Chapter 3: 3 – Morning of Quiet/Looming silence

The great cathedral was covered in shadows once more.

The hall that extended far and ended on the altar, where a priest wearing important robes stood.

A satisfied smile graced his features, and his deep voice echoed through the cathedral.

“A job well done, you two.” With a wave of his arms, he congratulated the exorcists standing by the feet of the altar.

Their expressions were solemn, and their poses were that of reverence.

“It put up a fight, but even a devil can’t deal with two exorcists. This should rid us of any impending danger for the near future.”

“It was really nice being able to fight with Alma. I suppose that we will be able to deal with the situation again, should the need arise.”

The priest nodded, satisfied with the final remarks of their reports. “It pleases me that no conflicts have arisen from this assignment. The clergy is sure to be satisfied with these specific results.”

He allowed the words to sink in before continuing.

“However, the lack of any overt abilities being shown by the devil is worrying.” He joined his hands behind his back, and began pacing around the altar. “The Holy Assembly is conducting a thorough investigation into the result of its final actions. As the ones responsible for the extermination, you are to remain standby until all research is complete.”

The two nodded in unison.

“As Azza said, if anything comes of it, we will make sure to kill it without hesitation or trouble.”

“You can leave it to us, oh Reverend Father.”

The priest smiled.

“Very well. Your assignment is yet to be completed, so follow through your duties and see it to completion.”

The final order was given.

In response, the two of them raised their hands in a religious salute. ““The Holy Will be done.””

With a final and pleased nod, the priest turned around and headed to the room at the back.

As his form disappeared, his final words came through and echoed throughout the empty cathedral.

“Do not abandon slaughter, do not fail bloodshed. The Holy Quest of the ones that rid humanity of their plague. Drench yourselves in massacre until the final one is slain.”

Speaking their creed as exorcists, his form and voice disappeared; the small wooden door closing with a sickening creak.

His footsteps and presence disappeared, and with that, so did an invisible pressure in the air.

“Ahhhh, finally, does he know how tense it is to keep talking to him?” The fake-angel complained, rubbing her arms.

“In any case, it seems this assignment isn’t quite over just yet.” He shrugged. “Chances are that nothing will come out of it, but we should be ready for an eventuality. Do you need to rest?”

She turned her head to her back and flexed her wings for a bit; after making a few too many faces, she turned back to him with her answer. “I could probably deal with another one of those right now, but it might be better to rest for a bit.”

“I see.” He nodded.

“Well, it’s not like I need to sleep or anything. Just resting around or eating some good food should give me the necessary energy.” Bringing a finger to her mouth, a wishful smile spread across her face.

“… don’t tell me…” he didn’t need her to finish her sentence to know what she wanted, it had been like this ever since they were children.

“Hey, the matriarch bakes one really good pie, you know?” Her voice took a much happier tone.

He sighed. “Of course you’d say that.” Rubbing his temples, he thought of an appropriate answer. “Are you sure this is a good idea? It’s still morning, you don’t even know if all the kids are awake, and pie for breakfast is unhealthy.”

His eyes turned to the great stained glass above the altar, where faint sunlight seeped through.

They had ended their mission near midnight, and awaited the sunrise to report back. It had served as enough time for Azza to get some minor rest, and the Clergy to organize itself and the Holy Assembly.

She scoffed. “Nonsense. I know those children like the back of my hand, they are absolutely awake and bothering the matriarch.” She shrugged. “I see no problem in going around, then.”

He felt an annoying tick in his eyes. “Don’t dodge the subject, eating pie at breakfast still isn’t healthy for you, and you shouldn’t be bothering her with your unreasonable demands.”

She continued nodding to herself. “I am sure the matriarch won’t mind. Many were the times I came around asking for pie and she baked it right then and there.”

He sighed, exasperated. “You’ve been like that since you were a child, and I’m sure the matriarch is more than bothered by your incessant requests… besides, pie still isn’t a healthy breakfast, especially when you may be going into a fight!”

This time, she was the one who sighed. “Man, you really don’t know when to be silent. Come on now, a little pie for breakfast never did any harm for someone with a metabolism like ours.”

