Trouble With The Church V

Lentis sat lazily in his office. He wasn't in a good mood but at the same time, he wasn't in a foul mood either. When he woke up from his "nap" he almost had a heart attack when he saw what time it was. He had slept for the entire day and woke up the next day. There was so much work to do and he had wasted so much precious time.

Or so, he thought. Apparently, someone had helped him out with his work while he was asleep. His surprise was through the roof when he saw that he only had a fraction of the original work he was supposed to do left. And all of this had been done by Rui. He didn't like the idea of someone else doing his work for him but it was only going to be this one time since things were still a mess after he became king. Once things were stable, he wouldn't need other people to help him out with his work and he would handle them all by himself.

Lentis shifted through the stacks of documents slowly. Most of them were requests for more supplies regarding repair and construction. None of it was urgent and required his immediate attention. However, there was one report that was pretty concerning. Lentis dropped the document that he was currently holding and picked up the report again.

It was his fourth time looking at it and he still wasn't sure what to make out of it. It had come earlier this morning from a soldier and it talked about how there was a strange burst of light during the night. It was uncertain the location where it happened, but it was somewhere in the abandoned part of the city.

"What there again?" It might be the slums but he wasn't sure. That area of the city had been empty for years now because everyone who used to live there either died or left. The situation there had been terrible and everyone went into poverty under the rule of the noble in charge of that area. He did some research on it and found that the people there lived extremely miserable lives and suffered inhumane treatment every day.

And worst of all, his father did nothing as that entire section of the city fell into ruins. Lentis had been thinking about reviving it once everything was better but that will have to hold since that wasn't his main concern right now.

His main concern was what was hiding in the slums. If it were the escaped slaves, he didn't really care as he was planning to free all of them anyway. It didn't matter if some of them were running away or were using the slums as their home. But what he is really worried about is if there were demons hiding in there instead. If it were demons instead of the slaves then he needed to do something about it.

Since he has no idea what is in there right now, he needed to send someone there to investigate. He thought about dispatching some soldiers there but it didn't sound like a good idea. Whether it was going to be demons or demihumans, they stood no chance and would probably get killed. The best choice was to either send the knights or ask the church to send some of their mages. Both are skilled enough to handle the task in the case that it is demons.

But if possible and even better, Lentis could go and find out himself. Bragging wasn't his thing and he hated it, but he was confident that he was currently the strongest person in the kingdom. The only two who could rival his strength are the other two knight commanders and they both had to be working together to stand a chance against him. His magic was just that powerful, or rather his father's to be exact, as he inherited it from him. If he went then he wouldn't need to risk anyone's life and he could decide on the spot what to do instead of having to wait for another report and deciding based on what its contents were.

But sadly, Lentis couldn't do that. If he left then everything would fall into chaos since there was no one else that could fill in for his position even if only temporarily. The only two people who could, were again the two knight commanders, and Siegfried was out while Rui was busy. He couldn't leave his office and had to send someone else.

"I'll guess I'll ask the church to do this then." The church was still in the midst of treating patients but they should be okay with sending a few of their priests to investigate what's happening in the slums. Sending the knights may sound like the better choice as they were more suited to missions like these and could handle most enemies, but Lentis was thinking of sending priests instead because if there was anything that they could do that the knights couldn't or may not be able to do, it was restraining multiple demons at once. That was the church's purpose, but ever since the demons disappeared, they have done nothing other than healing wounded soldiers from the war.

Unlike the knights, the magic-users in the church consisted only of light mages. They excelled at dealing with demons and other creatures that also use dark magic. If he sent the knights and it turns out that it was a demon or several, he couldn't say for sure if the knights would win. The knights' original purpose was to be the last line for Silverfield but they rarely ever faced actual combat because the enemy almost never made it that far. Because of this, the knights have been rotting away doing nothing while the soldiers in the front line were fighting for their lives.

If only Siegfried was here, then he could dispatch a group of knights under his command without any worry. The man was an ex-priest for the church and left because he was tired of seeing so many young soldiers die. According to records, his light magic was one of the best and the church refused to let him go because of that but Siegfried somehow convinced them to do anyway.

Siegfried could deal with a single demon without any problems. Maybe not two or three, but one was definitely within his capabilities. Actually, now that Lentis thought about it, it was better to just ask the church to send their priests. It was too risky to send the knights in the case that it wasn't just a single demon in the slums.

"Silas!" Lentis called for the knight that was currently on duty standing guard outside his door.

The door opened and Silas bowed before asking, "What is it, sir?"

"I need you to send a message to the church."

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