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Kneeling down next to the wall, I take the sword and sheath from my person and set it down. The moment I relinquish it, the apparition of the old man disappears into the wind.
So long, asshole. I stand up and cross my arms, considering kicking the sword a little. Deciding against it, I turn away and walk towards the entrance of the Cathedral. I've tidied up my face a little since who wants to be dirty in church?
I put my hand on the door handle, pulling it open and stepping inside.
White walls, rows of pews, a few stained glass windows and a piano in the back. Undeniably a place of worship, although different than the ones of my past life. The book that would usually be a bible is instead replaced with a book titled The Chronicle Of Theological Stories.
Whilst it doesn't roll off the tongue as well as The Bible, it certainly paints a picture. I walk over to a pew and sit down, picking up The Chronicle. I open it up and scroll to the table of contents. The book is divided into twelve parts, numbered with roman numeral-esque denominations.
I go to the first page available, being greeted with a simple paragraph.
"Long before there was anything resembling earth or sky, there was nothing. From nothing, the mother of things was born and, from her, the world came soon after."
"Eventually, the mother of things grew tired and returned into nothing, leaving the world in isolation."
Welp. that's enough of that. I'm sure that it's kinda good maybe, but I just don't exactly have the time to read all of it, so I pocket it into my satchel and steal from the church. Seems counter-intuitive, but whatever. Standing from the pew, I walk towards the stage and altar.
Walking onto it, I stand at the altar and put my hands upon it as if I were a priest of some sort. There's a key sat there, so I go ahead and snatch that too. Sorry god, I've got important stuff to do.
I walk away from the altar and towards a side corridor, looking for anywhere I can enter. Raiding a church doesn't exactly feel moral or right to me... but it's necessary.
Taking the first door I see, I'm met with what almost looks like a luncheon hall. No one is here, just like the main room before. I walk to the end of the hall and enter the kitchen, running my hand along the wall. Yep, just an empty kitchen.
I walk around a little whilst checking if any of the cabinets open and, to my misfortune, they all do. For once though, I snag a snack that isn't moldy when I steal a slice of salami... okay, I lied. I actually stole 5 slices of salami.
"Stealing food from a church? Tsk, tsk. I didn't expect much of you, but still," A voice sounds from behind me, a slightly familiar one with a hint of arrogance. "Y'know, Patricia's been talking all about you."
Slowly, I turn around and set the salami on the counter. It's the ginger spellcaster who did all the string light magic or whatever.. kid merlin, I guess. He doesn't have his staff on him and he's dressed in a cloak much similar to mine.
He copied my fit, word for word and bar for bar. Step off, bro.
"This isn't what it looks like," I respond, putting my hands up since I don't have a sword to fight back.
"It's exactly what it looks like," He rebukes my claim, crossing his arms and smiling smugly at me. "You're in the cathedral after hours, in the kitchen with no supervision."
"If that's what makes me guilty, then wouldn't that mean you're also a thief?" I ask, more than a little curious.
To this, he blanks and lifts a finger to refute, but finds his wellspring of words run dry.
"Well... I..." He starts, clearly coming up with it word by word. "Am... here... doing work... cleaning specifically... for the church."
He takes a moment after that, looking off to the side. He seems nervous even though I actually did think he had reason to be here... past tense.
"Yep, that's it! I'm here cleaning for the church."
"You were also going to steal from the church, weren't you?" I ask, deadpan.
He looks away in shame before putting on a layer of false bravado, tilting his nose up and using an arrogant expression.
"I WAS NOT! Unlike YOU, I am no SCOUNDREL!"
"Say it on god," I request, using this as my turn to cross my arms disapprovingly.
"Wh... well, uh..." He pauses once again, trying to think of a way to weasel out of the consequences of his own actions. "Why should I have to justify myself to the likes of you?!"
"To prove you're better than me, now swear to god that you weren't stealing," My response is cold, knowing I've backed him into the corner.
"Fine! I was going to steal money from the church! But it wasn't gonna be a lot-"
"I'm gonna tell the guards," I interrupt him, using the magic power of blackmail- I mean, friendship.
"I'll tell Patricia that you're gay!" He threatens me back, refusing to step off and chill out.
"Touché."
We stand there for a while in the form of a Mexican standoff, waiting for the other to admit defeat. Neither of us have our weapons on us, so resorting to words is the only way to effectively win this.
He can't cast nearly as many spells as he usually could and I can only use the few spells I know and go with fisticuffs. We're about evenly matched and underpowered.
A tumbleweed rolling through wouldn't feel out of place right now and- oh, is that a knife on the counter I spot? Well, at least I've got options.
Now we're to the point where the silence is crushing, waiting for each other to crack under the pressure. I have less stake in this than him by far, so it's easy for me to win.
"Fine, you win," He mutters, giving in.
"So... you aren't gonna fight me?" I question, realizing that that's what we logically should've been doing.
"Nah, Patricia explained some stuff to me. We're chill now."
"Cool."
He even throws up a peace sign at the end. Man, what a nice guy.
* * *
Vajra POV...
Yippee!
The quest is now at 5/??? with absolutely 0 explanation how! This sure does make me feel satisfied with how things are progressing and not at all frustrated!
Moving past the 8th skeleton, I continue to hold the flame orb in front of my face to light the way.
I have yet to come across a skeleton that has done more than just creepily stare at me, which is more frustrating than convenient. I fell on the ground so many times to get here JUST to get stared at like I'm the weirdo!
I am a calm and rational man who doesn't fall down the stairs. No one saw it, so it might as well have not even happened. In fact, from now on, it DIDN'T happen! That's right, I'm rewriting history the way I want it! This is my original idea to change history and not anyone else's!
In fact, I'm not even changing history because I always didn't fall down the stairs!
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