"Nala is the best" Isabella jokingly pinched her daughter's face and encouraged her.
Because Jacob was branded as a sinner, Isabella and Nala were branded the wife and daughter of a sinner. They became outcast by the others, struggling to survive day by day.
Since long ago, she had wanted to leave this place, but it always ended in failure.
Her first attempt was to seduce a smuggler and wanted to leave Reystromia together with the smuggler's cargo, but the very next day, that smuggler was found dead in his room, bleeding black blood from his mouth and nose.
Her second attempt was a powerful mercenary. That very night, Isabella saw nothing but despair as over 100 crows flew out from the great tree that was now considered the town's forbidden zone, turning into a black cloud of death. The so-called powerful mercenary was reduced to a pile of bones in mere seconds.
Her third attempt was not too long ago when a clergyman from the Church of Divine Grace came to Reystromia. Because of her trust towards the Church of Divine Grace, Isabella once again chose to try escaping this city with him but was instead shown how terrifying that personage was.
Even with dark clouds in her heart, Isabella had never shown it on her face. She had given up on the idea of escape, and because of Reystromia's development and expansion these last few years, she and her daughter could live quite well from her weaved fabric.
Chris only observed them from afar a bit before leaving this place. He was constantly breathing rhythmically, his body felt like it had melted into the air itself. While sensing the air and its rhythm, he began to take a stroll around Reystromia.
In the morning, Reya was a lively town, many merchants and mercenaries busily moved around the streets and alleyways here. Many merchants of the two countries became smugglers that gathered in this place, trading the speciality products of their own country. The closer the war seems to be, the more active the trading became.
For example, a certain kind of fruit cakes of the Interkam Kingdom was always well-liked by aristocrats of the Royas Kingdom, but as the relations between the countries became tense, Interkam would naturally not bother to allow trade of such products just to please them.
And so, the smuggling of these fruit cakes became abnormally popular. A confectionery product could suddenly be sold at the price of gold, and merchants were known to do anything for the sake of profits.
Chris could see the prosperity of this town, as well as the deep currents running underneath that prosperity. More importantly, he could see the people hiding among the crowd, and Chris knew exactly why they had come.
Half a year earlier, someone had sought out a Witch and asked her where the future of the weakening Interkam Kingdom lies.
That Witch naturally gave them an answer, she prophesized that in the future, a Saintress of Salvation would appear in the Interkam Kingdom, her appearance would save the Kingdom and she was the Daughter of Dragon and the grace of God, a true Purest One.
After leaving her prophecy, the Witch disappeared without a trace, while this unreliable-sounding prophecy was spread among the high society of the Interkam Kingdom, causing quite a few to believe in it.
After half a year of searching, everyone focused their attention on the 'daughter of Dragon' part of the prophecy, as the founding King of the Interkam Kingdom in the legend was the son of Dragon, someone who had the immense power of dragons.
This prophecy naturally caused everyone to think of the royal bloodline, because of that, several young ladies from the royal bloodline suddenly passed away without clear reasons. Seth the First wasn't known as a person who would give up and let go.
Additionally, while the clergyman from the Church of Divine Grace failed to rescue Isabella and Nala, he managed to inform Cardinal Augustin of the Church of Divine Grace about their existence. Because of that, the portion of people in Interkam who believed in the prophecy formulated a plan to save this mother-daughter pair.
It wasn't appropriate to rally the main forces of the Interkam Kingdom either, as the Interkam King at this point was still Seth the First, if he wanted to eliminate Isabella while she was outside of the palace, it was quite simple.
Both sides had their worries, Seth the First didn't want any Saintress of Salvation, real or not, to be out of his reach, while Augustin's group was worried that the Interkam Kingdom would become even more chaotic if Isabella and her daughter were to be exposed.
And so, Cardinal Augustin asked his good friend Chris to help rescue Isabella, while the group who were currently monitoring Isabella were those who supported Seth the First.
"There are currently four different forces in this place" Chris analyzed the situation.
"The first is the master of this place, Negary, the rational Evil Spirit. His power is the greatest here, including the Cauchy people, the unknown germs, as well as the crows under his control. For some unknown reason, he's keeping Isabella and her daughter in this place, he's the biggest obstacle"
"The second are Seth the First's spies. There were quite a few experts among them, and their goal is to kill Isabella and her daughter, but when necessary, they would also become a force to help me go against Negary"
"Thirdly are the local mercenaries and merchants. They are a neutral party that could swing to any sides with enough benefits, but due to the existence of the germs, they could also instead become our enemies"
"And finally are us, Augustin would bring his men here soon, and my current mission is to gather enough information while keeping Isabella and her daughter safe" Chris was wondering about how to accomplish this.
"Saintress of salvation, huh…" recalling that strange but cheerful little girl, Chris was thinking rapidly. He briefly remembered the person he met in the great snowy mountain, touched the scar on his face, shook his head and continued to consider his plan.
"The members of the youth group are mostly Cauchy people. They definitely have contact with Negary, but I wonder what reactions they would have with my request. Will they reject me, chase me out, or send people to kill me?" Chris recalled the information he had.
The flock of almost a thousand crows was the biggest threat, if they really attacked him, he would have no way to survive. But from the information given by the Church of Divine Grace, Evil Spirits need constant subsistence.
It wouldn't be easy for Negary to send out too many crows to attack him in Reystromia where so many people gather. If he did that, it would instead cause Reystromia to decline instead, an Evil Spirit that requires subsistence to exist would be unwilling to see this happen.
As for the threat of the germs and disease, Chris didn't need to worry much as he had the [Respiratory Art]. As long as he periodically adjusted his body's rhythm and expelled those germs out of his body, there would be no problem.
"The main problem now is the one who killed Bukittel"
Bukittel was the clergyman who came here at first. He had the Grace of God, so he wasn't too much weaker than Chris, and he wasn't killed by the crows. At the time, he had used a secret means of the Church of Divine Grace to send out the news that Isabella was here, and that he was being pursued by an unknown person.
Unfortunately, after sending that message out, Bukittel was never heard from again, the Church of Divine Grace had also used their own means to confirm that Bukittel was dead.
Chris' expression turned serious as he stopped in the middle of an alleyway, the white ring he was wearing began to give off a unique rhythm within his perception.