The world is filled with all kinds of people.
Knights, elves, witches, lizardmen kings, fishermen, town guards, mutton peddlers, religious field agents…. And within these categories exists even more diversity: some people are tall, some are fat, some are rich, poor, smart, sexually degenerate, nonsexually degenerate, funny, some lost an arm in a battle against a shark, some try to convince you that their overpriced mutton is a fantastic deal that can’t be missed, and some continually find themselves confused about everything going on around them.
Lance currently belonged to the last kind of person in both the first and last categories. After Sariah had dealt with the skelementals in the camp, she had gone back to sleep without a word of explanation, and when it was his own turn to get some shut-eye, he was unable to, his mind running through the events of the battle over and over again.
The Install that Sariah had used was….incredible, and one he’d never heard of before. “Gospel.” The religious connotations were obvious, so it was likely an Install developed by the Ecclesia, and with how involved in the church Sariah was, it did make sense she would know about it, but something about it still bothered him….
As he purchased some mutton and wandered over to a wooden table to eat it, his eyes gazed over the ocean. Port Rysa was a very small coastal town, so there wasn’t much to obstruct the gorgeous view of the wide open seas, which served as the perfect thing to zone out staring at as one focused their mental efforts on a logical problem.
Lance and Sariah hadn’t spoken much after packing up their tent and heading to town, and almost immediately upon arriving, Sariah had split their little tag-team up, suggesting that Lance explore the town while she made her way to the local church.
He thought back to when the two investigated the cave outside of Humilde, when Sariah had ordered him to light a torch using his Fire Install. At the time, he didn’t really think much of it — she was in charge and he was basically the sidekick, so it made sense for him to do the more menial tasks — but perhaps that ever-so-slight, niggling feeling he had about the incident after looking back on it had some merit to it?
She hadn’t lit the fire back at the camp with an Install either. It would’ve been a needless waste of ULTRA Force given their camping kit had the proper instruments to make a fire, sure, but when combined with the cave incident, Lance pondered whether Sariah was able to even use a Fire Install.
Surely she would be, he thought to himself, using a napkin to dab at some of the sauce on his cheek. The Fire Install wasn’t particularly high-level, and it was one of the baseline Installs the Ecclesian Knights trained in.
Then he thought back to when they had battled monsters on the long walk here. She definitely hadn’t used any then, either, although she hadn’t needed to, given her pinpoint-accurate aim.
A small, impulsive part of his brain offered its theory that perhaps she just wasn’t able to use Installs, but the other members of the mental council ignored the idea. After all, that Gospel ability she’d used the night before was definitely an Install — he’d heard the booming, powerful voice call it out loud and clear.
“Ah, whatever,” he muttered to himself, finishing the last of his meal. His brain had given up trying to piece things together by that point.
He considered going to the church next, but decided against it, figuring he’d probably just get in Sariah’s way. He also wasn’t much for the actual religious part of the Ecclesia, and didn’t want to risk having to actually partake in prayer or anything like that. With not much else to do, he decided to go take a stroll on the beach instead.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
The Port Rysa church was incredibly small — dwarfed by even the one stationed not far from Humilde. The nave barely took up more room than a storage shed, and the back rooms were more akin to bathroom stalls.
But Sariah didn’t mind, and she didn’t think any less of it. Walking into any Ecclesian church was like coming back to a childhood room — cozy, nostalgic, familiar. She’d been in a bit of a bad mood upon arriving in Rysa, but all of that annoyance seemed to just fade away as she stepped into the doors of the church.
There didn’t appear to be anyone inside, so she took a moment to sit at the frontmost pew and offer a prayer to the Mother Dragon. Nothing especially significant — protect the people in her life she cared about, watch over her, give her strength when she needed it, etc.
With her negativity evaporating into the air, she stood back up to reunite with Lance and continue their investigation. However, before she could make it to the front door, she overheard voices on the other side, and the conversation they were engaged in didn’t seem very cordial.
