Chapter 124 — In which all meetings are a pure coincidence and nothing else (3)
There was short moment when the three men were left alone, as the guard who accompanied them went to explain the situation to the Saint.
Scarlen seized his opportunity.
“Master Sangria, do you perhaps mean…?”
“Yes. Yes! I’m quite certain. I memorized his eyes. They’re very unique.”
Amara’s eyes were indeed quite unique – like purple jewels in a silvery-white lakes.
Naturally, there were rumors circulating about them, but for the two mages the word of mouth held no credibility, and the pictures couldn’t capture how the light dispersed in them as if passing through a hexagonal structure, rather that linear soft tissue.
In fact, when Amara went to rescue the Archmage, he could conceal his eyes, but the moment he saw Sangria, he let go of this plan.
“I would be very careful what you say and do from now on.”
Iben warned them through his teeth, deeply aware there must be some unseen ears around them.
The Saint was one of the most guarded people in this country.
Yet they were so simply let in front of this precious person?
That could only mean that they were already screened and judged as non-dangerous.
In other words, even if either of them was to try to cast a spell, Purplus forces were confident in blocking them.
‘How the hell did I got in?’
Iben still couldn't comprehend how did he land in the Saint’s bedroom that faithful night.
The guard’s conversation with the Saint was brief, she soon returned to them.
“His Excellency will see you now.”
She said and led them in front of Amara, who sat down at the table.
An attendant brought him tea, and if not for a pile of letters that was brought alongside of it, it would look like he was about to take a break.
Seeing the pile of letters, the sharp gaze Scarlen regarded the with Saint, softened a little.
When they approached, Amara put down a letter he started to read and stood up.
He nodded in a small greeting and then waited.
While he was surely given their names already, it was only polite to let the guests to introduce themselves.
As the leader of the group, Scarlen stepped forward first.
“Scarlen of the Black Lake, it’s an honor to meet you, Your Excellency.”
Scarlen greeted Amara with a bare minimum of the customary greeting.
Amara also returned him only a customary smile:
“The right-hand of the Archmage, I see. Nice to meet you, Grandmaster Scarlen.”
Scarlen was still a bit flattered to be recognized as the Archmage’s right-hand, even though Amara only said that, because Scarlen came in wearing the Archmage’s seal.
Next was Iben.
“Iben. It’s a honor, Your Excellency.”
He bowed slightly.
Iben was disguised, as he obviously couldn’t show up with his face on the wanted posters among the secret law enforcements.
While not as good as the skills of the priests of Dead and Forgotten Gods Temple, Sangria had a hand for disguises, so Iben wouldn’t be easily recognized.
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If Amara recognized Iben, he didn’t show it, offering a perfect customary smile.
“Nice to meet you, Master Iben.”
Once Iben stepped back, it was Sangria’s turn.
“Sangria. It’s a hon—.”
Sangria couldn’t continue.
Between the moment he bowed his head and raised it, a slight change occurred in the Saint.
His eyes lit up with an inner light and the formal smile on his face was on the verge of collapse.
The corners of his mouth were twitching to go up.
“… It’s a honor to meet you, Your Excellency.”
Sangria continued after a second, a bit dumbfounded by the reaction.
“… Yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Master Sangria.”
Amara couldn’t stop his face from blooming into a small, but very bright smile when saying this.
For Sangria and Scarlen, who didn’t know Amara, they found this smile pretty, but didn’t know the significance of it.
They just fancied that the Saint found Sangria pleasing to eyes.
But the guards, priests, attendants, and even Iben held their breaths.
Because Amara never smiled like that towards anyone before.
Amara, who realized that he can’t control his face, picked a fan to cover his face, while he gave the signal to bring cushions for the guests to sit down.
Once everyone was seated, Amara put down the fan and addressed Scarlen with a normal expression.
“How may I help you?”
“We wish to borrow your expertise. Do you recognize this symbol?”
Scarlen took out the holy symbol corresponding to the god Crimo worshiped, which he managed to finally get after some convincing from Vern.
Their primarily research showed there was no such a god among the mainstream gods.
So their goal by asking the Saint about it was to get some pointers.
And Scarlen’s goal was also to judge the Saint’s reaction if he was involved in Crimo’s strange entanglement with gods.
Amara gave the symbol a cursory glance.
“No.”
And he gave an unexpected answer.
“… You don’t?”
Sangria blurt out in surprise, because he clearly remembered Amara explaining the taste in sacrifices the Crimo’s god had.
How could he not recognize the symbol?
Did they copy it wrongly?
Amara seemed slightly embarrassed at Sangria’s exclamation.
