Cermin was aghast by this plain display of violence towards women and children. He ended up accidentally summoning his sword emanating with strong sun energy!

“HEY! What kind of priest would kick an innocent mother and child!?”

He helped the poor woman up. Her child was alright because she blocked the impact for him, but she had hit her head and it was bleeding.

The priest only scoffed at this. “Don’t you know who this mother and child is? This is ‘Joyful Salope’ and her child from an unknown father!”

“So? Why can’t she enter the temple then?”

Ronin puts a hand on his shoulder. “Your Highness. It’s implied that she’s… a woman that services men for work.”

“A maid?” Cermin blinked.

Ronin sighed. “Serves men for pleasure, Yoru Highness.”

His eyes widened. “Oh, right! But even still!”

He pointed his sword at the priest. “So what if this woman is a prostitute!? “

“You’re just a limp-dicked priests who chooses to judge her because you think you’re so clean while she’s dirty! When in fact, your selfish heart is dirtier than hers!”

Zeuxis almost broke character and cackled out loud, but instead coughed loudly when Ronin gave him ‘Don’t you dare’ look.

“Ahem. Even I have to agree as a priest myself.” He said off-script. “Even if she had indeed been sinful, it does not warrant your lack of compassion and resolving to violence.”

The priest of Soma just scoffed. “Any priest that defends a whore is not a real priest! You are all daemon scums if you would choose to stand up to that Salope!”

Cermin gritted his teeth. “Apologize now while you have the chance. And bring this woman to a doctor too, along with her child. He looks sick and needs help.”

“I only went to the temple to pray for my poor Filser’s health. I did not mean any trouble at all.” Joyful Salope said. “Yet Brother Juge won’t let me even burn a soma mushroom inside.”

The priest spat on them. “I will not let you burn a single divine soma mushroom with your filthy hands!”

He raised his hand, and soon…

A bunch of toadstool mushrooms grew around them, releasing spores.

“Don’t breathe them in! They’re poisonous!” Ronin yelled and pulled Cermin aside.

Cermin grabbed the mother a child too, as these mushrooms became like a barrier keeping them from the Temple of Soma.

“Shield of Solace!” Cermin yelled to protect their whole group.

But it was limited to only 4 people as of now, and ‘Zeriav’ was not included. Cermin yelled. “Run, Zeriav! He will keep chasing you out with poisonous mushrooms!”

(Dang it! Now I have to be chase by stupid mushrooms!)

‘You don’t have to be.’ Ronin told him. ‘Follow my instructions.’

Zeuxis raised an eyebrow, and his eyes gleamed when he finished listening to Ronin’s orders.

Eventually, ‘Zeriav’ only looked at the sky. “It looks like it’s raining. Rain will help drown out the spores.”

He wore the smallest of smiles with his hands behind his back.

Ronin then said. “Your Highness, looked over there!”

Cermin turned to the direction. “Where? What’s happening?”

While he was distracted, Zeuxis quickly shot a burst of electricity with his index finger into the clouds, charging them.

And when these clouds were charged enough, the water particles on them became heavier, and soon turned the cloud into a thundercloud…

A storm soon came.

This technique was dangerous because Cermin would have noticed something wrong with the delivery of rain.

But thanks to the distraction, he would have thought that it was just the usual Zeriav rain powers.

“I thought I saw some food. I was wrong, I was just very hungry that I hallucinated.” Ronin excused himself.

Cermin frowned. “Ah, I’m sorry about that. We’ll get something to eat as soon as we get rid of the mushrooms— Oh!”

It stormed quickly just around the area of the Temple of Soma, and the priest called Juge cursed. “So you’re a follower of Demetri!? Are you starting a fight between my god and your god!?”

“You started it when you called me a fake priest, old man. Not to mention a daemon scum.” ‘Zeriav’ said with a dangerous tone, full of anger that was unlike himself.

Cermin felt shivers down his spine when he heard this.

“Now, if you don’t want me to make it rain for eternity over your tiny little temple…” He turned to the woman and child. “Let us all in. We need prayers and guidance.”

“Over my dead body!” The priest said, raising his hand into the air. “Charlatan!”

