"Well, since I'm already disguised, I suggest I infiltrate the church! Like a spy! That way we can get a better idea of what we are dealing with."
"That's a good idea… So I will take care of the Baron then."
"And how will you do that? The way I see it, the only way to him is through the gate that separates his castle from the rest of town. And since we only have a week, getting a job there to infiltrate might take too long…"
"Don't you worry about that… All I need is already arranged. Though I will need your help with it."
"…I'm waiting for details, Master…"
"There's not much to say for now. Call it a spontaneous creative exercise."
"I had a feeling… Alright then. Just tell me the time and I'm sure I will be able to handle anything!"
"I'm sure of that too…"
He gave her a couple of head pets before turning away.
"We will split up for now then…"
"What about Lucy?"
"I already gave her instructions through a note this morning before we left the inn. Her actions shouldn't affect your role in this, so just do your own thing."
"Alright… I will be going then."
"Okay."
"…Right now I will!"
"Yes, I heard you."
"As in, being separate from you!"
"…?"
She extended her arms to him expectantly, though her pouting made her intention unclear.
"Leaving!"
Yamato could only guess what she wanted from him, and his best guess was giving her a goodbye kiss on the lips. Which seemed to be exactly it. After she stopped pouting, she flew off smiling happily and humming to herself. Glad to have resolved this without any problems, Yamato flew off as well.
As Yuki arrived in front of the church, she wondered how she should begin her infiltration best. Her main goal was to get information about them first, which meant either find someone she could talk to or read texts. It would probably be a good idea to go and ask Tom first, but then she had to go all the way back. And she was already here anyway.
Observing the church, Yuki spotted a young woman who also appeared to be a nun taking care of the garden surrounding the entire building. Her clothes differed slightly from Yuki's, the nun's being more of a blue tone than black and they not as tight as Yuki's, so she adjusted them accordingly so they would be identical. From what she could tell at this distance, the woman had hazel eyes and blonde hair reaching down all the way to her waist.
"But why is she all by herself? Such a large garden shouldn't be kept by just one person… Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but isn't that weird? She doesn't seem to mind, but she isn't looking particularly happy either… I wonder what god they worship. Will it be the actual god, or a made up one? Either way is wrong of course, as long as it's not about Master, I cannot support this institution~"
Yuki decided to just walk up to her and begin a conversation. After all, worst case she had to kill her or whatever, she thought.
"Uhm, I'm sorry? I'm new here and I believe I wasn't assigned a duty yet… Would you mind if I helped you, since you seem to be taking care of everything here by yourself?"
"…Why yes! I would love your help! I'm so glad to finally see a new face! I will show you around right after, if you haven't been already?"
"Uh… No, that would be great, thank you so much…"
"What's with her? She doesn't seem like the evil corrupted person I would have expected her to be… Then again, she's here all by herself. Maybe she's a lone flower blooming in a swamp in the middle of nowhere. Ah, Master would be so proud of my metaphor~"
"My name is Carina! And yours?"
"My name is…"
"Should I give a fake name? A real spy would definitely use a fake name! But she's so excited… Not that I would feel bad about lying to her! But what if she sees through my lie using secret magic?! Like a holy spell of lie detection, since she's a nun! In that case my cover would be blown! Heh, I'm so smart~"
"My name is Yuki!"
She declared proudly, Carina even clapped which Yuki thought to be a fitting reaction, though in reality it was quite weird.
"Ooh, what a beautiful name! I will get you a can right away, then we can water the flowers together, Yuki! You just wait here for me, okay?"
"Ah, yes, please do. I will stay right here."
Carina started to run into the church, but tripped after three steps along the way and fell with her face into a rose bush.
"Ouch!"
"Carina, are you okay?!"
Yuki hurried after her and helped her get up. Her face was full of scratches now, but she did not seem to have any serious injuries.
"Ah, thank you… I'm fine. This happens all the time, you know? I'm a bit clumsy… That's why I take care of the garden, since I can't do much wrong here. Oh, right, the can. I will be right back!"
"…Right…"
And then she ran off again to the church, without tripping this time.
After about two minutes, Yuki wondered whether Carina had tripped again, and that was why it took so long. Maybe she fell down the stairs and just died, she wondered. That would be bad, since she could no longer get information out of someone that was dead, obviously. So she decided to go look for her. Taking the same entrance as she did, she entered a large hall with ornaments of gold on the walls, which surrounded paintings that covered the entire ceiling. If this building were meant to worship Yamato, she would have no complaints about its appearance. Just as she inspected the various statues which served as pillars for the ceiling, she heard noise coming from one of the many hallways leading into this main hall. It sounded like spilled water, so maybe it was Carina who had spilled the can? Yuki decided to investigate! But what she saw was not as much of a funny scene as she had hoped, but rather something she could not stand for.
