Lorent
Once they sent the man away, the mercenaries all had imposing expressions on their faces. Only Rafiniya was cheerful as she took out her sword with an eager look on her face, “We finally get to fight?”
This expression of hers immediately attracted displeasure from her comrades. “In that case, you can be the first to go on patrol tonight!” Leylin unceremoniously dealt her a blow, damping her energy. Old Pam didn’t dare to say anything, but he secretly gave Leylin a big thumbs up.
Seeing Rafiniya huffing angrily and ducking back into the carriage, Leylin and the others smiled in a carefree manner. Only, Leylin’s smile was rather dark as he turned back to look at where Rafiniya had gone to.
‘This… It feels like something might have happened…’
……
At the moment, another special group entered Emon City. Their leader was a paladin in bright silver armour, the piercing light of which caused the city guards at the gate to inch away from them. Their faces were filled with reverence and awe as they looked at the divine light on the paladin’s chest.
“Our intel says that they vanished without a trace once they went ashore.” His badge was based on a blue shield, with a warhammer balanced on top of a scale as the insignia. A holy light lingered about it.
“A paladin of the God of Justice!” Someone would call out in a low voice from time to time, and the street thugs and hooligans all completely disappeared without a trace.
The divine light that this paladin possessed was of course that of the God of Judgment, Tyr. That god possessed powerful divine force and was committed to his cause of fighting against evil. The zealous paladins under his command were the greatest nightmare of all evil organisations.
“Leylin Faulen… This insignificant little noble must be in cahoots with that earlier Pirates’ Tide. He can’t run from us!” The paladin had a resolute expression on his face, “Under the divine glory of our lord, all evil must be punished!”
“Paladin Lorent! Do not forget the teachings of our God. Without a trial, that person still has the status of an aristocrat, so please watch your words and manners!” An old priest warned from behind the paladin.
The God of Justice’s priests were serious about punishing evil as well, but unlike the radical paladins they knew that the world wasn’t black and white. They had learnt to compromise, which was the only reason that Tyr’s church had survived to this point. This priest’s eyes were filled with sorrow, but they were soon flooded with determination.
“Only… The lives of thousands of civilians on the outer seas, as well as the disappearance of tens of thousands of innocents must be answered for. He must cooperate with our investigation. The God of Justice will never let an evil man off, and neither will he misjudge an innocent person!”
“Praise the Lord!” Several high-ranking members of the church began to pray from behind the priest.
This was an investigation team that’d been sent by Tyr to the outer seas of the Dambrath Kingdom. There were several high-ranking paladins and priests in their numbers, and once they reached the outer seas they were shocked by the atrocities committed by those evil pirates.
When the Pirates’ Tide spread its sails, it almost destroyed the entire Baltic archipelago. Only a few small noble fiefs managed to escape the purge unharmed. Since the pirates took no prisoners and left none alive, it had been very difficult to gather evidence.
After passing through many obstacles, just when they had finally almost pinned their culprit as the Pirate Cove and Scarlet Tiger pirate crew, they discovered a small noble family who seemed to have played a very important role.
The unstoppable investigation team immediately arrived at Faulen Island, only to be told the news that Leylin had long since left.
In desperation, the investigation team could only divide into two groups and continue to investigate the outer seas. They proclaimed the doctrine of the God of Justice, and the group immediately went back to the continent to apparently request Leylin to cooperate with their investigation.
In reality, once they were within the grasp of these paladins, even the most cunning of nobles could not live for more than a day! The priests of Tyr did not lack in divine torture spells that could force their target to surrender. Sometimes, even a simple ‘Detect Alignment’ was able to solve many problems.
In the presence of powerful gods, the minor nobles who were caught with evidence did not have any power to resist. In turn, if there was no evidence, even high-ranking bishops could not directly put a noble on trial.
Leylin had long broken off the relationship between Faulen Island and the Scarlet Tigers, so unless they could catch him the investigation team could not take any measures against Baron Jonas and their fief. He’d taken care of this before deciding to travel abroad.
