Chris's Faith of Fire

"If you do it here, the Templars will rush in and impale you into a sieve."

"However, you will become charcoal first, and Fami and Noelle will kill all members of the Holy See."

"I don't want things to get like this... No matter which side wins, it will be a big loss for the world."

"I don't want to either."

"I'm glad we can reach a consensus." After hearing what she said, her hands relaxed a little, and her tense posture seemed to relax a little.

"I am leaving Neferait today."

"If I can wait until tomorrow, I can still help you... As I said just now, there are four bishops in the Council of Cardinals. Now including me, there are three." She sat back in the bath and motioned for me to sit down too.

It is indeed a bit cold to stand here naked, and the tit-for-tat exchange just now made me calm down a lot.

"And what do you want Noel to do..."

"The brave man can strengthen the human army, even if he does not go to war, just like the devil strengthens his demon army. The Holy See and the Empire will hope that he can lead the army against the devil, of course, leading their army."

Patricia's smile this time was a little sad, and I felt like I could guess the outcome.

"They will wait until onee-sama is defeated before sending out troops! And they must have other plans after defeating the Demon King."

"Your idea is too conspiracy theory... The empire also aims to defeat the Demon King, but what I can guarantee is that they will not advance so quickly. The empire's parliament is in power. They think much more complicated than me, and neither will the brave man. There is freedom in life. And you will also be put under house arrest and forced to marry a noble of the empire."

There is no way to refute it. The result she said seems to happen in the near future. If I don't do anything, it will be a given.

"Why are you telling me this, Lady Patricia."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I want to be trusted by you, Your Highness Crystal... No matter what happens in the future, the Demon King is our common enemy now. The other two cardinals have very different ideas from mine. They know today's conversation. It’s not good for anyone.”

The Holy See and the Empire were at loggerheads. The Holy See did not have a strong military force and was only dependent on the Empire... At the same time, the Empire also relied on the theocratic authority of the Holy See to control its vast territory.As the half-elf in front of me said, maybe if I don't believe her, there is only one way left for me.

"Believe..." I can't believe the people I just met. Free, Crow... and Ryder all betrayed them one after another, all because I was too naive. Firmina and Alyssa are companions who have been together through life and death. Only then can we talk about trust.

"Believe in you, I might lose everything. You just let me stay in Neferait without mentioning these things."

"Because I was not sure that the brave man was Lord Noel just now. In this case, it is naturally better for you to stay here. I don't know that your so-called mission actually has to bear the fate of the continent... and you actually inherited Salaman The power of virtue. The last time I exchanged letters with Her Royal Highness Ladia, she said that her sister only had magical abilities of phantom attributes."

"I was actually defrauded of all the information, haha, you are such a smart man..."

She can figure out all my secrets with just a few words and a few actions. The simple Noelle must have been tricked by her inadvertently.

"The biggest advantage of living a long time is experience. It just means seeing more."

The cardinal stepped onto the steps of the bath, walked up step by step, and wrapped his body in the towel again.

◆ ◇

We took this bath from morning to noon, which almost delayed our lunch time.

If I had come out later, Fami might have rushed into the bathroom again.But what I said before may have hit him a bit.

Today, Patricia hired a nun to help me dress up. When we were at the lighthouse, I told Fami that he would come and braid my medium-long silver hair every day, but Fami broke the agreement first, and I didn’t do anything after that. Sora focused on himself again.

Patricia guessed my purpose. She said she would not stop me and would send people to protect me so that I could reach the empire safely. However, the role of those people was just surveillance.

This is not my territory. I have no choice but to swallow my anger after losing all my advantages. Now I can only pray that Patricia is as she said and will not betray me or turn around and report this matter to other cardinals. bishop.

But how should I tell them about this? Everyone is loyal to me, not Patricia or the Holy See. They must not let the Holy See override my authority... Not even my sister, nor Fami. Okay, Noelle, they are all my knights, everyone believes in me, if I abandon them casually, I will lose everything.

At the same time, I also realized that whether I... Patricia, or the higher-ups of the empire, we were all using Noel. He had already lost his own from the moment he was selected as a hero. From now on, as time goes by, more and more people will call him the title of Lord Brave.