"What do you think you are doing, running around in here without permission?"
"Yeah, I can't remember hearing Priest Mateo permit such behavior either. Must we remind you not to disobey his word? Ignoring the authority given to him by the Absolute Deity… This borders on blasphemy!"
"And what's with your face? Have you tripped again? I hope you did not damage the flowers in the garden when you did."
Carina was cornered by two other nuns, who did not seem to like her very much. It seemed like it was about to get physical, and Carina did not look like she would defend herself.
"I'm… I'm sorry… I was just…"
Could Yuki leave her all by herself like that? Well, of course she could. But somehow, she was not entirely sure if she should.
"Absolute Deity? Hm… Yeah, I can work with that as description for Master. Though I fear they aren't referring to him right now. Still, interesting… Now, do I save her? My cover might get blown if I expose myself to more people that have never seen me before… Those two seem like real sticklers for rules too. I bet if they see someone they don't know in hear they're gonna be like "Who are you? I will inform Priest Mattso at once!" Or whatever his name was. Matty? Martin? Ma… Master? Ah, no that's Yamato, oops. Ma… Mateo! Sigh… Why do the names of insignificant people sound so easy to forget? I don't wanna try to remember anyone but Master… Otherwise I'd have to… Eugh, waste a thought on them. Oh, right, Carina is in danger… Save, or not save… What would Master want? He said he wanted to do good… So, I should do that too."
Yuki walked up to the three women, and stepped in front of Carina.
"Excuse me, but that's enough."
"What? Who even are you? I've bever seen you before…"
"Who I am is of no concern to the likes of you. And what do you think you are doing here anyway? Is that how a servant of god should behave?"
"What is your problem, you bitch? We are in the right here, and if you don't want any trouble, you get lost this instant."
"Swearing too, I think I'm not hearing right…"
"What a worthless, ugly whore. I'm the bitch? Haha, me?? That's rich! I hope she dies! I could kill her right now! When I open my church of followers of Yamato, people like her will be publicly tortured and executed. How dare she argue with me?! Me, who is right by default as I am with Master! Urgh, only thinking about the disrespect she would show even to someone as divine as Master… Some people truly deserve to die, or better yet never be born. The only meaning their lifes could ever hope to gain is by dying so someone else gains satisfaction through the knowledge of their death."
Carina was visibly uncomfortable. She grabbed onto Yuki's arm and pulled her away, or rather tried to since her pull had barely any strength behind it. She spoke just as weakly.
"It's… It's alright… Don't worry about me, Yuki… They are right… I can't to anything right…"
"Yuki, is that her name? I never heard it before… You can't work here!"
"Ah… Even now, I only cause trouble…"
Yuki was begging to get closer to the edge now, this whole situation really annoyed her.
"Don't worry about it, Carina… Do me a favor and close your eyes and cover your ears…"
"Huh…? But why?"
"Because otherwise you're going to get hurt. So trust me, okay? Then we can go back to watering the garden outside together and talk like we did earlier."
"…Okay then… I trust you…"
She covered her ears as tightly as she could and presses her eyes closed. At which Yuki let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew, finally. It's so hard to be a spy. Having to act like a completely different person, a nun of all things…"
"What?! A spy? Who send you?!"
"Shh… I have no use for either of you."
A single beam of light shot from her finger tip, split in two mid air and hit both in the head. Though there was no damage on then, both fell to the ground unconscious. Yuki dragged them into a broom closet near by, and then pulled out Iky and dropped him next to them.
"Be a good… Thing and don't leave anything behind, okay? After that just come baxk to me."
She closed the door again, then rushed back to Carina and lightly tapped her on the shoulder.
"Alright, all done."
"W-what happened? Where are they?"
"Oh, we've come to an agreement! They will transfer churches. Today, even. We probably won't see them again… Also because they were so ashamed of how badly they treated you, y'know? They said they only want to see you again when they atoned for their sins."
"Oh… Really? I'm glad… I knew deep down they were nice people! I just hope we can become friends once our paths cross again."
"Oh, yeah… I'm sure they will be super excited and look forward to that. Anyway, here…"
Yuki healed her cuts from earlier, and then picked up the can Carina dropped when she was cornered by the women.
"Ah, you can use healing magic? You are amazing, Yuki. Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome. Now, let's go back to the garden, hm?"