When we arrived at the town, the entrance was already heavily guarded with soldiers all walking around the periphery. When we arrived at the gate, we all disembarked as Farrell went to communicate with the door guards. Because of our sudden appearance, the guards on the town wall were suspicious and on guard to say the least. I mean, we would be suspicious too considering the circumstances. According to Marianne, we were sent because the town was suffering from a ck of manpower. Although we will be helpful for them, the full reinforcements are still on the way.

  After some time, the guard on the guards here were finally let down and we were able to enter the base. Entering the gate, I noticed that there was a metal structure I didn't recognize on the gate. When I looked at it a little confused, Marianne helped to expin it to me.

  Marianne: That is one of the test creations of the Church. You have not seen it because it is currently only avaible to the frontline towns and in the main headquarters of the Church. It can quickly scan the body of anyone passing through to check whether the person is from one of the various dark races or not.

  This seems quite unusual. I mean, I feel something like this fits if it were belong to us and our base since our base has technology like this. The Church of Light, to my cognition, does not usually have things like this. Maybe the Church is more advanced than we thought. Lily then pats me on the back and pushes me along.

  We headed to the most prominent location in the town. Atop of a hill id a rge fortress with a massive golden scarab on it. After I gnced at it for a little more, I felt like I could feel it looking at me. I chalked it up to a mere illusion due to its size and color.

  As we entered the building, I couldn't help noticing how simir in shape that the building is compared to the one over at Lily Breath. From what I could tell, the building itself was like it was built out of a mold. The only reason I could tell a difference in the two is based on how the decorations in the building are.

  Compared to William, the owner of this fortress definitely honors glory and gmour more since the decor here is all in various ornate styles. Not only is there gold everywhere, there is also various gems imbedded into the furniture.

  This all makes me think that I might not like this guy in the end. It seems like he is the opposite of William since even he was willing to go down and do menial work if there was no one avaible.

  As we headed further into the building, we finally encountered an entourage of the knights of this town. They were all lined up and awaiting our presence. Since we came to the pce from the front, I guess that the guards were told to inform them when we arrived. Although I don't personally like this attention, I guess it can only be expected when they are the ones asking for reinforcements.

  When we finally arrived at the end of their demonstration, Farrell went and walked out of his carriage and headed towards a rather gmorously dressed man. From just one gnce, I knew that I would not like him. As soon as he spoke I only felt my dislike grow by the second.

  Gmorous fellow: Good Afternoon to our dear guests. I am Johnathon Gold and I will be the one to communicate with you all today.

  He then went and looked at the rest of us. I saw a gnce of disdain before he quickly hid his expression and gestured for the him to follow. I turned to look at my partners and we all saw a simir expression of confusion and disgust. The rest of us were all lead away into a side hall like area of the building. Although the pce still looked as gaudy as the rest, I could feel the disdainful gnces that the knights here looked at the rest of us with.

  When they finally brought us in, we all disembarked from the carriage and the knights all quickly left as if we were dirty. After all of them left. Marianne finally left the carriage.

  Marianne: Phew, I finally got out of that darn carriage!

  As we walked over to her, I heard her compin as much. After giving a light chuckle, we all walked over to ask what we have been wondering.

  Sean: Why did you not go with Farrell? From what I have seen, you should have just as much say in this as he does.

  Marianne then showed a cheeky grin before expining to us about her own arrangement.

  Marianne: Although I may have a high position in the church, not many people know of my existence. Especially the fact that I snuck onto the carriage to get here so the only ones that these people know is Farrell. So Farrell and I decided to keep me in secret unless extraordinary scenarios require my presence for some reason.

  She then tilted her head and gave a wink as well. Before I could respond, she quickly walked over to our side before saying her request.

  Marianne: Since I am no longer needed for the church's side, can you let me join you in name? It will give me a reason to be here and we can take the opportunity to enjoy ourselves!

  I turned to look towards the others. Kris and Millie both nodded at me with a glow in their eyes. Lily just gave me a look that I understood as her handing me the decision. Mist merely shrugged in response. Since no one expressly rejected it, I guess there is only one answer. Even if there was pushback, I would have likely voted in favor of it anyways.