The doors soon opened, and the quiet air of the church was immediately flooded with loud barking and screaming. It was a nun of the church who had opened the doors, and with the way she was hunched inward and constantly bowing her head, she seemed to be having a rough time trying to peacefully address the concerns of the other people following her into the building.
Those “other people” seemed to be sailors of some kind. Tall, scarred, hairy, tanned, and foul-mouthed. Physically imposing, too, which likely contributed to the nun’s timid body language. “‘Ey, don’t be runnin’ off now! We’ve still got business with ya!”
Sariah immediately stepped in, gently placing her hand on the back of the nun to calm her down and communicate support. “It’s alright, sister, I’ll take it from here.”
The nun jumped in surprise, having not seen Sariah upon entering the church. And once she laid her eyes on her, her entire body froze in place. “Y-you’re Lady Sariah!”
The sailors stopped in place, having been cut off from further following the nun by Sariah’s intervention. There were three of them in total, and their presence made the tiny nave feel even smaller than it already was. “The hell’re you?” one of them asked.
“Ecclesia. Can I help you?”
The one on the left of the trio wore a bright green bandana on his head that absolutely did not match the rest of his pink ensemble. “Hang on, you a nun? You pretty scary-lookin’ for a nun!”
The one on the right was next, and his appearance was dominated by his enormous beard. Actually, no, when he moved his head, it turned out his beard wasn’t that long, it was just that his chest was so goddamn hairy that the two combined to create a frontal jungle. A jungle that likely continued even further down his body, but alas, I do not possess the chutzpah to pen that description. “Damn, yer a built broad, huh?”
His eyes wandered down the entire length of Sariah’s body for degenerate purposes, but they stopped at her thigh level. Immediately, he elbowed the sailor in the center, pointing his other hand towards the holster on Sariah’s leg. “Oi, Jrayk! Is that a gun?”
“Looks li-”
“Gun nun!” the bandanaed one suddenly blurted out. “Gun nun! Gunnun! Hyeheheheh!”
The man named Jrayk slapped his hand across the back of his interruptor’s head. “Stuff it, Lolo!” The beard monster’s name is Ed, by the way.
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Sariah had half a mind to live up to the “gun nun” name and start blasting to get the three oafs to shut up, but definitely not while they were still within Ecclesian walls. “I’ll ask again. Can I help you?”
Jrayk held his hands up. “‘Ey, we’re not lookin’ for trouble, lady. The boss just told us to look for whoever’s runnin’ the church here.”
Sariah glanced over her shoulder at the sister, who was nervously cowering behind her for protection. “And what does your boss want with the church?”
The three sailors didn’t have to answer that question (or couldn’t), as the doors of the church were loudly kicked open, sending a booming ripple throughout the building. Sariah’s eyes immediately darted over to a vase set on the windowsill of one of the walls, and her hand shot out to catch it before it could shatter on the floor from the rumbling.
“Whadda I want with the church?! I want what’s mine, ya hear?!”
A metal hook suddenly jutted into the space between Jrayk and Ed’s muscley arms, poking into the latter to pressure him off to the side. A hand came next, followed by the rest of the speaker’s body, parting the sailors like the sea.
The speaker was a young woman dressed head-to-toe in bright red, from her tricorn hat to her slightly-oversized coat to her surprisingly-fashionable pants, although one of the legs had been torn off as to not get in the way of the peg leg underneath. While her hair was not red, but blonde, and wrapped in a messy braid, her eyes were red. Well, one of them was, at least, given the other was obscured by a patch.
Sariah’s eyebrow went up in disbelief at the absolute caricature of a pirate that now stood before her in the flesh. Ridiculous costume, eyepatch, hand hook, peg leg. All the woman was missing was a parrot at that point. “And you are?”
The pirate’s hand flung directly at Sariah’s face, but not as an intended strike. The hook settled mere centimeters from the tip of Sariah’s nose, although Sariah didn’t flinch. “Who am I?! How can ya not know me?! Why, I’m the great Cap’n Nadia! The Red Rose o’ the Salty Seas!”
