When I arrived in front of my destination, Sana's office, I confirmed that the person I was looking for was inside and knocked on the door.
Knock knock–!
"Sana, are you inside?"
"Kyaah!"
Crash!
I just called her with a normal voice, but the reaction I got was way more than what I expected. Rather, that was quite a loud crash. Was she okay?
My answer came in the form of the door opening from inside, and Sana appeared with disheveled hair and a stiff smile, hiding a piece of porcelain behind her small back.
"S-Sir Arthur? You're here?"
I looked at the short Archbishop in front of me with a smile. Her white leotard was a bit crooked, and she fixed the shoulder strap with her free hand.
"Good evening, Sana. May I come in?" I asked with a collected tone, casting a friendly smile over my face.
"Of course. Please do come inside, Sir Arthur. But… Please excuse the messy place. Hahaha…"
Sana laughed wryly as she opened the door wide and showed her disastrous messy office room. It was totally different from the neat and graceful one I visited earlier.
Many documents were stacked on the desk, spilling even to the floor around it. These documents were one thing, but the broken piece of white porcelain with a red rose and wet water seeping into the soft carpet immediately caught my eye.
"I was careless." The Archbishop made an excuse as she threw the broken piece in her hand to join the rest of it. "I-I was just a bit too busy, Sir Arthur! I am by no means a careless person by nature."
"I know, Sana. You don't need to say all those as that only serves as digging your own pitfall."
"Uggh… I am ashamed." She muttered while burying her red face into her hands.
Who would've thought the almost perfect Archbishop Sana Castitas to have this side of her? It just showed that every person had a flaw. Of course, me included.
I decided to help her to clean the carpet by putting the broken porcelain into my inventory and drying the carpet using a simple [Dry Fan], a miscellaneous magic item I had in my inventory, amongst many other things.
We sat on the couches across from each other afterward, and Sana's face was still red from shame. However, she tried her best to look composed and smiled as if nothing had happened.
"You've returned faster than I had expected, Sir Arthur. How is your trip?"
"It's doing quite great. There was some trouble regarding my childhood friend, Eliza's father. But I've helped them cope with it and currently sheltered Madam Vivian Claydall in my mansion."
"A trouble, is it…?" Sana tilted her face cutely.
Seeing such an innocent face was refreshing, although I knew the woman in front of me was far from innocent.
"It's about the primordial Succubus I talked about before."
Once I said that, Sana's expression turned serious. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"So she really exists? In here, the Virtue Kingdom?"
"She exists," I confirmed. "In fact, she was in the Academy City until a few days ago and was the one who charmed Alexander Bluerose."
Sana suddenly jumped from her chair and shouted. "Then we need to prepare ourselves! If the Succubus is truly in Academy City before, we need to get the knights to pa–"
"Calm down, Sana." I stopped her with a calm voice, putting her outburst to a halt.
She noticed that she had panicked, and her cheek turned red, "I-I am sorry." She muttered and slowly sat back on the couch.
"But, Sir Arthur. If the primordial Succubus' presence is confirmed in the Academy City, then there should be more charmed people! And we need to look for them before they create trouble. Or worse, a Devilkin like the former Archbishop will appear."
Finishing her sentence, Sana held her head and released a long sigh.
"I am truly sorry for you to watch me like this. But even the former Archbishop Jasper's matter had become a big trouble for the church. I have been dealing with it for a few days since I was the first to know about…" She suddenly stopped and looked at me, shaking her head.
"I-It's not like I blamed you for telling me about it! Instead, I feel thankful because you told me first."
"I understand that, Sana," I reassured.
"I know you're tired, so you shouldn't push yourself too hard. Rather, I should be sorry for disturbing you. That's why I wanted to go right into the point as to why I visited, and before you go into panic again, I will personally take care of the primordial Succubus."
