Preparations

Mike and Synthia were able to get out of the crowd eventually, that Mike had formed and left everyone on the street behind as the two of them returned to the slums.

Along the way, Mike had put back on his shirt while his mask was on, and Synthia just followed behind him not saying anything as her mind was in slight turmoil from what she had seen. Mike's speech had indeed been effective in creating heretics of her church but these were just normal people that just so happened to believe his words and actions. She of course was against dragging in normal people of society just to become a true paladin once more, but then again a small part of her wanted to go through with this and become a paladin once more. That is where her dilemma lay and her internal conflict was waging war in her mind.

So while Synthia was thinking these thoughts she did not realize that they were now standing in front of the brothel once more.

"We're here," Mike says breaking her concentration and internal strife

Seeing that they are at the front Synthia walks in behind Mike intending to confront Mike on his actions just now.

"Before you say anything lets go back to the room I was before and make sure the door is actually closed," Mike says as he was not oblivious to her emotions and train of thought as to what had just happened

Both of them enter the room and seeing that Mike was accompanied by Synthia the workers do not say anything to either of them, as they climb the stairs to enter the same room that Mike had been in originally.

Mike closes the door behind them just because the last time he was here he forgot to do so which resulted in the entire brothel hearing the young girl from before screaming in fear when he activated the [Fear Mask]. With the door closed, Mike moves to the couch against the wall and sits down preparing himself for a long discussion.

"Lay it on me I know that you hate what I have done," Mike tells her

"I do hate what you did if I were any other paladin I would smite you before you could complete that speech of yours," Synthia says

"But you didn't so that means that there is some small part of you that wants to follow my plan to make you a true paladin," Mike says

"Yes..."

"Good to know well then I recommend that we-"

"Hold it just because I did not act then does not mean I will not act now I cannot just let those people suffer because they have been given false information about something that they have never heard about before," Synthia says cutting Mike off before he could go forward

Mike just raises an eyebrow before he chuckles to himself.

"What do you find so funny?" Synthia asks

"You talk about false information when everyone has spread it before," Mike answers before adding

"Tell me why have you never taken off your helmet?"

Synthia does not answer him

"Let me guess you don't want people to see your race?" Mike asks

"That... is not important I just... have never had a reason to take it off before. Yes!" Synthia gives a lame excuse

"Really? Well here let me give you a reason," Mike says as puts out his hand

[Burning Blue Palms]

A blue flame appears from Mike's hand and starts dancing on his palm not harming him in the slightest as he no longer had to roll for his [spell casting difficulty] as the effect wore off.

"What are you doing?" Synthia asks seeing Mike make the flame since she knows it won't be able to hurt her in the slightest if she uses some magic herself

Mike does not say anything as he just uses most of the mana in his body to make the flames stronger than ever before.

The normally docile flames immediately explode outwards with the amount of mana that is being supplied with the flame now becoming as big as Mike's body and increasing the temperature in the room substantially than what it was before. There had always been something so captivating with flames and these blue flames were not an exception to that as the flames danced wildly in Mike's palm captivating both Mike and Synthia in its full glory. As Mike had the spell going for a good minute with the surge of mana he broke away from the flames hypnotic dance to make sure that he did not burn this place down and keeping the flame away from reaching the ceiling before they withered away instantly like a candle which someone just blew out with a gust of wind.

Of course, this naturally created smoke in the room but considering the holes and nooks in the walls, Mike was sure that they would probably not die due to smoke inhalation if they opened the window of the room. Still, the smell of smoke was very nostalgic making Mike want to Barbeque or make some smores to eat.

Still, Mike accomplished what he wanted to do by raising the room temperature to uncomfortable levels for him alone and for Synthia who was in full metal armor, she was probably in a worse off state than him.

"Here is your reason," Mike says as beads of sweat start to form on his face and he starts feeling exhausted as he had never used so much mana for a single spell before until now

Still having that much power at one's fingertips it was no wonder some wizards went drunk on their power if they could easily take over kingdoms alone. Still, Mike knew that he would never do that as he had morals that could not be crossed and he also was too weak to do anything and only those with power were respected regardless of whichever world he was in.

Synthia was starting to sweat buckets as she was standing there trying to find some way to cool down Mike took off his mask now and tossed it to Synthia who in turn caught it.

"Remember the deal was I would get the mask back after I helped you so until then keep a hold on it alright?" Mike says

"..."

Synthia does not say anything as she just places the mask on the bed and tries to think of something to do to stop this insufferable heat from cooking her alive.

"Just take off your armor I promise not to fall for your good looks instantly," Mike says casually as he jokes sits on the couch

"Shut your mouth, bastard! Why are you so keen on making me take off your armor?!" Synthia snaps back at him

"Cause you are just proving my point, now you can go ahead and open up the window," Mike says

'The window why didn't I think of that?!' Synthia cries out in her mind as she calmly moves to the window and opens it up to let in the cool evening air

The entirety of Mike's journey today from the brothel up until now had taken about 3 to 4 hours in total making the time right now about 5 in the evening which was about time the sun was setting so the outside temperature was cooling down a lot.

