Not expecting this at all, Angora felt goosebumps all over his body.
"Nonsense. I've never heard of such a disgusting divine art." His thoughts were disrupted by the man's gayness, and all he could do was force himself to say it.
"Oh, it's not a divine art. I'm from the Brilliant White Church after all, and I believe in Lionel, the God of Light." The man replied courteously. "It's just a little ability of mine."
The hypocrisy on his face irritated Angora.
Leaving aside the pretentious act, the man was now claiming to be a believer of the God of Light in the Brilliant White Church, and yet had no respect for Lionel at all. It felt as if his so-called belief in the God of Light was merely a label for himself, and the Brilliant White Church was nothing more than a tool to borrow power from.
"If you could tell a lie with such rude behavior, you would have entered the Heretic Tribunal, the thirteenth underground floor of the Brilliant White Church."
Angora mocked.
"How surprising." The man grinned, his expression weird. "How did you know I came from there?"
Angora's face darkened at once.
It wasn't that he was too young to keep his cool, but that the man's identity was really pressuring him.
As the strongest church in the Eastern Continent, the Brilliant White Church's sacred army and monks weren't that much stronger than the other first-rate churches. In fact, the only thing that struck fear in the hearts of others was the Erasure Agency and the Court of Heresy.
There was no God of Assassins in this world. The Assassin Unit of Erasure was almost the strongest assassin organization in the entire continent. The Heresy Court of Inquisition was even more mysterious and terrifying. It was said that the interrogators there had been stripped of human emotions and were purely loyal to Lionheart. They tortured others to obtain information and sentenced them for their crimes, offering their loyalty to the God.
"You're the one lying, aren't you? The interrogators of the Heretic Tribunal have no human emotions … "Angora calmed down and thought about it, finding a flaw in the man's act.
"Unbelievable. Since when did you get the impression that I have feelings for you?"
The man's voice rose and fell.
His words finally allowed Angora to understand why he had been feeling that something was amiss and weird ever since the man appeared.
It was his expression. The man's expression was too stiff! Rather than saying it was facial paralysis, it was more like he was wearing a human skin mask on his face!
Damn, could this guy really be a monster from the Heresy Court?
"Speaking of which, I forgot to introduce myself." The man saw the changing expressions on Angora's face, but he maintained his smile and said politely, "I'm Mephisto von Iskander. He's the Valla Empire's new Minister of Intelligence. "
The people of the Valla Empire rarely had middle names, and those that were passed down as family names were usually bestowed by royalty or the church.
'Feng' was a typical royal surname, but Angora had never heard of Iskan, so he didn't think he was a famous noble.
"How could someone from the Court of Heresy be the Minister of Intelligence of a country …" Angora continued to question.
Having been stripped of their emotions, the interrogators of the Brilliant White Church's Heretical Tribunal prioritized faith over Lionel, the God of Light. Even if they were emotionless and wouldn't be emotional when they spoke of Lionel, they still prioritized faith above all else.
It was precisely because of this that they were extremely loyal to the Brilliant White Church.
And as the ruler of a country, there was no way they would put someone like that in a position as important as the Minister of Intelligence.
Compared to these hardcore believers, it was more likely for the Emperor to favor those who weren't well received by the church.
"That's a matter between me and His Majesty, but don't worry, I have better evidence here to prove my words."
Mephisto took out a crystal bottle from his coat pocket, which contained a suspicious potion that was glowing a pale green.
☆
After finding the tracks left behind by the kidnappers, the Players who participated in the quest rented a few mounts and followed the tracks.
However, Simba and the others noticed some unusual footprints along the way, which meant that the people who kidnapped Angora were not riding on the usual beasts of burden or horses, but some kind of magical beast.
There were clearly ruts, but there were not many monster footprints. It meant that those monsters had spell-like abilities similar to 'anti-gravity field' or 'wind elemental binding', moving much faster than the twisted mounts the Life Players had tamed.
According to Angora's post on the Player forums, the transport process was eight hours long, which meant that the Players would have to chase for more than ten hours before they could reach the kidnappers' current location — and they still had to pray that the kidnappers wouldn't keep moving.
"Latest report. Mister Angora has been exposed."
Zazu informed Simba as they made their way to the Player forums.
"What's going on?" Simba was still trying to get his bearings when he was startled by the report and almost fell off his mount.
"The kidnappers are suspected to be the new Minister of Intelligence of the Valla Empire, but we've confirmed that they're from the Court of Heresy of the Brilliant White Church because they have a 'truth-telling potion' unique to their interrogators."
Zazu continued.
"A potion that can't lie once you drink it … they're really generous." Simba couldn't help grumbling. "You can't buy that stuff on the black market, and the Brilliant White Church doesn't provide it to outsiders either. It's said that it can only be made with sacred arts, and even if they need to make deals with other factions, the interrogators would personally use it. It's definitely not something that would be left outside."
After becoming a Player, he often went to the Lancaster Hideout to cram various knowledge from Old Vanke, which was why he was a completely different person compared to when he was a wanderer in Lancaster. He now had a rich store of knowledge that most first-rate Players didn't know as much as he did.
"This is bad. What if Mister Angora can't hold it in and spills everything?" Zazu couldn't help being worried.
"Mister Angora might have thought of it, but you should still post on the forums and tell him that there's a way to deal with the truth-telling potion." Simba said. "It makes people unable to resist the urge to speak, and they can't lie … so he just has to tell the truth."
"I see. You didn't answer the question, but it's fine as long as it's the truth?!" Zazu posted.
"Still, we have to hurry up, or they might kill Mister Angora and we'll fail the mission …"
Simba heaved a sigh of exhaustion.
It wasn't easy to unite the Players. After all, apart from Vela who was burning with impatience to save Angora, the other idiotic Players were treating this mission as a fun activity or adventure, and they could only hope that there wouldn't be any trouble afterward …
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