Mash left the church with Luke, but Luna needed to stay behind for something. Apparently, she had skipped some work and needed to catch up on it. Luna complained that there was a surprising amount of boring speeches involved with being a priestess. He expected she had plenty of that lined up for the day, and he didn’t want to stick around for that. However, he didn’t really want to go with Luke either. Luke needed to visit a few more temples and meet with the king. All of which sounded incredibly tedious.

The meeting with Elise had been surprisingly okay. That didn’t mean that he forgot about the terrible entrance to the temple. He could only imagine how much more annoying the other temples would be if Luna wasn’t there to cling to them. His presence would probably cause more fights. He kind of wished that Jill had taken him with her. Well, she missed out on a rather informative conversation with the moon goddess.

The journey through the temple had been filled with dubious glances. Many paladins miraculously stumbled upon their paths, and one time they even had a weapon in hand too. That one had earned a rebuke from Luna, but honestly, he preferred it to the stares. He was almost eager as he stepped out into the streets. In fact, he was so eager that his step was a bit too forceful. The stone beneath his foot cracked and there was a loud thump!

Mash grimaced as he heard several gasps from outside of the temple. He looked up, already having an idea of what to expect. His domain had let him see one or two people who stared openly at the temple’s entrance. He took in the sight. Many people stood in the street. They stood shoulder to shoulder. He didn’t see any children, but plenty of adults were standing around. Some guards and adventurers decided to join in as well. Mash didn’t see any fancy addresses or suits. He expected that some nobles would be aware of what was happening, but he wasn’t important enough to get them here physically.

All of them watched the temple entrance. Even before he heard the first words, he knew that they were there because of the earlier disturbance. They were there to see him. He did not like feeling like some kind of exhibit. Though he would probably do something similar. A rumor traveled quickly, that was a lesson he learned as a small kid. His overly loud step had somehow brought silence to the crowd, but it was quickly filled with whispers. Many of which he could hear.

“It’s the monster.”

“I heard he attacked the temple. “

“What about his siblings?”

“I heard that he was a bastard.”

“Why did the church just let him go?”

The rumors were loud and ridiculous. To their credit, they were attempting to whisper. It just didn’t work when dozens of people were doing it. There were plenty of more offensive things said, and some were actually true. He was not human that much was true. This did make him remember the goddess. These people had no idea that their goddess was not human, did they? He briefly considered telling them. A second’s thought told him that they would probably just assume he was lying.

Luke was standing beside Mash, and he was receiving a fair portion of the whispers too. This city was really good at getting information. People were already calling him a demi-god. How had that even happened? The commotion earlier hadn’t been that big, had it? Mash looked over the crowd. They were blocking every street quite well. As annoyed as he was, he wanted to just push right through them. It wasn’t like they could stop him if he did. He held back and turned to Luke.

“I’ll go meet with the king, and head back after. No offense, but this seems tiresome.”

Mash waved his hands, gesturing to the crowd. Luke nodded.

“Yeah, I’m not too sure about this either. But I will do what I need to.”

That was all that needed to be said. Mash walked slightly away from Luke. The crowd seemed to copy his movements. They took steps back as he went forward. At least they didn’t look like they wanted to stop him. He wouldn’t press the matter either. The people were scared for all that they showed up to observe him. Even if his domain didn’t let him get an idea of a person’s feelings, he could’ve read it on their faces. The slightly widened eyes. The way they pressed close together yet still shuffled a little bit. These people had come here expecting a spectacle and had been hoping for something exciting. They wanted to have a story to tell.

Mash didn’t meet their expectations. Wooden wings sprouted from his back, growing to a small size. They weren’t even as long as his arms. He flew up into the air, mostly relying on his affinity to fly away. He didn’t fly into the castle, that would probably be stupid.

As he flew, he looked for a place to land. Instead, he spent a little under an hour just flying around. The town was rebuilt, but he was able to notice where the town had been reformed. The stone was newer in some places. There was a park that he didn’t remember before. At the edge of the town, he also noticed a graveyard. It was there before, but now the tombstones covered almost all of the available space. The town was busy, and he saw several people walking toward the temples. They were probably trying to catch Luke or see one of the other gods.

