72 The Necromancer and the Priestess 6

When Yin Mei discussed the matter of her project with Leon, he was quite intrigued. Summoning a hero was, like Yin Mei had thought, more suited to the space system of magic, as it was taking an object or person or whatever else and essentially teleporting them through space and time to get to the location they wanted them to.

Yin Mei constantly invited Leon over to work on this side project of theirs. Rather surprisingly, Leon was a fairly passionate researcher of magic. Although it was rather implied that he was a skilled magician mainly due to his high affinity and genius, in actuality, a lot of his skill came from hard work and research.

She admitted that he was a better person than he appeared to be on an outside - he had more depth to him rather than just being the empire's number one well known playboy.

During this time, El made several visits to see her. Yin Mei didn't say too much about her project or the matter of the two ingredients that she would be sending Rosella out to find, and they instead mostly only made small talk. Celestina would leak important church information to him on occasion, but she didn't really have that much access to such information.

The Bishop never told her really important things, as long as there wasn't any need for her to know them. The things he did tell her were normally like if a member of the royal family was born, thus they would be coming over for her to baptize the newborn. Either that, or if she was to make a public appearance, or if a subjugation team was going out, and etc.

She was not completely left out of the dark about the hunt for El, mostly because the Bishop never revealed to her the identity of the "criminal necromancer" that he would speak of. But, he was still cautious about her finding out, so he would never say much. It was just that Celestina had already discovered of the necromancers existence through the mouths of some of the more talkative priestesses, so he did give her some information to keep her from asking more or becoming overly curious.

Yin Mei and El were sitting on their ground with their backs to each other, and El passed her a cookie that he had gotten from a popular bakery outside. Celestina was not allowed to eat anything from the outside, but El knew that this was her favorite item from when they had sneaked out to play in the capital when they were kids, so he would always bring some for her when he visited her through the secret passageway.

"I heard that recently you've been inviting that space user, Leon, to the church?" El said, his expression covered in the shadows created by the flickering candle lights that never seemed to go out. Leon's playboy attitude was not at all secret, and El's heart grew dark when he thought about that person using his flowery words and cunning wiles to seduce his Celes.

"Yes. I need his help for something." Yin Mei answered, not seeming to notice that the person beside her was currently eating a jar of vinegar right now. She was instead happily munching on the cookie. The food that the high priestess got was pretty good, just a little too... humble for her tastes. It was plain and simple, something that you would expect a member of the pious church to eat. But Yin Mei couldn't stand eating that sort of thing day in and day out, and wanted a little more variety... It was too bad that the priestesses had all vehemently opposed her stepping foot in the kitchen, so now her only comfort were some of the sweets the priestesses made for hobby, or the snacks that El brought from the outside.

Hearing this, El felt even more upset in his heart. If he had to explain the way he felt toward Celestina, then he would say that he felt more like a father or older brother toward her than anything. And this emotion too, he explained it as a feeling of his daughter being chased around by a good for nothing fly.

It wasn't that he was jealous.

He felt that this emotion was really complex... he wondered what matter Celestina was talking about - was it not something that she could say to him? Was it something he was incapable of helping her do? Was he just that unreliable, or was it that only that playboy magician could help her with it?

A thousand questions and thoughts swirled in his head, and his heart only grew heavier and darker.

"It'll be a nice surprise when I finish it," she commented, bringing El out of his reverie. He didn't reply, but pondered on the meaning of her words.

They talked about a few more little things, with El mostly talking about what was going on with the outside world - how a new sweets store had opened up that was popular with his female students, or how a famous entertainment troupe was coming into town soon. Those sorts of things.

At the end, Yin Mei would always see him off with a smile, before returning back to her room, or if it was still early, to sit at the fountain in the inner sanctum's courtyard. Today, she would once again be meeting up with Leon to discuss some finer details of the summoning circle that they would be using.

It was already around time for Rosella to go with the expedition. Considering Rosella's luck was actually pretty good, and she wasn't as prone to getting into trouble like Wen Hua had been, Yin Mei didn't feel too worried. With her protagonist aura, it was likely that she would not get into any life threatening danger that would kill her.

When Rosella was asked by Yin Mei to find a certain herb for her, she immediately agreed. This life at the church was extremely peaceful and happy for her, and she felt that she had Yin Mei to owe for this. Because of this, she would do anything to repay this debt toward the girl. Although she was a little worried about going to the Gloom Forest of the stories and rumors, she was still determined to get the flower that Yin Mei had asked for. She was being entrusted with this important task; she would ensure that she would carry it out no matter what.

When Rosella met the captain in charge of the expedition, he appeared like a middle aged veteran that had seen his fair share of battles, the scar running down his face giving him a gruff and stern look. She was nervous, but recalled that she was here for the sake of her assignment, given to her personally by the high priestess.

