Chapter 253 – Father Dennis of VireoceanThe man who stepped out from behind the curtain was none other than the Church"s representative who attended the meetings. He wore a gray robe, and a small cap rested on his blonde hair streaked with gray. He appeared to be around sixty years old; although his body was starting to decline due to age, his eyes were full of life, watching Hikaru warily.
Hikaru didn"t pay much attention to him as he was from the Church, but now he was curious. As the man got within the five-meter range, Hikaru checked his Soul Board.
【Soul Board】Dennis Lugrim
Age: 64 Rank: 3
18
【Vitality】
..【Stamina】2
..【Immunity】
….【Magic Resistance】2
..【Perception】
….【Sight】1
……【Heaven Eyes】1
【Magical Power】
..【Mana】8
【Willpower】
..【Mental Strength】6
..【Faith】
….【Holy】7
……【Healing Magic】4
……【Support Magic】3
【Intuition】
..【Instinct】5
..【Intelligence】
….【Language Comprehension】1
….【Language Output】1
The old man had high Mana, Instinct, and Holy stats. He also had a mysterious skill called Heaven Eyes. That one skill aside, his other stats seemed to have been earned by walking the path of G.o.d. Sophie of the Four Stars of the East was also an outstanding Healer, but Dennis seemed even more powerful than her.
Only 1 point is required to unlock Heaven Eyes? That sounds too low. It"s probably similar to Heaven Sword and Heaven Shot. If a minimum of five points on Throwing is required to unlock Heaven Shot, Sight might be maxed at five. Still only one point to unlock Heaven Eyes is strange. Does it unlock in combination with other Skills?
Mental Strength and Holy stats stood out to Hikaru because of how high they were. Patricia seemed to trust his eye in judging people. Hikaru wasn"t aware of the specifics, but it was clear that his Skill was something else.
「Well? Is he innocent?」Patricia asked Dennis.
「What did I even do?」Hikaru said, playing dumb.
Dennis kept his eyes fixed on Hikaru.
「Just stand there quietly.」Patricia said.「So Dennis, what"s—」
Dennis suddenly kneeled down on the spot.「Finally… Finally, I have laid my eyes on one. I was half in doubt as I never had the chance before. Please forgive my rudeness.」
「What?」Even Hikaru was confused.
「Wh-What are you saying, Dennis?!」Patricia exclaimed.「Silver Face. What did you do to him?!」
「I-I have no idea what he"s—」
「There is not one as virtuous as you. You are a Heaven"s Messenger, yes?」
「Ah…」
Oh, that, Hikaru thought. Dennis was referring to the job cla.s.s that he had selected on his Soul Card right now, Higher Cla.s.s Heaven"s Messenger: Greater Angel. Hikaru only used for its extraordinary function that allowed him to choose and stack five job cla.s.ses at once. It wasn"t like he was pretending to be an angel or anything.
「You can tell?」Hikaru said.
「Why, of course. I am a servant of G.o.d.」Dennis bowed even deeper.
「What"s going on here?!」Patricia was getting more confused.
「Supreme Leader. This man is wearing a mask for a reason. I can, however, vouch for his ident.i.ty. This man will never commit any wrong.」
No, no, no, no. I definitely will. I"ll do awful things if the situation calls for it. Hikaru knew the Church was searching for people with a Heaven Messenger-related job cla.s.s, but he never expected them to be able to sense one and revere them.
Can he see them with his Heaven Eye?
He wasn"t completely sure, but that seemed to be the only explanation. Hikaru regarded Dennis suspiciously.
「You must be wondering why I revere you, Lord Silver Face. It is because of the words that were left to us by the Saints.」
「Oh, the old books.」
The older books—scriptures, so to speak—contained the actions and words of the Saints. The current version circulating far and wide had its contents revised by the current Pope to fit their own agenda.
「So you"re aware. Vireocean, of course, uses the old books.」
「Why did the Saints say to search for these Messengers?」
「We do not know, but the Saints believed that Messengers will bring peace and tranquility to the world.」
「Hey! Can you explain it so it makes sense to me too?!」Patricia shouted, slamming her hand on the table.
Dennis, never breaking his gentle smile, explained the situation to Patricia. He told her how Silver Face had a Messenger job cla.s.s—though he never admitted it—and that the Church must protect him at all costs.
「Why is the Church so hung up on these “Messengers”?!」Still confused, Patricia asked the same question that Hikaru did earlier.
「Messengers will bring peace and tranquility to the world.」Dennis gave the same answer.
Patricia eyed Hikaru suspiciously, but he only shrugged. He didn"t do anything; Dennis was simply acting of his own accord.
The Supreme Leader wanted Dennis to verify if Silver Face could be trusted or not. He received not just a perfect score, but higher than that.
「So Dennis was at the meeting for his eyes? 」
「You are indeed a Messenger, Lord Silver Face. You know that my eyes are special.」
「Lucky guess. It didn"t look like you were judging me by my voice or smell. Well?」
「No, I only took part in the meeting as a member of the Church and playing our role in this situation. The Supreme Leader asked that the temple knights be the ones to lead the evacuation of Ville Zentra"s citizens.」
So she"s considering the possibility of an evacuation too.
「But with you here, we might not have to do anything.」
You give me too much credit, Hikaru thought. Dennis clearly thought otherwise. Afterwards, Patricia asked more questions—why was he with Kaglai, how he remained hidden, among others. Hikaru answered as much as he could, but most of them didn"t seem to satisfy her.
「What the h.e.l.l are you?!」
「I think finding out I"m not an enemy is a good thing, if you ask me.」
A knock came at the door.
「A small boat from the enemy fleet is heading towards us carrying a messenger flag.」a man reported.
After that, Patricia became busy, and Hikaru left the room.
It"s their job from here on out. Time for me to get some information.
Hikaru stepped out of the office and into the hallway. Dennis seemed to have something he wanted to say as he watched Hikaru"s back, but right now, Hikaru had nothing to say to the man.
He finally recalled who he was. Hikaru found the priest"s name on the notes that Scott Fairs left in the Tower in Bios—the home of the Pope—back in Agiapole. Hikaru sent the letter to Dennis, who in turn, used it to mobilize the regional priests and remove the Pope from his seat. He thought Dennis went to Agiapole.
I don"t really need to come forward every single time. I hate acting like someone owes me a favor anyway.
Activating his Stealth, Hikaru left the Supreme Leader"s residence.