The one who arrived was wearing a white robe with simple patterns, a neutral middle-aged face with a bit of silver mixed among his blond short hair, a man who could give anyone a good impression at first glance.
"Augustin, you're finally here" Chris sighed.
This man was one of Chris' friends within the Church of Divine Grace, as well as the one who issued him this mission, a Divine Grace Cardinal – Augustin.
There were two priests and 3 Knights of Divine Grace armed with swords and full armor. Each of them had gone through rigorous knight training and granted a Grace that allowed them to exert superhuman abilities.
"Church of Divine Grace, so you plan to shelter this criminal who killed Lord Comoros?" Yadley coldly questioned.
"The 'crime' was nothing but a one-sided claim by your side, no one really knows what really happened, so that's not going to convince the people. What do you think, Grosk?" Augustin smiled and answered without worry.
"Indeed, captain Yadley, I also believe the same" a rich-looking middle-aged man stepped out with a bitter smile and some awkwardness: "That would certainly cause us to feel quite insecure"
Grosk, one of the many Interkam Kingdom merchants who frequented Reystromia. Where there were people, there was power, and the merchants were no different. Regarding border trades alone, Grosk was the vague leader or representative of all Interkam merchants.
These border merchants, or legitimate smugglers as one might call them, all had their own backings, among which were the aristocrats of the Interkam Kingdom. After the previous series of political power struggles, the representatives of these merchants had no choice but to support the Church of Divine Grace and put pressure on those in charge of Reya.
"We also believe that to be the case" another voice called out, a group of people wearing uniformed clothing came out from another side. From their distinct facial features, it was easy to tell that they were people from the Royas Kingdom; there was also a merchant-looking man behind them, who was the Royas merchants' representative.
They joined forces because we revealed quite a bit of our power huh?
Yadley scowled, this was the situation he didn't want to happen the most. In the vicinity of Reystromia, Negary's forces were naturally the strongest, but when the representative forces of two countries joined together to go against Reya, it was troublesome since they had the support of two countries.
The most important thing is to hold out until My Lord gets past his dormant period, not to mention what happened just now.
Yadley recalled how he couldn't help himself saying those words just now and scoffed: "We will naturally investigate the matter regarding Lord Comoros' death further on our side, but as the prime suspect, Chris's movements must be restrained until things come to light"
"No problem, then let's stop fighting for now" Chris lightly nodded. The limits of Negary's strength was still unknown, although he really wanted to take advantage of the so-called dormant period before it passed, it was hard to guarantee victory with their current forces.
…
"Then please stay inside this manor for now. If you leave without permission, you will be considered to have confessed guilty to the crime and Reya's enforcers will have the right to execute you on sight" Yadley put Chris on house-arrest inside a manor. It was not that he didn't want to put him directly into jail, but with the Church of Divine Grace and the Interkam merchants on his side, Yadley would find it hard to accomplish that.
"I truly hope your side will be able to capture the real culprit soon" Augustin said with a gentle smile as he stood on one side: "May Lord Comoros rest in peace"
A few moments later, one of the Knights of Divine Grace brought Isabella and her daughter to his manor. As the young knight looked at the main road from afar that quickly regained its prosperity, he seemed a bit puzzled.
Even in the Interkam Kingdom's capital, quite a few people died from diseases every day. Although the priests of Divine Grace had the Grace of Salvation that could cure the majority of diseases, the Church of Divine Grace itself only had so many priests who could use the Grace, and each use drained them of their stamina and strength, so they couldn't afford to use their Grace without restraint to heal those civilians.
What caused the knight's interest to be piqued was that during his little trip around Reya to pick up Isabella and her daughter, he found that most of the people here were at their top physical state, as if diseases didn't exist here at all.
"Myerson, what are you thinking about?" a voice called out to the young knight, as he turned to look, he saw that it was Augustin's disciple, Luen Donner.
"Luen, thank you for always coming with me to heal those poor folks" Myerson sincerely offered his gratitude. He was born within the slums of the capital, only when he was found to have the appropriate constitution to accept a Grace was he brought outside.
But even now he still remembered what happened at the time. A plague broke out in the royal capital that year, and the place that faced the worst afflictions were the slums. People died every day without being buried, rotting corpses littered the streets.
At the time, Myerson was also afflicted with the plague, only when a group of Divine Grace priests came into the slums to help alleviate the issue was Myerson saved and discovered to have the potential to become a Knight of Divine Grace.
Unfortunately, the Grace suitable for him was a combat-oriented one, not the healing Grace of Salvation. After becoming a Knight of Divine Grace and earning enough for himself, whenever he had the time, Myerson would return to the slums and help out those poor souls.
Whenever he did, he would try to ask the priests with the Grace of Salvation to come with him and heal those in the slums, but the majority of them weren't willing to waste time for such things. Healing the aristocrats would at least earn them a large sum of money, while healing the poor people made it so that they had to enter the slums. The dirty, chaotic slums were filled with various stenches, random defecation and even rotting bodies. How could the priests who exerted themselves as 'superior people' be willing to go to such places?
"That is only my duty, the Lord's Grace should not be limited to only nobles and merchants" Luen Donner smiled and replied. Unlike Myerson, he was born in an aristocratic family and received higher education, he was also a devout believer in the Lord. With an ambitious and confident grin, he said: "Later on, if I ever become one of the upper echelons of the Church, I will surely set up rules to include voluntary treatment as part of a priest's commitment"
Compared to Myerson, as he was born a noble, Luen seemed a bit more interested in power and authority, but Myerson could tell that Luen truly wanted the Grace of the Lord to reach everyone.
"Then you're going to have to work even harder Luen, I'll be waiting for that day" Myerson said with complete sincerity. Due to his family's background and him being Cardinal Augustin's disciple, coupled with the fact that he showed excellent abilities, many people were optimistic that he would certainly become a high-ranking member of the Church of Divine Grace in the future.
After parting ways with Luen, Myerson felt a bit guilty for no reason. He glanced back at the prosperous streets in the distance and felt slightly at a loss: "This is the blasphemous Evil Spirit that controls diseases, Negary?"