Reaction and Matchmaking Attempts

Hide-and-Seek (Ch 318-319): You Can't Fool Me, Your Highness

The awkward silence that followed during the short walk the person took to reach the 'Mogoru Table' and its current users caused the previously brave individual to blush in embarrassment. His wide eyes kept looking at the different people- most if not all are dead in his world- and uncertainly grew.

Just when he was hesitating enough and contemplating leaving again, Hannah scoffed and directly addressed him.

"What do you want?" Jack's soft "Sister!" met deaf ears. The female swordmaster stared at the unknown, wimpy man before her. A robe covered his body, signaling to anyone that he was part of the faith her brother follows and she tends to ignore. He looked a bit familiar. Maybe she passed him in the halls or something.

Jack admonished his sister with a well-placed disappointed look and turned his attention to the trembling man. The other priest only looked at Jack. The few times he watched Hannah, he couldn't control his shivers at the marks that graced Hannah's skin.

Taking a deep breath and not trying to choke on his words or the heavy gaze of Hannah, the small priest collected all of his remaining bravery and spoke his piece.

"I-I am here as a representative of the Church of the Sun God. I don't speak for everyone-", many judging gazes went toward the fuming bishop who caused unrest during the battle on the Caro shores, "ahem, but we- I mean, most of us want to apologize." He took another deep breath. His shaking voice recovered a bit and with a determined look on his face, he continued.

"We can't speak with our Saint Jack and Holy Maiden Hannah as they passed on toward the gods' domain, however, even though they may not hear our words, we still wish to speak them. They have been mistreated in our sacred community even though our god, ehem, goddess acknowledged them. We can't make up for it...but sincerely wish to apologize." He finished his part by bowing deeply to the startled Jack and emotionless Hannah.

In the background, many priests and church believers follow his example.

Jack started to fanatically wave his hands around with a cherry-red face. The poor saint was completely overwhelmed and didn't know what to do. In their world, the church members never really apologized. Instead, after Jack and Hannah 'gained' control, they just started acting nice and never mentioned the darker past. What confused Jack was that the church members from Side A never truly watched his and his sister's story, yet they came running with the intention to apologize? For what? Most shouldn't know what truly transpired. A puzzled frown entered Jack's face.

The siblings' story was only scratched upon and not completely explained, why were the sun church members acting so differently?

Hannah wasn't fooled.

She stared at the priest without blinking, forcing the young man to shiver at her cold eyes. A few seconds passed when Hannah started laughing.

It wasn't pretty.

No, it reminded the scared priest of a madman whom he met once. A man without reason and a crazy desire for blood and revenge. With insanity-tainted red eyes, Hannah laughed. She clutched her stomach, freely laughing and with every second that she continued laughing, dread started building up in the young priest's stomach.

"You feel sorry?", Hannah chuckled.

"Ye-yes, ma'am. We-", he got interrupted before he could repeat his previous words in a sad attempt to gain sympathy.

"Bullshit.", Hannah drawled. The dead mana marks on her face became more prominent as she smiled, all teeth and no friendliness.

"You aren't sorry. You are scared." She didn't elaborate further and just continued smiling at the panicking man. Sweat dripped down his brows yet he couldn't look away from her predatory gaze. He was caught like a rabbit in the face of a hungry wolf.