“Instructor Rasmus…” Astrea looked at Rasmus who was busy watching the journalists begging to enter the academy. “I hope it’s fine if I call you by your first name instead,” she continued.

“By all means, Your Holiness. I’m not familiar with my family, and I’m trying to detach myself from them. Unfortunately, it’s impossible because of my hair color,” he answered as he pointed at his white hair.

Astrea raised her eyebrows and was a bit surprised by Rasmus’s answer.

“I was impressed by your words there when you spoke to Lady Moriganne. I’m intrigued by your teaching in class, and I wish I had a professor like you back in my days,” Astrea praised Rasmus and she was genuinely impressed. “For a 23-year-old man, you’re very mature and wise,” she crossed her arms as she stared at Rasmus.

“As an outcast, I can only observe the people around me and learn from them. Nothing special, really,” Rasmus showed a faint smile. “I have an important matter to do, Your Holiness. If you’ll excuse me…” He bowed down and then left.

Astrea kept observing Rasmus until she saw Videl approaching him. She saw something off about Videl when she saw a glimpse of his face.

“You’re still here, Lady Astrea?” Moriganne asked when she saw Astrea standing outside not far from the hall.

“Yes. Apparently, the journalists are so eager to see us. It might take a while before we can leave the academy in peace,” Astrea pointed at the crowd at the gate. “It has been a while since we saw each other. If you want, we can discuss another matter while we wait,” she suggested.

Moriganne stared into Astrea’s eyes for a moment and then nodded in agreement. She told Monica to go back to her dorm since she wanted to have a private conversation with Astrea. Astrea did the same and told Aurelia to go back to her dormitory.

“All templars of Angelis, please enter the hall,” Astrea looked at her knights that guarded around the hall.

“Templars, enter the hall,” Moriganne looked at her knights with a serious and cold expression.

The Templars from both families entered the hall in order, and it attracted all the journalists who saw dozens of the most fearsome and skilled knights with their sole purpose of exterminating evil in the world enter the hall. It wasn’t just them, but Monica and Aurelia couldn’t help but look at their mothers and knights.

“What do you think they’re going to talk about?” Aurelia asked Monica who walked beside her.

“If the Templars are involved, it’s only one thing. They’re talking about the demonic beasts,” Monica answered without hesitation. “Now that I think about it. Has Instructor reached out to you?” She looked at Aurelia.

“About what?” Monica looked at Aurelia with a confused look.

“It’s nothing…” Aurelia smiled as she shook her head. She was too afraid to ask if Rasmus had told Monica about the guilt that Aurelia felt from this whole situation.

Astrea and Moriganne went to the table and sat across from each other with their Templars standing behind them. They stared at each other for a moment and then Moriganne reached her left hand to one of her Templars. The Templar put a scroll on Moriganne’s hand respectfully.

“This just came a week ago,” Moriganne said as she passed the scroll to Astrea. “You want to read it thoroughly,” she pointed out.

Astrea opened the scroll and realized it was a report from the 12th squad that had investigated Whitehill Village. She read about the missing villagers on the east side of the North. There were a total of 14 villagers that went missing in the past 3 months.

The report stated that the 12th squad had found the corpses of the missing villagers. They were all in the same state, skinned, tongue cut off, eyes gauged, ears ripped off, and jaws pulled off. The squad believed it wasn’t a beast who did it, but rather a person since the corpses were cut cleanly.

“The Whitehill village is the closest border from the demonic beast territory. What did they find there?” Astrea put down the scroll after she read all of it.

Moriganne didn’t say a word, but she reached out her hand again to the Templar who stood behind her. The Templar gave another scroll to her. She then offered the scroll to Astrea because the answer was written there.

Astrea opened the scroll and noticed it was a follow-up report related to the missing villagers. The report stated that hundreds of carcasses were mostly demonic beasts scattered around the scene. The squad didn’t find anything else but corpses on the border.

