“Come on! It didn’t even get on you!” I say to Mira.

“ “ She says to me.

“Ok. Maybe I was a little too much into it but I made sure to not dirty any of you.”

“ “

“You say that like it’s an option. You are more irresistible than me.”

“ “

“No, this won’t be a regular thing. It’s too expensive.”

With this talk out of the way I can concentrate more on flying and soon reach Sagrada.

“Good morning.” I say as I enter the mansion. Breakfast is being prepared by the maids from what I can see.

“Good morning.” Monica says to me. That strange sensation I got from her is gone now. One less thing to be worried about.

I make my way to my room and empty my bag. As I am leaving I see the rest of the people there waking up. A few minutes later we are all eating breakfast.

“Where did you go?” Sophia asks me.

“Places.”

“...” After this no one tried to ask anything similar.

After finishing our food everyone went their ways. I went to teach, the girls are probably training, Mess is doing his thing and Sophia went around the town before starting to work.

The day passes like normal. When afternoon hits I finish the lessons, eat lunch and begin to work in the office until night, eating dinner when it’s done and then going to bed to not sleep. I am so full of energy I can train even at night now as long as I don’t do anything too loud. For now I am focusing on reducing the amount of movement I need to do on a slash. This continues until the 1st of Leo when after my lessons to the migrants the girls approach me during lunch.

“We are ready!” Zelfinas proclaims to me.

“For what?” I say, a little confused.

“Our test!” Alfina shouts a little angrily.

“Oh yeah…” for the last few days my mind has been a little numb. I wasn’t thinking about anything too hard, doing things on the automatic, maybe that’s why I was so relaxed now that I am thinking about it.

“Anyway, we are ready. When can we do it?” Maxia asks.

“Today, probably… I have to check.” I say as I look at Sophia.

“Nothing extra is coming if that is what you are asking.” She says.

“Today then.”

“Alright! We will be waiting in the same place” Zelfina says in a confident tone. The other two nod in agreement with her.

“Ok.” They look confident, probably came up with an actual plan this time. Either that or an army of animals controlled by Alfina.

We finish our meal and go our separate ways for a while. Doing exercises just after eating is not healthy if they are as intense as I think this will be.

For about two hours I work normally, checking our finances to see if everything reported and recorded actually makes sense. This actually reminds me that I have to inform the new migrants about all of this if they plan to open shops. I am teaching their kids how to do this, more or less, but I still think I need to tell the adults just in case.

After organizing everything in the office I go towards the battleground. As I arrive there I see that the girls made the square themselves.

“That will save some time.” I say as I leave my swords several meters away from us before walking towards the centre of the square.

“We will win today!” Zelfina says confidently.

“Be ready!” Maxia says in the same tone.

“Prize!” Alfina says with light in her eyes.

“Woof!” Even Ice Cream joins their smack talk.

“Alright, alright. Come at once.” I say as I put a very thin barrier around my body. If they try to grab me I will get at least a moment to get away.

“Shine Wolf!” Alfina screams as she touches Ice Cream. He starts to glow like a white lamp. When the light dies down enough to be able to see I get a little shocked by what I see. Ice Cream is now a giant shining white wolf the size of a horse. The one bad thing about all of this is that he can’t move a muscle for some reason.

“Water Wall!” Maxia says as she uses her spell. Walls of water surround the square except in front of me where all the girls are along with Ice Cream.

“Boy, this will sting a little.” Zelfina says as she stabs Ice Cream with her rapier. In the blink of an eye Ice Cream's entire body moves the 6 meters between where he was and where I was. I could even react.

“My lunch…” Is the only thing I can say before I am launched outside of the square with the impact. A few of my ribs broke with the impact. If not for the water stopping me I would have flown at least a kilometer into the forest if nothing else stopped me.

After a few seconds the water starts to vanish and Maxia runs towards me to heal me. I let her do it so she can train with it more.

Ice Cream goes back to normal not soon after that and Zelfina is with Alfina in her arms as she approaches us.

“Did we pass?” She asks me.

“Only because you had the water wall. You could have killed me with the impact.”

“Yay!” Alfina says in a drunken tone.

“... Alfina, did you use all of your mana?”

“No… Just most of it, I think, probably, maybe…”

“I told you to just at maximum half of it. Poor Ice Cream couldn’t even move.” Maxia says as she finishes healing me.

“Woof!” He barks in agreement.

“Well, congratulations, you managed to beat me fair and square.” I say as I pat all of them in the head, including Ice Cream.

