Speeding along at the highest gear that my bike could reach, as there were almost no turns to take when you were flying, I reached close to the edge of the town faster than I thought I would.
Decelerating and going down a few gears, I angle the bike towards the ground and started descending towards the forest floor. This would not have been an issue if the forest canopy was not very thick. However, that was not the case, and I had to look for an opening to get down.
When I did find one, I was almost within the town's limits, where I would have to stop flying, meaning that I had to put the bike down a little harder than I originally meant to.
This meant that I had to decelerate a little more than I already had, which was not that much of a problem.
I did not fully drop to the ground as the forest floor was not that flat, and it would be a little difficult to ride on at the moment. So I hovered above the ground even when I reached into the town's limits and even until I reached the paved road leading to the edge of the village.
When I was over the pavement, I flipped the switch on the flight mode and instantly felt a Slight drop as I fell a few inches to the ground.
I was already going parallel to the ground, so both wheels touched down at the same time, and I was on my way to the town square.
The way down the center of the street was thankfully very clear, and I was able to move down at a fairly decent pace, with the only hindering me being the bricks used to pave the roads.
That was also a good enough reason to add better road construction materials to my to-do list.
Regardless, this meant that I was able to reach the square in only about a minute or two and pull my bike off to the side.
When I did, I noticed a familiar face waking up to me with a noticeable and slightly unfriendly air surrounding her. It was Miss Kaya, the Elder who was there when I built the compound.
Since she was clearly walking towards me and had her eyes trained on both me and my bike, I decided it would be best if I bowed towards her and greeted her, saying, " Hello, Elder Kaya, what may I do for you?"
That seemed to catch her off guard as even though her face did not change from its icy expression, the cold air surrounding her lessened as she stopped and asked me, "So you know me disciple? But I clearly do not remember having met you before?"
These words hurt slightly as they reminded me of my recent changes and just how big some of them were. I did try to clarify as to how we knew each other, though, by saying, "You were there when I built the compound on the unclaimed peak a few weeks ago, and we also talked about the goddess Elinaria during that time as well."
That seemed to cause her to recognize me as most of the threatening cold air around her dropped, and the expression on her face became ever so slightly less icy as she laughed slightly before asking, "What did you do to get punished so bad?"
I pouted at that and felt my ears go flat as my tail lashed about before saying, "I didn't get punished! Mom decided that she wanted me to be younger so she could spend some time with me as a kid and placed that curse on me without my knowledge."
Her faint laughing stopped when she heard that, but the smile that appeared on her face afterward betrayed her thoughts. She then gave a clearly fake pout as she said, "You are calling her mom now, but you aren't calling me, your mother's sworn sister, Aunty yet."
That slightly surprised me, but I was also not in the mood to mess around, so I quickly said, "No," as I stared her in the eyes.
The smile on her face did not go away, though, and remained while only lessening slightly as she countered, "Even if I could help teach you how to be a proper priestess?"
With those words, I was now in a dilemma and kept going back and forth in my mind about whether to compromise and call her Aunty. She clearly recognized this too, as the smile on her face only grew wider.
I eventually broke as my ears and tail dropped, and I hung my head, saying, " Sorry, Aunty Kaya."
For some reason, this caused her to laugh before I felt her rubbing my head between my ears.
When I felt that, I jumped back and covered my ears with my hands while staring at her.
This only caused her to laugh once more before the smile instantly disappeared from her face, and she stared directly at me. That instant change freaked out a little, and her next words showed why she had done that: "Do you know the rules that you just broke?"
I looked down at the ground after hearing that and scuffed the tip of my boot on the bricks after hearing her question before replying, "Do you mean the no flying in town limits rule that I had to break because of the unmaintained paths through the sect being very difficult to ride on?"
She froze again after hearing my question and then replied, " You can forget about that one for now, but what about the other rule you broke?"
Her counterquestion confused me, so I tilted my head to the side with one of my ears flat and my tail curled into a question mark as I asked, "Other rule?"
She sighed at that before asking, "Did you read the rule book?"
I was confused by that question as I did not remember anything like a rule book, so I maintained my current poster and asked, "Rule book?"
This caused her to sigh once more as she explained, "The one that you received with your robes and space bag?"
When she said that, I finally remembered what she was talking about and my ears and tail went straight up before falling flat once again as I remembered that I had not read it after everything that happened.
Turning my head up to look at Elder Kaya, I said, "I may have forgotten to read it with Lou Xia showing me all over the town that day, then me almost dying that night due to a misunderstanding, and then visiting the library the next day. Followed by me starting my research immediately after that."
Elder Kaya then sighed for the third time today and said, "You are just like your mother. I mean, seriously, how can you simply forget to read the sect rules because you were distracted by something?
"The only difference between the two of you was that one was distracted by food, and the other was distracted by research."
She then sighed once more before finishing her short rant with, "At least yours was a better excuse than your mother's. Now, since you did not know about the rules, I will let you off this time, but next time you want to ride whatever this thing is into town, you will need to have a permit from the sect to do so."
After all that was said, I felt I had just been scolded, even though that was not entirely the case. However, when I heard the mention of a permit, I looked around to try and find the person I had come to town with, and when I spotted the Sect Master, I tried to give him the best puppy eyes that I could.
{Hidden Title effect {Kit Eye's} has been activated: Passive persuasion chance increased by 3X}
The Sect Master looked right back at me for a few seconds before asking, "Realy? No argument about that or anything? Nothing at all?"
The Sect Master then waited again for a few seconds with Elder Kaya looking at him strangely before he pulled out a few pieces of paper and singed a couple of them. He then tore a piece off of one of them and handed it to me.
Taking it from his hands, my tail and ears shot up as I thanked him and hugged the peice of paper close for a few seconds and then stuffed it into my inventory.
Elder Kaya just looked at the sect master, slightly shocked, as he retorted to her, "Doing this cost me far less headaches than if I refused to do so."
Elder Kaya still maintained her look at the Sect Master for a little while longer before turning back to me and saying, "If you don't mind me asking, Why did you come to town?"
Hearing that, I could not help but smile at that as I felt my ears angle to the side slightly and my tail slowly start swaying back and forth as I responded, "Upholding my end of the deal and turning the town square into a shrine."
Her face fell at this, and she looked at me dangerously before asking, "What do you mean by turning the town square into a shrine is upholding your end of the deal? What deal did you make that included that?"
I was slightly confused by her reaction, but I still clarified, "In exchange for me helping with advancing the Sect's technology, I get to not only upgrade the shrine in the middle of the compound but also place one in the town. The Sect Master even offered me the chance to place it in the town square."
She then looked at the Sect Master, as I felt the same threatening cold air from earlier spread out from her as then she turned back to me and asked, "It did not mention anything about this in the holy book that you sent me, so let me ask now. What divine faction does Elinaria belong to?"
I did not understand what she was talking about as I had never heard of that, so I tilted my head to the side once more and resumed that same questioning poster as earlier and asked, "Divine faction?"
This did not calm her down though, and seemed to actually do the opposite as the cold air seemed to get denser before she asked, "Is Elinaria part of the Divine faction called Blood Moon or one similar."
I was still confused when she asked that, but before I could ask anything I watched multiple blood red system windows appear in my vision.
{Dark Pantheon Utterence Detected: Scanning for Demonic Deity Presence}
{Demonic Deity Presence Detected: Begining Purge}
{Blessing of Haruka Activating}