He sighed. “Of course you wouldn’t care.” Rubbing his temples, he accepted that it would end up always being like that.

“Great!” With an excited smile, she began marching out of the cathedral. “Now come along, we better get off before anyone here for the morning mass arrives!”

He sighed. “I never said I would come with you.” For a moment he thought about arguing, but decided it was much better to simply accept and go along with it.

With a small smile, he followed along.

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“Ah, I never get tired of the smell of your pie, matriarch.” With a delighted voice, the fake-angel launched praise at the cook.

The kitchen was bathed by the pleasant warmth of the morning sun, the smell of pie wafting through the air. It brought forth a wave of nostalgic memories.

The matriarch smiled. “It is always a pleasure to know someone enjoys my cooking so much.”

Carefully, she watched the pie baking in the oven; it wouldn’t do to have it burn or be anything less than perfect.

She was, after all, someone who prided herself in such motherly skills.

“Hey, why are you saying that to her?!”
“That’s right, we praise your cooking every day!”

The kids complained in the background, wishing for their own share of affection.

The matriarch laughed heartily. “Let’s see about that when you’re all grown up. If you still act like Azza, then I’ll thank you all as many times as you wish.” The old lady contained a chuckle and looked at the red-wearing man. “If you act like Alma, on the other hand.”

He was put on the spot, and his only answer was to look away embarrassed. Scratching the back of his head, he thought about an answer. “I just don’t want to be a bother, you have enough on your plate as is.”

“Don’t worry, matriarch! We’ll keep asking even when we’ve all grown old!”
“Yeah! Don’t worry about us becoming like Alma, we’ll always be bothering you!”

“Oh my…” She could only hold back a chuckle as the children went on with their words. It could be troublesome in the future, but for now… “Then I’ll look forward to it.” she would smile for them.

It was immediately followed by the children throwing their hands up in happiness and cheer.

“Anyways, what about the pie, is it getting ready any time soon?” The white-haired lady joined her hands and rested her face on them, all too excited to have her desired pastry.

The old woman sighed. “Almost,” she said, looking at the baking pastry. “although, you should wait silently and obediently, considering I’m allowing you to eat while looking like that.”

Under the matriarch’s sharp gaze, the two exorcists could only squirm on their seats.

“Aha-ha, you see, about that.” Scratching the back of her head, the fake-angel was lost looking for the proper answer.

They still hadn’t switched off their gears, covered in dust, debris, and blood.

“Well, we are meant to be on the field soon after this, so taking it all off and getting clean would be a waste of energy.” Her companion came to her rescue with a matter of fact statement. “We did wash our hands, though.” He added hastily.

“Yeah, that we did!” She chimed in.

The old lady could only sigh. “At least I managed to get that on that head of yours.” She shook her head. “Still, Azza, isn’t it uncomfortable in that clothing? Maybe take off a little of it.”

She waved her hands, trying to dispel any ideas from the woman. “There’s no need, really. It may look like that, but it’s actually quite comfortable.”

Surely enough, her gear may not be like the angel-like robes she normally wore, but it wasn’t completely uncomfortable.

The old woman looked at her in exhasperation before sighing again. “If you say so… just make sure to get comfortable and rested before going out there.”

“You can leave it to me!” Without a single shred of shame or hesitation, she accepted the request.

“Besides, matriarch, it’s not like Azza needs to take off that clothing, she looks awesome in it!”
“Yeah, yeah, she really does!”
“I want my gear to look like that in the future!”

“I feel like that isn’t exactly the problem here.” Alma muttered to himself.

“Hehe, my little fan club truly is the best, isn’t it?”

“Don’t feel so proud of it!” He tried to reprimand her, but unfortunately, he doubted it had the intended effect.

Not too long after that, the oven rang with the warning of a done meal.

The matriarch turned it off, and with the practiced ability of someone that had done so over a thousand times, served it and the cutlery off with a smile.

“It’s still hot, so be careful.” With that calm warning she left the kitchen counter, leaving the fake-angel to eat her beloved pie.

The white-haired woman looked at the pastry with gusto. The steam still wafting from it, the delicious smell that invaded her nostrils, the softness visible in the food.

