New Beginnings Chpt. 93: Touring around & Shocking Plan

I massaged my forehead, with both of my hands since they were still bound⁠— Wait, they were still bound. 

“Remove the rope,” I commanded in annoyance. 

“Ah, forgot.” Aizen commented as she quickly removed it. 

A sigh escaped me. The situation was a bit too weird for my liking. I mean⁠— I was hoping to get thrown into a dank cell, little to no sunlight! Not, well. Whatever this luxurious room was! Like, not even most of the inn-rooms we had been in were so luxurious, and they were so expensive too! Oh, right, we were totally broke too. But that wasn’t the issue, the main issue was⁠— 

“So should I give you both identity tags?” I asked, pondering for a second. Kind of sucked to lose my adventurer career like that, but at the same time there wasn’t much I could do. 

Aizen nodded. “Unfortunately for you, yes.” 

I sighed as I pulled both tags out of my inventory. “Here.” Aizen received them with a smile and put them away. 

“Now you’re officially dead, how do you feel?” 

I sighed. “I suppose that I am indeed dead. Your long lost master is dead, how do you feel?”

Aizen scoffed. “Sad of course,” she paused. “Ah, master! I’ve missed you so much!” She hugged the air. “Glad that you’re back as a ghost to be with me!” 

I shivered. “Stop, stop!” I couldn’t tell Aizen that her cutesy actions made me cringe. “I am just technically dead, but I am here regardless.” 

Aizen paused and looked at me. “Master!” She jumped towards my arms and tackled me towards the ground. 

“Stop pretending!” 

“Tsk, just take the hint and be hugged.” The dragon clicked her tongue and continued hugging me. Sigh. Hugs weren’t bad. 

I was under her embrace for a few seconds before she got bored and got up. We just stared at the room and the accommodations. Not really knowing what to do. Right, wasn’t there going to be a festival? 

“So when is this festival of yours happening?” I asked after recalling it. 

“Oh,” Aizen pondered for a second. “In a few hours I suppose.” Followed up by a shrug. 

“So what now? I can’t even explore or look at things, since well.” I pulled on my collar. 

Aizen saw my plight and pondered for a few seconds, her expression changing as her thoughts continued. It couldn’t be that hard to think of something? Actually it was. It was hard to come up with something that did not damage our surroundings. Finally she smiled. 

“How about we just tour the church? I haven’t seen everything here either.” 

That⁠— didn’t sound so bad actually. Touring the church? 

“Sure!” I quickly nodded. Fenri got off from the bed and followed after us when we exited the room. 

◇ ◇ ◇ 

First there was a grand hall that reminded me of a colosseum. There were fragments of what seemed to be a mix of quartz and marble in the middle of the room, some provisional metal fencing to keep people away from it. It was as if a statue from a museum had been shattered and people hadn’t cleaned. 

As we arrived at the room, there was a group of deacons ⁠— or what I thought there deacons ⁠— that rushed in bubbly excitement too Aizen. However, they quickly stopped seeing me standing next to her, I didn’t have a rope either so it must’ve scared them off since they just chattered among themselves before they left. 

The conversations included things such as. 

Right, I had heard the priest of blood and thunder had captured a necromancer. 

 

• She looks so young! 

 

Why is a girl of that age a necromancer?! 

 

• • Why hasn’t the mighty priest of thunder killed the necromancer yet. 

 

Wow, the head-priest is so pretty! 

However, they quickly left. Still⁠— Priest of blood and thunder? Priest of thunder? I turned to look at Aizen who seemed surprised that there were even people here. 

“What happened here?” I asked in confusion. 

“Ah,” Aizen gasped as she pulled out the bone katana. “You see, Kuro, the katana was a relic from a former player. And I, as the chosen one, extracted it from the statue. I bled a lot, and there was also thunder.” 

Aizen nodded to herself in pride. But⁠— ignoring the katana. If she extracted it from the statue wouldn’t it have been forceful? I mean, no statue shatters in on itself simply after removing a relic from it. At least I didn’t think statues worked like that. 

“So you broke the statue?” 

Aizen scoffed. “What makes you think that?” 

I rolled my eyes. I could just see her expression of guilt but it also had some pride to it. She had definitely broken the statue. I guess things weren’t super great on her side either? Well she had said they weren’t, but I thought it was slightly smoother. Though it still didn’t beat, causing mass panic in an entire town. 

“Well, it's nice to see you’ve been crowned as The Priest of Thunder and Blood.” 

“R-Right.” Aizen stuttered. Oh, she found the name somewhat embarrassing? “Hearing you say it is weird.” 

“Well no worries, what’s next?” 

Aizen pondered for a few seconds, thinking really hard about things. Did she not know other places to visit? 

“We could pass by the library I suppose.” 

“The library?” Was this church that uninteresting? 

Aizen looked away. “Yes, the library. Have a problem?” She wasn’t even looking at me. 

