My lady caressed the mare, her breathing slightly uneven after rushing through the broken door. The fire had reached the entrance, but the wrath of the blaze had ruined nothing beyond. A couple of stakes supporting the roof had crumbled. That was as far as the damage went. Even Garlan’s stallion was healthy enough for the return trip, despite the splinter that had assuaged his hind limb. The rows separating the encampment of the horses had wooden pavements, the arched entrance already charred to dust.

I cast [Heal] on the horse before glancing around the rest of the horses, who lowered their heads and neighed, sensing my gaze. The hay lay untouched, and it was surprising that the stables hadn’t caught fire. The rations came from fields outside the gates, so they were relatively safe. Or I hoped they were. Lykan had brought themselves enough time to recover from the struggle. An attack from Port Achlon after the news reached the mainland would have wasted their efforts.

“What next, Garlan?” I asked, leaning against the awning of our mare. The darkness wasn’t prominent owing to the mana lamps, and the horses had settled down after my presence had riled them.

“Should we look for Karleburo?” he asked, rubbing his temples. “Even her minions might do. I might raise my rank to S if we can find any valuable information. That means more dark secrets of the kingdom and some flexibility with the rigid rules of the guild.”

“Sure, she’ll be waiting for us in the shrine,” my lady rolled her eyes, and I felt she was a lot better at the gesture. Did I need more practice?

“Why not?” Garlan smiled. “All we need to do is find some of her cult members and push them for answers. They might give her away in the face of death. However, we can look at the shrines first. There are two in the city, and we can split up. If we don’t find anything, then we can always leave. No harm in taking a detour.”

My lady glanced at me, and I nodded. “We can look around for a while, my lady. Until the sunrise. Opportunities like these are hard to come by.”

And so, after another hasty decision, we strolled back to the streets that were bustling with activity now. The flames of fleet ships still raged strong, the fleet officer running aimlessly around the streets, trying to find the caster in vain. Some scorched residences and roofs scarred the city, and people's uneasiness was mainly attributed to the silence that followed after I had purged the flames.

A walk through the noble locality hadn’t been as peaceful as I envisaged it to be, but we trudged past the citadel of Prince Girizi without asking for a loaf of bread.

“I’ll go to the Miam shrine in the east,” Garlan said. “If you head right, take the straight road from the shanty locality, up the slope that intersects you, the first establishment will be Tunila shine, one meant to worship the goddess of the sea. Not anymore, if you know what I am talking about.”

I nodded. “We’ll meet you at the Mian shrine if we don’t find anything. We are late; that means we got hold of some exciting conspiracy.”

“Leave your mare here. We’ll get them as we leave, or maneuvering through the city will become really hard. Good luck, bread lad and Letitia,” he grinned. “You will buy my tickets to S rank. Good servants to have, indeed.”

“Yeah,” my lady bobbed her pony. “One who wags his tail at his masters for a rank promotion.”

I smiled, much to Garlan’s displeasure, and he scowled at us.

We walked straight up the road after taking the first right. The shanty locality was decrepit, even without the assault of fire. People slept on the street, wounded, marred, and scarred. Homeless they were, but the swarm only increased when we reached closer to the abandoned shrine. The tenements were hardly usable. Still, people lived within them, trying to make do things their life had offered them. My lady’s gaze wandered over the people, and she shook her head in disgust. We hadn’t met any crazy fanatics throughout our journey, so it did surprise me how they had managed to disappear so quickly.

“I don’t want these wastrels tainting my kingdom should we ever rule one, Rudolf,” she said and nudged closer to me. “I’d rather develop it enough to see no one starved instead of this walking through these disgusting roads.”

Well, wasn’t she still helping people even though with bad intentions? It didn’t matter. As long as she was evil and villainous, some good deeds could always be forgiven.

When we reached the ramshackle barring of the shrine with large turrets on either side, still erect somehow, the homeless had degraded to nil. Even the residences were pushed away from the periphery of the establishment, and there was quite significant unused space around the boundary of the shrine. The shantytown ran across either side and beyond, but the shrine held my gaze.

I pushed open the gates that creaked too loudly for their mediocre size. My lady held my arm as we tramped through the pavements, most stones bridled with [Umbra] undone. Even some splinters made the journey more laborious. Signs of use hadn’t been erased entirely, and I saw multiple footsteps leading to the open arched entrance.

The brown roofing stretched beyond the portico of the crumbled entrance and ended in a square tower that had crenulations on the top. Even the turrets on either side of the portico were shorter and more decrepit. The lawn beside the pavement hadn’t been mowed in long, yet there was a uniform covering of moss and other creepers without any shrubs. No trees either.