The air was kind of chilly as the day changed to night. The sun was still up but it had definitely grown colder. The wind wasn’t strong enough to impede his flying, although it helps him relax. It was just cold enough that he enjoyed it. Unlike the frozen snow lands up north, this was more like a gentle autumn breeze. The weather around the capital was usually well controlled, but his brother had told them that most people were too busy to regulate it. They were only preventing the worst things but didn’t bother with chill winds or rain.

His brother had told them that more monsters had been appearing, and most knights and guards were extraordinarily busy now. Even adventurers were being forced to enter and explore dungeons. There were quotas now for each adventuring rank. His group was spared the requirement. Well, they had already surpassed it with their last dungeon clear. The dungeon they had cleared last finished their quota for this month. They would get assigned another quota once the month ended, but it wasn’t such a big deal. The guild struggled to enforce the quota, and it was hard to keep track. Some dungeons would take months while others took a few hours. It must be a hassle for the guild.

His thoughts wandered, as he found a place to land. It was an empty section near-ish to the castle, but well hidden from the streets. Three buildings met in such a way that there was only one narrow exit from the triangular space. A truly perfect location. That went through Mash’s head as he slowly descended into the weirdly well-hidden alleyway. If he had thought about it more, he would’ve realized that it must have been designed to hide from prying eyes. He did not make that connection though and was completely relaxed as his feet met with the stone ground.

Mash’s domain let him see a lot but seeing and understanding were different things. He had felt mana on the ground, but much of the city had some enchantment or another on the streets. Seeing a little mana like this would normally be nothing. Honestly, he had felt pretty safe in the town. Even if he wasn’t the most liked, he was related to enough important people that the worst he would receive were some names. That was what he thought, as the mana in the ground rose to cover him. It wrapped around him a shimmery outline of chains rolling over his body within a second. He didn’t even think to stop it before it was too late.

The energy that he had been recovering from the wooden wings had stopped. Whatever the chains did, sealing his energy recovery was on the list. He also felt that his skills had been sealed and to make matters worse that included his domain. The sudden disappearance of his domain was disorienting. Enough to make him stumble backward. It was a sense that he had relied on for so long. It was like losing his sense of smell or something. It wasn’t like he needed it, but it was just so startling that it forced his mind to react. It slowed his reactions, but the bigger problem was the reliance he had built on it. To him, this was worse than going blind.

Mash tried to calm himself. One thought popped into his mind; he needed to get out of here. There were three buildings that surrounded him. None of them had any windows facing this clearing and there was only one narrow alley that would let him out. That alone wouldn’t be a problem. The issue was that people were blocking the one exit now.

Three knights stood casually in the alleyway. It was narrow enough that one had to stand behind the other two. Mash could see past them and saw another knight leaning against one of the buildings, a lookout. They were wearing the same armor his brother had, though it was not as polished or adorned as Arthur’s set. Most of the knights’ faces were hidden behind helmets. The helmets were large and had visors that only had narrow slits for their eyes. One of them had raised their visor though.

Mash stared at one of the ugliest people he had ever seen. It was not a nice thought but the man's face was just wrong. His nose was bent in two different directions before straightening out. It had to be the result of poor healing, yet the man never took the time to get it healed properly. Worse than that were the dark circles around his eyes. It had to make up. He had seen that occasionally on some girls but had never seen it on a man. They were too dark and noticeable too. The man was ugly to the point that Mash believed it was a disguise. Knights who used lookouts and disguises probably weren’t good people.

Mash straightened his stance and took in his condition more carefully. Priscilla told him that all of his skills were blocked, though it hadn’t weakened him otherwise. His stats were unchanged. That was good. He still had his wooden wings too, but he couldn’t fly without his magic. These wings were too small to actually lift him on their own. He regretted not making them bigger and wished he had used a transformation instead. He doubted that this seal would’ve ended his transformation. It didn’t end the subtle things he had done to improve his body. He didn't always adjust his body, but he felt like something big would happen today. So he had minorly changed his body to make it more responsive. Altering his muscles to match the wolf or dragon more closely wasn’t a huge drain on his energy.

“Now, how about you tell me what you’re doing here?”

The knight’s voice was disturbingly wrong. His voice cracked constantly, and his pitch changed often. He was definitely trying to disguise his voice. Without his domain, Mash wasn’t able to accurately gauge the strength of the men. However, this didn’t put him off. Even without his domain, he could tell that this would lead to a fight. A smile spread across his face, and he didn’t even try to stop it.