"... ...i... K...! .....! Ki... K.d...! Hey kid! Wake up kid!" The one to be waking up Soren was the woman with the purple hair from before. She noticed the duo had fallen unconsious during the summoning, so she tried to wake them up, but to no avail. After the summoning, the duo was still unconsious and she started feeling uneasy, so she tried harder to wake them up and thankfully, they woke up.
"Are you alright kid? Did something happen to you?" The woman had a worried expression on her face.
"Uhhh... My head feels like it's going to be split apart." Soren said while holding his head with one hand. Considering what he went through and the amount of information that he gathered, the headache was natural. Lavenza herself was also on a similar position where she was holding her small head with her tail.
"Did I miss anything?" Soren asked, but he honestly felt like he couldn't care anymore.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza was thinking the same thing as well.
"Well the summoning was performed as normal and a young man with gray hair, tail and eyes came, but he didn't say anything for a while, so we don't know his name." The woman explained.
'So I missed the summoning.' Soren felt slightly dejected, but after going through all that mess, he thought that the summoning was the least of his worries. Pallas City, Ultimatus, God of Creation, the center of the mind. These phrases ringed through Soren's head and Lavenza wasn't in much better shape than Soren
"Look, if you are not feeling alright, just go to rest at the infirmary on the first floor, you can tell them that you aren't feeling alright." The woman said with a worried expression on her face.
"No, it's alright. I'll just leave right now, since the summoning is now over and I have no reason to stay anymore." Soren explained before he got up with Lavenza and started swimming away. Right as Soren was leaving, a guard suddenly appeared in front of him and said:
"Forgive me, but I can't let you go through this door, our esteemed guest. You still have business with us and until that business is concluded, you are not allowed to leave."
"And what is that "business" supposed to be?" Soren asked seriously.
"You will have to wait for that one." The guard answered.
"Tsk." Then Soren and Lavenza sat down on their seat as well. The other nobles who were sitting there, were suprised by the sudden turn of events. 'This greenhorn kid had business with the church?' This was what everyone was thinking, even the woman. Soren on the other hand, couldn't feel more annoyed. He was litterally stuck in the church and if he tried to leave forcefully, he would be causing a big scene, easily bringing a lot of unnecessary attention on him and that was the last thing he wanted to do. With no option available, he was forced to sit on his seat again, while waiting to be called for business.
"I didn't know you had business with the church. Forgive me, if I offended you." The woman said to Soren
"I must give an apology as well. I didn't know that you were such an important guest." One of the nobles said. The noble himself had cyan hair and tails and red eyes. He was also wearing black and white clothing that looked a bit similar to a tuxedo but still had that medieval style of the 1600s.
"Me too. Forgive me if I offended you in some way." Another noble said.
The nobles started saying sorry as well. Soren had no clue why they were doing this since he didn't have any idea of what that business might be. So before things escalated even further, he said:
"Wait a minute everyone! Forgive for that small outburst right now, but in reality, I have no clue for what the business, itself, might be."
But then the first noble that spoke first said:
"It doesn't matter if you know or not. If it is so important that the guards forcefully deny you to leave, it must mean that it is something that could potentially be disasterous for the city itself."
Soren still had his suspicions, so he decided to ask:
"Still, isn't the possibility of being barred due to the fact that I could be a wanted criminal or some-" Just as Soren was about to continue his sentence, the noble from before said:
"Impossible. If you were some wanted criminal, an alarm would have ringed a while ago and you would have been detained already and even if you somehow got away from the alarm, the church never gives invitations without checking the background of their guests. So, the fact the you were given an invitation shows that you were given the seal of approval from the church. So don't worry so much. Take it as an opportunity to live the great life, not many people get audiences with the church these days."
Soren felt like he was going to have another headache and wanted to scream, but he resisted the urge, calmed himself down and said:
"I see, thank you for the information, kind sir."
"You are welcome, young man." The noble man replied back.
