Chapter 19: Second Apostole

Two days has passed since Leo left for Dragonrose Earldom and everyone returned to their usuall lives. Kiira and Taru planned to go to check on the shop after school, Nina planned to go to library to learn more spells and Alette decided to go partol the streets.

"Uwaaaaah~ I'm so tired…"

"You really can't sleep without Leo close by, right?"

"Can you blame me? Ever since I came to Netrose household I was near him… this is the first time I am so far away from him…"

"You there! Taru Seadraga I challange you to a magic duel!" a girl with blonde hairs and red eyes, a fellow member of the S class, Caroline Ruby Tenébres pointed her finger at Taru.

"This again… fine, let's get it over with quickly today," Taru, now completly acustomed to Ruby's almost daily duel challanges yawned and went to the arena. By this time, no one even was interrested in these duels as they knew that those trained by Leo were in class of their own. Even Victina, who was conscidered on the weaker side of royal bloodline in terms of magical prowness as well as the physical, and was simmilar to her brother Rinbell, before he got cured from his curse and now was his strenght growing by leaps and bounds, was in separate league from the others.

Not even twenty minutes later, Taru returned to her seat and finished her lunch.

"I tell you, that girl have a resolve."

"Yeah, but that alone won't change much."

"Indeed. She's too shy. Even if she have a crush on Leo, just by dueling us she won't be able to charm him. It just makes us look better..."

"Do you think Leo knows about her feelings?"

"Oh, he definitely knows. He might not look it sometimes, but he's not that dense. He just takes a passive aproach."

"But why? If he just went and said 'Now you're mine' I guess she wouldn't resist."

"That's just how he is."

All the girls who were in love with Leo, and had their feelings returned in kind, knew good well that Leo was greedy and won't stop just by taking them. And while it would discourage most women from associating with such a man, but these girls also knew he was smart about it. He never lied about his feelings, so if he told you he loved you, then you knew he was honest.

For better or worse, Leo was always a family type of person. Back on earth when Leo was still known as Hyogo Satori and Kiira was known as Kara Toori, they once discused how many kids they would have once their lives were on track and they could get married. Back then, Kiira said two kids were the very minimum. Minimum, they never talked about the upper limit.

"Oh, you two are here?" Alette came to the classroom with the wingman girl from the Dragonrose fanclub.

"Hey Al. Did something happen?"

"Nothing urgent or noteworthy. Just the guys from the fanclub wish to get stronger."

"Um! You see, we are like, really weak. All of us wish to be protected by lord Leo, but some of us want to be useful to him. So, I wondered if you could train us."

"Hmm… I guess we could?"

"It would be helpful to have some backing in the royal capital," Taru nodded alongside Kiira silently.

"Alright, can I ask you two to do it?"

"Sure thing. Going to patrol the streets?"

"Indeed," Alette nodded and after saying her goodbyes she left the school for today.

Alette's skill, King of Judgement, come with three main subskills. Sence crime, Judge and Punish. The first skill allowed her to sence people with criminal type titles and locate them. Second skill, Judge allowed her to see how heavy the crimes were and pin down those with criminal record, heavier crime the stronger the press was. Last skill, Punish, summoned a blade made from light and clense the soul of skills and titles. This skill worked simmilar to Kiira's Plunderer which allowed her to take skills of those she killed. Though, the Punish skill cleansed the soul so it could be reincarnated right away.

I'm patrolling the streets every day and I already remember the people going around, the knights patrolling… Ahhh, it should be today, right?

As Alette thought that, a scream shook the main street. A little way from Alette a man was turned to stone. Behind him was a man with golden eyes, covered in black clotes from head to toe smashing the statue.

"Everyone get away! I'm Alette Netrose a magic knight-in-training!!"

Alette zig-zagged through the panicking masses and confronted the man in black. Their swords, one of white and one of black colors, clashed.

"Oh, what do we have here, a play knight?" a raspy, clearly fake voice said with humorous tone.

"Kogane, your regin of terror ends here!" Alette pushed on and sparks of light flew from her sword. Their swords clashed again and again, pushing Kogane even more and more to open plaza up ahead.

"Tsk, I won't let it end like this! All criminals of this world will be brought to justice by me!!"

"This is something supposed to be done by goverment! A vigilante like you is nothing more then annoying pest!!!"

Alette's sword pushed Kogane to open his stance and disarmed him. In that moment there was a weak lightning-like pattern appearing all over Kogane with purplish color, but it disappeared before anyone could notice it.

