"I have Good news and bad news, which one would you like to hear first?" - Rethoc said after he vaulted into the main hall through a shattered window.

"What's the bad news?" - Jacque frowned and asked.

"The bad news is that the church kidnapped a few of our men in the guild and used a mixture of mind magic and torture to manipulate information out of them. The poor bastards are now crucified outside the city gates. Also, over half of our trading areas and two hideouts were raided, the holy bastards." - Rethoc cringed and spat phlegm on the floor.

"And the good news?" - Jacque pressed.

"The good news is that those they have caught are not one of the two contacts who know of our deal, and they only managed to glean some information unrelated to us." - Rethoc forced a smile and said.

"You don't seem to be happy about this, though." - Jacque noticed and said.

"Of course, I'm not. In response to the holy orders mass raid, the black market is going to shut down for weeks and to even months, greatly affecting business, and I will need to flee the city and lay low for a while, lest one of my contacts accidentally gets caught and they follow the trail to me." - Rethoc said in dissatisfaction and a hint of fear.

"I also suggest that you lay low, too. Those two burnt corpses in the sewers are a dead giveaway to a mage's spell, and there are not too many mages in the city." - Rethoc added.

Jacque nodded, "Fine. Let's stay low, for now."

As long as Jacque could get the book inside the tower, Jacque was not worried about the church coming after him. The wizard community, like many organizations, had its internal struggles, but it was unnaturally united when another organization stepped into its turf, such as the church, and was notoriously protective.

As for how protective? Seven hundred years ago an entire war was sparked by the Holy order of Hectoracine, the greater god of justice at the time, against the wizard community. How did it start? The order searched a rural magic tower without permission and kidnapped and executed an apprentice wizard for practicing a demonic spell. Naturally, the wizards were infuriated, and a war ensued. As for the result? The wizards suffered some damage, losing nine magic towers, a few dozen official wizards, eight master wizards, and an archmage, but the entire holy order of Hectoracine, a continent-wide holy order belonging to a religion comprising millions of believers, was almost eradicated from the face of the continent, and the god Hectoracine fell from the position of greater god to that of an intermediate god.

Since then, even the most intolerant or diabolical of religions had to follow proper protocol and ask permission before doing anything, leaving the judgment to the much more tolerant wizard community.

For the crime of only recklessly studying demonic magic for the first time, the worst that could happen to Jacque was to get reprimanded and his research materials confiscated, along with some loss in reputation. Of course, if he tried summoning demons without proper precautions and protection or worse, did diabolically evil deeds such as evil sacrifice rituals to gain power, he could expect a much harsher punishment, such as an exile from the wizarding community, imprisonment, torture, or even execution.

Naturally, all of these punishments were handed down on the premise he was found out.

"So, before we leave, what should we do about the weapons we looted? If we sell them now, they will leave tracks." - Jacque asked.

"Your right. Selling the weapons to legal pawnshops and weapon shops will leave tracks. However, we can fence it with a fencer of the guild. The price will be only a third of its worth, but it is better than nothing." - Rethoc said.

"You hand me their weapons now, and you keep their money pouches. Sounds fair?" - Rethoc offered.

Jacque thought for a moment and then nodded, "Fair."

Although it was likely a small loss, Jacque didn't care, as he only wanted to get rid of the weapons from his pouch. The amount of gold he can earn in this exchange is less than a 10-day week's worth of pocket money for him anyway.

"Alright, but first, use cleaning magic on them. We don't want people to smell the sewer on them, right?" - Rethoc pointed.

"True." - Jacque said and took out the weapons and cleaned them one by one.

After he was done and handed the weapons over, Rethoc took out a large folded cloth from his person and wrapped up the weapons.

"You came prepared." - Jacque commented with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I already figured that things will go this way, so I came prepared." - Rethoc said as he finished wrapping up the weapons into a long bundle.

After putting the bundle to the side, Rethoc extended his hand and smiled, "I guess this is it, Jack. It might have been for a short time, but I did enjoy our little adventure."

Jacque lowered his face mask, smiled, and shook Rethoc's hand, "Let's meet again under better circumstances."

