Oh, forgot to mention. This means no new chapter for the rest of the week.
Hope not a lot of y'all will be upset by that.
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(Third person POV)
In the morning of the next day.
After the archbishop had received news about what happened with Asia, he had immediately passed out due to sheer stress; so, the decision on how to deal with the fact that there are devils in church territory has been left for after he wakes up.
In the meantime, the priests under the archbishop had passed on the order to tighten up security around the city even more by increasing the number of exorcists going out on patrol.
This also includes having older, more experienced, and stronger exorcists leading each group as well. They are not cheaping out on anything to deal with this matter, going as far as contacting some of the smaller churches around the city to join in as well.
They held off on directly contacting Vatican city and settled with sending someone to report it in person instead. Even if on the off chance there is a High Class Devil hiding somewhere in the city, they have all the means to 'deal' with them in the form of Holy swords and a strong veteran exorcist.
Now, in the main hall of the Cathedral after morning prayers and all who are left in there are the higher-ups, a meeting was called by Asia's temporary 'caretaker'.
"What is it that you have called all of us here to discuss, Madam Fortesia?" A middle-aged priest asked respectfully to the old woman.
"Now, no need to have such a tone to a mere old lady like me, Marcas. Call me Lucia" She gave off a gentle vibe while speaking in her warm tone, but to everyone who knew who she was before retiring, it was threatening.
"A-alright then, Sister Lucia, what d-did you want to discuss with all of us?" A priest closer to Lucia's age decided to step up and shield his junior, who felt uncomfortable calling someone who was killing devils before he was even born by her name so casually.
"It's nothing much. Little Asia wanted to go out and see the city so I came to request some 'protection' before heading out; what with the possibility of coming across a devil and all that" This time her face morphed into a slight frown with the thought of devils running around in the shadow of the city.
"Why would yo- Ah, I understand. Priest Marcas, can you arrange for 'protection' for Sister Lucia?" He gave a wink to his junior and colleagues, they quickly picked up on his hint and nodded to themselves.
"Yes, I can do that. Mad- I mean, S-sister Lucia. Please follow me, I will lead you there immediately!" The meddle-aged priest then led Lucia out of Cathedral's main hall and to the vault to hand over a special something.
The big door to the hall creaked shut as all the priests sighed in relief as a heavyweight had just been lifted off their shoulders.
"Do you think it is alright to just give her what she asked without consulting His Excellency?" Another old priest asked.
"I personally don't think His Excellency would disagree at all, in fact, he would agree right away" He answered full of confidence.
"Yes, considering her history, it's not far-fetched for His Excellency to give her anything she asked, especially now" Another priest chimed in.
"Alright, enough chit-chat, we need to get back to work and tighten up security around the Cathedral while she and the Holy Maiden are away" At this, everyone scattered back to deal with their own respective work.
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(MC's POV)
After I got dressed and ready for the date, Aoi sent me a text telling me to go on ahead and she'll meet up with me in the street to quote 'make it feel like a real date'.
I was amused so I complied and headed out the mansion gate on foot, some of the servants insisted that they drive me to where I wanted to go but I stood my ground and rejected them.
"I'm just taking a walk around the area, so no need to draw too much attention" I left those words behind before walking off without hearing them out. I checked my phone and it was around 11 am.
Having already planned where I wanted to go, I started walking down the street leisurely while admiring the building around and looking at some shops along the way.
After walking for several minutes, I came across a long line of street stalls hawking various wares from bags, purses, clothes, food, drinks, plate arts, pottery, etc.
Looking at Google Maps, the place I have to meet with Aoi is on the other side of the market anyway; so, I thought, 'why not?' and entered it to check out some stuff in there.
And boy was it an experience and a half to walk in without stealth on, vendors trying all kinds of tactics to try to get me to buy things that are completely unnecessary, food vendors trying to get me to try out some food – which I did – they were eh compared the what I eat every day but still pretty good so I bought every kind so Aoi can try some later.
