Chapter Five: The Prince (Part 2)

About 15 minutes later, I found myself sitting on this milky-colored pew, gazing at nothingness, while my cheek was being pressed continuously and playfully by this demonic prince's long and slender finger. There was not a single thought on my mind, as I didn't really know how to feel about the whole situation.

10 minutes more had passed, and Nagisa somehow happened to know that my mind was in a 'critical' condition and I couldn't just walk myself to her, therefore she came to me - to the rescue. When the law enforcer appeared in front of me out of nowhere, using her hologlove to scan all over my face, I just stared at the air blankly, even looking directly into the blue light.

"According to the scan's result, it seems that Mr. Ozwald is in shock... Would you be so kind to tell me what exactly happened, Mr. Orobas?"

"Well... It seems that my entire identity is a bit too much for him to take in, so his brain may need a bit more time to process the information, I suppose~ Ah! But if you're asking about how exactly did he turn up here, then I simply had no answer. Hehe~" As Prince Orobas replied to Nagisa, his voice then shifted back to that of a girl, causing both my eyes to widen a bit, then I started to blink rapidly, regaining my consciousness.

"Oh? Hello, Nagisa..." When I finally noticed that Nagisa was standing right in front of me, my mouth then began to speak by itself like I was on autopilot. The feeling of dizziness was still there, and it took me a good while to... readjust myself? I don't know.

"Hello, Mr. Ozwald. Did you sleep well?"

Not at all. Thank you.

"Pretty well, Nagisa... Thank you so much... for asking."

Ah... During that particular minute of our greetings, my head felt so light and heavy at the same time... Why was it like that, I couldn't even fathom the reason. Just because I encountered a girl and he turned out to be a man, and then I felt like I got bamboozled by the Lord himself, was it supposed to be that bad?

Goodness... if this was love at first sight, then I guessed I was seriously f*cked, judging from the depth of his voice, I bet his manhood must be 2 times bigger than mine...

Anyhow, after 10 - 20 seconds or so, when I started to feel like myself again, it was then that Nagisa decided to break the silence and continued our paused conversation as if she could sense that I was feeling a bit unwell and so she had waited.

"My pleasure. It's our priority to make sure that you've received the best of hospitality. Speaking of, has Leo escorted you to the canteen yet?"

"Uh... Huh? I'm sorry?" Still, I couldn't catch the latter words Nagisa said to me, as my mind kept drifting away for some unknown reason... Oh, this would take a long long while...

"Assuming from your reaction, I guess not. As expected, one can't just trust Leo to fulfill his duty... So I've prepared you this emergency ration. Please take it."

"Oh, okay... Thank you." 'Emergency ration' you say?

Such a choice of the word made me picture some kind of freeze-dried food in my mind, however as I reached for whatever the thing in paper wrap that was, it turned out that her definition of 'Emergency ration' was just a footlong sandwich - a sandwich with so much meat and vegetables that the bread almost couldn't hold them together.

Umm... This thing looked like a feast and I swear it could fill my stomach for a whole day and she called it an emergency ration? I bet the Hunters always be eating well...

"This looks so delicious, thank you, really. But... can I just eat in this room?" As I asked that question, I couldn't help but look at Prince Orobas, the one who seemed to be in charge of this 'Hall of Faith', a sacred place, despite being a demon.

And so the prince answered me with his once again deep and manly as hell voice "Yes, please, I'd love to see you eat, Your Highness~"

"I-If you are not mocking me, please don't call me like that, you're the literal prince while I'm just..."

"Oh, don't worry, Your Highness~ I am quite sure that your status is much higher than mine~ And most importantly, I no longer hold on to the rank I was born in, I am now but a humble priest who serves Lord Almighty. But it was wired into us demons' brains to introduce our rank before anything else, it's how demons weigh their respect as we are not born equal, unlike man. Ah, but I guess it's also because I'm an old man so I introduce myself in the way of old~ Hehe~"

When he finished explaining all of that, I didn't even know at which point should I feel the most flabbergasted: the way he stated that my status could be higher than his? the fact that he was a priest, a DEMON PRIEST? or that 'being an old man' saying?

