Chapter 131: 120 – Desperatio, Zelotypia, Expone [3]

Primel watched as Saint Theodore approached the corpses of the men, which were cut in half. Not just that, the buildings directly behind the men also suffered several large gashes.

'Is this...' Primel gulped in nervousness. '...Saint Theodore's power?'

Whatever that was that Theodore used, it wasn't related to Storms at all. That meant the power he had just displayed was his own's, and that he gained it himself.

'...Unlike me, who got all my power from the church.'

As Primel was thinking that, Theodore finally reached the corpses. 

'Is he praying?' Primel thought as she saw Theodore kneeling down. However, she was disillusioned when she saw him rummaging through the corpses' pockets. 

As she was about to march up to him and confront him, Theodore suddenly spoke without even turning back to face her, "you're wondering why I'm looting the corpses, correct?"

"...Yes," Primel replied with a much calmer voice than she had expected. It seemed that her shock that Theodore knew what she was thinking overwhelmed her rage.

"I see," Theodore chuckled, "trust me when I say that I have no intention to disrespect the dead. I'm merely giving them a chance to atone for their sins."

"...What?"

"You're familiar with your church's 'Holiest pardon,' correct?"

"I do." Primel nodded. Holiest pardons were pardons that were granted to people who paid a hefty sum of money to the Church of Light. Unlike normal pardons, which only absolved people of minor sins, Holiest pardons forgave even the vilest of sins—treason against the Church.

"This is something like that, letting these men atone for conspiring to capture a Saintess of Light on her pilgrim," Theodore said with a matter-of-facty tone, "but instead of Goddess Lumaria, I'm collecting Holiest pardon fees for Goddess Lyra. Though this amount of offering is... much less that what your Church would normally accept, Goddess Lyra is generous. For her, it's the sincerity and thought that counts."

"...But why are you putting all the money in your own pockets?"

Theodore's body stiffened for a second before he resumed going through the corpses and pocketing money again. "You see, my Goddess is a relatively minor one compared to yours, so she doesn't have that many Celestials— or any," he muttered the last part under his breath. "—serving her. Thus, she and her aides are busy, and don't have time to receive the pardon fees directly, at least not right now."

Finishing looting the corpses, Theodore patted his pocket and stood up. "So that's why I'm putting them in my pockets." He then smiled stiffly. "Temporarily, of course."

"Mm..." Primel let out a non-committal hum of understanding. Although she wasn't entirely convinced, she knew better than to question another Saint—who was also the one who saved her.

'Well, I have to listen to his orders now. I was somehow reverted back to a Priestess after all'

"Saint Theodore," Primel called out, "I have something to tell you.

"Not right now," Theodore quickly replied with a frown, "I have to get rid of the evidence first before the guards arrive."

Then, he rushed toward every corpses and lightly touched them. As soon as he did so, space seemingly distorted, before the bodies were nowhere to be seen.

"Saint Theodore, what—"

"The bodies are fine." Theodore quickly interrupted Primel. "Let's get back to the church first. I don't want to get caught by the guards this early."

He rushed through the twists and turns of the alleyways, with Primel following close behind, still confused.

***

'Shit! Why didn't I just put the money in [Alternate storage]?' I cursed under my breath as I ran through the alleyway.

Aside from being really fucking heavy, the money clinked loudly every time I took a step, making inconspicuous travel really hard. Eventually, I decided that I had enough of it, and shoved my hands into my pockets.

[Alternate storage]

Feeling my now-much-lighter pockets, I heaved a sigh of relief. 'I swear, my greed's going to kill me one of these days.'

But that was a problem for future Theodore. Right now, I was busy evading the guards, who I saw marching the streets and eyeing everything earlier. I could probably go out in the streets without any issue—though not being a Dark elf or Beastkin would definition draw much attention to me—but my main concern was Primel. For obvious reasons, she couldn't just go out in broad streetlight. Not to mention, she was running after me like a man with a limp leg.

Unable to contain my frustration, I stopped dead in my track and snapped my head around. "What's up with you?! Why are you so slow?"

Primel similarly halted her steps. Hunching down, putting her hands on her knees, and catching her breath, she answered, "S-sorry... I... haaaah... am out of... haaaah... energy." 

My frowned ceased as I observed her more closely. She definitely looked a bit thinner than before... and a lot dirtier. It was obvious that the past couple of days did a number on her. Normally, I'd have just carried her back to the Church like I did with Evelyn, but I was also feeling my strength waning because of the Mana I used to execute the Fourth movement earlier.

As such, I plopped down to the ground and leaned against a building with a sigh. "Fine then, rest for 15 minutes. We'll resume after that." Then, I reached into [Alternate storage] and took out some food and a flask of water. After drinking the water, I threw the flask and the food toward Primel. "There. Can't complain now."

Primel received the items with a grateful nod. "Thank you..."

In response, I merely waved my hand dismissively and rested my eyes for a few minutes. But before I could even rest, Primel suddenly asked, "how many days have it been since I escaped the governor's mansion?"

'Is this her attempt at small talk?'

If so, then she was miserably failing. I never thought that I'd see someone who was worse at social interactions than me. I decided to humor her a little and then go back to resting.

"5 days, more or less."

Suddenly, her voice took on an urgent tone. "WHAT? SAINT THEODORE, YOU HAVE TO LISTE—"

"Nope, don't care," I immediately shut her down as she was practically screaming in my ears. "Wait until we get back to the church. I don't care what you want to talk about right now."

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And with those worse, I promptly closed my eyes shut and ignored everything else.

...

Although our speed was faster than it was before the rest, it still took us about an hour or so before we got get back to the Church. As soon as we did, Primel called out to me, "Saint Theodore, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Just get into the building first."

The first thing I saw after kicking the door of the church open was Maria braiding Evelyn's hair, and Evelyn trying her best to talk to Kevin and Jacob, who were scared shitless for some reason. But I didn't have any time to take in the scene further as Primel suddenly pulled me down to a nearby chair row and spoke with urgency, "please, it's important!" 

"No need to push me down like you want to rape me," I stood up, ignoring the redness slowly creeping up Primel face, "tell me, what's so important that you deemed it necessary to annoy me about it as soon as I rescued you?"

"F-first of all, sorry for irritating you," Primel stammered, though I could tell that her apology wasn't too sincere, "but this is really important. It concerns what I saw in the governor's mansion."

"..."

Taking my silence as a sign of approval, Primel continued, "the governor... wasn't the governor. I-I know it sounds weird, but he feels like a different person! I've met him just a few months before on an official church business, and although his lecherous attitude was the same, he doesn't remember, or at least recognize me at all! Not just that, I saw him performing a Void ritual. His aura was that of a Void lord, not a normal person!"

"As expected," I sighed, "[Jealousy] is controlling the top brass of the city."

"Y-You knew?"

"I did as soon as I found out that the guards are ignoring the missing children reports. Now, is that all?"

"No!" Primel raised her voice desperately. "Please don't cut me off again, this is the most important part! The ritual I saw the fake governor performing, it's [Circulus inanis], and the ritual will be completed in a day!"

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