“I’m so happy! I never thought I’d see the day that you suggest we go to church!” Sister Sensei said to me, practically beaming.
Just as she’d said, I’d asked her if we could go to the church today. But my purpose in doing so wasn’t to get out of the hell that was her training. Instead, I wanted to take a look at my enemy. If the church really did have a secret connection to the heavens, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to just waltz in there. Then again, if the only reason I had for not going was because I didn’t want to, then I might as well have gone.
It might have been ill-advised, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. A little danger was to be expected, but this was well worth it. However, I wasn’t so bold that I’d go two days in a row, so I’d suggested going a few days after my first visit.
“Are you gonna start coming here by yourself?” Sister Sensei asked excitedly.
“Nope.” Like hell am I going to make this a daily ritual.
“Aw, that sucks.” Sister Sensei hung her head a little in disappointment.
As we walked along the same path that she’d taken me on before, I couldn’t help but notice that there were more people than usual.
“Whoa.” I’d almost bumped into someone. I hated this. If it were nighttime, then at least I could have slipped through the crowd or sent people flying if they bumped into me.
“Must be a lot of people because of the holiday.” Sister Sensei weaved through the crowd easily. She must have been using her magic tools to increase her physical abilities. “Here,” she said, holding her left hand out to me. “We don’t want to get separated. Grab on.”
“Hm? Okay.” I nodded and did so. Wait, why do we need to hold hands? I know where we’re going. It doesn’t matter if we get separated. It was too late for me to let go now, though. Plus, her hand was incredibly soft. Not bad.
In the interest of not rocking the boat, I decided to play along. Just as I did, I noticed a certain person in the crowd. It was Ariya. Oh, right—didn’t she and Sister Sensei have a little bit of an argument a few days ago? I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about it yet.
By the time I’d get back, Ariya would already be gone. Apparently she’d taken an ongoing job that had her looking for flowers for medicinal use, which only bloomed in the early morning. Had she just got back? There were some things I wanted to talk to her about, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to do so yet. I couldn’t bring up everything I wanted to discuss with Sister Sensei right here, but it was still a good opportunity.
I waved my free hand at Ariya, but as soon as I did, she disappeared. Huh?
“Kiri, what’s the matter?”
“Uh... Nothing.” Well, if she’s hiding from me, then I probably shouldn’t force her to talk.
After that, nothing really out of the ordinary happened. We arrived at the chapel, and just as expected, it was crowded. Still, it was quiet, and I was sure to remain mentally on guard in order to block any unwanted probing into my mind.
I felt something trying to connect to me, but even though that connection was definitely stronger than before, I was able to block it. They were definitely on their guard too. I began to appraise the large statue of the goddess in the chapel. Detect was a power from this world, and was unable to look into what the gods of this world were up to, but perhaps Appraisal—something I’d gotten from another world—could.
Goddess of Light (Holy Land of Ryne)
Quality: C / Value: 240000 Dells
A statue in the image of the goddess of light. Commissioned by the Holy Land of Ryne.
There didn’t seem to be anything strange about it. Or maybe there was, and Appraisal just couldn’t tell. I should keep looking. I closed my eyes and pretended to pray, but instead used Omniscience and Appraisal together to scan all the items within the chapel—the statues, the art, and the pedestals.
Rock of Holy Light (Holy Land of Ryne)
Quality: SS / Value: ??? Dells
A rock made from a tree of the gods. The church is obligated to keep this upon a pedestal. It is a conduit for the powers of the goddess.
Its description, along with the fact that its value was unknown, screamed “suspicious” to me. Plus, no matter how many times I examined it with Detect, all it said was that it was an ordinary rock. Okay, this pretty much settled it. The goddess used that rock throughout her churches to probe into the minds of her followers...or something. At the very least, it was clear that they used churches as their base of operations.
As much as I wanted to investigate that rock further, there were too many people around. That was okay, though. Just learning about its existence was a win in my book.
“Are you finished? I’m seriously impressed by how fervently you pray,” Sister Sensei said in a low voice.
“I just really dig the silence,” I replied in an equally low voice as we exited the chapel.
“That’s fine. Whatever gets you through the door.”
So me looking into gods hacking people’s minds is okay, then? I wasn’t really a fan of beings that used silly tricks to probe into the minds of their followers.
We exited the double doors to the outside—and when we did, someone suddenly jumped out from behind one of the pillars.
“Whoa.” They almost bumped into me, so I took a step back. However, they just ignored me and kept running, their black robe fluttering slightly as they did.
“Hey, no running on church grounds!” Sister Sensei yelled after him. “This is the border between our world and the goddess’s world—it’s holy ground. It isn’t a place for cutting in front of others.”
The robed person stopped in his tracks and turned around. We could see part of their face from beneath their hood.
Chris Chamsel / Human
HP: 57/57 / MP: 295/306 / STR: 102
VIT: 98 / DEX: 87 / AGI: 58 / INT: 245
Divine Blessing(s): None
Titles: Summoner, Avenger
It was a haggard woman, with eyes that looked like she’d seen hell. She focused those dark, sunken eyes on Sister Sensei.
“You know nothing...” she hissed, leering at Sister Sensei.
“Um...everything okay?” Sister Sensei’s question was genuine, but the woman simply ran off.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Was she a thief or something?”