Well, I didn't really want to dig deep into such a thing as 'my status' and I also started to realize that the Solomon's demons must be older than King Solomon himself, so...

"Here, a demon can be a priest...?" I decided to let out that question while giving Nagisa a quick look, hoping she would get the signal.

To be honest, let alone being a priest. How come he got welcomed into this place? Wasn't your motto something like 'To eradicate all demons'?

When Nagisa slowly turned her head toward me and her cold blue eyes narrowed down, somehow I got a feeling that her answer would be a long ass essay, for sure.

"I am not a believer and I was not born into a normal household, so pardon me if I say anything that might offend you, but first and foremost, we always welcome anyone willing to fight on our side; be it the Mortals agents or a peaceful demon. And if one stays with us, thriving in the same place as us, he or she should receive the same treatment as us."

"Mr. Orobas is a demon but he believed in God, and he wanted to become a priest, thus we gave him the opportunity to prove himself, and he has proved himself a believer and worthy, so he shall be a priest."

"Nevertheless, if the fact that he's a demon who lives under the same roof as us offends you, not the fact that he's a demon who becomes a priest, we must apologize, but Mr. Orobas has long been our ally and we need you to rest assured."

"He's not a threat, Mr. Ozwald."

After Nagisa had finished her statement that sounded too elaborate and philosophical for a person of her age, I found myself staring blankly at the air again and again.

"I see... We're still living in the land of opportunity, after all..." I didn't really know what to say, or what to reply. That was... almost a bit too much for my small brain to process, indeed.

Hence, when Prince Orobas (Or rather Pastor Orobas?) let out a big grin and started speaking with his high-pitched voice, making him sound exactly like a girly girl, it was then that I decided to throw all the 'essay' away for later, and listened to him speak instead.

"That's right~ Here is truly the land of opportunity and forgiving, as I would be dead the second I crawl near the Vatican sector or the Saint Petersberg sector~ I've heard that their Seraphs are super ruthless. The Seraph here even allowed me to build this room just for praying and performing rituals, CAN YOU IMAGINE?" Uh...

'Seraph'?

As of the 'Seraphim' rank angel? Another new term? Was it something like 'Commander'?

"Their conditions are much worse than us, so it's natural that they would be MUCH more suspicious and distrustful, Mr. Orobas. Still, aside from the Antarctica sector or the Hawaii sector which have relatively 10 - 20 demons a month, I agree that our sector is indeed one of the most lenient."

"Oh, come on~ Having me must be a whole lot better than letting me die, don't you think?"

...

What...? Hawaii sector? Did the demons really need to invade such a place?

And how many Order of the Hunters sectors were there? And what was with their hierarchy? I thought that these are all demi-gods and they were all equal within their Order, like taking the same oath or something?

"I must admit, listening to you two, I'm super confused right now... Can someone please explain all of this to me like I'm 5?" Eventually, I just couldn't contain my curiosity mixed with confusion any longer. As I vocalized my thought, my hand already reached for my temple.

Then Nagisa, after she had heard me saying that, I really thought I was seeing things, but her eyes did immediately widen, and her face seemed to get lit up, as if... at that particular moment, she finally got the chance to say whatever the thing she had wanted to say.

"That was why I appointed us to meet up at the arsenal first thing in the morning, Mr. Ozwald. You can learn the basic things about us there while finding your divine weapon in the meantime. So you would not need to stay late and you would be able to go home to your brother sooner."

"Oh... OK." And the mention of my little brother did make my eyes widen after her. Thank God, there was at least one Hunter who was thoughtful and considerate, and thank God she seemed to be the one in charge of lots of things and have a say in determining the length of my stay...

Ah, but, by the way--

...

Did she just mention... 'my divine weapon'?