Azal sat at the head of a ornate black table with red accents along with five other unique individuals, her pink hair with white endings reaching about the length of her chin and her hands partially obscured by fingerless gloves holding eight individual jewel-less rings of various materials and natures. Her hands intertwined while her elbows symmetrically rested on the cold obsidian-like material before her, obscuring her tie.

Around her neck was a thin black leather collar, a single red cross at the front akin to a rough paint job, it seemed mystical; As if it could corrode the world.

"Anything to report?" She asked.

Said alchemist thought for a moment "Preparation for the expedition isn't going well. Even if it's only the first layer, the abyss is the abyss, otherwise, how would the Executioner die there?"

Azal couldn't help but sigh, this had already been the third year "I thought you said it would be done by next month? What's the problem this time?"

"Dragon blood, I need a demi-dragon's blood for abyss-heart pills, and that'll be the end of it."

"And it can't happen without them?" She questioned with suspicion that the girl was just messing with her for experimental material, even if she knew that either way; She wouldn't get the 'Abyss-heart pills' without giving her what she wanted.

"Nope! Unless your fine with your soul getting reduced to basically nothing, that is." She said with a confident chuckle, playing with a vial containing a probably incredibly valuable potion.

Azal squinted her eyes at here, causing a sudden rush of panic and nerve within the still pretty new apostle candidate, she was so lucky that the order was under her and not any of the others "...I'll see if it's possible, any of you four have anything to say?"

A small silence preceded before a man with black hair, striking black hair, and a black earing hanging from his left earlobe found the need to say something "Another one of the emperor's kids wants a chance at the [Heavenly crown]."

An imperceptible frown formed on her face for a moment "Put him with the rest of the batch."

"As long as you say so~" He said, chuckling slightly.

On the other side of the table, a woman with long white hair and eyes of a golden-like hue verbally 'Hmph'-ed, very obviously trying to interrupt the man "This isn't even important Demnos, why bring it up now?"

'Demnos' chuckled slightly "I'm sure you know why."

"Hmph!" She once again hmphed verbally, silently bringing her hand up to feel the earing hanging from her right ear.

The pink-haired orator quickly shifted the topic and faced the prudently proportioned white-haired woman in a white gown with golden accents, it was pretty obvious she liked the colours white and yellow together "Well then, do you happen to have anything of note?"

"Yes!" She said proudly, crossing her arms "The next restoration will happen within the next decade!"

...

Unlike the praise and surprise she was expecting, an awkward silence ensued, with the black-haired man barely containing his laughter.

Azal frowned silently and gave a glance at the joyful trickster "You see, Nal, Demnos already told us that."

"Bwahahah!" A burst of laughter instantly pierced the tension with not even the slightest worry at retribution, the origin obvious "Months ago too!"

Taking a deep breath, and waiting for the earing-wearing man's laughter to die down even if Natalia's motivation and moral was quickly crushed "Don't worry Nal, it's not your job to be an informant, you're doing great as you are."

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It seemed the words calmed the situation down a bit, Azal could understand that she wanted to overshadow Demnos and all considering their origins, but still... Demnos was the {Sleuth of the mad god}...

"Anything else?" She queried, though no one felt the need to answer "Nothing about the acrobat?"

No answers.

"Well what did you expect? That they would suddenly appear again and praise the [Heavenly crown] like a good god-fearing apostle candidate?" Demnos sneered.

She couldn't help but feel a small part of her self bubble with rage, but she knew it was- At least partially- The effect of one of his skills, so she forced it down and let one of her skills do the talking "Well, I would certainly hope so, but sadly we don't live in a perfect world where everything goes according to plan."

"Tch!" The mischievous male being clicked his tongue, obviously still trying to use his instigation skill set; Though it failed against the protection of .

"Is that all?" Seeing that not much important had cropped up, She went to clap, though the annoying instigator seemed to remember something.

"Ah, yes," He said somewhat hazily and without any urgency "There's a bit of a weird dungeon at the northen border of the empire."

"And what's so weird about it?" She tried to sleuth out of the sleuth.

Demnos chuckled slightly "It only has slimes, so it's a guaranteed nuclei production-line, though it's only [Common] right now."

At his last set of words, the little tinkerer once again rapidly lost interest. Actually, everyone did.

"Now don't be hasty," He smiled slightly "It appeared close to a [Trace]."

The tension had instantaneously risen, as the [■] radiating from multiple apostle candidates twisted the world "Chill out~ It's not as if I'm sure, maybe it's just one of that wretch's experiments."

Though the steaks had returned to more reasonable levels, Azal needed to think for a moment. Even if the chance that it was valid was slim at best, becoming a proper apostle would afford much more influence for the church, along with far more personal power as well. But it could also be red herring, and considering it was the red eyed sleuth that gave the information; There was almost certainly a half-truth or an omitted fact hidden somewhere within his words.

"Report if it lasts until it's [Rare]."

With a shrug he obliged, at least verbally "Your wish is my command~"

...She did not trust his 'Promise', she knew enough that he'd say 'Well, I never said I would, did I?' if she pressed after he very obviously consciously choose not to do it. Or maybe he would, It wasn't as if her reprimands would effect him in any way "...Then I'd say that it's an apt time to end this annual meet."

Before she could even say another word, all five of her- Barely friendly- Compatriots rushed away with full force. She had barely been able to keep them here due to the order left behind by the mad god, and she couldn't afford to use her for this.

She stood up herself and locked the ornate door behind her, and chosing to have a stroll in the dark cathedral.

Taking one hand to feel the completely ignorable [Orator's choker] basically integrated into her skin, she looked at the seemingly marble pedestal holding a resplendent golden crown that seemed to shine even with a lack of proper light.

'I wonder, what was your name?' Azal thought aimlessly as she readied herself for the daily attunement.

Though she herself possessed a [Remnant] on her person at all times, the attunement increase by merely being in the presence of the [Heavenly crown] surpassed that of the [Orator's choker] even if both were considered a [Remnant], though the strongest effect suppressed the rest and did not stack meaning that she would be the same as everyone else in consideration to said boost in attunement- Though luckily, she still held an inherent affinity to the mad god's bounty beyond the average member.

With a deep breath, after making sure all her clothes were properly fastened- She didn't want another incident of a guard accidentally seeing too much, even if she had long ago changed from skirts to pants when she had matured- And in one singular motion, found herself standing on one hand with all limbs stretched out.

And that is how she remained, as she started to note and complain about different random matters in her mind.

Mad god's bounty Mad god's eternity Rank 2 (25%) → Rank 2 (26%)

It wasn't much, but enough coins would equal a dragon's hoard.