Magic Chronicles : Fallen Race

"Freya, do you know your crimes?"

The hall of the Radiant Temple was always dazzling with light. The six elders sat high on their seats, coldly gazing at the Saintess who had her head lowered on the stage below.

"Because of your willfulness, the Temple has already lost two excellent Templar Knights, yet you remain unrepentant and continue to indulge that so-called Hero in causing trouble outside."

One of the middle-aged women wearing a bishop's hat spoke. Although her demeanor was dignified, her face was stern and her tone sharp, filled with dissatisfaction towards Freya.

Before the Saintess could open her mouth to explain, another elder sitting beside her, a woman wearing a half-mask, chimed in:

"The Temple's priests have reported to us multiple times. You have repeatedly withdrawn funds from the Temple, misappropriated public funds, and even dared to take the Holy Healing Water from the Temple just a few days ago!"

This masked elder's voice was filled with anger, becoming especially shrill and piercing towards the end, particularly when mentioning the Holy Healing Water.

The reason was simple. These elders had to rely on the Holy Healing Water to maintain their vitality and preserve their youth.

Yes, because the Radiant Temple worshipped Her as the Radiant Goddess, the high-ranking members of the sect, the six elders, were all female.

Relying on the power of radiance, even though they were advanced in years, their skin remained crystal clear and lustrous, like that of young girls, becoming a beautiful and noble sacred symbol in the eyes of the faithful outside.

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And now, this masked elder who was furious with Freya wore a half-mask because the radiant divine power maintaining her appearance was waning. She was about to go and retrieve the Holy Healing Water, only to find that it was gone.

"I-I'm sorry, Elder Lina. I will communicate with the divine statue as soon as possible to replenish the holy water pool."

Freya quickly apologized.

The holy water could not be obtained by anyone else. Only the Saintess had the miraculous ability to communicate with the divine statue and transform it.

Thinking of this, Freya hesitated for a moment but still chose to speak up and refute.

"But Elder Lina, I did not misappropriate public funds. All of the Hero's expenses were paid out of my own pocket. I... I did not use the Temple's funds."

Upon hearing Freya's words, several elders frowned, and one of them even angrily slammed the table, looking provoked.

"Paid out of your own pocket? Hah! Where did your money come from? Isn't it what we, the Temple, give you every month? What's the difference?"

"Freya, your labor should be unpaid for the Temple. We give you rewards out of our love for you, yet you greedily consider it your own?"

"That's right. If it weren't for our promotion, connecting you with the nobles, and providing venues, do you think those believers would obediently give you money just based on your own abilities?"

Perhaps due to being too emotional, this elder accidentally let slip some true thoughts. She only reacted after that, coughing a few times.

The elders' momentum weakened a bit after that, no longer being so aggressive. One of the elders, whose tone had softened slightly, said to Freya:

"Saintess, actually, we do not care about these gold coins. As long as the money is used in the right place, no matter how much funding you need, the Temple's Council of Elders will support you. However, regarding this Hero you have chosen, so far, we have not seen him possess the potential to save the world as you claim."

"On the contrary, we have also collected a lot of information about this Hero. Take a look Freya. What has he done? Destroying public property, robbing others vehicles, trespassing on noble residences and estates, and even repeatedly sneaking into the castles of those great families to steal treasures, emptying the precious items from the treasure chests."

"Freya, is this the Hero you speak of?"

The elders' words left Freya unable to refute.

The Saintess lowered her head, clenching her skirt tightly. However, she quickly recalled the scene of monsters attacking the village and the various commissions along the way.

Freya still mustered up her courage, raised her head, and looked at the elders, saying word by word with determination:

"Indeed, the Lord Hero has many flaws, which I will help him correct in the future. But I also hope that the elders will not overlook the Lord Hero's efforts. He has completed a total of 143 commissions along the way, including 19 high-risk ones. This is almost equivalent to the workload of other adventurers in half a year, yet the Lord Hero accomplished it in less than half a month."

"Moreover, even for the commissions from rural villages not included by the Adventurers' Guild, destitute merchants, wandering beggars, and even orphans, the Lord Hero would wholeheartedly and equally complete them. I believe these are all qualities a savior should possess. It's just that he is still immature now. Therefore, I... I implore the elders to give him more time.

His growth will surely satisfy the Temple."

Freya thought this would make the elders change their view of the Hero.

Unexpectedly, it had the opposite effect, eliciting many sighs and head shakes.

