Chapter 57: Holy Water (2)

Perseus POV

We're currently at a sandwich shop by the beach, the food here was kind of bland, but for now, we have to wait since Cedric is supposedly supposed to come by shortly, and that's when we can use the opportunity to meet him.

"It's hot, why are you dressed so think?" Terrence asked, "Enjoy the tropical weather for once."

"The people of this continent arguably hate my people as much as the south, probably more so now since the south is influenced by Cedric, so I rather not show my face."

"You've been in the dungeon, people tolerate you now."

"Well, if I only live for tolerance and not acceptance, there'd be no point in living, would there?"

"Good point but are all of you this gloomy?"

"No, just this one." Elpis answered, "The others smile more often."

"The local priest would be puzzled to see a trio like us."

"It's more like we're a duo and you're the third wheel."

"No, we're a trio." I chimed in

"Geez kid, get the signal." Terrence chuckled

"Oh, I get it, but I'm just a bit too tired to enjoy anything, the people here seriously need to shut up about the lack of holy water though, their gods bless them enough, having your restaurant doused in holy water every week isn't going to change the taste."

"Well, it seems like it, for a nation who's good in trades via the sea, they seriously don't use their spice, heck, it lacks salt, and we're by the sea." Elpis complained from inside my cloak

"Well, they all seem to have lost their spirit, their daily and weekly prayer without holy water seems to lose a portion of its meaning during the process." Terrence shrugged, "That's the flaw of this continent, they took it to the extreme." 

"Can that change, I wonder?"

"We'll have to take over it for that to happen...it's taking a while, you wanna walk around instead?"

*****

As I walked through the streets of the Western kingdom, the atmosphere was heavy People moved about with bowed heads and somber expressions, their spirits weighed down by the crisis that had befallen their land.

It was clear that the contamination of the holy water had taken a toll on the morale of the people more than anyone estimated.

I listened intently to the rumors and any conversation, hoping to glean any information that might shed light on the source of the contamination. But the rumors were vague and inconclusive, offering little in the way of useful leads. 

Despite the lack of concrete information, I continued to wander the streets for any sign or clue that might lead me closer to the truth. But with each passing moment, it became increasingly apparent that unraveling this mystery would not be an easy task.

Eventually, we followed the crowd to Cedric as his sight gathered quite a crowd, and there was Henry, sternly by his side as well, who attracted even more attention than the hero prince himself. And it's not the good kind, but from what I can hear, it seems to be not as strong as a language and there were people who were understanding of the situation.

We pushed our way through and eventually, Henry noticed us and informed Cedric, who told everyone to open a way up for us before having all of us rush to a carriage to escape the attention a bit.

"This is a pal of mine, don't worry too much."

"Terry, nice to meet you." Terrence introduced himself

"I'm Henry and I assume you already know of the hero." Henry greeted, "Why are you here? And why are you covered from head to toe? Aren't you hot?"

"I heard that you're all helping to solve this issue, I don't know how I can contribute, but I hope to do the best I can, however, we learned nothing as we have no access to such information."

"What do you get out of this? You seem to hate people."

"I don't hate them, Henry...I tolerate them."

"Ouch." Terrence interjected sarcastically

"Well, we don't seem to know much, but we were given a likely group of suspects." Cedric said, "Remember the attack on the academy a while back? It's supposedly the same group. They go by many names throughout the years, but about 3 months ago, they came up with the name of Vengeful snakes."

That's true, they do change their name often...but vengeful snakes? I felt a light double tap from Terrance, confirming it, but I don't know if he's confirming the name or the fact that they may be the culprits or both.

"So why don't you use your hero status to get into contact with the god of the sea or something?"

"I tried, but...with the holy water missing, they wouldn't trust a foreigner. I know that I'm a supposed hero and all, but...they think that I may just be coming to do this in my nation's best interest, not to save them with no ulterior motive."

"I see, so what do you plan on doing now?"

"Meet the king, only he can give me the information I need or give me permission to access certain privileges such as getting in contact with the pope."

"Alright, we'll split for now, I'll use the information to try and help you the best I can."

*****

"Their recent name change is permanent and Lind does also suspect them." Terrence revealed, "But...we got no involvement with them, so we may not know why they might have wanted, and Lind's suspicions are only a theory. We also have no use for the holy water in an attempt to find out the truth."

"So what do we do?"

"Contact our branch here. If Lind and the Prince's sources suspected the same thing...we'll use our branch here to help us go into contact with that organization's branch. We'll see why they need it, put a stop to it since they may pose a problem in the future, and then we go home after a short vacation."

"You really like this place way too much." Elpis commented

"Oh you have no idea." Terrence smirked, "Spending time in the abyss dungeon does do weird things to your brains, and stuff like this is a luxury."