Fractured God

“I sure do love how handy my maids can be.”

“What is it?” Mr Bentley asked.

“It's a stencil with his signature on it. I've discussed this with him, and the current scenario of your adventurers being the driving force and major source of protection is far more convenient to all of us. And to ensure that stays the case, you'll be doing his paperwork for him. He'll send you his documents. You just use that tool to put a signature on them.”

“Why? Can he not do it himself?”

“(Of course he can, he just wanted to push the workload onto someone else.) No, we have to make sure, he doesn't suddenly change his mind and decide to increase police presence in the parish.”

“Oh don't mind me, I'm not listening to a thing,” Albus stated as he placed his hands on his ears while pretending not to listen. (“Sorry old man, but this job seems like a pain in the ass. I have enough on my plate helping that fat bastard. Hmm, I wonder if I could just give it to Avis instead? Nah, she'd probably force me to do it myself.”)

“I-if you say so. So about the revenue of the par-”

“Oh, that's still mine. But you can look the other way when it comes to your taxes or any of your friends’. Or maybe even pocket some of the money on some public project you approve, who knows.”

“Ah, I see. I'll keep that in mind.” He nodded his head before putting the wooden trace away.

The men continued talking about other topics, however the main topic of the discussion ended here.

Several days after Tibaut joined Elizabeth.

“Lay low?” Mr. Bentley asked.

He, Ezekiel and Father Daniel were deep within a forest. Based on the foliage around them, it looked to be close to Ezekiel’s cabin.

“That's correct, I've heard of squads assembled across the parish, with the sole intention of hunting us down. It seems we've gathered too much in the short time we've been in this nation.”

“And how do you propose that?” Ezekiel asked.

“Simple, if the people in your parish believe we've been vanquished by your adventurers, and we hide our faces for a year at least, we should be able to go back to business as usual.”

“You don't think your hunters will still be looking for you then?” Mr. Bentley asked.

“Oh, I'm sure they'll have far more important things to worry about in a year's time.” The priest answered.

This answer wasn't exactly what either the father or the son wanted to hear but both took it in stride before they discussed their plan.

“Here.” Father Daniel stated as he pointed to a nearby hole.

The pair had been travelling for a few hours and the journey wasn't as miserable as you'd think. The pair were quite chummy with each other at this point in time.

“You guys hid in a hole? What are you, moles?”

“Sigh, just follow me.”

He stepped on the stairs, leading the way. A few seconds passed as they walked, and the size of the hole started to dawn on Ezekiel.

“You're shitting me when you said you made this, right?”

“Why would I do that?” Father Daniel responded. “Like I said, we had time to create many bases and hideouts, though we no longer have a need for them. It will serve as a nice space for your little adventure, though, isn't that right?”

They soon reached the bottom of the stairs and Ezekiel soon got cold feet. “You're shitting me. Isn't something this deep supposed to have like wooden beams or something!?

“Don't worry about it, my magic is holding it up.”

Father Daniel said as he walked forward. “I'll show you where you're supposed to go. We don't want you getting lost now do we?”

“Did you guys also put kobolds in here?”

Ezekiel asked as they stood in a large room. It seemed to be a makeshift auditorium.

By his feet were two dead kobolds. It seemed a few of them had decided to make the place their home.

“No… but it shall give it a more authentic feel. The average person can't handle those right?”

“I guess, two of them are probably enough to overwhelm the average farmer.”

“Good.”

“So where's that scroll you were talking about?”

“Hmm, search through the dungeon when you next come here. By then there should be a dead woman with it on her body.”

“That's kinda grim.”

“Would you rather our “location” just suspiciously be lying on the floor? You did say you're bringing someone here to take some of the girl's suspicion off of you correct? Or would you rather half-ass it?”

“Fine, we'll do it your way, I just hope you aren't sending me on a goose chase.”

“Don't worry, these monsters are very deep into this place. With my commands, she won't die in some random room.”

“If you say so.”

The two turned around and soon left the underground hideout.

Several days later...

“So this Saito… he doesn't seem to match the description of anyone Father Daniel gave us, wouldn't you agree, boy?”

Ezekiel and Mr. Bentley stood in front of the corpse of the demonic-looking Saito.

“Yeah…” He responded with gritted teeth. He was getting pissed off just looking at Saito, much less remembering what happened.