Chương 54: Chapter 53: Faithful Delusions of the Unpleasant Kind

Ren kept watching Sister Calia, and his stomach tightened when one of the knights said something to her and all three of them looked toward his family. Something about that felt wrong. He could not yet tell why. Sister Calia had bothered him since she passed earlier. That faint pressure against Mana Sense had been easy enough to dismiss while the church was full of wounded people, magic, prayer, and whatever else the defenders had dragged back inside with them.

Now that Ren had spent enough time Appraising random church furniture to learn almost nothing useful, the pieces were starting to fit together. The statue at the front belonged to the Goddess of Guiding Light and Benevolence. The same sign carved behind the Goddess had been worked into the Sister's robes, the cloth sewn so the lines of the symbol followed the shape of the garment. A smaller version hung from the necklace at her throat. Ren looked at the knights beside her. There too.

Their armor was made for fighting rather than ceremony, but each breastplate carried the same small sign carved into the metal. So they shared the faith. Ren had expected the knights to be closer to a civic force. Trained soldiers with authority, perhaps attached to a city or lord, who answered reports of goblins because keeping villages from being eaten was generally considered a useful governance practice.

Instead, the people who had actually ridden seven days into the middle of nowhere to save them belonged to a holy order. Thinking about it for more than a few seconds made that considerably less surprising. His old world had managed to produce entire knightly orders built around religion without gods offering measurable magical assistance. Here, prayer could calm a packed church full of terrified people, and faith might have just rewarded people with actual Skills to show for it.

The Goddess' followers might even receive benefits he had not even a shred of idea about. In a world like this, believing made considerably more sense. If anything, Ren had probably underestimated how deeply faith ran through society. Even the knights sent to deal with trouble in a distant village carried the same signs as Sister Calia. Another subject for the increasingly unreasonable list of things he needed to investigate. One of the knights said something to Sister Calia.

She answered, and all three of them looked directly at Ren. His thoughts stopped there. Right. Whatever the local relationship between church and state was, apparently it had just become his problem. Just a few moments later, Sister Calia approached with the three knights beside her. Elna noticed them coming and straightened as much as she could with Tessa sleeping against her. The Sister stopped at a respectful distance and inclined her head.

"Lady Marric. May the Goddess keep your family in Her benevolent light through this grief." Elna stared at her for a moment before managing a small nod.

"Thank you."

"There are matters concerning your son and the warning that brought our brothers here. We ask for your patience while we seek the truth of them." Her voice was calm and professional, almost gentle, but Ren still disliked the attention. Elna glanced down at Tessa.

"Can it wait?" Sister Calia hesitated.

"For a little while, perhaps. Not for long. Some matters are safer brought into the light quickly." Ren looked at the knights again. Brothers. So that answered that. They were not merely soldiers who happened to share her religion. Whatever order they belonged to, faith was a big part of it. Ren looked at the knights more carefully. Their hands were nowhere near their weapons, and one of them even looked uncomfortable about disturbing a grieving family. The feeling in Ren's stomach remained.

The Sister gestured toward the stairs.

"There is an unused room above. Somewhere quieter." Elna looked reluctant, but after a moment she nodded. Ren stayed in her arms while Tessa, barely awake enough to walk, clung to the side of Elna's dress as they followed the others upstairs. The room was small, with a table, several chairs, and one narrow window. Sister Calia entered first, the three knights followed, and Elna sat with Ren in her lap while Tessa settled beside her.

The first questions were ordinary enough in substance, even if Sister Calia insisted on phrasing half of them like she was taking testimony before an altar.

"When did the child first speak of the danger?"

"How plainly did he describe what would come?"

"When did you first understand that his awareness exceeded what would be expected of one so young?"

"Had you witnessed other signs before the warning was given?" Ren listened from Elna's lap while she answered carefully. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"Yes, he warned us."

"Yes, he speaks."

"He understands far more than he should at his age." Tessa stirred beside her.

"He can walk too." One of the knights looked toward Ren. The small mark of the Goddess on his breastplate caught the light as he shifted. Sister Calia nodded.

"So we have heard." Elna's expression tightened.

"From who?"

"The faithful speak to one another, Lady Marric. So do frightened villagers." That, unfortunately, sounded perfectly reasonable. Ren knew that was true, but hearing it did little to ease the feeling that something was off. The Sister continued.

"And he is learning magic?" Elna hesitated, but Ren answered before she could.

"Yes." Sister Calia looked directly at him.

"So young." Ren held her gaze.

"Master teach."

"Little Yara?" Ren nodded. Something tightened around Sister Calia's mouth at the name, brief but obvious enough for Ren to catch as dislike. One of the knights glanced toward her while another shifted uncomfortably and looked away. Apparently, his cute little Master had managed to make an impression here too. Sister Calia folded her hands over the sign worked into the front of her robes.

"There is another matter, Lady Marric. One our faith does not allow us to ignore." Elna's arm tightened around Ren, and the knights went still enough that he stopped thinking about Little Yara. Sister Calia touched the symbol hanging at her throat.

