New Beginnings Chpt. 88: The priest that never was

«Aizen»

I sat on a couch inside the cathedral, and two adventurers sat across from me. Next to me was Sivirud⁠ — the priest that had picked me up ⁠— and the Arch-priest whose name I couldn’t recall. Fenri, Kuro’s tamed pet, sat on the floor minding his own business though he quietly listened like a good boy.

Hmm, a dungeon? I hadn’t been in one for a long time… Wasn’t I living in one? No⁠— Maybe? Well, that wasn’t the problem. The entire situation sounded unrealistic, they set off with an obsidian ranked adventurer, this adventurer proceeded to kill basically everything, and then suddenly turns out they were a necromancer?

Troublesome. I sighed as I tapped my newfound sword on the ground. Making the adventurer with a great-sword slightly sweat. There was a mage along with them, though there were only two people for some reason. Shouldn’t a party have more members? It wasn’t my business, but odd still.

“So you’re telling me, this person suddenly started leaking death energy?” I asked, massaging my temple in the process. It just didn’t make sense. I mean. It’s just weird.

“That’s right!” The warrior hurriedly nodded. “She was clearly wicked from the start! Who the hell has white hair!” Hearing this I frowned.

“I am rather fond of white hair myself,” I paused. “And my hair is silver, so not much different.”

The warrior seemed to bite his tongue. “Yeah, but she also had different colored eyes!” Eh?

“Different colored eyes? Like, one red, one blue?” I asked ⁠— I couldn’t be too careful with this… Fenri looked at me and then at the warrior.

He nodded in pause. “Yes, she was rather agile and wielded a dagger. She also was accompanied by a smaller girl with yellow hair. Though I do not know her involvement.”

“Aah! She seemed to be unaffected by the dungeon’s miasma!” The mage hurriedly added.

This was… Fuck, I know I am the one normally getting into trouble but… My face scrunched, and Fenri seemed to be having some sort of revelation as he wiggled a bit, but he didn’t move past that. A necromancer? Sure, I had been head priest for maybe three-hours by now. But…

Their faces… The archpriest, and my so-called mentor’s face were completely ashen. If I knew one thing from such a face is that. A catastrophe comes. I had seen it before hundreds of times, it was the face of a hardened warrior prepared to die!

Normally I would’ve found it laughable but… I sighed. At least I am the one leading the expedition right now… I sighed. That was probably the only edge I had.

“Head-priest, if I may speak.” The archpriest addressed me. I nodded at him carefully. “We currently have a holy knight garrisoned at the capital. We can call him to aid in our quest⁠ ⁠— no, he will aid on our quest ⁠— necromancers are too wicked, too evil…” He grit his teeth, before pausing. “Aah, of course, do not take this the wrong way head-priest, this is just protocol…”

Right, protocol. I sighed again. I didn’t want to antagonize the church so soon. I mean, I had just gotten a position of power. Not some royal court mage. Oh the contract… Well, the contract didn’t matter; I wasn’t some measly mage but a head-priest of the second most important city in the continent! From what I understood anyway.

“Antagonizing is troublesome…” I muttered. But perhaps, it wasn’t completely gone. “Archpriest do inform me. How much power do I have over our holy knight?”

“Power?” His face seemed to be one of being lost, his mouth was loose.

“Ah, I mean. What kind of orders would he listen to?” Surely I could stop him from trying to kill Kuro, and by extension saving me the trouble of… incapacitating him.

He pondered for a second. “Well, you can certainly order him to stand by for negotiations, though as soon as the opposing party starts an attack then…” He paused. “He will certainly act.”

Right. “I can work with that…” I nodded. The archpriest seemed to nod in satisfaction at my reply.

“I would like to accompany you, Aizen.” Sivirud said. “I’d like to see how you handle the issue at hand.”

My mouth contorted a bit. “Right…” I looked at the warrior deeply in his eyes.

You’ll regret this… Seriously, what kind of wicked coincidence was this?! Now I had to play pretend with two people instead of just a single knight?! The warrior started to sweat under my gaze.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“So much trouble…” I sighed for the ninetieth time.

“Pardon?” The archpriest asked.

“Aah, no big deal. Do prepare the Holy Knight, we are setting off today, as soon as possible.” This whole thing made me uneasy. It all smelled like trouble. Everything.

Sivirud nodded and left the room. The archpriest and I stayed along with the adventurer party, but I was less than happy. My brows scrunched like never before. Why did this have to happen… I looked at the adventurer party. If these people didn’t⁠—

“You people leave before I kill both of you.” My frosty voice made them hurriedly get up.

The archpriest looked at me weirdly, before deciding to sit across from me. “Aizen, the head-priest, this is improper behaviour.”

