For a moment, the man couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Wait, are these the people we've been waiting for?
A bold idea came to him, and his heart hammered in his chest. He sneaked a glance at his captain, Anno.
To his surprise, the usually calm and impassive Anno broke into a bright, radiant smile, like spring arriving after a long winter.
She strode forward eagerly, sweeping straight to the front of the nuns' formation, and into the arms of the young white-haired priest: "Charles!"
She had no concern for maintaining her image before her subordinates or for losing their awe. In fact, she had already earned their respect by sheer strength, so she no longer needed to bother about such formalities.
Besides, she'd long struggled to contain the surging longing in her heart.
As for the group walking toward them—naturally, it was Charles and the Battle Nuns he had brought. Holding the girl he loved, his voice grew a little apologetic: "Sorry, Anno, I'm late."
The earthquake had damaged many roads on the way here; to reach Rubble District, they'd been forced to take a lengthy detour.
Even though they'd hurried as fast as possible, they were still over half an hour late.
"It's all right." Anno released his arm, lifted her face, and looked at him with sparkling eyes. "I'd wait as long as you needed."
Perhaps realizing this was a bit much, she turned to address her previously grumbling subordinates: "Isn't that right?"
Jack, the human warrior, eyes aglow, scanned the faces of the nuns—both fair and strikingly beautiful.
After days of nourishment, the baptism of Divine Power, and dedicated exercise, the weariness of years of poverty had been swept from these girls. Now they all stood tall, radiant, and brimming with vitality; their presence alone was captivating.
Jack swallowed hard and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, captain's right—we have no complaints no matter how long we have to wait!"
This, of course, spoke for every male warrior present.
"Tch, brown-noser!"
Jenny, the female warrior, pursed her lips with a sour note, glancing sidelong at the nuns, unable to help but feel both jealousy and inferiority.
Jack, however, was now completely oblivious to her, his mind filled with images of the nuns.
In the end, beauty swept all complaints aside, and the two groups merged, heading together to a snack stall in Rubble District chosen by Anno, where they enjoyed lunch and got to know the abilities of their future comrades in arms.
Their party—thirty-one people, over twenty of whom were women, and nearly half white-haired, beautiful nuns—naturally drew plenty of attention.
Though the stares were many, it caused no great scene.
Rubble District was a gathering place for all sorts of peculiar adventurers—even monstrous creatures or bizarre spellcasters. What hadn't people here seen?
At most, the nuns were simply a group of beautiful girls—nothing compared to an eldritch knight summoning magical armor from a belt, an Iron Golem towering over ten meters and wielding a lightsaber, or an arcanist conjuring bizarre monsters and spells from cards.
Everyone sat down, Anno and Charles sharing a table. Her eyes often wandered to the white-haired nun girls, filled with curiosity. "They… are they all your kin?"
Charles cleared his throat. "Not actually. They, well, gained divine magic through special means, which irreversibly turned their hair white."
"In terms of bloodline, they aren't Seinites."
Anno nodded. She didn't quite understand, but she didn't press further—she trusted him, so all that was left was astonishment. "Wow, I never knew you had a team like this working with you."
"Where were you hiding them? I've been to your monastery so many times and never seen any of them."
Charles laughed awkwardly. "They'd all been scattered elsewhere. Only recently—after disaster struck the monastery—did they regroup and take up arms."
"Back in peaceful times, there was no need for you to see them."
Anno's brows quirked. "Take up arms? Aren't they all Life Domain…? You mean they're also proficient with military weapons?"
Charles shook his head. "No, only six are Life Domain Pastors. The other nine are Storm Domain Pastors."
"And their weapons were sponsored by the blue dragons—Ion Beam Emitters."
Anno was visibly moved: "The kind that explodes? Oh right, you never saw those things overheat and burst…"
Recalling those scenes, Anno still shivered. "They're dangerous. The blue dragons must be trying to get you hurt if they gave you such weapons!"
She knew Charles had taken blue dragon investment, and as a paladin, instinctively mistrusted chromatic dragons—convinced those creatures would trick her lover.
Charles's expression turned a bit awkward: "Uh… I didn't see it with my own eyes, but I can imagine what it looks like when those things explode."
"But the blue dragons have improved them, and we've done plenty of our own testing."
It was true—in the monastery, they had tested the emitters' performance repeatedly. "Storm Domain Pastors can control the power of lightning, so the risk of overheating and exploding is much reduced. No need to worry."
Anno exhaled, eyes still worried. "That's something, I suppose. The weapons are powerful… let's hope they're reliable when it matters."
Her gaze swept over the girls' white hair, and she couldn't help but exclaim: "So beautiful, and such perfectly matching hair!"
"Charles, how did they obtain divine magic, and then have their hair turn like that?"
Charles stiffened. "Ah… it's a miracle. Lightning falls, or milky white baptism, and—well, this is the result…"
Feeling guilty, he quickly steered the conversation: "By the way, what's your main goal for this trip into the mountains?"
Heavens—if Anno knew the 'baptism' and empowerment process was just soaking the girls in a hot spring and having him see every inch of their bodies, she'd absolutely blow her top.
"To contact a few corporate outposts in the mountains, slay demons, and train up the new members," Anno replied—though her tone was lackluster. "This affair is too big. The powers that be won't let me near the real crisis."
Charles comforted her: "That's only natural. Whether it's the Alliance of the Mountain Purifiers, the Abyssal Lord, or the remaining Chthonians—none of them are threats we could deal with. It's best to leave those to the archmages."
Anno puffed out her cheeks, looking disgruntled. "I've actually seen a few high-level proposals, and what I'm about to tell you is absolutely top-secret."
Charles leaned forward, lowering his head, so Anno could whisper in his ear: "The big mages are so busy just dealing with the Chthonians rampaging underground that they can barely cope. They're focused on preventing earthquakes from destroying more of the city."
"As for the Alliance of the Mountain Purifiers and the Abyssal Lord, they don't plan to intervene—they want the demons and the Mountain People to wear each other down, then step in when both sides are exhausted."
She scowled, voice indignant: "Isn't that just giving all those lives to the fiends?"
Even though the Alliance of the Mountain Purifiers destroyed Rockseeker's Outpost, Anno didn't bear a grudge against all Mountain People. That small town's majority were Mountain People.
While the Alliance acted in the name of vengeance against Liberl Port, it was their own kin who suffered most in their first strike.
On this point—well-read in history—Anno harbored no confusion. Even now, she grieved for the Mountain People tortured by demons.
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