Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

"Are witches really that dangerous?"

Elsa hasn't seen the witch yet.

"Yes, although witches may not be worth mentioning to you, they wield the magic of the abyss, which is more difficult to defend against than any other magic. It can corrode a person's soul, allowing the evil demon to devour their body, and lead to their corruption."

Shibern acted very serious and added quickly:

"However, the 'Witch of the Forest' surrendered to the Church long ago and has been under its surveillance ever since. I believe the Holy Light has washed away the dust of her past. That's why I intend to ask for her help.

I will check with Bishop Pitman, and the priest of Mallaig will tell me what to do—of course, if the 'Witch of the Forest' cannot be trusted, I will abandon the idea."

Having said that, he smiled bitterly again.

"But... I personally believe that the church is right, but others may not eliminate their prejudice against witches just because of the church's endorsement. So, Lady Faris, please keep the matter of witches confidential..."

"Don't worry, I won't talk nonsense."

Elsa has not yet developed prejudice. After all, she is just an outsider to this world.

Elsa would never say anything about these things.

"Also, Lady Faris, there is actually one more thing I need to report to you."

"Um, what?"

Having said that, Sibern knelt down on one knee and presented a beautiful small square box to Aisha, with a piece of letter underneath.

"This is a gift from Her Majesty the Queen—"

……

Elsa accepted the box and the letter, then left. Shibern looked in the direction Elsa left and breathed a sigh of relief, his face showing deep fatigue. Although Elsa seemed to be very gentle to everyone, and it was easy for people to relax unconsciously, Shibern actually felt tremendous pressure all the time.

The window of Shibern's study faces north. Sitting at the desk, he can look out the window and see the flattened Rhedes Mountains in the distance.

Just with this one glance, he couldn't face Elsa with a normal heart.

Therefore, in order to choose the right time to give out the envelope and gift, Shiburn made sufficient mental preparations.

In fact, the Queen's letter and gift had arrived a long time ago. Rather, in addition to the Queen's letter, more and more people from other kingdoms had recently appeared in the empire, heading towards the Western Province - all of them had smuggled in.

This is all for Elsa.

The church was the first to seize the initiative. There was nothing they could do about it, because it was the Sage who personally notified the church, and he was the fastest to notify. Then the Sage slowly sent the news to other countries one by one. After the empress, who was far away in the imperial capital, heard the news, she immediately came to the fortress in person through the teleportation array. Of course, it was secret.

The Queen was still as noble and elegant as ever. She asked Sibern many questions, all about Elsa. Then, the Queen left and returned to the imperial capital. After that, she temporarily blocked the teleportation magic of other countries and did not allow any teleportation access without the Queen's permission.

It was obvious that the Queen valued Elsa very much, but this way of valuing her was different from what Shibern thought. The Queen did not take any direct action against Elsa, but returned directly to the imperial capital. It was unknown what her plans were.

Because of the Queen's attitude, other countries that had originally been on the sidelines immediately became restless.

The Queen's order to him was to send out the gift.

That's why Hibb is under so much pressure.

What if Elsa doesn't accept the Queen's gift? On one side is the Queen, on the other is Elsa, he can't afford to offend either of them.

Fortunately, Elsa didn't make things difficult for him.

"Next, let's quickly inform Her Majesty the Queen..."

When Sibbern thought of this, he immediately called the guard Hannah, quickly wrote a letter and gave it to Hannah, asking her to pass the message out.

Rubbing the tip of his nose, Sibern thought for a moment and then quickly left the reception room. Too many things had happened in the Dammas Fortress recently, which put a lot of pressure on the old lord. The aftermath work in the underground palace alone was enough to make him overwhelmed, and now he had to maintain the stability of the fortress.

At this time, he also had to take into account the investigation of the abyss. It has to be said that Shibern was really troubled.

After all, it either involves the Demon King War that happened more than 40 years ago, or it is a serious incident related to the Abyss Magic. For matters of this level, even as a lord, he must do it personally. At the very least, he must keep an eye on the progress of the investigation.

Shiburn has never felt so busy, but he has no time to rest.

At this time, a guard came forward.

"Sir, the Bishop is here."

The guard said, forcing Hibern to cheer up again.

"Invite him in."

When Bishop Pittman arrived, Hebern went straight to the point and talked about the witch.

