Chapter 168: Coming in Contact with the Enemy
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The next day, the townspeople slowly returned to their houses one by one. Thanks to the timely evacuation and Baiyi's help, there were almost no casualties that was caused by the devils other than a few who suffered from minor injuries from a stampede when the townspeople were rushing up the hill. Most of their houses were intact as well except for a few families who had lost their homes due to fire that was caused by themselves during the panic.
Strictly speaking, the losses that the devils caused was much smaller than the losses that they had caused themselves.
By the river that flowed through the town, Baiyi built a temporary embankment with an Earth-type spell before he finally was able to destroy the barrier completely. Even though the water that had been piling up for one whole night on the upper river raged down the moment the barrier was lifted, it did not cause any damage to the town at all.
For that reason, the townspeople became even more fond of the Viscount's son-in-law.
Baiyi had no interest in clearing up the misunderstanding. He was too busy after all. After the barrier was gone, the communication slab once again began to function properly. He quickly contacted Tisdale and soon, the pretty face of the young girl showed up on the slab.
"Good morning, Sir!" Tisdale flashed her signature wide bright smile at Baiyi.
"What is that freaking thing that you're wearing so early in the morning?" Seeing the cat's ears that she was wearing on her head, he asked in exasperation.
Tisdale stuck out her tongue playfully, like a mischievous kid whose prank had been found out, and quickly took off the cat's ears from her head. Hastily, she tried to expain, "I-I was just playing with Attie. I forgot to take it off just now 'cause I did not expect you to call me at this time, sir."
So are you going to play with her and wear only an apron next? Baiyi thought sarcastically before telling her seriously, " Okay, Tisdale, listen to me. Bring this communication slab to the Church and look for Father Weasel, I mean, Weslie... Er... you know, the one who came along with us to the Northern Wasteland? That's right, go as soon as possible. I have an important thing to talk to him about!"
As per his instruction, Tisdale speedily left to look for Father Weasel. Not long after, Father Weasel's face appeared on the communication slab and Baiyi quickly told him what happened and asked him to send some paladins and crusaders over.
The next afternoon, a troop of paladins dressed in grey and white armor entered Wyllspringshire and after they had inspected the battlefield, they looked for Baiyi who was in a blacksmith shop.
Baiyi was repairing the damaged joints of his armor. The moment he saw a paladin entered the shop, he put down his hammer and studied the man standing in front of him carefully. He was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man whose body was radiating a standard paladin aura. A hint of fatigue could be seen on his face. It seemed like they had made their way over with the greatest urgency.
"My name is Charlemagne, the Paladin Grand Cross of Arfin diocese. I immediately made my way here as soon as I heard about the situation from Vicar General Wesley,' The paladin introduced himself and looked around the little blacksmith shop. Being the only blacksmith in the town, the shop was no doubt simple, crude and small. There was a burning stove beside Baiyi but the temperature in there was much more cooler than outside and the paladin was no longer soaking in his own sweat.
The paladin immediately noticed the Homeothermal Formation on the wall. At first, he found it strange that the small place would have such a luxurious item but the instance he remembered Baiyi's identity, he seemed to have understood where it came from.
"Please have a seat, Mr. Charlemagne," Baiyi offered in a tone that was neither supercilious nor obsequious. Using his Mana, he dragged a chair from the side to offer it to the paladin. Even though the man had the title 'Grand Cross' in front of his name, but in a church's organizational structure, the title 'Grand Cross' or 'Bishop' was actually similar to the title 'Director' or 'Chief' on Earth. No matter how grand or noble the title sounded, they did not have much power on their own, everything that they did still had to be referred back to the Church before they were allowed to make any decision.
"Let us not beat around the bush. What happened the day before yesterday was actually like this..." Not wasting any time, Baiyi immediately told him the details of the battle with some modifications when it came to the Void Energy. He also did not talk much about the unusual Tiamat but since he had rehearsed telling the story way before the paladins came, Paladin Charlemagne did not catch anything that was out of place in his story. The only part that caught his attention was the word 'Godsfall'.
"Oh, so you've heard of Godsfall before?" Baiyi asked.
Charlemagne nodded, "Yes. They've always been on the Church's watch list but we have never made this news public."
Baiyi was the one who was taken aback this time, "Watch list? Not wanted list?
"No. According to our investigation, this sect originated from Marle and it was only since the last decade that they started to gain followers in Isythre. Their missionary activities and the methods of recruiting are quite secretive but there is nothing dangerous about what they are doing. They are just like an ordinary hidden sect that's why we are just merely monitoring them. After all, we cannot just simply categorized it as a heretic cult. It has never crossed our mind at all that they would make a pact with the devils," The paladin explained.
"Sometimes, you guys are just... just... too kind, you know," In truth, Baiyi wanted to snap at the stupidity of the Church.
How could it be possible for a sect that assassinates as they like be an ordinary sect? Just look at how skilled they are! It's obvious that it is not their first time doing something like this! What the hell have you guys been doing all these years?