We avoided a few broken tiles that had graced the path to the foyer. My lady earned a cut across her cheek as she failed to see a splinter extending from behind the entrance horizontally. I healed her before the blood could taint her cloak and clothes underneath. Decaying wood welcomes us, the pillars scribbled with incantation, or perhaps the verses of the so-called gods worshipped in the castle. I didn’t know if they did exist in this realm. In my world, they were just powerful beings who became undead and performed miracles; thereby earning some solace from their eternal loneliness and recognition for their kind deeds. As far as the number went, there had been only one in my first world because not many undead liked mortals.

As I had said before, pinning your hopes on immortals was not worth the effort.

I lighted up the ambiance using the almost cracked mana lamps on the sides and got a better look at the rickety edifice before us.

“This looks abandoned, mongrel,” my lady said, moving away from me to try and read the inscription on the walls. She succeeded, much to my surprise.

“Step through the gates of yonder, for eternal happiness awaits those who believe. You strive for today. So live, and worship the goddess who guards your hearth.”

“How can you read the inscriptions, my lady?” I asked, staring at other pillars with similar words carved into their existence.

“Everyone from the Academy can read the scripture used in the inscriptions, Rudolf,” she said, moving to the next, the one on the front pillar.

And here I thought the Academy only taught useless things to ignorant brats. Mortals never failed to pull out tricks on this undead.

“The heresy of the ruler will wipe us out of existence one day, but believe. For that will help you live each day. Even in absolute despair, because you live for today. So, the despair is short-lived.”

“That sounds like ramblings of a random mortal, my lady,” I said as I walked to the altar at the apex that was as vacant as my bread packet.

“Why do you think so, mongrel?” my lady asked, following me through a small stairway to the top.

“One who has lived an immortal life will never warn the mortals of the future. They probably knew the cult was going to be shut down sooner or later; that’s why they warned of potential danger.”

My lady giggled and reached beside me. “This is empty and clean.”

“Yes, and it shouldn’t be,” I pointed at the refined grains of tile, or maybe wood, that had accumulated around. “There should have been a thick layer of dust from the roof.”

“Someone must have visited the shrine before us,” my lady nodded, glancing around the empty altar. “Do you think it could have been Karleburo?”

“Possible, my lady,” I said. “Do you remember about the Sagacious commandments?”

She nodded, walking closer to the wall at the apex, carved with inscriptions that stretched above and to the side.

“Karleburo might have been killed for breaking those,” I said. “By someone who set these rules in the first place. She had broken them in the past when she attacked Coln, and this was the second time. Given that we cannot see any of her ardent followers in Achlon, it either means they followed her in death by jumping to the sea or died against the swords of fleet officers after going into frenzy over the death of their cult leader. Of course, another option is that they found a new leader and follow them out. For now, these are all deductions, but if there is a larger force at play keeping the realm in check, then meeting them will be a thrilling experience. And torturing them to death, a more. There’s nothing better than forcing the high and mighty beings to grovel before us.”

“Doesn’t that apply to you too, mongrel?” she smiled at me.

“Wel…” I shrugged. “I’m different, my lady.”

“How so?” she raised her eye in question. “All I can see is an arrogant prick who has seen too much of the world.”

“What? Arrogant prick? I’m far from that, Letitia,” I stared at her, aghast. How did my confidence come off as arrogance? “It’s not arr–“

“It’s not confidence, Rudolf,” she giggled and walked back to me. “Maybe it’s confidence from your perspective, but if you are using mortal standards to judge yourself, then it’s plain arrogance.”

I was speechless for the first time. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, her words were irrefutable.

She wrapped her hands around my waist and looked up. “But it’s my man’s arrogance. So, it’s all right. If you say it is confidence, then it is. What other mortals say shouldn’t matter. Let’s slaughter them if they dare to question you.”

I laughed and nuzzled her hair. “My heartless villainess, you didn’t even kill one sailor yesterday.”

“Did you just say ‘my’?” her face bloomed into a bright smile.

“Of course. You are the product of my machination, after all.”

She tightened her grip around my waist and head-butted my chest. “But you are mine. It doesn’t matter what your screwed undead mind tells you.”

“Sure, sure,” I pulled her hand away from my waist and pointed at the walls. “There’s still a tower left behind the shrine.”

“Yes, but we can move only after a kiss,” she raised her lips, despite her rosy ears. Though the intensity had dwindled considerably over the past month, she was getting used to toying with me.

I chuckled, and she followed me along without a word. And without a kiss.