Although the members of the squad were secretly a little bit unsatisfied having to take care of this little girl who probably had no combat experience whatsoever, they also knew that this had been a personal order from the Bishop, under the request of the high priestess.

All the members here were very loyal to the church, and held extreme respect for these two personages. Because of this, there was no bullying or snubbing of Rosella - they maintained a semblance of politeness toward her. Though, that was just how the knights normally acted in the first place. All the members of the Knights Templar normally had impeccable manners, and were known as the symbol of the country. There was no way that they would act rude in a way that would tarnish the church's reputation.

Because Rosella would be accompanying them into the Gloom Forest, Yin Mei had the priestesses give her the adequate supplies, while also personally blessing Rosella so that she wouldn't be affected by the miasma of the forest. Rosella had never been to the forest before, but Celestina's attendants had told her all sorts of things before she left. It was slightly different from the exaggerated stories that she had heard, but she felt that their version of things was much more reliable, because some of them had gone on expeditions themselves before becoming Celestina's attendants.

Though they had probably also added on embellishments, a first hand story was much better than those rumors that had passed through who knows how many ears and mouths before reaching Rosella.

To reach the Gloom Forest from the capital would normally be a two week travel by horse, but the church had several teleportation circles established that would lead to their major branches, including one that was right at the edge of the Gloom Forest. This sort of teleportation circle was only available for use by the royal family and the church. For a commoner, or even many nobles, they would never have the chance to experience teleporting.

It would also be Rosella's first time, and she had to say it was not the most pleasant of experiences, causing her to feel nauseous and sick at the end of it.

They were lead out by a priest, and she saw the complete change in scenery. The edge of Gloom Forest was not very populated, and this church was also only here as a sort of border guard, to defend against miasma from spreading too far outside of the forest, and take care of any straggling monsters that would sometimes wander outside.

Aside from that, there were almost no villages, aside from a very small one that housed the family members of the church. This was due to the fact that being so close to Gloom Forest meant that the land wasn't fertile, and the water unclean.

Everything had to be imported in from any other major branches, be it through the use of teleportation, or from traveling merchants that wanted to curry favor with the church or sell items useful toward monster subjugation.

Rosella stood outside with the rest of the group of ten to fifteen people, who were getting ready. Priests and priestesses blessed and buffed themselves and the other members of the group, while the knights put on their armor. None of them were carrying bags, the supplies instead being stored in a spatial storage bracelet - this sort of thing was essential, but very hard to get.

Rosella felt awkward, because although the knights and priests treated her politely, there was no chatting between them. They all had on serious expression, and they didn't make any small talk, just discussion the task at hand.

When they set off, the captain gathered everyone to position, and Rosella was put in the middle of the group with the few priests and priestesses as the knights surrounded them protectively. She wondered how she would be able to look for the black flower that the high priestess had asked her to look for in this situation, but she also couldn't stray from the group, else she would most likely end up food for the monsters.

She pondered her options, but could only choose to stay with the group. After all, even if she found the flower, she needed to stay alive in order to return and hand it over to the high priestess, right? So she shouldn't neglect her life either in order to search for it.

The expedition would last for a total of two weeks, before they would head back to the capital.

For the first week, nothing much out of the ordinary happened. Because this time's expedition had been moved up, there were less monsters than normal to clear. Everyone here were experienced and moved like a well oiled machine. Because there were priests to back them up, they weren't afraid to get a little injured - as long as they didn't lose a limb or die, then the priests would still be able to heal them.

Rosella felt admiration for these knights, seeing the skillful way they fought and their stern figures. She had seen knights before, but only during the occasional parades when they came back from an especially difficult subjugation.

She had thought they were gallant looking and dignified then, but seeing them fighting in person now was much different. Rosella, seeing all this, couldn't help but make the determination to become stronger - a small desire to become a knight herself was birthed in her heart.

If she became a knight, wouldn't she also be able to join these people in protecting the church and the high priestess tooth and nail, through her own blood, sweat and tears? Actually, before, she had never thought that the church and nation did much for her. When her village was in a drought, where was the help? When she was sold to slave owners, where was the goddess of light to aid her then?

But, when she had the opportunity to meet the high priestess, all those doubts and that hatred seemed to have faded away. Ahh, all those obstacles and trials were for this moment, was what she had thought. Because she had overcome them, she was granted the chance to meet with the high priestess. In her eyes, the person who had saved her from slavery (though granted, being Sir Kiel's slave was not bad, a slave was still a slave) was the high priestess.

A female knight. Thinking about it, she nodded in satisfaction. This image was really nice. She wouldn't be that helpless young girl who couldn't do anything while her parents sold her to a slave trader anymore. She would make them regret. Make everyone who had wronged her because of her status as a slave regret.