"Welcome, priests and warriors of Elcrada!" Said the man, who had come to greet the motley group of holy men and adventurers, who had been invited to Roughensburg.
The survivors of the undead onslaught at the City of Adventurers were standing in formation before the gates of the capital. They numbered around fifty, most of which were Silver and Bronze Ranked adventurers. That fact, however, was in no way visible to the naked eye.
They stood in formation, with military precision and discipline. There was around one meter's worth of spacing between each of the ten rows of survivors. Each row had five people in it, except for the foremost, which had four; three adventurers and one priest. It was clear to anyone that those four were the leaders of the group, in three cases, at least. The three adventurers wore extremely expensive and unique equipment, which went well with their small, golden plaques. The priest, however, wore dirty, white robes. One would have to know who he was, in order to know that he was one of the five Heroes of Elcrada; the people who had turned the tide of the battle.
Will finally looked at the man who had welcomed them. Neither Robinia, Lin, or Fang were saying anything, so the young priest took it upon himself to answer.
"Thank you for your welcome. Icarus blesses you, Duke Amadeus of Roughensburg."
Seemingly surprised at how well-spoken the young man was, the Duke's smile wavered a bit.
'You were probably expecting a horde of ill-mannered barbarians, weren't you? I'm sorry, but I won't be giving you an excuse to ridicule us, Duke.' Thought Will to himself, supremely satisfied.
A rumor had spread among the populace of Kanburrough that the adventurers, and anyone foolish enough to befriend them, were savages and devoid of both reason and respect. Will wasn't going to let the people, whose families and friends had been killed, be ridiculed. They had been through more than enough, in his opinion.
"May we enter the great capital?" Asked Will.
The dignified Duke Amadeus once again found his smile, nodded to the young priest, before signalling for his honorary guards to clear the way.
"You and your men have my blessing, emissary of Icarus."
As the gates to the massive, beautiful capital opened themselves, Will looked over his shoulder to see Robinia and her gang smirking. The young priest knew very well that even though he felt as if it was his responsibility to protect the adventurers, they might not feel the same. After all, adventurers had a certain predisposition to hating priests and their way of doing things. The dignified way in which Will had just spoken, had likely not made his relationship with the adventurers any better.
The priests, among the ranks of adventurers, however, looked at the young priest with faces full of adoration. Will had been elected the new High Priest, so he was inevitably going to be looked at with both adoration and disgust. In fact, the reason Will was in Roughensburg in the first place was because of the initiation ceremony, which had been fused with the victory celebrations.
The young priest turned his face to the now open gate.
"Let's go, men!" He shouted, trying his best to appeal to the adventurers, but to no avail, unfortunately.
They all passed through the gates, eagerly, for they had been on the move for many days on end. Few of them had gotten any sleep. And how could they when they had seen a slaughter of nightmares?
'Never again will I let you experience that, I swear it on my faith." Will thought to himself.
His faith in the Light God was really all he had to swear on. He was still nothing but a poor, newbie priest. What did he have to offer if not his faith in Icarus who was bigger than both life and death?
The group walked through the districts of Roughensburg, which were all very familiar to Will, who had used to live in the upper district. Eventually, after half an hour's time of walking, they arrived in the upper-class district, the greatest gathering spot for nobles in all of Kanburrough.
Will, who had been walking in front of Lin, Fang, and Robinia, decided that he might as well talk to them. He didn't particularly care for them, but sometimes he would get so bored that he would have to do it, in order to not go crazy. He stopped walking for a few seconds, letting the others catch up with him.
"Hi, so how are we -- and you're gone." The young priest said, annoyed.
The others had simply walked past him, ignoring his attempt at conversing with them. It wasn't easy being surrounded by people like that. Will wasn't going to be swayed by something as insignificant as that. He sprinted after the three adventurers, who seemed to be trying their best to get away from Will, seeing as they were walking faster and faster, without making the fact that they didn't want to talk to him too obvious.
In the end, the young priest finally caught up with the three unsociable Gold Rank adventurers. They were walking side by side, shoulder to shoulder.
"Excuse me? I don't think you heard me before, but I'd like to have a word with your leader, if possible." Will said, trying his best not to let his annoyance show.
Robinia and the mage, Lin, kept walking. Fang, however, stopped to walk with the young priest. Will had always sort of thought that the trapper was slightly different, even if not by a lot. The greasy-haired, tall man always kept to himself, when he wasn't with the other two, and even when he was with them he didn't bother to talk with them.
"So, Fang... How have you been doing, lately?" Will asked, trying to make it sound like he was just asking for the sake of asking.
