Lind froze when Alisha told him who she was.
He did not expect the person in front of him to be the princess of the Tulip Empire.
However, Lind frowned slightly and felt that something was wrong.
Everyone knew that the Tulip Empire was a country where the royal family and the church were equally important. There was only one church in the empire, and that was the Church of Light.
As for the members of the royal family of the Tulip Empire, they had to be baptized by the Church of Light when they were born and become believers of the Church of Light.
In the Tulip Empire, the fate of the pagans was extremely miserable.
In Lind's study, there was a book called the Pagan Purification Manual.
It described in detail what methods the members of the Church of Light should use to purify these pagans when they encountered them. Those methods were comparable to the top ten tortures of the Qing Dynasty.
The members of the royal family had always been the focus of the Church of Light. They did not allow any pagans to appear among the members of the royal family.
The power that Alisha had just used clearly did not belong to the Church of Light.
After all, there were no strange existences like goat skulls in the Church of Light.
Alisha gave a bitter laugh at Lind's distrustful look.
"I know you don't believe me. You saw the power I used just now. You're right. I'm not a believer of the Church of Light. In the words of those believers of the Church of Light, I'm a pagan."
Lind nodded.
Although it was a little unbelievable, Lind didn't think Alisha would lie to him about this.
Because it wouldn't do her any good to talk about such things. On the contrary, the fact that she was a heretic might bring her a catastrophe. Even if Alisha wanted to trick him, there was no need to make up such a lie.
"Please continue."
Lind said.
Alisha coughed weakly, then went on.
"As you guessed, I'm not here for the mission this time. I came to Blackwater to find my father."
Hearing this, Lind interrupted Alisha. "Your father, the Emperor of the Empire?"
Alisha nodded with difficulty.
"But the Emperor… Isn't your father in the capital now?"
Lind hadn't heard of the Tulip Emperor's disappearance.
If the Emperor had really gone missing, it was impossible for such a big matter to go unnoticed even in Blackwater Town on the border.
But now, there was no news of the Emperor's disappearance. These facts were completely contrary to what Alisha had said.
Alisha didn't seem surprised by Lind's reaction.
She gritted her teeth and explained to Lind.
"My father is indeed missing, but few people know about this. The person in the capital now is not my father, but a puppet arranged by the Church of Light. Although he disguises himself well and deceives everyone, he can't deceive me."
"So, what does this have to do with the goblin cave?" Lind pressed.
"I've been looking into my father's whereabouts ever since he disappeared. A while back, when I was packing up the letters my father gave me, I found the clues he left me."
Alisha's hand went to her shirt. She pulled a letter from the inside of it and handed it to Lind.
"This is the clue my father left me."
Lind opened the envelope. Inside were two sheets of paper with strange lines drawn on them like scribbles.
"I don't understand," Lind said.
"Stack the two sheets of paper together and put them in the light," Alisha explained.
Lind followed Alisha's instructions, stacking the two pieces of paper and placing them in front of the crystal.
The crystalline light shone through the paper and landed in front of Lind.
The lines on the two pieces of paper were perfectly connected, finally forming a map.
The shape of the map looked familiar to Lind. On closer inspection, wasn't this the Makar Forest?
Needless to say, the small town marked on the side was Blackwater Town.
A circle was drawn in red ink on the map, and this circle was the location of the Goblin Cave.
"I followed the clues on the map and came to Blackwater Town. Then, I found the secret signal my father gave me. He told me that he had been investigating something that was related to the Church of Light. The secret signal was from three months ago, and the time was right. At that time, my father had already been replaced. I found the Goblin Cave according to the location on the map. My father disappeared here…"
As Alisha spoke, she looked like she was about to cry. She looked extremely pitiful, making people want to protect her.
Seeing her like this, Lind said, "You don't have to make such an expression at me. I can help you, but…"
As he spoke, he squatted in front of Alisha, stretched out a hand, and spoke again, "…Payment!"
Alisha's eyes widened. She'd never met anyone as stubborn as Lind.
She had already made such an expression, but she still couldn't take down Lind.
In the past, when she used this move, it had always been successful.
When other men saw her pitiful look, they all catered to her needs as if they were on steroids.
No one was like Lind, who completely ignored her as if she was a rock.
He could actually sit down and talk to her about reward.
"Come on, I saved your life. Is this how you treat your savior? In order to save you, I paid three years of my lifespan to the Shadow God." Alisha gritted her teeth and forced out a sentence from the bottom of her throat.
"You saved me because your body would fall into an extremely weak state after using that move. In this state, you can't continue to complete the mission." Lind was unmoved. "So that's one thing. If you want to hire me, we'll have to discuss the payment next."
"I can wait for my body to recover." Alisha looked up, stubborn.
She did not want to lower her head to this detestable fellow in front of her.
Lind said, "Sure, then wait here. I'm going out. I hope you can find another person who can muster the courage to deal with the church."
With that, he turned around and walked out of the temple.
Alisha was clearly anxious at Lind's actions.
"Wait a minute!" She stretched out her hand to stop Lind's actions and asked, "What reward do you want? I don't have any money at the moment, but when I save my father and return to the capital, I can pay you however much you want."
When Lind heard this, a smug smile appeared on his face.
He turned around and said, "I don't want money. I want the skill through which you made the deal with the Shadow God."