Money wasn't a problem; Gramps gave me a ton of money every week which I didn't spend 1 cent of, so I have a pretty sizable saved up. Splurging several hundred USD converted to Euros on street food wouldn't even put a dent in it.
After buying all the good food and stealthily sneaking into a side alley to put them into my 『Item Box』, I quickly dealt with a few thugs who tried to mug me. I have been making quite the scene brazenly throwing money at the food vendors so they must've assumed I was a rich foreigner and was an easy target.
They would've been right if it was any other person, but too bad they picked me as the target.
Anyway, after dealing with them I left the alley and resumed window shopping, this time with a toned-down stealth on, that way people will at least notice me when I get close and not crash into me.
I walked around for 10 or so minutes when something caught my eye. It was a clear glass pendant with a white flower in the middle, I picked it up and inspected it for a bit before an idea struck me.
I bought the pendant right away and moved on toward the meetup spot; seeing that it was almost meet up time and I was still quite a ways away, I hastened up my pace and took a few shortcuts along the alleyway while turning my stealth back to full blast to not draw any attention.
I practically breezed through the alleyway like the wind with how fast I was going when compared to normal people, but this speed was more of a casual sprint to me and I didn't even break a sweat after covering a few hundred meters in under a minute.
I slowed down to walking speed as I was about to enter the main street, getting out of stealth mode, I walked out of the alley casually, looking normal like I didn't just run 0.5 km in a minute.
Then I stood by a street corner and waited for my date to arrive, looking at my phone while ignoring the stares I was getting from the locals and even some tourists.
Curse my [Charisma] 3 and [Appeal] 2.
To get my mind off things, I looked at some news about a new open-world RPG coming to both PC and Mobile in the next month, I have been following it for quite a while now. The reason I'm so interested in it is that it is this world's version of Genshin Impact, titled 'Chronicle Impact'.
The story and characters are different, but the gameplay mechanics and art style seem to be about the same so I assumed it's this world's version of Genshin just like how CelesTear is to Stardew.
Anyway, I plan to see what this world's version will be like, I thoroughly enjoyed the changes of CelesTear from Stardew so I really want to see how it pans out.
Will it be an absolute failure or will it succeed like in my previous world? I fully anticipate it.
After 15 more minutes of waiting...
I sensed the arrival of a certain someone, I put my phone away and looked to my left. There, I see a girl with long black hair and blue eyes wearing a white dress that reaches down to just below her knees with a black ribbon tied around her waist, then she has a light blue blouse over her dress.
The way she had both her hands holding onto a purse as she elegantly walked up to me made her look like a refined young lady with a light smile adorning her face. She soon arrived in front of me and tuck a lock of her long silky hair behind her ear while looking up at me and smiling even brighter.
"Did I make you wait long, Master?" Aoi asked sweetly, following the template date meet-up line. Of course, as a person of culture, I had to spice things up a bit.
"Of course, I've waited for ages for you to get here…" I made an exaggerated gesture while watching her reaction. Once I saw she was about to get pouty, I hit her with the twist.
"…But, seeing you dressed like this made it all worth it~" I smirked as I saw her pouty face turn bright red as she averted her eyes. Aoi kept glancing at me before averting her eyes away, soon her face was angled in such a way that I couldn't see her eyes anymore.
"T-thank you, you look handsome, Master" Aoi uttered out in such a low voice I almost didn't hear it.
"Ah, how cute~" I muttered under my breath before taking her hand and holding it much to her surprise.
"Come on, let's not idle around. This is a date, after all, let's enjoy ourselves"
"H—h-hai!"
With that, our date officially starts.
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A/N: You know, being away from your house is a real inconvenience.
Like how I had to write this fanfic on my phone instead of my laptop, and also how I had to download Grammarly on my phone to edit it.
I'm on a family trip, and I want to go home, like now.
Sorry for the rant.