"Oh, where are my manners. Let me introduce myself. I am one of the 7 bishops that work under the current Arch-Priestess. Bishop Tobias of the 3rd order, at your service. But for this occasion, you may call me Toby." Toby answered politely.
At that moment, Soren felt like he had heard the name Toby before, but he couldn't remember from where, so he tried to remember where he had heard it before. Of course, he couldn't do that while paying attention to him, so for now he replied politely:
"I see, my name is Soren and my friend over here is Lavenza. Happy to be having this meeting." Of course, Soren felt anything, but happy, but he couldn't show it so for now, he put on a smiling expression and prayed that this nightmare would end early. After Soren introduced both himself and Lavenza to Toby, Toby then said:
"Happy to be your acquaintance Soren. I expect that you have a lot of questions right now, such the entire test thing, the Arch-Priesstess' behavior and personality and other stuff as well, but for now it's better to talk this over a meal and the Arch-Priestess herself invited you to lunch. You wouldn't have the guts to reject her harshly now, would you?" At that moment, Toby sounded very menacing.
Soren felt like he was ready to pass out, just by the sheer pressure of that sentence. 'To piss the Arch-Priestess? That is like, you telling me to commit suicide and I would happily comply, levels of hell.' That was what Soren thought. In the end, he reluctunly agreed to the invitation, but he definitely knew that this was going spell trouble.
After that little private conversation, they left the platforn and moved swam towards their next destination.
"May I ask where are we going to eat?" Soren asked a bit nervously.
"Of course, at the Arch-Priestess' room. If you have been invited to a meal with her, you will have to go her room to eat it." Toby answered seriously.
Soren felt like this was a pretty dumb thing to do in the first place. The idea where you have to eat in the invitor's room, just because you have been invited by them? The idea itself was pretty ludicrous.
"Seriously?" Soren asked with a blank expression.
"Yup, unfortunately." Toby replied while feeling a bit annoyed.
'So it looks like he knows this is pretty ridiculous in the first place.' Soren thought while judging by his irked expression.
"Then why does she do that in the first place?" Soren asked curiously.
"That would be one of the church's seven wonders. The reason why the Arch-Priestess does such elaborate things." Toby said with a bit of sarcasm. Then he continued:
"To be honest, all of the seven wonders have to do with her and each one of them has been made by each leader of the order."
Soren was suprised by this little bit of information. He couldn't resist the urge to ask the next question.
"So, what would be the wonder question that you created?"
"Uhhh... Mine is pretty dumb, to tell the truth, but here goes nothing." At that moment, Toby took a moment to ready himself and then said:
"The amount of mana she possesses."
"Huh?" Soren just couldn't comprehend the words that came out of Toby's mouth. 'The amount of mana she possesses? Isn't that supposed to be on the four or five digit numbers? Or maybe even a bit higher?' This was what he thought for a bit. But he then decided to ask the reason why would here the mana capacity's numbers.
"Why is it considered a wonder in the first place?" Soren asked curiously.
"Well, the reason for that us actually due to an incident that happened a couple of decades ago. The Arch-Priestess herself. Was using. Her Clairvoyance ability. For over. A week! Straight! Like can you believe that!? An ability that takes a lot of power from the user and she did that for over a week straight. Like can her mana capacity even compare to a god's anymore? She might as well have passed that threshold, that insane woman." Toby said angrily.
...
In the meantime Laventhign, who was a bit head of the trio, suddenly sneezed a bit loudly before she said:
"Uhhh... Did I catch a sickness or something?"
...
"Wow... Toby, you might need to calm down a bit, because you look like you are going to flip something and then cause a mess of everything." Soren said while trying to calm down Toby.
Thankfully, he managed to calm down, before something actually happened.
"You are right, it's nothing more than a joke anyways for now. Why do I even get riled up with these things, in the first place?" Toby said while sounding dejected. Soren then decided to change the topic quickly before something else actually happened.
"Anyways. For now, may I ask where the her room is? I feel like we have been swimming for a while and yet we still haven't got close it." Soren said seriously.
"Don't worry. In a bit, we will reach the staircases that lead towards the top floor and after a couple of short hallways, we will reach her room where we will be eating." Toby said in a bit of a casual manner.
Soren then felt like he was starting to run out of topics to talk about, so he decided to ask something that he needed some info on.
"Just out of curiosity, would you happen to know anything about Pallas City?" Soren decided to see if he could get some info, since he was required to go there, although not immidiately, he still wanted to do that as soon as possible.
"Pallas City? Hmmm... Pallas City...I don't think I can say anything about it, since that city is nothing more than a city of the legends. There are very few records of those, and even the records that have the info, the barely mention it in the first place." Toby said seriously.
"I see... Thank you for the info anyways." Soren said with a slightly sad expression on his face. 'To think there wouldn't be much info in the first place.' Soren thought while feeling a bit down. Turns out it would be a much bigger challenge than he thought, but not impossible.
The three of them kept swimming for a little while in silence, since now they had run out of topics to talk about and they had to deal with this awkward silence. As the trio kept swimming, at one of the corners, a short man with red hair and tail came out of it while carrying a bunch of books and bumped into Soren.
"Ouch! What the hell man? Can't you see..." At that moment, Soren saw the short man and he remembered who that person was.
"Hey, you are that guy who gets easily pissed off by calling you short." Soren said a bit jokingly.
"Huh...? What are- HEY IT'S YOU! The rude guy from a couple of days ago. What are... You..." The shirt man with the red hair said before he saw the Toby and said:
"G-G-G-G-Grandpa!? What are you doing here? I thought you would be in your office right now." The short man said.
"Glad to see you are doing your work without any issues Toby." Toby said happily.
"Grandpa! Don't call me like that. Call me Tobias, not Toby. The name Toby makes me feel like a kid who hasn't come out of his shell." Tobias said while feeling embarassed.
"And besides, what are you doing with piece of garbage over here?" Then Tobias pointed at Soren.
"Piece of garbage? Look who's talking, the talking trashcan who can't accept even an apology in the first place." Soren said angrily.
"Enough! Both of you! What are you two!? Children!? Tobias Ausgerius the Third. You should know better that when we talk, we don't let our emotions affect us and always think clearly. Soren, you should know as well that for whatever reason, you should not start a fight. If you start fights, you won't learn how to control yourself and you will be bringing constant trouble to yourself and everyone around you. Now, I want the two of you to shake hands and say "Sorry" to each other, got it?" Toby's preaching scared both Soren and Tobias to point of nearly pissing themselves from fear and the moment they looked at each other, they had the same thought: 'Play along if you don't want to die.'
After that, the two of them shook hands and both of them said:
"Sorry, for calling you short and a trashcan." Soren said apologeticly.
"Sorry as well. I shouldn't have called you a piece of garbage." Tobias said in the same manner.
"But that doesn't mean we are done, moss head." Tobias whispered on Soren's ear.
The moment Soren heard that, he felt like was ready for some action, but he calmed himself and whispered to Tobias' ear:
"Who are you calling a moss head when I don't have green hair in the first place, salmon boy?"
"Oh it's on the next time we meet, idiot." Tobias whispered back to Soren before he took his hand off and picked up the stack of books that Toby and Lavenza had gathered while the two of them were fighting, and then left.
"Sorry that you had go through that. Ny grandson Tobias tends to be pretty hot-headed most of the time so don't keep it for him." Toby said apologetically.
"Why should I hold a grudge at a friend? Just because of a bit of bickering? I'm not that kind of guy." Soren said with a smiling expression on his face while thinking: 'After all he is a friend and a rival.'