Avoiding the procession of fanatical cultists, Su followed the trail of Sister Maria. Even though he had long lost sight of the black-robed nun in his vision, his expression was as casual as if he were strolling through a marketplace. To be precise, there was no difference between what he was doing now and window shopping.
He clearly had no idea where Sister Maria had gone, yet he was still wandering about.
But this did not last long.
When he passed a certain dark alley, Su suddenly stopped, turned around, and went in without much thought. The alley was deserted, silent, and isolated from the lively noise of the street outside.
The next moment, the figure of the black-robed nun appeared at the mouth of the alley. Maria's upper face was hidden beneath the shadow of her hood, leaving only the lower half of her face and the silver strands of hair that spilled down exposed. Her gaze passed through the hood and landed on Su, as though she was studying him.
"Good day, Sister Maria." Su greeted her with a dazzling smile, showing no surprise at her sudden appearance.
"You wrote to me that there was a special incident in the church. You can tell me now." She went straight to the point, tossing over a divine scroll. It was a Lesser Healing scroll, worth a dozen gold or so, the reward she had promised Su for keeping an eye on church affairs for her.
Normally, if you didn't have the right channels, divine scrolls were quite difficult to obtain.
"After the oracle descended, large numbers of clergy and supplies began to mobilize, with the main person in charge being the recently promoted Bishop White. The destination of the materials and personnel is unknown, but what I've heard… it's connected to the Cinders of the First Flame." Su straightened up and reported seriously.
He wasn't usually such a solemn man, but for some reason, when standing before Miss Maria, he couldn't help but feel pressure.
That pressure was like a student nervously answering questions in front of the teacher at the podium. Su had also learned of the disaster in Seth Town through rumor, and he couldn't shake the feeling that Miss Maria had changed somehow after returning. …To put it bluntly, Su thought Maria should've "gone dark" already to fit the logic, or at least she carried the potential to blacken at any moment.
Game company routines, anyone should get it.
From the traditional VRMMO experience, Su was convinced that NPC Maria's template was the type who carried deep grudges, ready to turn traitor at any time, fight you while scamming your tears, a nasty piece of work.
"I see."
Miss Maria was calm as she listened to the church's recent moves, so calm that Su felt as though she had already known everything, which disappointed him as he had hoped to glean some clues from her expression. Maria didn't actually know, but she could easily make some deductions from the situation.
"Any orders?" Su was beginning to wonder if he was a jinx, wherever he went, signs of collapse seemed to follow. The Radiant Church, now with radicals seizing power and pushing divine authority above all else, didn't look like it was on a healthy path at all.
"There is something important I need to entrust to you. Before that, do you have any connections with nobles?" Maria asked after a pause.
He should have some.
In general, unless they were outright hostile, players in a region would share information with each other. Self-organized fair-trade platforms were common. But in Fractured, players were so scarce that faction conflicts hardly touched the ones scraping by at the very bottom.
"No."
Su froze for a moment before answering honestly. He really had no dealings with the Noble Council. It was always that bastard Tyr who handled those things. Besides, the Steam Church, those maniacs obsessed with developing all sorts of steam weapons, were not exactly easy to talk to.
"Then this: go to No. 67 on King's Avenue and help me set up a meeting with Chairman Harvett."
"Alright."
Harvett, the mayor of Seth Town.
He had purchased the honorary title by donating to a fund established by the old nobles, but in truth he was a wealthy merchant. This magnate only came back to Seth Town on special holidays to show off his rank; the rest of the time, he managed his grain empire through the merchants' guild in Torrent City.
With Seth Town reduced to ashes, Harvett had surely heard of it.
In the past, Pastor Lynn's family had good relations with the mayor's family. Out of courtesy, Maria intended to pay him a visit to explain what had happened in Seth Town. Though the mayor had likely already learned of it through his own channels, Maria still felt obliged to deliver the news personally.
It was also a way to silence the murmurs of the Noble Council.
The Noble Council was an organization composed of the most prominent nobles of the continent, holding the enormous power to depose or legitimize nobles. And this authority wasn't baseless.
One had to mention transcendents when speaking of the Council. In this world, where the gods were relatively open-minded, the ideals of justice and knight-errantry prevailed. A noble who exploited too harshly might find himself slain by some wandering transcendent who couldn't stomach it. Such events had been common before the Council was established, every year, some noble lord or merchant magnate would lose his head. Gradually, noble or commercial lordship became a high-risk occupation…
The most troublesome part was that the emergence of low-level transcendents was unpredictable.
A man might be a submissive farmer or an exploited worker yesterday, and today he might awaken as a transcendent. One could easily imagine the complicated feelings of lords and bosses.
Seeing this, the great nobles realized they were doomed if things continued. They stood up and called for the creation of the Noble Council. They drafted strict laws requiring nobles to treat their subjects well, centralized the granting and stripping of titles under the Council, set up supervisory organs, and began exchanging resources with transcendent factions to oversee whether nobles across the land deserved their noble status.
And transcendents required resources too. As part of the exchange, they would turn a blind eye to most noble affairs, as long as the nobles weren't inhuman beasts driving their subjects to despair. On the other hand, if legitimate nobles were extorted by wicked transcendents, wandering transcendents would also intervene to help.
Of course, cases of wanderers beheading corrupt lords still happened.
To be honest, it surprised Maria that the nobles of Fractured had made such great concessions. Moreover, among the Noble Council, the old northern nobility of Cainhurst held a seat. With her knowledge of the future storyline, Miss Maria was already preparing to approach the Council.
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