. Your position is not much lower than mine, after all. Can I ask, what are you doing here?"
"I should be the one making that question, saintess," Madeline said with a stern expression and cold eyes. "Can I ask why are you stopping my people in the middle of the street?"
"Oh?" Charise's eyes glinted with interest. "I see, so they are related to you, huh."
With a soft giggle, Charise used her beautiful eyes to scan Madeline.
"That is great. I think you can help me then. There is something I want to discuss with you."
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels