I was informed yesterday that someone had managed to the caught sight of the one some of my colleagues among the fourteen and almost everyone from the clergy call the Faceless One.

When we received the Faty Adidy on his head, I really was confused about the meaning of all this, it was the first time in the history of the church that Archbishop and Holy Paladin were personally tasked to take care of anyone.

My first assumption was that that person was extremely powerful and dangerous for the Church to go to such length, and the fact that we knew nothing about him, neither his magic nor his face and even less the location where he could potentially be, even reinforced that assumption on me.

Each one of us knew that the task of finding that faceless one would be a “pain in the arse”, but since it was our duty, we all executed ourselves.

That being said, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t personally invested in finding that faceless one myself, the uniquity of the “Faty Adidy” and the mystery behind that person even further motivated me to find that faceless one. And if ever managed to personally dispose of that faceless one it would further anchor my position as Archbishop given the fact that I was the last one assigned as one of the fourteen,

The previous Archbishop in charge of the authority of Djeem the accursed was someone one could only define as very eccentric and definitely deficient as a human being. He didn't see any difference between the title and the title of Holy Paladin; he perfectly encapsulates what I really disliked the type to do as he pleases to the point of abandoning what he had to do.

He met his death during the last crusade and thus the title of Archbishop and all the mess the previous Archbishop left behind befell on me.

Compared to my peers among the fourteens, I knew I was weaker, there was no hiding to it, and with my unique magic, I knew very well that in their eyes was just a substitute, and the Faty adidy under the Faceless One head offered the perfect opportunity for me to prove my worth, that is as long as I was the one to found and disposed of him.

But I never got the chase to grasp that opportunity for no one has ever found any trace of the Faceless One, to the point that some of us were wondering if that person really ever existed, and then suddenly out of nowhere yesterday I got informed that he was sighted somewhere in the Aubrecht Castle.

The news exhaled me but not the point of losing reasoning, with the strength of that person unknown, I took with me my cousin, the Holy Paladin Dominik, and my son in law, the Vicar Barbosse, whose ability would come to handy if we had no other choice but to left.

At our arrival those incapable from the local Church has somehow managed to lose sight of the Faceless One, after that hotted interrogation I had with those present in the castle and especially those from the Edouard family, I discovered that only someone was missing from the party; A child.

To be honest, if they simply told me that a child was sent away for some reason of any sort and if I didn’t have that unique magic, maybe I would have believed them. But the thing was that they were lying to me and were actively hiding that child from me.

I wasn’t sure about whether or not that was really the one we were looking for, though everything seemed to corroborate that possibility of the Faceless One being a child.

When I sent those idiots after the child, I told them to check to see if the child was the faceless one; if he wasn’t, they were to leave the child immediately, but if he was, they were to summon us right away, to not engage.

But even that, was too much to ask for them, they still found a way to get themselves killed, now I’m forced to clean up after their messes.

And for the child, it seemed he really was the one we were looking for, a nine-year-old young boy, just one year away from being coronated. It confirmed exactly what I thought, we received the Faty Adidy under his head, not too long after or before his birth.

I did and I have no idea why a newborn would have a Faty Adidy under his head, it’s usually reserved for those to represent a danger for the church, and I really fail to see how a child like him could represent a danger for us.

I admit it was absurd, but I tried to ask the child what he could possibly have done or had to deserve that. I assumed it had something to do with why those from the Edouard and that Boy from the Aubrecht were so enraged at me for simply doing my job. As expected, I received no satisfactory answers; it was clear that he had no idea what he did (if he did anything at all) or what he had that might have put him in his current position.

Since there was no valuable information, I could extract from him, I decided to put an end to this masquerade. I have many pass time but torturing children are not among them.

I doubt the child has ever done anything but it was our order to dispose of him. It’s regrettable indeed but that’s how things are.

The best I could offer him is dying by my cousin’s magic, a painless death.

Just when I was about to give the signal to Dominik to put an end to his misery, the butler who I had empaled in the beginning rise from his feet, saying that he had answers to my question from earlier and to answers my question he first wanted me to ask Dominik to unwind himself.

Just as I was about to give Dominik the signal to end his misery, the butler who I had empaled earlier rose from his feet, saying that he had answers to my earlier questions, but first, he wanted me to ask Dominik to unwind himself because he was frightened.

I don't usually take orders from commoners, in fact, I never do, but when he announced that he had been the child's butler for a long time, combined with the fact that my magic can tell which state people are in when speaking to me, I knew he was genuinely terrified, so I thought it would be fine for us to relax, and it's only now that I realize how big my mistake was.