“Someone that isn’t a Templar or a Paladin hunted hundreds of demonic beasts? That’s impossible. The Northern Stars did this?” Astrea furrowed as she stared at Moriganne.

“No, it wasn’t them either,” Moriganne shook her head.

“Who else?” Astrea furrowed her brows as she looked at the report and then remembered there was still one group of people that could do that. “Was it the Orthias?” She looked at Moriganne.

“It wasn’t them. I have confirmed it, Your Holiness,” a woman’s muffled voice came from one of the Templars of Sancticus.

Astrea was a bit buffed that a Templar dared to join in the conversation between Saints. She couldn’t hide her confused and irritated expression.

“And who are you?” Astrea asked in a raised tone.

“I’m…” The Templar pulled down her hood and revealed her silver braided hair. “I’m an Orthias, Your Holiness. I know my kind, and it wasn’t their doing,” she pulled the mask off and revealed her smooth skin and blue eyes to Astrea.

Astrea was shocked and speechless when the silver-haired race joined hands with the Sancticus family. Orthias race, the so-called ancient and superior race that the people of Neva were terrified of. The same race as Rasmus’s mother, one of the oldest races that roamed Neva.

“Why are you so shocked, Astrea? Isn’t your intel reported about an Orthias joining my family?” Moriganne stared into Astrea’s eyes. She confronted that the Angelis family had been keeping an eye on Sancticus for years.

Astrea suddenly felt like she was being cornered by Moriganne and it caught her off guard. Knowing that Moriganne had seen through her secret, there was no reason for her to deny it anymore.

“I never believed that report until I saw it with my own two eyes…” Astrea was still shocked and couldn’t stop staring at the woman with silver hair and blue eyes.

The woman sat down beside Moriganne without asking permission, showing that she alone was equal to the Saints.

“I’m not working for the Sancticus family, Your Holiness. I’m only fulfilling my mission as an Orthias to hunt demons. Another reason why I came all the way here is because I want to see the son of my long-lost friend,” the woman explained, assuring Astrea that she wasn’t working for the Sancticus family.

Astrea immediately felt relieved and she almost let out a sigh of relief that would make her look intimidated. There were no histories about the Orthias because they had been wiped out. Nobody had seen an Orthias for centuries, and only recently was Rasmus’s mother, Aristoria.

“I’m not my mother,” Moriganne paused to close her eyes. “I’m not interested in competing on which religion is the right one, and I want to get rid of that tradition before I give my authority to Monica. We have a bigger and more threatening problem to deal with,” she continued, still with her eyes closed.

Astrea closed her eyes, nodding her head with understanding. She never thought Moriganne would let her intrusion and disrespectful behavior by putting spies on the Sancticus family be pardoned immediately.

“I’ll do the same,” Astrea said as she took a deep breath.

“Let us focus on the main issue here,” Moriganne said as she looked at the two scrolls on the table. “Based on the information, the missing villagers and the corpses of demonic beasts are a sign of the prophecy that my ancestors said. I believe your ancestors have something similar to mine,” she pointed out.

“A power that can annihilate demonic beasts isn’t the power of the savior, but rather the beginning of an inevitable chaos. The power mentioned in the Sancticus’s family prophecy is assumed to be the source of this future chaos,” Astrea remembered the prophecy of the Sancticus’s family.

“14 of the followers of God, 13 of them are sanctimonious. Only one of them is the true believer of God that will be the final sacrifice to warn the people of Neva that a false prophet will become the one and only light to those who are lost,” Morrigane stated of the prophecy of the Angelis family ancestors.

Astrea furrowed her brows for a moment and immediately grabbed the first scroll. She looked at the names of the missing villagers, and that was when she found out that the one that was still missing was a woman.

“A False Prophet… a nameless Saint…” Astrea was in disbelief and looked extremely anxious.

“The Age of Apostates has come once again, Your Holiness,” the Orthias woman said calmly. “Morality and humanity will disappear with the existing religions,” she added, warning Astrea with a serious expression.

Astrea’s hands trembled which was visible because of the scroll she was holding.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep