章 24: The Aftermath
Kathina was surprised by the intervention from the Church. She didn't expect that the Church's templars and even a couple paladins would come to the aid of the academy. Normally situations like these would be left to whoever held jurisdiction over the land, however, since the magic academy is supposed to be a 'royal asset' the situation should have been handled by the Royal army.
Nevertheless she still felt grateful that help eventually arrived. In the end with the arrival of the church's forces the remaining chaos beasts were routed. In addition to the templars they also brought clerics who specialised in healing magic, in the end there were barely any casualties, save for a few unlucky warhounds who were consumed in the initial wave.
Kathina was also surprised by the strength of the paladin that killed multiple chaos beasts in one blow. She was one of the many healers brought to the front gate to assist the wounded but the heroic arrival of the Church left a lasting impression on her.
However, when she told Maximillian the same story, he was largely unimpressed. Before she could ask him why he was seemed so unimpressed, he asked his own question.
"Did the other paladins apart from the one who attacked with the light slash do anything similar?"
Kathina blinked upon hearing his question, now that she thought about it, she remembered that the other paladins weren't flying high in the sky like the first one, instead appearing within the ranks of the templars.
While they wore the same armour as the flying paladin and even used 'light wings' to glide across the battlefield their attacks were never on the same scale as the first paladin. While their swords did indeed glow a brilliant white light that cut through the beasts with ease, they never did make the 'light blade' like the first paladin did.
While Kathina pondered about the paladins, Maximillian continued.
"It's quite natural for the Church to try to show off some propaganda like this. If they implied that each of their paladins was just as powerful as 'that one' then the power of the church would be exaggerated."
"But if they wanted to do that why did the other paladins attack with the templars? Wouldn't it be better to just have the paladins stand by instead of putting them on the same field as the templars?"
"The answer is simple actually. While they do want to exaggerate their power they don't want to attract the fear of the Kingdom, so if they imply that each of their paladins are not as strong as the first one, the Kingdom's fears may be relieved."
"But doesn't that defeat the purpose of exaggerating the power of their paladins?"
"While they did imply that their paladins are not as strong as they made it seem, this message would not get across to the entire populace, especially the illiterate. While the nobility and royalty may understand that the paladins weren't as strong as they seemed, that doesn't mean that the majority of the commoners will. Quite the genius move I would have to say..."
Kathina gulped as Maximillian once again proved why he is revered as a child prodigy. As she stood in awe, Maximillian simply waved it off, saying.
"Anyway that's just my hyphothesis. For all we know every paladin is at least as strong as the first one but for some unknown reason, possibly to lure the kingdom into a false sense of security have not shown their true powers. However, I highly doubt the possibility of this."
"Hmmm?.. Why is that?"
"I happened to pass by the paladins on the way here. From the group I saw, only one of them was different."
"Really? How?"
"They all indeed wore the same armour but on one of them, the words "He who wields the sword" was engraved onto his left shoulder plate. While it was hard to see from a distance, I was able to catch onto it. Only one group of people within the church's forces have words engraved into their armour... saints."
"Wait... Are you saying that-"
"That the flying paladin that made the light slash was the 'Sword Saint'? Yes I am saying that."
'Saints,' declared by the church to be the absolute paragon of whatever field they specialised in. With this in mind, then it would make perfect sense if the first paladin was actually the sword saint himself. While that answered the question of the mysterious first paladin it gave rose to another question.
"But then... It's kind of a surprise for even the sword saint himself to appear right? Wasn't he supposed to be safeguarding the Vasilan cathedral in the capital?"
"I guess for whatever reason, the Church decided that now is the perfect time to come out of their shell and start showing off..."
"Doesn't this kind of stuff trouble you? What if a formal war were to break out between the Vasilas Kingdom and the Church?"
In response to Kathina's question, Maximillian chuckled cheerfully.
"I said it didn't I? It's just a hypothesis. If the church really does want to bring trouble to my Kingdom..."
Before Maximillian finished his sentence, Kathina felt his voice grow cold and calculating.
"I'll make them regret it."
Kathina felt a chill creep up her spine as she looked at Maximillian's cold expression, however he quickly returned to his normal smug face and continued.
"Anyway, I wonder what happened with Persephone. I convinced a couple professors to venture into the West block in search of her and Justicar but I haven't gotten a response yet."
"Wait Justicar?"
"Yeah apparently, Justicar went head first on her own to fight against the swarms of chaos beasts in the western block. When Persephone found out about it, you can probably guess what she did."
"She wouldn't..."
However, Kathina quickly realised that she was simply denying the truth. Sighing she asked Maximillian.
"You couldn't stop her?"
"What do you think?"
Kathina sighed once again before glancing back at the carefree Maximillian.
"I hope nothing bad happened to her."
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