Dark Magus Returns

Not letting the golden coin linger any longer, the cleaner instantly snatched it and placed it away into his pocket. There wasn't even a chance for Himmy to react; it was as if he was going up against a great Pagna warrior, the man was so fast.

"If you had done that in the first place, then we would have gotten somewhere a lot quicker," the cleaner stated and cleared his throat. "I can't take you there now, otherwise, they will see where we're going. Wait for about an hour until service is over."

"The staff members will leave the main room, and I can sneak you guys into the room where all the trouble started," the cleaner explained. "Just sit at the back seats or something and don't stand out too much."

The cleaner was trying to distance himself away from the others, and when they had eventually stepped away from him, there was a spring in each sweep that he made, along with a giant smile on his face.

The group had sat at the very back of the bench. The place was relatively empty, since it was the middle of the day, so they were a few meters away from anyone else and just continued to look at the cleaner.

"What happened? It looked like Raze gave the man something, and then suddenly he was over the moon," Charlotte asked.

"From my analysis, Himmy was failing drastically at trying to persuade the man. His attempts at giving the man a gift or a bribe for him to speak didn't work, but when Raze had done the same, it was a success," Anna clearly explained.

"Yeah, well, I guess that's what one would expect to happen if a gold coin is given to them," Himmy replied as he reached toward his mouth and pulled out the stick, letting out a large puff of air.

"A golden coin!" Charlotte repeated, her mouth nearly hitting the floor. "Do you know how much that is worth? How did you even get such a thing? For us to use a big expense like that, it has to go through the base… but I guess that was your own money… you didn't steal it, did you?"

A number of thoughts were going through Charlotte's head, most of them of worry. Although Alter didn't have many rules, and groups were mostly allowed to operate however they wished within those rules, there were morals, and most of those in Alter trying to complete the ultimate goal of keeping Pagna safe wouldn't want to work with hardened criminals.

"We need to solve this case, and we need not waste time," Raze answered. "I saw that Himmy's tactics weren't working. During my short time here, I have learned that, in our world and this world, there is one thing that is very convincing to others."

"That is currency. Currency is created, even in this world, to control those in Pagna. It might be the only thing that the ordinary people have over the Pagna warriors that are needed. As for where I obtained it from, in the Academy, there are many disciples that are heirs to their clans."

"They have many valuables and have a lot of wealth. I had gained close connections to a few of them and received rewards in the process. So I have some wealth."

No one questioned Raze too much, but they did have their own thoughts in their heads about what he could have possibly done to receive the money because it was no small amount.

'It couldn't be!' Charlotte thought. 'By favors for the other members, could he have...' Her face turned bright red as she started to get all sorts of thoughts in her head, and Anna sitting next to her just shook her head several times.

The group waited patiently and listened through the talks of the religious group. There wasn't much for them to devise in what they heard.

"We must all praise the sun! For it gives us everything in our lives. It is above all and is the power that separates those above us, gives power to the things we eat, giving the energy on the planet itself, and the energy that everyone uses including the warriors."

"We worshippers of the sun will be granted great strength when the time comes."

Unlike the others who didn't seem to be paying attention to the words spoken by the worshippers, Raze tried to decipher it a bit more. This religion's belief, unlike many others, didn't focus on the life past this one but instead focused on the current life.

From the sound of things, they were hoping to be granted great strength. It wasn't clear what that would be just off of listening to them. It could be wealth, health, or literal strength, maybe even spirituality.

'According to the information Anna gave, she stated that many of the clans were trying to get those from the Divine realm to come down with their full power,' Raze analyzed. 'What do they think of religious groups like this one?'

'They must have a goal as well, and I can't believe that they are so na?ve that they don't know of the items that have the great powers to affect the world. These religious groups aren't linked to the clans and have their separate beliefs.'

'They're linked to the regular people of Pagna. The citizens, the emperor, and the kingdoms. The other half of the Pagna world, that has remained silent. It's possible that they could be a suspect in this as well.'

'Trying to gain a strong power that could protect them from the Pagna warriors if they ever chose to try and rule over the continents with an iron fist.'

There was a reason why Raze thought like this. In his world, there were different beliefs that many people had.

Some focused on doing good and being rewarded in the afterlife. Some were a means of living and a cleansing of the body, but others at times were spread for an individual's agenda.

The Grand Magus were behind one of the religious groups back on Alterian. One that hadn't existed when he was young but had grown quickly into one of the biggest groups in Alterian. If their name was mentioned, he was sure that even Charlotte would know of the group.

It was the last scandal that Raze was able to find of their corrupt lives. Although he didn't find any wrongdoing of the religious group itself, only that their activities were being funded by the Grand Magus. For some reason, it seemed like they didn't want him to out them.

It was why they were chasing him harder than they had before, but Raze never thought that people would believe him in the first place.

'It bugs me a bit, what did they think that I knew that they wanted to stop from getting out.'

The ceremony was over, and the people were standing and started to leave the room, including the workers. As they left and were walking away, from the side they could see the cleaner calling them over.

"A sun god," Raze mumbled to himself. "It would be pretty frightening fighting against something like that."