The innocent boy from Sestotia will never appear in my mind again.

Chapter 185 185. Chrissy’s Knight——4

Being a leader has much more to bear than a soldier. Zelodia is a leader, Duke Asha is a leader, and now Cardinal Patricia is also a leader. Each of them is different.

Duke Asha is a puppet. He has no real power and cannot completely dominate the nobles under his command.Zelodia is a good leader, she knows her purpose and is not lost.As long as she stays in Parthia, she doesn't intend to make a mistake in her position, so I can work together with her without affecting each other from the beginning.The last thing I want to say is Patricia. She is different from those two people... Patricia is a cardinal. She is at the top of the four clerical powers and is the one with the most say among the four. From the cardinal After the death of Bishop Zachary, she should have more power...

She must not be trusted, but she cannot afford to offend. I hate betrayal, but if it is that smart Patricia, as long as our goals are consistent, there will be no trouble.

But the question is how do I tell everyone about this now?

I made a mistake, letting Patricia know our purpose, and Noelle's identity as the brave man was also exposed... This is what happened when I took a shower, how can I say this? !

Now I'm like a naughty boy who didn't dare to tell his parents when he did something wrong... This kind of thing shouldn't have happened. We'll have a night's rest and tomorrow we'll go to the Empire's Ordinary Snake Head "Spider" and then go to Irene to let Noelle wake up. Things should be It's only right to walk along this trajectory.

"You don't look good, Your Majesty." Haka of the beast tribe is still so loyal. He walks around the semi-circular arc corridor. The statue of the goddess in front of the cathedral is still so conspicuous. Haka is looking up at the goddess there, clasping his hands... …He immediately looked worried when he saw me coming.

"It doesn't matter to me, I drank a little more..."

"Please take care of yourself, Your Majesty..." the soldier replied. "Fighters of Bloodclaw never drink alcohol. It destroys our rationality and agility."

Some of the orc warriors drink alcohol, and Chris has seen them before.But they have many tribes and their habits are different. The Blood Claw tribe where Haka belongs may have stricter restrictions on alcohol. I must be careful not to arouse their resentment.

"You are right, Haka. I will pay attention to it in the future, but we must also adapt to their habits in the human world, otherwise many business deals will not be concluded and our career will be affected."

"You have much deeper thoughts than I do. I shouldn't question you, Your Majesty..." He lowered his head and put his scimitar in his hand for me to pick up.

"Haka, stop doing this! You are my outstanding and loyal warrior, and I will not take your life. If you must die a worthy death, I hope you can use this energy to deal with the Demon King's army."

"Sorry, Your Majesty." The orc warriors put away their weapons. The Holy See itself cannot engage in violent warfare. Only the Templar Knights have the right to hold weapons. We who were invited to this large monastery were originally reminded to take away our weapons, but The Orc warriors stated that they would coexist with their scimitars, and Patricia said that this exception could be made, but we must not unsheath them.

"Stop apologizing. Do you also worship the goddess? I heard that the warriors of the beast tribe have always believed in the elves."

"The elves are subject to the goddess," he replied, lowering his head as if my words reminded him that I was a guest of Salamander. "We serve the elves. The elves are all children of the goddess. As long as they are pious, they will surely bring words to the goddess. However, humans actually ignore the elves and directly worship the goddess. In our opinion, this is a transgression..."

"I see."

I used to think that the orcs had no faith in the goddess, but I didn’t expect that to be the case. They chose to communicate directly with the elves before they believed in the goddess, so they seemed different from us.

"Continue your prayers, I have something else to do."

"Please let me protect you, Your Majesty..."

"I already know your loyalty quite well. There is no need for it today. I will handle the next matter alone."

"Follow your orders."

Haka reminds me of Catherine. She was once such a loyal servant like a robot, but she was a little colder than Haka. How is everyone doing?My sister is still alive now. Did she bring out the queen mother and Catherine?Who of the people I know are still alive and who are no longer alive?

