Chapter 24: Priest Josef

Both Kiana and Lucius's eyes went wide as they heard the words of the messenger.

Kiana turned to Asher and picked him up immediately, putting him in the carriage while urging, "hurry up! Let's go, put the wheelchair in the back."

The other guards that had accompanied them immediately reacted and put the wheelchair in the back while lieutenant John and his wife also climbed into the carriage with their baby daughter.

~Whip~

~Neigh~

The horses let out a loud neigh as the whip cracked over them. They started galloping as the carriage moved at a fast pace. The rest of the guards sped up as well to stay behind the carriage on their own horses. Kiana's expression was of excitement and unease, while Lucius was similar.

Had it not been for his paralysis, his expressions would have been more clear, but for now, he could only do so in his thoughts.

'How did the priest arrive so quickly? Wasn't he supposed to be still at a far enough distance?' Lucius wondered.

Even if John had said that it would take the priest one or two days, this was just too fast. Lucius couldn't think of any way other than some kind of a modern transport that would allow them to travel this fast. He had also thought of certain magical means such as flying, of course, but since the priest had the divine gift of goddess Alana, he didn't think he was coming by flight.

'Unless he was brought here on a flying creature…' Lucius thought.

In all his time here he had only seen some normal birds here, but nothing big enough that it would be able to carry a human. While Lucius was in his thoughts, time passed quickly and in the blink of an eye, they were already at the gates of the mansion.

The gate was already kept open for them, and a pair of guards were waiting for them outside. The guards that were following them by the side of the carriage signaled to the guards and the gate, and they saluted as the carriage passed.

The carriage came to a stop in front of the entrance of the mansion and there was another smaller carriage that could be seen standing there. The guards kept staring at the front of it for some reason, and Lucius couldn't tell why. He was put in the wheelchair by Kiana and he finally got a good look at the carriage.

The carriage was much smaller than the one he was in and had a sleeker build. One could tell that this one was built for speed rather than comfort or capacity. Also, unlike the carriage Lucius was in, this one even had a form of a suspension system in the form of long curved metal strips that were layered.

These were flexible and would bend to absorb the shock from the uneven roads. There was a crest present on the carriage which basically shouted that this belonged to a church. There were eight pairs of wings that rose from a golden ring on which characters of some kind were written.

But when Lucius finally saw the animals that pulled the carriage did he understand the reason for the quick arrival of the priest.

"Cheetah horses?" Lieutenant John said upon spotting the four beasts attached to the front of the carriage.

They looked like horses that had the features of a Cheetah, like the spotted markings and the thicker tail, unlike that of a horse. It had hooves that extended outward like claws and an athletic build that was rather compact. These horses were actually smaller than the ones that pulled Lucius's carriage, but still seemed to have a rather powerful presence.

'So they are called Cheetah horse… I guess they have a fast speed like that of a cheetah.' Lucius hypothesized.

Luckily a lot of the animals he had seen in this world matched that of his previous world so he didn't have trouble recognizing them. In fact, Lucius had seen multiple worlds during his dimensional travels and about half of them would have similarities to that of the animals of his previous world.

'So this is what they mean by the convergence of evolutionary paths. Even in different worlds, the results seem to be similar. Hmm… seems like a valid topic for research, I'll add it to my list for the future.' Lucius thought, invoking his inner scientist.

Kiana on the other hand didn't seem to mind the Cheetah horses that much and simply pushed Lucius into the mansion. It was obvious that she was rather excited and was covering for Lucius' part as well.

The guards halted outside and only the captain of the guard Donald followed them into the mansion.

"John, Alessa, you two can come as well," Kiana said in a hurry and continued ahead.

Lucius watched in anticipation as he was brought to a grand hall. This seemed to be the biggest area in the mansion and was the most luxuriously decorated as well. There Lucius saw five people, three of which were sitting around a large table and two that stood to the back.

The five people included Asher's mother Lita, two servants that attended to madam Lita and two men who were dressed in the robes of a priest. One of them looked much older than the other and was also wearing more elaborate priest robes than the other.

When they turned around to take a look at Lucius and the others, Lucius was able to spot the same crest of the eight pairs of wings and the golden ring on their robes.

'So that's the crest of the church of goddess Alana…' Lucius observed.

"Madam, we are here!" Kiana announced.

"Come, come," Lita gestured.

Kiana pushed Lucius further and halted near the table.

"So this is the young lord?" the younger priest said, while looking at Lucius.

"Yes priest Josef, it's my son Asher," Lita confirmed.

The sound of a chair being pushed back was heard as the priest abruptly stood up.

"I'll start right away, we have more urgent matters to deal with now."