“Damn… These nobles ignore the suffering of so many civilians, and instigate one disaster after the other…” A female priest said resentfully.
“Be cautious!” Although the paladin thought the same thing, on the surface he still restrained his female companion’s actions.
The spread of faith in the prime material plane did not curb the power of secular loyalty. It caused the churches a lot of frustration.
“We cannot completely cleanse the world of all its filth, but we can continue to judge every sin we see. Ultimately the world will be purified” The paladin Lorent said strongly, “Raphael, notify the town hall that we need their help, as well ast those left behind…”
After several days, Lorent and his party were able to find several of Leylin’s suspected identities.
“This one can also be ruled out!” Within a splendid and opulent mansion, many guards were left sprawled in confusion on the ground, including several strong Professionals. The paladin Lorent regretfully put down a pale-faced young noble who was trembling all over in fear.
“However, he has also committed numerous crimes. He’s promoted imprisonment, murder, corruption, and countless other things. Hand him over and have the town hall dispose of him!” The female priest. Raphael, glared with disgust at the trembling young noble, as if she had seen a maggot. Allowing this maggot to continue living was almost like an insult to her god.
Although she dearly wanted to directly kill the noble, she managed to endure it.
“Those mercenaries are so mobile that it is very difficult to distinguish between them in such a short period of time even with our capabilities. However, the larger merchant groups in recent times are very suspicious!”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Lorent turned and left, leaving behind a scene of disorder, “We have already tarried here for far too long, we must speed up…”
After a short while, the newly gathered investigation group strolled out of the gate of Emon City. The rest of the city officials and nobles watched them from far away as they breathed a sigh of relief, wry smiles on their faces.
The investigation group left, but they’d swept up a lord, two nights, and an extremely unlucky noble by pure coincidence during their stay. Even the various gangs had been exterminated. Emon City had been cleansed, and was now much more safe. However, they had left behind a huge mess.
……
‘Is this feeling of being chased because of that investigation group from the God of Justice? Looking at the time, they should have arrived at Emon City by now…’ His keen perception and meticulous way of thinking let Leylin guess the truth in just a moment.
‘Tyr… Haha, in the eyes of many nobles, this powerful god is not at all inferior to the God of Plague…’ Leylin laughed coldly to himself, ‘However, if I do not become a high-ranking wizard and build a wizard’s tower, I fear I won’t be able to return to Faulen Island.’
The situation was more dire this time. If Leylin’s father was like the Marquis, or even a noble of the kingdom, he wouldn’t be suppressed like this. However, the Faulen Family pitifully didn’t have such a background. As a result, were they to be caught by the investigative team it would spell disaster for them. The paladins of the God of Justice were not harmless vegetarians.
Naturally, even the God of Justice’s most resolute paladins had to learn to compromise, and once Leylin displayed his greater power and strength, showing that their reward was not worth the efforts, it would not be impossible to erase this matter.
‘No! I just need to let Dambrath Kingdom’s officials handle it, then this entire matter will not concern me,’ Leylin’s eyes shone brightly, ‘Even the God of Justice’s priests need to pay attention to evidence. It looks there are still many more things for me to do in the kingdom…’
Of course all of this was based on the fact that Leylin would remain a noble wizard, and his crimes wouldn’t be exposed. If he was thought of as an invader from another world, or a believer in devils, then he would be endlessly pursued by all the gods, and all the kingdoms on the continent would unite against him.
‘Interesting, it really is interesting!’ Leylin’s original plan was to leave Faulen Island to train after his work there had been completed, rapidly advancing in rank until he became a god, and finally linking up with his original body.
He was still following that plan, and the Faulen Family was developing rapidly. Although the investigative group was troublesome, he could still resolve that issue.
“Be careful! The footprints of an ogre have been discovered ahead!” At this moment, news came from the carriage in front of them, stirring up the entire merchant group.
After they had entered the region, Leylin could not continue to hide and be lazy. He had to fulfill his duty as a mercenary, accompanying his employer’s carriage to protect it. Through the carriage’s gauzy curtain, he could see two similarly frightened pretty faces.