"Ay. Let's hope for better tidings." - Rethoc smiled and let go of Jacque's hand.

After wearing his mask again, Jacque and Rethoc exited the temple through the broken window, and then Jacque looked at the surroundings, only to find them unfamiliar.

"Which way out of the slums?" - Jacque asked while looking around the maze that is the slums.

"Go that way for two blocks, then at the T section turn left, and then immediately right, and walk straight until you reach the exit." - Rethoc instructed.

"Thanks, goodbye, and stay safe." - Jacque thanked.

"You too." - Rethoc nodded while holding his large bundle and left in the opposite direction.

Jacque silently looked at Rethoc's departing back before he headed towards the slum's exit.

He then followed Rethoc's instructions and soon reached the T-section. But then, he saw two white-wearing armed and armored squires bearing the holy insignia of Qagtuna searching a passerby's belongings. They just so happened to block his route.

"This could be troublesome." - Jacque thought while backtracking his steps and out of vision.

After deliberating, Jacque decided, "I'll need to take an alternate route. An exit to the slums should still be in that general direction."

Having decided his course of action, Jacque walked back a block and took a right turn, walking for three blocks until he reached a T section, and then turned right again and continued walking for another two blocks before running into another two holy guards, so he took another right turn, and then a left turn, continuing until he stepped out of the slums.

As Jaque came out of the disgusting slums, he fought the impulse to remove his mask right away, opting instead to stroll to a nearby hidden corner before removing his mask and hood, and then randomly walked for another five minutes before sitting on a nearby bench.

"Sigh*" - Jacque finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"First being chased by holy bastards, then fighting to the death against bandits, then fulfilling a ghost's last wish and getting an invaluable treasure, before finally escaping through the slums. What an adventure." - Jacque thought before looking at the sky.

"And only less than two hours have passed? From all the action, I was sure it would be more." - Jacque thought as a subconscious yet dazzling smile tugged his handsome face.

Little did he notice that his look right now, as the golden sun cascaded on his handsome smiling face and brown hair, looked so mesmerizing and angelic that those who saw him on the street, whether male or female, stopped in their tracks and were in a daze.

"Is that an angel?" - Was what many of them subconsciously thought.

Among those who stopped, one of them was a girl in black and white nun's clothing that covered her entire body, save her delicate hands and her pretty face that didn't seem to have seen hardship in life. In her left hand was a silver chain bearing the symbol of Qagtuna, an empty circle with a five-leaf clover with the leaves shaped like arrows, and her left eye was golden and glassy, unlike her grey and normal right eye, but it did not hamper her beauty, only accentuated it.

Guarding on both her sides were steel-clad knights wielding Kyte shields and maces, ready to put their life on the line to protect their holy charge.

The girl was a special nun of the Qagtuna temple, and she was also known as a corruption seeker, a low-level yet special holy vocation in the order of Qagtuna with many prospects for advancement. Each corruption seeker is a cleric blessed in birth by their god in their own right and is equipped with a specially blessed implanted artificial eye that could determine the purity and corruption of an individual, as well as divine merit. It is called the <Eye Of Purity>.

Using the <Eye Of Purity>, a corruption seeker can both find evil or demonic heretics, and also locate potential candidates for church recruitment.

And right now, her <Eye Of Purity> was locked on Jacque. What she saw stunned her to the point of making the young maiden blush as her heart palpitated.

"So pure... So beautiful..." - She murmured, completely entranced.

She did not only talk about Jacque's visage but what her <Eye Of Purity> saw.

When her <Eye Of Purity> looked at a person, she could see their purity and corruption as a colored aura around them. The whiter it is, the purer and more chaste it is. The blacker it is, the more corrupt and obscene it is. In addition, her eye could see divine merit, or Karma, in a person. Golden glimmers represented good karma, and red glimmers represented bad karma.

And right now, she was looking at the handsome Jacque, clad in pure-white Aura and sparkling with many hints of gold, and her mind started to wonder.

"Is he of angelic decent? Such a beautiful and warm appearance, such a pure and unblemished Aura, and even so much good karma... He must be a very righteous, chaste, and honorable person. Is this love at first sight? Is he my fated one?" - Such thoughts sprouted in the young and romantically naive maiden's heart as she clasped her hands in front of her chest, her heart beating like drums, and her blush deepened.