In reality, the young priest had always had a set goal with talking to them. They weren't nearly interesting enough to simply spend time with. The thing was that the three Heroes of Elcrada had had an additional companion, in the past. One whom Will knew they had killed.
"Walking." The trapper responded, omitting to further the conversation.
"I know we haven't talked much, Fang, but I'd like to ask you something about one of your party members -- well, your former party member." Will began, still trying to sound as casual as possible.
There was no change in the trapper's face, at the mention of his former companion. The massive man simply kept walking.
"Ask."
Surprised by the fact that there was a chance of an actual answer, Will didn't hesitate to ask. In fact, he may have seemed a little too eager, although the trapper didn't seem to notice.
"So, Robinia, your leader, once told me that you had a party member. He was called Ash Tsuga, and was a wanted fugitive. Of course, you didn't know that, but nevertheless -- he was such a person. Lin told me that you were forced to kill him, because he was dangerous, somehow. How so?"
Fang's face displayed slight discomfort, even if only for an instant.
"He kept slaves."
"That's not illegal, though. Why did you kill him, Fang?"
More discomfort. The young priest knew that he was asking the right questions. Fang had been the right person to ask, even if that hadn't been Will's initial intention.
"He beat his slaves. He hurt them."
"Still not illegal. I hear he did many good things for Elcrada, so why, Fang?" Will asked, sterner than before.
Too sternly, apparently.
Sharp pain suddenly came from the young priest's left cheek. The former monk and High Priest-nominee had been knocked to the ground by the now heavily breathing trapper.
Will got to his feet with clumsy movements. His vision was blurred, and black spots had appeared in his vision. Seldom had he been hit that hard.
'As expected of a Gold Rank.' He thought to himself.
"He hit the High Priest!" Shouted someone from behind Will.
It was probably one of the other priests, since the adventurers didn't care much for the young priest. Under normal circumstances, the former monk would've been glad to be defended like that, but not so much at that point in time.
"It's alright, we're just talking. I may have offended him, and if I did so, I'm sorry." Will said, and gave off a slight bow towards Fang, who still appeared supremely unsettled by the inquisitive nature of the young priest's questions.
"What's going on here?" A familiar voice inquired.
"Nothing, Robinia De la Pole. We're merely talking about your friend -- Ash was i?" Will replied, sounding quite oblivious to the malicious intent of the adventurers around him.
The elven noble, who had started ascending the small hill, which led to the gate to Roughensburg's citadel, turned around to face Will. Both of them were well aware of each other's intentions. The young priest wanted information, and the adventurous noblewoman wanted to withhold said information.
"Why don't you tell us, mistress of Elcrada; why did you kill your loyal friend and follower?" Asked Will with an innocent smile.
He had been asking around, listening to rumors, and in the end, he had reached the conclusion that Robinia's initial explanation of the events that led up to the death of her former companion didn't quite add up. On the contrary, they were blatant lies, and that fact was clear to anyone with a head mounted on their shoulders.
"He was executed by me, after I found out he was lying to me, murdering people, and worst of all, keeping slaves." Said Robinia, confidently.
'Does she actually believe that herself?' Will thought to himself, while smirking.
The young priest knew very well that at least half of what the adventurer had just said was false.
"Do you have any proof of this? I heard he was an upstanding young man, who slayed a wraith during his lifetime."
Robinia's face tightened up slightly. Like her companion, Fang, she was getting angry with the inquisitive priest.
"I- I... I have an entire tavern's worth of eye witnesses." She replied, waveringly, after a brief period of contemplation.
"Are any of those eye witnesses here, or did they die as a result of the vigilante justice, you so enjoy carrying out?" Will asked, still masking the satisfying sensation, he was feeling, with an innocent smile.
The blonde girl drew her sword. She was ready to kill, Will could see that. Whether or not she would be able to actually win a battle with the soon-to-be High Priest was an entirely different question, however.
"Take that back, I wont let you insult our leader like that!" Shouted the mage, Lin, who stood beside Robinia.
Now it was the young priest who was getting annoyed. Why was that girl getting tons of support, while Will was getting none?
"I shall take everything back, as soon as you can prove yourself innocent of premeditated murder. If you can't, however, we're going to have a problem."
The priests behind Will drew their staffs and scepters. They weren't big fans of being controlled by an adventurer. Many of them also knew that the three adventurers' role in winning the battle against the lich had been little to none.
