Sofia’s attention was captured away from her system windows by a nagging feeling.

A hero?

One of the doors to the common room opened, and a relatively short man dressed in black strolled in, munching on a large piece of bread.

[Hero - Lv. 249]

Wha- This guy?! Here? Now? Really?!

The man also noticed Sofia’s presence, almost dropping his bread.

“Oh shit! It’s the Saintess gal. What was it… Sofia?”

“And you were… Michael? It has sure been a while. Thanks for the advice back then, it did help with getting out of the Church.”

“Did it? I know you killed the Magisterium guy but I don’t think I ever got the details. Guildmaster ain’t really talkative about stuff like this.”

“So you were really working for Kuli,” Sofia noted.

“Yep,” he answered, walking closer, “mind if I sit here?” he asked, pointing at the couch opposite the one Sofia was on.

“Go ahead. And for the Magisterium, I just used gravity to my advantage is what I’ll say.”

“Oh, that would work,” Michael commented while he sat, “I was surprised when I heard you got out honestly, didn’t really believe it at first. I’m even more surprised to see you here now though. What are the chances? And damn, girl, you’ve been leveling fast as fuck!”

“I had the constant threat of the Church coming back to get me so I was a bit pressed for power. It is quite the coincidence that we meet here again, though, of all places.”

“Sure is… Or is it? Guildmaster was the one to tell me I’d slacked for too long and should go for the trial now. Do you think maybe she knew you were going to be here too?”

“That’s a big possibility…” Sofia confirmed, “I never gave her a precise timing but I’ve gone to see her once like four months ago? Had a nice chat even if she wouldn’t say anything about the trial.”

“Yeah…” Micheal started with a contorted smile, “This trial’s been a bit traumatic for her, to say the least. Every trial, in fact. She always pushes herself too hard and ends up suffering for it. But It’s not my place to say too much…”

“I get it, if she doesn’t want to say it’s her choice. What about you, confident? Got a Sleep essence to wager, I assume?”

“Damn right. Summoned by the Sleep saintess, blessing from Sleep, items from Sleep, essence from Sleep, It’s really like I have a Patron God just for me. What about you?”

“Ahah… Well, as you can guess, I’m not about to use Scripture’s essence, even if I have one. What I have to wager is a bit different though. I’m not even sure it’ll go through. If not then I’ll use an essence from Sun.”

“Sun?” Micheal repeated before taking another bite of his loaf of bread. “Shiiit, you got roped into one of those braindead quests, didn’t you? I don’t see how else you’d get that.”

“Correct guess. The quest wasn’t so bad though, just a small trip to the Sun and back, with some fighting in between.”

“You gotta be shitting me. You went to the sun? The fucking huge ball of fire in space, that sun?”

Sofia nodded with a knowing smile.

“Man… I gotta up my game. I’m not an Isekai protagonist at this rate, just you are making me look like a side character.”

That word again? Is that a hero thing?

“Not sure I follow, sorry.”

Michael waved her off and changed the subject, “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Dumb hero talk. Not censored for some reason, but it will be if I try to explain more. Whatever. How was going to space? Did you like it? Haven’t really gotten there yet, I have to admit. Soon though, whenever that Kyle dude gives the go.”

“It was… Empty. Very empty. Looking at the world from afar is spectacular, though.”

“I can imagine that. The images of my old world from space were incredible too…”

“Your world could fly into space too, without magic?”

Michael nodded, “I can tell you yes, and that’s it. Any more and my mind’ll blank out.”

“Really annoying, the censor…”

“It is what it is. I’ve learned my way around it. In the early days, half the shit I said was getting cut. Really threw Arin for a loop… Oh, right, Arin’s the Saintess of Sleep, if you didn’t already know.”

Arin…

“Oh! I’ve never met her but Kuli did mention her a few times. Even got that thing,” Sofia said as she brought out the [Saint’s indolence].

“That the shit item that prevents sleep? I remember Arin trying to destroy it and failing. Good old times… She gave it to the Guildmaster, back then, so I can guess from where you got it…”

“I wouldn’t call it shit, though it really isn’t the best part of the set. I’m trying to get the full set of seven but I’ve been stuck at four pieces for a while now.”

