"Indeed." Laine followed a paladin into the Justice Church.
"You're really familiar with these people." Teresa followed Laine into the Justice Church. The paladin at the entrance noticed this beautiful yet dangerous woman. After a moment of hesitation, he did not stop her.
"I am quite familiar, because they are my bread and butter. With the annual stipend I receive, I can barely make ends meet. Look at me, I don't even have a squire, I'm really poor." Laine shrugged with both hands. The female sorcerer gave him a sideways glance but said nothing. According to known information, Laine was indeed always a lone wolf.
Knights like Laine who traveled alone were quite rare. Typically, knights traveling would at least be accompanied by two knight's squires: one for horse logistics and another for weapon and equipment logistics. For instance, Laine never used the cavalry lance because after it broke during a charge in battle, a knight's squire was needed to protect and replace the weapon.
In fact, as Teresa knew, many knights traveling would have more than just two squires. The master knights would have a dozen or more followers, and some would even bring their lovers along for the journey, which increased the cost. Laine's claim about his stipend being insufficient was not unreasonable.
However, the bonus Laine received annually from the Justice Church or the Kingdom's Minister of Finance was already several times his stipend, so he should be able to afford a few squires.
So he simply doesn't want to, rather than being unable to financially, Teresa thought.
The interior of the Justice Church in Kaltenhaven was clean and filled with simplicity. In the courtyard, some young paladins were practicing swordplay. Besides them, there were some praying. Passing through the spacious courtyard and entering the main hall, the statue of the God of Justice shone brightly in the cold air, radiating warmth. The stone statue embodied majesty and compassion, filled with hatred for evil and justice for all things, yet the towering statue looked somewhat sorrowful with the God of Justice's eyes missing, leaving only deep darkness in the eye sockets. In one hand, he held scales, and in the other, his famous divine artifact, his beloved sword — the Judge.
Whenever he stepped into this hall, Laine would always feel immense reverence towards this God of Justice. The God of Justice was not an indigenous deity of this world. Like the Lake Fairy, he was an outsider, arriving in this world around eighteen hundred years ago. Prior to this, seven predecessors had fallen, making this the eighth God of Justice.
Being the God of Justice is truly a high-risk profession.
His eyes were gouged out by the Chaos Evil God during the first Chaos Invasion, and his left hand was injured by a Child of Chaos in the second Chaos Invasion. This deity always led the charge against evil, and his disabilities and scars were symbols of steadfast justice and sacrifice. For this reason, the teachings of the God of Justice have spread most widely across the continent and have the largest following.
The priest responsible for this church had yet to return due to some matters, so the two sat down in a small courtyard of the Justice Church, at a stone table with stone chairs. A priest brought two cups of clear water, motioning for them to drink. Laine promptly drank up without hesitation, while Teresa hesitated slightly, uncomfortable with drinking clear water.
This world is not safe at all. It's difficult for commoners to find clean water sources, so aside from clergy and believers drinking the water purified by the church, the majority of commoners get their water intake from rice porridge, soups, and various poor-quality fruit and malt wines. Teresa, from a wealthy family, usually drank various fruit juices, soups, and occasionally wine, at home, rarely directly drinking clear water like this.
"Drink it; it's Holy Water." Seeing Teresa's hesitation, Laine said directly, "In a small church like this, unlike large church organizations in Frost City, Archbishop Innocen has the capability to see through whether we are corrupted by Chaos, but the priests here cannot. Only by drinking the Holy Water can we gain their trust."
The female sorcerer gazed into Laine's eyes with her beautiful silver irises. After confirming he wasn't speaking nonsense, she drank the Holy Water. A burning sensation coursed through her throat, feeling uncomfortable, like something spicy.
Laine watched Teresa's discomfort, frowning. Then, suddenly, without a word, he grabbed the female sorcerer's gloved arm, wrapped in white lace, placing his hand directly on her wrist.
"What are you doing!!?" Teresa shouted angrily. But Laine's wrist strength was no match for the sorcerer's; her wrist was bound firmly to the stone table, revealing a delicate hand, fingers painted with purple nail polish. But Laine did not care, pinning the sorcerer's wrist tightly with his large hand.
"Bastard, let go!" Teresa, her strength still at a low point, struggled fiercely, her eyes full of humiliation. Seeing this, Laine realized she'd misunderstood, hastily speaking up: "It hurt when you drank the Holy Water because you were corrupted by Chaos! I'm helping you check!"
Only then did the female sorcerer stop moving.
A pale blue energy emanated from Laine's palm, surging directly into Teresa's wrist. The black Chaos Energy reacted to this pale blue energy like mice seeing a cat, quickly being eradicated.
Laine finally released her delicate wrist, sighing: "Teresa, in the future, be very careful not to deplete all your magic power like that again. In that state, a caster is a feast for evil deities. If you don't want to meet a destructive end like those Mad Mages, you'd better be cautious."
"...Understood." Teresa wasn't someone who didn't understand the circumstances. Her mother had also educated her about Mad Mages.
Most casters need to use the Demon Net constructed by the Magic Goddess to cast spells. In this case, unless one is a Holy Sanctuary Spellcaster who has felt and touched the Magic Origin, one cannot cast spells without the Demon Net. For casters, the Demon Net is akin to a lifeline. Without it, their ability to cast spells would drastically decrease. A Sixth Ring Legendary Mage might struggle to cast even a Fourth Ring Magic spell.
In this context, there emerged the so-called "Mad Mages," also known as Wild Mages who refuse to use the Demon Net for spellcasting. These Wild Mages are more violent and wild, heavily influenced by elements. For instance, air element Mad Mages usually go bald and their skin turns gray-white after a few years. Fire element Mad Mages have fiery red hair and beards, with irritable tempers, and life element Mad Mages become uninterested in personal hygiene, always dirty and greasy, living like beasts.
These characteristics are trivial, but more importantly, these Mad Mages almost have a consistent fate: downfall. The Chaos Energy wandering in the elements of the world also gets absorbed into their bodies, and it doesn't take long before these Mad Mages rapidly progress due to Chaos Energy, but also quickly fall because of it.
From Laine's perspective, to make an analogy: if the human soul is a school cafeteria, then a caster's soul is a faculty-exclusive restaurant, and of course, the most valuable is an elf's soul, equivalent to a Michelin meal.
"Are you like this with everyone?" Teresa picked up her lace gloves and put them back on, saying in a disgruntled tone. She accepted Laine's explanation, though still somewhat dissatisfied.
"No, only because it's you." Before the female sorcerer could bask somewhat in Laine's remark, he dashed her hopes with: "You're an important collaborator. I desperately need a caster to help me fight powerful demons. With a caster along, a lot of problems are easily solved, aren't they?"
"Oh? Haha, I think as long as you can hold off the opponent and ensure I'm not disturbed while chanting, that's enough. I can handle the enemies; you don't need to rush up with your slow, clumsy hammer to fight them. Don't you think that's stupid? In many meanings." Teresa slapped away the Kingdom Knight's hand disdainfully, eyeing him with scorn.
The female sorcerer quickly shifted her focus to the pale blue energy in the man's hand, finally unable to contain her curiosity: "Can you tell me something, Laine?"
"Go ahead."
"What exactly... is your profession?"