They guided us to the main Temple. It seemed I would have yet another meeting with one of the leaders of a kingdom.

Actually, kingdom might not be the right word for it since the devotees of the God of the Sun aren’t in that big of a number. It would be more accurate to call them a small city, or even a village, considering the amount of people present within this place.

Nevertheless, that was only a detail that I occupied my mind with until we entered the main Temple.

“Oh. Looks pretty good,” I commented with a smirk as I looked around.

The guard glanced at me with a frown. “Keep walking.”

He didn’t seem too happy to see me so relaxed when I had been captured. After all, I was now used to those situations, and every single time, I was able to pull it off, even if it would get complicated at times.

Still, I had not lied. It really did look great. There was a human-sized statue right in our faces as soon as we entered. I could only imagine that it represented the appearance of the Sun’s God. I wasn’t sure how they had managed to get an accurate statue of him, but I did not question it.

The person I was looking for was capable of miracles like this. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come all the way here to find her.

“Are we going to be fine?” Aelua suddenly whispered in my ear.

“Yeah, don’t worry. Most leaders love me at first sight,” I arrogantly answered.

“I don’t know why… but I have a bit of difficulty believing that…”

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

The guard who was in front snapped his head around, glaring at the two of us with a deadly gaze.

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“Stop talking, you two. Otherwise, you will have to face God’s punishment.”

Now that the guard was saying it. Maybe talking inside the Temple was actually forbidden. Ever since we had entered, we had crossed ways with believers. However, they did either one of two things.

The first one was praying, and the other was simply walking by, acknowledging the guard with a nod of their head. They had never once said anything.

“Is talking not allowed in here?”

“It isn’t when an idiot like you is doing the talking,” the guard replied, his voice snapping.

Why was everyone calling me an idiot?

Even my own students had called me by that… was I really that much of an idiot in how I acted?

I thought I was just pretty easygoing most of the time. Could that be considered an idiot? After all, I was just following the teachings of my Master. I needed to keep smiling and acting as if everything was fine. That’s what he had told me to do.

“Look, it’s not that I want to pressure you or anything. But I just want to find my friend. She told me to come here if I wanted to find her. Her name is Evangel-“

“Stop lying through your teeth. There’s no way Goddess Evangeline would be affiliated with someone like you,” the guard said, cutting me off.

I could only sigh.

I hoped the person in charge would be more welcoming to outsiders. Otherwise, it would make my task here a lot more complicated. Exploring thousands and thousands of kilometers would take way too long. I, at least, needed a little hint of where she had left.

A few more minutes passed, and we were now standing before a tall door, which was at least twice my size. I had already asked what we were waiting for, and the guard told me that it was time for the weekly prayer and that we needed to wait until it was over.

He said that the prayer lasted well over one hour, which was annoying. But I didn’t want to make things worse for me. So, I decided to wait patiently.

Aelua seemed worried as she kept looking down and playing with her hands. I found it weird that she was nervous since she was on even grounds with the Elven King. Well, not anymore… but she was before.

It was strange for her to be so intimated by most, especially since her strength wasn’t lacking whatsoever. It was actually on a completely different level than practically everyone I knew. She was still a lot weaker than me in terms of fighting abilities. But she compensated by practicing alchemy. She was the best of the best when it came to everything that happened in a lab.

Long story short, she was the most powerful nerd that I had ever met.

Then, finally, after waiting some more, the door finally opened, revealing a scene where a bunch of devotees were praying on their knees. However, that scene only lasted for a second as they all began to stand up.

Honestly, I pitied them.

I didn’t understand what was so nice about devoting your entire life to someone else. It seemed extremely stupid to me. However, it wasn’t my place to say anything. They could do whatever they wanted with their life. I had devoted mine to eradicating the demons from the world, and they spent theirs praying for a God that might not even exist in the first place.

I was just very pragmatic and logical in that sense. I would never be able to do what they did. It simply wasn’t for me.

Anyway, a bunch of them walked out of the room, not even glancing in our direction. They only looked at the guard as they did so.

“Let’s go. Time for you to meet our leader. He will be the one who will determine if you are worthy of getting information on Evangeline.”

The guard honestly hated Aelua and me. It didn’t take a genius to realize that. If it was up to him, he would have kicked us out a while ago. It was a good thing that he wasn’t the leader of this place.

Nevertheless, we entered the place where all the devotees would pray every week, and on the stage, there was someone standing upright with his eyes closed and a strong light imbued his body.

He was the leader. He had a certain aura to him. However, it wasn’t a cold one like the one Amelia had; it felt warm as if he was ready to accept anyone who would present themselves to him.

Then, as we got closer to him, his eyes opened wide and locked onto me right away.

“Hm… child. You seem extremely conflicted, there is a lot of darkness within you. What is the reason you have come all the way here?” He uttered, the weight of his words felt heavy. It was as if he was able to see through me with a glance.

It was a strange feeling; however, it wasn’t yet on the Evangeline level.

“I need to find my friend, Evangeline. I need her help.”

The leader didn’t seem surprised as I uttered her name.

“Hm… you are telling the truth. But why do you need to find her?”

I frowned slightly. ‘Does he also have the skill to determine whether I am telling the truth?’

“I need her help to fight against a demonic creation. Can you help me find her?”

The leader closed his eyes, thinking deeply. A bright light surrounded his body for a moment and then left him.

“Our God would like to talk to you,” he suddenly said in a calm voice.

The guard who was beside me staggered forward at those words, his voice shaky. “W-What? He wants to talk with this man?”

The leader nodded slowly.

“B-But the last person who was able to have a personal conversation with him was Evangeline… w-what does this mean?”

“Will he be the one telling where to find Evangeline? I don’t want to have a meaningless conversation with him.”

The strength in the guard’s legs left him as he fell onto his knees. “H-He’s not even accepting it right away… j-just who is this man?”

Both the leader and myself ignored him as he continued to talk to himself.

“Yes, he will tell you the information you need to find Evangeline.”

“I see. Then, I will meet with him.”

Aelua, who was right beside was also in a similar state to the guard as she couldn’t believe that a God had asked to meet me so casually, and she found it hard to believe that I was so calm-faced with such a situation as if I had already experienced something similar.

Well, I had met with the God of the ancient tribe. That’s why this situation wasn’t that strange.

Suddenly, a strong light was imbued into my body in a similar way to the priest earlier. However, this time, it was even stronger, and it did not vanish after a few seconds.

My vision started becoming blurry until I was plunged into a sea of darkness.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a vast white room with a burning sun above. This environment was a lot different from the one of the previous God. It felt warm.

As I looked around, I saw the God of the Sun staring at me with a curious glance.

“Now that I have got a closer look, It seems you are affiliated with that ‘man,'” God’s voice echoed throughout the entire space surrounding us. “You should be wary of him. He sees you in a positive light, but if that changes… then your life will change in an instant.”

I frowned, having a few different people appear in my mind. “Who are you talking about?”

“The one you call Master. Be careful of him.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep