A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

“I am very sorry, my King. It is not that the Royal Academy is unwilling to act and shoulder the costs; the Hall of Fire was not very optimistic regarding the success of the ceremony and consulted the other Halls first.

Eventually, they agreed to make an attempt first, yet some things just are not fated, and the spell failed eventually.

But it‘s better to let an expert give an account. I brought Father Harald with me, a high priest from the Hall of Life and Death.

Please grant him an opportunity to speak, Your Majesty.“

From the start, the Administrator appeared together with this robed priest, who constantly took to the background of the desk and ignored the proceedings of the court.

Only once his name was mentioned did his step next to the former knight, who bowed her head to support her request as she petitioned the king.

Similar to the woman next to him, Father Harald folded his hands and gave the king a bow, although not to the degree of the nobility around.

The [Seven Star Church] was not confined to the Leandar kingdom alone, with the support of different gods and the faith of the population, clergy was given some more room compared to normal citizens.

No one took offense, while the priest still lived and acted inside the kingdom, church and state were separate from each other in the end.

“Greetings, Your Majesty. I hope this humble priest is allowed to say a few words, mostly because the fate of those two boys is indeed too tragic.“

Still, it did not cost anything to be polite and the royal court was pretty much the same as the king‘s domain.

Not even the church would bother to save the priest if he was rude to the ruler of the kingdom inside his own place.

While most of the people present were stunned at the revelation that this senior priest pitied the two youths who lost their lives and described them as pitiful, Nisha was more surprised that she actually knew this priest.

She had just thought about Miss Thana and their conversations over tea, and now an acquaintance showed up.

 

Whenever Nisha and the old priestess enjoyed a new blend that the elf brought along or part of the priestess collection, they often forgot to replenish the hot water and were faced with a situation where one wanted to teach and the other always had more questions, but the process would get interrupted if they constantly had to fetch more ingredients such as hot water.

Since Miss Thana was a pretty high ranking figure within her Hall, those that passed the courtyard got struck down with a sudden mission from the elderly woman to run an errand.

Nisha did not actually know his name or rank before, she only learned those now.

It was quite strange to see a man who had to boil and fetch water for her several times stand in the royal court and petition to speak to the king when he acted more like a servant in the Hall of Life and Death.

Then again, it was not nice to talk to him now and mention how he had obediently poured Miss Thana and herself many cups of tea.

The dragon considered herself as a very polite being, always considerate of others feelings and wellbeing.

Far away, in a small cove made from a gentle stream, lush flowers and plants and hidden beneath the foliage of the trees around, a certain [Forest Nymph] suddenly sneezed and wondered who was talking about it, escaping to the hidden underwater lair just in case.

Back at the royal court, King Cederic seized up the priest for a moment, before graciously accepting his courtesy.

Since the man made it inside the hall and had a waiting seat assigned to him, it was a joke to think that the servants under the royal family did not know his identity, his arrival was communicated beforehand so it was more of a formality to ask for permission.

Despite that, the events were carefully arranged, this way the royal family could establish their prestige, the nobles could gather hints beforehand and the commoners who attended were completely convinced by the fairness of the events.

Evidence and testimony was prepared in a reasonable fashion and the clergy even volunteered to say a few more words because they felt pity for the fate of the less fortunate.

Although it was a big play in the end, with prearranged script and actors, Nisha agreed that holding court and hearing the needs of the masses was a good deed overall.

 

“You may speak. After all, this involves Our beloved citizens, not to mention that there are signs of murder.

As long as you think of the people, We will never fault you for that.“

And as expected, the king did not deny the priest the opportunity to speak.

Seeing that everything proceeded normally, Father Harald thanked the ruler of the kingdom first and took over the podium from the female administrator next to him.

Thankfully, as a member of the clergy from the [Seven Stars Church], he was not quite as bound by the intrigues and etiquette between nobles, so he had less concerns and could give his account without having to fear retaliation or other schemes in the future.

The church never got involved in politics while the nobles never tried to interfere with the church in return, given that neither side went overboard.

“To pick up where Sera Salas ended her account, the Hall of Fire received an urgent summon while the carriages rushing back had not made it to the city yet.

Several priests prepared for emergency treatment and took over the bodies of Max Stratherd and Jens Whitfield as soon as they arrived at the church.

From the healers accompanying them, the general situation was roughly explained and treatment started right away.

Max Stratherd was already pronounced dead before the healers at the academy camp got the chance to see him, while Jens Whitfield lost his vital signs during the rush back, so the majority of attention was placed on him first as a means of rescuing one life at least.“

Perhaps it was in the nature of a healer, but the priest was rather dispassionate as he explained the circumstances around the tragedy that hit the two youths and now ended up being discussed in the royal court.

Whether it was the young, the old, those at peace or fighting back against the cold claw of death, they had seen it all in the healing rooms of the church.

Some managed to pull through, others unexpectedly passed away despite being on the path of recovery.

Without the mental quality to work closely at the border of life and death, it was impossible to become a qualified healer.

 

“Despite the best efforts and the reinforcement of a high priest, resuscitation remained unsuccessful and their death was confirmed.

