Chapter 2097: The Troubles Of A Legend

Karl drummed his fingers on the coffee table, then accepted a cup of juice from Lala, whose sensitive ears were bothered by the fidgeting.

"I understand that we need some sort of plan, and an alliance would be the preferable way. But I am failing to come up with one that doesn’t look like we’re joining forces to take over the church territory.

Especially with me being an Avatar of the World Dragon," he explained.

Eryman nodded in understanding. "That is the fine detail holding it all up, isn’t it. While we’re not followers of the same pantheon, we’re both religious leaders in our own way. The people of the World Dragon follow your guidance, and the System bends to your will.

But I am part of a more organized church, and hold an official position, leading not only the religious organization, but an entire city.

I have declared my home city a free port, and a neutral territory. But that’s all semantics, since I’m the one leading it, and a large portion of the territory around me is under my religious authority. However, you are also considered a free port and neutral territory, and there is no organized government of the area.

Do you even have a temple here?"

Karl nodded. "Indeed we do. There is a World Dragon Temple on the other side of town, not far from the arena and the coffee shops. They take in and care for Oracles whose visions have caused them severe troubles."

Eryman looked startled. "How does that work?"

He knew perfectly well that the visions of an Oracle were not voluntary, and not related to their state of mind, so how they would help them, other than to provide counselling, was questionable.

"I’ve cast spells on the temple that interfere with their visions, and the Chaos Badger goes to visit them a couple times a day. Even just having her in town messes with their visions, but close contact will completely shut them down for a short time."

Of course there was also [Nullify], but he didn’t need to get that far into the details.

"Oh, that is wonderful. Perhaps we might send them a few of our Oracles who have become troubled with age?"

Karl shrugged. "You can ask them. I know that they have limits, based on how many Clerics they have. Blind people need some assistance, and the Clerics do nearly all the cooking and housekeeping. So mostly they only accept those most traumatized by their visions."

Eryman nodded. "There are a few in town that we keep sedated, just so that they don’t dream and their visions can’t trigger. I think that they would be good candidates.

But my guess is that you mean they’re particular because people try to sneak spies in to record the visions?"

Karl nodded. "That too. But they have a unique way of spotting fakes. Would you like to head over and talk to them? I think that Lala would enjoy bringing them some of her new juice flavours."

Eryman laughed. "You know, it’s kind of disturbing how you speak of the entire Bunny race as if they were an extension of their Goddess."

Karl shrugged. "Two thirds of them are named after her. So, if I’m not talking about one in particular, just referring to Lala is enough for everyone to know that I mean our Bunnies. Or, the ones that work in whatever particular trade I’m thinking of."

The bunnies shrugged. They were used to it, and Lala really was the name of every bunny in the room.

Besides, it was still enough to make them happy that Karl would refer to them as children of their goddess, since so few actually treated them like people in the past, much less as one of the blessed races that had their own deities.

They were already calling for more juice to be brought out of the Tiny World, where the workers were harvesting the fruit. A whole barrel of juice would last the temple for at least a week, and the farms produced a hundred barrels a day during harvest season.

Which would soon be all year, since they were planting crops in rotation, so they would ripen every week.

That had actually been Remi’s idea to start with.

Not because of a lack of food, but because some of her Alchemy ingredients were best when fresh, and the Naga didn’t want to wait for them every time she wanted to make a fresh batch of potion.

The dried stuff usually worked, but if it wasn’t as effective it was offensive to her sense of style.

Their Alchemy shop produced the best, so they should have the best available when they wanted to use it. It didn’t seem like too much to ask, and they had more than enough farmers and druids to make it happen.

At least, for now.

Karl’s Tiny World was slowly expanding, even without him actively doing anything to it, and that was just encouraging them to plant even more, despite their population not growing within the Tiny World.

At least, not by much.

There were the hatchlings, and Thor’s kids. But so far, there were no others. There were a few pregnant bunnies, but they weren’t due yet.

And the betting pool was still open on who the father was.

Librarian Ike was still leading the odds.

The blue dragon and his story time evenings were far too popular with the bunnies and the hatchlings for there not to be suspicion that the Librarian might be giving the bunnies private story time after the kids were put to bed.

The walk over to the Temple was a short one, and the Clerics greeted Karl at the gates, curious about who he had brought, since it was clearly not an Oracle, or a worshipper come to pay respects at the altar.

That meant it was likely business related.

The lead cleric on duty led them silently through the front hall, where Swag and a few others were praying for good luck in the dungeon, and Eryman tried not to let his amusement at the way that every eye tracked the nubile young woman in her slightly translucent robes, which were mostly covered with an ankle length cloak.

Yes, very devout, this bunch of petitioners were.

But that told him immediately how they managed to keep spies from infiltrating their organization. If you could see them, you would react. Even if it was subtle, there would be something.

But the Oracles didn’t know that everyone else could see through the cleric’s robes.