  When I turned around, I was met with her eyes glowing with expectations. I really can't reject her at all, can I?

  Sean: We all agree. Welcome to the Ptinum Stars!

  I then saw her happily hopping about before finally grouping up with us. Now that we are all one team for now, she should at least be with us to keep up the facade. Since the Leader had given us her full trust to do what we wanted, there should not be any problem with what will happen from here on. Even if our trust is mispced, she will still be there to back us up.

  Speaking of which, have we ever learned of who our Leader was? All I can remember is her saving us and all the golem teachers and the name of the organization. Even the maid for our leader I do not know the name of. I guess that can be a question I ask the others the next time it is just us.

  While we were all here rexing, a more interesting chat was going on between the man named Johnathon Gold and Farrell.

  Johnathon: Welcome, blessed Bishop of the Church of Light. I sincerely welcome you here to my humble territory with open arms.

  Although he said all of this, there was a barely visible sense of arrogance in his overall temperament. That is to be expected from a family like the Gold family.

  Farrell: No no, the honor is all mine that you are willing to offer us with your presence on such little notice. I can only apologize for not bringing the full reinforcements to you in a timely enough manner.

  After a little more back and forth banter, Farrell finally got into the main event.

  Farrell: We are new here and since this your territory, could you perhaps be able to inform me of the current situation that is ailing your territory.

  In response, Johnathon swirled a cup of tea in his hands briefly. He then gave a sigh before giving his response.

  Johnathon: Have you heard of the legend of the curse that our family is under? You should at least have a general gist since our family is so important for your church. It is as the records state. We are indeed magnets for the cursed golden beasts that pgue this nd. If it were all just like normal, we would have no problem handling the situation on our own. The problem that we are currently facing is that the beasts are becoming more organized. According to my soldier's recounting, there are hints that there are cults secretly hiding beneath the surface and secretly guiding these beasts.

  Hearing this, Farrell remained smiling, but a hint of seriousness and caution could be seen from his eyes. Although we had thwarted the pns of the robed cultists when we were heading here, they were merely pawns fighting in the limelight. The true strength of these cultists are that they always remain hidden and interrupt when it is most inconvenient.

  The Church has always had an upper hand when it came to direct combat strength, so any other forces that came up never had the chance before. Only with a unique opportunity did the Dark Race Alliance gain the strength to rival the Church of Light.

  In comparison, cultists have almost always been around as long as the Church has been around. Because of the differing beliefs and stances, the Church has always targeted forces like these ever since their inception. Every time they have appeared, there has always been a long plotted scheme just waiting to arrive.

  Hopefully the reinforcements can arrive in time. The way they attacked before is very unlike most cults. Usually what happens is that most cults would cause riots among the people and attack the knights and the church when they are distracted. There are also times that they group up and stalk lone knights to quickly subdue one by one and slowly render the church forces utterly helpless when faced with various problems.

  The likelihood of them ambushing and attacking a group of knights like they did is quite rare since cultists are at their strongest when they are unknown.

  With the presence of cultists being known, the original casual attitude to support the town has gone. As a force that directly contradicts the Church of Light, now he has to pay attention and do his best.

  They then began communicating a little further. With his assistance, Farrell was able to get a rough understanding of the town. With a bow of thanks, he went out and asked about where everyone was.

  He then went and saw the pce that was left for them. When he saw it, he gave a sigh. Although he knew that pces like this would discriminate against people from the Church, he thought that their request for help would let up their inner prejudice.

  With a sigh he entered and saw the knights all quickly sorting out everything from the carriages. He then went and asked one of the knights of Marianne's locale. The knight first reported to him of her decision to join with the Ptinum Stars temporarily. Then he told him. of the location that he st saw the group.

  After giving a nod, he proceeded to a door that the Ptinum Stars were seen choosing. He proceeded to knock on the door and await an answer. After a few seconds, the door opened and out popped one of the females from that group.

  Lily: Oh, are you here to find Marianne? Let me go ahead and call her.

  She then quickly retracted into the room to find Marianne. Although he could enter, it would likely cause some misunderstandings so he waited outside the door patiently. Soon a familiar face opened the door and greeted him.