After spewing some nonsense into the air. He abruptly rips out a necklace he was wearing around his neck, causing a massive explosion that engulfed everyone.

The necklace he was wearing was a magic item, that contained that explosion spell.

And that butler definitely knew what would happen if he activated it.

It wasn’t us who terrified him but rather the knowledge of the fate awaiting him.

“Dom, Are you okay?”

“It was a close call. You were right, it was the right choice to bring Lucille and Cecille along.”

I have no idea where or how that magic item could've been obtained, but the level of destruction it brought with it, that was an attack at the level worthy of one of the fourteen, for there was almost nothing left but the crumble of one of the two shields, which is also a magic item created just to fit my cousin's mana and unique talent in magic.

Without him using his magic to shield us, there would’ve been nothing left of us but just hot ash.

He named these two respectively Lucille for the left shield and Cecille for the right one, Those shields have accompanied during the last crusader and no monster has managed to break, just to give a good idea of robust and fitting for him these shields were.

“It really took me by surprise, who would have thought that that butler would’ve done this.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t tell he was planning to do that.”

“It was nothing, what about them?”

By them, he was referring to the child and the butler.

“The butler is dead, but the child is …”

Something was strange, I couldn’t tell very for a foggy column was hovering where these two used to be, from here I couldn’t tell in what state he was but his heartbeat… it was … slowing down?

Was he injured from the explosion?

Suddenly, Dominik rose up from his feet this time braced the only shield he had left, creating a barrier this time not protecting us but blasting us away.

I was confused about why he did that but I immediately got the answer to why.

A massive foggy grey beam accompanied by a crimson red beam slammed into him at breakneck speed.

It happened in a fraction of a second.

Missing...

From his left shoulder to the base of his feet… half of his body was missing.

The beam obliterated his shield, his body, everything in its way.

I looked over where the came from, it came from where the child was.

Did he have another magic item with him?

I can’t even see and even see him with the fog hovering where he was.

Dom who was missing half of his body fell like a tree that had his trunk cut.

I immediately flew to catch him to avoid him from getting further injured than he already was,

“Oy, Dom, are you okay?! Respond to me!”

I gently put him on the ground, blood was pissing from each part of his body, from the gory mess left from his other missing part I could see his internal organs such as the heart and the intestines beating and gesticulating desperately, a putrefactive smell began to came out of them.

I spat out a sigh of relief when I saw what happened, the putrefactive smell came a unique talent inherited by those born in the Medvedik family.

It allows its users to regenerate a wound or a missing part from their body. Given the severity of the wound, I was afraid that that magic wouldn’t take effect but it seems that I was worried for nothing.

“It’s okay-” I was cut by the sound of a beating heart coming from where the child was.

Though still slower than a normal one, his heartbeat was accelerating.

I looked over where, and beyond the fog, a small fogy and hazy figure… was crawling out of it.

The same way a baby would it was crawling, then again just like a baby, with the only hand he had, he tried to rose up from his feet, his feet were weakly trembling as if it was for him the first time he ever stood in his life.

I saw him slowly opening his eyes for he had them close since the beginning and began to curiously look at his hand and then at the other missing one.

Maybe the sight of the missing hand reminded him of us since right after staring at it, he immediately looked at us.

He looked at us with the same look that someone would give to a strain on the floor, then it gradually changed into the look that one person obsessed with cleanliness would give to a strain on the ground.

He approached us or at least tried to approach, for the moment he put his feet forward, it fell into a quagmire.

The ground that was made out of grounds earlier turned into a quagmire.

Seeing what happened, I had a very clear idea of what had happened previously.

The beam earlier wasn’t cast through a magic item, it was him who launched it onto Dom.

That beam wasn’t magic of any sort, it was just a raw attack of mana.

The ground turning liquid and the foggy hue enveloping his entire body was ineluctable proofs of that.

I stood up and brace tightly Frior, my white staff.

That child or maybe it would fitting to call it that thing broke free of his baptismal.

Maybe it was instinct, but I felt like every hair on my body was raising and bone-chilling cold was coursing through my entire body.

As I previously stated, I don't usually take orders from commoners or listen to their suggestions, and I should have stuck to that.

Listening to that butler and not immediately killing that child was the worst mistake of my life, as it cost me, the church, and the entire human continent more than I could ever reimburse in this lifetime.