"Those damn…" Sarah muttered under her nose, squeezing her hands into fists as she moved down the stairs of the local Hvelism headquarters for the city.
Still, even though she was an imperial princess, she dared not to complete her curse while at the doorstep of the building taken over by the military arm of the church, the Inquisition.
Sarah's teeth cried out in pain when she clenched her jaws way harder than she should, all in an attempt to hold back the fury-induced insults from spewing out of her mouth.
Behind her, Mera lagged behind, struggling to even walk with her back up straight and her chin raised.
Despite being a saintess of Hvelism, Mera found it increasingly difficult to deal with the old and stubborn folks of the Inquisition. And while her authority, in theory, was higher than the local high inquisitor…
As it turned out, the reality was often far different in practice from how it should be in theory.
"I've told you I felt divinity somewhere in this town!" Mera finally failed to control herself, ignoring the fact that she was in public when she lashed out. "And if I could feel it, did you really expect that local priests wouldn't?"
Sarah glanced over her shoulder but ended up not answering her friend's accusation.
After all, she was really in the wrong here.
Focused on nothing but chasing after the champion, she failed to consider the warning that her friend issued, a warning that lead to a topic of much greater importance than just some random mercenary wishing to have nothing to do with those who sponsored the reward he claimed.
Despite her emotional state, Sarah ended up pressing her lips together to stop any accidental insults from making their way out of her lips. And so, with no one but her shadows acting as her bodyguards, she made her way back across the main plaza of the town, heading straight for the local branch of the Imperial Express.
Only when they reached the office of the branch's leader and sat down around the place did Sarah dare to exhale the air from her lungs and allow her body to slightly relax.
"To think that an incarnation of an unclaimed god would appear here…" Sarah muttered, leaning forward and raising her hands to massage both of her temples at the same time.
This was a matter of much greater importance than some mere mercenary. After all, rather than involving a huge amount of gold that even the empire couldn't ignore, it was an event that would likely lead to an emergence of an entirely new aspect of the greater faith!
'And judging from those damn inquisitor's reaction, they would be more than happy to get rid of the incarnation rather than allowing it to find an apostle…'
Sarah shook her head. She then heaved a deep sigh before sinking down in her chair and leaning her head over the chair's backrest to look at her friend.
Yet, before the princess could utter even a single question, the shadows in the corner of the office materialized into a human-shaped figure. It then approached Sarah's desk and dropped a piece of paper on top of the pile already waiting for the princess to read through it before turning around and merging back into the shadows.
Sarah took a deep breath before fixing her position and reaching out to grab the fresh report.
Such a perfect synchronization with the shadows was a feat no imperial shadow could achieve. It was a skill that only a supreme shadow, the man in charge of the entire unit of Sarah's bodyguards had.
"Haaa…" Sarah quickly scanned through the report only to drop it back down on the table as she released a long, exhausted sigh. "Still nothing…"
Sarah pursed her lips together.
It's been over a day since they arrived in the town. An exactly an entire day since she pushed her slaves to look for the man she came chasing after.
And despite how unusual it was, her shadows still couldn't find a single damn clue about his whereabouts!
"Now that I think about it…"
Sarah's eyes flashed.
She was bored out of her mind with the unproductive waiting and quite annoyed by the clash with the inquisition that she just experienced.
And while she could handle either of those on its own, with those two problems compounding on each other, the princess approached the limits of her mental endurance.
This mental strain, though, made it all the easier for the princess to find a way to help her stave off her boredom while possibly pushing her goals ahead.
"We can't find that woman because she changed her looks, right?" Sarah suddenly asked. Her tone changed, losing all of the anger from before and now showing some hints of excitement.
"And we can't go looking ourselves because we are pretty damn recognizable," Mera joined in on what she thought to be a rant.
Yet, when Sarah once again pushed her head to the back and hung it over her chair's backrest, allowing her friend to glance at the princess's excited smile…
"Wait, don't tell me…" Mera's eyes opened wide as she jumped up to her feet, startled by the mere idea of what her friend might be planning to do.
"If my shadows can't find them, it means they are smart enough to know how to perfectly merge into the crowd."
Sarah raised her head, took a deep breath, and then jumped up to her feet, no longer able to just sit tight and handle her boredom.
"They are aware we are looking for them, so they made themselves invisible to the eyes of someone intentionally looking for those who stand out," Sarah continued with her lecture.
Ever since she was a child, speaking her thoughts out loud allowed her to hasten the process of figuring things out. It was as if when a thought was voiced out, it gained weight and substance, making it easier to fit it into the greater whole.
Sarah turned silent.
The princess closed her eyes and rested her hands on her hips, breathing slowly as she put all the pieces of her makeshift plan in order, turning a set of separate ideas into an organized whole strategy.
Then, with a huge smile on her face, Sarah turned around before winking at her friend.
"It's been a long time since I last went out in disguise, wasn't it?"
Mera's face tightened.
The saintess clearly saw it coming from a mile away… but was powerless to stop it. And just a single look at her friend's face was enough to understand that no words of caution of her would stop the princess from doing whatever she planned to do.
"What are you even trying to achieve by going out on your own?" Mera asked in a strangely strict tone, one that she rarely used with her friend. "Put your slaves to a sword if you happen to stumble and bruise yourself?"
For a slave, to allow their master to sustain an injury was akin to betraying the expectations of their jobs as bodyguards.
But if Sarah really wanted her guise to work, she obviously couldn't walk around with her shadows in tow!
"I don't think I will be able to spot anything out of the ordinary," Sarah smiled, proving she was aware of just how pointless her excursion was likely to end up being. "But… What if I end up getting lucky?" she asked, a small smirk dancing on her lips.
"But…" Mera attempted to protest… but just by looking at Sarah's face, she could tell what she already knew before.
'No matter what I say, she won't listen,' Mera thought, squeezing her hands into fists and gritting her teeth as the sense of powerlessness filled her soul.
"No buts," Sarah cut her friend's words before turning around and grabbing the bottom of her shirt, only to pull it up and expose her naked stomach and elegant brasserie for all within the office to see. "And I want you to walk around with my shadows. In this way, if a real danger were to appear, you will be able to jump in and help out!"