Priests and adventurers alike had their gazes fixated on the Heroes of Elcrada. Holding their breaths, they just stood there; waiting for someone to make a move. The heroes, too, were waiting for anyone to stick up for either of them, seeing as neither of them could prove the other guilty or innocent.
"It would appear as if no-one want's to stand up for you, miss De la Pole." Will began, calmly.
Everyone tightened their grips around their respective weapons, ready to have at each other.
"However, it would be a shame to ruin the great feast we're about to have by exchanging blows now. Would you be willing to settle this at a later date?" The young priest continued, as he saw how the situation was unfolding.
Quickly, before anyone could tell him to do otherwise, Will signaled for the Duke to open the gates to the citadel. Amadeus did exactly that. He had worryingly been watching the situation become worse and worse, without being able to do anything. He, too, knew that getting everyone seated and fed would clear up the unpleasant atmosphere.
The gate's guards opened the gate they were guarding, allowing the many disgruntled priests and adventurers to pass through into the heart of the capital.
Will nodded to Robinia, as to show her that he had no ill intentions, after which he proceeded to enter the citadel's grand courtyard with the others.
Wide agape, the gate now displayed a wonderful, lush, and green garden inside of it. It was like the landscape of a dream; a good dream; a wonderful dream. Everyone present had to admit that they hadn't seen a more beautiful garden in their lifetime. And behind it towered the impressive citadel, from which Elcrada was ruled.
The large party of survivors headed through the gates, with awe painted across their faces. The garden was filled with flowers of all sorts, which flanked the brick path that led to the citadel's entrance.
When they reached the massive double doors, which made up the entrance, they were greeted by the lesser nobles of Roughensburg, who bowed down at the sight of Duke Amadeus, who was still leading the rowdy group of priests and adventurers.
"We welcome you, heroes." The nobles monotonously said in unison, still with their heads bowed.
Will could almost taste the insincerity of the nobles, but made the judgement that speaking up about it would be unwise.
"Thank you for your warm welcome. We are humbled to be hosted by great men, such as yourselves." Responded the young priest, as courtesy demanded of him.
Seemingly satisfied with the etiquette and grace with which Will spoke, the nobles straightened up and led priests and adventurers alike into the great citadel.
The great building, with its many towers and spires, was no less impressive on the inside, compared to its already awe-inspiring exterior. It was decorated with immensely beautiful carpets, chandeliers, and walls which were plastered with paintings of the highest quality. It was truly like a castle from a dream.
There, priests, adventurers, and nobles alike waited for the arrival of the commoners, who were all invited.
Will couldn't imagine that the decision to invite the middle and lower class residents had gone over well with the nobles, who were, in many cases, disgusted by the likes of people poorer than themselves.
About an hour went by, and the heroes were seated in massive dining hall, which was located at the heart of the citadel. They were happily talking to each other, briefly forgetting about their differences. Evening was rapidly approaching, and as it did, Roughensburg's populace started to show up.
While the priests and adventurers were seated inside the marvelous brick building, the commoners sat at makeshift tables in the park, meaning whatever they could find. That didn't seem to upset them, though. The sole fact that they were able to attend a prestigious dinner like the one at the citadel was enough for them.
What they weren't aware of, the commoners, was the black-robed, hooded man, who was sitting alongside a man, who was also hooded, but wearing white robes unlike his companion. Both of the two men had an eerie feel to them, which wasn't noticeable by lowly commoners.
A certain person inside the citadel, however, felt a chill run down his back, as he noticed an all too familiar presence. He stood up and glanced out the window, which was conveniently placed in such a way that there was a view to the garden, in which most of the dinner's attendants were located.
Duke Amadeus was giving a speech, but Will wasn't listening. He was busy looking out the window, for he had noticed that something was wrong. In fact, nothing seemed right. Everything was so serene, yet he kept having this nagging feeling of wrongness.
'Why am I suddenly thinking about Elcrada?" The priest thought to himself.
And that was when he noticed the two men. They were sitting with their backs against a cherry tree, lying in the shade. At first glance, that wasn't too suspicious, but Will slowly started to recognize the one to the left -- the tall man, who was dressed in black; the man, who wasn't a man. The man, who had led to the nullification of countless lives in the Battle for Elcrada. The battle, which's victory they were all so wrongfully celebrating.
Furthermore, the young priest started to see other black-robed creatures disguised as men. Will knew exactly what they were, for he had seen countless of their kind before. He had seen countless of the undead before, feasting upon the flesh of his allies; his friends.
Now they were sitting among the entirety of Roughensburg's populace. Concealed; waiting for their time to strike.
And the young priest was the only one to notice...