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For the first time in a long while, the church is closed to outsiders. A priest stands by the door, turning others away.

At the same time, a new group has arrived in Aidas. All of them wore hooded cloaks to hide their to hide their identity, drawing the attention of onlookers. Even so, the onlookers are not too bothered by this, as they simply assumed they are adventurers. After all, adventurers are known to have quirky habits, especially the higher ranking ones.

Their destination, the church.

At the entrance, the group was stopped by the priest.

"Identify yourselves."

Upon hearing this, the leader of the group removed his hood, revealing who he is.

With a deep bow, the priest gestured towards the door and said, "Welcome to this church, Bishop Sanctius. We have been awaiting your arrival."

With a slight nod, the group led by the bishop went into the church, where the vicar led them into the basement. Once inside the basement and away from prying eyes, they removed their cloaks, revealing all their equipment underneath.

Most of them, including Bishop Sanctius, are wearing priestly robes, with the exception that Bishop Sanctius' robes are lined with the royal purple, as compared to the pure white robes of the others, to signify his higher rank.

The ones who do stand out from the rest are wearing cuirasses with well protected leggins, quite unlike normal priests. They are also armed to the teeth with all manners of weapons and trinkets.

They are members of the Inquisition, officially sent as an armed escort for Bishop Sanctius to protect him against any dangers in this journey, but Bishop Sanctius is no fool, and knows that they are here unofficially to spy on him.

As a priest-mage, he is considered by the inquisition to be a "risky individual", and so whenever he leaves his offices in the cathedral within the capital, they'll be monitoring him, in case he decides to become an apostate or learn one of the "heretical" paths of magic.

It's honestly pretty tiresome for him, but he knows he can't change much, since this has been official inquisition policy for the past few hundred years. The inquisition don't want to repeat their old mistakes again, hence their motto: Watch over your brother, for his sin of heresy is thy sin of tolerance.

As Bishop Sanctius was brooding, the vicar approached him and said, "Thank you for taking the time to come over."

"Oh it's nothing. With this I have an excuse to get a breather." Bishop Sanctius replied without any seriousness in his tone, knowing that the inquisition is overhearing the conversation.

Bishop Sanctius turned to the inquisitors and said, "I hope you can help me do the preparation work. I'm don't specialize in setting up traps."

"If we judge that you've been influenced by the individual you're about to meet, we won't hesitate to use it against you. We have an understanding?"

"Of course, just get on with it." replied Bishop Sanctius to the chief inquisitor.

The inquisitors got started with their work, as they laid down incantations after incantations which formed a glowing magic circle covering the entire floor, which then became hidden.

Unlike normal mages, the inquisitors are extremely well trained in weapon usage. They still know their fair share of magic, but that comes mostly in the form on how to deal with them. In addition, they are also trained in anti-magic skills, which Bishop Sanctius is not allowed to know unfortunately.

"Thanks for the work."

"We are only doing our duty."

Even though the inquisitors sent to accompany him are technically his direct subordinates, it's usually a good idea to keep them on your good side. If they had so wished, they could easily kill him. And they're allowed to as well, as they are given the liberty to liquidate any subject of the goddess.

But now that the preparation work is done, all that is left is for him to wait until he arrives.

....

Early on in the morning, Bythos headed out of the village towards Aidas. He is noticeably more cheerful as he ventured into the market district with his coin pouch heavy with coins.

First he went over to the weapons shop to get a new steel sword and a few daggers should the need ever arise. Although he was eyeing one of the enchanted steel swords which looked pretty cool, it was way out of his price point, being at several gold coins. As for swords made of better materials, there's no need to even mention them, of course he can't afford it.

Next Bythos went to the Armour shop. The equipment in the armour shop is much more expensive than the weapons. A normal set of leather armour will come down to about two hundred silver coins, whereas a plate one will cost about sixty gold coins. The ones made of better materials or are enchanted have astronomical prices.

Looking into his coin pouch and counting all the copper and silver coins he has, he's just shy of being able to buy the leather armour set by about twenty silver coins. So instead of buying a leather chest piece, Bythos bought a gambeson to substitute it, while buying the other leather armour pieces. The gambeson is somewhat cheaper compared to leather, and if the shopkeeper's words are accurate, can double as winter clothing.

Once Bythos changed into his new equipment, he proceeded to the church. At the entrance, he was stopped by the priest, who said to him, "Identify yourself."

"I was told yesterday to come here because they needed some help around here," said Bythos, "why does it seem so quiet today?"

The priest replied, "Ah, it's you. I've been given orders to guide you to where you are needed. Follow me please."

Bythos followed the priest to a small stairway leading down, whereby the priest pointed towards it and said, "You are needed downstairs. Unfortunately I can only guide you so far, as I am not allowed down there."

With a word of thanks, Bythos walked down the stairs and entered the basement, where he found a rather large group of people waiting for him.

"Well I wasn't expecting this, what is the issue?"

The figure wearing white robes with purple lines walked towards Bythos and said, "The help we needed from you was just a little ruse. In reality we just needed you to come over."

"Right, so what is it about." asked Bythos.

"I will be casting a series of divination spells on you in an attempt to ascertain the nature of your powers, if any. If the results are satisfactory...Well we shall see."