They look happy but for a moment Zelfina's expression changes a little.

“Something wrong?” I ask her.

“It’s kinda strange to think about this situation when I remember you are the same age as us.” She says to me.

She has a point.

“Don’t think too hard about it.”

“What is the present?” Alfina asks, all excited.

“I am also curious.” Maxia says. Zelfina nods in agreement.

“The idea was to go to the capital and buy your presents but now I will have to change that.” I was planning on buying them some kind of accessory they could wear forever that also would help with their magic but I don’t think I can do that now.

“Why?” Zelfina asks me.

“I don’t have the time anymore.” Until the migrants settle down I can’t really leave for long periods of time. I know pretty much nothing about the capital so if I go there it will take a few days for me to find what I need and I don’t think that things will wait for me here. Too much is being circulated in the city and as the migrants finish more and more of their new homes the more I will have to check and see if someone is not paying their taxes.

“So what now?”

“I will take a look around the city. If I don’t find what I was going to buy I will put a request for the guild.”

“Yay!” Alfina tries to scream.

“I think we should go back and let Alfina rest a little. I don’t think it’s healthy for her to be in this situation. Let me hold her.” Zelfina gives me Alfina. I grab my swords using my string and we all walk back to the mansion.

There I cleaned them and put Alfina on her bed. She starts to nap as soon as I leave the room.

I return to the office to continue my work. When I enter, Maxia and Zelfina are there.

“Do you need anything?” I ask.

“We are curious about something. Do you know what we did?” Maxia asks.

“Let’s see...Maxia, you just created water in the shape you wanted. I didn’t feel anything special from it so I can’t say more than this. Alfina’s taming magic must have the power to make the creatures she tames stronger in some shape of form and what she did to Ice Cream is what happens when you supercharge one of those creatures. By the looks of it the creature has a certain threshold of power it can get and control and Ice Cream got more than he could control so he was paralized for the most part. As for you Zelfina, my best bet is that you stabbed Ice Cream so you could use your gravity manipulation directly on him, right?”

They look at me astonished.

“... You are almost 100% correct. It’s not even funny how you managed to understand all of that.” Zelfina says in disbelief.

“Took us all this time to even think about all of this and you just had to take a look to know what happened.” Maxia says in the same tone.

“It’s all about information. I don’t know how magic works in detail but I know how magic works in general. I also know what all 3 of you can and can’t do so it also reduces what I have to imagine to have happened.”

“... Can you give us some ideas on spells?” Maxia asks.

“Yeah, I would also like some ideas. Looks like if I use spells without my rapier as a medium, they become a lot weaker.” Zelfina says.

“That will be really tricky. I have no idea what you two want to accomplish with the spells.”

“We just want to learn new spells.” Maxia says.

“That is the problem. Most of my spells were created so I could do something, not just because I want to know a spell.”

“But what if something happens and I don’t know a spell for it and I also can’t create one?” Maxia asks.

“Go and train it if you can. At this point, if you can think about the situation and the objective of the spell, you will have the mental image of what you want.”

“I want to affect people that are far away from me.” Zelfina says.

“Then imagine your spells expanding, flying or even just teleporting to the target. If you don’t train until what you want is clear in your mind, you will never be able to do it. I am surprised that you managed to come up with the spells you used against me and didn’t realize this.”

“... I hate to admit it but we went along with Alfina a little too much.” Maxia says.

“Yeah, most of what we know is from feelings alone. I can’t really tell what is happening when I use the spells I know or why, just that they work.” Zelfina explains.

“Then keep those feelings. If you need a goal to be able to do stuff, make your own. If it looks too far away, make smaller goals and little by little try to attain them.”

They just nod in agreement. Following this I start my work again. The girls stay in the office for a while, reading mostly in silence, as I do my job.

After the dinner, as I am working, I begin to try and piece together what is happening around me. I don’t have many leads on who tried to manipulate fate to fuck me over if they even tried that. I might just be something in the way as I ain’t affected by what they are doing.

It wasn’t Maxoiliodas as he was affected by it too nor The Crown of this kingdom. That also rules out the other nobles as far as I know. By what I saw they don’t have the balls to actually do something against The Crown.

There is a small possibility of being someone from Bella Grizz. Being able to manipulate fate and destiny in places where gambling takes the center stage is something anyone who gambles would want. There is also the fact that some people there don’t like me.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

There is also the church, who so far is radio silent. But I don’t think they would use indirect methods to deal with me. If they don’t show me to the world as the devil they won’t be able to regain power, at least in the eyes of the public.

