"Heinrich Von Hesser, you who have been blessed by the most holy Goddess Lefalia, are now appointed as a Paladin of the Holy Church, congratulations for finishing your training, my child."

My face was lying, a mask portraying a fake smile and excitement. I honestly had grown used to lying to these priests, to be frank all of these events were meaningless to me, as I honestly never even wanted to join this horrid church… I'm an agnostic for fucks sake. 

Regardless, now that I have finally finished my training, I'm finally free to leave this boring place and have my fun, in a distant land.

Or at least that's what I hoped for, but then the old fuck had to ruin it, "Before you leave though, there shall be one last mission for you… You must go to the Holy Almany Empire and purge an illegal slavery ring in the lands of the Edeltraud Grand Duchy, the princess of the duchy Lilith Edeltraud will provide you with support."

"Fu… I mean, of course father, I shall make not only the church, but the goddess proud, as I am a devoted follower."

"Good, good. May the goddess accompany you in this, your final trial."

Oh, fuck him, and honestly fuck the goddess too, as if she was going to do anything for me… These holy powers are nothing but a fucking curse. 

Forcing me to join the fucking church and to train for like 15 years, I wasted my childhood at this place, and now that I am finally 18 I thought this hell was over, but no, it had to throw me another punch to the gut and now they are making me team up with a princess instead of a proper soldier. Good Goddess what rotten luck I have…

I must be strong, this is the last mission, after this I shall finally be free!

At the very least, I wanted some excitement on the voyage to the Grand Duchy, but I was disappointed to see that it was extremely unremarkable, honestly it was simply very boring, as we didn't find any bandits or monsters on the entire 2 week trip.

Eventually though, we reached Birlennia, the largest city of the Edeltraud Grand Duchy.

I chose to rest the first day I arrived, so I headed straight to an inn and got some sleep, while the rest of the priests went off to another city.

At least I was finally far away from any priest, but I still had to do my mission; I may hate being a paladin, but I should still do my job…

Early the next day, I started to wander through the streets and I noticed how different the people were compared to the Papal State, they seemed rougher and more used to violence, but mainly they seemed scared for some reason.

Surprisingly they also appeared to be hostile towards me, and especially the holy church, as I found the only church in the city was closed and seemingly abandoned. Even when I asked around they just gave short and blunt answers, and some more talkative people simply explained that the priests just vanished or left the city randomly one day, some years ago.

Either way, as I continued to explore this city, I noticed how compared to other towns and cities I went through looked calmer, but this, which was the capital, looked dreary, as if an invisible plague was ravaging the entire city.

As I was walking down the street I noticed a person unlike the rest, a girl around my age, who seemed to have a limp and was walking around with a cane around the shopping district, her eyes were as black as the night and her hair as red as dried blood; as I stared at her from a distance I noticed a large scar that went from her cheek up to her right eye, giving her a dangerous look.

I had heard rumors before, of the supposedly demonic princess of the Edeltraud Grand Duchy; some even went as far as to call her the Lady of the Gallows, which honestly sounds like an overstatement for just a girl my age, I thought that perhaps these rumors were just made to discredit her; and although I wanted to quickly introduce myself, I couldn't help but follow her from a distance, as I wanted to confirm the rumors, and at one point I saw something horrific…

There she stood, with an angry look in her eyes, talking to one dangerous looking guy. I could barely hear them, but I tried to listen to the conversation nonetheless, "You dared to… I should chop off… liver… and then make you eat… you piece of trash!" The man, although evidently stronger than her, looked downright terrified as he knelt, but undeterred she kept closing in and pressuring him with her cane.

I drew in closer to listen better and could see the guy loudly saying, "Lady Edeltraud, I'm sorry, I did something worthy of death, but I beg for your mercy, please!"

It was then that she took out a small blade from her cane and stabbed the guy in the neck, while she said, "Is this merciful enough for you?" With a devilish grin on her face.

She then quickly looked at me, and walked towards me; once we were face to face she simply said one thing, "Did you enjoy the spectacle?"

I decided it would be for the better to introduce myself to this maniac, "I am Paladin Heinrich Von Hesser. I was sent by the Holy Church to end an slavery ring; I presume you are Lilith Edeltraud?"

"Oh, so you are finally here… I expected you to arrive later."

"So, tell me, why did you kill that guy you were talking to, was he involved?" I interrupted.

"Oh, him? No, he was just an annoying person… The idiot simply broke a deal we had; regardless, we have more important matters at hand, so let's get to it."