(Lian Li POV)
After the white light subsided, we found ourselves a short distance away from the gates of a city we didn't recognise.
Judging by that pretentious 'High Maiden' Tatiana's reaction when she saw the city, we must be at the right place.
We didn't actually need her help to round up those people, but since Master wanted us to 'get along', we had no choice but to let her come with us too.
It's fairly obvious that she agreed to come because she was afraid that we're going to make her look bad if we were to help Master solve this problem alone.
"Now, all of you just need to follow my lead and we can get them all before sunset," She ordered, looking quite proud of herself.
I turned to narrow my eyes at her, "Follow your lead? I'm sorry, but your leadership was what caused this entire thing to happen in the first place. I think your lead is the last thing we should be following right now."
"Oh? Then what should we do? Follow yours? Do you even know where they are holed up in?"
"Do you?" I shot back.
"Hmph, of course I do. I have had people stationed here to watch them ever since they were formed."
Eris crossed her arms, "Ya knew 'dey were here and did nothing?! Ya obviously making trouble 'fer Master on purpose!"
She sighed, "Like I explained to you before, it is not our place to decide their fate in place of our God."
Lunamaeniera shook her head, "You're telling me you don't have a judicial system? What do you do with criminals? And you're telling me that if someone were to start insulting Husband they wouldn't even face any consequences?"
She gave us a smug smile, "Oh we do. We just judge them based on the crime and its severity. If it's a crime against the country, then of course they will be judged by our judicial system. But if it's a crime against our God, then we have a separate Godly Law that will judge them."
Guiying tilted her head at her, "Oh? And how are you judging them?"
"If one were to murder another man, then that would be a crime against our country and thus subjected to Judicial law. If one were to murdee a priestess or priest, that would be a crime against our God and thus they will be subjected to Godly Law."
"And if they were to do something like… Littering?" Guiying asked, looking quite interested in this topic for some reason.
Oh, of course she would be, she's still the one ruling over Master's empire. Despite her genius talent, Guiying was still a young woman and was handed the reins of an entire country just like that. I dare say that without Master's support, she might have collapsed under all that pressure.
Perhaps she was referencing this country to see how else she can improve? How diligent of her.
The pretentious High Maiden wagged her finger, "That would depend on where they're littering. If they were to litter on a normal street, they'll need to pay a fine. If they were to litter on consecrated grounds, then they'll have to serve the temples and pray for forgiveness from our God."
Guiying pursed her lips as she considered it for a moment, "How troublesome. For us we simply merged our religious and judicial laws together. This is the country of our Master and His words are law after all."
"That's easy for you to say when you have our God staying at your place to help you out. We had to grope around in the dark and figure out what would and wouldn't be an affront to Founding God without our God here to confirm it."
"Oh ho? So you're admitting we are the superior ones now?"
"I said nothing of that sort. You merely had an advantage… No, a cheat! That's all!"
Guiying waved her hand smugly, "Yes, yes. Tell you what little High Maiden, you can consult this Empress about building a country fit for Master any time. In fact… Why not just consider a merger? We all serve the same Master anyway."
I knew Guiying was joking when she said the last part, but that pretentious woman actually stopped in her tracks to look at her.
"Actually… Let's talk about this when we go back, it's a point worth considering."
Even Guiying looked a bit surprised but she recovered quickly, "Eh? Really? Hmm… Alright then. Let's have a discussion after we fulfill Master's request."
No one disagreed with that point so we started making our way towards the gates.
But for some reason… I'm getting a rather bad feeling about the city ahead of us… It's like the feeling of emptiness when you're staring into the void.
"Is it just me or does anyone else get a weird feeling? It's… Too quiet. Wouldn't a trade city be bustling?" Brendan called out while we were walking there.
Everyone made noises of agreement but we still maintained our advance.
When we reached the gate, we found the guards standing there, making it seem like the feeling we had was merely just our imagination.
Until we realised that they were just standing there, unmoving. They weren't reacting to our presence at all despite us standing in front of them.
"Are they… Dead?" Diao Chan asked.
Elaria took out some kind of metal tube with a wooden stock from her storage ring before moving forward to inspect one of the guards.
I watched her just in case the guard tried to attack her but nothing of that sort happened and she returned to us with a confused look on her face.
"I thought they had turned into zombies or something and was going to blast them with my shotgun… They look fine actually, just er… I actually don't know how to explain it…"
Tatiana went up to another guard, watching him carefully before giving him a shove.
The guard fell over like a puppet with its strings cut, the armour he was wearing making a loud clattering sound when he hit the ground.
We were instantly on alert, expecting the others to start moving at the sound but our caution turned out to be unfounded since they made no other movements.
"If I had to guess… These people are already dead but their bodies just don't know it yet," Tatiana muttered.
"So… Like zombies?" Tsuki asked.
She shrugged, "I don't think there's necromancy involved here… Let's just go and take a look around. I trust none of you have any problems if these people turn out to be monsters and attack us?"
Manami materialised a fireball in her palm, "Ara? We should be asking you if you have any problems with us burning down the city if it comes to that~"
"Hmph… This is not a city of prayer so do with it what you will. Most of the people here also belong to a faction that don't worship our Founding God either so they are not people of our God."
"Hmm? Weren't you saying how they should be subjected to Godly Law and thus, you weren't supposed to decide their fates?" Kiyomi pointed out.
She tilted her head, "Our God sent us here to deal with this right? This is God's judgement."
Well, I admit she does have a way with words at least. I don't want to say she's hypocritical but… Oh well. It's not like we were any different with how we're converting people anyway.
That also explains why she was so nonchalant about the guards' situation.
"Now, shall we?" She gestured towards the gate.
Preparing ourselves for whatever we might see, we stepped into the eerily silent city…
