I made a breakthrough!

I ripped out some fabric out of my sleeve and used it to plug my ears, the blood and ink makes it pretty good at blocking sound.

This way my head isn’t exploding now that I’m on my way to the church.

Hehe, I’m so smart.

 

* * *

 

People on the streets are still giving me some weird looks, maybe they just have that sort of hobby?

Basil is simply too different from Paprika, how interesting!

Anyway, it doesn’t take me long to find the local church.

The streets of this place might be labyrinthian, but it’s still a rather small town.

I go inside the church.

The whole place is empty, I only see one nun praying on her knees in front of a pillar.

The marble white pillar has two statues of the same color at its sides.

One is of a very big and muscular lady with short hair, almost as tall as Bianca, it almost has a similar build to Timotei and Pauldron boy, but still distinctly feminine, somehow.

I wouldn’t confuse her for a dude at least.

The other statue is of a petite young lady, one head shorter than I am, she has long straight hair.

The two of them have a similar robe, that kinda covers their fronts, and hopefully back, but not their sides.

I’d say I would be happy to fuck either of them…

That’s definitely not an appropriate thought for this kind of place, isn’t it?

Eh, I’m an atheist, so it should be fine.

The windows are made from colored glass, and they form some patterns.

I guess they’re pretty to look at, but they’re not very impressive, even the ones I made for those knives were more pleasing to the eye.

At least in my opinion.

This place is a little stuffy though and it makes me feel itchy for some reason.

I’ll just go ask what I need and get out.

Do I just… ask the nun where that other girl is?

Would it even be a good idea to interrupt her while she’s praying? I don’t want to incur even more divine wrath, I’ve been pretty unlucky recently.

Would I just die if I become even more unlucky?

The nun also has a pretty meaty ass, it’s quite a good sight.

Combined with those statues…

Amili is also a goddess of fertility, right?

Why the hell is this place so lewd? I mean, I’m not complaining, but this is a church, right?

Or maybe I am the one who turned lewd? And I’m now seeing normal things as weird sex stuff.

It’s certainly possible.

There’s a chance I was always like this, but since I never really knew about sex, I just didn’t notice.

How complicated…

The nun suddenly stands up, it seems she’s finished.

“Thank you for waiting, is there something you needed?” The nun turns towards me, and asked me in a raspy voice, though it’s a little hard to hear her now that I’ve plugged my ears. “You don’t look so good, are you in need of a healer?” I can’t see much of her body thanks to her habit, but from her face she seems on her late 30s? I’d still say she’s plenty cute.

“I’m fine.” Focus Octavius! “I’m actually looking for a blue-haired woman I think may be a nun or priestess.”

“Blue haired… Oh, are you referring to sister Ecaterina? Indeed she’s a priestess of our church.” She gives me a skeptical look “But what is your business with her?”

“Ah, it’s a long story…” I explain to her about what happened to Timotei and the rest, and that I want to speak to Valentina Basil about it.

“Ah yes, I heard about what happened to captain Timotei, I don’t believe that he may be a cultist, he’s a very pious and honest man after all.” She closes her eyes and has a pensive look. “However it would not be the first time someone has taken advantage of his good will.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh… It’s not my place to gossip about a good man behind his back.” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place.”

“So about Ecaterina?...”

“Right, right.” She nods, it seems this lady is quite airheaded, get to the point already! “I’m sorry, but right now sister Ecaterina is volunteering as the prince’s guide in Basil, she probably won’t have the time for a matter like this.”

That Julius guy was the prince?

I definitely don’t want to get involved with him now, he’ll be surrounded by politics.

Maybe it’s Pauldron boy.

Either way, I’ll avoid those guys if I can.

“I see, is there something else I could do?”

“You could try to stay out of the way of the law.” The airheaded nun says in a chastising tone. “But I believe your heart is in the right place, you can find the dungeon in… here, captain Timotei and his guests should be imprisoned there, they might allow you to visit them, and the young mistress of the clan can usually be found at the theater around… here” She told me the location of both the dungeon and the theater. “she loves acting, music and generally any kind of art, so the theater is a convenient place for her, just be wary of her temper.”

How kind! This is just the info I needed!

I hadn’t even thought of going to the dungeon!

I approach her and shake her hand “Thank you! This was really helpful!”

The airheaded nun looks a little flustered “Oh my, how forceful.” She then smiles “I’m sister Sorinda, please feel free to visit this humble chapel when you have the time.”

I nod.

I definitely won’t be coming back to this place, it makes me all itchy.