That girl that could control dolls doesn't appear to have this kind of ability but I wouldn’t be surprised if she has a companion who can do it. She would also have a reason to go after me along with their group.

The Maka Kingdom would also probably have something against me but I don’t think they have the balls to try something like what happened. If for some reason they were to be found guilty of manipulating the fate and destiny of another kingdom’s royalty, war would start.

There also might be some random people somewhere out there that just have something against me or someone around me and I was just caught in the middle of it.

Since I couldn’t really pinpoint who, I just continued with my work until it was time hit the bed. Since I can’t sleep I begin to meditate, or at least something in that vibe.

Thinking nothing, letting my mana flow but compressing it so I don’t burn down the mansion. It's harder than I thought it would be.

At some point during the night I hear a knock on my door.

“Come in.” I say as I sit on my bed. To my surprise, Mess appears.

“I need help.” He says to me with a heavy tone and face.

“What happened?”

“Would be better to just show you. I suggest you put on actual clothes.” He says while he points to me. I am using just a shirt so his suggestion is one I follow.

After putting some pants on we both leave via my window and I begin to follow him to the outside of the city.

We sneak past some guards using his magic and go all the way to the forest. There he signals me to stop.

“We are here.” he says to me.

“Now what?”

“You can come out now.” Mess says. Soon two people come out of the shadows. A girl that looks around our age and a boy that is not older than 6 years.

“What is going on?”

“Long story short, they are being pursued by someone and I need you to kill this person.”

“Can’t you do it?”

“If I do that I would have to marry her.” Mess says while pointing to the girl.

The girls blushes just with the thought of it so it must be true. She is very average, 1,5 meters tall at least, short brown hair going up to her neck. She and the boy are using really ragged white tunics that go only to their knees.

“Let’s say I kill this person, what happens next?”

“We all dodge a bullet and this girl can go back home.”

“I need more explanation than this.”

“How do I explain this…” he started to think for a second. “Ok, in the church, if you are high enough, you can actually marry. This girl is one of the various wives I would have had. Since I escaped most of the people who sent girls to marry me have taken them back but a few are under what the church calls protection clause. As long as someone from the church is protecting you, you are pretty much their property. This girl found me by chance while fleeing from her guardian and now this guardian is coming our way. If you kill the guardian, as an outsider, she becomes free. If I do it, I become her guardian as I am still part of the church technically.”

“Couldn’t you just ignore that last part?”

“I don’t think even you could break a magical contract of this level. Until they remove me from their registry I am still part of the church. If you do what I asked, she will be automatically removed and won’t be able to go back unless she wholeheartedly wants to.”

“Is this true?” I ask the girl.

“Yes ma’am.” She says, a little scared.

I stop and think for a few moments what I should do. There isn’t much against it, worst case the church actually comes after me and I still deal some form of damage to them.

“Alright, I will do it. Where is this person and what should I expect?”

“She is a woman as tall as you, uses a whip and is dressed as your stereoptical sister. She is also coming right this way since I stopped the spell that was cloaking the girl and the boy.”

“Ok… Stay near me. When she arrives I will try to finish this quickly.” All of them comply and group behind me. Less than a minute later an old woman, around her fifties, dressed like a sister and with a witch arrives in front of us.

“Little girl, you don’t belong here. Time to go.” She says with a hoarse voice. Going by the voice and the smell, this woman not only drinks a lot but also smokes a lot.

“Hey old hag, can you tell me where she is from so I can send her there?”

“They told me about you. Let’s make this simple, you release her and no one gets hurt.”

“Is that a no?”

“Yes.” She says confidently. Upon hearing this I arm myself with Yin and Yang and walk towards the woman.”

“Girl, the church doesn’t want anything with you for now. Hear my advice and just let this go or you will find yourself in my situation.”

“And if you don’t want to find yourself dead I suggest you leave, forever.”

“If you do that they will only send someone else.”

“Aren’t you her guardian or something like that?”

“You are putting too much faith in me girl.” She says in a tone of defeat. She is also telling the truth from what I can piece together from both her expression and voice.

“And who is this person?”

“Take a guess.”

“It’s the pope, isn’t it?” Mess asks.

“That’s the Messiah for you, he knows everything.” She responds in a somewhat cheerful tone.

“Then why did they send someone like you?”

“Probably just my bad luck but there is also the fact they don’t want anyone too powerful to engage with this little devil you call friend and the fact that I live in the same place she was staying..” She says pointing to me.