"A dignified Hero, the future savior, ends up focusing most of his energy on these trivial matters? Rescuing villagers? Helping orphans? Giving alms to beggars? This is simply absurd! What has he done for our Temple?

Can helping these people spread the doctrine of Radiance? No!"

"He should go to those nobles who cooperate with us! Use his identity as the Hero to help them. This way, we can expand the influence of our Radiant Temple among the nobles, allowing them to better sponsor us. Only then can we have the money to build more temple churches and increase the number of our Radiant followers!"

Every word from the elders was particularly grating to Freya.

It also made Freya feel especially cold-hearted.

It turned out that the elders' true dissatisfaction with the Hero had never been those seemingly evil acts, but rather...

The Hero had no utilitarian value to the Temple.

So… They only wanted to use the Hero as a tool.

A tool that could make the Radiant Temple rise and grow, nothing more.

They never took the future catastrophe mentioned in the prophecy seriously.

"Freya, by the decision of the Council of Elders, you are now ordered to immediately bring the Hero back to the Temple. We will strip him of his identity and not allow him to continue his misconduct outside, tarnishing the reputation of our Radiant Temple."

In the eyes of these elders, Freya saw hypocrisy and greed. It was simple. Although they had been constantly belittling the Hero, none of them denied the speed of the Hero's growth in strength.

Now they wanted her to trick the Hero into coming back. In addition to stripping his identity, they might even want to harm the Hero and seize his power.

In response...

"Sorry, I can't do that."

Freya suddenly felt much more at ease.

She no longer lowered her head, but calmly looked ahead, properly surveying the six elders, and firmly said word by word, "With me here, none of you can touch him."

"If you lay a hand on him, I will resign from my position as the Saintess."

As expected, as soon as she said these words, the atmosphere in the Temple's Council of Elders immediately became tense, and several elders flew into a rage.

"Freya, what do you mean? Are you trying to disobey orders?!"

"Resign from the position of Saintess? How... how could you say that?!"

"Back then, we raised you, an orphan, with our own hands. Is this how you repay us now? You disappoint me so much!"

The elders were angry, but they were also truly panicked.

After all, as mentioned before, the Saintess was the only one who could communicate with the divine statue and produce the Holy Healing Water. If Freya didn't cooperate with them, once the holy water pool dried up, their bodies would rapidly age, and they might even lose their lives.

It was precisely because the Saintess was so important that they would choose an orphan as the Saintess every time and confine her to a closed room from a young age, isolating her from the world, always being their caged bird.

The previous Freya had indeed never disobeyed them in any way, always being obedient, as if she were as pure as a blank sheet of paper.

Who would have thought that they, out of a moment of greed and curiosity about the Hero's power mentioned in the prophecy, released Freya for a short period of time, and as a result... it turned out like this.

The current Freya, who opposed them in this way, was undoubtedly very unfamiliar.

Damn it!

That Hero was indeed no good!

Under Freya's threat of abdication, although the six Radiant Elders had gloomy expressions, they were also at their wits' end unless they could find a new Saintess with better talent than Freya.

In the stalemate, both sides could only compromise.

"I will leave the Lord Hero's side, declare that he no longer belongs to the Radiant Temple, guarantee that I will no longer use the Temple's power to provide him with any assistance, and if he continues to commit evil acts, I will be the first to lead the Templar Knights to capture him. With that... are the elders satisfied?"

What Freya was worried about was the elders directly making a move against the Hero.

Although the Hero was also very powerful, these six Radiant Elders, who had lived for who knows how long, had unfathomable strength. They were at least at the seventh tier and had even glimpsed the threshold of the eighth tier.

For the current Hero, this was undoubtedly an insurmountable force, leaving him with no room to fight back against the elders.

Even if the elders didn't take action themselves, using the Temple's power behind the scenes to pursue the Hero would also be a huge threat.

Therefore, Freya took the initiative to take on the task of pursuing the Hero.

This way, she could not only shut the elders up but also control the "intensity" of the "pursuit" in her hands.

The six elders naturally knew Freya's intentions.

They could accept it, but similarly, they also put forward a condition.

Since everyone had torn off their masks, the elders no longer pretended and stopped playing the role of benevolent figures.

"The divine statue, you must go and make sacrifices to the Radiant divine statue at the beginning of every month. As long as you sign this blood contract, then afterward, hmph, we can spare that Hero."

"..."

After a brief silence, she nodded. Although she knew this would mean losing a lot, but...

"Alright, I am willing."

[Your teammate "Freya" has left the party.]