Lolo’s hands shot up to his face, squishing his cheeks together. “Aaah! She’s so cool ain’t she?!”
Jrayk smacked him once more. “Stuff it, Lolo!”
Nadia smirked before turning to face Sariah head-on. As soon as she did, however, she paused, scanning her up and down. “Bloody blunderbuss! Yer a scary-lookin’ bitty! What’re ya, black ops or somethin’?!”
“No. Ecclesia. Can I help you?” Each word dripped with Sariah’s growing frustration.
Nadia’s lone eye danced around the room, although there wasn’t much to look at. “Aye! Ya prayin’ mantises stole somethin’ o’ mine, an’ I’m here to take it back! An’ if ya don’t give it back, I’ll take yer heads! Or both, even! Argh!”
And, just as rehearsed, the three sailors behind her, in unison, said, “Argh!” albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
“And that is….?”
“Me treasure! Ya stole it from me!”
Sariah let out a sigh. “Bit of an odd complaint coming from a pirate, don’t you think?”
“Bah!” Nadia spat, folding her arms across her chest in a pout. “I found that treasure fair an’ square in a cave beneath the Thundersea! I ain’t steal it from no one! It belongs to me an’ me alone, ya hear? Argh!”
Narrowing her eyes, Sariah then asked, “So you’re saying you found some kind of treasure, and the Ecclesia took it from you?”
“Aye! Ya dirty thievin’ lot! Ya best fork it over or I’ll have the Gunthorn blast this entire port ta the bottom o’ the sea!”
Jrayk tapped his finger against Nadia’s shoulder to catch her attention. “Uh, boss? We’re still dead outta ammo, ‘member?”
“Eh?!?”
“You were gonna sell that amethyst so we could restock.”
Sariah moved one hand to her hip and the other to the bridge of her nose. She’d had more than enough of these pirates, and wanted nothing more than to sort this all out as quickly as possible to get them to leave. “The Ecclesia has an artifacts branch — N1. But almost all of its collection is built through donations. The Ecclesia doesn’t take artifacts from anyone unless they’re deemed dangerous and approved by the government of whoever is in possession of it.”
“Well that dirty N1 lot stole it from me!”
“If they confiscated it from you, they would have notified you, and your government would have told you as well. Where are you from?”
“The depths o’ the sea! Argh!”
Hot air plumed from Sariah’s nostrils like an angry dragon. “Your government would have notified you of the circumstances of the confiscation. If you have a problem with it, take it up with them.”
Nadia stomped her peg leg into the floor in a motion not unlike that of an upset child. “I’m tellin’ ya, none o’ that ever happened!”
“Well then what did happen?”
“Coupla days ago, we were sailin’ out over the Lionsblood,” Nadia explained. “Whole crew was in high spirits from our score at the Thundersea! We passed by a stuffy ol’ ship from the navy an’ blasted it to high hell! Yahahah!”
Sariah nodded. “So you shot down a government ship. Okay. I’ll report it to the authorities.”
“Ack! No! That ain’t the point o’ the story!”
“Then get to the point.”
“We took everythin’ juicy those navy dogs had on ‘em: coin, grub, anyone with a pretty face! An one o’ those pretty faces belonged to a nun o’ the church!”
Sariah looked back to the nun hiding behind her. The confused shrug from the woman told her she was unrelated to the story, so Sariah turned her attention back to Nadia.
“We docked in Radecross after that to resupply an’ ransom off the hostages! But that blasted nun swiped me amethyst an’ took off runnin’! While we were sleepin’, too! Can ya belie’ that? The nerve!”
That was the first part of Nadia’s story that actually seemed to affect Sariah. “She took it and ran off? Are you sure?”
“Argh! Pirates don’t lie, missy!”
“And a nun doesn’t steal,” Sariah responded. “Radecross is quite a ways up north. What are you doing here in Rysa, then?”