(That could be arranged.) Zeuxis grinned. (I have had enough of you, wrinkly limp-dicked bastard.)

‘Don’t—’

But Zeuxis did it already, and soon—

A burst of lightning struck Brother Juge!

He had completely been electrified, convulsing with his body burned down to the bone. The image made the boy and the mother scream.

Cermin couldn’t believe that he was seeing death in front of him again. He closed his eyes like a coward—

And soon, it’s over. The old man was nothing more than a burnt mushroom on the ground. Roasted to bits.

Ronin gritted his teeth. “I believe Demetri was angered by this man insulting his follower, Yoru Highness.”

‘Zeriav’ nodded gravely, but deep down he was grinning like a madman.”Indeed. I thank my god for delivering this man’s reckoning off our hands.”

Cermin frowned. “Your god is too brutal… We could have talked things through with him. He’s just an old man with misguided beliefs.”

“But….” He turned to the bleeding mother and child. “I suppose this is just like the death of that daemon. It’s justified.”

Ronin looked at the body. “Let’s just get inside before anyone see us and link us to the body. We can pray for soulds now that there’s no one blocking us.”

As they went inside, careful not to step on the electrified corpse by the front steps, Ronin chided Zeuxis. ‘Look at how you made me clean up your mess.’

(The old geezer was asking for it. Plus it quickens things for us, now we can pray for my poor dead soul.) Zeuxis said sarcastically.

‘I don’t think you even had a soul in the first place.’ Ronin rolled his eyes.

The inside of the Temple of Soma was filled with toadstools that were connected by roots over what seemed to be candlesticks. They burned with bright fervor to serve as the light inside.

But it was still pretty grim and dark. Not to mention cold. No one could believe that someone lives here, it was not a good place to live with all the mushrooms.

What if someone suddenly inhaled spores? Maybe the priest did, that was why he was so kooky and lacks patience, kicking people like that.

They soon reached a bunch of unlit toadstools, and Joyful Salope went to light one with a nearby little toadstool, then kneeled beside it to pray.

“God Soma…. Please bless my child and heal him. He had received the disease, and his frail body as weak as a tiny puffball would not bear it.”

“Why didn’t you take him to a doctor, Madame?” Cermin asked politely.

“No one in Elysia would take us in because we don’t have enough money. And the doctors in Sodomia are all charlatans.” Salope said sadly.

“Besides… I may or may not have ruined some of their families. But it’s their fault for taking my services in the first place.”

She turned to all three of them. “You have my thanks, strange travellers. You speak Commons, I take it that you are not from Himmelgard?”

“Yes. But my friend Ronin can understand and read signs.” Cermin said, extending a hand. “I am Prince Cermin Dychspiel fo Scirocco. I have come to fix the world to normal again.”

“A prince….. Oh, pardon me for not noticing.” She bowed her head politely, and turned to her son. “Filsen, look. It’s a real life prince.”

The boy weakly smiled at him. “Good day, Your Highness. Itis a pleasure to meet you.”

He tried to give a low bow, but almost fell down from doing so.

Salope supported him. “He had always wanted to be a prince when he was young. I used to tell him stories about princes in distant kingdoms.”

“Why did you want to be a prince?” Cermin patted his head.

“So we’ll be rich, and my father would be the king. Then no one would ask me who my father is again and make fun of me for not knowing how to answer…” The frail boy said, sneezing a little from the cold.

“I could just say ‘My father is the king! So none of you can laugh at me or my mom, you should bow before he because she’s a queen!’”

Joyful Salope gave a look of sadness. “You will always be my little prince, Filsen.”

She took his hand. “Come now. Hopefully your condition gets better after our prayers reached Soma. Then he can have some mushroom cream soup.”

She turned meekly at the three young men, and asked with hesitation:

“I….. I know that you boys may be hesitant to enter my house after learning my occupation. But I hear that you were hungry….. So would you be willing to have some soup with us as my thanks for your help?”

They did not even hesitate to nod yes, with the bright golden prince smiling at her with so much kindness.

“Thank you so much, Madame! We would appreciate it!”