The Truth Church had been keeping an eye on Little Mist.
They wanted to see how she would handle these matters.
For now, the Truth Church couldn’t let anyone discover that she wasn’t the Ninth Saintess.
As long as she could play along, admit to this much, and keep up the act…
Then she could slowly mold her into what she wanted.
So what would Little Mist do next? Truth would continue to monitor everyone in the cathedral.
“Reg? Reg? Are you in there?”
The demon hunter at the cathedral entrance kept calling inside.
Reg not only didn’t respond, but he kept shrinking behind a marble pillar, covering his face with both hands, terrified of being found.
Cassandra and the few young priests around her watched curiously.
What was wrong with this demon hunter? Had he gotten himself into big trouble?
“No need to shout. We’ll go in and find him ourselves, and pay our respects to the Ninth Saintess while we’re at it.”
“Yes, Lord Hawkins!”
The next second, a young man with a very proper name swaggered in, followed by a woman dressed as an Eastern witch with a pair of soft green eyes.
She stuck out her tongue, then listlessly reached out and poked the man.
Her finger pointed toward a marble pillar in a corner of the church. Then Hawkins, following her finger, smiled and walked over.
“Stop hiding. Confess and you’ll get leniency; resist and you’ll face the consequences. Just come clean about your relationship with Anderson, and tell us everything you know.”
He had originally planned to say “dragon egg” directly, but upon seeing the legendary Ninth Saintess and the familiar face from the capital, Cassandra, Hawkins quickly changed his tune.
If he blurted it out, he’d have a mess to deal with. Raising a sub-dragon was forbidden without permission.
Handing over a dragon egg was tricky—if you wanted to raise a dragon, you had to do it secretly.
Once caught, it was over. Anyone who raised a dragon would be allowed to keep it if they were guaranteed a rank like “ground level” as easily as a passerby—that would have been settled long ago.
As for a true dragon… that dragon egg! Otherwise, the family wouldn’t have asked him to go after the chief priest. He and the Saintess—no, the Saintess.
“Well, hello there, Chief Priest Cassandra. Fancy meeting you in such a remote place. What a coincidence… Greetings, Holy Maiden.” Without any panic, Hawkins gave a polite greeting to Cassandra and Little Mist.
“You’re from the Hodgson Family?” Cassandra glanced at the family crest on Hawkins’s chest, her expression cold.
“The Hodgson Family does have some real power here. Otherwise, I’d despise it. If it weren’t for the family, things here would be…”
Everyone else was better off than him, but his family was fine—well-divided.
Their crest was mass-produced every year, and it guaranteed a steady flow of gold.
But what he hated was seeing that crest, because it meant he knew his family’s name.
And after that, he didn’t even know who had joined. Now, seeing that family crest on her chest, he snorted.
No wonder she was so dismissive of him!
In the capital, the Hodgson Family crest was treated differently outside. It was usually spat on, but not in the provinces.
There, the Hodgson crest was the ultimate symbol of status!
“Exactly!” Hawkins puffed out his chest.
“Please don’t look at me with such suspicion, Chief Priest. I’m here in Yade City on a mission—to recover a valuable lost item of my family. I promise I won’t cause any trouble. And the clue to that valuable lost item… lies with that demon hunter!”
Hawkins fixed his gaze on the panicked Reg, indicating that he only had business with Reg, and that a carriage was already waiting to take Reg out of Yade City.
Just then, the woman dressed as an Eastern witch behind him suddenly pointed at Little Mist.
“Hmm?”
Hawkins, Cassandra, and Little Mist all froze. What did that mean?
“What’s going on?!” Hawkins was shocked. He quickly pulled the witch aside and whispered, “Don’t tell me the Ninth Saintess is also connected to the dragon egg!”
“Yes, she… also has the scent of a dragon egg on her.”
The witch replied softly. As the capital’s best investigator, no scent could escape her sniffing!
A single light whiff on someone, and she could tell who they’d spent the night with, how long, what positions, how many times…
So this time, the Hodgson Family had paid the witch a large sum to come to Yade City. Upon hearing the task and the advance payment, she gladly agreed.
Little Mist had recently come into close contact with the Dragon Egg of the Illusory Realm in the Mist, so the witch immediately sniffed it out…
“You have designs on the Holy Maiden?” Cassandra demanded on the spot. If the Holy Maiden was involved, she had no choice but to step in!
“No, no,” Hawkins replied quickly, turning back to explain.
“My companion means that the Holy Maiden may have come into contact with our family’s valuable lost item at some point. I care deeply about it. If that’s true, then I believe the Holy Maiden will give me a fair accounting!”
The first rule of Hodgson Family social interaction was to prioritize the Holy Maiden when she was present. The Holy Maiden was high-ranking, easy to talk to, and naive.
Now Hawkins strongly suspected that the escaped Anderson had given the dragon egg to the Ninth Saintess as a gift…
“So what exactly is this valuable lost item of your family?” Cassandra asked again. But Hawkins refused to say, being very mysterious. So Cassandra turned to Reg:
“That demon hunter. Do you know? Tell me, and I might be able to help you.”
“How would I know? I don’t even know them. They just suddenly sent people to capture me!” Reg didn’t give up the dragon egg either.
But it wasn’t because he was afraid of Hawkins—it was because he was afraid of Truth…
If the clues about the dragon egg under the Truth Church were not to be leaked in front of the current company, Reg wouldn’t dare say a word even if he wanted to.
“If you don’t know, then come with me. Maybe you’ve just forgotten. Hmph, I have several ways to make you remember!” Hawkins interrupted, his magic power beginning to stir as if he was ready to act.
“Come with you? I belong to the Holy Maiden. If the Holy Maiden says I go, I go!” Reg refused decisively, then secretly shot a pleading look at Little Mist, even shaking the bandage on the back of his right hand.
If the Holy Maiden didn’t help him now, he would have no choice but to reveal his identity on the spot to protect himself. So why wouldn’t Truth help him?
“Huh? How did this turn around to me?!” Little Mist was still completely confused.
Feeling the burning gazes of the three, Little Mist really didn’t know what to do.
First, there was Reg. What exactly was his relationship with Truth? Why did he come to her the moment he got into trouble?!
Then there was Cassandra, who had performed a bunch of strange dance moves after finding her, and now looked at her with disappointment. Why?
And then there was this Hawkins. Where did this riddle-spewing guy come from? He said he lost something valuable but wouldn’t say what, and even claimed she had touched it?
And these three seemed to know each other? Huh… I don’t get it. I really don’t get it!
Little Mist’s current processing power couldn’t analyze the situation before her, so she closed her eyes and scratched her head. In that case, she’d just have to use the move Truth had taught her!
After taking a deep breath, she focused her mind and connected with the Mist:
“Truth, help…”
Back on the second floor, Truth had said, “If you really can’t handle something on your own, just call me.”
And it hadn’t even been a few minutes before Little Mist had to use it…
“Holy Maiden?”
After a few breaths, seeing Little Mist still motionless, Cassandra prompted softly.
The next second, ignoring Cassandra, Little Mist suddenly looked up at Hawkins and said calmly:
“First, tell me what your family’s valuable lost item is.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.