Erwin was very familiar with stories involving the crime of blasphemy. This was the very same excuse that the True Light Church had used to detain countless lesser nobles and common people. Those who were able to pay up and bail out the detained victims quickly were the fortunate ones. As for the victims who were locked away in the True Light Church's prison for some time, there was a very low likelihood that they would survive the ordeal.

Tears began to well up in Sherry's eyes as he continued, "It's my fault as well. At the time, I was living at the academy, preparing for the Pillow Sword Tournament, and I didn't know what was going on. I only heard about all of this when I came home to get some things a few days ago. She couldn't bring herself to tell her father that she sold herself to bail him out. Her father knew that his days were numbered, so he asked me to look after Tina after he passed, but I..."

Sherry's voice trailed off here, and he closed his eyes with a pained expression.

"Did you ask that guy from before if he would be willing to undo the slave contract?" Erwin asked.

"Of course I did! I don't come from a noble family, but we have some money at home. Their contract was due to take effect today, and I begged him to undo the slave contract so that he wouldn't take Tina away, but no matter how much money I offered him, he refused to listen, and that's why we got into that fight," Sherry replied with a furious expression.

"So he wasn't interested no matter how much money you offered him?" Erwin asked with a curious expression.

"He seemed to be completely uninterested in money," Sherry replied with tightly furrowed brows.

"Then there's not much that you can do," Erwin sighed as he patted Sherry on the shoulder in consolation. "Life is just a series of fortunate and misfortunate events thrown together, don't take it too seriously. There's always a bright side and silver lining to everything, so try to focus on that."

Lana was quite amused to hear this. "Why are you trying to sound so wise and mature? You're just a little brat yourself! Stop trying to give others life advice!"

An awkward look appeared on Erwin's face upon hearing this, and he immediately turned to Lana with an indignant expression for ruining his moment.

An amused smile also appeared on Sherry's face in response to Lana's jibes. He had been furious just a moment ago, but for some reason, interacting with this pair of young nobles was making him feel a lot better. Much of his anger and frustration had faded away, and only now did he realize just how hungry he was as he picked up his chopsticks again.

"You said that you were also going to participate in the Pillow Sword Tournament, right? Which academy are you from?" Erwin asked.

"I'm from Seaford Academy," Sherry replied before sinking his teeth into a pastry.

Seaford Academy was one of the few academies that had no requirements on their students' backgrounds. It was an academy that solely considered talent over background, so most of the young people living in the outer city who possessed talent but came from normal families attended Seaford Academy.

"Are you going to be able to compete with such severe injuries? You're probably not even going to be able to pass the physical examination," Erwin said as he turned to look at Sherry. Judging from the blows he had just suffered, he had most likely broken more than a few ribs.

"I only stabilized his internal injuries just now. As for his external injuries, it's up to him how long they'll take to recover," Lana said as she turned to Erwin.

Erwin nodded in response.

"It's alright, this isn't the first time I've been injured. We train very hard at the academy, so I'm injured quite often, but I always manage to recover very quickly." To his credit, Sherry was quite optimistic.

"Alright, then enjoy your meal. We'll be going now. See you during the Pillow Sword Tournament." Erwin smiled as he stood up from his chair, preparing to go to the front desk to pay for the meal.

"Wait, I still don't know your names yet," Sherry said as he rose to his feet. He was quite grateful to these two young nobles for tending to his internal injuries and treating him to a meal. Furthermore, it was clear from what Erwin had just said that they were also going to be participating in the Pillow Sword Tournament, so that gave them something in common as well.

"This here is the daughter of Prince Lazaar," Erwin introduced with a smile. "As for me, I'm just a bodyguard of hers who's here to accompany her for breakfast."

Lana was quite amused to hear this, and she glared at Erwin before exiting the restaurant.

Meanwhile, Sherry was astonished by what he had just heard. As expected, the female noble really was of extremely lofty status. However, he was actually more interested in the male noble, who seemed like a very interesting character. In any case, he was going to meet them again during the Pillow Sword Tournament, so he didn't feel inclined to ask more questions about them.

As Erwin was paying for the meal, he paid a little extra as compensation for the damage caused to the restaurant. Even though that wasn't his fault, he still wanted to avoid any potential unnecessary trouble. Unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of spending money left after purchasing his staff, so it pained him a little to make the extra payment.

The two of them emerged from the Old River Restaurant to a bright and picturesque day. The dazzling sunshine seemed to be able to dispel all of the negative emotions in one's heart.

"Why did you insist on hearing his story?" Lana asked as she turned to Erwin with a curious expression.

"I was just curious. Why else would I have been interested?" Erwin replied with a smile.

Lana shook her head with a smile as she looked at Erwin with a pair of amused eyes. The more she interacted with Erwin, the more interesting she found him to be.

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In contrast with his usual white robe, Archbishop Sirius of the True Light Church was currently wearing an understated gray cotton robe and a pair of thick-rimmed round glasses while holding a few poem anthologies in his hands, looking much like a studious pedant. He took a few turns in Leah Alley of the inner city, and once he was sure that he wasn't being followed, he ducked into a completely unremarkable-looking magic materials shop.

