Riley definitely had seen his face during the first day he visited Right Solia.
“Ah, Archbishop Rebethra!”
Like how the old man was standing next to Priesia, Iris was standing next to Riley. Iris identified the old man’s title.
“Lady Iris, it’s good to see you again.”
Rebethra, the archbishop representing the priests of Solia’s Holy Temple, bowed his head and paid his respects to the two standing in front of him.
Because of his respectful gesture, Iris lost some of her wariness toward them and started to look around the people from the temple who were blocking her path.
“Why are all these people here?”
“Ah, it’s none other than…”
Rebethra turned his body to the side and gestured to the priests who were prepared and waiting at the back to come this way.
“Um? What is this?”
Following Rebethra’s hand gesture, three priests, each in both hands carrying a box that was richly decorated, came to the front.
“These are about the recent exploits. The two people, they left these things at the Holy Temple. They are supposed to take these with them.”
Two of the priests walked toward Riley, and one walked toward Nainiae.
As if they were trying to ask what these were, Riley and Nainiae floated question marks on their faces. They held the boxes given to them by the priests and checked the contents inside.
‘They don’t look like anything special.’
After checking the contents, Riley raised his eyebrows and looked at Rebethra.
“This is?”
“…”
On the other hand, Nainiae vacantly opened her mouth as if she didn’t expect the content to be what it was.
It did not mean that she was impressed and thankful.
It meant that she was shocked.
“It is a loot or a spoil, if you will.”
Rebethra opened his mouth.
“…A loot?”
Riley wondered if an archbishop that represented a temple should be talking like that. Riley pulled his chin and stared at Rebethra.
What Riley and Nainiae received were a cape that was neatly folded into a square shape, an ordinary looking silver ring that didn’t have any decorations, and a leather bracelet with unknown engraved patterns, these three things.
“Because we are out in the public, I can’t explain the specifics directly, but these belong to the…”
Rebethra paused for a moment and looked over the shoulders to gauge Solia citizens watching them. Rebethra continued,
“Yes. These are belongings of ‘that man.’ As for his staff, it broke completely, so it could not be helped.”
Rebethra was careful about the discussion because the death of that man was a fact not revealed to the public.
“If I refuse these?”
With a concerned and reluctant face, Riley asked back.
Nainiae was feeling the same as Riley.
She was going to die soon, so she felt that receiving these were probably not going to make a big difference. Also, they were belongings of a mage that experimented on her. She was not feeling right about having such things.
“Please accept them. The Holy Temple determined that it would be better to present these to you two instead of delivering them to the castle. I swear under the goddess Irenetsa that we have not done anything odd.”
Rebethra bowed his head once again, Riley shifted his eyes toward Priesia who was standing next to the old man.
“…”
The expression on her face looked pretty uncomfortable.
It felt like she wanted to get away from this place right this instant.
It was probably because of Riley.
‘Is this just the archbishop acting alone?’
Earlier, Riley warned Priesia that he will turn everything upside down if they pestered him, and it looked like his threat worked. It was evidenced by how the priestess was keeping her mouth shut.
‘If he is acting alone, then why is he doing this? Assuming the archbishop knew about the divine message that Priesia received, in that case, if she told him that they shouldn’t ask me, then why?’
After making conjectures on the reason behind the archbishop’s action, Riley turned his head.
“Young master, are you going to take these?”
Nainiae slowly came next to Riley and whispered to him quietly so the archbishop couldn’t hear her.
“By the looks of them, how are they?”
“I checked them already. I don’t sense any magical interferences in them.”
To Riley’s question, Nainiae responded that she already checked, but she realized that she made mistake in choosing the tone of her words. She was still too used to the crass language used in Lower Solia.
“…I mean… I have checked them for you, young master.”