AFK Leveling Plan

After the results were announced, the reporters were politely asked to leave the ceremonial grounds.

Naturally, none of them dared make a fuss at a time like this.

Everyone knew that the next step would surely be a game of hide-and-seek with that assassin. The reporters were curious about the final outcome too, but in the end, no one dared stay behind and get in the way.

The main reason was that they didn't dare provoke the Theocracy's suspicion and hostility. They had been invited here by the Theocracy not because they had any clout, but because the Theocracy was willing to do them the honor. By the same logic, if they angered the Theocracy, even that honor might be withdrawn.

They were only reporters, not newspaper owners.

If they happened to anger the Theocracy and it ordered every reporter under their newspaper barred from entering the Theocracy... no one could bear responsibility for that. They might even run into trouble locally—the officials there were absolutely capable of doing such things to curry favor with the Theocracy.

Thus, the thought of an "exclusive scoop" merely made one circuit through their minds, and no one dared wonder who the Assassin Master about to be captured actually was.

...Of course, the greater reason was that news about "the assassin who tried to kill the Saintess" had absolutely no chance of beating news about "the nineteen-year-old human Pope."

A news story's "exclusivity" and "truthfulness" often weren't all that important. When everyone was passionately discussing something, even a genuinely valuable exclusive might well go unnoticed.

In the end, only Iver and his two companions were kept behind by Saintess Grey for lunch.

The lunch was incredibly sumptuous... because it wasn't human food.

Grey, the cleric second only to the previous Eternal Pope, showed Iver