Chapter 172: Church of Love, Ride the Express Train to Hell! (2)

"What a crazy bitch."

Eric, an investigator from the Church of Love, grumbled as he sat in a remote back alley of the Peta Territory. He was talking about Sieri, who had just stepped forward as the 'Acting Lord'. Her long, orange hair and large, moist eyes gave her a weak impression. But the words that came out of that slender body were nothing but vicious insults.

"What? 'Fuck you'? She must have said that because she trusts the Knight Commander or the beastfolk next to her."

Sieri's provocation had successfully gotten to Eric. Blushing bright red, Eric had argued that it was an insult, only to be pushed out of the mansion by Robin's physical strength. He hadn't had the guts to challenge Robin, who had glared at him, threatening to use force if he caused any more trouble. So, Eric had spat on the ground and fled into the alley.

"So the Church of Love is a joke to them, huh?"

Eric couldn't hold back his anger and snapped again. Even though the tobacco in his hand had burned all the way down, Eric was more focused on chewing out Sieri than on his smoke. His two men just exchanged glances, wary of Eric's mood. One of them asked him.

"But, boss. What do we do now? If we can't get into the mansion, we can't even confirm if Sir Priest is all right, can we? There are a lot of rumors that the Archdeity Church has been wary of the Church of Love lately. If we screw up here, we could be in real trouble."

"What's there to be in real trouble about? The High Priest himself isn't even here, and this case is, what's it called, a clear case of reflux. You get it? Huh? They're holding our Sir Priest in reflux."

"Don't you mean detention?"

"Fuck. You think you're so smart? Huh?"

Eric snapped at the subordinate who had corrected him, then continued.

"So, it's not like we need to fight those mansion people, right? We just need to know if Sir Priest is being detained. That's all. Right?"

Eric sought his subordinates' agreement again. The subordinates nodded. Convinced that he was right, Eric said,

"The Knight Commander is a pretty scary nobleman. What do you think would happen if we fought him?"

"We'd be utterly destroyed."

"Right. So what should we do?"

"Uh... Go back and speak politely..."

"I said fuck off, you idiot!"

Eric shouted once more. A street vendor, startled by the voice, approached to check on the back alley. Eric scowled and said.

"What."

"Oh, it's nothing, sir."

Once the street vendor was gone, Eric spoke to his subordinate again.

"We just have to sneak in and see what Sir Priest is doing, don't we? Huh?"

"Ah, yes. We can just sneak in and see."

Watching his subordinate nod at his words, Eric threw the burnt-out tobacco to the ground. Then he stomped out the embers with his foot and said.

"You said you lived by the beach, right?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever talked to a mermaid?"

"Yes. I was originally in the Mermaid Capture Unit, wasn't I? I almost caught a mermaid in the capital city last time, too."

"If you're so competent, why did you end up under me?"

"Because I almost caught her, but I let her get away."

"You idiot bastard. So, you've talked to mermaids a lot?"

"I've mastered it perfectly according to the Church of Love Manual. This is only my second time doing it for real, but I should be fine."

"There's a manual like that?"

Eric asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. A manual on how to handle mermaids was something he was hearing about for the first time.

"Yes. There's a manual made by the Head of the Church."

"He makes all sorts of things. Then you go and make contact. Looking around here, the security doesn't seem that tight. All peaceful territories are like that, but the mansion guard here is particularly lax."

"Yes. Understood."

Eric looked at the mansion's wall. It was quite high, but not so high that it couldn't be climbed. When he'd looked around from the doorway earlier, he hadn't seen many guards either. Eric exchanged glances with his subordinates, then stretched out his hand and shouted.

"Faith!"

His subordinates raised their hands all at once and said.

"Hope!"

"Hope!"

Eric scowled and smacked the back of a subordinate's head.

"Fuck! One of you says 'Hope!' and the other says 'Love!', you bastards. How many times do I have to tell you?"

The raw sound of a beating echoed from the back alley. The residents of Peta Territory peeked their heads into the back alley at the unusual commotion, but at the sight of Eric's fierce expression, they shut their mouths and pretended not to see anything. They figured nothing good would come from getting involved in a dispute between outsiders.

That evening, Eric and his two subordinates infiltrated the area around the territory's wall. For its size, the Peta Territory's mansion was relatively small, but perhaps they had allocated guards in proportion to that size, as the wall's security was lax.

Even though the suspicious trio, including Eric, had approached the mansion wall, there was no sign of the guards stopping them. No, there were no guards at all. The main gate was firmly locked, and the guards on night patrol only circled the village, not coming near the mansion.

Eric lowered his voice and said.

"This might be easier than I thought."

"Don't you think it might be a trap?"

"If they were going to catch us, wouldn't they have tried at the front gate earlier? Look around some more. You go that way. You, this way."

Eric had the two men split up and check in both directions. He then hid in the shadows in a corner of the wall to avoid the guards' eyes. A guard who had been on patrol came over, alerted by a sign of presence, but seeing no one, he yawned and disappeared into the distance.

"Idiot."

Eric scoffed at the guard for his lazy patrol. Was it because the territory was so peaceful? There was no sense of tension in the guard's movements. The subordinate who had run to the right approached slowly, muffling his footsteps. He made an 'X' with his hands above his head. It meant there were no dog holes or openings.