Although Baiyi did not say it out loud, Charlemagne could still guess what he wanted to say. Quickly, he added on, "Actually, our doctrine has always been about equality, tolerance, kindness and love. It's the same even for the other sects. In the absence of evidence, the only thing that we can do is to place them under our watch.'
Actually, there was indeed truth in his words, although God's Grace had zero tolerance for heretic cults, it was extremely forgiving when it came to other religions as long as they knew that the sects were not heretic cults. They also allowed the small sects to do their preaching in their Church and even allowed their own believers to change their faiths as they like. In such a matter, they were indeed much more lenient than some of the other smaller sects. Of course, such tolerance that they had was based on their strong foundation and strength in this world. Just look at the free healing service that they provided to the commoners, there were no other sects that could do the same. Not only that, it was also the Church that assumed the heavy responsibility of fighting the devils.
Therefore, if those small sects relied solely competing fairly, they would never be able to fight against God's Grace at all. If they tried to play unfairly, just a small mistake would cause them to be categorized as a heretic cult and one could easily imagine what would happen next if that was the case.
In truth, in Baiyi's opinions, if he were to put aside the antagonistic relations between both parties and judge from a relatively fair and objective point of view, there was absolutely nothing that he would oppose about the teaching of God's Grace. They really had been working hard to establish their name and prestige through practical and just actions. There was no meddling in politics, no atrocities like massacring their own believers but as for molesting underage kids or letting the women use their body to atone for their sins, well, Baiyi could not guarantee that those had never happened before but at the very least, he had never heard of such thing with his own ears before. For that reason, even supposing that he was at a position antagonistic to the Church, he had to admit that they were not some kind of villain who would abuse their power and authority as they liked.
Even though their teachings were all deceptive, but then again, which r eligion was not? At the very least, they advised people to do good and not use some stupid ideology to ask their followers to detonate themselves by saying that there would be 72 virgins waiting for them up in Heaven. Well, if you really wanted to pick on the lies of the Church, the biggest lie was probably the fact that they kept insisting that by becoming their believers, you would get a one-way ticket to Heaven. Oh, just look at the Paladin and the Cleric, would you? Oh, yeah they had gotten the tickets indeed... the tickets to the Void.
Still, at the end of the day, the Church was still much more lenient to those heretic cults than to the Voidwalkers. That was something Baiyi could not fathom at all. But at least, in the matter regarding Godsfall, he had the same interest as the Church. And of course, he would surely let the Church deal with the cult however they liked.
After all, he did not have so much time to deal with such a secretive evil cult. Since the Church liked to handle that kind of thing, he might as well let them do it all by themselves. At that moment, the Grand Cross Charlemagne promised that he would revert the matter to the top management and they would start an investigation on the Godsfall cult as soon as possible.
The kind-hearted paladin did not forget to remind Baiyi, "Sir Hope, I know that you're very strong but please stay vigilant and careful before the Godsfall cult is completely eradicated. I'm worried that they might retaliate against you."
"Thanks for your concern. I'll take note," Baiyi nodded his head. Actually, he had also expected it as well. No matter what their real purpose was, he had undoubtedly disrupted their plan and it would not be surprising if they came to get revenge.
"This would be a long process so please be patient, Sir Hope. Their nest is at Marle and I'm sure you know about the conditions there as well. It's not a stroll in a park for us to extend our power there," Charlemagne continued to say.
Marle was actually a realm that had many mixed tribes living together. Fairies, dwarves and so on. They did not believe in God's Grace so the Church did not have much influence over there. The path to exterminate Godsfall sect would be a long and tedious.
Before he left, the paladin placed his hands in front of his chest forming a cross, very similar to Ultraman releasing his dynamic light waves 1 , and said a blessing to Baiyi, 'Thank you for the deeds that you have done for mankind. We will certainly not let your hard work go to waste."
Wow, how exaggerated. Other than the exaggerated praise, there's no substantive rewards, huh? Baiyi thought to himself. Before they bade each other goodbye, he decided to act dumb for once.
"Oh, yeah, come to think of it, did the judicial paladin came as well? I'm always fascinated by these mysterious knights so I really want to see these noble and respected knight for once," Baiyi asked in a silly and naive manner.
"The judicial paladin?" Charlemagne froze for a moment.
"Yes. I heard they are the main elite force in fighting the devils, aren't they?" Baiyi continued to play dumb.
"Errr... not really," Embarrassment crept up onto Charlemagne's face, "Did you misunderstand, perhaps? Unlike the rumors, the judicial paladin is only responsible for the internal affairs of our Church. But please believe me, Sir Hope, you don't want to meet them."
Oh? Why did that tone sound so much like a certain paladin in the Void? How bad is this Judgement Room? Why is it even your own people seem to dislike it so much? Baiyi could not help but wonder.
Of course, it was impossible that Baiyi did not know what the work scope of the judicial paladin was. He just wanted see whether the Void Energy that he used had caught the attention of the Judgement Party or not.
However, judging from the current situation, things were going pretty well so far.