Ch 9: Sowing the Seeds of Doubt

Knock. No response.

Another knock. Nothing.

"The Seats of the Temple of Truth are the gateholders to Reality. Amen."

The door creaked open, its hinges protesting against the disturbance. A gloomy looking middle aged man came into view. His straw coloured hair covered most of his forehead and a few strands fell on his nose.

"Come in, respected sir."

'Acting all humble and polite...I wonder which Seat does this murderer belong to.' Adrian felt his lips curl in disgust remembering the recent acts of the lower Seats.

He looked around upon entering the room.

It was in a messy state. A small table sat at one corner, while a stool whose one arm looked to somehow hold on, lay nearby. A cot was at the other corner and cobwebs hung all over the room.

He quickly took the stool for himself.

The middle aged man seeing this, sat on his cot without any complaint.

He then asked, "To what do I owe this visit, sir?"

"Straight to the point hmm...at least you have a redeemable quality." Although Adrian couldn't hold his disgust within himself, he nonetheless continued,"You have a mission from me. Wipe out the target and in exchange you shall get 5000 merit points."

The man's face contorted in a mixture of simultaneous variations of shock and disbelief; even flashes of greed glinted in his eyes.

However, a thought soon passed through his mind.

"Shouldn't you be saying 'the church has a mission for you.'?"

Adrian just smiled. He then grasped his palm, squeezing it harder until veins bulged in his forearms.

His eyes concentrated on one particular vein. The vein suddenly turned dark red and looked as if on the verge of bursting out. But it held!

And what happened next shocked the man to disbelief. Two blood orbs burst through the vein, only to return back a second later.

The man's face masked into horror upon seeing this, and he lifted his face to look at the black haired man with reverence and fear in his eyes.

"S-Second Seat...!!! Y-you are the Second Seat?!"

As if realisation suddenly dawned upon him, he shot up from the cot and immediately kneeled his head at the feet of the young man.

"My Lord, forgive this one for not recognising you."

Then standing up, he pounded his chest twice before adding, "Your work shall be done. Don't worry about it, sir."

Meanwhile Adrian cherished in the stupidity of the zealot in front of him.

'This blindfolded reverence of religious zealots is the foundation of organisations like ours.'

The Temple of Truth was a belief which advocated in NO RELIGION and ONE RELIGION at the same time.

No religion since almost all the religions and their foundations had already been exposed by the Temple of Truth.

People's trust in them soared high everytime they exposed the behind the scenes of an ancient belief.

However that caused a dilemma.

All these people since their birth had a religion which they had sternly followed. Now finding themselves with none, they felt lost.

As if to cope up with it, they started looking towards the Temple of Truth as their new faith, their new Messiah.

This was something even Adrian hadn't foreseen back then.

The top committee of the Temple has 13 members, each of them referred to as Seats. Among the public, it was believed that these 13 Seats were the closest to divinity. Originally they called them as 'Seat 1', 'Seat 2', etc.

However with the emergence of a malicious organisation which named themselves 'The Seats', the public changed the way they called the Seats of the Temple of Truth. Seat 1 came to be known as the First Seat, Seat 2 as the Second Seat and so on.

Instead the members of 'The Seats' were now called as 'Seat 1', 'Seat 2', etc.

Adrian internally laughed at this farce though. Since, 'The Seats' were nobody else but rather the 13 Seats of the The Temple of Truth itself!

In fact, the original organisation were The Seats ,founded by Seat 1 and Seat 2, that is Adrian. They later created the Temple of Truth and as time went on, they exposed the existence of their own organisation.

People of their religion needed some Evil to fight, something epic of which they could be a part, just like those theophanies of the ancient beliefs.

And Evil did they give to them...in the form of their own organisation.

In doing so, they created the false image of a fight between Good And Evil. An ingenious plan to increase the funds for their own organisation by manyfolds.

In fact, several kingdoms and empires even funded their Temple to get rid of this malicious organisation, while never getting to know the truth about them.

Taking his background as Seat 2,one can infer that Adrian's enemies were endless and ...yet none.

Since all of them were the sworn enemies of either one of his masquerades but none of them were his own enemies.

Adrian...he had no foes, well that is until the appearance of Nyx and whatever organisation was backing her up.

"Your target is the blacksmith. But...you need to put up some act before that. Harrass him in front of everyone, and once you see the guards coming, kidnap him and run. Kill him here later, and run away to the nearest base of ours."

The man looked thoughtful as he kept on nodding along with Adrian's words.

Seeing that the man following his words, he asked, "Where's the nearest base?"

"At Woodrock City, My lord." He replied without hesitation.

"I see..."

Distractions often end up causing some undesirable chaos, derailing one's concentration from the task at their hand. This was what he hoped to achieve through this.

And the mission? A random stuff he made up at the spot, an insignificant event tailored for his own goals.

A pawn's move might be limited but crucial to the laying of the foundations of the game.

The man, who seemed to be named Sykes, repeated himself.

"My Lord, you need not worry about such a menial task. Leave it to this humble servant."

Adrian smiled back.

"Good.

Then my job here is done."

Saying that, he stood up and walked through the door.

After he went out, the man stood up and exhaled the breath he was unconsciously holding in. A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes as he prepared for his 'mission'.

An hour later....

"What the hell do you think you are doing, you bastard?! Let go of me! Ouch!"

A man of disproportionate body structure- fat tummy and thin limbs- was being dragged mercilessly through the mud, while he shrieked in obvious pain whenever his captor pulled his hairs.

This man was the blacksmith of the town. And his captor, Sykes.

"Nah, nah, fattie.

You are my golden goose. It's just that instead of laying eggs, you shall give your life. Fair exchange, right, right?" The man was practically bouncing while looking at the blacksmith with an excited face. The massive number of contribution points he would get from this mission....he can already dream of a promotion.

'Ah the lord's kindness knows no bounds.'

Contribution points were as it sounds. The higher number and quality of missions you complete, the higher your contribution points. They technically decide your standing in the hierarchy among the subordinates.

"Help...someone please...help me!" The blacksmith's wails attracted quite a small crowd, but none dared to come to his rescue.

And why would they when they could see a long curved sword hanging behind Sykes.

Sykes decided to pack up from there when he saw few of the Saviours appear on the scene. Picking up the man upon his shoulders, he ran.

Behind him, the saviours gave chase...

Adrian watched all of this from a short distance. He was currently standing in the same path that Sykes was about to take. Satisfied with the proper execution of the plan, he turned away.

He took shortcuts, unused alleys, roads which didn't even exist in maps. He reached just nearby the slums, as he pressed himself against the back of a tree, hidden from view.

He half-closed his eyes, waiting.

Soon, sounds of approaching footsteps echoed through the barren area. He opened his eyes and saw the odd pair of assailant and his captive passing by him, their emotions in contrast to each other.

'So he plans to kill and dump him in the house huh?'

As soon as they passed by him, he sneaked behind them and syncing his own footsteps with Sykes's footsteps, he was able to go right behind his back without making a noise.

The blacksmith of course noticed him approaching.

The poor man was just having a regular day at his shop when all of a while, this blonde broke through his counter and dragged him out. He was so confused back then. He had almost resigned himself to his fate until now...

When he saw the black haired man come out from the back of a tree, he was about to shout in surprise but then noticed the sneaking man putting his index finger on his lips, indicating him to remain silent and gesturing he was there to help him.

The blacksmith went silent, his eyes lighting up with hope.

Having reassured the blacksmith, Adrian struck at Sykes, rendering him unconscious before he could even understand what was happening.

Adrian took out a dagger while the blacksmith muttered hastily.

"T-thank you...you really saved my life here, lad. I shall def---mmph!!"

His sentence was cut off as his eyes widened when the dagger struck deep in his thigh, his screams muffled by the forceful hands of the black haired stranger.

The stranger whom he had just thought to be his saviour, looked at him in the eyes.

Those eyes looked so blank.

That only made the blacksmith shudder more in fear.

Adrian took out a shard of glass from his robe, and showed the man his own reflection on it.

Then he spoke slowly, his words almost a gentle whisper.

"Do you see your face right now? Tell me, is it the same as the fear striken face the girl had that night?"

The blacksmith felt himself still at those words. His eyes bulged to impossible levels as the meaning of his words dawned on him.

"Yes, I know you were behind that assault on that little girl. She was just a child....and yet, you didn't leave her."

Growling in pain, the man whimpered in tears, "Please... p-please let me go. I-i swear I will hand myself over to the guards. P-please..."

"How many times did that girl tell you to let her go! Did you even hear her plea once, did you show sympathy to her? Did you even feel guilt over your actions?

So, tell me why...should...I...show...you...any...mercy?!"

Before the blacksmith could even reply, Adrian struck him with the hilt of the dagger, making him go unconscious as well.

He no longer wanted to hear excuses rolling from that vile tongue.

A week ago, a girl of just 7 years old, had gone missing. 2 days later, her body was found or to be more precise, what was left of her body.

Adrian had watched the funeral, her parents howling and clinging to each other, not in any state to accept the reality.

Adrian himself wasn't a good man, not at all. But even if it might be misguided, he could never let go of few things...He told himself it was justice, even if it was delivered by hands as impure as his.

Standing up and dusting his clothes, he finally turned towards Sykes.

What was strange was that Sykes was nowhere to be seen, but rather unconscious on the ground was Leonard....

Adrian stretched his hand towards him and the next moment, a translucent cloak shimmered just above the unconscious body before it flapped and reached Adrian.

Yes, until now, Skyes looked exactly like Leonard. Only now did he return back to himself. But the damage was already done. To further worsen the situation, there was also an ID dangling from his breath pocket.

It was Leonard's ID.

Back an hour ago, when Sykes was kneeling in front of Adrian, he had slipped it into this man's body.

And only when this guy decided to appear in front of the shop, did Adrian activate the spell and changed his entire face into that if Leonard without him realising it.

The saviours weren't simply chasing him thinking of a hidden quest, but rather due to the fact that they had seen the ID. Leonard's ID.

Adrian smiled knowingly.

Not only had he sealed the fate of Sykes but he was also about to bring justice to numerous victims of both Sykes and the blacksmith.

Most importantly, he would be able to escape unscathed.

'The only variable is Nyx...'