Hi! Aidka's Here!
I'm back after four days! Five chapters here (Pretty long chapters, by the way)!
Don't worry, my RL should stabilize pretty soon and releases will return to normal...
...
When Bloed followed the bodyguards to the waiting room of the mansion, he found a beautiful girl in a white habit waiting for him together with a two-meters tall man standing behind her stoically like a statue.
The features of the two were so striking that Bloed recognized them instantly.
The Saintess of the Church of Fate, Charise Amra, and her bodyguard, Kallevang Am.
The Saintess of Fate seemed to feel his gaze on her. She opened her eyes gently and looked towards Bloed and the girl following him with a happy expression.
"Mr. Bloed, Miss Regina, nice to meet you again."
"… Miss Charise."
"Hello."
Bloed and Regina returned the greeting politely. However, they did not seem as happy about meeting again as Charise.
However, Charise did not seem to notice it. She looked at the two of them with a soft smile and giggled.
"I told you I had a feeling we would be meet each other again soon, right? It looks like my feeling was right."
Bloed sighed and nodded.
"… To be honest, I would have preferred if we meet in different circumstances."
Charise was startled. Finally, she noticed Bloed and Regina's expressions.
She immediately put on an awkward expression.
"… It looks like you already have an idea of why I'm here."
"It's about Elwha, right?"
"So you already know, huh. It looks like the princess already told you the story."
Bloed nodded. He then sat down across Charise while Regina stood behind him, facing Kallevang warily and seemingly ready to fight against him at any moment.
When Charise saw that, she smiled wryly.
"… It looks like Miss Regina did not welcome us."
"I don't." Regina did not bother to hide her displeasure. "I'm sorry, Miss Charise. But I can't say I feel well-disposed towards you right now."
"Oh?"
"Last time, your advice ended embroiling my young master into a life-and-death struggle against the Church of Slaughter. And now, it looks like your goddess is not satisfied with that and sent another dangerous trouble to our lap in the shape of the elf princess."
Charise smiled wryly.
"… Yeah. However, my advice ended helping Mr. Bloed to become much stronger, right? Moreover, he has now a very close relationship with Moonlight Glow and the beastmen countries."
"Perhaps that is right." Regina nodded. "But even so, I don't like the way your church does things."
Charise fell silent. She then looked at Bloed and sighed.
"Does Mr. Bloed also think like that?"
Bloed nodded firmly. "I fear I have to agree with Regina here."
"… I see." Charise smiled bitterly.
Bloed looked at Charise's expression and let out a soft sigh. "… Miss Charise, it's true I think your advice was a good one, and looking back at it objectively, following it was a good choice despite the dangers it brought. However, I can't just receive you happily after your words put my life and the life of my companions at risk."
"… Actually, I knew you would meet some trouble, but I did not know the extent of it... I'm not omnipotent, plus, even the goddess has trouble seeing the fate of things related to gods and powerful beings."
Bloed stared at Charise fixedly as though to gauge the truth of her words. "... Do you truly think the goddess knew nothing about the plans of slaughter?"
"..."
"Yeah, I thought so." Bloed sighed.
"... I guess you are not very happy about seeing me, huh." Charise put on a bitter expression.
"I'm not. Much less when the reason you are here is to ask me to protect Princess Elwha from the Church of Slaughter. In fact, I'm sure something like this could have been avoided in the first place."
"What do you mean?" Charise asked startled.
"You see, when I heard Princess Elwha's story, I could not help but think about something… Why did the goddess send the princess in the direction of Academy City? Was it not easier to send her directly to the Boerner Forest's Capital If she truly wanted to help her?"
"That is…"
"However, she sent him towards the Academy City and hinted to Elwha to find me. Forgive me, Miss Charise, but I can't help but find the entire matter fishy."
Seeing the stern expression on Bloed's face, Charise sighed. She hesitated slightly before looking at Bloed with a sincere expression.
"Mr. Bloed, Miss Regina, I understand why you are displeased. However, I can promise you that both the goddess and I want to help you as much as possible."
"Really?" Regina sneered. "It doesn't look like that."
"... Let's assume we believe you," Bloed furrowed his brows. "Tell me then, why we should help the princess despite the danger?"
"Because it will be helpful for your future."
"Just that?" Bloed laughed sarcastically. "Is that everything you are going to say to convince me?"
