Chapter 97: Return to the Sanctuary

  Putting aside brief emotions for now, after two days of searg and firming that there were no remaining problems in the Dark Marsh, Alex and the others finally departed. Of course, the key element in this success was the use of Ikaros' sing abilities. After all, the little angel, produced by the advaeology of Synapse, was top-not such tasks.

  Riding the Pegasus, the group returo the sanctuary, exhausted. Unfortunately, the grand wele ceremony Stone had anticipated did not happen. Instead, only a few clerics stationed within the sanctuary came out to greet them. Acc to them, almost all the personnel of the sanctuary had bee out to the Fortress of Order. Fortunately, due to receiving timely information, the situation there had stabilized, and there was no immediate of the fortress being overrun.

  "A peaceful life, huh..."

  Seated in a chair, gazing out the window at the sery, Alex let out a long breath. They were currently in the northern alliance's headquarters of the sanctuary. Uhe refined aiful architectural style of Star Moon City, the sanctuary here embodied the bold and wild characteristics typical of the north.

  The more Alex learned about the sanctuary, the more he realized that this anization was nothing like any religion he had ever known. In his memory, every religion strived to build their churches as if they were cut from the same mold. Moreover, they waheir followers to be simirly uniform, almost like factory-produced puppets. From this perspective, Alex thought that religions oh were just assembly lines, mass-produg believers with identical thoughts, churches of identical designs, uniforms of identical styles, and even priests with identical preferences.

  And their does were all pretty much the same, too.

  However, the sanctuary in this world seemed different. The sanctuary buildings weren’t as uniform as Alex had imagined. In fact, the northern sanctuary's architecture didn't look much different from the other northern buildings around it—just bigger, more eye-catg, and with a sanctuary emblem hanging outside. From its appearance alone, Alex couldn’t tell that this building had any e to the sanctuary in Star Moon City.

  It had to be said—the sanctuary had done a good job adapting to local s.

  However, wherever there are people, there will be flict.

  Squinting at the view outside, Alex couldn’t help but recall what Stone had said to him earlier.

  "You should know, every great padin has their own fiefdom. Of course, only padin anders get actual knight territories. The rest of us great padins at most get a small town. But… to 'end' your heroic sacrifice, the archbishop cil couldn’t be too harsh, so they assigned Silverflower Town as your fief. That pce is a major traffic hub, highly developed and profitable, you know? inally, acc to records, you had 'died in battle,' and since you had no heirs, the cil 'managed' it on your behalf. But now that you’re back… well, you get what I mean."

  Of course, Alex uood.

  In his past life, Alex had been in a leadership role and knekward this situation was. It was like knowing that a programmer couldn't possibly develop the game engine as requested, yet still asking them to try—and publicly promising that if they succeeded, they’d be made chairman of the board. But then, against all odds, the programmer actually pulled it off. How was the leader supposed to save face after that?

  But this is normal. In any anization, power struggles are iable. A sario where everyos along harmoniously would be far more terrifying!

  For ordinary employees, a pany w together peacefully might be ideal, but for leaders, a ck of internal petition would make things incredibly dull. In fact, Alex had oirred up petitioween the pnning and character design teams, and sometimes even dragged the programming team into it. Rather than f people to work hard, Alex found that using petition to igheir fighting spirit was more effective.

  After all, when forced to work, no matter the oute, people would harbor reseoward the pany. But if it was a petition, they’d only focus on their rivals and targets. And rewards and punishments would naturally follow, making resource allocation fairer.

  Although the level of martial power in this world was far higher than in Alex’s previous one, when it came to personnel ma, the principles remaihe same. Alex uood his current predit well. On one hand, the archbishop cil had granted him a particurly wealthy fief to showcase their "generosity," but everyone knew he had been decred dead with no heirs, so the cil’s decision was just "left hand passing to the right." It didn’t cost them anything while demonstrating their "fair rewards and punishments."

  It was clear from Stone's smug expressioalking about this matter that he had pyed a less-than-honorable role in it. Although Stone stantly pihat "those old men didn’t believe you were still alive," Alex could guess that Stone had deliberately orchestrated this oute, fully expeg his return. After all, as long as Alex came back, the cil’s reward would still go to him!

