Silver Ring Kingdom, Silver Ring City, St. Cossack Cathedral, Third Inquisition.

Thump!

The heavy object struck the wooden table, producing a deep, resonant sound that echoed and amplified in the basement, deafeningly loud.

Behind the iron fence, a gray-robed church deacon with a full head of white hair looked up, his cloudy eyes staring at an object spinning on the table.

A short, stout man carrying a huge crossbow leaned in through a window in the fence, pointed at the four shrunken heads preserved in quicklime, and said to those inside, "Look closely, the heads of the Blood Nest Brothers are all here! Two are Strength Level 3, one is Temperance Level 4, and the other is Tower Level 4!"

He slammed his fat hand on the wooden table, causing his withered head to bounce up. The short, fat man angrily shouted into the window frame, "You damned bastards, the intelligence was wrong again! You only told us there were three Power Mutants and one Temperance Mutant, and none of them would be higher than level 3!"

The old deacon glanced at the head in front of him, then with a flick of his sleeve, four spheres rolled into the groove under the table. Without even blinking, he said, "The intelligence was correct."

As soon as he finished speaking, a small bag of coins was thrown out of the window and landed on the ground.

The fat man picked up the money bag, opened it, and his blood ran cold. He was filled with rage, rolled up his sleeves, and climbed onto the table with his short, stout body. He then scrambled through the window, roaring as he climbed, "You old bastard! We're risking our lives out there, while you're sitting comfortably inside, skimping on your pay!"

The woman in the white robe standing to the side hurriedly ran behind the fat man, tugged at his sleeve, and whispered, "Walton, Walton! Let it go, the captain is still waiting outside!"

Watching the man and woman leave before his eyes, the old deacon flicked a silver coin, which rolled between his fingers, and said coldly, "What kind of watchdog would complain that the bone is too small?"

In the plaza outside the Third Inquisition, a heavily armored knight wearing a steel mask sat atop the long stone steps, silently gazing at the cross statue in the center of the plaza. A boy with a red mark on his forehead stood behind him, cradling the knight's greatsword, looking into the distance without uttering a word.

Enraged, Walton stomped his feet on the stone slabs, making a loud noise, and muttered, "Adelina, if you hadn't stopped me, I would have torn that old bastard's mouth apart!"

The woman in white robes, perhaps having witnessed many such incidents, showed no unusual expression. She walked directly to the masked man's side and said softly, "Lord Dekavo, the reward has been received."

"Yes, yes, we got it, but it was 20% less than we should have received!"

Hearing Walton's complaints, Alfonso de Carver sat up from the ground, shrugged nonchalantly, ignored the church members who walked around him with fearful expressions, and walked straight ahead.

As soon as he stepped down the steps, two people dressed in civilian clothes for assisting in the ceremony blocked his way.

"Excuse me, are you Lord Decarvo?"

Having received an affirmative answer, one of them stepped aside, bowed, and said, "His Holiness Bishop Fabian wishes to see you. Please follow me."

The Church of the Heavenly Father in the far west of the continent and the Orthodox Church in the central part of the continent were originally the state religion of the ancient Tyre Empire.

The Talo Empire existed for over a thousand years in history. At its peak, it controlled nearly half of the continent. Later, due to issues such as succession to the throne, it split into the Eastern Talo Empire and the Western Talo Empire.

Its national religion also gradually split into the Father Church, which calls itself a Catholic church, and the Orthodox Church, which calls itself an Orthodox church, due to the East-West conflict.

Within the religious sphere of influence of the Heavenly Father Cult, there are three divisions: the Eastern Diocese, the Central Diocese, and the Western Diocese. The Silver Ring Kingdom is located within the Western Diocese of the Heavenly Father Cult.

St. Co's Cathedral, the Bishop's Chapel.

A balding old man, dressed in a long white robe and wearing a cross on his chest, with a single crystal lens, looked at the dozens of documents on the table in front of him. He picked up the thinnest one and read softly, "Todd Fischer, his father is a baptized Christian, his mother is a refugee from the northern wilderness, he is the second son in the family, and has accomplished nothing by the age of fourteen. Hmm..."

Picking up a slightly thicker copy, the old man continued reading: "Introduced by the monk Myris, he became an unofficial apprentice at the San Sidlow Monastery. The evaluation was... gifted but lazy in Mass... Heh, interesting."

Picking up the thickest document of all, the old man waved the paper in his hand and said to the middle-aged man sitting opposite him with a frosty face, "Father Paul, this written report I have here was written by Father Rupert. What are your thoughts after reading it?"

The man sat up straight and said without hesitation, "Nonsense, utter nonsense!"

"Oh? Why?"

"Bleeding from the cross, demons leaving the body, rivers of blood, rebirth in fire. This is all irresponsible fabrication to attract attention. What nonsense about a Son protected by the Father?! Everyone knows that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the Trinity. Such titles divide the Father and the Son into two entities, which is heresy. I think that monk named Todd is a heretic and should be immediately arrested and brought to the Inquisition!"

The old man listened to the other man's roar and said with a smile, "I find something in this quite interesting. Why would a monk go out of his way to exorcise a craftsman? So I had someone do an investigation, and to my surprise, he had actually built a silver refinery outside the monastery."

Father Paul frowned: "Then he has another charge against him: greed for wealth."

"No, perhaps you don't understand what I mean. An apprentice at the San Sidlow Monastery, greedy for wealth, neglecting the holy path, and yet revered as a saint by the people—don't you think this is an opportunity for us?"

The middle-aged man seemed to have a vague idea of ​​what was going on, and tentatively asked, "Your Excellency Bishop Fabian, what do you mean?"

The old man tossed the documents he was holding onto the table and replied with a smile, "Ten years ago, you were expelled from the monastery by those conservative and stubborn people. Didn't you ever think about going back?"

Father Paul's eyes lit up.

After tapping the table a few times, the bishop calmly said, "This child named Todd is the best opportunity for us to bring the San Sidlow Monastery into the Church."

The man, his face lighting up with delight, was about to speak again when a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

"My lord, Alfonso de Carver has arrived."

Bishop Fabian smiled and said to Father Paul, “I want to introduce you to a man, a loyal warrior of the Church, your protector on this journey.”

As the knight, his entire body covered in steel, entered the room, the old man suddenly remembered something. He pulled out a thin piece of paper from his documents, on which were written only a few lines:

On January 7, 1170 (Halal calendar), the bodies of two members of the Relief Society were found in a village at the border of Falling Star Mountains and Moon Creek Plain. The cellar contained the words "nascentes_morimur".