"Ask the witch to help investigate the 'Fallen'..." After listening to Hebern's plan, Bishop Pittman nodded and thought, "I think this method is indeed feasible. After all, we are short of manpower now, and we don't have any experts in Abyssal Magic, but..."

Bishop Pittman had a strange expression on his face, which gave Hebern a bad feeling.

"You mean the 'Witch of the Forest'? The one from Mallaig?"

"Who else could it be?" Sibern leaned forward, frowning and asking, "What happened? I remember the 'Witch of the Forest' was supposed to be a witch who defected to the Church. Did something happen?"

Seeing that Shiburn looked nervous, Pittman quickly shook his head.

"No, not really... Nothing's wrong. The 'Witch of the Forest'—Madame Sophia Trawins—is an ally of our church. She's in a stable condition, Your Excellency, rest assured."

"Trowns? Madam?"

Shiburn noticed something was amiss.

And Pittman didn't intend to hide it. He laughed dryly, looked very embarrassed, and then said something that made Shiburn's heart skip a beat.

"—The 'Witch of the Forest' you're looking for is actually Miss Trawins's biological mother."

"what?"

Hibben was stunned.

Trawins—you mean Vivian Trawins?

"How is that possible?" Sibbern stood up from his chair, his eyes revealing a hint of questioning and confusion. "Bishop Pittman, are you saying that Miss Trawins is a witch?"

The daughter of a witch is still a witch, just like the offspring of a goblin is still a goblin. The characteristics of a witch will not fade with the continuation of the bloodline.

Hibern thought he had no prejudice against witches, but when he learned that Vivian Trawins was the daughter of a witch, he became a little uneasy - of course he knew Vivian Trawins. As a friend of Elsa Faris, Vivian's name had always been the object of his attention.

But the church never told him that Vivian Trawins was a witch.

"Why would a witch...become a nun?"

"No one has stipulated that witches cannot enter the church and have the opportunity to bathe in the Holy Light. The Goddess bestows the Holy Light upon everyone equally."

"Screw equality! She's more than just a nun! Letting a witch stay by Her Highness the Saint's side? No, that's too crazy."

Hibben stared at Pittman, his words full of surprise. The news came too suddenly.

Because he realized that this matter would bring danger to the Saint - the Saint is the holy light of all mankind, the hope that all mankind admires. Shibern will never allow a witch who brings danger to the Saint to appear in his territory.

Pittman just smiled helplessly.

"Sir Hibourne, please don't be angry. I was actually troubled by this for a long time at first, thinking of some way to exclude her—but there's no need for that now, is there?"

This time he no longer used the rhetoric of equality.

"She is a friend of Lady Faris and someone recognized by the Sage. Even if we don't trust our own judgment, we should trust these two. However, if you, Sir, still intend to invite Lady Trawins here, then you'd better discuss this with Lady Faris and Miss Trawins."

……

Elsa left the lord's castle and came to the church monastery. As soon as she returned to the monastery, she ran into Mary. The two exchanged a few words, and Elsa asked about the selection of the Holy Sister.

The selection competition will start in one day, and the selection method of this selection competition is determined to be a ring match as expected.

"However, this time, a new condition has been added to the ring competition selection process. That is, the referees will determine the score. The only criterion for victory or defeat is no longer limited to knocking the opponent out of the ring. It can also be based on the continuous accumulation of valid points."

Mary said with a smile.

In fact, Elsa has always been a little strange. With Mary's ability, she should also be qualified to run for the Holy Nun.

Perhaps, this is what is called everyone has their own aspirations. For a nun, becoming a saint is not her only goal in life.

After saying goodbye to Mary, Elsa returned to her room.

The room looked like it was cleaned every day, but Elsa learned from the guard that Vivian and Filia seemed not to have returned yet. Elsa could probably guess that the two of them must have gone for "training", as was the case when she last saw them.

Back in the room, Elsa took a quick look at the letter. There was actually nothing special in it, just a greeting. Even though these cookie-cutter greetings seemed somewhat noble and otherworldly on the letter paper, it could not change its empty nature.

It looked like just a routine greeting.

