Chapter 402 – Golden Interrogation.

Gideon leaned forward, his gaze fixed on Roland with a newfound intensity. The mention of a sacred beast made him somewhat uneasy. From Elodia’s story, it seemed they were concerned for Agni. It aligned with the old legends about Sunlight Wolfs and their obvious connection to the goddess. However, Roland couldn’t rule out the possibility that they would resort to forceful means to take possession of his tamed beast.

Typically, a monster attached to a person was considered a tamed beast, reinforced by this world’s system. Both he and Agni were present on each other’s status screens. If analyzed enough, it was possible to see Roland listed as Agni’s current master, but it wasn’t an unchangeable title. Instances existed where tamed monsters were passed down to others, sometimes by choice but other times by force.

There were items and skills that could take away the master titles. Usually, people with tamer classes possessed them but for a creature of Agni’s magnitude it wouldn’t be such an easy task. It was harder to control tamed monsters of higher levels and ones with long lasting relationships with their masters. Taming in a sense was a sort of charm effect that also brainwashed the monster. The higher the beast’s intelligence and willpower was, the harder it was for such skills to work on them.

“You mean Agni, what about him? Hope he hasn’t been troubling you too much?”

“Troubling? Nothing of the sort! It’s such a magnificent creature!”

Loreena was the one to interject after he answered while prodding for some answers. It wasn’t hard to assume that the two were interested in the Sunlight wolf.

“That’s good but I don’t see how my tamed beast has anything to do with this incident?”

“So, it is your tamed beast?”

“Of course? Who else would it belong to?”

The replies were somewhat odd, it was as if they had not examined Agni to any extent. His armor had been damaged during the battle so hiding status screens had become impossible. If they wanted they could easily discover the truth but for some reason they didn’t. It seemd as if they didn’t want to use their skills on him.

‘Could it be some rule within the church? Is it forbidden for them to analyze what they perceive as sacred beasts?’

“Belong to? How is that even possible? How could someone outside the Church be accepted by the holy beast? It doesn’t make any sense.”

This time, it was Gideon who spoke up, though he lacked a table to smack. Instead, he resorted to hitting his own knee. His eyes narrowed, seeking an answer that Roland was hesitant to provide. To do so, he would have to delve into his involvement with divine rune emulation and elaborate on how he had revived Agni from the brink of death. This, in all likelihood, was the catalyst for Agni’s evolution into the Sunlight Wolf.

“That’s true. It’s said that only those of the sun can trigger a divine transformation. Are you, by any chance, a Paladin of the order yourself, Sir Roland?”

Loreena inquired, her eyes growing in anticipation of his answer. It didn’t seem like he could lie his way out of this one, but before indulging the two paladins, he needed to make something clear. One aspect of this situation kept bothering him: how did these church members assemble such a large force? They had to know where the cultists were going to attack beforehand or had been trailing them from a safe distance.

“Before I answer your question, I have one for you instead. How did you get here so fast?”

“What do you mean?”

Responded Gideon while raising a brow, his face growing colder the longer Roland continued to ask his question.

“I’ve been thinking, but things just don’t add up. Either your people did a terrible job at sanctifying the village where the incident took place, or you did it on purpose.”

“What are you implying?”

“I’m sure that you know what I am implying. You’ve set a trap for these cultists and I was the sacrificial lamb.”

Gideon and Loreena exchanged glances, and the atmosphere became increasingly tense. Roland could see the gears turning in their minds, contemplating whether or not to confirm his suspicions. The silence lingered, broken only by the distant echoes of footsteps from the church above. Finally, Loreena sighed, relenting to the truth with Gideon frowning as she revealed it.

“You are correct, Sir Roland…”

“Dame Loreena, what are you…”

“Calm yourself Gideon, the Lady of the Light does not condone lying, don’t worry, I’ll take the responsibility for it.”

“… Do as you wish then.”

Roland wasn’t sure what Loreena was talking about but perhaps when called out on a matter, it was frowned upon to lie about an issue. His involvement with the church was very limited and he saw them more as divine item peddlers than anything else. This didn’t mean that their Golden Order didn’t take things a bit more seriously and soon he was given the information about their scheme.

“You’re aware of the incident in that village, so this won’t take long.”

“Of course.”

“Good. After the battle with the cultists, we had suffered great losses and had nothing to show for it. The unholy monolith had been destroyed, and many of our brothers and sisters had died…”

The story continued for a while, and he got the gist of it. After the losses to their forces, the people at the church were furious. They decided not to sanctify the area fully while also leaving some exposed cult informants in the city to their devices. They assumed that sooner or later, the cult would return to perform some type of search to discover the truth behind the battle. They knew that they had necromancers who could converse with the souls of dead cultists, and thus they were led to Albrook.

It was somewhat of a basic trap that exploited the cult’s superiority complex. There were many ways to track people in this world, and the Golden Order had their methods. They quickly assembled a force of elite paladins and clerics to trail after. Considering that they were actually able to arrive to take out the weakened Eldritch Horror, they performed their duties admirably.

However, this didn’t make Roland feel any better. Bernir had lost his arm during this horrific event, and his home had been partially destroyed again. The church would probably not issue any public apologies. It seemed that most of them aligned with Gideon’s thought process. In this Paladin’s mind, the end justifies the means. If a few people got killed in their holy war with the cult, it was considered acceptable.

“I understand the need for action, but you should have at least informed me or at least the lord of the city. My people and I were caught in the crossfire, and some paid a heavy price for it…”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Dame Loreena, though maintaining a calm demeanor, nodded in acknowledgment of Roland’s frustration. Gideon, on the other hand, remained stoic, perhaps unmoved by the consequences of their actions or he just felt justified by the deaths of powerful cultists.

“I apologize for the collateral damage, Sir Roland but the cultists proceed with their attack sooner than we expected. By the time we realized, the shroud had already encased your home and fooled us into believing that everything was well.”

This was the purpose of the large shrouding spell. Those outside of it wouldn’t be able to peek inside, and they would be fed an image of what was there before the attack happened. Only after he was able to push through were they alerted to the event transpiring.

“Don’t change the subject! Without us, you would have perished!”

“Perhaps but if you didn’t lure those maniacs here, my friend wouldn’t have lost his arm! Will you take responsibility and restore it then?”

Roland was starting to get fed up with the whole situation and shouted back at Gideon. If not for the absence of his runic armor, his runic suppression skill would have been forced out due to his anger. Nevertheless, the two knights were equipped with runic armor of their own, which started to resonate with it instead. This act prompted one of the Paladins to reach for his weapon, while the other quickly tried to defuse the situation.

“Both of you, calm yourselves!”

The tension in the room rose, but Loreena stepped in, her authoritative yet calm tone cutting through the rising tension.