After that conversation, Soren felt like he had got himself into quite the big mess this time and decided to sit down for a bit and think. He knew he wouldn't be able to slip out of this mess, so he decided to grab the bull by the horns and tackle the problem head on. The big problem though, was the invitation itself. That was the start of this mess in the first place, so if he managed to figure out how he got that invitation in the first place, he should be able to find a way to solve the problem without much trouble.
'First what do we know for the invitation? That should be the first topic to tackle.' Soren thought to himself but just as he was going to start his train of thought, he got interrupted by a noise.
"Kyuu~?" Lavenza felt a bit confused.
"Oh right. Sorry little girl. Nearly forgot you. I know you have your questions as well, I'll explain whatever I can a bit later, since now is not the best time for it." Soren whispered on Lavenza's ear.
Soren
"Kyuu~." Lavenza then nodded.
"Good girl." Then Soren headpatted Lavenza a bit.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza felt pretty happy.
At that point, Soren decided to start thinking for a bit for the reason he was invited. 'The most obvious theory was the Arch-Priestess, thanks to the fact that Lavenza was her daughter. The problem with that however was obvious, there is no confirmation that she knew that Lavenza was alive, so this theory stays in the slightly possible. Next theory was the was some noble's household, but because he barely had any info on the nobles themselves, that one was the same as the Arch-Priestess' theory, in terms of plausibility. His final theory was that he caught the eye of some organisation, but that is highly likely due to the fact that he hasn't done anything singificant, except for killing the undead leviathan but no one knows that, so with the exception of that event, it is highly improbable for an organisation to have their eyes onto me.' This was Soren's brainstorming session. He knew that with the information in hand, it wouldn't be enough to make anything concrete, so he had to bite the bullet and ask a noble who knows more.
The noble that Soren had his sights on, was actually the noble from before. He could also ask the lady herself, but he felt like a more reliable source of information since Soren could assume that he was a house leader.
"Sir, may I ask you a few questions?" Soren asked while feeling nervous.
"Feel free to ask me anything." The man replied politely.
'Yes!' Soren thought to himself. He finally managed to get the ability to ask for info.
"Thank you. For starters, may I ask what kind of person is the Arch-Priestess?" Soren asked.
The man was a bit suprised by the question itself, but he kept his composurr and said:
"The Arch-Priestess herself can be considered as one of the most just people in the entire race itself. She is kind, compassionate, headstrong, although a bit impulsive at times and she is known to love children, especially her own and although it's considered a bit of an open secret, her love for her own children can be also called as an obsession for them."
"Why would you call that an obsession?" Soren was confused by that part.
"Hmmm... You didn't hear it from me, but there was one time where her first daughter went to a ball of a fellow noble and at the time, she was actually kidnapped. Ever since then, the woman has grown an obsession to protect her children no matter what. From having people tailing them all the time, to even using her clairvoyance ability to spy on them for the entire day. It is understandable to want to know where your children are the entire time, it is a parental instict, but even though most of her children are now adults, she still does that to them." The noble man said while sounding serious.
"I see. Thank you for that information. Now, my next question that I would to ask, is if there are noble families that have blue hair and tail and green eyes as well?" Soren asked seriously.
'Kid's definitely the kind of kid who doesn't like sweet-talking. Straight to the point. Doesn't seem like he likes to idle around and always takes the first move. An interesting one for sure.' The nobleman thought to himself for a bit before he started talking:
"If we are talking about noble families that have any of those characteristics, then there are dozens of them. Now, if there are any families that have all three, I can think of only two. The first one is the Arch-Priestess's family. Although she doesn't have a last name, her power is still considered equal or higher of that of high-ranking noble, hence we consider her as a noble. The other family would be the Duke Aureus Longinus' family. Their family has very similar characteristics with the Arch-Priestess' family, but their main difference is that the Longinus family are masters of water magic, while the Arch-Priestess' are masters of light magic. The family itself also has a grudge for the common people and it is known to be the strictest family that the seas have ever known. So you don't want to make enemies of them."
After the man finished his explanation, Soren felt like had more information but had done zero progress.
"Why do they have a grudge towards the common people?" Soren asked curiously.
"Let's say that curiosity killed the catfish." The man answered menacingly.