The manager of the shop raised his head to take a glance at Archbishop Sirius, then immediately dropped what he was doing and led the archbishop to the back of the shop in person, instructing one of his employees to look after the front of the shop in his absence. There seemed to only be three old display shelves at the back of the room, but in reality, there was a secret concealed within. The manager of the shop twisted a staff that was lying off to the side, and one of the shelves immediately spun around to reveal the entrance to a secret chamber. The manager then stationed himself outside the entrance, waiting until the archbishop had entered the secret chamber before twisting the staff back to its original position, thereby restoring the shelf to its usual place.

Archbishop Sirius entered through the opening, then raised a hand, and all of the lights on either side of the secret passageway instantly lit up. He quickly made his way along the passageway, and at the end of the passageway was an old wooden door. Archbishop Sirius extended his index finger, and a speck of white light flew out from his fingertip. As soon as the speck of light made contact with the wooden door, bursts of magic turbulence spread in all directions, then converged together to form a single burst that revolved once around the doorframe, after which the door was opened.

It was a bright and sunny day outside, but the interior of the secret chamber was completely dark and gloomy, with only the magic lamps positioned in the four corners of the rooms providing some dim light.

At the center of the secret chamber was a fairly aged round pear wood tea table, and around the tea table were four old sofas with coarse covers. One of the sofas had its back facing the door, and it was occupied by an elderly man. Even as the door of the secret chamber was opened, the elderly man displayed no reaction, nor was he in a hurry to stand up.

"Come and take a seat," the man on the sofa said in a calm voice without even turning his head.

Archbishop Sirius offered no reply as he took off his gray robe before hanging it onto a clothes rack in the corner of the room. The light of the radiant sun had been bearing down on him the entire way here, so he was sweating somewhat and was eager to take off his robe as soon as he entered the room.

The archbishop exhaled before taking a seat on the sofa next to the elderly man, then turned to him before asking, "How are the preparations coming along, Prime Minister Fuller?"

As it turned out, the elderly man in the secret chamber was none other than the prime minister of the Effer Kingdom.

No one could've imagined that these two would be sitting together in a private setting like this. They were both extremely important figures in opposing factions, with one closely allied with Prince Lazaar, while the other had strong ties with Governor Jenkins. Thus, they should've been fierce political rivals, yet that didn't appear to be the case at all here.

"The preparations are just about complete," Fuller replied as he glanced at a small vial of gray liquid on the table.

"What's this?" Sirius picked up the vial, then began to carefully inspect it with furrowed brows under the dim light in the room.

"Be careful not to spill any. That's the juice from the liver of a Scarlet Dragon," Fuller cautioned as a proud look appeared on his face.

"The liver juice of a Scarlet Dragon? Aren't Scarlet Dragons only found in Fuschia Valley?" Sirius asked as he turned to Fuller with a puzzled expression. "I heard that Fuschia Valley was sealed by the Skycourt Kingdom starting from several years ago. How did you manage to get your hands on something like this?"

"You've heard of the Lodais Organizations, right?" Fuller asked as he turned to look at Sirius. "They were the ones who procured it for me. It was quite expensive, but that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things."

"They offer procurement services as well? I thought that they were an assassin organization that only took on hit jobs." Sirius had naturally also heard of this organization before.

"They're willing to take on any jobs that are profitable," Fuller replied with a smile. "Of course, the job has to be within their capabilities as well."

"That's not a lot of dragon liver juice. How much did you spend for it?" Sirius asked.

"I spent 5,000 Loonies on this small vial alone," Fuller replied in a calm manner.

Sirius couldn't help but draw a sharp breath upon hearing this. "I don't know how good this organization is at carrying out hit jobs, but they sure do charge exorbitant prices."

"It doesn't matter as long as they can get the job done. I no longer care about things like money," Fuller said with a wry smile.

Sirius nodded in response, then turned to look at Fuller through narrowed eyes. "This Scarlet Dragon liver juice is certainly a very interesting substance. It has no taste, scent, or color, which makes it very difficult to detect."

"Indeed. The liver juices of other dragons all have discernible scents, and this is the only that doesn't. If you use it to make medicine or brew potions, there will be no way to detect the presence of the dragon liver juice in the resulting concoction," Fuller said with a sinister smile as he looked at the vial of liquid held between Sirius's two fingers.

"Let me remind you that Master Piro has returned to the capital. He's not going to notice anything, is he?" Sirius set the small vial back down onto the table, then turned to Fuller with a cautious expression.

"I didn't think that he would return." Fuller was clearly also quite surprised by Master Piro's return, but he then said, "Having said that, he won't be able to do anything to us as long as they can't gather any concrete evidence. Rest assured, there's no way that they'll be able to trace this back to us. As for the Lodais Organization, I've already thought of a way to deal with them as well."

Sirius nodded in response with a contemplative look on his face.

"I hope that our efforts can allow our lord to descend earlier. Mere mortals like ourselves have no choice but to resort to such underhanded tactics in order to pave the way for the gods of the heavens," Fuller sighed as a wry smile appeared on his face.

"Rest assured, our lord has already displayed many divine miracles, all of which have been personally witnessed by myself in the Terarody Mountain Ranges," Sirius replied with a confident expression as he patted Fuller's shoulder in reassurance. "The day that our lord descends will be the day that all of us are redeemed."

"May the Lord have mercy on us," Fuller prayed as he lowered his head and joined his palms together.

"May the Lord have mercy on us," Sirius repeated as he also joined his palms together in prayer.