“Thanks for the food!” Grabbing the knife and fork by the side, she dove into the dessert with reckless abandon.

Splitting it and bringing it to her mouth, munching on it as fast as she could, obtaining all the tasty flavor. She devoured the pie as if it was the last time she would ever eat it.

It filled her mouth with a nostalgic and motherly flavor that only the matriarch could ever hope to achieve.

“Slow down a little, you’ll choke if you continue like that.” The red-wearing man complained.

“Silly Alma,” she mumbled between ravaging bites. “I’ve eaten like this since we were children, and when did I ever choke?”

“I can think of a few times…” He mumbled, severely annoyed.

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“Hey, big sis, give me a bite, give me a bite!” The young boy Adelphos ran up to the eating woman and asked, jumping up and down.

She looked at him with a bothered expression, and pressing the palm of her hand against his forehead, she pushed him away.

“Wah, meanie!” The young boy complained, but the fake-angel completely ignored him, preferring to gorge on her food.

“Give it up, Adelphos. I’ve never once seen her share food.” Crossing his arms, the red-wearing man schooled the younger one.

“Enough with that, little one.” The matriarch chimed in. “You shouldn’t follow Azza’s example. Eating pie for breakfast is bad for your health.”

That reprimand managed to not only reach the child, but it also made the fake-angel begin choking on her food.

Coughing out in wild despair for air, the young woman slammed her fist against her chest repeatedly.

“…et tu, matriarch?” Finally ridding herself of the pesky piece of food, she managed to croak out.

The red-wearing man nodded along. “Indeed, I told her the same thing, but she was adamant in not listening to me.”

 “Surrounded by betrayers, I see.” The fake-angel mumbled to herself, before going back to gorging herself on the pie.

Only, as she was finishing out the dessert, another childish form popped up by her side.

“Hey hey, big sis, tell us about how your assignment went!” The young Adelphie requested.

“Why would she tell you when they didn’t want to talk about executioner stuff with me?” The boy, Adelphos, asked.

“Because you are annoying, duh.” The young girl answered as if it was so simply obvious.

“Gah!” The young boy glared at her with all the ferocity a young child could muster.

“Stop fighting, you two, I’m all too glad to share my stories with you.” Now finished with her food, the fake-angel smiled and calmly disarmed the two children.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“Silence, I consider this resting.”

He sighed, that sounded like her alright.

With a big smile, she turned around and looked at all the kids that had circled around her. In the background, the matriarch continued to tend to the orphanage’s needs.

It was one thing not to encourage them to take their life happily, but in the end of it all, it was a fate they couldn’t go against, so they might as well give them some fun, he supposed.

“Alright children, what do you want to hear about first?” With cheerful words, she clasped her hands and prepared herself to begin.

“How many demons were there?”
“Were they big?”
“Were they scary?”

The questions came one after the other, a swarm of inquisitive children hungry for answers.

“Well, let’s see…” Still, completely used to this situation, she thought about how to proceed calmly. “There was actually only one monster, a devil!”

Her voice gained a more pronounced tone, as she gave her best to make it sound as scary and entertaining as possible.

“Woaaaaa— aren’t those rare?”

“They are, they are! I heard that they are the strongest!”

“Yeah, the priests don’t even like talking about them!”

“Yeah, but don’t worry too much. All that means is that it takes more than a hit for us to kill them. At the end of the day, nothing can beat your big sister!”

““Woaaaa!”” The children were all caught up in the excitement that was their big sister’s boasting.

“Tell us more, tell us more!”
“Yeah, how strong was it?”
“Was it ugly?”

“Yeah, that one was quite ugly. It was filled with claws and had ugly teeth.” She nodded along with her own words. “It was quite fast for how big it was, so it was troublesome to hit it.”

“But you got it by the end, right?”

“Of course! The instant it was faced with me and Alma, we blew it out of the building!”

“Oh, that’s so cool!”
“Wait… it was in a building? What kind of building was it?”

“Uh, that? Apparently, it was some big company’s building downtown. The damned thing nested itself in the big boss’ office.”

“All the way up there?”
“What was it doing there?”
“Shouldn’t it be out destroying things?”

