That evening just before dinner, Eona’s household received a surprise visitor. Derek hurried out of the front of the house to meet the carriage from the Cathedral. When he saw Granny Penny descending from the carriage he hurried over to help her down. He hadn’t known her long but he could sense the care she held for him and his family.

“Granny, have you come to watch the tournament?”

He was excited to show off in front of her but unfortunately she was not too interested in that. She patted his cheek and spoke, “No silly boy. I don’t care about tournaments. I have brought someone from the Cathedral to meet you.”

Derek turned to see the old man Reginald getting down from the carriage as well, followed by a woman in a red habit. Even with most of her covered up, Derek could tell that this woman was stunningly beautiful. She had a stern look to her, just this side of severe, and she looked about the same age as his mother, though from the purity of light and order mana coming off of her, Derek guessed she was probably a little older.

He smiled at her and bowed. Red was a special color within the Church, belonging to the Orders and Clergy tied directly to the Seat of the Church itself in Aroye. These people only reported to the Saintess of the Church and the Council in Aroye itself.

His Granny smiled down at him, “Rachel, this is that descendent of mine you wanted to see, Derek Thorne. Derek, this young lady is Inquisitor Rachel Inhurst.”

Hearing her introduction, Derek was surprised. He had heard of Inquisitors. Depending on who was talking, they could be a nightmare or a blessing. There were tales of people being tortured and killed, but also tales of people unjustly accused of crimes being pardoned. The primary role of the Inquisition was to ensure that the local churches didn’t stray from the doctrine of the faith, which meant that the majority of its work was in judging the orthodoxy of the clergy. It’s role from there then stretched into seeking out corruption and ensuring that certain threats could not grow within the Church or in areas administered by it. One such threat was the possibility of abomination.

Derek felt Inquisitor Inhurst’s gaze upon him. He could feel the mana move around him as a particularly powerful status spell was cast upon him. After a moment, the sensation ended and the woman spoke warmly, “Indeed, your descendent is exceptional as you said, Mother Penelope. Derek, it is a pleasure to meet you. If you do not mind, I have some questions for you.”

Derek nodded to her, “Of course, Inquisitor, it will be my pleasure.”

The woman snorted, “It is rare to hear someone say that it would be their pleasure to be questioned by an Inquisitor so honestly. Please lead the way.”

Derek led them into the house and seated them in a reading room just to the right of the parlor. He ordered his mother’s maids to bring them some refreshments and informed the majordomo that he was likely to be late for dinner. The man smiled and left to inform his mistress.

After they sat and had been served, Derek broke the silence, “I must thank you Inquisitor, my Granny is not a fan of carriage rides anymore so she rarely comes to visit. It seems your mission here has given me a rare opportunity to spend time with her.”

Rachel smiled, “I am happy to hear that. Often my appearance in a place causes distress, even for the innocent. My order is not popular with the lay people. It is interesting that you show no fear.”

Derek thought for a moment, but then shrugged, “I am not afraid because I have a clear conscience. I bear the Blessing of the Goddess of the Sun so I would clearly know if I ever fell out of her favor. My assumption is that if your appearance here is really to do with me, then it would be in relation to the Demon that almost destroyed me.”

The Inquisitor nodded her head, “You are partially right, but mostly wrong. In fact you are not under any form of investigation by the Inquisition. I merely wished to inspect the after effects of the Demon’s assault on you. More importantly though, the Goddess has marked you as one of her own, specifically as one of her Champions in the coming Crusade.”

The young man frowned, glancing at his Granny, “Crusade?”

His Granny smiled at him and reached over to pat him on the hand, “Yes boy, Crusade. In the next few days, most of the Cathedrals of the west will receive a call to Crusade against the barbarians of the north to retake the Shrine of the Light. The goal is to take the Shrine by the end of summer. There will be many Holy Orders called up, Crusader volunteers will be gathered, and Mercenaries will be hired. Many of the local lords will be encouraged to send their own forces and with these troops, we intend to retake the Shrine of the Light and consecrate it to the Goddess of the Sun.”

Derek thought for a moment. He felt his blood boiling. He had heard of Crusades before and they had always been met with varying degrees of success or failure, but the most important thing for him was that they were always a time for young knights errant to make names for themselves. If he could participate, then perhaps he would be considered the next great hero from those tales.

He also knew that participating in this Crusade would be in line with his pact with the Sun Goddess and that he could gain great benefits from it. He looked up from his thinking, “When will it start? I have to finish the tournament and this semester, but I am certain they will let me go for this summer.”

