The Necromancer and the Priestess (16)

Several days later, while the party was searching the Gloom Forest, they ran into an expedition party from the church. The leader was, shockingly, Kai.

Though, Yin Mei thought it might not be so surprising after all. Among the people of the church who came with her, aside from Rosella, there was also Elaina and Naenia, who were handling the information guild. Among the knights, they were all too loyal to abandon the church. That being said, that was just Yin Mei's own thoughts, and she never asked them, and nor did they say anything to her when she left.

Actually, she kind of wanted to bring Kai with her, just for insurance. But, it was better for her not to, in case things got complicated. After all, she didn't want him betraying her because of her unethical deeds after all.

Kai didn't recognize Yin Mei or Rosella, who were both disguised. His expression was emotionless, but he didn't have a good opinion of the guild - in his eyes, they had taken opportunity of the church's time of weakness to establish themselves and grow into the powerful organization that they were today. But, his friend Leon was also the guild master, so he felt like if he said anything, it would be betraying their friendship.

He recalled what Leon had said on the day after the chaos of the unsealing... He knew that Leon was not the founder of the guild, but wondered who exactly was the founder to be able to draw that frivolous guy over to their side.

He wanted to know, but Leon had stayed vague. In addition, there was the matter of the high priestess's disappearance. Rosella as well, had also gone with Leon when the high priestess disappeared. He doubted. Doubted if his choice was the right one. Both his friends had moved on from the church, the high priestess he respected had disappeared during the church's time of need, and the Bishop was still recuperating from injuries to this day.

There was silence between the two groups.

The members of the White Bird didn't know much about their leader's history with the church, just that she had abandoned it in order to start the guild. The only person they knew who knew more were Leon and Rosella - the two who had been with her from the beginning. But, in their opinion, the church was nothing. For the original members of the White Bird party, the church had never done anything for them. The leader as well, had left the church, so just how special could it be?

Once these thoughts went through the minds of some of the members, they immediately put on an arrogant air. At least, Arthur did.

"Huuhhh? If it isn't the church! Considering how useless you all have been these days, I didn't expect you guys to actually still be subjugating monsters in the Gloom Forest! Your Bishop is still bedridden isn't he? It's okay, you guys don't need to overexert yourselves! Just leave things to us, the commoners!" He said, looking completely like a ruffian.

Rosella was uneasy, her gaze darting toward Kai. She bit her lip, but in the end, didn't say anything. Although the three of these people, Leon, Kai, and Rosella did not know the details of what happened during the succession ceremony, nor were they directly involved anymore, this event had still caused their relationship to grow more complicated than before. After all, one of them founded the guild, the other left the church for the guild (though she was never really a member of the church), and the last one had stayed behind.

The people who left, and the one who stayed behind, what sort of thoughts had gone through their heads at the time?

Well, Yin Mei didn't really care about that sort of thing.

Though, it didn't mean she wanted to purposefully provoke the church group. She could tell that they had already been on edge, due to the events from a year ago. Of course, Arthur's words hit their sore spot, and some of them outright showed their anger on their face. "Arthur, enough." Yin Mei said.

Arthur didn't protest, shutting his mouth, though his gaze remained provocative as he haughtily shot his gaze over.

Anyone would get angry looking at this smug person's face, but the church group didn't say anything, keeping silent. Even if they were angry, they were not the type to do anything about it - after all, they were the role models of the people. Rather than get angry over someone's words, their time was better spent training and protecting the citizens of the country.

"I apologize for the words of my party member," Yin Mei said, her face calm as she addressed Kai, who appeared to be the leader of the group. It wasn't unexpected. He had the skills and was formerly part of Celestina's guard, though not for long.

"There's no need to apologize," Kai responded curtly. He couldn't tell that Yin Mei was Celestina at all, not only because of the change in appearance, but the change in personality. Yin Mei no longer needed to act sweet, and did not have that peaceful and gentle expression on her face at all times anymore. Instead, her aura had become significantly more gloomy and aloof. The light aura that she spread all the time was also being consciously restrained as well. Leaking it all over the place could bring unwanted attention after all. It didn't matter much when she was still inside the church, but now that she had discarded the identity of high priestess and was wandering about to and fro, there was no way that she could continue spreading out that euphoria inducing aura, right?

It had been difficult to learn how to restrain her aura all the time, and it somewhat felt like trying to live with a straitjacket on her (well, not that she knew how that would feel though). Even now, embarrassingly enough, it would still leak out if she wasn't careful enough.

"No, no, of course I need to apologize for the rudeness of my party member. One must take responsibility for the transgressions of their people, isn't that right? I'll discipline him later, for having such a loose mouth." She smiled, but her eyes weren't smiling.