After crossing the cathedral, I returned indoors. Patricia told me that I could come to the garden behind the church at any time. This is where she often sits and drinks tea. The soldiers she just said were responsible for protecting us along the way will also be there. Will introduce it to me.The crowd was very inconvenient for our mission, and hopefully she would understand that.

Passing through the back door, the scent of flowers from the garden hits your nose. The main tone here is still white, and the combination of basilica-style columns and green vines blocks the view of guests entering from the church.The flower beds were planted with bright flowers in different categories. Patricia was sitting in a small pavilion on one side drinking tea like a goddess in a white robe as imagined. However, the rough-looking men around her were completely different from this place. Doesn't match.

They were wearing brown or black clothes, covered with equally dark leather armor. They looked like mercenaries. They paid more attention to agility rather than the thickness of the armor. There were three people there, one with short black hair and an unshaven beard. A young warrior, a wizard wearing glasses and robes and carrying a sword, and another...

I met his eyes... His short brown hair looked quite soft, and his cheeks looked quite cute. He must not be too old, but at the same time he showed the maturity of an adventurer with certain qualifications. Where have I seen this face before?It's not that I was sent back here by him when I was drunk last night. I haven't forgotten it...but now that I'm sober, I feel that his face seems to have been seen somewhere before, and it makes me feel nostalgic.

"Is this the person we want to entrust to protect? When we were called here, we didn't say we were protecting such a young lady who didn't know where she came from."

"I will pay the previous price."

"Tsk, if you break the contract, you will have to pay double...you must have received a lot of dirty money from believers."

The unshaven mercenary looked at me impolitely three times from head to toe and then smacked his lips at Patricia. My eyebrows wrinkled unconsciously.

"Tell me the true identity of this little girl. If we don't follow the nameless master, there won't be much."

"Mr. Ma Kai, she is a real princess. The second princess of Garnet is much stronger than you think. Maybe you should be respectful. I don't want you to spread her name to the empire to bring this princess A matter of personal safety.”

"If we didn't have credibility, we wouldn't be where we are today, but she has what you said and still needs our protection? Does her ability in bed mean her ability in bed? Her Royal Highness the princess of a subjugated country." Called by Patricia. Ma Kai's warrior continued to laugh at me with a rude attitude. If he had taken Haka just now, he would have chopped off his tongue.

Just as he was about to come to me and lift my chin, the boy next to him stretched out his hand to stop his companion.

Ma Kai looked at me and the boy in confusion, and then whistled as if he understood.

"I see, Alves...were you looking for this girl to have fun last night?"

Chapter 186 186. Chrissy’s Knight——5

"It's just that this girl was drunk, so I sent her back to the monastery."

Facing Ma Kai's question, Alves replied calmly, "That's the fact. I don't remember the details very clearly. Last night because I was angry with Fami, I went to a tavern north of the square to have a drink."As a result, the more I thought about it, the more angry I became. I accidentally drank too much... I had the impression that Alves helped me. We seemed to have talked a lot, so I probably didn't say anything wrong.

"Huh? You're not a virgin, are you going to throw away the fat you got?"

"No...I'm not, Miss Chris, please ignore what Ma Kai said."

He suddenly became nervous. It was indeed a headache to be with such a disrespectful person, but it seemed normal for such a character. I can't force anyone to be as polite as the nobles in the court.

"I don't care. What I need is the sword in your hands rather than your words."

After glaring at Ma Kai, he just smiled and spread his hands to show that he lost.

Cardinal Patricia, who had been quietly watching this little farce for a while, then stepped forward. I was waiting for her to speak. Since she had to put this layer of shackles on us, I wanted to listen carefully to what she should say. How to smooth things over, I will not agree to let this group of people follow me unless I am given a satisfactory arrangement, except for Mr. Alves, who is gentle and polite, and not bad looking.

"Your Highness Crystal, I'm sorry to introduce you now. The three here are the three representatives of the 'Sons of Zersi', a mercenary group that has been very active in the empire recently. They have killed many powerful monsters. Recently, He is also well-known in the Adventurer Mercenary Association. The Holy See originally hired many mercenaries to go to the North to fight against the Demon King's army, and you, the 'Sons of Zersi', are among the elite warriors."

