A Plot

When I peeked inside through the open doors of the chapel, I saw people offering prayers and a statue modeled after Lady Seremees.

“So everyone came to pray because they think the Goddess of Peace saved them.”

“So that’s it.”

Still, the statue modeled after Lady Seremees that I could see inside the chapel looked exactly like the divine statue. Was it normal for it to look this similar? If it looked this close, I felt like no one would notice even if it were swapped with the real divine statue…

“Lady Seremees, there’s a church dedicated to you right in front of where I am, and the statue inside looks exactly like the divine statue. Could you take a look?”

“You mean the place where you are? —You’re right, that’s remarkable.”

“Isn’t that normal?”

“No, it’s rare for one to be reproduced this faithfully. It was probably made while the divine statue was placed beside it. This… could be swapped.”

Oh, so it did come to that. Lady Seremees said she wanted the divine statue to be worshipped in a church, but she didn’t want other gods to realize the statue was the real one, so secretly swapping it would be perfect.

“Luca, I’m sorry to ask this right after you eliminated the Stampede, but could you replace the divine statue for me? If it’s too difficult, it can wait until later…”

“No, it’s fine. I have time now, so I’ll do it.”

“Thank you. Then I’ll leave it to you. And Luca, I would also like to thank you directly, so please come to the Divine Domain when you have time.”

“You don’t need to thank me… but I understand. I’ll find time to come.”

“Yes, I’ll be waiting.”

After finishing my conversation with Lady Seremees, Rebecca and I headed somewhere without people and I told her what Lady Seremees said so we could decide our next steps.

“The divine statue was placed in the mountains, right?”

“Yeah, in the mountain behind my hometown. Lady Seremees thought it would take years to find a suitable place to enshrine it, so she figured it was better for it to remain in the mortal world in the mountains than to leave it in the Divine Domain the whole time… but we found the perfect place much sooner than expected. It’s a good thing though.”

If it had been in the Divine Domain, it would’ve been easier since we wouldn’t have had to go get it. Still, it gave me an excuse to visit the village, so it wasn’t that much trouble for me.

“That can’t be helped then. So we go back to the village to get the divine statue, place it in the Divine Domain, return to the city, and then swap it?”

“That’s the plan. Going back to the village is troublesome but manageable… the problem is the swap. I wonder if this church stays open at night.”

“I’m not sure. Maybe we should ask.”

Rebecca and I left the alley near the church and returned to the main street, where we called out to a woman in priestly robes who was organizing the line of people waiting to pray.

“Excuse me. Until what time is the church open? It’s very crowded right now, so we were thinking about coming back tonight.”

“You may offer prayers until eight in the evening. After that, the chapel doors will be locked, and the general public will no longer be able to pray. The doors open again at six in the morning, so if you cannot make it tonight, early morning tends to be less crowded.”

So it gets locked at eight… If we swap it, it would have to be after that, but getting inside once it’s locked would be difficult.

“Are the doors always closed after eight?”

Rebecca added the question, and the woman nodded without showing any suspicion.

“Unless there is an exceptional situation, after eight is the time when we conduct our own prayers, so it is not open to the public. I hope you can understand.”

“I see… understood. Thank you very much.”

If the priests had their own prayer time, then sneaking in would have to be in the middle of the night. Whether there were patrols or not could be checked by having Lady Seremees observe the mortal world through the Water Mirror ability, but the biggest problem was still the lock.

I wanted to avoid breaking the lock, so it would be best to find some route we could use to sneak in.

When I casually peeked inside the chapel, I noticed that besides the large front doors, there was also a small back entrance. If the big doors moved, someone would definitely notice, so if we were going in, it would probably be through that back door.

“Rebecca, let’s look around the church and then head back.”

“Understood.”

After that, the two of us entered an alley and observed the chapel from the outside. It looked like the back door I noticed earlier was connected to another building belonging to the church.

“The best option might be entering from that building, moving through the interior without being noticed, and then going into the chapel through the back door. That building is probably where the priests live, so there might be a window open somewhere.”

“That does sound possible.”

“But if it’s where the priests live, that means there’ll be quite a lot of people around…”

“That’s true… but you have Divine Domain Interference, Luca, and Lady Seremees can observe the mortal world through the Water Mirror ability, right? Maybe we can get in without being noticed.”

If we were about to get caught, I could just escape to the Divine Domain. Thinking about it that way made it seem possible.

“Should I come with you for the infiltration? If you’re alone, it might be hard to move the statue or check its orientation when placing it.”

“That’s true. It would help if you came along.”

“Got it. …Hehe, this is starting to feel kind of fun.”

Even though we were plotting something illegal like breaking in, Rebecca walked lightly with a smile on her face. But I could understand the feeling a little… thinking of it as fulfilling Lady Seremees’s wish made the guilt feel lighter.

“This is the only time we’re doing something like this.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t do anything truly bad. So what should we do now? Leave the city right away, or go tomorrow morning?”

That was another difficult choice. The sun was starting to set now. If we left the city now, it would soon be dark. But darkness wasn’t much of a problem for us, and if we needed to camp we could just go to the Divine Domain, so that wasn’t an issue.

In that case… we needed to visit the guild within a few days, so it might be better to leave now to save time. If we walked until midnight before sleeping, we could probably cover more than half the journey.

“Rebecca, can you leave now?”

“Yeah. As long as I leave a message for my mother.”

“Then let’s stop by your house and head out of the city.”

If we hurried, we could reach the village by tomorrow morning, and if we came straight back, we might return to the Royal Capital late tomorrow night… If we made it back, we’d sneak in and swap the statue right away. If not, then the night after tomorrow.