"Now then your actions tell me a lot about the view towards half-elves to the point that you don't really want people to find out let alone a human because of the false information spread about, them," Mike says causing Synthia to freeze up at his words

"Now don't worry I personally hate racists and I am perfectly fine with other races" He adds to that

"How do yo... How can I trust your word though?" Synthia asks skeptically with her back still turned to Mike as she realizes that she had been found out

"I can't prove it to you through words as actions speak louder than words, but if you really don't trust me then good luck becoming a true paladin then without my help"

"..."

Synthia who had her hand resting on the hilt of her sword moves it away from there as she turns to face him.

"You... urgh! Can I trust you to help me?" Synthia asks

"You can trust me," Mike answers

"..."

Synthia does not say anything as she just moves her hands up to her head and places them on her helmet before taking it off to reveal her face to him.

She was very pretty, to say the least, if going by human standards she would be considered a beauty and by elf standards, she would be considered as below average by them. She had the classical long pointed ears of elves but here were shorter than the ones that Mike had seen thus far. She had blue eyes that had a strange twinkle to them that went well with her slightly pale skin and complexion. She did not have the elf facial features of high cheekbones, angular face, and other facial features that all elves have. She had a more human look than anything but the one thing that gave away her race would be the flowing silver hair that was cut short as to not to fall from her helmet in battle.

"Hm... elven nobility love child or something?" Mike asks causing Synthia to get angry and attempt to hide her face from Mike with her hands

"You bastard don't say that!" Abbey screams at him

'What I was just curious'

"Well sorry for interrupting then," Abbey says sarcastically before she stops talking to him

"I... uh... would not like to talk about my parents..." Synthia says through her hands

"Sorry for bringing that up I was just curious as I have never seen that type of hair color before"

"Well... it is a rare color but most people think it's ugly looking..." Synthia says

"Well, those people deserve to get beaten up so that they are on the door to death for not recognizing the beauty it holds and also those that probably told you that were biased towards elves right?" Mike asks

"Um... yes" Synthia confirms as Mike's compliment was a bit strange for her to hear

"Now then back to the topic at hand you were asking why I was dragging innocent people into this right?" Mike says

"Yes..."

"Well here is your answer they are not deemed as heretics by your God and as a result of some propaganda spewing man in the middle of the street, it converted them to go against their goddess. Yes?" Mike asks

"Um... I guess it is..." Synthia says

"Still this is the best thing we can do now as normally these things take time but your goddess seems to have a broad view on non-believers making me think she is quite sensitive to it so we can use that to our advantage. Even better you can think of this as a sort of revenge against those humans," Mike adds

"But aren't you human as well?"

"Yes I am human and there are some of us out there who aren't are not like that but in all honestly, those people are few and far between each other" Mike says

"But we are straying off topic lets focus on the plan then on how to get all those people there someplace where they can be captured so you can do your thing," Mike continues as this topic is not something he wants to go on about forever when they have such limited time

"Yes, there happens to be an abandoned church here in the slums against the wall of the city," Synthia says

"We will need to use that but first how good is your writing?" Mike asks

"I consider it decent enough"

"Decent enough against who's standards?" Mike asks

"I don't really get what you... oh you mean that I guess it is considered decent amongst elf standards"

"Well, then that will work then... but I am gonna have to recommend something you are not going to like," Mike says as he tells her his plan

"What?!" She exclaims "That plan is crazy!"

"It is ludicrous... it is plan stupidity!" She further says to a bored-looking Mike on the couch

"Listen it is either your handwriting or someone else's and if I go do that we will be found out before we can do anything," Mike says not trusting his own right now in a new world where he is getting taught himself

"..."

"Look at it this way since my plan is so crazy then that means no one will suspect a thing until it is too late" Mike adds on

"Just... promise not to go overboard okay?" Synthia asks not really believing that she is agreeing to this crazily stupid plan

"Since when in the past few hours have I gone overboard with something?" Mike asks

"..."

"Don't answer that then"

With that, the two of them talk details of their plan and also some contingency plans if necessary of anything going wrong. Both of them share ideas, make fake documents, and people who signed them to make them more realistic, while also setting up the church for tomorrow morning when this started going down. All in all, they were able to finish up everything before it was 9 at night, and of course, it was behind Mike's new curfew he knew that he would just deal with Dike later as long as he did not show up too late.

"Say how did you know that I was a half-elf?" Synthia asks as she finishes up the final set of fake documents and hands them to Mike

"Intuition" Mike says as he makes the documents look more authentic with some weathering by flame and dirt marks that he put on all the parchments to seem more authentic

15

'Really I needed to roll for that?'

"You have one weird sense of intuition then" Synthia comments

"Thanks for telling me something that I know"