The church of Qagtuna, worshiping the greater goddess of purity and chastity, was a strictly heterosexual and monogamous religion, and it emphasized chastity before marriage and being pure of heart, body, and mind, but it did allow sex for procreation and encouraged child production as long as the couple could reasonably afford it. Qagtuna also allowed her clergy to marry, as long as the spouse they marry is a chaste and pure person with enough positive karma, and does not belong to a religion that contradicts her divine dogma.

For the 18-year-old Nalmin Gladz, a chaste and devout cleric of Qagtuna from birth with attractive looks and a good personality, she had several potential suitors in both her clergy and other clergies, but she rejected them because they were either over 20 years older than her, had an impure aura, had little to no positive karma, or she just found them undesirable.

Jacque, on the other hand, was not only incredibly handsome and around her age, but he was also pure, chaste, and with good karma. All of this, combined with his warm and heartfelt smile under the sunlight created a deadly allure to her, making her fall in love with him at first sight.

Little did she know, however, that Jacque was an anomaly that was rather undeserving of his Aura and Karma. Although his disposition was also that of a loving and monogamous man, he was forced into chastity by his small genitals. Also, he wanted to study demonic magic to increase his genital size, but he only wanted to do so for the pure purpose of having a functional relationship, and he often prayed to the gods of fertility in the hopes of having a strictly monogamous and functional relationship, making his white aura even purer. As for the golden karma surrounding him, that is not only because of him occasionally helping the needy and donating money, but also, just recently, he killed two murder-happy bandits and helped kill the third one out of self-defense, accruing some good karma. Most importantly, he fixed the statue of a good diety out of artistic values and unintentionally freed a ghost of her clergy from her worldly shackles in a peaceful way, accruing him a sizeable amount of good karma.

If one was to look at the entire continent of Udroa, comprising hundreds of millions of people, none other than Jacque can claim to have such freakish circumstances.

All of these combined made the young corruption seeker who was dispatched to search for a heretical book completely oblivious to the fact that the one she was tasked to hound was none other than the young and handsome man in front of her.

If the goddess Qagtuna herself was to observe him, she could have seen through Jacque's situation at a glance and would have deemed him as a potential heretic and a high-level threat that should be purged immediately. However, the <Eye Of Purity> was subjective and not designed for such delicate observations, as its main purpose was to locate and root out corruption and evil.

 

"Your holiness? Have you found something?"

After Nalmin infatuatedly looked at Jacque for over fifteen seconds, one of the knights guarding her, a templar of Qagtuna, asked her, snapping her out of her trance.

"Yes, I believe I found someone suitable to join the order." - Nalmin said with a happy smile.

"And perhaps my future spouse." - She secretly thought.

"Normally, it would be great to recruit him, but right now we are hunting after a dangerous heretic holding a powerful relic of a demon lord of Lust, a sworn enemy of our creed." - The other templar reminded.

"I know. It won't take long. Please stay put, lest you scare him." - Nalmin ordered her guards as she gently walked in Jacque's direction.

Jacque didn't notice her as he enjoyed the sun's warmth and the breeze. However, the next moment, he heard a gentle and calming female voice.

"Excuse me, kind sir, would you please spare me a moment of your precious time?"

Jacque snapped out of his daze as he instinctively thought, "Another girl wants to hit on me?"

While secretly annoyed, Jacque maintained a fake smile as he turned to see who disturbed him, only to be stunned!

A nun. A completely covered nun stood before his eyes and an attractive and young one at that.

"The heck?! Now a nun is hitting on me on the streets?! Leave me alone, dammit!" - Jacque secretly cried in his mind but still maintained his fake handsome smile.

 "Yes, how may I be of assistance to you, dear sister?" - Jacque politely asked, hiding his mixture of astonishment and grief.

Nalmin's smile broadened at the young man's etiquette and said, "I am Nalmin Gladz, a lowly cleric of Qagtuna. I took a look at you and saw great potential and goodness in your heart. Would you like to join our religion?"