Temples and testimony

My arrival was a bit less eventful than the last time I went to the Normn Manor. I was not greeted by Kyle speaking down to me with his lackeys, nor was the house lively with some event.

The house almost felt empty as I walked through the entrance chamber as we reached the door on the far side, the soldier turned around, "My apologies, but if you could wait here for a moment so I may announce your arrival." I gave a nod and a wave, and with that he was off.

I took the moment to peruse about the decorated room, enjoying the sights. I myself was in no rush of course, everything was going to plan so far. With the church underway and my champion out there causing mayhem, I was in a favorable position.

Speaking of my champion, I had received yet another notification along the way.

Your Champion has earned a new achievement!

Achievement Unlocked:

An Acquired Taste

Almost instantly after I looked, another one appeared

Your Champion has earned a new achievement!

Achievement Unlocked:

Bone Spurs

I let out a hesitant chuckle to myself, since I was alone. 'He sure is not taking his time. I hope he isn't overdoing it, I can't have the heroines of light being called down here before we are properly ready. Regardless, there is no doubt that I should get some attention pivoted off of me, or at least have prevent more attention from being put on me.'

At last, a servant opened the doors further into the house, calling for me before leading me deeper into the labyrinth of a home. The hallways themselves seemed almost purposely made to look identically, convincing me the manor was actually designed to cause intruders to get lost within it and die.

Eventually, the servant went up to one large door and knocked a few times. After that, the stepped to the side and gave a bow, gesturing me forward. I gave them a nod in return, and opened the door before walking in, the servant closing it behind me.

Inside was an office of sorts, one of the walls being entirely covered by a bookshelf and the other a series of counters with various items on display or simply stored upon them. On the far side of the room was a large stained-glass window, Norman standing looking out of it in a somewhat authoritative pose.

He tilted his head backwards to speak to me without looking away from the window, "Please, take a seat Mathew." He gestured towards a large desk between us, the top of which had seemingly been cleared off to allow for one rather large game board atop it.

I sat down in one of the seats on my side, being rather comfortable yet not as grand as the one on his side. I cleared my throat once I was resting in a comfortable position, "So, what is it that you wished to discuss with me, Baron Normn?"

He took a deep breath before turning around to face me, making a swift movement to quickly sit down in his own chair. " Let us first get a formality of sorts out of the way. I assume you have no issue with my architects arriving to begin work on your church around midday tomorrow?"

I gave a nod, "I have no such issues, no. I do thank you greatly once again for permitting me to build a sanctuary within your city, for a somewhat easy task in comparison." I wanted to partially rub in how much power I possessed, suggesting something he could not do was barely worth mentioning.

He drummed his fingers against his hand in an interlocked position as he spoke again, "Ah, yes. That was the second thing I wished to discuss with you. We finished collecting information from the prisoner, thanks to your efforts." He closed his eyes and performed an ever so slight nod as he finished.

I bowed my head in return, "Of course. I do wonder, if you are finished does that mean he fulfilled the final order I gave?" Norman gave grunt of affirmation. "Ah, good. Then, would it be rude to ask what method was used? I was quite curious how it would end." I was in fact curious, but it was more to show how little that act of brutality meant to me, to clearly set me apart from what would be expected of the actions of a priest.

Norman looked upwards in thought as he clicked his tongue, "That's fine of course, I just have to remember... What was it... Ah! Yes, that's right." He gave a satisfied nod to himself, "It was suffocation. Once the man had told us all he could, he simply stopped breathing. Not that it seemed truly voluntary, he was panicking and flailing for as long as he could until he had no energy left." Norman gave a shrug at this, bringing the phrase 'such is life' to mind.

I hummed in interest, "Suffocation you say? You know, I believe it fitting. I don't believe I have heard of a single person, no matter how tough, take suffocation without breaking. Except, now that I think of it..." I tapped my chin, a somewhat forgotten memory resurfacing in my mind. "When I was young, there was one strange man... Horrid bloke, I must say, but he sure left an image. He laughed the whole time as he died, even well after he ran out of air. The display was apparently intimidating enough that they wouldn't collect the corpse until well past an hour since he was certainly dead."

The Montana Massacre, they had called it in the news. There had been disappearances for years, but during one summer an entire camp's worth of teens went missing, aside from one who came to the police with a story of a man with a crossbow. Once the authorities arrived, they found a sight that was too gruesome for it to be shown on broadcast television. One thing was for certain, no other teen had made it out of that trip alive, as well as a few of the officers who had gone to arrest him.

I shivered at the memory of the trial, it was a video I had watched a few times to try and build my persona as a crime lord in my past life. At the killer's trial, he made no defenses, seemingly confused as to why his lawyer was telling him not to claim his kills. His words were possibly just as brutal as his killings, and the execution was no different.

I shook my head to clear out those thoughts. While such an idol may have been useful to build myself off of in my last life, I needed a different approach to this one. With that in mind, I refocused on Norman to see what it was he brought me here for.

Clearly, whatever it was had to do with what they got out of "Smoke".