After leaving Mael’s room in a hurry we were led by Lord Emilien to a passage that led to an exit outside the Executorre a carriage and two coachmen waiting for us.

We immediately hopped in, only Lord Emilien didn’t. It seems he just followed us to send us off.

“I will now go back to the castle, Syrus who was the one who saw Ronadnt today in the castle, especially those who made throughout presentations with him, or those who at least know his name?”

“No one, except Lady Renata, Mael’s attendants, Leonore, and four servants who were accompanying her.”

“Understood.”

“Lord Emilien, please tell Mathilda about the changes, she will know what she will have to do.”

“Uh- Yes, I will tell her as soon as I can. - Boy, don’t worry everything will go fine, this is indeed unexpected, but that shouldn’t change anything drastically in the plan.” He said reassuringly.

“Yes. I understand.”

“It’s all good then.”

With a sign of the hands, he told the two coachmen, that were ready to depart.

Like that we left the ducal castle to our next destination.

“What are we heading now?” I ventured after a while.

“We are currently heading to a place you are very familiar with.” said the masked man with a voice that tickled since the moment he spoke earlier.

It sounded masculine or maybe I must say that it tried to sound masculine but it didn’t change the fact that it was definitively the voice of a woman.

“You must ignore who I am. Don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“My name is Serena, I serve as a Vicar for the Clergy, but most importantly for you, I am the one who performed your baptismal.”

She took off his gloves and held out his hand to me.

It was the first time I was greeted that way, so it took me a little time to accept her hand.

From the name she/he gave it was clear that she was a woman, but from her outfit and how her voice it was clear that she was trying to mimic a man so I was a little bit lost on how to interact with her.

“I am Ronandt.”

“I know, that’s a good name, Madam Mathilda was very bright to come up with this name.”

“Wait, it was her who came up with my name.”

“Uhmm…. They never told you, In part yes, in fact, I think it would be exact, to say that she was the one who suggested this name.

“I see, I wasn’t told that.”

“Vicar Serena ...” Syrus called onto her, trying to remind her of my earlier questions.

“Ah~ sorry about your question earlier, we are now heading to Rosetta’s manor.”

“This is far from being drastic at all; just two hours ago, when I arrived in Beaufort, I paid a quick visit to the cathedral, and they were all agitated; the local Bishop had summoned in an emergency, Archbishop Gregor Medvedick, who is subordinate to, and the archbishop himself had announced that he would arrive, accompanied by his cousin Holy Paladin Dominik Medvedick, in less than three hours.”

“Why did the Local Archbishop, summoned them?”

“Today afternoon, the local bishop caught sight of the “Faceless One” surrounding the Ducal castle.”

“The faceless one?”

“Yes, do you know what is a Faty Adidy?”

“Yes, it’s like a sentence to death for a certain person, sentenced by the church.”

“Exactly, Those sentenced to a Faty Adidy are to be hunted by the clergy, it’s especially the type of jobs the executors are taking care of. The faceless one has this Faty Adidy under his head but with the only difference that he isn’t just hunted by simples members of the clergy: It’s a special order from above, it is told that only the Archbishop and the paladins are to interfere with this faceless ”

Those who are sentenced to a Faty Adidy are tracked down by the church, and it is specifically the type of jobs that the executors are in charge of.

The Faceless one has this Faty Adidy under his head, but the main difference is that he isn't only being persecuted by mere Clergymen or Executors: By unique order from the seven Archbishop and the seven Paladins: only them are allowed to interfere with this “faceless one”.

“What did this faceless one did to deserved that ?”

“I don’t know, nobody does: there’s little to nothing known about him, except that he has a Faty Adidy on his head. The only way we have to find him are magics items that are said to highlight if the faceless one is around, to be exact that magic item reacts to his mana. Those magic items aren’t the type to hold long, in less than 3 months, they are already considered unusable. Yet for five years straight, the clergy has been supplying these non-stop to everyone within the clergy, and that throughout the entire human continent in the hope to catch that faceless one, that with the fact that one Archbishop and Holy Paladin just responded the call gives you a good idea of how much they want to deal with that faceless one. “

“It seems, he’s a pretty big deal.”

