Questioning

When Wood came storming into the Old Castle, he found Sakre guarding the entrance, seemingly staring at him with ill intent. The Old Butler stood with Sakre, heads lowered as they whispered to each other about who knew what.

Sakre's lackeys appeared to be leading the way, but Wood felt as though they had formed an encirclement around him.

Allen had been waiting for a long time. The moment he saw Wood, he immediately adjusted his expression.

The sight of Allen made anger rise in Wood's heart.

There were only a few misfits in the local diocese to begin with, yet in such a short time, two had been injured and two had died. Wood felt like eating Allen alive.

Before Wood could question him, Allen kicked over the small round table, startling Wood.

Walking up to Wood, Allen immediately launched into a torrent of abuse. "You fucking still have the nerve to come looking for me? Do you know how dangerous tonight was? Do you know what happened tonight? Do you know who came to Outpost County?"

Allen asked three consecutive "do you know" questions, and Wood was completely dumbfounded. He instinctively replied, "No."

Pretending to force down his anger, Allen patted Wood on the shoulder. "Good. It's good that you don't know."

After saying that, Allen sat back down on the stone stool and patted the one beside him. "Come over. No blame for the ignorant. Let me explain it to you."

Wood felt that something was off. Two of my men died. How did it end up looking like you were the one who suffered some huge loss? Still, he cautiously sat down on the stone stool. But when he saw Sakre's ill-intentioned expression in the distance, he could not help feeling uneasy.

Wood kept unconsciously watching Sakre, thinking, I don't have any grudge with this brat. Why does he look today like I killed his father?

Earlier, Wood had sent out four Faith Guardian Knights to secretly watch over and protect Dina, afraid that Allen would take the newly appointed Papal Candidate Saintess around to cause more trouble.

But before long, a constable from the General Affairs Hall ran to the diocese and said that Lord Allen had notified him that a battle had broken out at the market and told the diocese to go "clean up."

Completely confused, Wood led the remaining Faith Guardian Knights to the market, only to fly into a rage. So this fucking "clean up" meant collecting corpses. He had thought that constable's Common Tongue was poor.

The two severely injured Faith Guardian Knights were both noble sons from Duke Lotel Kingdom. They had trained in Martial Skills at the church since childhood and had followed Wood for years after coming of age. Over all those years, they had never even taken a fall. Yet the first time they got involved with Allen, more than ten ribs were broken, and they lay on the ground clinging to their last breaths. Those unruly commoners of Outpost County were truly audacious beyond belief—the two knights had been stripped completely naked, without even their underpants left.

Wood was so furious that he grabbed a passerby on the spot and demanded to know who had stripped his knights. The passerby was also a believer, and with a devout expression, he directly replied, "Your believer greets you. I swear in the name of the Holy Father that the knight lords were already not wearing clothes when they came out."

A bunch of unruly commoners passing by even vouched for one another, swearing that the knight lords had indeed come out without clothes. Wood nearly coughed up blood from rage.

The other two Faith Guardian Knights, already dead beyond doubt, had not escaped the same fate either. They too were stark naked. The two had been born commoners, but the church had adopted them as children. For over thirty years, they had eliminated countless enemies of the church, both open and hidden. They were practically in semi-retirement in Outpost County. Among the dozens of Faith Guardian Knights in the local diocese, the two ranked among the best in both combat experience and Martial Skills. Yet in tiny Outpost County, while carrying out nothing more than a simple surveillance mission, they had inexplicably returned to the embrace of the Supreme God and Holy Father. They had come naked and gone naked, taking not a single cloud with them.

Having lost four Faith Guardian Knights at once, Wood had not even had time to ask what happened before racing to the Old Castle to demand an explanation from Allen.

Yet unexpectedly, Allen, the man responsible, was the one flying into a furious rage instead.

Wood was truly afraid of this ancestor. The cardinal of the Southwest Diocese would soon arrive in Outpost County, while Allen caused trouble every other day. If anything went wrong then, not only would Wood be finished as bishop, he would not be far from ending up on a burning stake.

Putting on an expression of disappointment, Allen pointed at Wood's forehead, shook his head, and sighed. "You're already so old. How can you be this unreliable when handling matters?"

Seeing Wood's bewildered look, Allen's face filled with lingering fear. "So close. It was so damn close to being completely over. The Candidate Saintess, the cardinal's arrival, Outpost County—your idiot subordinates nearly ruined all of it."

Wood frowned, feeling that Allen was becoming more and more outrageous. Isn't this a little too exaggerated? But since it involved the newly appointed Candidate Saintess Dina, he also began to feel that something serious was going on despite not understanding why.

"Dina is a barbarian, you know that, right?"

Wood nodded.

"Dina wrote a letter home."

Wood shot to his feet. If what Allen said was true, this matter could be either major or minor. The church was currently promoting Dina's status as Candidate Saintess, but if the barbarians secretly snatched her away, it would be a resounding slap in the church's face. If they could not even keep watch over their own Candidate Saintess, what right did they have to spread the Holy Father's will? They might as well go home and throw their handkerchiefs around.

"Don't get worked up yet." Allen held Wood's shoulder and continued, "Dina said in the letter that she was living very well now. Not only did the church feed and house her, it treated her especially well. And especially the Supreme God and Holy Father—who was he? He was a god even the God of War believed in. So Dina advised her fellow townspeople on the Wasteland that they should stop believing in the God of War too. Since they were all playing the faith game anyway, they might as well believe in the house directly. Dina specifically said in the letter that it was fine if her fellow townspeople did not believe. They could come to the diocese in Outpost County and experience it for themselves. If it did not work out, the church would reimburse their travel expenses. Believe if you wanted to, and if you did not, that was fine too—just treat it as a free trip."

"That works too?" Wood was completely stunned. He felt that Allen was full of nonsense, but he had no evidence. All he could do was ask, "Then what does that have to do with my dead subordinates?"

"You finally asked the right question. Dina may look foolish every day, but she's actually somewhat famous on the Wasteland. She's a Descendant of Titan Bloodline, after all. Her fellow townspeople would definitely trust her. So two barbarians just arrived. They crossed the Great Wilderness and walked a thousand miles to get here. And what happened? Your fucking idiot subordinates didn't even ask what was going on before trying to chop them to death. The barbarians hadn't stolen their flower rolls or anything, yet they pulled blades without a word. Does that make any sense? You tell me, does that make any sense?"

Wood could imagine the scene. If two barbarians suddenly appeared in front of him, he too would grab a weapon and rush them without another word.

Allen shook his head and sighed. "Do you know who came? One was a chieftain's son, called Little Zack or Little something-or-other, and the other was the publicly acknowledged greatest warrior of the Wasteland. I forgot his name. I think he was called Big Wheel or something."

Sakre walked over, gave an awkward cough, and quietly reminded him, "Little Zack. Big Babylon."

Watching Allen spin such a pack of nonsense, Sakre admired him from the bottom of his heart. Wood might not know, but how could Sakre not know? He had been there himself. Yet once it passed through Allen's mouth, the whole story changed beyond recognition.

He even felt that the two Faith Guardian Knights had died too unjustly.