In the specially made prison in the Church’s ship.
"This thing is... unique. It can actually interfere with the release of our Spiritual Energy. Even if the elder came over, he probably wouldn’t be able to use his psychic abilities."
The young man stretched out his hand and grabbed the custom-made silver pillars that were keeping them locked them up.
"Speak no more. The walls may have ears." Benjamin who was locked in a room beside them whispered to warn them. The young man and young lady quickly stopped their conversation and shrunk into a corner of the prison, laying low.
Benjamin nodded.
He went back to his corner and went quiet. He couldn’t help but rub his face that was full of oil paint though. In order to play a young worshipper from overseas, he made quite an effort so that the priests wouldn’t recognize him.
And now that the first step of the plan was successfully completed. It was all worth it - regardless how uncomfortable his face was.
Half an hour ago, when the giant octopuses assaulted ship, Benjamin realized the gravity of the situation — If the Church’s men were to sink here, who was going to deal with the overseas worshippers? How could he become the fisherman that profits?
Luckily, after a brief scan from the sibling duo, they soon found that something amiss about these giant octopuses.
"No... It’s not the sea king, it’s just a regular multi-limb sea marine." At the time, the young man frowned, "Moreover, I can sense the scent of psychic energy in them. It seems that they were instructed to come here by someone."
At that moment, Benjamin realized something was not quite right.
"The overseas worshippers were instructing them to kill the Church?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHowever, the young lady shook her head, "I don’t think so. The psychic energy in them... it was not in full control of them, but rather acted like a frenzy spell. Multi-limb sea marines do not move in groups and do not like to resurface from the deep ocean. It could be that someone intentionally cursed them so that they went cuckoo and surfaced to attack the ships that were passing through."
Benjamin fell deep into thought before getting a rough idea of why the overseas worshippers would do something like this.
These people... They could be feeling the pinch after assaulting the Church and so they cursed the ocean around them so that it would be too dangerous for the Church to come and try to seek revenge.
Geez, they were hiding behind sea creatures’ back.
But after discovering the problem, Benjamin felt huge relief. After confirming with the sibling duo that they were able to lift the spell, Benjamin stroked his chin and a wolf in sheep’s clothing plan slowly took its shape.
— Rather than having the Church score nothing in this vast ocean, why not tell them the exact location of the haul?
And so, they swiftly disguised themselves and had the sibling duo control a passing turtle shaped magic beast, ultimately making it seem as though it was patrolling on behalf of the overseas worshippers.
Soon after, everything went according to Benjamin’s plan. After the frenzy spell was lifted, the giant octopuses were in a fragile state and dived back down to the deep blue. The disguised trio then made their entrances and fooled the Church. They pretended to be taken in and were then ‘locked up’.
Recalling the bishop’s earlier expression, Benjamin couldn’t help but laugh.
He may have been overjoyed after obtaining the location of the overseas worshippers, but he certainly wouldn’t have thought the string of fearful, cowering, groveling and trembling emotions shown by the trio was just a show. And now, the bishop had locked Benjamin into a Spiritual Energy interference prison, but despite this, Benjamin wasn’t the least bit worried.
— As long as Benjamin was willing, he could easily make an escape.
However, he, of course, wouldn’t leave. Everything was well in the prison. He didn’t even have to waste any Spiritual Energy by flying, why would he leave?
The real fun would start once the fleet pulled in to shore.
And so, the three of them remained in their cells quietly without uttering a word. Men from the Church made a few rounds to ask about the situation of the overseas worshippers to which the trio vaguely replied, leaving no room for doubt.
About three days later.
"... We’re here."
Benjamin closed his eyes and used the water element sensing technique to get a read on their surroundings outside. He then opened his eyes and whispered quietly.
The location of the overseas worshippers was on a small archipelago range no more than one hundred square kilometers. No one knew why the appearance of archipelagos had resulted in an entirely different civilization. It was said that the people on the island once escaped from the mainland many years ago, but all of the related records were lost in history, impossible to be verified.
The fleet chose to dock on a remote shoal. Thanks to the route provided by Benjamin, they didn’t alert anyone from the overseas worshippers. As the ship silently cast its anchor, the priests flew down from the ship and landed on the island.
Standing on the shore, they observed from afar, only to see a thick forest ahead and a foggy green smoke off in the distance. The day was young, and the island was still fairly quiet. This gave them an opportunity to close in on the settlement.
"Let’s go. Quiet now, we must take care of all the island’s altar before the overseas worshippers realize." The bishop ordered.
Benjamin had described the island’s rough topography and living conditions to the bishop. Because of this, the bishop felt as though he had this annihilation plan in the bag.
The men nodded as they carefully went on their way.
Soon, a team of a few hundred men disappeared from sight into the dense jungle.
What say you? What is there on this island that the Church had sent so many men over. I have this eerie feeling that it’s gonna turn ugly if we continue to stay here."
The crew watched as they moved further away and couldn’t help but start blabbering.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Who knows? Do you remember the group of magic beasts from the other day? Just thinking about it now makes my legs tremble."
"Yeah. How unlucky are we to get enlisted..."
However, they hadn’t started bickering much when a cough was heard from behind them, scaring their pants off.
"Cough cough, watch what you’re saying!"
The crew turned to see a few of the holy knights guarding the ship standing behind them, peering at them with ferocious eyes.
Instantly, they lowered their heads in an attempt to show humility.
"No no no.... Sir Knight you have mistaken. We are only worried about the priests and we humbly pray for their safe return..."
"Humph! Do you think we’re deaf? Know your place. Such a huge ship would do fine with or without you guys."
The crew was reprimanded but they dared not argue. They kept their heads low and merely accepted the scolding. Just as the holy knight was on a roll, an unexpected voice interrupted them, cutting the holy knight’s speech short.
"That’s right. What you said made sense. Such a huge ship really would be fine with or without you holy knights."
Everyone was stunned.
Thi-This was...
They slowly lifted their head and looked up.
They saw the foreign trio that was locked in the prison by the bishop now hovering over top of everyone’s head. The leader wore a casual smile as he stared at the holy knights beneath him.
The knights just stood there with their mouths hanging wide open.