  Marianne: Are you finished with your talk? Let's talk in the room.

  She then invited her into the room to which he accepted. In the room, there were the female members of the Ptinum Stars present. With a gentlemanly bow, he greeted each of them before focusing his attention on to Marianne.

  Farrell: Let me tell you about what was said.

  He then recounted the conversation in general terms while also scribbling onto a paper he had a rough draft of the town and pces of note that the man from the Gold family mentioned.

  With all of the information in front of them, Marianne took a moment to process all of this. After a while, she finally looked at him and came to a simir decision that he had come up to.

  Marianne: Although the presence of cults is surprising, what I think is noteworthy is in how they are treating us even if we are important reinforcements at such a critical moment. Either, he is overly confident in himself and the request for reinforcements in a mere formality, or he is just an idiotic noble like the others.

  Farrell: You can't say those kinds of things Marianne. There could be listeners around.

  She merely gave a scoff in return.

  Marianne: Most nobles wouldn't bother paying attention to us at all. Let alone in a guest room they gave us. If they did, wouldn't that just prove that they made these guest rooms to eavesdrop on visitors? In that case, why would anyone ever dare trust them?

  She then went on to talk about her view of the situation. Like Farrell, she also was serious about the appearance of cultists here.

  Marianne: Even if we can't root them all out on our own, we should at least investigate to make it easy for the future reinforcements.

  Having said all that, her brows remained furrowed.

  Marianne: Although we met and dealt with the cultists earlier, the others may be able to find out that we had arrived. We went straight into the lord's mansion so it is likely that they know of our presence here. The best way to deal with this mission would be to...

  She mulled over the decision for a while. She then turned to ask the members of the Ptinum Stars present about what they thought of the situation. Farrell showed a little surprise at this interaction.

  The girls all look at each other before turning to Lily in unison.

  Lily: I think I should speak to Sean about this shouldn't I? He is our leader and one of the brains of our group after all.

  They all thought that it made sense so they asked Marianne if we could consult it with our leader.

  She agreed and so the three of us headed on over to the next room over to where the two boys were present.

  Over on their side, Sean and Mist were both on their communicators. Since the opportunity had arisen and that there was nothing else to do now that they had finished unpacking all of their stuff, they went ahead and checked out what had been going on in their communicators.

  Mist had went ahead and offered to check up on the operations of the base and organization so that Sean could take the time to report to their leader. On his communicator, he was looking at the fact that the town that was occupied by one of the other teams before has now gone through a dramatic change in overall feel.

  The town was originally a pit of sin and a big mess of darkness and evil. Now that the organization has brought people to change it, the darkness was now hidden in an underground system that connected the whole pce. On the above ground part, the pce was being all cleaned up and ready for the Church of Light to arrive.

  Previously, the former rulers of the town had cut off their connection with the Church of Light so now that they were ruled by us, we were willing to allow their presence again.

  The Church of Light is an obvious signboard for safety and impartiality so the presence of a branch church in the town helped to calm the civilians from the havoc that previously shrouded the town.

  With the full operation of the organization, the town was finally looking up so he turned to look for other pieces of news they may have missed.

  Among the news being reported was the evidence of the full on reinforcements from the Church arriving in the town of White Lilies. It was only a matter of time that they would be found in the town. Since the organization had already encountered the previous delegation from the Church, the organization remained quiet and casual when they arrived. Although they did not go out of their way to look for it, they were able to find that the army arriving was here to stock up on resources before their trek over.

  Since the reinforcements were in rger number, the trip would still take some time to arrive. Whether or not the cultists will make a move before the reinforcements is a very important question to ask. Since we met those acid cultists near the town, the chances that there are more in hiding nearby are still high.

  As I was pondering this question, a knock came upon our door. Sean went ahead and answered the door. Soon, he returned and everyone in the group along with Marianne were in our guest room.

  It was then that Marianne told us of the current situation. I guessed as much when we were able to encounter cultists so easily in church territory. Adding to that the fact that the reinforcements would take days to arrive, it was the obvious conclusion.

  According to what we were taught in the base, always prepare for the worst in any occasion. Anything that could go wrong would go wrong. In the textbook, the phrase was accredited to someone named Murphy and they are words I live by.