"The Goddess's light reaches every soul. However faintly, however differently, there is always some connection. Hers, or from other Divines." Ren remembered the prayer downstairs and the calm that had spread through the church while she spoke. He remembered the faint pressure brushing against Mana Sense when she passed him afterward. So that had been her checking him. His stomach tightened. Sister Calia kept her eyes on Ren.

"And when I searched for it on your son, there was nothing there." Elna went rigid, while Ren stared back at her. Any other time, this would have been amazing to learn. That he did not have that connection was telling… but what was it telling of? He did not know. Ren could only guess at it being due to the same thing or existence that placed him into this timeloop. … And that was why she had kept watching him. He never expected to end up being questioned by the Goddess Inquisition!

Elna stood with Ren still held tightly against her.

"What are you saying?" One of the knights raised both hands slightly.

"Lady Marric, please. By the Goddess's grace, no harm need come if this is handled properly."

"No. Say it clearly." Sister Calia's expression did not change.

"Your son is not what he appears to be." Tessa moved closer to Elna's side while Ren felt something in his thoughts lock into place. The staring, the questions, the insistence on bringing them upstairs where nobody else could hear. They had not brought Hadrik, Tovin, Mavren, or any of the other villagers with them. They had brought Ren. Elna's face hardened.

"He is my son."

"I know you believe that." Ren's jaw tightened. Sister Calia continued before Elna could answer.

"His development alone would demand attention. He walks, speaks, understands far beyond his age, and manipulates mana while still an infant. We have also confirmed through Appraisal that his Status has advanced in ways no ordinary child's should. And while prodigies exist…" One of the knights shifted forward slightly as she said it, and Ren looked at him. So one of them had Appraised him. Another piece of the puzzle made clear. Elna pulled Ren closer against her chest.

"What exactly are you accusing my child of?" For the first time, Sister Calia hesitated. When she answered, her voice was quieter.

"Possession." Tessa gasped. Elna went pale beneath the exhaustion already carved into her face. Sister Calia continued.

"Or something unclean wearing the form that should belong to a child. Dark forces are known for their trickery."

"No." Elna's answer came immediately. Sister Calia lowered her voice further.

"Lady Marric, I understand what you have suffered today. I do. But if something has taken hold of him, love will not make it harmless."

"He is my son."

"We need to take him somewhere secure while this is investigated."

"No."

"Lady Marric–""No." Tessa moved in front of Ren as much as she could while he was still held in Elna's arms. Her hands clenched at her sides as she glared up at Sister Calia.

"He is Ren." Sister Calia looked down at her.

"He is my brother."

"Tessa," Elna whispered.

"He is!" Ren stared at the back of his sister's head. …Of course she would plant herself between him and three armed adults. Sister Calia's expression softened.

"Child, that may be what he wants you to believe." Tessa spun toward her.

"No!" Elna started backing toward the door. Ren felt the movement before he fully understood it, her arm tightening around him as she shifted her weight. One knight moved sideways, then another adjusted with him. There was nothing dramatic about it. They simply changed position until the path to the door stopped being open. Ren's pulse jumped. He ran through what he could actually do. Running was useless from Elna's arms, and she had Tessa beside her as well.

His mana control had improved enormously, but Mana Manipulation by itself was still just moving mana around. The grenades were gone. Invocation remained something Little Yara had specifically told him not to attempt. He could shout. That at least required no preparation.

"Stop." The knights moved. Elna screamed as one caught her arm and another reached for Ren. Her grip held for a fraction of a second before the knight pulled him free. Ren twisted so hard his entire body turned sideways in the man's grasp. He kicked, grabbed at whatever he could reach, and stretched both arms toward Elna, but his fingers found armor and cloth instead of his mother. Tessa screamed his name.

"Give him back!" Elna lunged after him, forcing the knight holding her to brace and pull her away. The man carrying Ren turned his body to shield him from her. Ren shoved mana into his hands without thinking. Nothing happened. He pushed harder, trying to force the mana outward, into the armor, into the knight, into anything that might make the man loosen his grip. Mana Manipulation obeyed perfectly, he felt the armor heat up, and– It achieved absolutely nothing useful. He needed a tool. A charm. An actual working.

Something! He had none of them. Ren kicked again and tried to wrench one arm free. Athletics and Strength had made him absurdly capable for a five-month-old, which was proving to be an impressively low standard against an armored battle-hardened adult. The knight barely shifted. Sister Calia said something behind them, but Elna shouted over her. Tessa was crying now, calling Ren's name between breaths. Then the knight's free hand came up. Ren felt the mana before he understood what he was seeing.

A prepared pattern sat in whatever the man was holding, compact and already waiting for activation. A charm. Ren jerked his head away, but the knight's grip held him easily. The mana flared. His vision folded inward almost at once, the room narrowing until Elna was little more than movement beyond the knight's shoulder.

"Ren!" Her voice reached him one last time. Then everything went dark.