His Granny laughed, “See, Rachel? I told you it wouldn’t be hard to convince him.”

The Inquisitor smiled, “Indeed. Do not worry about being able to participate young man. The forces must be gathered first, and that will take time.”

They spoke for a while longer before they were invited to dinner by his mother’s majordomo. They joined the other guests in the dining hall and began to eat. After a good meal, the boys returned home, excited about the next day’s competition.

The next day, Derek went to the training yards outside of the Academy Arena. When he arrived at the training yard intended for his match, he saw that a crowd had already gathered. Some of his friends were there and there seemed to be quite a few other people there, either to root on his opponent or to spectate on the first match between tier two students in their age group.

Derek quickly donned his training armor and selected a sword and buckler for himself. His opponent chose a similar weapon set and lined up with him. The young man appeared rather arrogant and didn’t attempt to speak to him prior to the match.

When the official started the match Derek quickly buffed himself by casting Righteous Blessing upon himself at seventh level and advanced towards his opponent. Prince Cid similarly buffed himself and advanced. After testing his opponent for a while, Derek realized that the young man’s form was terribly sloppy. His fame must have come from relying on his higher attributes, but unfortunately, Derek’s were higher than his.

After Derek had found the extent of the young man’s skill, he began to rapidly barrage him with attacks. It took little time at all to break through the man’s guard. After only two or three more strikes the shielding spell Cid was using was overcome as well. Finally, with a flick of Derek’s wrist, he struck the breastplate of his opponent, causing a white light to burst out. The young prince’s body froze up as the armor seized up to protect him and signal his defeat.

The crowd was stunned as they had expected the fight to be a lot more balanced. Instead, after an initial period of testing each other out, Derek’s single offensive had enabled him to overpower his opponent. There was nothing flashy about it, merely a one sided route by a much more skilled person over another.

Some in the crowd seemed dissatisfied and began to boo. Derek just shook his head and removed the training armor, while his opponent stomped out of the training grounds in a huff. Derek watched him go then shrugged before looking over to a board near the official. He saw that his friends had also won their first rounds. In a few more minutes all of the competitors had completed their rounds and the second round was selected.

Derek smiled when he saw his next opponent. As he walked to his next competition he was joined by his family who wanted to cheer for him. Alicia smiled when she saw him, “You did very well, Derek. I doubt anyone here will be your opponent.”

Blake seemed dissatisfied from hearing this, “I don’t see how these people are any good. That last guy clearly wasn’t any good at fighting.”

Derek just shook his head and entered the field for his next fight. After selecting his armor and weapon he went out into the field. On the other side was a young man in white and gold. Derek smiled at him, “Anthony, I heard you won your duel. Grandmaster Fiore must be very proud of you.”

Anthony smiled back, “I really must thank you for your help with all of that. If it wasn’t for you, Grandmaster would never have taken me as his disciple and I would never have won that fight.”

Derek laughed, “Don’t doubt that old man, I am sure he would have found out about you easily enough. Now come, show me what you learned in these last few months.”

Anthony nodded and responded, “I won’t be holding back.”

The two boys went back and forth for fifteen minutes. Derek had a massive status advantage on the other young man, but he wanted to see just how much Anthony had grown in the meantime. The boy’s technical skill was tremendous and in the short amount of time he had trained under the Grandmaster, he had become almost as good as Derek was.

“Good, Good! You have made great improvement. Now take my full power strike!” Derek shouted out.

“Don’t hold back!” Anthony would not be cowed, his competitive nature drawn out by the vigorous duel the two had just participated in.

In a flurry of attacks, Anthony managed to only defend as Derek’s greater attributes allowed him to overpower the other young man. Eventually, Anthony’s mana depleted and Derek managed to land a blow on the buckler that would have broken the young man’s arm and cleaved into his body without the enchantments of the armor. It flashed white and Anthony fell to the ground.

Derek was incredibly proud of the young man across from him. He had progressed quite admirably. He helped him up and patted his back, “Good job, man. If your status was equal to mine, we might still be fighting! You really are a great swordsman. You will be a master soon enough!”

Anthony, though he lost, was still quite happy to hear that from his opponent and as they walked from the training yard, the little priestess came running up, “So fierce Anthony! I knew you could do it.”

They all laughed at that, it seemed in her mind the young man had actually won the match. Derek smiled and shook his head. He glanced up to see where his next match would be and headed over there. Anthony and the young priestess opting to join them since Anthony no longer had anything else to do for the day.