  I mean, we were all previously caught to be sves before we were saved by our Leader and her maid. I know the feeling. When everything just goes against you and you feel that the world itself is targeting you...

  That is why we shall fight our ill fate whether for ourselves or even for others. Now that we were all here, we now had to discuss about what we have to do now.

  Sean: Let's discuss about this. As a summary, there are cults hiding in the town. We can either try to take them all out ourselves before the reinforcements arrive, or we can just find out about them and leave it to the next people to finish off. The only problem with that is that they know we are here and so there is a high chance that either they run away in advance or they choose to attack the town in advance right?

  Marianne nods in agreement. This is how the current situation after all. So, what we need to decide on is how we should proceed from here. From what I can see, I guess the most reasonable thing to do is to search for the base right? If we know their base of operations, we can decide what to do as we please while also keeping an eye on their actions.

  As this was the first time we are dealing with people like cultists, I asked Marianne about what to pay attention to when facing them.

  Marianne: For precautions, let me think. It is certain that the Acid Cult is around since we met them back then. You should have already seen their abilities back then. They believe in an acid based creature that gives them the power to shoot acidic projectiles that specializes in dealing with armor. Individually, they are not so much of a threat as their physical strength is abysmal and their only source of damage is through their acidic projectiles. As for basic precautions, the Church generally warns us to stay in mid range to the opponent if possible. If we are two close, they could easily self destruct or do anything simir. When the distance is further, they could just run and start attacking civilians while bming us.

  It seemed that this this particur tidbit was important to her since she was visibly seen slightly shivering before getting back to speaking.

  Marianne: Anyways, just remember to have some distance, but still keep them within attacking range if possible to be able to react or quickly subdue them if necessary.

  We all nodded and began discussing about the situation amongst ourselves.

  Mist: The knights will likely have us go and search for the cultists. They themselves are likely the main target of these cultists. They are also quite obvious as targets since they are the main force the church brought today. With them taking up most of the attention, we can likely have an easier time trying to search for them. After all, they are likely to be hiding and secretly looking at them.

  All of us nod at Mist deduction. We all then decided that we would need to map out the whole area ourselves if we wanted to really catch these cultists. Since they have been here longer than we have, we need to at least have a basic understanding of the area if we want to catch them. We can also go to various pces and see if we can get any further intel as we go.

  Since we have decided what to do, we go ahead and inform Farrell of our decision. He gives a deep nod and asks whether Marianne would like to join us on our mission. She ultimately agrees since she has already promised to have joined our team before.

  We then set off to look around the town. As this is the first town that we have set off on since we joined the organization, we were all understandably a little excited by the prospects of wandering around the pce. We also decided that we would try to stick together if possible. By being together, we minimize the chance that the cultists separate and defeat us one by one.

  As we walked out of the mansion, I could feel that the overall atmosphere had changed. In the mansion, it felt both stuffy and a little overbearing. Now that we have left, we walked over to the main city. When we arrived, we saw quite the bustling scenery. The town was so full of life and color that we were a little shocked.

  We then began our mission of noting important pces and roads that all connect to each other. Due to the vibrant appearance of the town, we were able to quickly gain a grasp of our surroundings by checking the standout colors of the town in general.

  The steps we took also helped us to get a general feel of the town. When we were passing by, some stores caught the eyes of the girls so they uniterally decided to go shopping. With a sigh, we guys resigned ourselves to be human bag carriers. Thankfully, they did not buy much so these bags would not really prevent us from fighting when necessary.

  After a shopping trip, we headed around and were able to find a pub that we entered to have a meal. Although we could have entered a restaurant to have a meal, our funds were not plentiful and the intel would not be so easy to obtain in a restaurant. Of course, there was also the excuse that we all wanted to enter a pce like a pub.

  Even though the Adventurer's guild in White Lily Town had a bar in it as well, it was not an actual independent bar as much a pce to rex or find potential teammates.

  When we entered the bar, the bar went silent for a second before going back to its full bustling mood. We were invited in and asked the amount of people in our group.

  Sean: Seats for 6 please.

