Chapter 17 - Blessing and curse

Each of the six paladins dragged a man inside the room.

Behind them was Eddie and an old man with thick white robes.

Seeing that he is holding the he must be the pope.

"Saintess, who is she?"

"Your holiness, she is duke Dominique's secretary. She was accompanying me as I wait for your talk to end. May I ask what brought you here?"

She sure change her face quicker than how Alex kills someone.

"These six men have greatly offended you, saintess. They were caught in your room trying to steal your clothes for who knows what"

Those six.. they are being framed, huh.

I step back and kept my head low.

Eddie can't win against saintess Charlotte. Forcing our way out when both the saintess and the pope is here would be suicide.

"I see, then without further ado..."

She spread out her arms and interlocked her fingers. Light was bursting forth from the saintess' body.

""

The light quickly faded after it blinded everyone for a split second.

The six men who was still on the floor were fazed and stared into thin air. It was as if they have just woken up from a deep slumber.

"It is okay now, your holiness, I have sanctify their souls. I am sure that God would forgive them"

The six paladins who were dragging the six naked men earlier was now gently helping them to stand up back on their feet.

"Thank you for your time, saintess. Now, duke Dominique, shall we get back to-"

"Forgive me, your holiness, I have an urgent matters needed to attend to. A subordinate of mine just sent a telepathic message. I must go now"

"I understand. That means that you and your secretary will be-"

"Oh no, she will be staying here as she still have an urgent matter to tell to you and the saintess"

Eddie covered himself in lightning and left in a blink of an eye.

He said that he can only use that new technique of his for about ten seconds tops.

The pope took a sit and sat down.

"Well, since we are here already, might as well hear it now. You don't mind do you?"

"Of course not, your holiness"

Me and the saintess went back to our seat.

"What is the important matter that you were supposed to tell not only to me but to the saintess as well?"

It's obvious that he is tossing his anger out on me.

"It is regarding about the seventh prince of Dilirea, the sorcerer of this century"

"Really?"

"Yes, saintess"

I then told them that, I, who isn't even a druid talk with and have already met God and God's proxy.

I then told them that I knew what the future holds thanks to God, which is true since 'God' was the one who put me into this world that I knew about.

Saintess Charlotte kept on saying "Yes" and "I understand" but she was obviously panicking on the inside based on her body movements.

Meanwhile the pope believe every thing I have said.

With his ability similar to Alex's , he is able to see sentences above my head. Those words/sentences are what I say. If the words are white then it is true if it is black then it is false.

Though it has the same used, it also has the same flaw as Alex's ability so whenever he would ask me something rather on the point I would just shrug my shoulders.

"I am thankful for spending your precious time to a commoner like me, your holiness and saintess"

"We do not mind at all. We are actually grateful that you have delivered such information to us"

"Then, I will now go back to the villa reserved for those who came from the Berda empire"

"Before you go do please choose someone as your guard from the paladins here"

A line of at least a dozen paladins were in front of me.

When did they get here?

"I will take up on your generous offer"

I look at each one of them closely.

"I will pick him"

Each kingdom have their own villa at different countries for diplomatic reasons, and the villa that Berda empire owns in every kingdom have been enforced with special runes that does not allow anyone to enter unless someone, with the master key, allows it.

Right now, the master key is with me and they don't know that. Even if they did, it's not like they would take away from me since it would be an all out war.

True, the pope and the saintess are strong but if the entirety of the empire goes to war with Sukel, they would lose. Not only do they depend to the Berda empire for provisions Otvon and Sukel have bad blood going on them so expecting reinforcement from other country would be near to impossible.

"I will now go. Once again, thank you very much"

"No need to thank me so much"

...

"Sir. Paladin, may I know your name?"

"I am Anthony von Miller, milady"

"I am not a noble so there is no need to treat me like one"

"That does not change the fact that you are a woman"

What a gentleman.

"I shall stay outside and-"

"Why? I can grant you the permission you need to enter"

I took out the master key and opened the door.

"Come in"

Surprised, he still kept on following me silently.

"This room is?"

"It's my room. There is something that I need your help with so please, just a moment of your time"

"I will help you no matter what it is"

Even better.

I took out one of my special perfume and sprayed it directly on him.

He fell down on the ground.

"I know that you might be wondering why you fell down. Let me explain, it is because you were sprayed by a paralytic perfume just now. That's how"

I tied him up in a chair and gag his mouth in case he does something.

Whoosh.

A sword nearly cut my neck apart from my body.

"You were a wizard, huh"

This is going to be pain.

