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

Syrius and I immediately hopped aboard, but Lord Emilien didn’t. It seems he just followed us to send us off.

"I'll return to the castle now, Syrius. Besides Renata, who else saw Ronandt today in the castle, especially those who made thorough presentations with him, or those who at least knew his name? "

"No one, except Lady Mael’s attendant, Leonore, and the four servants who were accompanying her."

Upon hearing these words, I saw him sigh, in relief, it seemed.

"Understood."

"Lord Emilien, please tell Mathilda about the changes. She will know what she will have to do," Syrius requested.

"Uh-yes, I will tell her as soon as I can. -Boy, don’t worry, everything will go fine. All of this is indeed unexpected, but that shouldn’t change anything drastically in the plan." He said, trying to reassure me.

"Yes. I understand. "

"It’s all good then."

With a wave of his hands, he signaled to the two coachmen that we were ready to depart.

Like that, we left the Ducal Castle, Beaufort, for our next destination.

"What are we heading for now?" I ventured after a while.

"We are currently heading to a place you are very familiar with." said the masked man, whose voice had tickled me since he spoke earlier.

It sounded masculine, or perhaps I should say it tried to sound masculine, but that didn't change the fact that it was, I could tell, the voice of a woman.

"You must not know who I am yet. Don’t you? "

"Yes."

"My name is Serena, and I act as a Vicar for the Clergy, but most importantly for you, I performed your baptismal."

She removed her gloves and extended her hand to me, and once again, like her voice and her name, it was clear that it did not belong to a man.

It was the first time I had been greeted in this manner, so it took me a moment to accept her hand.

The name she gave it clearly suggested that she was a woman, but her outfit and voice indicated that she was attempting to impersonate a man, so I was unsure how to interact with her.

"I am Ronandt," I simply said.

"I know, that's a good name; Madam Mathilda was very creative in coming up with it."

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

"Uhmm…. They never told you... I see... Partly, yes. In fact, I think it would be accurate to say that she was the one who suggested this name. "

"I wasn’t told that."

"Vicar Serena ..." Syrius called out to her, trying to remind her of my earlier questions.

"Ah~ sorry about your question earlier. We are now heading to Rosetta’s manor."

"Isn’t it a little bit overly drastic? Wouldn’t just staying in a town nearby be enough? " Syirus asked.

"This is far from being overly dramatic 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 he is subordinate to, and the Archbishop himself had announced that he would shortly arrive, accompanied by his cousin, the Holy Paladin Dominik Medvedick, in less than three hours."

"Why did the local bishop summon them?"

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

"The faceless one?"

"Yes, do you two know what a Faty Adidy is?"

"Yes, it is a decree,... a death sentence placed by the church on a specific individual."

Those sentenced to a Faty Adidy are to be hunted by the clergy. The church It’s especially the type of job the executors are taking care of.

"Indeed, this Faceless One has a Faty Adidy under his head, but with the only difference that he isn’t just hunted by simple members of the clergy: it’s a special order from above, and by above I mean the top. According to a special order from the seven Archbishops and seven Paladins, only they have the authority to intervene with and dispose of this "faceless one ""

"What did this faceless one do to deserve that ?"

"I don't know; in fact, no one does: little is known about him, except that he has a Faty Adidy on his head. The only way we can find him is to use magic items that are said to highlight if the faceless one is nearby; more specifically, that magic item reacts to his mana. Those magical items don't last long; in less than three months, they're considered unusable. Yet, for the past five years, the clergy has been supplying these nonstop to everyone within the clergy and across the entire human continent, in the hope of capturing that faceless one. The fact that one Archbishop and a Holy Paladin have responded with such haste to a mere call should give you a good idea of how much they want to deal with that faceless one."

"It seems like he’s a pretty big deal."

"Sure he is. After all, the fact that he has managed to remain hidden for seven years, combined with the fact that only the fourteen are permitted to deal with him, strongly suggests that he must be at least as cunning as an Archbishop or at least as powerful as a Holy Paladin."

"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 do about it? When we left the castle, every clergyman and executor of the church were already on their way to encircle the castle before the Medvedik cousins arrived. If that faceless one manages to escape, as he has done for the past seven years, be sure that they will conduct a thorough background check on everyone within the castle in an attempt to put a face to him, and believe me, your tourist alibi will not work on them."

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

"My bad. The orders for Faty Adidy's sentence arrived seven years ago, along with the magical item used to track him, and there was a time when I was actively looking for that faceless one too. 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 members 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 a vicar is? And are there purposes in the church?"

It was true that she introduced herself as a vicar,

"Yes, I do know some things. It 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 to that of a bishop. There are two types of vicars."

"There are first, those who are simply noble and choose to dedicate a particular talent of theirs to the church without being particularly tied or bound to a local church's institution; and those who offer their unique talents, which most of the time have to do with their magic, or on rare occasions, their unique knowledge on a particular subject that the church finds interesting.Unlike what you said earlier, this type of vicar isn’t required to perform any kind of ceremony, unless they especially want to. The most basic way to explain this type would be that they are just nobles 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 to rituals such as baptism and coronation. The thing that distinguishes us most from other members of the clergy is that we enjoy the same liberty as the first type of vicar. We are entitled to many liberties compared to a regular clergyman. 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 remembered what her role was 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 my magic is supposed to be?"

"Even I, who officiated at your baptismal, am not certain; we won't know for sure until 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 was 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's body.

During the pregnancy, it is the mother’s body that is refraining the child's mana from running 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 his magic and is a surname added to the first name given at birth. First name that must also be reminded, is also chosen by the mother.

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

"Yes, this indeed is your Barbara box. These boxes are supposed to be kept in 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? After all, what’s in is yours and… "

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

"No, thanks... I’m fine without touching it. "

"I see." She said, somewhat disappointed, as she put the box back inside her cloak.