“So what now? I have to keep killing people until the pope decides to come here?” I ask.

“All of this can be resolved if you just give the girl. It’s not like we are torturing her or anything.” The woman says.

“Brainwashing is also torture.” Mess says angrily.

“... So she managed to remember something.” She says in a helpless tone.

“Mess, should I kill her or not?”

“You don’t have to worry about me anymore. Here, take my whip and coif. Since the girl is regressing I am also pretty much dead. The dogs should be here in a few minutes.” She says as she gives me her things and lights a cigarette using magic. The small flame she creates using a rune uses all her mana. I can’t sense how much mana she has but I can sense that she has pretty much none now.

“Mess, what are these dogs?”

“I have no idea.”

“Sister, what are those dogs?”

“Maybe actual dogs but probably just some fanatical knights and/or mages. As far as I know we don’t have assassins or they would have already come for you.”

With nothing much to do I get ready to defend the people there from every direction. Not even 5 minutes later 3 runes appear in front of us.

“Release the harlot.” A stereotypical holy crusader that just appeared from the rune said to me while unsheathing his sword from his shield of all places. It’s a really big shield, half my size at minimum.

“Oh! You are one of those. Can you please insult someone else in a tone that makes you seem educated and superior to us one more time?” I say half-joking.

“Shut your mouth you demon wench! If not for our orders you would have been meeting with our god for your punishment the moment we arrived.” He says in an almost comical tone from how serious he is.

“Look, no one needs to die. Go back, do what is needed to give this girl her freedom and while at it do the same to the sister smoking over there.”

“She is free to choose what to do with her life after we finish with her.” Another knight says to me. This time it is a woman, going by the voice. It is also a big woman as her build is equal to those of the other knights there and they are all the really buff type from what I can see. They also look a bit taller than me.

“Let me guess, after you brainwash her she will be able to choose if she wants to stay in the church or help the church, right?” I say sarcastically.

“Enough, let’s just deal with the demon and go!” The last knight shouts. It’s another man and this one had enough.

“If this is how it’s going to be, I am ready!” I say to them as I mount my guard. I also focus on my heat barrier so I can actually block attacks if necessary.

The last knight who spoke draws his sword from his shield and runs in my direction. I am almost stunned in shock due to his stupidity. As soon as he reaches the area near me he is set ablaze completely without me having to do anything else.

The female knight uses a spell to create water and put out the fire on the knight’s body before retreating a few meters.

“Really? No holy blades? No blessed armor? Not even a smite? If not for your tone I would say they sent everyone here to die by hand.”

“Shut your mouth you spawn of lust. Our lord has the same faith in us as we have to our gods.” The first knight says.

“So not very much I presume.” I say. Not a moment after, that same knight rushes towards me and ends in the same state as the first one.

“Hey, are you sure all of you weren’t sent here to die? It’s either that or those two are really stupid and I would preffer to fight something that, if necessary, I can have a rational talk with.” I say to the female knight.

“You may talk as much as you want but our armor was enchanted by the head priest himself before we left. At some point your defenses will crumble and we will take your life.” She says to me.

“For someone who knows how to use magic you can’t feel it to save your life, can’t you?” Their armor and weapons have little to no mana on them. It’s like someone just showered it with mana and it is slowly dissipating.

“Stop your lies!” The woman shouts at me.

“She is telling the truth! You three are pretty much naked in her eyes.” Mess shouts from behind me.

“That’s not…” The woman starts to say that she realizes that we are telling the truth. She freezes in shock for a moment with her companions near her almost unable to move. She probably thought that the armor was healing them or something because she only put out the fire. She then starts to cast a healing spell on both of them ignoring everyone else.

“With that out of the way. Girl, where were you and how did you escape?” I ask the girl Mess is with.

“Church, three towns away to the east, big fire. In the panic I took my brother and managed to run away along with the people running.” She starts to tell me in a panic but manages to recompose herself and talk normally at the end.

“Is that true?” I ask the sister

“Yeah, some idiot started to smoke in the wine room. Such a waste of bad wine and good cigarettes.” She says pretty much admitting that she did all of this on purpose going by her tone. I approach her and begin to whisper so no one can hear us.

“So, what is the deal?”

“Girl, I am not smoking because I am stressed. I am smoking because I want to die and not give someone the satisfaction of killing me besides myself. If things keep going the way they are, lots of people will die by your hands and those around you if they choose to defend you.”

“You talk like you know a lot.”

“You have no idea what you can get from the priests when they aren’t in public, especially the older ones. There is a reason why you don’t find as many sisters around.”

