Together with her three colleagues and her adjutant, Messai returned to their encampment.
Their encampment was a small chapel located in Norland’s western region. This chapel was one of the earliest buildings in Norland. It was constructed in Norland by a great missionary.
This was also the only church in Norland that was used only to worship the God of Holy Light and Righteousness, Monicar.
From this, it could be seen that the Nation of the Holy Church does not possess much influence in Norland. In other countries, practically every major city would have one or two cathedrals.
“Ma’am, are you really planning to let alone that demon? I remember that this city’s dwarves need to work during the day. They will only frequent taverns during the afternoon and at night. Perhaps we should take advantage of the daytime to...”
The templars following Messai had sullen looks on their faces. A thing as humiliating as being driven out of a tavern by a bunch of dwarves was something that they’ve never before experienced.
“Absolutely not!”
Before that templar could finish, Messai’s adjutant immediately shot down the reckless new recruit’s proposal.
“Practically half of the authority in Norland is under the dwarves’ rule. Furthermore, of the dwarves we met in that tavern earlier, one is an elder of the Frostaxe clan... If my memories serve me correctly, our Cardinal Archbishop has an originium crystal trade deal with that dwarven clan. Thus, lord templars, please calm yourselves for the time being.”
While the Nation of Holy Church possess their own originium crystal mines, they would still have to purchase the truly high quality originium crystals from dwarves, especially the dwarves living in Norland.
The remains beneath the city of Norland possess countless high quality originium crystal veins!
After listening to the adjutant’s words, the new templar recruit, no matter how impulsive he was feeling, was able to imagine the consequences his action might cause should they end up provoking the Norland’s dwarves.
“But, commander, don’t you feel that those dwarves were responding too strangely?”
“Right, it’s like they were led astray by demons.”
They simply did not expect for those dwarves to fly into rage for the sake of a tavern.
All the templars that witnessed the dwarves at the Hearthstone Tavern realized that those dwarves seemed to have gone mad. It was as if the destruction of the tavern would cause their death, that one must first pass through them if they wanted to touch the tavern.
“Say no more. This matter is all caused by my impulsiveness. I’ve decided to use this opportunity to survey that tavern for a while. I will have the tavern’s boss realize how wicked demons are. I will also try to expose the demons’ conspiracy.”
Messai’s gaze was fixed onto the statue in the center of the chapel the entire time. She felt as if this was a trial given to her by the Lord.
In the past, Messai would settle all problems with her sword. Whether it be conflicts with other humans or conflicts with demons, her sword was the solution.
But, to be a qualified templar, having only powerful fighting prowess is far from enough. One must also possess formidable willpower and an unswerving heart.
Because of that, Messai was determined to rid of that demon without using her sword.
“Commander, I think that we should proceed to the tavern together. The demons’ conspiracy is most definitely not that simple,” voiced a templar. He was worried for Messai to enter the demons’ lair on her own.
“I have an even more important mission for you all.”
Messai turned her gaze to her adjutant. She took out the three tokens that served as the Weissenasche Threater’s tickets.
“We must announce the existence of the demons to the world. That theatre is very possibly affiliated with the demons. As such, I want you all to quickly inform all associations that theater and its stage play had with demons to the citizens of Norland.”
The Nation of the Holy Church has existed for over a millennium. During that period of time, they’ve spread their teachings throughout the entire world. While Messai cannot be certain how many believers of their teachings were present in other nations, the efforts of their Nation of the Holy Church has most definitely caused many people to become hostile toward demons.
“Yes ma’am!”
The adjutant received the three tokens.
“We shall complete this trial before the arrival of Archbishop Desireless. May the glory of our Lord rise among us.”
Unswerving, miss templar expressed her faith toward the statue. With that, her adjutant and the three templars quickly left the chapel to carry out her assignment.
......
“Why didn’t you teach those templars a lesson?”
Ciri stood behind the counter waving her newly purchased magic staff. The staff was 1.5 meters long. A prism shaped originium crystal was embedded on the staff head.
Held by Ciri, the staff was being waved around like a spear.
Before meeting Joshua, Ciri’s magic medium and disposable artifacts were all lacking. When she encounters brown bears or white wolves in the wild, she would generally pick up a random wooden stick from the ground to confront those beasts.
Because of that, the moment Ciri went out to purchase a magic staff using the salary paid to her by Joshua, she immediately picked a staff that seemed to ‘be good at fighting.’
Ciri’s battle power had roughly doubled from the time when she first encountered Joshua. She was even confident that she could pass the class four mage certification.
“Beat them up and then find a chance to get rid of them? Ciri... you couldn’t possibly believe that there are no other alternatives to killing one’s enemies, right?” asked Joshua.
“Isn’t it natural to rid one’s enemies? If those templars are to discover your true identity, they will definitely seek to kill you. Hmmm... wait, can’t I just report it to them?”
Ciri seemed to have suddenly realized that she was not Joshua’s accomplice. Rather, she was a casualty from the demons’ conspiracy. But, she only thought about it for a moment before giving up on that idea.
The reason for that was most likely due to the manuscript for ‘Léon: The Demon’ Joshua held in his hand.
“Killing one’s enemies is the decision chosen by soldiers. I am a cultural worker. Instead of killing my enemies, I am not fond of changing their way of thought.”
Joshua returned the manuscript for ‘Léon: The Demon’ to Ciri.
At the end of the manuscript were some scribbles drawn by Ciri. One of them was a scribble of the movie’s female lead character Mathilda and the male lead character Léon standing together.
While it was a simple scribble, it was very life-like. It was so much that Joshua wanted to make a poster out of the scribble.
“...”
Ciri wanted to refute Joshua. But, she discovered, immediately after opening her mouth, that she had nothing to say.
After all, the most successful case of Joshua’s ideology alteration was her. Half a month ago, Ciri was racking her brains out thinking of how to escape from Joshua and then get rid of him.
But now, Ciri would wish for the stars and the moon on the daily in hopes that Joshua would be able to finish writing the latter half of the script for ‘Léon: The Demon.’
“That female knight of the templar army seemed to be standing outside already. And here I was thinking that she would only come tomorrow.”
Ciri took a glance at the tavern’s entrance. With a height close to 180cm, that female knight was simply too conspicuous among a group of dwarves.
When Ciri compared her own height to that of the female knight, she discovered she was nearly a head shorter.
“Seems like... it’s time to test how firm this miss knight’s conviction is.”
Joshua walked out from the bar counter. Suddenly, he recalled the summoning lines of an Epic Priest card in Hearthstone – ‘Let me change your mind!’ [1]