“Consider it as…”
“A small, insignificant compensation for our earlier rudeness toward you.”
The young priest’s nun’s habit had a distinct style when viewed from its standard design.
It was precisely the uniform of the only existing church in the Empire of Huangyu—the Holy Light Church.
Speaking of which, who was the deity worshiped by the Holy Light Church again?
Something like Noro something…
Never mind, she couldn’t remember at all.
It wasn’t strange at all to see someone from the Holy Light Church here.
This church had a widespread presence throughout the Empire of Huangyu, even in small villages with only a few dozen households.
Whenever a village was too far from the nearest city or church, the White Sanctuary would establish a branch chapel there.
The nuns and priests of the church mainly took on exorcisms, healing, and festival blessings for the locals. In Krexia’s eyes, they were truly people who got things done.
Much better than those rotten nobles in some remote fiefs who only knew how to oppress their peasants. So Krexia had a fairly good impression of the church.
Glancing at the young priest, Krexia extended her scratched arm.
“Thank you. May the God of Light bless you.”
After expressing her thanks, the young priest knelt beside her, cupping Krexia’s arm and silently chanting a hymn with her head bowed.
Faint sparks of light gathered around the wound, and Krexia soon felt a gentle warmth spreading through it.
The wound was shallow to begin with, and the healing process was almost visible to the naked eye.
“What’s your name?”
Krexia looked at the young priest’s somewhat childlike face and couldn’t help but ask.
She recalled that among those people who had just lost control, this priest had been the calmest, though part of that was probably due to priests generally having lower combat abilities.
But it didn’t stop Krexia from forming a good first impression of her.
“Eh, I…”
“Elvie… you can just call me Elvie, Senior.”
Elvie kept her head down, seemingly still embarrassed by the earlier misunderstanding. Even though she had bravely approached, she barely dared to meet Krexia’s eyes.
Through the strands of her pale golden hair falling over her forehead, Krexia could faintly see the little girl’s flushed cheeks.
Of course, it was nothing like the swollen faces of Falco and the others beside her.
“The three over there are my teammates. The two swordsmen are Falco and Hodge, and the mage sister is Fana.”
Elvie pointed toward the three who were drying their clothes with Fana’s magic while packing their belongings.
Krexia’s gaze swept over them and met Fana’s eyes, only for the latter to shyly look away.
“You don’t have to call me senior. In terms of age, I’m not much older than you.”
“That wouldn’t do…”
Setting aside the nuns’ other qualities, their healing magic was indeed excellent.
From the moment she began treating the wound until it was done, it had taken no more than a minute.
The wound was already completely healed.
On Krexia’s smooth and delicate skin, except for some faint traces of blood, there was no sign that a wound had ever existed.
Thinking of this, Krexia glanced at Fana’s arm again, the spot that had been grazed by the Elemental Series·Offense·Water Severance earlier.
Now, only the fabric in that area was torn; the skin underneath was just as smooth, without a trace of injury.
Because of the recent flooding attack from Krexia, even the bloodstains were gone.
“Senior.”
Having finished healing, Fana approached.
“You were intentionally waiting here for us before, right?”
“According to the message from the owl, you must have sensed its presence a while ago.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Krexia nodded.
“I’m an elf from the North. I went through some… unpleasant things earlier, and when I woke up, I was already in this place.”
As she spoke, Krexia thought of Coutia’s scheming face and the earlier contract fraud incident.
The faint headache she had felt earlier seemed to worsen a little.
“I originally wanted to find a nearby patrol team to ask for directions and rest at the closest town, but then I ran into you.”
Fana and the others blushed.
“Ahem, so… Senior, you deliberately waited for us to ask for directions, haha…”
“Anyway, we really are an adventurer team from a nearby town taking on commissions. Since you’re new here and unfamiliar with the area, if you don’t mind, we could escort you to the town.”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s a good chance to invite you to a meal and apologize properly.”
“Eh? Ah? But don’t you still have commissions to do?”
“Oh, that measly fifty silver coins commission? Forget it, forget it. Not worth the effort.”
As they spoke, they seemed to realize Krexia bore no ill will, so they relaxed somewhat, no longer as guarded as before.
Part of this was also because Krexia had identified herself as an elf.
Her eyes were a rare wine-red color, different from the scarlet red of the Blood Clan.
And her hair color, mostly golden or silver-white, fit the typical elf traits.
Combined with the immense power she had demonstrated earlier—while still holding back—any lingering doubts in the group were finally dispelled.
***
It was clear that Fana really didn’t want to do this low-paying, troublesome commission.
On the way back with Krexia, her mood visibly improved.
It seemed it wasn’t just because she didn’t have to complete the commission or that she had met a strong yet friendly unfamiliar mage.
On the return trip, Elvie blushed the whole time but stayed silent.
Falco and Hodge, the two young swordsmen, also stayed silent with flushed faces.
Only Fana chatted occasionally with Krexia, introducing the general situation around here.
Unsurprisingly, this was indeed the border area of the Kingdom of Weirrant, located in the eastern part of the Empire.
Krexia had initially gathered this limited information from Fana’s apology words.
Now, thanks to Fana’s detailed introduction, she had a relatively complete understanding.
The eastern region of the empire, the Kingdom of Weirrant’s border defense was situated in the relatively northern part.
Since the east had a broad range of mountains and dense forests serving as a buffer zone, the pressure on border defense here was somewhat lighter than other regions.
The forest they were in was called Mageling Forest.
The name sounded intimidating, but there weren’t any particularly powerful monsters inside.
Most were level three or below.
Only a few rare spots with concentrated mana would spawn high-level monsters above level four, but those usually didn’t leave their territory.
Therefore, this forest was a relatively safe zone.
It could even act as a natural barrier against the Blood Clan.
Because of this, nearby adventurers and mages with a certain level of combat strength liked to come here.
On one hand, the monster difficulty was moderate and relatively safe; on the other hand, they could take on local commissions, gain practical experience, and earn rewards.
The magical materials gathered from Mageling Forest could be used personally or sold to the Adventurer’s Guild for money.
It was a low-risk, high-reward job.