“Sure he is, after all, he had managed to remains hidden all those seven years, coupled with the fact that only the fourteen are allowed to engage with him, clearly means that he must be at least as quirky as an Archbishop or at least as strong as a Holy Paladins.”

“Wait, You said that he was sighted around the ducal castle, wouldn’t that mean that those in the castle are in great danger?”

“Yes, but what can we change to that, when we left the castle every clergymen and executor of the church were already on their way encircle the castle before the arrival of the Ashen cousins. If that faceless one managed to escape like he always did these past seven years, then be sure that they will go through an entire background check through everyone within the castle, in an attempt to put a face on him, and believe me your alibi of tourist won’t work on them “

“I see,... You said earlier that the fourteens were looking for him since seven years ago, but I heard you mentioned something about five years ago earlier, I’m a little bit lost.”

“Ah~ my bad, it seems I went overboard with my explanation, the orders of the sentence of Faty Adidy reached me seven years ago, alongside with the magic item used to track him, there was a time, where I was actively looking for that faceless one. But two years ago, the church stopped supplying us with those magic items, which makes it five years of intense research for us.”

“This is just a supposition but won’t the member of the church, notice your absence.”

“For that, you have no reason to worry, as I said, I just arrived at Beaufort today, do you know what exactly is a Vicar? And are their purposes in the church ?”

It was true that she introduced herself as a Vicar,

“Yes, I do know some things, is a position in the church that is more or less above or below that of a bishop, that they are in charge of performing such as coronation and baptismal. But that is pretty much all I know.”

“It is as you say, the position of Vicar can be more or less superior or inferior of one of a Bishop, There are two kinds of Vicar there are those who are just noble who chose to dedicate a certain talent of theirs for the church without being especially tied or bind to a Local church’s institution or an Archbishop; The first kind of Vicar are those who offer their unique talents that are most of the time has to do with their magic, or at scarce occasion their unique knowledge on a particular subject that the church considers interesting, but unlike what you said earlier this type of Vicar isn’t required perform any kind of ceremony, unless they especially want to, the most basic way to explain this type would be that they are just noble sponsored by the church.

“The second type, to which I belong, is closer to the church than the first. Just like other members of the clergy, we devote our Mana for rituals such as baptism and coronation, most of the time it's a high-ranking member of Nobility and the thing that distinguishes us the most from other members of the Clergy, we enjoy the same as the first type of Vicar. The only criterion for this position in the Clergy is to have a large mana pool; not to brag, but if my one and only talent wasn't that cursed magic, I could have a chance to become one of the fourteen.”

Cursed magic.

It’s only then that I remember d what was her role in all the mess that was my birth except being the one performing my baptismal.

She was the one who put my mother in her comatose state.

“It isn’t as bad as a memory wiping magic.”

“Memory wiping magic?” She asked with confusion.

“Yes. Isn’t this what you assumed my magic is.”

“Ah~ that, I hope you know that that was mere, a conclusion we came upon our own, even I, who officiated your baptismal isn’t hundred percent sure of it, we can only know after your coronation.” She said as she retrieved an object from her sleeve.

It was a golden box the size of two palms put together, with seven gems inlaid on the sides.

“This is!?-”

“Uh- you know what this thing is?”

“No, but I can I only suppose this is the box that served for my baptismal, in other words, my Barbara box.”

It was a very distasteful name I concede, but that was how those boxes were referred to, they were given the name of the mother of the child to be baptized.

After all, that was what these boxes were supposed to represent: a mother body.

During the pregnancy it is the mother’s body that is refraining the child mana to run wild, after birth it is up to this box to take over that duty.

The first 10 years of the life of a noble is basically him, being tied to his mother,

The coronation represents cutting that binding tie and embracing his paternal legacy, which accesses to his magic and is a surname added to the first name, surname that I must precise is also chosen by the mother.

Though it doesn’t bother me the slightest, I was very surprised when she implied that it was Maa who came up with that name.

“Yes, this indeed is your Barbara box, these boxes are supposed to be kept to a special place in the Beaufort’s Cathedral but with your unique situation that would be a very bad idea, so I always bring it wherever I go.”

“Do you want to touch it?”

The moment she suggested that My mind immediately thought of what I saw them put inside that day.

“No, thanks… I’m fine.”

“I see.” She said as she put the box back inside her cloak.