The demon remove the ropes that was binding her master and quickly went towards the window.

They were deflected by an invisible wall.

Idiots. I was the one who let you enter but that doesn't mean I gave you the authority to go out.

Thanks to the demon's action which is to escape with her master and not to attack me, I got my bag and ignited the cask under the bed and quickly went out.

Boom!

I entered the room once again after the smoke dissipated.

"It sure is amazing that you were able to call your demon even though you were paralyze. That must have took a lot of mental strength to do it"

A few hours later the paladin woke up.

"Good evening"

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"To interrogate you, I guess"

"Duke Dominique, why are you not doing anything? This will make relations of the Berda empire with Sukel to go down the drain if you-"

Pang!

A small lightning bolt hit the bed, near the paladin's head.

"I do not care about something as trivial as that. What she ever says is an order I will do"

I took out another special perfume.

"This is a truth serum of sort. Do hang in there"

I proceed to interrogate the paladin.

He confess that the pope was indeed wary, not only at Eddie but mostly at me.

While it is a shame that he doesn't know anything about the six men that were dragged to the saintess earlier, I am already satisfied with the info I got today.

Since he is cautious I thought that it would have taken a longer time before he takes the bait. I guess not.

"Sarah, come here"

"Yes?"

"Please tend to him for now. He is a very important person so I hope you do not mind"

"Of course not. I actually just finish my job so taking a little break won't hurt"

Though I want to bind him, there is nothing I can do about it. It's not like Sir. John had any choice but to follow orders from the pope.

"How was the talk with the pope?"

"Before I answer that, were you really serious about what you said earlier that you will do anything I say? It's as if you are saying that you are just my servant. I'm a bit hurt"

"That's not what I meant when I said that. It's just that as the duke of the Dominique duchy, as a son of a loving mother, as well as an individual I am greatly indebted to you. Your actions are righteous and you would always do it in the shadows since you do not care about things like wealth or honor."

I do care about wealth, though. After all, I can't keep the morale in the guild if I don't have the money to feed my dogs.

"That is why I believe that you won't kill any innocent people and continue on to work hard to fight for the people who deserves such treatment"

He hugged me gently.

It was comforting with a sense of nostalgia.

It was that feeling when I hugged my pillow when I was still young and naïve about the world and wondered why I was all alone.

That sense of comfort and being understood by someone.

"And here I thought that you were an average loving man. You are much more observant than I thought"

"Anyone would be concern the more you love someone"

We pulled back after some time.

"Going back to topic about your question just now, it would be better if I explained everything from the start"

"Okay"

" Saintess Charlotte has while the asshole of a pope has . In terms of battle the saintess would be better, but in terms of getting the masses to your side, business, politics, the pope is better especially if he use his ability.

One of those ability is his ability to get people onto his side no matter the situation, it will work unless you knew about the ability beforehand"

"This is the reason why you are telling me this?"

"Yes. When the saintess use her on people, they are put into a state of trance for a while since it is an ability that forces people to be 'good'. And by that, I meant good from Charlotte's eyes"

"If she deems killing someone 'good' then those people would do it?"

"Yeah. Quite a twisted ability for a saintess, right. But it doesn't work on people who have a good soul"

"Good soul?"

"I, myself don't know how souls are classified into what is 'good' and what is 'evil. What I do know is that as long as you have a 'good' soul would be useless against you"

As for Alex who is a killing machine at the moment due to his unstable mental state, I'm half sure that Charlotte's would work on Alex.

...

After me and Eddie sorted out our plans on how to move forward, we went back to the room where the paladin and Sarah were.

When we got there the two was acting all lovey-dovey.

Love at first sight perhaps?

Anyway, I do not have the rights to burst their bubble. John is a good man(?) while Sarah is slowly atoning for her sins, though she doesn't know, it is a lot better this way.

"I'm gonna have you work as my double agent from now on. Don't worry your family has already been to some place far away from here. It is near the orphanage and the school that we are building that is accessible for commoners so rest assured about their safety. I doubt that Sukel would be send out their men to the other side of the continent just to find your family"

"Th... thank you"

He started crying.

We left the room as Sarah comforted John.

While we were interrogating John he voluntarily told us about his story. While most people think that it is a blessing to become an ability user that is not the case for John. For him, it is nothing but a curse filled with false hope.

Many with those of high statuses covets ability users, more so if they are commoners since they are easier to control.

John who is better than your average ability user and better than an average knight garnered attention and was chosen, or rather coerced into being a paladin for his family's safety.