When the contact from the Royal Academy was informed, he immediately asked the Hall of Fire to prepare for the [Resurrection] ritual and sent someone back to prepare the payment.

To make everyone understand the outcome, I have to explain healing spells a little better.

Whether it‘s at the rank of acolyte, priest or high priest, all healing spells share the same principles, they are in fact unable to create vitality and life out of nothing.

By utilising the aura and vitality already present in the body, injuries can recover at a rapid pace, even those that would not have healed naturally.

But the same effect also leads to detrimental effects, just imagine that a very high ranked spell is cast on a tiny wound.

The wound will still heal, yet at the same time a large amount of vitality is used up.

And if the body does not have enough vitality, it will be forced into an overdraft state, weakened and enfeebled for a period of time to repay the debt of energy.“

While his neutral voice did not have the same impact as the aggrieved family members and the stern administrator, everyone could not help but have the best impression of this priest so far.

His explanation was succinct, easy to understand and made sense.

Skills and spells followed the same rules, it was nonsense to assume that they could suddenly defy reality and make something out of nothing just because of faith.

Although miracles like the [Resurrection] spell were indeed out of the understanding the common folk had, those were carried out by the gods worshipped in the different Halls, and not the product of the priests and their ability.

Father Harald did not speak of secretive methods or the glory of his faith, only about the general direction and underlying methods, it was enough to paint a faint picture and convey his meaning.

Aside from Nisha, who often frequented the Hall of Life and Death for unrelated matters, even the one next to her, Henry, did not show too much surprise.

Those at the level of Duke and higher probably had some contact with difficult cases that were troublesome for the church as well, hence there was a certain understanding already.

But now, everyone present could already guess what was going to happen next, and they looked at the grieving family members with pity.

 

“Unfortunately, these restrictions apply to all spells, even those granted by our Lord.

The damage to the bodies of those two is rather extensive, the Hall of Fire tried using acolyte level spells, yet those had too little effect to restore the bodies, whereas priest level healing spells directly led to healing fatigue.

Without a source of vitality, dead bodies get damaged roughly at the same level as they get repaired, which gets worse as time drags on.

As for high level rituals like [Resurrection], there‘s indeed a small chance to use the overflowing energy to repair the body at the same time as the soul is called back, but the early second rank Max Stratherd and Jens Whitfield are very unlikely to bear the intense forces, I personally examined them after the Hall of Fire asked the Hall of Life and Death for cooperation.

In my professional opinion, there‘s a large chance that the physical vessels will explode before the healing effect has a chance to restore them.

Due to the combination of several factors, they are unsuitable for [Resurrection] and similar methods and we can only console the family members and advice them to bury their relatives with a complete body instead.

We are very sorry that our abilities are lacking.“

Naturally, these were words of consolation and the priest did not lower himself in front of a Viscount and Baron in the same way as he did earlier to the king.

The healers did their best and the outcome followed the laws of nature, things were as they should be.

Hence, although the two youths still passed away, the priest could only console the family and offer his empathy.

“What a shame, two young talents left the world too early. Perhaps they could have joined Our kingdom as grand knights or important ministers in the future, We will never have a chance to know.

But you also mentioned that there were signs of murder, can you enlighten Us?“

With the formalities out of the way and giving the Whitehall elder a chance to step down from paying the price for two rituals, it was time to delve into the matter of two dead nobles.

There was a very high chance that those two would have inherited the titles of their fathers, hence it was still a big matter when they fell under suspicious circumstances.

 

“I don‘t dare to be presumptuous enough to declare myself capable enough to enlighten Your Majesty!

It‘s merely my own conclusion after examining the state of their bodies.“

What a joke, if Father Harald really dared to claim the title of the king‘s teacher and lectured him like a student, his body might never be found again.

Not even the church would say anything if he was this stupid, it was better to be rid of such a fool before he did something really serious.

“As you have heard, the two Halls cooperated to seek a solution before we exhausted our options, and in the process I found several wounds that did not match up to the cause of death, a monster attack.

Since it was not the right moment to bring it up, I mainly noted down the suspicious points, their shape and location and helped the treatment foremost.

Once the treatment eventually failed because of the aforementioned reasons, I wanted to look into these points of suspicion first and make sure that something was afoot, when the family members of the deceased approached our Hall of Life and Death.

Since it was convenient for me and I had questions of my own, I agreed to meet with them.“

While the clergy member was still rather casual and dispassionate, the crowd almost boiled over from hushed conversations and outraged heavy breathing.

Accusing someone of a misdeed was one thing, but when it turned out that there really was substantial evidence for murder, every noble in attendance felt a cold shiver down their backs.

If the young generation could get targeted, it was not much of a jump to think that someone might go after nobles directly either.

This involved their own lifes, so how could they not be outraged at the current case.

Compared to benefits, their own existence was the most important thing, hence the nobility present got ready to tear the culprit apart once they were found.

Even the king furrowed his brow, hearing a report was different from getting a direct account and evidence from a trustworthy witness.

Leandar relied on the tentative peace between different factions to grow and flourish, the royal family mainly pitted their interests against each other to stay in control and reap the greatest benefits, chaos was the greatest threat to the prosperity of the Loewe family.