"Wait. Selling the relic to ordinary people this way does lower the chances of the Church finding it, but isn't the risk too great?"
Miss Louisa set down her teacup and voiced the question in Shade's heart.
Doctor Schneider explained:
"The Falsified Philosopher's Stone has special properties. Its danger lies in active contact, so theoretically, having an unaware ordinary person keep it is safest. After all, it isn't a real Philosopher's Stone. It has none of those strange effects, such as absorbing matter to strengthen itself or granting animals greater intelligence. Back to the point: I found the locations of those five statues. The bad news is that every one of their owners is troublesome."
He sighed.
"Two are dukes, one is a royal steward, one is the chief of the Ridgewich Field Police Department, and the last isn't a noble, but he gave the statue to Prince Mogus Cavendish. Though they are all ordinary people, infiltrating their circles is no less difficult than confronting Ring Arcanists head-on."
It truly was troublesome, and the others could not offer much help either. Even though Shade knew Miss Galina, he had no way to obtain all five statues. Still, both he and Miss Louisa promised to help Doctor Schneider think of a solution.
The Doctor probably assumed they were merely comforting him and did not take it to heart. The middle-aged doctor felt as though he had reached the final stretch of a marathon, only to discover a mountain blocking the finish line.
His luck truly was terrible.
Aside from that, the five of them also shared what they had learned over the past week. Priest Augustus had recently been studying the divine arts of the Dawn Church. Though he was not a Church Ring Arcanist, learning divine arts required only faith,