“Four?! Part of why the item is shit is because the parts are impossible to find, you know. Where the fuck did you get three more?”

“Well, you should know about the headband.”

“Oh… Right, it was the Church who had it… You got away with stealing it? Ballsy.”

“The other two I got from two other Saintesses, one from Valeure, I think you know about her, and one from a Dragon.”

“A Dragon? Sheesh. Also… I think I know where one of the pieces is, actually.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah? Rumors, though. I’d make you pay for it but it’s literally just me being a slut for rare items collecting information about stuff. This one I heard something about without looking into it because even if I got it I couldn’t use it. So yeah, I heard about the previous saint of Water always wearing a scarf of golden threads around his neck. Sounds like one of these, doesn’t it? Unless that’s what you got from that Dragon of yours?”

“No, the Dragon got me the anklet. It sure does sound like the scarf could be a part of the set, yes. Thanks, I’ll look into it. If that helps me get the thing, I’ll pay you for the information. I can leave payment for you at Kuli’s, right?”

“Yep. Appreciate it. You can leave it to Arin, too. I’m sure she’d be cool with getting a visit from you, if you’re not interrupting a nap. Doubt it’ll be so easy, though, Water is quite the sticky fucking God. If their new saint yoinked the scarf you’re shit out of luck. Might not even be a real thing either. Rumors be rumors.”

Water… Read about them being a major God, almost as big as Sun. That was about it…

“Only one way to find out, I’ll look around after the trial… And I have to say, it’s a bit hard to follow everything you’re saying… Your vocabulary is a bit strange.”

“Ahah, sorry, Saintess, I’m just used to being around people who have adapted to my lingo. I’ll try to tone it down.”

Kyle appeared between the two of them, adjusting his hair. “No need, boy, chatty time is over. We’re going. Get out, I’ll warn the other one,” he told them before disappearing as fast as he had come.

“Hell yeah! Time to go to space! Goddamned childhood dreams come true!” Michael exclaimed, jumping out of the couch.

Sofia also stood up and walked towards the door, following Michael. The man stopped in front of the door, mumbling to himself, “Wait, the other one? I thought he said we’d go as a group of four?”

“I count for two,” Sofia explained from behind.

“You what?”

“I’m going in with one of my heroes. Except he’s a skeleton.”

“Right! I heard about that, the undead hero. Showed up to court with you and all. Where is he?”

“He’s waiting in my storage ring right now, reading a book, I think. Being an undead has advantages like that.”

“Neat. Oh, I’m blocking the door, sorry, let’s go.”

The two walked outside, welcomed by the same giant walls of the tower all around them, charged with much more mana than they had been a few hours prior. The air was thick, circular mana flows coursing inside the tower and being drained into the hole in the middle like a siphon. Astelia came out of the same door two minutes later after Sofia and Michael continued to have a talk about heroes.

Michael turned around to see the newcomer, “Hey! Another familiar face. Ambassador Duke Glacier, right?”

Astelia joined them observing the hero with narrowed eyes. “Do I know you?”

“Probably not, I’m Michael, or as you would call it, one of the Red Winds Spies. We traded intel under fake names a few times, never met in person. Dorian garr, ring a bell?”

Astelia immediately relaxed at the mention of that name, “So that was you. We did have you flagged as one of Red Winds’ puppets. Blood was of good quality so we never asked questions. Nice to meet you, I guess. You can call me Astelia.”

“Nice to meet you too, Duke Astelia. Always good to have reliable business partners, too bad the situation in Skyreach turned to shit lately.”

The discussion continued, and after a while, circled back to the ‘missing’ fourth person, Micheal being curious to meet the skeleton Hero for himself. So Sofia obliged, prodding Pareth to stop reading and come out, which he happily did.

A large shadow obscured the group.

“J̵̨̛͙͉́͌͛̚E̸̛͂̓͜͝S̵̨̻̘̪̫̞̄͊Ṵ̷̠̤̝̈͗̐̽S̴̛̼̈̉ ̷̥͇͖̍C̵̨͈̥̓̄̔̌͒̌H̴̨̛̑̈̋͋R̷̛̛͚̓̆̃͝Ì̵̱̃͋̒̀̾S̸̲̟̱̝͖͆T̷̝͆̑ this is NOT how Kuli described him!”

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