"As I said before, Sir Arthur. You can bother me anytime without feeling sorry. And hearing you saying that you would take care of it personally is reassuring. I understand very well that we can depend on you." Sana responded, relieved.
"And so, about your reason for visiting me…"
"It's about the mission you assigned to my knight squad."
"Ah!" Sana exclaimed. "I apologize. I thought you would return late, so I gave them a mission so they could build some reputation as the new Paladin Knight Squad. If you have a plan with them, I can always reassign the mission to the other knight squad."
"No, I don't mind that. I think it's a good idea to assign them a mission. You actually did a good job."
"My, thank you for your compliment. Fufufu." Sana giggled, flattered. "Was the reason for your visit was to compliment me, Sir Arthur? If so, then I am truly happy."
"That's one thing I wanted to do, indeed," I replied with a playful tone. "But I also want to ask something about the mission. If you don't mind, can you tell me the details of this… disturbing news ahead of the others? I am quite curious."
"Of course. Where should I start?"
"Just the news and what they need to investigate. If possible, the news about what happened in Lima Port City too. This case is what makes King Cassius late in dealing with those nobles, no?"
"Indeed." Sana nodded, confirming my suspicion. "This actually happened in a few places at once, but the most noticeable one is in Lima Port City."
"This happened a few days before King Cassius' visit, the same day when the pack of Black Tigers was spotted near Academy City. The monsters' activity became strange as if something had roused them. The area that got affected heavily was Lima Port City. A Kraken has appeared close to the shore."
"A Kraken?"
A Level 70 monster appearing near the shore was way more worrying than dealing with nobles.
Usually, that kind of monster wouldn't even get close to human settlement and only hang around the edge of the world due to their habitat and their food source also hanging in the same area of their habitat.
"Not only Kraken, but many monsters also appeared. The Kingdom Knight suspects someone or something had instigated the strange monster's behavior and decided to investigate it directly because the influence had reached the riverside village near Capital City."
That was a rational decision, indeed. But that decision was a step too late.
Why did they wait for the strange monster's movement to be close to Capital City before investigating it directly?
The 'directly' word meant they had investigated it before but not in the real location and probably only used magic items to communicate with someone from Lima Port City.
Sana explained the content of the mission and the extent of the monsters' strange behavior in detail, and I listened to her quietly.
As the Kingdom Knight and Church Knight's duties were different and both were different organizations altogether, the scope of our job was only to exterminate monsters and help the villagers.
If it was just that and was located away from the main place where the strangeness happened, then Sophia and the other two would be enough.
About the monster's strange behavior…
'Probably it's because of that.'
The first event of Sins Paradise after the prologue. It was an event purposely created to get the main character stronger.
And related to this event.
'There will be something interesting happening. And I don't want to miss a chance to have fun.'
The answer was clear.
"That's troubling," I muttered.
"Indeed. But it's a chance for your new knight squad to gain some reputation from helping the villagers."
'She heard it, huh?' I thought, shaking my head.
"Ah, it's not that. I didn't mean anything about the mission. It's related, but not about the monsters." I quickly responded, causing Sana to tilt her head curiously.
Her gaze pierced me with the question, 'What is it?' written in her eyes.
The corner of my lips curled up into an amused smile as I continued, "I said it's troubling because I thought about something after hearing your explanation. If my guess is right, then it will be troubling for the Kingdom Knight."
"What part of it is troubling you, Sir Arthur?"
"The part about Kingdom Knight investigating the cause of the strange monsters' movement directly in Lima Port City," I replied with confidence. Then, I continued. "They will die for sure."
Although I said the Kingdom Knight would die investigating this accident, Sana's question was weak. It was due to the fact they could revive when they die.
Who would be afraid of dying? They would only lose a Level and could regain it with hard work. Dying was also a risk those knights knew when they steeled themselves to serve the Virtue Kingdom.
But I wasn't done yet. There was always a catch.
"They will slowly die for a year before they can actually die."
And that changed everything.
