Li ran back to the farlmands at the pace of the farm boy so as not to tire him out further. Beside him ran Sylvie and Jeanne, though to thoroughly conditioned adventures such as them, this pace was nothing too hard. They did not even break a sweat whereas the farm boy huffed and puffed as he tried his hardest to lead Li back to the farms as soon as possible.
"I thought sothing of this sort would happen," said Sylvie in between paces. Her voice ca out clear and unexhausted, the running not at all affecting her breathing.
"Hm?" asked Li, curious what she had been thinking.
"You are correct that the temple of Light will not trade blows with you, but they have been entrenched in this land for centuries and have woven their way into the ranks of authority. The duchess has separated temples and state with her rule, but even so, the temples still hold so sway over the lordship here."
"So you're theorizing that instead of confronting head on, the temple has tried to appeal to the ruling body here? Lord Lys?" said Li. He was unsurprised. He knew this was an obvious conclusion to make, but he had already thought of this and was largely not concerned.
Li had pushed and prodded the boundaries of how much leeway the state would grant him already. First with his talks to the duchess and then with his interactions with ld. It beca very apparent that the duchess was very much aware that he was not to be trifled with and as such, went out of her way to accommodate him.
Knowing that Lord Lys was the duchess's lapdog from Alexei further cented in Li's mind that even if the priesthood of light clamored over to the lord, then he would not dare to oppose Li over the sake of a few irrational zealots.
But of course, nothing was set in stone. If it did co to be that Lys was threatening Li, then the situation would beco quite ugly, to say the least. Ugly for the lord, of course.
"Yes." Sylvie had concern lettered all over her face. "I know that Lord Lys is no adept statesman. He is no man of strong will, either. I fear that he may stumble and submit to the strong will of the priests."
"That is true," said Jeanne, her head cocked. "I thought the temple sworn never to interfere with the state, but it does not seem beneath the high priests to do sothing such as this."
"Really, Jeanne, sotis you are far too innocent," said Sylvie.
Jeanne's eyes flitted down for a second. "Well, I do try and believe in the best of people and their words. I must admit that many tis, it does not work out, but I cannot help myself."
Li rembered the duchess. At her absolute unreadability and level headedness that spoke of a will far stronger and stabler than anything impulsive zealotry could muster up. At the least, if Lys were to be pressured by both priests and the duchess, he knew who he would submit to first.
"We'll have to see. I personally have more hope for the lord here," said Li. "But Sylvie, thank you for your concern. I've forgotten to ntion so far, but even back at the Chevrette mansion, the first thing you're always worried about is ."
"It's nothing," said Sylvie as she upped her running pace to pull ahead.
"And she's one to talk about innocence," comnted Jeanne with a smile.
Li half nodded to Jeanne as he looked at Sylvie. This situation, this liking she held for him, he would deal with too, when things were calr.
===============
It did not take long before the knights the farmboy was talking about ca into view. They were at the main road, nearby Li's own cottage, and they ford a formidable crowd. They were in neat rectangular formation by the road, a mass of glinting silver and fluttering white banners emblazoned with blue doves.
"That's not the whole order," ca Sylvie's imdiate observation.
"It ain't?" wheezed out the farmboy, who by now had been well and thoroughly exhausted.
"Eyeballing it, I'd say about a hundred n?" said Li. "If I recall correctly, 120 n is the standard number for a squadron of knights, and that's what it seems like to . I can understand where the confusion cos from if you haven't been used to seeing large groups of people, though, but this is a far cry from the ten squadrons I was expecting."
"More a very highly secure guard, I should say," said Sylvie.
"All the more reason to believe that this isn't anything too serious," said Li. He walked forwards, and as he did so, he recognized the squadron captain standing at the front of the formation. It was the very sa one that had worked with him on the Chevrette case.
The captain nodded, the white plu atop his helm shaking with the movent, and Li nodded back in understanding.
"I should assu that Lord Lys wishes to see ?" called out Li approached.
"You are correct. n!" the captain shouted. "Stand aside for the Easterner!"
The knights broke rank and made a path for Li to their center where Lord Lys's large and sturdy carriage was. Unlike the color sche of the knights, the carriage was made of sleek black tal and pulled by magical horses. Li imdiately recognized this as one of the carriages from Black Securities, which was not much of a surprise considering that Lord Lys and Alexei were supposedly rather good friends.
And as Li passed through the ranks of knights, he realized the driver of the carriage was Valery, the vampire knight whom Alexei usually assigned to tasks regarding Li.
Valery put a hand to his hat and tipped it, and Li ever so slightly nodded. So Alexei was in on this and was overseeing what was happening. Then, it was as Li thought. There was nothing to worry for.
Li stepped up to the door of the carriage and swung it open. It was heavy and it opened with a click as magical enchantnts ca temporarily undone. Inside, he found seated at one end the portly figure of Lord Lys and right beside him, a little uncomfortably squished to the side due to Lys's bulk, was a younger man in a blue and white bodysuit.
A hero.
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