She kept feeling that a great many things she knew nothing about had happened—she had been offline for far too long.
Nanoda raised her hand and, with Severance Magic, sliced the paper bearing the word "prophecy" into fine shreds, letting them scatter on the wind, and once more set out on her journey.
All along the way, she deliberately left behind Mana identical to the traces lingering on that paper, as though guiding her in a single direction.
Call it a scheme, call it fate, call it a trap—since she had received an "invitation," she might as well make the trip.
In some unspoken way, Nanoda felt that this seemed connected to Yuna's whereabouts.
"Slow, passive, lazy, contradictory, free; cruel to strangers, yet excessively attached to those she knows; a cold-blooded killer, and yet she covets a peaceful place to settle."
When she was all alone, she inexplicably found herself thinking of the past again—that had been her old superior's final assessment of her.
Pretty much an unqualified condemnation.
People may change, for better or for worse, and Nanoda felt that at times she no longer seemed like her original self.
And so, she decisively chose to cast aside this self-tormenting, contradictory question.
Without sleep or rest, across three days and three nights—she couldn't help but admire that fellow who had left behind those Mana traces.
Matching it to the position on the map, this place was likely already within the region of the Central Lands; the last of the Mana traces stretched all the way out to a basin.
White tents everywhere, banners marked with a pale-yellow cross emblem, warhorses filling the makeshift stables, weapon racks visible all around, people clad in white religious robes one and all, and a Scripture slung at each of their waists.
A military camp of the Goddess's Order?
At the sight of the Scriptures, the natural thing to think of was the Goddess's Order—but...
what was the deal with this oddly familiar cross? In her memory, wasn't the symbol of the Goddess's Order supposed to be angelic wings?
And on those weapon racks were armor, helmets, shields, war hammers, spears, and serrated blades... just like a knightly order.
It was utterly different from the monks she remembered, who wore thin, light religious robes and provided support from the rear with their Scriptures.
Could it be that one she'd encountered before?
After confirming that her disguise was completely flawless, Nanoda lowered her hood and openly proceeded down toward the basin below.
"Who are you?"
As she neared the camp area, several patrolling white-robed monks stopped Nanoda right where she stood.
"Are you all believers in God?" This was the very first probe.
"God? What's that?"
"It shouldn't be the Goddess, surely?" Another probe.
"Of course not!"
A monk beside them seemed to grow impatient with Nanoda. "Hey, we're very busy right now—ordinary folk had best hurry up and leave this place!"
"What everyone here believes in is that New God, isn't it?"
A new deity—all the monks present were stunned for a moment, then put on expressions that said "so you understand after all," and nodded one after another.
"I'll be honest with you all: I too believe in that new True God. In fact, I'm a devout believer myself."
Nanoda drew from her bosom that Scripture, a full thousand years old and ancient beyond reckoning, which she had simply picked up along the way!
"You should have said so! So you're one of us!"
After confirming that it truly was a Scripture, everyone relaxed—she was an ally.
"Comrade, which church do you come from? Such beautiful white hair is a rare sight."
As if the distance between them had suddenly shrunk, the monks all broke into kindly smiles.
"Hold on! We can't jump to conclusions so soon!"
Nanoda hesitated only for an instant, and just as she was about to speak the fabricated identity she'd made up, that monk who had earlier wanted to drive her off spoke up again to interrupt.
"Then do you know the very first line written in the scriptures of the New God's Faith?"
At these words, the other monks came to their senses as well. Indeed—merely producing a Scripture and naming a church did not necessarily prove one was a comrade; the believers of the Goddess's Order used the very same Scripture!
"Erm, sorry about this, comrade—could you recite the first line of the Scripture for us?"
The rather kindly monk's face turned a touch awkward, and the others, too, shifted their gazes onto Nanoda.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light..."
Quite effortlessly, Nanoda recited content she knew better than anything. To her surprise, in that very instant all the other monks grew impassioned, devoutly pressing their palms together and slightly bending their knees.
"May the deity bless us—praise the New God!"
"Comrade! May you, too, receive yet more of God's favor."
Some, with exaggerated emotion, were nearly moved to tears, their whole bodies on the verge of dropping to their knees; that faint air of fervor they let slip gave off the unmistakable impression of fanatics.
"My apologies, comrade—believers of the Goddess's Order have previously infiltrated our ranks by the very same method. I apologize here to you and to the deity."
The originally hot-tempered monk became exceptionally humble and sincere.
"Seeing you all like this, are you about to set out on an expedition?"
Nanoda put forward her conjecture, and it was quickly confirmed by the monks.
"In order to spread the name of the New God's Faith ever farther, the great Bishop Schwenk has resolved to lead all of us comrades and mete out sanction and the trial of heresy upon that Mad King who shatters the peace and stirs up war everywhere!"
Nanoda kept feeling that this bishop's name sounded awfully familiar, and was also taken aback by his audacity.
This camp's scale was probably no more than a thousand-some people at the very most; against the King of War, who was said to command an army of tens of thousands, there was a very high chance of being swallowed up by Anhadī III's military might.
Once her identity had been accepted and they began to converse, the monks were all exceedingly friendly.
Nanoda also asked whether, on their way here, they had seen a green-haired Mage carrying a red staff.
Everyone said they had not seen Yuna.
"Heading off to the battlefield, then..." She belatedly recalled the contents of that mysterious note.
Judging by Yuna's personality, it didn't seem like the sort of thing where she'd be carried off by Ohaly's army, nor like her to get mixed up in a war outside of Gaderia.
------
Meanwhile,
"Hah..." Solitär clutched her wounded arm, her brow tightly furrowed. The Mana protection that wrapped her body had been slit open, and a violent pain unlike anything she had felt before set her gasping.
Her opponent was a human Mage of decent ability—nothing more, and yet, against all expectation, she had suffered a serious loss.
"That magic... where did you learn it?"
Macht, the trash can perched atop his head, who had been watching the battle all this while from the side, suddenly made his move.
Before Yuna had time to rejoice at having wounded a member of the Demon Race, the arm gripping her staff abruptly lost all sensation, her body grew unexpectedly heavy, her Flight Magic could no longer be sustained, and she plummeted out of the sky.
"Ah, this time there's truly nothing to be done..."
She had already given it her all.
Looking at her arm, now turned to gold, Yuna recognized that demon who concealed his features—Macht of the Golden Land!
Why wasn't he garrisoned at Weise? Why would she run into a Great Demon of the Seven Sages of Destruction here?
This whole journey—not a single thing had gone as she'd hoped; the very worst, most rotten luck.
"I'm sorry... Lady Nanoda..."
A single teardrop fell, like rain.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: A Martial Arts Master Will Never Be Humiliated
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!