The next afternoon. Messai walked out from the prayer room.
She has been repenting since morning. She hoped that the gods would help her calm down her restless heart.
Yet... all of it ended up in a failure!
The more Messai prayed before the god’s sculpture with her palms together, the more vivid her memories of the past couple days became.
Then, Hearthstone voice lines like ‘I will fight with honor!”I am your nightmare!”Reporting for duty!’ and others would begin to fill her head.
Could it be that the arcanotech device was cursed?
Standing under the sun, Messai looked to her hands. Through her third eye’s perception, she knew that there was no issue with her body at all.
Not to mention something malicious like a curse, her magic power had even grown much more abundant than two days ago.
With the prayers ineffective, Messai ran to the chapel’s back yard and found a wooden sword.
The wooden sword was what she would use to kill time when she’s not praying. Using the sword, she would train her swordsmanship.
She raised the wooden sword horizontal to the ground. Then, she hit the hilt with the back of her hand and began to brandish the sword in the open space.
The speed of her swordsmanship grew faster and stronger. The movement of the sword produced small explosive wind noises.
But, with every slash or strike, the voice lines of Hearthstone would reverberate through her head.
In the end, due to her power being too overwhelming, Messai’s wooden sword shattered apart. Messai threw away the shattered sword.
She knew that those were all distracting thoughts in her mind. If she wants to get rid of them, she must return to the tavern.
But, Archbishop Desireless did not wish for them to rashly intrude into the demons’ lair.
Because of that, Messai quickly returned to her room. She changed into a set of ordinary clothes this time. She picked up a worn helmet and placed it on.
After finishing her disguise, she carefully extended her head out from the corner of the door. Confirming that there was no one outside, Messai left the room and started walking toward the chapel’s exit.
Since becoming a templar, this was the first time Messai acted so sneakily in a church.
When she walked past a corner with hurried steps, she suddenly detected that there was someone there.
Unfortunately, she detected that person too late and ran into the missionary that walked out from the corner. The missionary fell to the ground and all the newly copied gospels in his hand scattered onto the ground.
Through the opening on her helmet, Messai discovered the missionary she ran into to be her adjutant!
“La...Lady Messai?”
The adjutant held his aching forehead. The feeling of one’s head running into a helmet was not pleasant at all. But, the matter of his gospels that he spent a long time making scattering all across the ground was even more inconvenient.
Sure enough, even though Messai was wearing a helmet, it was still too easy to recognize her based on her build.
“I’m going to carry out a secret mission,” Messai said to her adjutant with a stern voice.
“Secret? Yes... I.. will maintain secrecy.”
Even though the adjutant was unable to see Messai’s eyes, he was still able to, through the opening on the helmet, sense the pressure from Messai’s gaze.
“Continue with your work, adjutant.”
Golden runes appeared on Messai’s hand. The scattered gospels were all guided by the Messai’s magic power and flew back into the adjutant’s hands in an orderly manner.
After she finished all that, Messai continued walking down the chapel’s hall and left the chapel. Before leaving, she took a glance back.
Her teacher was nowhere to be seen!
Messai clenched her hands. The sensation she felt right now was even more... delightful... than when she severed the heads of demon commanders on the battlefield.
What was even more ‘delightful’ was what she would be doing after. No... she was going there to sever her connection with the tavern!
Messai took a deep breath. With relaxed steps, Messai walked along the familiar path and arrived at the Hearthstone Tavern.
But, when she pushed open the door to the tavern and saw the inside through the opening on her helmet, she stood completely stunned.
The reason for that was because... she saw her esteemed teacher!
Archbishop Desireless was sitting in the tavern’s centermost seat. Sitting across from him was that terrifying Chaos Demon by the name of Joshua.
But, what Messai was incapable of accepting the most was how Archbishop Desireless was talking and laughing with that demon!
Joshua was using the Rogue class hero Valeera. He summoned a minion and tossed it onto the table before ending his turn. Then, he turned his gaze to Desireless who sat across him, “If the news of the Nation of the Holy Church’s Archbishop sneaking into a tavern all the time is to spread, it would cause a bad influence upon the Holy Church, no?”
“The duty of the church is to prevent your conspiracy. Regardless of what you might be planning, I will remain here to watch over you.”
Desireless was holding his crutch with one hand and controlling his hero, Priest Anduin, with his other hand. He used the card ‘Thoughtsteal.'[1]
Then, Desireless lowered his head and took a glance at the cards in his hand. Perhaps it was a misperception but Joshua saw a faint smile on his extremely aged facial skin that resembled tree barks.
“Thus, allow me to apologize.”
He used the card ‘Sap'[2] on Joshua’s strongest minion and sent it back to his hand.
“No matter what you’re planning to do, it will not be able to escape from my eyes.”
This Archbishop came to visit Joshua’s tavern early in the morning.
Joshua thought that he had made preparations and came to the tavern to wage war. But, he came on his own.
The influence of the Ecclesiastical Templars was simply too weak in Norland. Furthermore, Hearthstone Tavern was protected by the dwarves. Ynor was also looked after by the dwarves.
If the Ecclesiastical Templars dared to attack the tavern directly, what they will be greeted with would not be the demons’ vengeance. Instead, it would be the fury of the Hearthstone players.
But, the Holy Church cannot turn a blind eye to the demons. Because of that, Desireless decided to take the middle road and, utilizing his undying body, came to infiltrate the demon’s lair all on his own. He had decided to keep a close watch over the demons’ each and every movement.
If Joshua planned to open the entrance leading to the Demon Realm and have the demon army descend upon Norland, Desireless would be able to discover it immediately and unite all the mages of Norland to prevent Joshua.
Unfortunately, Joshua had never planned to command a demon army to invade the city of Norland. The reason why he established this tavern was purely so that he could play Hearthstone.
But, Joshua didn’t bother to explain things to Desireless either. No matter what he say, it would all be the devil’s whispers to this clergy.
Instead, Joshua felt that having an additional long-term patron to his tavern was an excellent thing.
“In that case, old mister, you take your time and enjoy yourself. I will have to take my leave for now.”
Joshua utilized one of the Rogue’s classic combo ‘Leeroy Jenkins’ + ‘Cold Blood'[3] to kill his Priest opponent.
After winning, Joshua stood up and turned his eyes to the young female knight standing at the entrance pondering whether to walk into the tavern. Then, he left the tavern hall and entered the second floor.
[1] [1. Thoughtsteal: https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Thoughtsteal ]
[2] [2. Sap: https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Sap ]
[3] [3. Cold Blood: https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Cold_Blood Leeroy Jenkins: https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Leeroy_Jenkins This combo cost 7 mana and would deal 10 damage. Leeroy has been Hall of Famed but the Hearthstone in this novel seemed to be only based on the Classics and Basics set. Furthermore, it was written before Leeroy got Hall of Famed earlier this year.]