He picked the fan again and though he didn’t cover his face again, he looked like he was about.
“What I mean, this is not a symbol of any god currently recognized by Purplus.”
“… So there is no such a god?”
From a simplistic perspective, if Purplus didn’t recognize a god, then the god didn’t exist.
But Amara shook his head.
“It’s not it. It simply means that this god was completely forgotten and no one officially worships it.”
Besides the priests of the Dead and Forgotten Gods of course, but it was a bit different concept.
“So it’s useless?”
Scarlen spit out in dissatisfaction, but Amara didn’t answer.
He seemed to regard the conversation as finished.
That wouldn’t do.
Iben tugged on Sangria’s clothes, urging him to say something.
“Oh, um… So you can’t glimpse anything else from it, Your Excellency?”
Amara froze in place.
His eyes started to dart back and forth between the symbol drawing and Sangria.
“Well, I…”
He hesitated.
And then, as if he made a decision, he had the attendants to quickly bring him paper and grind ink.
“While no such god exists officially, based on the symbol we can still deduce the dominion and the target worshipers.”
“Target worshipers?”
Scarlen asked a bit sharply.
Amara was about to ignore that question, but Sangria’s worried gaze gave him a pause.
“… The relationship between a god and their believers is akin to a symbiosis. It’s a ritual of giving something and receiving something in return. So some people may suit a god better than others.”
He picked up a brush and broke down the holy symbol into smaller pieces.
“The goal of giving gods holy symbols is to make sure the prayers and sacrifices are delivered to the correct being.”
“So it’s like an address.”
“Indeed, Master Sangria. It’s like an address. Now this symbols specifies that this god belongs to the Moon and Night domain. The small markings around it signify that this god encompasses all moon phases and all hours of the night. That’s quite a big range of dominion, so they must have been widely worshiped during their golden time.”
Amara made small notes pointing to different elements of the symbol in a clean handwriting.
He then moved to the another part of the symbol.
“Now this is the target worshipers part. It’s used to strengthen the connection between a particular group of people and the god. Unlike the domain part, this element can be replaced with something else, without losing the connection with the god, but it’s likely to enrage the god, so I would strongly advise against it. Ah, right, this symbol means ‘vampire’.”
He simply wrote ‘vampires’ beside the symbol.
“So this symbol can be simply understood as Moon and Night God of Vampires.”
“Fascinating… So all holy symbols can be read this way?”
“Of course. At its simplest the holy symbols are just a code. Learning what each one of them means is one of the first secret arts the neophytes learn.”
“… Secret arts?”
Sangria, who was eagerly memorizing the symbols and their different meanings, slowly raised his head.
Amara burst out laughing.
“Haha, well. It’s alright. I’m a Saint afterall.”
“…”
Only then Sangria and Scarlen realized that the atmosphere was slightly strange.
It was so quiet, you would hear a needle drop.
Everyone was openly or secretly watching the scene.
Iben was frozen like a wax figure, pretending to have no idea what’s going on.
Amara was also acting like he was unaware of all the gazes directed at him.
He stroked his chin with a thoughtful face.
“… If you wish to learn more about this particular god you may want to visit our temple’s archives. What you’re looking for is a god from at least 300 years ago.”
“300 years ago?”
“Yes, it’s quite an old god. The symbols evolved since then… You should also visit this temple. They may have something we don’t.”
He wrote a temple address, then he looked up.
“Say… Where are you planning to stay?”
He should be asking Scarlen, but the Saint’s gaze was directed towards Sangria instead.
*-*-*
Once Phlox arrived in the capital of Flavun, Topal, she was immediately grabbed by a very excited lady-in-waiting.
“Ahh! You must be Priestess Phlox!”
“Yes. And it’s just Priest Phlox. We simply use ‘priest’ as gender-neutral title to accommodate the myriad of possibilities.”
“I see! Welcome to our little town, Priest Phlox!”
Phlox was quickly led through not so little town.
The excited lady-in-waiting talked her ear off in the meantime.
“My Lady was very excited to meet you!”
It appeared that the lady’s excitement rubbed off her attendant.
But who in this sorrow stricken family would look forward to Phlox arrival with such excitement?
She found out almost the moment she arrived at the manor.
“Ah~! Pretty Priest Lady Phlox!”
The beautiful youngest child of this grieving family waved her hand with a wide smile.
She beckoned Phlox closer, and Phlox did – dumbfounded by the welcome and strange title.
Saffra was standing in front of a particular slightly unkempt flower bed.
“Say, Sharp-Eyed Priest Phlox, do you think those flowers could kill someone?”
She pointed at the flowers at her feet with an innocent smile.
*~*~*