"This ends now! «Judgement time!»" In accordance with Alette's words, a giant scale appeared above her head. The scaled started moving from side to side but then instantly fell to one side. When that happened Alette's sword changed. It got bigger and it's shape became simmilar to executioner's sword.

As everyone was watching her sword, no one noticed that Kogane's hands and legs were held to the ground by unvisible power.

Alette spared one last look into the criminal's, in Koganes outfit, brown eyes and brought her sword down. Cutting off his head with one swing.

***

"Geez, she knows no mercy, does she?" a boy in pale blue clothes looked at Alette standing above the dead body.

Name: Alette Sakura Netrose
Level: 50
Race: Saintess (unawakened)
Titles: Thinker, Politician, Favorite child of Judgement goddess, Apostole of Judgement goddess, Natural predator, Natural enemy of monsters, For the peace, Prodigy

Skills:

Unique: King of Judgement (Sence Crime, Judge, Punish), King of Justice (Character judgement, Sence malice, Resist Evil)[AN]

Supreme: Secret maneuvers (6), Auto-heal (9), Magic power armor (9), Wind manipulation (8), Light manipulation (1), Iron stomach (5), Evil eye (Confess) (5)

Extra Rare: Increased mana recovery (10), Increased stamina recovery (10), Magic manipulation (10), Petrification resistance (7), Hide presence (10), Sense presence (10), Light step (8), Air walk (7), Intimidation (10), Angel flash technique (10), Shock absorbtion (6)

Rare: Light magic (10), Wind magic (10), Lightning magic (10), Item box (10), Politics (9), Analyze item (7), Pastry master (5)

Uncommon: Quick feet (10), Etique (10), Hereditary (10), Ostilian slashing technique (10), Unmovable Kastena technique (10), Mist sword technique (10), Iron skin (10), Charge (9)

Common: Leap (10), Kick (10), hand to hand combat (10), Swordsmanship (10), Keen hearing (10), Cooking (10)

Blessings: Goddess of judgement (10), Magic goddess (9), War god (8), Sword god (8), Wind god (6), Goddess of Love (4)"But unawakened Saintess, eh? If the people knew that she would be in big trouble. I guess I should prepare a Disguise skill for her too," the boy smiled, his greenish silver eyes shone proudly.

***

The news of defeat of Kogane, spread through the noble circles and the underworld with simmilar speed. However only a handful of people knew about Alette becoming an apostole, two of which were the king and the prime minister. And the day after the incident they called for Flik and Alette.

"Flik, Alette, thank you for coming here so soon. Let's discuss what will come next," the king pointed at the couch before his own seat and they all sit down for a discussion.

"Let's make things clear, only people who know about miss Alettes title of an apostole are currently here."

"I'm sorry to say this, your majesty, but there actually is one more," Alette bowed gacefully on her seat, a golden ring shining in her clear blue eye.

"A-and who is that?" the kings lips twiched as he heard that.

"Me, of course," a happy voice that didn't belong to anyone in the room made everyone stand up, except for Alette who already knew about the person.

The man had light blue robes with golden ornament of Skill god woven on his chest area. The robes had a hood covering his head and under it could be seen a white mask with light blue glass beads in place of eyes.

"Easy, easy. I didn't come here to fight, 'kay? I'll take this off now, alright?" the boy said and took off his mask and hood.

"LEO???!!!!!!!" the three adults practically screamed out in unison.

"Good thing I made this room soundproof or everyone would know now…"

"Leo, what… what is the meaning of this?"

"Ah, you see when I fought that forest dragon I almost died and Skill god gave me this power. I became his apostole, so to say."

"But, why did you not tell us?"

"Well, if I did say I almost died, I'm sure mom would never let me go anywhere alone again, Apostole or not. And I was asked to not reveal my position to anyone by Skill god too."

The king hearing that took of his crown, took a deep breath… "Leo take the crown, I'm leaving."

"You keep it," Leo flung his finger and the crown instantly went back to the king's head.

"He's an apostole… Manny, could you… please?"

"It's his insistence brother, so please don't force him."

"As the prime minister said. You keep the crown and everything will be okay. If you take it off one more time, I will glue it to your head, your Majesty," Leo looked tired of hearing the same thing comming from the Kings mouth.

"But if the theocracy finds out…"

"No need to sweat that. The theocracy certainly did notice the wave of divine energy, but they have no knowledge about the number of apostoles nor how they look. If they come here, you will give them only that information that apostole exists and wears these robes and mask."

