Steel Eyed Faker

Chapter 30: Frozen Hellscape Part 1

Beta read by Shigiya, GamerCrusher55 and Paragon of Awesomeness

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-Kyoroch Outskirts-

For a man of Bolic's standing within the Path of Peace, his living quarters offered almost nothing. A bed against one wall, a wardrobe beside it that had clearly seen better days. The wooden floor gave out softly underfoot, worn down by years of the same quiet footsteps, though someone had taken care to keep it clean.

The only window looked out over the temple's central courtyard, now settling into the hush of evening. Beneath it sat a desk buried under papers: ink bottles, records, letters, financial reports, each stack arranged with a precision that bordered on compulsion.

The second in command of the Path of Peace stepped inside, loosening the collar of his robe, looking exhausted from the day. "Hah... What a day. Hm?" Then he stopped,noticing that he wasn't alone in the room.

Near the desk stood a blonde woman, holding one of his documents up to the torchlight. Her eyes moved across the page with an idle expression. Around her, several other papers had clearly been shifted from their original places.

"Miss Dorothea?" he asked slowly, surprised to find the woman in his room. He didn't sound angry for someone intruding in his room, not when the one is a member of the Jaegers. "May I ask what you are doing in my room"

She glanced up from the document at last, a faint smile settling on her face with the ease of someone who had not just been caught rifling through another person's belongings. "Nothing important," she said, setting the paper back down. "I was just satisfying a little curiosity."

The priest frowned faintly while stepping further inside but did not let his guard down.

"You have a rather plain room for someone in your position," she added while glancing around again.

"I do not see much purpose in unnecessary luxury for one walking the holy path."

Dorothea hummed softly at that before changing the subject.

"How are things progressing?"

"That is a question I ought to be putting to you," the heavyset man said, making his way to the stool beside the desk. He settled onto it with a low groan, the wood groaning back beneath him. "I have yet to receive any word on the matter of the Lord."

Dorothea's hand moved through the air as though brushing away a fly. "That is no longer your concern," she said. "The problem has been dealt with. I will stay out of your affairs, as I said I would."

That answer visibly eased some of the tension in the priest's face. "That is good to hear," he admitted while exhaling slowly. "The situation was becoming difficult to manage as of late."

Dorothea tilted her head slightly. "Difficult?"

"If the Lord survived long enough for us to leave the region and fully detach ourselves from the empire. I would have needed to involve outside mercenaries instead. Such actions would not be good for business and would have too many loose ends." His expression darkened faintly afterward. "Transporting slaves hidden from curious eyes is already expensive enough; doing so after would be a nightmare."

The woman nodded in agreement. "That is an acceptable risk in my opinion. But speaking of these mercenaries, do you mean Night Raid? Why would you think they are mercenaries in the first place?"

Bolic let out a deep, rumbling laugh. "Haha! My dear Dorothea, you are still very young. You do not yet understand how such people truly operate. They present themselves as champions of the common folk, fighters against the Empire's forces, but in truth, they are nothing more than mercenaries. They serve the Revolutionary Army for no reason beyond the fact that the Revolutionary Army pays better."