Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius was eating dinner with Lita and Gabriel when a steward appeared with some letters. This was a common occurrence and the servants would usually bring the letters unless it was something important that had come.

"What is it?" Gabriel asked the steward.

"My lord, it is a letter from the Church of Alana." The steward answered.

Gabriel furrowed his brows upon hearing this and took the letter from the man's hands. Pausing his dinner for the time being, Gabriel chose to open the letter first. Lita and Lucius looked at him too and stopped eating.

"Why would the church send us a letter?" Lucius asked.

"We'll know once I read it…" Gabriel said and cut the seal on it before removing the folded sheet from it.

He read it with a serious look for about a minute before putting it down.

"What does it say?" Lita was the one who questioned this time.

"An arbitrator is coming…" Gabriel answered.

"An arbitrator?" Lucius repeated, feeling a bit confused.

He then recalled what the function of a churches arbitrator was and rubbed his chin.

"Why are they sending an arbitrator to us?" Lita asked with concern.

"It's because of the whole Harrels and Keith incident. Looks like Viscount Drew managed to convince the church to do its own investigation as well." Gabriel answered.

"Hmm… we did have an idea that they would be coming though, right? So what's the problem we have all the evidence that we didn't do anything." Lucius replied.

"It would have been fine if it was someone actually from the church of Alana. I don't know if it is our bad luck, and the church didn't have other people available or if they intentionally sent this arbitrator." Gabriel said with a sigh.

"What's the problem with this one?" Lucius questioned.

"The arbitrator they have chosen to send is a priest from the church of Duran." Gabriel revealed.

"What!?" Lita exclaimed. "Do they really think someone like that is necessary? Those arbitrators are not… kind." Lita said, trying not to accidentally blaspheme.

~Sigh~

"It's not like we really have a choice in this. We can just hope that the church of Alana is sending him because they didn't have someone available. But if they sententially sent him then… it means they suspect us." Gabriel said in a serious tone.

"Or someone is pulling the strings from behind," Lucius added.

"Could it really be viscount Drew?" Kiana asked, feeling unsure.

"Hmm… it would take a lot of favors to make the church of Duran act. They act for justice and righteousness, they can't just be bribed with a tithe." Gabriel said.

"That is true… that means someone managed to gather enough material to make us seem suspicious. And then sent it to the church of Duran to get them involved." Lucius spoke.

"Dammit! Drew, if it really is you then you're just making me want to kill you even more." Gabriel cursed, losing his cool.

Lucius was a bit surprised after seeing Gabriel act like this, but after thinking for a bit understood the reason for it. Viscount Drew's father and other ancestors were all allies of the Inanis family.

They were actually one of the earlier members of the Land of Etara and thus were greatly involved in its growth. Viscount Drew choosing to split from the territory, was the same as spitting in the face of their ancestor's efforts.

'What does Viscount Drew have that made him so sure of his victory? Getting a priest of Duran involved is not an easy task and will be free of repercussions if the interrogation fails.' Lucius wondered to himself.

Lucius had studied quite a bit about the three gods of this kingdom that were greatly worshiped. The three churches of the gods were all friendly to each other, as the gods were said to belong to the same pantheon.

Of the three churches, while the church of Alanna was considered to be the biggest and strongest, The Church of Duran came in next. Even if they were in the second place, their people weren't particularly weak.

In fact, the only reason why it was ranked second was because they had fewer priests and paladins than the church of Alana. If one considered their powers, the clergy of the Church Of Alana was at least a bit peaceful due to their doctrines.

But the church of Duran's doctrines didn't really need for one to be kind. All that was needed was for them to be 'Just' and 'Righteous'. And for this Justice of theirs, the clergy often went to great extents.

They were not averse to violence and would regularly punish nobles and other rich people that made huge mistakes that affected a lot of commoners. In a way, they could be said to be an independent police force, separate from Kingdom's own guards and armies.

The clergy of the Church of Duran had a certain level of independence in acting against suspected people, and they could easily arrest them if they had even a hint of suspicion. They were also experts at interrogation and the other churches, along with the kingdom itself, employed their services in certain cases.

This was a similar situation where the Church Of Alana had sent out an arbitrator who would be a priest of Duran.

"What do we do now?" Lita questioned.

"We do nothing… we have done nothing wrong and thus have nothing to fear. Rather, if we do something, the priest would find things to nitpick. Don't forget their divine gift is specialized in that." Gabriel answered.

Lucius furrowed his brows upon hearing this. He knew what the count was talking about. Each of the three churches gave their own unique kinds of divine gifts to their clergy. For example, those from the church of Alana got the healing and light based gifts. 

Whereas the clergy from the Church of Duran had divine gifts that allowed them to detect lies, affect the emotions of people they interrogate and inflict greater pain onto those that are found to be guilty.