“Hmmm… now that you say it…” Unconsciously, she dropped the inflection in her voice, suddenly turning more serious.

“Well, maybe it had some power that needed time to develop properly. It could’ve been hiding in there until that moment arrived.” He added, clearing the concerns she might’ve had. “It’s really not that complicated.”

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be a problem then. But still, to have arrived in that place and stayed hidden it must’ve needed to have formed in there.” She scratched her chin. “Poor CEO…”

He grimaced internally. It was probably better to not let the children think about the possible meanings of that situation.

“Well, his room was empty outside of the devil, so it’s more likely he just wasn’t present for the last few days.” He added, trying to add some hope to the situation, after all, even if he had been killed or eaten, there would’ve been some remains of his body.

“Yeah that’s probably how it stayed hidden, even if it was there for only a day or two.” She gave out an embarrassed laugh. “I had thought that he was just unpopular with the employees.”

He sighed. It wasn’t implausible that only a day wouldn’t harbor much suspicion, but… well, in the end it didn’t matter what she thought about it. Thinking about those things and figuring what happened was the Holy Assembly’s job, all they had to do was exterminate.

“Hey, big sister.” The young girl named Adelphie asked. “Wasn’t it scary? Fighting a devil, wasn’t it scary?”

“Ah…” For an instant, she was left without words to say. And, as fast as the speechlessness came, it went, a smile blossoming in its place. “What is this question? Even if it was scary and dangerous, that’s our duty, isn’t it? We fight these things that try to destroy everything, until the very end.” Extending her hand, she patted the young girl’s head.

“Aaaaahhhh!” The children all exclaimed.
“How cool!”
“We will be like that one day, won’t we!”
“Heroes!”

“Well, enough about that. What’s important is that now that we dealt with the devil, you can all rest safe!” She calmly chided. “As long as nothing comes out of the recent investigation.” She added the last line silently and rushed, so only she and he could listen to it.

“If you’re so good together, why don’t you and Alma work like that more?” The young Adelphie asked, full of innocent curiosity.

They looked at each other awkwardly, wondering how to answer that question. In the end, they doubted the children would be able to understand.

So, she decided to merely extend her hand and pet the young girl’s head. “You’ll understand when you grow up.”

Maybe it was an unfortunate thought, but the young girl would understand once she became an exorcist herself.

She seemed bothered by receiving such a usual answer, but resigned herself to accepting it.

It was then—

“Children, it is time for your morning chores!” The matriarch’s voice came down the orphanage, reminding the children they all had a full day ahead of them.

Collectively, the children all groaned, thinking it would be much better to simply talk around with their older siblings than deal with that.

“Really?”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Ahhhhh.”

Still, even as they all complained, they all obeyed dutifully and moved out to work on their chores.

““Bye big sis! Bye big bro!””

After collectively giving out their goodbyes, the children all set about their day.

As soon as they were left alone, the fake-angel raised her arms and stretched. “Hmmmmmm. Nothing better than a nice talk with the kids after some pie.”

“You think so?”

“You don’t?”

He sighed. “As fun as it might be, it can be tiring.”

She deadpanned. “You barely even interacted with them, you know? If anyone doesn’t have the right to feel tired after this, it is you.”

He sighed. “I guess…”

“Well,” pushing aside the plate filled with crumbs, she laid down her arms on the table and rested her head on them. “wake me up for that assignment in a few.”

“Wait, what? I thought you said you didn’t need sleep!”

“I don’t need, but it helps.” She said with a sly smile.

He sighed. “Fine then.” He supposed there was no harm in letting her catch up on some sleep.

Finding a comfortable position in the chair he sat at, he was ready to wait for a while, when her voice called out to him.

“Hey… those kids weren’t wrong, you know?” She called out sleepily. “We do work great together.”

He crossed his arms, pensive. “I suppose that’s what happens when you’ve been around someone for so long.” He smiled. “It was less worrisome than I thought it would be.”

“Heh… thanks for being my friend.”

“It’s a lot of trouble, let me tell you.” He let out a calm chuckle. “But when I think about it, I guess it’s all a really small price.”

The morning slowly passed by in the sun-bathed room.

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