Elsa took another look at the so-called meeting gift. The box was very nice. Inside was a pair of earrings. The earrings were very beautiful. The teardrop-shaped sapphires reflected the deep light. They were luxurious and gorgeous, like the starry sky. This pair of earrings was not space equipment or anything, just an ornament, but Elsa could see that it was of great value.

"Giving jewelry to a nun is a really unique gift."

Elsa placed the earrings next to her cheeks and compared them in the mirror. It was obvious that they didn't go well with her dark nun's uniform. A formal dress would have been much more striking. After all, most nuns didn't wear earrings. Only combat nuns wore stud earrings, and those weren't for looks, but as a form of defense against mental magic.

Elsa didn't plan to wear it because it didn't match her clothes.

Although she originally accepted the gift only to avoid embarrassing Sibern, but no matter what, since she accepted it, Elsa naturally had to remember the Queen.

Besides, it’s not like Elsa doesn’t like it.

After all, which girl doesn't like to dress herself up nicely?

……

------------

191. Silent Eyes

In the far northwest, three days' carriage ride from Dammas Fortress, there is a small town called Mallaig.

It is backed by a forest with lakes and rocks, and faces the Rydes Mountains. Further north, it is almost at the border of the Northern Crossbell Autonomous Prefecture. Standing on the clock tower in the town, you can see the white shadows of the snow-capped peaks in the north.

A figure riding a gray deer came from the road north of the town. His face was hidden under a spacious hood, and his clothes had the unique style of the North.

Hal saw the gray deer coming from a distance.

Hal is the town's guard. Today it is his and his team's turn to stand guard at the town's entrance. They are responsible for questioning outsiders and detaining any suspicious people - but in fact, most of the time there are not many people coming to this town.

Of course, that was in the past. Lately, more and more people have been passing by here, like now. He yawned to cheer himself up, then whistled at the other soldiers who were slacking off.

"Hey! There's someone coming up ahead. Don't just stand there. Get up and work!"

"Here we go, oh, come on, why are you a businessman again?"

In Mallaig, there are occasionally merchants or travelers coming from the North. This is not difficult to judge - the gray deer in the North are more popular than horses, and no one would wear such thick clothes in the Western Province. The humidity here would make people unbearable.

"And it's a new face."

Hal shrugged, but there was no happy expression on his face.

“There are more and more of these guys lately.”

Hal was helpless. To be honest, he did not welcome these cunning merchants because his father's business was getting worse and worse with their arrival - these merchants did not bring wealth. They squeezed the shops in the town in a despicable way, and then deliberately raised the prices, or took away the good things in the town at a low price and sold them to people outside.

After being tormented by these guys, Hal felt that the money he had was not enough, not to mention those guys who were even poorer.

These guys shouldn't have come here, Hal thought, because this place is quite a distance away from the main road in the east. In the past, those merchants would go directly to the Dammas Fortress in the south from there.

"What can we do?" Someone snorted, "After all, the main road to the east has been destroyed, along with the Rydes Mountains."

Now everyone was silent.

The scene I saw more than ten days ago was too horrifying. The beam of light seemed to split the entire world into two. Even today, I still feel extremely scared when I think about it.

"Please stop, traveler from afar! Please get off your deer and explain your purpose..."

Halfway through his words, Hal froze.

As the person riding the deer drew closer, Hal realized it was actually a woman, a woman of stunning beauty. The woman rode the deer, leaning sideways, her posture graceful, her legs crossed beneath a long, gray skirt. Hal had never seen such a beautiful woman before. The moment he saw her, he felt as if his soul had been sucked out of him. The other soldiers also stared blankly, until the woman slowly spoke:

"Tell me, is this Mallaig?"

The woman glanced down at Hal condescendingly. Her voice was not as enchanting as her beauty. Instead, it was low and unpleasant, as if she had swallowed sand. Moreover, the woman's attitude when she spoke was extremely cold and arrogant. Hal could see extreme contempt and hostility in her eyes, which easily made him feel unhappy.

"Yes...what do you want?"

Hal's eyes flashed, and several shiny silver coins flew out, landing in front of his feet with a crisp sound.

She rode a deer and looked at Hal with contempt, as well as the silver coins thrown at his feet.

"I want to see the witch of the forest. Lead me."

the woman said.

……

In the lush and quiet forest, a small wooden house stands alone behind the woods on the other side of the river.

"Cross the river and it's right ahead."