Nadia scowled. “We been hittin’ every city with a church along this whole bloody continent! I know that prayin’ mantis is holin’ up in one o’ yer holy holes! Cough ‘er up!”
Sariah leaned over to allow the pirates a better view of the nun hiding behind her. “Is she the one you’re looking for?”
The pirate began to step forward and get a closer look, although Sariah still maintained a barrier, keeping her out of harm’s way. “Nah, it ain’t her,” Nadia responded. “The one we caught had blue hair. An’ she was taller, too!”
“And she had a super cute nose, too!” Lolo added from behind.
“Well, even if this story of yours is true, which I find quite difficult to believe,” Sariah began, ignoring Nadia’s protest. “I doubt going to every single church in the area would help much.”
“An’ why’s that?! What’s wrong wit’ me plan, eh?!”
“Major Ecclesian churches have teleporters,” Sariah explained. “Teleporters that connect to every other major location in the world. And the Radecross church is definitely a major location, so if this ‘thieving, runaway nun’ of yours is real, she could be anywhere in the world right now.”
A look of utter disbelief made its way to each of the four pirates’ faces. Nadia’s expression in particular was extremely pitiful, and almost sympathetic, like a sad puppy. “Wh-wha….?”
“And if this story of yours is true,” Sariah said. “It’s hard to feel bad for you, given that you abducted her and all. You brought it on yourselves.”
Those words weren’t true. Not really. They were more of a way to vent her irritation at the entire debacle rather than to express her actual thoughts on the matter. While a part of her did feel a bit “proud” of this hypothetical nun for getting one over on her abductors, in truth, Sariah was more disturbed by the possibility of it being true. Because if the story was true, then someone had betrayed the teachings of the church. And to Sariah, that was unacceptable.
“I’ll look into it,” Sariah said, breaking through the silence that had befallen the nave. “So long as you stop harassing Ecclesian churches. Get in contact with the church in Radecross, and I’ll have them provide you with updates on the matter.”
It was as though the sun was rising up over the darkness, brightening Nadia’s face. “R-really?! Ya will?!”
“Yes. Now leave.”
The pirate captain turned around to face her crew, all of them overcome with jubilation. “Hurrah!” they all screamed in unison. Nadia then whipped back to face Sariah, holding her hook hand out. “Thanks be to ya! I s’pose’ you church lot ain’t all bad! What’s yer name?”
Sariah shook the hook hand, although she didn’t intend to answer Nadia’s question. Unfortunately for her, the nun behind her was not aware of that fact, and did it for her. “Th-this is Lady Sariah!”
“Sariah, huh?” Nadia asked. “That ain’t a half bad name at all!”
The G13 agent let out a sigh of resignation, although halfway through it transitioned into one of relief as the pirates turned tail and left the church.
The nun clapped her hands together and took a deep bow, letting out all the tension breath she’d been hoarding in her lungs. “Th-thank you, Lady Sariah!”
She nodded her head. “Don’t mention it. What’s your name?”
“Mela.”
“Those pirates should leave you alone for now, but I’ll be in the area for a time, so don’t hesitate to call if they or anyone else gives you trouble, okay?”
The nun nodded in acknowledgement. And for the first time since meeting her, she smiled. “Thank you so much!”
Sariah spent the next few minutes speaking with Mela about the Port Rysa location. There wasn’t much to say; there were very few churchgoers in the area to begin with, and Mela was one of two people who worked at this location. While the lack of activity was a bit boring and occasionally lonely, the young woman seemed to enjoy maintaining the church’s cleanliness, and the fact that she could decorate it to her liking. And when Sar- sorry, Lady Sariah – complimented her decor, she was absolutely thrilled.
But the two Ecclesian sisters’ pleasant chat soon came to an abrupt end as they heard screams erupt from the city outside. The doors then flung open, and it was Lance who came through. “Sariah! Those skeleton monsters are in the city!”