Reeve left the hall with excitement clearly evident on his face. As for Soren, he was confused. The insignia he had seen signified that the student was a member of Malum's temple, which obviously meant nothing. So what? Was that a clue?
The two walked out of the Hall of Justice, with Reeve in the lead. Where were they going? Only the gods knew … and of course … Reeve too. Anyhow, Soren didn't know where they were going. It didn't help that his counterpart seemed enlightened. The problem with sudden enlightenment during times like these, was that only one party was enlightened.
"Would you like to explain what's going on?" Soren asked, growing more impatient.
"You see, four of the six students had joined the temple of Malum, just before they disappeared. Do you think it's a coincidence?"
"It could be", Soren replied with a shrug.
"I don't think so! Anyway, we need to investigate this lead thoroughly."
"How? You don't plan on just going into Malum's temple and asking what happened to the students … are you?" Soren grew more hesitant.
Reeve chuckled, before replying, "We need to set a trap. There's one person I know, who will definitely fall for it."
"Who?"
"You'll see. Be patient, my young padawan!"
"Wait … you … what did you call me?"
"Eh … never mind." Reeve realized he had subconsciously used a reference from his old world. Despite having spent more than a year in this world, some things hadn't worn off. By now, he thought he'd have completely integrated into this world, yet thanks to the whichever god controlled dreams, some memories were stuck in his head.
Upon seeing that they were leaving the school premises, Soren grew more unease. It wasn't his fault. His teammate wasn't explaining anything. Of course, he had asked, but then he had been called a … what was the term again? Well, whatever the term was … he had been called that. He didn't know what kind of insult it was, so he decided to put it at the back of his head.
They arrived at the temple closer to Artemine. This temple looked thoroughly magnificent, as one would expect from something built for a god by ardent worshippers. However, Reeve looked at the building from a different perspective. He was wondering what material had been used to produce such a bright, white color. Paint definitely hadn't been invented yet, and he knew this thanks to being the chief architect of Bernice.
Also, how had they managed to get the tiles which made a dome-like structure, up there?
Walking into the main building, they were greeted by a brown-haired girl who was wearing a black robe, with the now familiar insignia. "Good afternoon, welcome. May the pranks of Malum light your path."
"Wait … eh … what?" Both Soren and Reeve were stunned. Did she just say that? As the two exchanged glances, they realized that they hadn't misheard.
It was Reeve who gained composure first. This was his first time getting into a temple, despite his not-really-firm resolution to not get involved with the gods. Yet, here he was, somewhat involved.
"We've come from Artemine academy--"
He didn't get to finish his sentence, as the girl interrupted him, "Oh, you must be here for the ritual! Let me accompany you to the hall where the ritual is going to be held."
"B-but we--"
"This way", she replied, cutting him off again. She began leading the way towards the large hall which seemed to be the end of a long corridor.
There was something seriously wrong with the people who had designed these buildings. They liked using long winding corridors, and large halls. Reeve thought these were just poor design practices, then again, maybe their standards were like that. If that was the case, then who was he to judge?
Anyway, then there was this girl who didn't even want to hear them explain why they were here. What he just wanted was to find out where that girl, Madalyn, was. Yet, he ended up becoming a part of some weird ritual.
Arriving at the large hall, Reeve saw that he wasn't the only unfortunate soul to be participating in whatever this was. There were many other congregants, wearing black robes like the one the brown-haired girl was wearing. It seemed as if they were here voluntarily, unlike Reeve and Soren.
Soren nudged Reeve, then whispered, "Was this part of the trap?"
"Shut up! Can you wait here for some time? There's something I need to check", Reeve asked, when the girl had left them in the hall.
After looking around to make sure no one cared, he walked towards a room at the end of the hall. This room was unguarded, which Reeve didn't seem to mind. Unless this place was secretly keeping some large amounts of money, or literal skeletons in the proverbial closet, then there was nothing they needed to hide. Which of course, explained the lack of guards.
Unless they were using this as reverse psychology. Like the saying, the best place to hide something is in plain sight, maybe they were doing something similar? There was only one way to find out, and as stupid as it sounded, it had to be done.
Sneaking into the unguarded room like a petty thief, Reeve tiptoed his way inside. Scanning his surroundings for any sign of danger, he kept walking towards the room's exit, which was on the opposite side of the door he had just come in. Inside the room, there was nothing worth noting, other than open chests full of black robes.
After leaving the room through the somewhat unlocked exit, he found himself in another corridor, with stairs that led down towards what Reeve thought was the basement.
If the school found out he had trespassed on the temple's premises during school time, would they expel him? He was not looking forward to meeting the chuckling girl again. He would rather go down this pit than meet that girl again… Now that he thought about it, wasn't there another girl he never wanted to see again?
Before he could answer this question in his head, the voices he heard alerted him, notifying him that he had reached somewhere important.