Lana elbowed Arthur in the stomach, who still couldn't tell that he had done something wrong. His face was slightly pale. What the heck, just what did he do wrong?

"There's no need to go that far. None of us took his words to heart." Kai answered stubbornly, his expression also cold. For some reason, the other people present seemed to see sparks flying between them, an image of a snake and tiger battling in the background...

But just as soon as Yin Mei was angered, she had calmed down. What was she getting worked up for? It's not like she was a child. He didn't want to accept her apology, then whatever. It had no affect on herself. Once she was calm, she once more smiled again as she spoke, "If you say so." She then continued on. "If that's all, then we'll take our leave now."

Kai had no reason to keep them there, so simply nodded. "May the goddess be with you," he said politely.

"The goddess be with me? That's unnecessary." Yin Mei answered as she glanced back at him with cold eyes.

The group left, and Kai didn't know what to say to that. In the end, they also left, leaving the forest clearing empty.

"L-leader, please forgive me," Arthur tentatively said, with sparkling teary eyes.

"Huh? There's nothing to forgive," Yin Mei answered coolly, but that made Arthur only feel more anxious, to the point where he was on the verge of begging her while grabbing her leg. "Unless you want to go through another month of training, then you better let go right now."

He let go.

Yin Mei really wanted to ask if her training was that bad?? Why is it that all these kids treated it like the bane of their existence! It was only some survival and battle training!

Geez, if they kept on doing this, she would definitely make them retrain on a harder schedule, and then they would know the true meaning of hellish training.

The White Bird party, who had unintentionally dug their own graves: QwQ What did we do to deserve this!

"Leader," Rosella spoke out with an anxious tone, her eyes like that of a saddened puppy as she looked toward Yin Mei.

Why are you looking at me like that? Yin Mei wanted to ask, but she didn't. "Don't look at me like that," she instead said with a cool voice. "Are you regretting your decision?"

"!! No, I'm not!" Rosella immediately denied. Regret? No, that wasn't it. She didn't regret her choices at all. Although she felt that after that day, the high priestess had changed, she was still the person who had rescued her from slavery. This life saving grace was something that she would never forget.

But, she didn't want the relationship between herself, Kai, and Leon to stay this way. Celestina too. Everything had been so good between all of them until that day, so why is it that now, it had all changed so much?

The high priestess barely smiled anymore, and when she did, it was obvious that it wasn't sincere. Leon obsessed himself with research and work, no longer playful and always putting on a serious expression. She herself was now occupied with the White Bird party. As for Kai, they hadn't even spoken to each other in more than half a year now.

After a day or two more of fruitless searching, Yin Mei was growing more irritated and frustrated. She soon tried looking for the person with her surveillance system, but to her frustration, the only thing she could see was darkness, no matter what she did. What the f*ck kind of location was this? Maybe an underground cave? If it was dark all the time, then it probably wasn't outside, right?

She impatiently tapped her foot for a moment in deep thought, before consulting with the group.

They quickly changed directions, and began to make their way toward the ruins at the center of Gloom Forest. It wasn't quite known what city these ruins were of - it had already been too long, and that knowledge had been lost in the great sea of time.

A white misty fog wrapped the gloomy stone buildings, crumbled and fallen with time. "This is my first time here, and damn, it's like a haunted house. Or haunted city, I guess." Arthur said, and Lana shivered from the cold air.

It was a place where a ghost wouldn't look out of place here.

"There's no sign of any life within a fifty meter radius. Leader, it doesn't look like the quest target is here either," Lilith said, standing up from where she had been kneeling by a puddle of water.

"Hmm. So my theory was wrong after all?" Yin Mei mused, rubbing her chin in thought. She had considered that this place would be the most likely location to hold the princess, but was she wrong? What had she overlooked? "Well, for now, let's do a sweep of the area before rushing to conclusions."

It wasn't that she didn't trust Lilith's abilities, but it was just in case something had been missed. Magic jamming was a possibility, or perhaps the person was in a place where Lilith's magic couldn't reach. The party naturally understood this, and proceeded to get into position, tensions and cautions high as they went through each building, efficiently moving through the city.

But, this was a city after all. They probably wouldn't be able to cover the entire area in one day, no matter how fast and efficient they were.

"We'll stop here for now. Let's set up camp in the-" Yin Mei said, stopping her words when she noticed the group that walked out from the fog in the distance. "... It's them again?"

Naturally, the other group also noticed them, changing directions slightly so that they met up.

"So we meet again. I didn't know that Gloom Forest was so small," Kai said after politely greeting Yin Mei.

"Yes. Quite small indeed." Yin Mei replied, face expressionless.