The other subordinate walked over from the opposite side. He stopped at a corner and made a circle with his hands. Eric and the other subordinate moved quickly in that direction. This side of the wall was adjacent to an empty open space where no one went.

Although the wall was relatively low, it was solidly and firmly blocked, so there seemed to be no hole to sneak through. Eric looked at his subordinate and asked.

"Why'd you bring me here? There's nothing."

"Ah, it's not the wall. I called you because there's something interesting here."

"Something interesting?"

The subordinate began to lead Eric down the path. At the end of the bumpy, unpaved road, an open space and a cabin came into view.

"What is this place? Why did they leave the land empty?"

"There's a field, but it looks like it has no owner? This house seems to be empty, too."

"Well, I'll be."

Eric and his men were more interested in the open space and the uninhabited house than the relatively low wall. Eric cautiously approached the house and opened the door. The inside of the building was full of dust, as if no one had lived there for quite some time.

"What is this place? The house is well-built, so why..."

"How about we use it as our base?"

the subordinate suggested. Eric thought it over and, thinking it was a pretty good idea, nodded. Since it was subtly far from the mansion, it was unlikely anyone would come looking for them. At the same time, it offered a clear view of the mansion, making it a good spot for surveillance. It was separated from the village, so they wouldn't stand out, and judging by the state of the house's interior, it didn't look like anyone had visited.

"We'll have to watch for a few more days anyway. Let's make this our base then."

Once their leader, Eric, gave his permission, the two subordinates nodded and began to clean up. One of the subordinates, pleased to have been praised by Eric, shrugged his shoulders and started clearing out the junk inside the house.

"Just how long has this house been empty?"

It didn't seem like a property where an accident had happened. In a world where ghosts and monsters were real, if a property became the site of an incident, an exorcism ritual would be performed immediately, and the house itself would be demolished. A house left vacant due to an unfortunate incident was unpopular and was said to weaken the land.

"Maybe a new settler just hasn't moved in yet?"

"Still, the plot of land is pretty big..."

Eric shook his head as if he found it strange, but soon erased the thought from his mind. Their duty wasn't to investigate a house, but to confirm whether the priest detained in the mansion was safe and sound.

According to their current plan, the first to act would be the subordinate from the Mermaid Capture Team.

"Alright, to explain the plan, our Sir Priest sent a letter to the Church of Love headquarters with a password requesting help. You guys know, right? If it starts with 'Are you at peace?', it means everything is fine. If it starts with 'How are you?', it means there will be no letters for a while. And if it starts with a self-introduction without any such greeting, it's a rescue request, meaning he's in a critical situation and needs us to come save him."

"Yes."

"Yes."

The two subordinates nodded. Pleased that the two were listening well, Eric smiled and spoke again.

"So, we need to confirm from here whether Sir Priest is doing well. If he sent that letter simply because he refused a simple investigation of the territory, then we send a letter to the Church of Love headquarters saying there's no problem and explain the situation to Sir Priest. But, on the contrary, if the Peta Territory is detaining our Sir Priest, we must rescue him."

"Can't we just send in an agent right away to rescue him?"

"Our opponent is an Archdeity Church High Priest. If we barge into the mansion and a casualty occurs, our entire relationship with the Archdeity Church will be ruined. If things go wrong, we might not be able to conduct any missionary activity in the entire southern region. That's why we're trying to approach this cautiously."

"Ah, so it's a 'just in case' situation?"

"Right. Just in case. When I looked inside the mansion earlier, I saw the Peta Territory is breeding a mermaid. The Lord of Peta Territory is supposedly a mermaid lover who has sex with mermaids. It seems that rumor is true."

"That's horrible. That's mermaid abuse!"

The agitated subordinate shouted, pounding the desk. Eric raised a finger to silence him.

"Fuck, whether it's mermaid abuse or not, you said you're the mermaid expert, right?"

"Yes!"

The subordinate was trembling, his face flushed red as if he were boiling with rage inside.

"So, use that brilliant art of persuasion of yours to sweet-talk the mermaid and ask about our Sir Priest's current situation. Got it?"

"Understood! I will definitely persuade the mermaid and bring back both Sir Priest and the mermaid!"

"Bringing the mermaid is up to you, but you can't get caught, got it?"

"I'll be careful."

Eric looked at his subordinate with an uneasy expression and asked.

"And why are you so worked up? The lord here is a man who likes mermaids so much he officially married one. A man who married a mermaid can have a little sex with a mermaid. Don't you think?"

"Mermaids also have the authority to decide their own sex partners. Why do you not know that, Eric? Even if it looks like they had sex by agreement, the mermaid is still a victim of the power wielded by humans!"

"...You crazy bastard."

Even though he was a believer in the Church of Love himself, Eric sometimes couldn't handle the madness his fellow believers displayed. Fearing that talking about this topic any further would lead to big trouble, Eric hurriedly wrapped up the conversation.

"Alright, let's scout the mansion one more time tomorrow and then get to work. Faith."

"Ho... Love."

"Ho... Love."

"...You fucking idiots."