Hearing the Priest say that, Shade finally laughed and breathed a sigh of relief:
"So Prejudice affected you. You said the influence of that relic couldn't be stopped. Don't dwell on it so much. Haven't you realized what the problem was now? All this time, I helped you collect those bones partly to supervise your proper use of that power. It seems I did a pretty good job."
The Old Priest sighed again:
"You seemed unaffected by Prejudice."
"Who said I wasn't affected? If it truly had no effect on me at all, then when I was in the city, I probably would have used a gentler method to stop all this instead of having us fight each other outside the city."
Defeating the four-ring Old Priest at the level of seven rings did not make Shade feel proud in the slightest. Besides, both sides had held back, so there was no need to mention it again:
"It's good that you're all right now. Pay more attention to this in the future, and avoid relics that can subtly influence the mind. You're probably most vulnerable to that sort of thing now."
The Priest nodded and said nothing more. Shade then turned to Vincent Taylor, who was still unconscious, and shook his head regretfully:
"My friend Miss Bayes, who works at a church, happens to be away on business, so I can't hand this person over to her. Everyone in the Jasmine Opera Troupe knows the two of us took him away. It won't be easy to hand him over to The Church in a reasonable manner."
"Leave it to me. I have a trustworthy Ring Arcanist friend at Dawn Church as well. I'll have him hand Taylor over to The Church."
The Priest bent down, took a bottle of bark-colored