“What?”

“I am still very skillful with my body if you know what I mean. The church stopped the old training for sisters and now the new priests have to deal with their needs more in the shadows as most of the new sisters are actually just women who need or want to help the church as it presents itself to the world.”

“Why are you saying that to me?”

“They say you need to say your sins before you go. I am telling some of them now to free some time later. Also, you look like the kind of person I should say these things to.”

“Ok, so what is or was supposed to happen?”

“In all honesty? I don’t know. I just found out that they would sent those 3 idiots in a suicide mission and I also don’t care about our holy wives in training. She was lucky that she only started her training or she would be really messed up.”

“Talking from experience?”

“You are sharp. Yes, let me say, it’s not a pleasant experience.”

“So what are you planning to do?”

“I heard that you help anyone who asks. Care to help a few idiots who are part of the church?”

“... Ain’t the church able to know what you are doing?”

“As long as we are alive, they can find us sooner or later.”

“...” Can’t really think of any way to help these people. The knights are also looking at us, still with their helmets on, silently asking for help.

“There is a way.” Mess says suddenly.

“Were you hearing the conversation?” I ask.

“Sorry, I am with all my senses heightened.”

“Ok… Explain.”

“Pretty sure that if you kill them and then revive them, they will be erased from the church.”

“You realize that I can’t use healing magic, right?”

“Can’t you stop their hearts for a few moments and then restart them again?”

“Would that even count? If your heart stops you count as dead?”

“Ain’t that how it works?”

“We both are pretty sure that souls exist, don’t we?”

“Yeah, but can’t your soul still be in your dead body?”

“You tell me. I know how to use magic, somewhat, not how the mystic aspects of our existence work here. You are the magic guy, you were supposed to know this.”

“You expect too much of me.”

“Should you two really be discussing this now?” The sister asks us. After hearing her I take a look around and see that everyone there besides her is a little on the edge. Looking around also gave me an idea.

“Ok, I might have a solution. Does this fucking contract have any part that stay in you?” I ask everyone there.

“Yes.” Mess says to me confidently.

“Really?” The sister asks, surprised.

“The lower level ones are really hard to detect, I have the highest one so I can actually feel it. Anyway, what is the plan?”

“I am going to burn that.”

“Can you do that?” He asks me a little worried.

“It’s either that or death, your choice.”

“I believe that trying the burn option should be the best course of action.” The female knight says. Mess takes a few moments and signals positively.

“Ok, who’s first?” I ask.

“Let me go, I am old, probably the best one.

“Ok. Mess, how is this contract?”

“A literal contract.”

“And the thing that is in you, how is it?”

“I don’t know, a rune with a hose going out of it. This is the best description I can give of how I see it.”

“Better than nothing.”

“What is a hose?” The sister asks.

“A thing that shoots water, now stay still.” I say as I begin to concentrate.

I put my hands on her and imagine my fire burning runes or anything that isn’t part of her body that is sending, receiving or just contacting mana from another place. After what I think are a few minutes she is set ablaze and not a minute later the fire vanishes as it has nothing else to burn.

“Girl, you just committed heresy on a level I thought wasn’t possible.” The sister says to me in a very cheerful tone. I can see why. Her mana was unlocked, I can sense how much mana she should have. It’s a little more than me.

Seeing how she didn’t die, the others came forward. I had to heal the two knights that attacked but besides that everything went alright.

“Now what?” I ask as they all line up in front of Mess and me.

“I will take the girl back home.” Mess says to me, to my surprise.

“And I will take these idiots somewhere else.” The sister says to me while pointing to the three knights.

“Are you sure you don’t want to see us?” The female knight asks me.

“If I know who you are I will probably hold some grudge against you. Ditch your things when you are ways away from here.” I said to her. I don’t want to have anything to do with these people and it would be better for them if they don’t have anything to do with me.

“Thank you.” The girl that started all this says to me.

“Ok, ok. I am going back. I will tell Sophia that you had an emergency. How long will it take?” I ask Mess.

“Good question. Where is your home?” Mess asks the girl.

“Cruxadia.” She says.

“A month, maybe a month and a half.” Mess says to me.

“Ok, Good luck. I will make sure no one burns your room.”

Following that I come back to my room and for once I manage to sleep. Mess is somewhat distant but at least he decided to grow some balls and do something by himself without anyone asking him to do it. I can’t involve myself with the church so him taking care of this is the best option. Also that sister is really sly. I should try to learn a little from her if I get the chance in the future.