Noah, who landed with Seraphina, noticed Ariel nearby, and shot a side-eye at Seraphina, who was openly staring at him with the same smirk Noah had shot her.

‘She's supposed to be the thrall, right? Not the other way around? Why does it feel like it's the other way around right now?‘

Noah cleared his throat as nonchalantly as possible as he landed, then walked towards Ariel. Nonchalantly. His brief undercover stint had barely improved his acting, and Ariel picked up on it.

“Judging by your tense expression, you've seen the current state of the public?”

“State of the public?”

“Is that not why you look so tense? Nevermind, whatever your current problem is, we have a bigger one. Something needs to be done about the crowd right now. They're north, outside the estate doors, so it makes sense that you wouldn't have seen it, having flown in from the south. You should see it for yourself.”

Noah tilted his head in curiosity, then flew over to the front of the estate.

‘I hear a crowd, and I'm not even close by. Just what-’

As he arrived on the roof near the front of the estate, he landed on the roof where a massive crowd had come into view in front of the gates, not too far in front of it.

“Down with the devil!”

“Down with the devil!

“Noah! The one who betrayed Her favor! Show yourself!”

‘...What? This happened in just the few hours that I had left? Impossible. And just two days before the invasion? Fishy.’

Noah jumped and slowly glided over to the top of the gate, where he stopped and stood still. He was now mere meters in front of the crowd, in full view.

“How dare you!”

“Bring Her favor back! You scum!”

“You must have done this with the demons! My son is dying, you devil!”

“You must have made a deal with the Demon Lord!”

‘Son is dying? What's going on? And what's this about Her favor? They're probably referring to the Goddess Calysta, so does this have to do with the Saintess pulling the church out of Haldor?’

“You dare stay silent?!”

Noah did not respond to their words and only quietly thought about them. Stones were thrown, but Noah did not budge a muscle in response.

‘No matter how I think about it, this is too strange. First, Odir’s standard of living has been on the rise, and the people know that it was because of me. Next, gathering such a crowd of at least a hundred people in a few hours is impossible. Most of all, the public sees me as a valorous ex-hero. It's doesn't make sense for them to come to these conclusions or act this way. This had to have been forced and premeditated, clearly by someone with malicious intent. I need info.’

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Noah transformed into a modified Kvasir that allowed him to cast Third Circle - Fly on his slimes and dispersed them like drones throughout Odir. The people showed shock for a moment and watched as the slimes darted away in different directions, then continued.

“W-what was that! Are those your devilish techniques?! Answer!”

‘I must say, this feels slightly nostalgic. Reminds me of that time some mayor loved by his people tried to molest Emma, and she turned his mind into a mess with her illusions publicly without explaining anything. Dragging her away from that town while trying to convince her that the people were innocent and not to hurt them too was pretty fun.’

Noah looked up at the horizon, watching the sun approach the horizon.

‘Tsk. What am I thinking about right now, when we have so little time and so many things left to do. Using Ares still feels like playing a game with mouse sensitivity up too high, the army is still barely in position despite having just a couple days left, and so much more. And these fucks are so noisy.’

Noah's drones returned. It had been almost thirty minutes, and Noah transformed into his Kvasir's Mead form to absorb the slimes with his eyes shut and his head down.

“I see. Was wondering why they took so long. They took action, more than just information collection. I've been so focused on external threats, I didn't even think of what was happening inside. So this was what that bitch was aiming for. She seems to have slightly underestimated me, though.”

Noah's quiet words were drowned in the crowd's noise.

‘First Circle - Thunderclap!

A moment later, Noah spoke quiet words as he cast his gaze back upwards, plenty loud in the silence. Noah dispelled Kvasir's Mead that made him look demonic, and unfolded large off-white gryphon's wings, then equipped himself with the siren’s throat, imbuing a soothing, slightly angelic effect in his voice as he proceeded to speak.

“People, I understand your rage. I do. Over the past few days, what looks like a plague has been spreading, you're scared, and it makes sense that the City Lord is to blame, especially when rumors that the City Lord caused it by expelling Her church begins to spread. But I’d like you to look at this experience I had with Cardinal Nick, whom I had spoken to about the church, before you hastily make judgments.”

Noah whistled, and the crowd saw what looked like a screen appear above Noah’s head. The astonished crowd that had never seen a video, much less heard of the doctored version of it, were quickly absorbed into it, which showed Noah walk up to a friendly old man in high ranking priest robes, which had bits of gold amidst the usual white of priest robes. The two seemed to be in a church after a sermon from the Cardinal, suggesting Noah’s piety as a person who had listened to his sermon.

“Cardinal Nick, what’s going on? Why is the church moving out of Odir?”

“Ah, Noah. My child, it was the order of the Saintess. I would never force such an unfortunate event on such a religious child as you. I do wonder why the Saintess might have done this…”

The video cut off, and the screen vanished.

‘All fake, though. But they don't have to know that what I actually did was to catch Cardinal Nick while he was on some tour in the rural Xipil Kingdom, then threaten him until he spilled that the Saintess ordered it.’

“As you can tell, it was not my choice to expel the church. As for the plague, all the infected have just been healed by my servant slimes that you have just seen. Please, take your leave. Do not worry, for the church will definitely be restored soon.”

‘So, the Saintess, aware that the church plays a big role in suppressing the Demon Cult throughout the continent, withdraws the church from Odir, aware that the Demon Cult would exploit their new freedom in the absence of the church to attach their plague-like parasites to people, causing internal disorder…not just that, to plan for this when she knew I'd be busy with the invasion…is she not actually religious? This has to be blasphemy or something. Whatever. I'm lucky that my slimes could remove the parasites, but I don't know what she, or the Demon Cult that's been rising to prominence under my nose will do next. What I've done now is just a bandaid.’

He exhaled, then flew off, or at least tried to, before abruptly crashing to the ground behind the gates in view of the now dispersing crowd. His face flushed, he flew again, but this time without crashing.

‘These fucking gryphon wings are so awkward to use without a bird’s body! It's not even this bad with the wyvern! Would even be bearable if the gryphon wings were as useful as the harpy or wyvern ones, but these wings are so fucking slow, literally purely only useful for performances like just now!’

His face still red, Noah went back into the estate.

Two minutes to sunset.