“No. Let's go to the library.” 

Aizen fidgeted as she pulled my hand. I guess she was just as uneasy as I was. Well, I guess it was time to go see the library. 

◇ ◇ ◇

Soon we stood before an imposing pair of wooden doors. It was about hmm⁠— almost twice as tall as me I’d say. However, the dragon simply walked up to it and pressed them, with a mighty creak the doors gave in. Well even though the doors were finally crafted⁠— chiseled with various patterns and the like, they were undoubtedly very worn out; some of the carvings had begun to fade. 

It was quite unfortunate, sadly. 

Soon we entered the library, bookshelves that towered over the entire room reaching up to the roof, books were ever-present all around, whether it was the towering bookshelves that felt like pillars or the walls themselves, some desks loitered about to give reading space, and there was even a second floor. 

Needless to say, it was quite an impressive library. 

“Head-priest?” I heard a surprised call from behind us as we walked. In the room at the corner sat a man with white robes, he was old. Well what priest wasn’t old. Still, his face showed nothing but shock. Were they acquainted? 

Aizen gasped in confusion. “Oh, Sivirud.” 

“Were you looking for me?” The priest named Sivirud asked in confusion, and there was uncertainty in his voice as well. Then his eyes landed on me. “You’ve also brought The Necromancer.” 

I nodded. “Hello, yes. I am the Necromancer. Nice to meet you.” 

I had to roleplay at least a bit, no? He looked at me, bewilderment written across his face, he simply gave me a nod and turned back to Aizen. 

“Were you looking for me?” 

Aizen shook her head after a brief moment of pause. “I was showing her around since it was one of her final wishes.” 

I guess I was a dying person now.  I simply nodded in agreement. Sivirud continued having the same type of face. Did these two have some sort of history? Well it wasn’t my business. So I simply strutted right in, the priest looked at me in horror but I pretended to not notice as I went to the library. 

Since I was dying, and it was my dying wish. Might as well stalk some of the books. Or well, browse them. 

I went to a random bookshelf and began reading the spines of the books. 

Darkness in the light, vol, 1, 2, 3… 9⁠— Brilliant Life, Records of The Unbroken. Nothing really catched my attention. 

I heard Aizen and the priest talk. I had already forgotten his name. Talk about memory. 

“May I know why you are intruding in my room.” He sounded angry. 

“Well, I forgot it was your room. I doubt she cares about the books that much, so we can get going now.” Aizen answered devoid of any emotions. 

“Hmm, I wish to talk to this Necromancer in private.” Aizen paused but simply did a weird scoff in answer and left the room. 

In the end, all I could do was pretend to browse the books as the footsteps drew closer. 

“Necromancer,” he solemnly called my attention. I pretended to be surprised. 

“Ah, yes? Is something the issue?” My ears twitched. 

“Are you interested in the faith of grades?” He asked, his voice soft as ever. 

I pondered for a second. Did I even want to bother with this? The answer was, a resounding no.

“I am simply interested in the church as a whole rather than its faith.” I answered solemnly. 

“Hmm.” He nodded. “Do you want to see around the church instead? I could show you around.” 

“Well… The Pri⁠— Head priest is already doing that.”

“That is unfortunate.” He nodded to himself and left. 

I gave him a weird look and left the library, reuniting with Aizen. She simply waited with a weird look on her face. To be honest if I was going to have more one to one interactions I didn’t want to be here. 

“Let’s just go with the others, and then we can go to the festival or whatever.” 

Aizen nodded. 

◇ ◇ ◇ 

Soon I was in a room with Ari and Ash. Aizen and Fenri included. 

“So you decided to tour around and leave me with the person I barely know?” Ari argued with Aizen. 

Aizen simply shrugged. “I kind of forgot. Besides, you didn’t raise concerns when you were getting separated from me.” 

“That is⁠—” Ari huffed. “I thought you’d come to get me as soon as possible. I barely know this person.” She pointed at Ash. Who in turn simply sighed. 

“I don’t bite if that’s what worries you. Just because I saw your status doesn’t really make me care.” She paused. “More importantly. I’ve thought about how we can get Kuro out of this disaster!” 

We all turned to look at her in bewilderment as she spun, her red hair looking extremely bright. 

“You said the king shall judge, right?” She asked Aizen. 

“Yeah, that’s the plan I suppose. Though we can probably just leave now.” Aizen added. 

Ash nodded along. “Yes, perhaps we could just leave and be declared as fugitives⁠— well not me since they can’t do that to me. But you people.” 

“Ah right, you were the fake disciple.” Aizen agreed. 

“Tsk, that’s besides the point.” She clicked her tongue. “No one likes the king. Sooo…” She trailed into a smile. “How about a rebellion?” 

We all paused. Wasn’t she supposed to be like⁠— not involved too much? She’d literally just board a sinking ship.