PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

“Wasn’t it you who said you couldn’t use your spirit form outside of earth? For now, just stay inside my clothes and hide with that trick you do with light mana.”

“But there are too many humans here”

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine”

Leaving the southern border of the Serefia forest, at last, Desmond had a small argument with Kyuru, who was having a small panic attack at having to enter a human city while she couldn’t transition into her spirit form as she did on earth.

Kyuru could only do that when she was in a world she was bound to, and while she was close to Desmond, who acted as a physical form of anchor for her spirit form.

Now with the city of Serit within sight, Kyuru had grown a bit anxious due to her main means of concealment being disabled, but Desmond tried to calm her as much as he could.

Having achieved some sort of success in calming Kyuru down, Desmond gazed out over the city in the distance. High walls of dark gray stone, many imposing constructions rose above the walls, two of which stand out the most.

Although architecture was somewhat alien to Desmond, it still seemed possible to him to relate some ideology in design to ancient Europe at the time of the Renaissance; although the feeling was very vague.

.....

Based on that, the two buildings that were visible even at a distance of almost a kilometer from the city wall should be some kind of castle and some kind of church.

The castle was perhaps the most obvious given its imposing design, but in the case of the church, Desmond identified it by the constant iconography in the design and some external religious-looking murals that Desmond managed to observe after amplifying his senses with mana.

In any case, Desmond had spent the last ten hours roaming the forest and fighting all sorts of mutated beasts that were eager to meet their deaths, so he couldn’t wait to find a clean, decent place to rest for at least a moment.

It must be said that not even Desmond was immune to exhaustion, and running for ten hours straight, at full speed while dealing with all kinds of beasts had tired him out quite a bit.

Normally Desmond would have consumed a stamina potion and be done with it but under Sasha’s advice, Desmond was trying to reduce his consumption and reliance on potions for health reasons.

All those issues aside, Desmond made his way to the city of Serit hoping to find a place to rest, as the distance shortened, Desmond soon located the entrance gate to the city and it seemed that the entry process was relatively smooth.

Dressed in black armor with light clothes underneath him, Desmond surprisingly didn’t stand out much even with the bow strapped to his back, this was because there was a large influx of warrior-like people entering the city.

Originally Desmond thought this was a normal thing but it turned out that this was not a common event at all, instead, it seemed that there would be some kind of event in the city the next day that involved the participation of warriors.

Even as Desmond entered the city, he was granted a fast pass as the people in charge of the gate also assumed that he would also be attending tomorrow’s event.

Trying to find some additional information about it, Desmond found a place that seemed to be some kind of tavern and found a quiet place to eat and enjoy a drink while trying to listen to some of the conversations around him.

Taking some of the fruit in a bowl and discreetly passing it to Kyuru who was hiding inside one of the pockets of his cloak, Desmond began to overhear some casual conversations concerning the next day’s event.

Desmond immediately had a bad feeling about it, the reason? well, one could start with the fact that the event was some kind of fighting tournament organized by the church to recruit knights who were willing to join their ranks.

But if that wasn’t enough to set off alarm bells in Desmond’s head, there was one detail he just couldn’t ignore and that was that the objective of his mission, the holy priestess; will attend the tournament.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much that people knew about it, as no reason was given for Priestess’s attendance at the tournament, but this didn’t stop Desmond from returning even though things seemed too fortuitous.

Still, Desmond had stopped caring about it and instead decided to just stick with his mission and put this whole thing behind him as soon as possible.

Of course, like a man who steadfastly believes that victory loves the prepared, Desmond began handing out a few drinks around the tavern while he discreetly inquired about the so-called holy priestess.

Having obtained the money from the pockets of some minor bandits he met on his way through the woods, Desmond didn’t worry much about the expense, thus managing to find out a few things about his mission objective.

The name was Cecilia Laezir, originally an orphan girl with no last name who was adopted by the Church of Eternal Light, Naturally endowed with a great affinity for light mana and superior intellect, Cecilia was quickly favored by one of the High Priestesses of the church who took her under care.

Cecilia was a very respected and loved person by the common people because of her pure and benevolent heart and because she was involved in many of the things that the church did for the common people.

About a year ago, Cecilia became the holy priestess of the church of eternal light when she receives the gifts and blessings of a divine being that the church venerates, and although many people were skeptical about it; the church never denied this fact.

With golden hair and eyes, with a devastatingly sensual body, Cecilia was the dream woman of almost every man alive in the city of Serit although no one dared to profess their love for her openly.

In short, Cecilia was almost as famous and loved as the emperor himself, with thousands of people looking at her as the true messenger of God in this world; It didn’t take long for Desmond to figure out why the girl was in danger.

One didn’t even have to look at the history of mankind to know that in any instance where an emperor’s prestige or authority is threatened by someone else; this person will quickly become a target whether or not he wants the throne.

The same applied to the church, Desmond could already imagine that the people within the church, especially the old men who lead it, would not be too pleased with the authority now wielded by Cecilia.

There was also one point in particular that Desmond didn’t overlook...strength, because even though Desmond didn’t know Cecilia personally, the mere fact that there wasn’t even a rumor about what kind of strength she possessed was already a big enough problem.

An orphan with no record or backing, receiving the adoration and respect of thousands, under the jealous eyes of the emperor and the church, without the strength to protect herself from them; it was a matter of time before they would try to get rid of her.

“That’s why saints are stupid,” Desmond commented sarcastically to himself.

And the contempt in his voice was genuine, Desmond never respected the so-called saints or the martyrs not because these people were kind souls but because of their naivety that always led them to be the victims of history.

Although Desmond himself would probably never follow the path of a saint, he still had a certain appreciation and respect for the ideals of these people, who sought a world with less pain and darkness; Desmond’s real problem with such characters is that they invariably end in tragedy due to their incompetence.

That’s right, Desmond always considered these characters to be incompetent, too blinded by their ideals of good and evil to make the best decisions and prevail over their enemies.

In the same way that Desmond established despite his guilty conscience, to increase his power and influence over his environment and consequently his destiny; Desmond believed that the fatal flaw of the so-called Saints was their inability to go against their conscience.

Of course, this was a matter of perspective and Desmond didn’t think he was right on the matter but at the very least he believed that his actions and way of thinking would take him further when it came to accomplishing his goals.

It was the same right now, Desmond already had some prejudices about the holy priestess Cecilia and how her life was destined to turn into tragedy but that had nothing to do with Desmond’s mission.

Desmond would do aside all of his prejudice and protect the holy priestess for thirty days as it was stipulated in the mission, defending her honor and making those who went after her pay in blood; although he knew that the first to oppose his methods of violence would be Cecilia herself.

But neither Desmond’s ideals nor his opinion were relevant to carrying out his mission and he wouldn’t hurt his goals for it, Desmond was at the end of the day a pragmatist, and that rarely changed.

The poor hunter probably never expected it to go against his principles of pragmatism so many times in the next thirty-two days.