“Drop the act.” I sighed. “Archpriest, we both know my past. This was all for fun and games, though I have changed, I am not deeply religious.”

He nodded. “Salgrud.” Huh? “My name is Salgrud. What seems to be the issue, Aizen?”

I sighed. “No harm in telling you this, but this necromancer of trouble sounds like my companion, but here is the thing. Her classes are [Summoner] and [Tamer].”

“Meaning that she isn’t a necromancer.” Salgrud added.

“Pretty much, and now I have to figure out a way to avoid a crossfire between the two. I do not wish to antagonize the church after all.” I added.

“I understand, though I cannot offer advice. At the same time, the best I can do is give you a capture order and not a kill order. Meaning she must be captured instead and judged by the king himself.”

Captured? I could probably convince Kuro of that. But judged? No, for now it was probably better to simply go along with being captured and deal with the aftermath after talking to her. We were a team!

If I have to suffer then you have to suffer too! Suddenly I felt my mood slightly improving, though there was still the hurdle of dealing with the entire quest to begin with. Sigh, how can a dungeon quest get so out of hand? Actually, how do you manage?

I paused trying to think of a way to fuck it up. But I had to admit it, Kuro really had outdone me in causing chaos. Pondering for a second about the dynamics of such a thing, I heard steps from the hallway.

The door opened. It was Sivirud.

“Emergency Report. The town of the North, Niyer, has been set ablaze.” Eh, how does that concern me?

“And?” I pressured Sivirud to give me more. Surely I didn’t suddenly have to deal with every little town that decided to set itself ablaze right? I mean, one or two towns in flames wasn’t a big difference.

Sivirud gulped. “The detonator was a Legendary ranked armor forged by the necromancer.” All of the sudden, I felt my blood boil.

“How do you manage!” I spat. Fenri barked along with me.

I got weird stares from both of the priests, whether it was my Sivirud or Salgrud, they were both taken aback, they also gave side glances at Fenri.

I coughed. “I understand, the matter will be dealt with accordingly.” Smile. Smile! Through my annoyance I managed to produce a small smile; enough to satisfy the both of them. “So, from my understanding, town of the north was burnt down by the same necromancer due to her smithing skills.”

“... Yes.” Sivirud said after an awkward pause. “We will need to capture her instead, according to witnesses her smithing talent is unfathomable. She must be captured for research.”

Research? I frowned. “What kind of research?” I placed my hand on the arm rest.

Sivirud seemed to pause as his face lit up. “If we could figure out her smithing skills then we could mass-produce Legendary rank armors! And therefore we could get closer to our god!” Closer to god? Closer? My hand tightened. “And even if we cannot research her, she can work for the church during the rest of her life!”

Hearing those words, something broke. The entire arm rest broke under the immense pressure from my hand. Fenri began growling at Sivirud⁠— no, at the priest.

Rest of her life? Kuro? Perhaps… It was time to make some enemies…

“Aizen! He doesn’t mean anything!” The Archpriest suddenly pleaded. “Right, Sivirud?!”

“Y-Yes!” His nervous voice echoed in my ears, giving me a slight pause. It’s shrill ringing close to the one from the assassin that tried to kill Kuro.

Blood, splatter, dismemberment. Ari… I paused. Right… I relaxed on my seat, Fenri got the queue and stopped growling, though he still looked at the other two people in the room with hostility.

“The necromancer won’t be serving for the rest of her life. Final decision.” Even if they didn’t mean it. Dare touch Kuro? Then you’re throwing your life away.

“R-Right, of course!” Sivirud suddenly said on his knees.

The archpriest ⁠— Salgrud ⁠— seemed to melt on his seat as he spoke. “It’s worse than I remember, perhaps I’ve gone senile.”

“Perhaps,” I added. “Worry not, I will be doing my duties as priest at least for now, including the capturing of the necromancer.”

“A-And the after?” Sivirud asked with nervousness.

“After?” I smiled at him. “Depends on how the king handles it. I do owe him a thing, so perhaps he could increase the debt. But for now you people should go do your arrangements. Do leave, I need to think.”

“We’ll be going then.” Sivirud said.

Though Salgrud gave me a side-glance and seemed to want to say something/ Though, in the end his figure slouched and he simply left along with my ex-mentor. I sat back on my seat.

“I’ve done it, right Fenri?” I had lost my bearings for a bit, and in the end. I sighed. So much for being a priest for a day.

“Woof!” Fenri barked and jumped to my lap, laying flat on it. I smiled.

Perhaps, the church wasn’t so important. I looked at the ceiling. I just needed to enjoy today, that’s all.