  With a nod the waiter led us to one of the corner window seats. Surprisingly, the pub was pretty clean and so we sat our spot and chatted amongst ourselves. Even if we are here to gain intel of the pce, we need to at least keep up appearances to not scarer off any potential intel givers.

  After a few minutes, the waiter returned to bring us menus. They were made of wood and looked quite fancy looking. We looked through the menu and eventually chose our meals and drinks. Since we are on a mission, we did not choose any alcoholic drinks.

  Even though we were still young, pubs like these don't bother to check our ages. In the base, we all have our own cards to enter that have our information so we are not allowed to drink in the base, but outside of the base there is usually no way to tell age so alcohol is only deserving of a verbal drinking warning.

  After a little chatter, our meals arrived and we began to slowly finish our meal. The longer the meal takes, the more time we have to search for information. So we waited and listened while still maintaining some small talk.

  Just as expected, pubs and taverns are indeed great pces to search for information. Although we have not found any information about cultists, we learned some tidbits that could be useful for ter.

  Drinker 1: Have you heard? One of the royal vampire leaders has been changed.

  Drinker 2: Really? Isn't there still several decades until the next selection?

  Drinker 1: How stupid are you? The new one went and did in the previous one and took the spot through strength. I heard it from Gossiping Gill in the guild. You know how he can never keep his information to himself.

  Drinker 2: If it is him, I can see it coming. Did you hear anything about this new leader from him?

  Drinker 1: Yeah, come here.

  The second drinker then leaned in to hear better.

  Drinker 1: I heard that the new leader is a surprisingly young ss. According to Gill, she had silver hair and blood red eyes and a ruby like sword.

  Drinker 2: Oooh!

  They then began their usual chatter and went on to continue to chat about various different topics.

  From them, the most important information I gathered was about the new vampire leader. Since we will eventually be heading there, knowing a little more about them would not hurt.

  After some time, I finally found what I wanted to hear about among two quietly speaking buddies.

  Drinker 3: Hey, I remember you said that some mysterious guys recruited you from out of nowhere. How did it go for you?

  Drinker 4: Those guys? I chose not to join because they were all wearing cloaks and acting all mysterious. Almost like they were cultists. There is no way that there are cultists here, right? I mean, there have been more of them popping up recently, but we are still in the territory of the Church of Light.

  Just hearing that part of the conversation got my attention. I quickly gnce at the others and seeing that Mist also heard it, I quietly inform the others. We then whispered a pn on how to obtain more information from that guy.

  Sean: I guess we will find a way to isote that guy and interrogate him ourselves for the location he was called to be recruited. If we can find even a single cultist to follow to their base, I think it would be perfect.

  The others all agreed and we all waited until that guy had finished and was heading out. After a little while we finished our meal and called a waiter to pay before leaving. Mist then began to track the guy and we quietly followed him from a distance using the different roads to hide our goal of chasing him. We eventually find the guys home and we saw that he lives alone in a small house. The perfect situation.

  Mist then quickly goes in and knocks the guy out and finds a dark room so we could secretly interrogate him. This is our first time doing something like this so we were all quite excited.

  Soon the guy woke up and tried to scream but noticed that he was unable to. Mist had already prepared for this scenario so he had prevented his screaming for help in advance.

  To prevent him from talking, we instead had him write down the general characteristics that the robed figures who recruited him had as well as the location they met at and any locations that they had mentioned.

  We quickly then knocked him out while he was still in his drunken delirious state and put him to bed. With this new information, we went and checked out the pce that he had mentioned from a proper distance away.

  The pce was an abandoned building that used to house a coffee shop. According to the guy's report, he met them when both sides happened to be here and was invited to join whatever world saving pn they had. He did not pay attention to the details so what we had to come by was that they told him to enter the basement of the building if he wanted to join them.

  Since we got this clue, we can wait here and see if we can find anyone coming around here to see if we can find any further clues and even potentially a hidden base.

  And so we waited nearby on a ft rooftop on a nearby building. The pce we were at is a rge library with a surprisingly ft roof that we took advantage of to get a better look of the surroundings. Although there was no seats or the like here, we were strong enough to climb up here even carrying things like chairs up here to more comfortably watch for any problems.