The Brutal World of Gods, Demons and a Fallen Hero

The City And The Church

Nate woke up early and was trying his best to prepare for his journey. He had no idea how long the travel would last nor where he was heading with the holy knights so he was trying his best to organize what little he had. This process was interrupted by a maid confidently walking in.

"Oh, you are up already? And here I was hoping to wake you up..."

"Nice to see you too Mia..."

"Haha... And what you are doing?"

Mia chuckled and asked the question with a sly smile on her face.

"Trying to pack up..."

"Really? Then I think this would be useful. His holiness Cornelius tasked me with giving this to you"

She proceeded to take out a small black box that looked perfectly like the ones men hide their engagement rings in and handed it to Nathaniel.

"What is this?"

"Come on! First open it then ask!"

Mia seemed excited and Nate was also curious about this 'gift'.

'If she didn't mention Cornelius, I would think she wanted to propose...'

After having this thought he finally opened the box. Inside was a plain looking silver ring, he proceeded to take it out of the and examined it closely. He noticed that although the ring looked simple if one looked more in depth, one could notice small rune like characters on the inner side of the ring.

'I can sense small amount of mana on this thing, is this...?'

He already had a guess but decided to ask Mia nonetheless.

"Mia, I had no clue you had such feelings towards me! You got this from Cornelius? So, you already received his blessing for our union? How confident"

"No you dummy! This is a storage ring! Storage ring!"

Mia practically screamed out while blushing.

"Haha, I know I was just joking! Joking!"

Nate was explaining himself and laughing while Mia stared at him looking upset and pouting.

"Humph! It looks like you can pack things by yourself! Then I will be off!"

She stormed off after saying this. Nate obviously was laughing throughout the entire process and only after she shut the doors behind her while leaving did he stop and his expression turned cold.

"Storage ring huh? This will certainly be useful"

***

Nataniel was walking through the city, while being guided by the same blonde-haired knight he saw yesterday guarding the throne room. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to learn his name since the man could be described as "a man of few words" and only spoke when absolutely necessary. So, he focused on the city and was stealing glances at everything he could.

'This city looks quite good... magic works quite well as a substitute to regular technology. This city wasn't it called Constantinople?'

He was truly admiring the city. Even though it looked "medieval" at a first glance it shouldn't be called one. The streets were clean, people looked civilized and they even had running water and sewers thanks to simple magic.

'A civilization that has toilets cannot be called primitive. At the very least that's my opinion'

He also couldn't overlook the number of different churches in the city. The amount honestly frightened him.

'There is so many different kinds of churches and cathedrals... I know that in this world people worship many Gods but still... Do they believe in more than a hundred Gods? If every city looks like this then this world is basically run by theocracy'

Nate had limited knowledge about this world and every time he wanted to inquire about anything he often was met with a ton of different excuses.

"I understand your curiosity but you should focus on learning magic"

"Oh, are you interested in history? Well maybe we will talk about it next time"

Even books about such topics were "mysteriously" absent.

'It's not the first time ignorance is being used as a way to control others. Humph!'

Nate sneered in his mind and continued to follow his guide. Soon his sight was fully occupied by a large cathedral. He was amazed by the architecture and wanted to enter it but was stopped in his tracks by a sudden comment of his guide.

"To the side"

He turned his head towards the knight and hurried to follow him as he was entering an open gate on the right side of the church. Nathaniel was once again amazed and surprised by what he saw upon entering. The "backyard" of the cathedral was basically a very spacious training ground. It looked well-made and professional, the colours of white and light blue dominated the area and numerous holy knights wearing armour with similar colouring on them could be seen. The design of their armours basically resembled that of the Teutonic knights but instead of black crosses the were light blue. Everyone there seemed to be busy, either training or doing some chores.

"Beautiful, isn't it? The colour of white represents divinity and the colour of light blue symbolises purity that our church tries to uphold"

A voice behind his back stopped the admiration of Nate. He turned and learned that the owner of voice was a blond haired and young-looking woman, Nathaniel was quickly stunned by her deeply blue eyes that were almost glowing. She was also wearing similar armour to those of the rest of the holy knights with the difference being it was smaller and more "distinguished" from the rest.

"It is nice to meet you, hero... My name is Sara and I am the grand master of this cathedral"

She introduced herself with a small smile on her face and Nate was instantly stunned by her beauty, though he didn't show it on his face.

"It is an honour to meet you as well. My name is Nathaniel and I believe I will be in your care, correct?"

"Then I am off"

Before Sara could reply the quiet knight cut in and stormed off in a very hurried manner, almost as if he saw something scary and wanted distance himself from it.

'That's weird'

Nate was confused by the behaviour of his "guide" but his confusion was quickly dispelled by Sara. Her smile widened and looked almost demonic.

"Please ignore him. Not everyone is capable of withstanding... how do I put it...? The way our church conducts things but I am sure that you as a hero would be of great help to us in... purifying evil"

'Oh, great... he left me with a murderous psychopath'