"About that…"
"Then answer me something, Miss Charise. What does the goddess expect of me? Why is she helping me? What is her goal?"
"…"
"You understand that I find your goddess's actions very suspicious, right? What do you think I'll think when a goddess suddenly starts to help me without a reason and then asks me to realize certain actions? I'll think she is trying to use me to achieve something."
"... Yes, I understand." Charise sighed again. She looked at Bloed hesitantly before letting out a long breath and closing her eyes.
All of sudden, she started to mumble something softly, so softly that neither Bloed nor Regina could hear her words.
It was as though she was… praying?
When Bloed and Regina were growing confused, Charise opened her eyes again.
"I think I can explain some things to you."
"Great. I'm listening."
Charise nodded and waved her hand, casting a barrier around the room so their conversation could not be heard by anyone else.
Both Bloed and Regina were surprised that Charise was being so careful.
"Allow me to start, then. Mr. Bloed, what do you think is the purpose of our church?" Charise suddenly asked.
"… To get faith for the Goddess of Fate? That is the purpose of all the churches."
"That is true, but our Church of Fate has another purpose. A much more important purpose... To stop the destruction of the world."
Bloed could not help but put on a strange expression.
He had already heard about that before. When the Church of Fate preached the goddess' teachings, they insisted that the goddess protected the world from its destruction.
But until now, Bloed thought that it was a hoax. A sham to attract believers.
"Are you telling me that this world is going to be destroyed?"
"I'm not sure about that." Charise shook her head. "However, at the very least, our Church has worked hard to stop as many wars and senseless killing from happening as possible. The number of possible wars our church has stopped in the last one hundred years reaches the double digits."
"… That is amazing." Bloed could not help but say.
"It is." Charise nodded. "However, the situation has taken a turn for the worse recently. In the last few years, the friction between the different races and religions has increased greatly, and the winds of war have been blowing increasingly stronger. Sooner or later, this continent will be filled with death and war once more, perhaps even bringing the world to the edge of destruction.
"That is where you appear, Mr. Bloed. The reason the goddess has shown so much interest in you is that she thinks that your help will be critical in stopping the danger the world is facing."
"Why why? Do you mean I'll stop the wars or something like that?" Bloed could not help but put on a weird expression.
"That I don't know." Charise smiled wryly. "Mr. Bloed, although I'm the Saintess of Fate, the truth is that I can only know what the goddess wants to tell me. And this time, she has not told me what she expects of you."
Bloed fell deep in thought.
To be honest, he was not satisfied with that answer.
He could not see himself as the savior of the world or something like that.
But the truth was that Bloed wanted to believe Charise's words.
Charise had helped Bloed a lot. Moreover, she supported him unconditionally against his father, even going as far as to threaten Sebastian with war if the Kingdom of Alterna tried to harm him.
So, to be honest, Bloed had a good impression of this saintess.
However, he did not like the feeling of being manipulated by someone.
"… Let's suppose I believe you." Bloed sighed. "Explain then why I should help Elwha. And please, don't say something like it will be useful for my future again."
Charise put on a pensive expression, as though choosing her words carefully, before speaking.
"… Mr. Bloed, if you are planning to develop yourself in Academy City, then in the future, your relationship with Elwha will be very important."
"My relationship with her?"
"Yes." Charise nodded. "It will be great if you manage to get her in your bed…"
"Tsk." Regina narrowed her eyes.
"But if you don't want, it's enough as long as she trusts you completely." Charise quickly changed her words when she saw Regina's ice-cold look.
"Trust me? How much should she trust me?"
"Enough that she uses willingly the Heart of the Forest for your sake."
Bloed was startled.
That was... A lot of trust.
In the short time he had known Elwha, he had noticed she cared about the heart and her mission above everything else. Perhaps even above her own life.
He did not know if he could make Elwha use the heart for his sake.
Charise chuckled softly and put on a gentle smile like a big sister watching over her little sister.
"Mr. Bloed, it's your choice if you want to help Princess Elwha or not. But I hope you keep in mind that the situation inside Academy City is very complicated. You should be very careful. Also, the headmistress of Academy City is someone trustworthy. If you can get her trust, it will be great."
Bloed fell silent. He stared fixedly at Charise, as though trying to see through her intentions.
Until the end, though, he only saw concern and sincerity in her gaze.
Bloed sighed softly.
"… I'll think about it."