  Because while others didn’t know who Alex truly was, Stoainly did. Hadn’t he always viewed Alex as that so-called Holy Spirit Padin?

  Now…

  "This is giving me a headache..."

  Alex pressed his hand to his forehead. He was currently waiting for an audieh the archbishop cil. Though Stone assured him everything would be fine, Alex khings wouldn’t be as simple as Stone imagined. Humans are self-ied creatures. While Archbishop Carl had promised to put in a good word for him, Alex khat relying solely on oodwill wasn’t enough.

  More importantly, Alex himself was hesitant about the road ahead.

  Because he wasn’t particurly ined to accept this reward.

  To Stohe fief was a great prize, but Alex saw things differently. Accepting the reward would mean deepening his ties with the sanctuary.

  To put it bluntly, Alex feared the sanctuary might send him on a suicide mission.

  Not that the sanctuary was looking to eliminate dissidents or iionally get him killed. From what Alex had seen iitudes of Martel and Stone, he could tell that the reason they had risen to their current positions wasn’t just because of their strength, but also their uanding of the bigger picture.

  To put it bluntly — the realization was that one must be prepared to sacrifice their life for the good of the people and for the preservation of order!

  This was to be expected, of course. If you choose to join an anization and aim to rise to its leadership, you must follow its ands, uphold its principles, and tribute your strength to it.

  If Alex had grown up in this world and absorbed its cultural values, perhaps he might have actually developed such a mi.

  But unfortunately... Alex was an outsider! He had no iion of dying for this world. Maybe, as time went on, his perspective would gradually shift, but that certainly wasn't the case now!

  Besides, most people in this world had blonde hair and blue eyes, so there wasn't much of a "fellow tryman" vibe for him to g to.

  So, uone, Alex wasn’t particurly keen on accepting the position and title of a great padin. He had husiasm for sacrifig his life to save "order."

  However, if he were to refuse, it would surely leave a bad impression on Stone and Malt. After all, their values were different, and they came from different worlds. Of course, Alex khis was a mess of his own making. If he hadn’t joihe sanctuary to cover up his true identity in the first pce, things wouldn’t have spiraled like this. So, who could he bme now?

  It was defiohsaka’s fault!

  Alex muttered a silent curse toward that guy, who was far off in some unknown pce, before pulling his thoughts back. There was still a way out of this situation. If everythi smoothly, he could achieve his goal. What he didn’t know was the current state of affairs within the archbishop cil. Based on his experience, well...

  "Knock, knock."

  At that moment, a kno the door interrupted Alex’s train of thought. He looked up toward the door.

  "e in."

  The door creaked open, and a nun walked in. She respectfully bowed to Alex before speaking.

  "Sir Alex, the archbishops are ready to see you."

  "Alright, thank you."

  With that, Alex stood up, nodding and smiling at the nun. He gnced out the window — in the courtyard, Ikaros was resting against an evergreen tree, her cheerful smile bright as she pyed with a squirrel in her hands.

  That was the kind of expression someone her age should be wearing.

  With that thought, Alex drew his gaze back from the window and turo the nun.

  "Lead the way."

  Perhaps due to the teuation at the front lines, only three members of the archbishop cil were present to meet Alex this time. One was the vampire archbishop Carl, whom Alex had met before, while the other two were strangers — one was round-faced and chubby, the other thin as a stick. Sihey hadn’t bothered to introduce themselves, Alex decided to mentally niame them accly.

  Alex ehe hall, walked up to the three, and gave them a formal bow. They eaodded iurn. The thin one picked up a dot in front of him, ghrough it briefly, and then spoke.

  "You are Alex, the apprentice guardian knight from Star Moon City?"

  "Yes."

  Alex looked up as he responded, the three of them. Archbishop Carl remained posed, the thin one looked rather stern, and the round-faced one had a friendly smile — though Alex could keenly sehere was something hiddeh that smile.

  From Alex’s experience, when someone smiles at you for no apparent reason, they either want something from you or are cealing their true feelings.

  At that thought, Alex allowed himself a small, internal smile.

  He already had a pn.

  (End of the chapter)

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