Iri and her group had been staying in this small town for two days since Gelos's interrogation.
Queen Aeseth had informed them that Gelos had already arranged for personnel to contact the headquarters, and in a few days, the headquarters would send someone capable of using High-Tier Teleportation Magic to pick them up.
However, it was the third day after Iri arrived in the town when that person finally came, which clearly showed the significant difference between ordinary Teleportation Magic and Iri's High-Tier Teleportation Magic.
Teleporting from a far-off place required teleporting from one location to another, gradually shortening the distance, rather than arriving in one go, as the MP required for such long-distance teleportation was simply too much for a normal person.
Therefore, even with someone capable of using Teleportation Magic sent from Theocracy's stronghold, it still took nearly three days to reach Theocracy's Capital.
It was basically a cycle of teleporting, waiting for that person to recover MP, and then teleporting again… If Iri hadn't never been to Theocracy's Capital before, that person wouldn't have had to go through such a strenuous teleportation process. Iri felt uncomfortable just watching.
Earlier, when they first teleported to the border town, Gelos had originally wanted to rely on Iri's Teleportation Magic to return, but Iri stated that she could only teleport to that point. She had no memory of Theocracy's Capital, so she couldn't help them further, which was why the headquarters had to send someone to pick them up.
During these few days of waiting for the teleportation, Iri was surprisingly well-behaved and did not do anything too out of line.
Iri understood that she had only passed the first test and could not get carried away. She had to play the role of 'memory loss' perfectly.
Especially with Gelos and Queen Aeseth, who were watching her almost constantly. Originally, Iri had thought of taking advantage of these few days of nothing to do to sneak back to Nazarick to report the situation.
However, seeing the two of them watching her like that, it was clear they were still wary of her. It was still the same saying… to avoid unnecessary complications, it was better to be obedient.
Speaking of being obedient, Iri wouldn't just stay in her room doing nothing. Whenever she had the chance, Iri would also try to gather information from Queen Aeseth.
After all, Iri understood that the real test was yet to come. Upon returning to Theocracy, a second interrogation was unavoidable, so she had to extract some information from the least reliable member of the Black Scripture, and also use that idiot's mouth to perfect her 'persona'.
Speaking of her persona, Iri was quite annoyed. Out of all people, why Gag Sister? She knew Queen Aeseth's choice was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but surely any random name would have been better than Gag Sister, right?
However, thanks to that person's 'cleverness', Iri was able to directly ascend to the position of a Black Scripture member, which was not bad. But the even more clever Gelos forcibly demoted her to an 'original' Black Scripture member. That move was truly despicable.
Fortunately, Iri herself was quite clever. She immediately used this point to her advantage, ditching them to retrieve Gazef's ring herself. In the end, Iri managed to get the magic ring she wanted. The only downside was having to give two pieces of equipment to Theocracy.
Another concern Iri had was that Gag Sister had betrayed Theocracy, killed their priestess, and even stolen her headdress.
Now Queen Aeseth had put the identity of the infamous Gag Sister, who had done all sorts of bad things, onto her. When she played the role of such a notorious Gag Sister within Theocracy, would she be mistaken for the real Gag Sister by the uninformed commoners?
It should be known that in the original setting, Black Scripture was considered Theocracy's ace unit, and the identities of its members were almost always kept secret. When they went out on secret missions, they almost always wore magic masks that could change their appearance.
Even within Theocracy, many people's understanding of the Black Scripture was limited to knowing that there was such a super powerful and formidable unit.
They only knew the titles of the members within this unit. Therefore, many people within Theocracy had only heard of Gag Sister's 'reputation' but had never actually seen her in person. So… it seemed Iri would have to bear the blame for Gag Sister's misdeeds…
The return journey also took three days. This was Iri's first official step into Theocracy's Capital, and she felt that its atmosphere was completely different from that of the Kingdom and the Empire Capital.
Although from an overall sensory perspective, Theocracy's Capital was not much higher than that of the Kingdom and the Empire. It had clean and spacious streets, neat and uniform residential buildings, and the overall architecture was based on a white color scheme. There were sculptures and statues everywhere, giving people the feeling of:
Wow! This is what a religious country feels like. And… it basically completely surpassed the Empire and the Kingdom. However, there were very few pedestrians on the streets, much fewer than in the Empire and the Kingdom, which always gave Iri a sense of desolation.
As for why Iri could so leisurely observe the streetscape of Theocracy, it was because Iri was immediately apprehended upon her return.
Of course… it wasn't because she was exposed. Although initially, when Iri was teleported over and saw a large group of priest-soldiers surrounding the Black Scripture, including herself, Iri did have the thought of unleashing her full power and escaping.
However, upon closer observation, she noticed something was off, because the priest-soldiers surrounding her had not drawn their swords, meaning they had no intention of fighting. So Iri held back.
Afterward, Gelos and the other Black Scripture members took the two pieces of equipment to report back. Iri, meanwhile, was 'invited' by those priest-soldiers to another place, a building similar to a church.
From the priest-soldiers who led her, she only managed to gather the information that Iri was to wait in a reception room.
This basically confirmed that she had not been exposed. Upon arriving at the so-called reception room, the door was unlocked, and there were no guards outside, which spoke volumes. It seemed the leaders of Theocracy were quite shrewd. If they had taken actions towards Iri that were not befitting of one of their own.
For example, locking the door, or having guards escort and watch her, it would certainly arouse suspicion. From this small detail, Iri could tell that the opponents she would face next were not as easily fooled as Gelos and Queen Aeseth.
What further confirmed this idea for Iri was that she boldly walked out of the reception room and directly to the entrance of the church, only to be stopped by the priest-soldiers at the door, who informed her that the Bishops would be meeting Iri soon and told Iri not to wander around.
These priest-soldiers were also very polite and respectful towards Iri, which spoke volumes. Since those so-called Bishops were treating her with courtesy, then she would also behave herself!
So Iri just squatted at the entrance of the church, watching the streetscape. Anyway, staying in that reception room, which didn't even have tea or snacks, was meaningless. She might as well take advantage of the novelty and see what Theocracy's Capital was really like.
Iri waited for a while before someone came to inform her that a Bishop wanted to see her and that Iri should follow her.
Alright! The second test begins! Iri thought to herself.
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