Unless…

Hehe, I’ve definitely turned dirty minded, haven’t I?

 

* * *

 

Hmm, where should I go first?

The theater should be closer, but it might be useful to go to the dungeon to talk to get a better idea of the situation?

On the other hand, going to Valentina and quickly resolving the situation might be for the best?

I also don’t know if they’ll even let me go visit Timotei and the rest…

How troublesome...

I’ll throw a coin!

Yeah, this seems like a good idea.

Head for the theater, tails for dungeon!

I grab a silver from my hat, and throw it…

…

heads…

To the theater it is!

I’ll keep practicing my finger movements on the way there too.

 

* * *

 

It doesn’t take me long to reach the theater, it was surprisingly close.

It’s a pretty colorful building, very eye-catching.

It’s not THE biggest building in the area though, some rich guy has a stupidly big house, but this is much better on the eyes.

…

It seems it’s closed?

I see some lights from the windows, so there’s definitely people inside.

How troublesome.

Should I try to break in?

“I wouldn’t do anything stupid if I were you.” The voice of a guy sounds behind me.

This pressure…

I’d say he’s about as strong as Bianca, but this is some really heavy killing intent.

And I didn’t even notice him sneak up behind me…

I’m not too scared though, this feels like a puddle compared to the ocean that was the hog of hydragyrum.

“Impressive, I released a good amount of killing intent, but you aren’t even fazed.” The man speaks in an impressed voice, but his killing intent only digs deeper.

I turn around, and see him, he’s a head taller than me, and if I had to describe him, I can only do so as black.

Black hair, black clothes, a big ass black scarf.

What a dork.

His skin is extremely pale though.

He’s pointing some sort of black umbrella at me, at first glance it looks goofy, but I can notice the craftmanship, and I think it’s on the same grade as the spider puppet, it’s a rank 4 artifact.

“And you are?” I ask him.

“Heh, I have many names, the dark revenger, the shadow of the basil family, the assassin of the depths… My real name is not important, call me whatever you like.” Not Important said in a self-satisfied tone. “What’s really important is that you’re making two grave mistakes, the first one is trying to interrupt the young lady, and the second one is…”

And the second one is…?

He’s not saying anything…

The hell is the deal with this guy?

“Hmph, anyway, I won’t let you go bother the young mistress, she’s busy preparing a play for the prince, the <Arcadian saga>.”

Pauldron boy?

I would’ve never guessed a big guy like that liked children’s stories.

I remember Master read that to me once when I was little.

“I need to speak to her about something important.” I’m not backing down.

“Heh, don’t think I don’t know who you are, Octavius Paprika, the other young masters of the spice circle have been hounding the young mistress and Roxana Thyme with marriage proposals, it’s obvious what you are here for.” Not Important says in his self-satisfied tone.

The other young masters?

That should be Xeodore Cinamon and Andrei Sesame.

I don’t know either of them very well, the same goes with that Roxana chick.

I shrug “I’m a Journeyman blacksmith, if I got married I wouldn’t be able to go on much of a journey, wouldn’t I? I’m here to talk about something much more important.”

“Hoh?” Not Important seems amused with my answer “Even if that’s the truth, I still won’t let you in, those finger movements you’re making, and the fact you’re covered in blood… they’re fundamentally nefarious.”

My finger movements?

I guess they do look somewhat lewd.

How foolish.

“I’m just practicing for a spell, I don’t like wasting time.”

Speaking about that, my finger movements have gotten pretty good, my inky hand can do them easily, but even my right hand is already getting used to them.

I think I should be ready to start actually using the spider puppet soon.

“You refuse to waste time? Truly foolish, the true pleasures of life are in those moments of wasted time.” Not Important speaks with a serious tone for the first time.

I shake my head, “I’ve wasted enough time.”

I couldn’t smith until I was a teen, and even then I only made nails for most of the time.

Even if I enjoyed that time, I can’t say I’m not regretting it.

“Hoh? And what is this important thing you have to do?” Not Important looks amused, and deepens his killing intent.

“You must be aware about what happened to Timotei, right? I want to set him free, and the rest of the guests that were on his house too.” This guy thinks he can intimidate me?

Hmph, I’d rather die than have a repeat of what happened in the sycamore auction.

“I see… Hehe, you are an interesting guy, very well, I’ll allow you to speak to the young mistress, but I’ll go with you, however, don’t expect her to be reasonable at all.” He chuckles “And if you lied to me… I will teach you fear, and then pain, and then, well, the fear and pain will stop...”

With a creepy laughter, he opens the door to the theater.