Chapter 141

Vorbuk watched Johan Lovette chug down his drink without a care in the world. The dragon seemed annoyed at the fact that the man was sitting so closely to him.

"You both are from the temple of Theapan?" Zoe was the one who broke the silence in the group while everyone slowly ate the food Daryl had prepared for them over the camp fire.

"Indeed." Johan's single word was spoken without much of a reaction. He had been sitting on the grass but after realizing the others would not go without questioning him the man decided to lean back in the grass on his arm.

The drink that was in his hand was placed on the ground beside him as he leaned back. An umbrella was still in his other hand open.

"To hold rank of pope among the temple one must be in contact with a god to receive the will of the gods. Which god does his holiness serve?" Bredret scoffed as he asked. He was old enough to realize how the temples ranking went.

A pope was only chosen if they were someone who received messages from a god in one way or another. They held a way of communication to at least one of the gods and were considered a favored child of the gods. If Johan Lovette was the pope that meant there was at least one of the gods in the realm who favored him.

"Which god do I follow?" Johan smirked as he repeated that question as if he was asking himself the same thing.

"You found us rather quickly for you to not be here for some reason. What are you really doing here?" Prince Leo was the one who pressed further for an answer to the question.

Johan Lovette did not give the prince a single glance. His gaze was fixated on Vorbuk who remained silent in his wolf form the entire time.

"Your holiness?" Uriel was getting nervous from the atmosphere.

"I follow myself," Johan sighed as he spoke and pulled out his pipe from his robes. "I do know a few of the gods.. However I do not allow anyone to decide what path paves my life aside from myself. They may ask favors of me but ultimately I decide my own fate."

"You... ignore the gods orders?" A pale and confused expression came over Leo as if he could not believe what he was hearing.

No, what pope would drink and smoke a pipe in the middle of the mountains?! Nothing about Johan Lovette screamed he was normal at all from the beginning to end.

"Do you know what you have to do to be at my level, huh? Do you think you can run a temple for multiple gods in this world by favoring one of them among them all? A person in my position must be able to look pass the fact that there is more then one of them among the gods. The gods have never forced my hand because most of them understand the concept that the world needs to remain balanced. How I live my life does not matter to them as long as there is someone who can play the role of middle man among the mortals in their stead." Johan felt as if he was tutoring the people in front of him as he spoke.

The gods did not favor Johan Lovette because he was some all knowing saint that would lead the world to great fortune. He was not a man who could be considered purely good nor was he someone full of darkness.

Johan Lovette was simply a man who lived his life the way he desired. The gods would reach out to him in times they felt they needed to deliver a message or task to him. However they never desired to take control of Johan. They could not allow a single god to become more favored among them so the gods chose him for the position because he simply favored none of them.

The man did not wish for fame, money, nor power. He did not covet anything from the gods and instead was willingly to rebuke them if he felt they asked too much of him.

Freedom to make his own choice was something that Johan held firm to.

"Most of them understand that concept?" Leo pointed out the one thing that bothered him among what Johan had said.

"Yes, most of them understand." Johan Lovette had a pained expression on his face for a moment before continuing. "That is of course there are sometimes gods who wish to pressure me. Whether it is god or mortal there will always be those who desire for power above all other things."

"But if you turn down the gods who pressure for power wouldn't you be-?" Leo could not finish his own words. If someone turned down a god he was certain the god would become angry and probably kill the man.

"They would want to kill me in the end for rejecting them. That is true.. but how could one god kill someone who is favored by the rest of the gods? Getting rid of me would be akin to starting a war against the other gods instantly. That's why I have never had a reason to fear objecting a gods will because they ask something of me." Johan sounded almost proud of himself.

"One of the gods asked for you to come here?" Leo considered the situation carefully.

"Maybe," Johan responded as he slowly stood up and glanced towards Vorbuk again before briefly looking in the direction of the others. "We should start heading towards the temple. Unless you all wish to waste your time here til the Theapan knights come to check the situation."

"I feel there are many things here that must be.. discussed in a safer location." Johan said as he glanced towards Zoe as she stuck close to Daryl.

This truly is a strange pairing. Johan thought to himself as he turned and started to walk away. Only pausing for a moment to glance over his shoulder and check if the others were following him.

"His holiness is correct. This place will soon be investigated by the kingdom. They have always kept a close watch over the dungeon because it has been here since ancient times. Theapan is very keen to changes in this area." Uriel quickly added on.

"We need to go to the temple before the palace anyways so we might as well follow him for now." Vorbuk said to Leo as they both stood there watching the man in white trudge off into the forest on his own as if he was not going to stand around and wait for them.

What do you think? Vorbuk thought to himself while wondering if the voice of the system in his head would even respond to him.

[ Invalid. ]

That's a response I haven't heard from you in a while. Vorbuk sighed to himself.

[ No harmful intent can be found from Johan Lovette. ]

[ Quest: Survive The Night ]

[ WARNING ] [ WARNING ] [ WARNING ] [ WARNING ]

What- What the hell?! Vorbuk wanted to shout at the voice that decided to start spamming him with warning signals. He was not certain what was going on with the vast warning messages. The sudden quest being mixed in gave him a bad feeling.