Patricia did not forget her smile and adjectives. The words she spoke were like an elegant breeze blowing through the flowers in the garden, making people's hearts flutter. Listening to such a voice, even the corners of the rude Ma Kai's mouth curled up. A touch of arc.

"Thank you for the compliment, Lord Bishop~ Originally we were supposed to go to the North to cut off the devil's stupid dog's head, but now it seems we have to escort Her Royal Highness to an unknown island in the sea?"

Ma Kai, he doesn’t know about Irene’s existence?After a pause, I remembered that the so-called Erin is just a legendary place. The fairies use magic barriers to separate them from the human world. Normally, people would think they were crazy if they said they wanted to go to Erin. Ma Kai is like this The realistic mercenary must not have thought about this, and Patricia would not let him know too much.

"It's just a religious ceremony. Your Highness Crystal is our saint. We need to pray for the goddess's help." Patricia lied without any change in her expression, as if she was stating simple facts.

"Thank you for having time to do this kind of thing...the goddess won't come."

"Mr. Ma Kai doesn't seem to know much about magic and sacred rituals."

She was so beautiful even when she was sarcastic, and Ma Kai grinned again.

"Of course, I don't understand~ Our wizards and paladin don't seem to understand either. We only care about the gold you give us. As for the rest, the bishop can just treat it as nonsense because I think about this continent~"

"On behalf of the believers, I accept your wishes...continue what you just said, I will pay double the original reward, and pay it in advance..."

"It's really generous."

"I hope Mr. Ma Kai can also abide by the agreement."

"This is natural. I said we keep our word, right? If you ask the managers of any mercenary station in the empire, they all know that the son of Zerxi can kill, gamble, drink, and pick up prostitutes. But The only thing I won’t do is break my trust. And...I’m waiting to come back to see you~"

The middle-aged mercenary's hand grabbed Patricia's long black hair and stroked it gently. Both me, Alves and even the wizards they were traveling with were surprised.Being rude to the Cardinal is equivalent to being disrespectful to God... When his other hand was about to touch Patricia's firm chest, she knocked it down gently, but his gentle smile did not break due to this.

"Looking forward to your return, and please don't do this to Princess Crystal."

"Haha, I won't do anything to children~"

Patricia nodded, then looked at the brown-haired boy aside.

"Thank you for your hard work, Lord Alvis."

"Not at all. Please don't worry. I won't let anything happen to Your Highness Crystal, whether it's from the enemy or one of my own."

"Hey! You don't seem to believe me." The middle-aged knight complained.

But Alves didn't answer.

.........

……

Alves' perspective:

Crystal.

Crystal Rubiel Macefield.

How could I not know this name...

The princess of Garnet, I had already recalled it before Bishop Patricia revealed her identity.

At that time, I was just a child, the youngest son of a lower-class noble. My father often took me to the streets of Rodeculosaint to buy clothes and daily necessities. If my mother was still alive, he might also bring a bunch of Every time I walk on this street and look at the people coming and going, I am reminded that I am a noble and different from them.

But one day I met a truly noble person.

Like a golden carriage coming out of a fairy tale, followed by the noble knights of the Salamander regiment, the silver-haired girl sitting on it slightly showed her face from the carriage window... Her silver hair was as pure as snow, and although she was young, her lovely facial features were as delicate as Like a doll.That's our princess. When everyone saw her face, they shouted Princess Crystal's name like crazy. The sister beside her also looked extremely envious.

That's my first memory of seeing the princess...

Lower-level nobles like us are not qualified to attend the banquets of the royal family. My father often only got a bad start in the social world. If I had not come out to be an adventurer, I would have inherited his career and continued to do so without dignity. Let's live on, even if we rely on the power of the Phantom God's sword like this now, I don't know if we can talk about dignity.

Later, my sister went to the palace as a maid after being introduced by her father's friend. I don't know if she got to talk to Princess Crystal.Whatever happened in the past will be fine.

She is the Crystal Princess of Garnet...an existence that was once beyond our reach.

The gorgeous robe she was wearing looked soft and smooth. My sister would never be able to wear such luxurious clothes in her life.

I can probably understand why my sister looked so envious at that time.