"One thing bugs me sir Dragonrose. How did you get pass my unique skill?" the prime minister broke the silence as he looked at Leo.

This is what you want to know?! The rest of people in the room thought at the same moment.

"Oh, yeah… well I have this skill called Soul binding. Those who are under the effect of this skill can use my unique skills and I can use theirs. Though it can also make me look like those I'm binded too. What I did here was that I borrowed Alette's aura so you only percieved me as another part of Alette."

"That's crazy…"

"I myself found out about this trick only recently. Anyway I hope we can continue as we just discussed."

"So… you plan to remain a noble of our kingdom instead of being an Apostole?"

"A full time Apostole sounds tiring. Plus as long as I take care of Evil dragons, Angels and Demons that manifest in this mortal plane, my job will be as good as done."

"Did you just say evil dragons?" my father frowned a little.

"The dragons rebelling against the four Dragon kings and Fairy dragon, yes."

"Are, are there any in our lands?" the king asked worriedly.

"I had Diniel look into it, and found four dragons in our immediate vincinity that could be called 'Lords'. One is dungeon master of the Grubera dungeon, second one is just past borders of my earldom, and numbers three and four are to the south east from there, though we don't have any other information."

"Sometimes it feels like you've split up yourself, Leo," the king turned cassual, "So will you take the crown?"

"Hell no! Where did I put that glue?!"

"Your majesty, do you know how much troubles you would make by thoughtlessly handing down the crown? There could be even a civil war. And let's not forget there are neighbours who would love to see that happen. Remember that Passarion kingdom and Northern Merchant republic wouldn't let that oportunity slip," prime minister scolded his brother.

"I won't be taking over kingdom anytime soon, or ever. Now if you excuse me, I will be going to my earldom now. There are some so-called play-knight mercenaries I need to get rid off."

"Huh?"

"No need to worry about me, I will be done in two days at most," Leo smiled confidently and patted the worried looking Alette before teleporting away.

"And he's gone…"

"Leo made it his priority to keep this a secret, though as we cannot hide the existence of Apostole anymore, we should get ready to spread the information about this [Masked apostole] to common people," Alette said resolutely.

"As an apostole yourself, will you be alright with that?"

"I found place I belong to and it's beside Leo. I might not see eye to eye with him on some things, but I know that just by standing next to him I'm much more relaxed. Also, father, I would like your blessing."

"Fine you have it," Flik, already tired of todays events just nodded defeatedly.

"Flik, aren't they sibblings? People will find fault with that."

"Not really, Alette here is adopted from branch family so other nobles can't speak up too much. Plus they already live together, so it's not like anyone else would take her now anyway."

"THEY WHAT?!!"

As the king and prime minister got even more worked up, the day continued.

***

"So it is confirmed?"

"It indeed is, your holiness," a small statured girl with golden horns and hairs hidden by her headband nodded to the middle-aged man in chair before her. Her identity? Half-ogre saintess, Hellene Guta Torin.

"So the archbishop in capital of Ostillian kingdom felt the presence of an apostole, days later a giant dome of magical energy appeared and people felt their bodies get lighter… indeed that seems like a work of holy grounds like those we have here."

"In addition, the crown let out pictures of a person standing in mid-air praying to the public," an assistant said to the pope, handing him a paper they recieved from the main cathedral in the Ostillian kingdom.

"I see… that is indeed the symbol of the Skill god, but why would he wear a mask? Apostle is face and voice of a god after all… hmm… well, You will go investigate it. Once you find him offer him yourself as you should," the pope didn't even tried to hide his distaste for young saintess.

"I shall depart as soon as I can then," Hellene bowed gracefully.

"Hmm, on that note I will give you more things to investigate while over there. First, the former priestess of Water goddess' temple in Beastmen kingdom is currently residing and attending the royal academy in Ostillian kingdom as a subordinate of Count Dragonrose. Actually, while you are at it, investigate him as well. It seems he recieved a lot of blessings, he may even have a unique skill under his belt."

It's Earl Dragonrose now you dimwit… the assistant and saintess got tired of the Pope's constant lack of thoroughness.

"Sir, I would recommend sending at least three more people if that is all you want to investigate."

"Hm? Alright, select a group to report back," the pope agreed to his assistants suggestion.

Unbeknownst to the pope the people selected for a journey to the Ostillian kingdom were supporters of saintess who wished for reformation of the Blue Origin Theocracy.

***

As many people were moving to find the Apostole, a black sludge lurked over vast mountainside near Zainrose city.

"Damn it, damn it! After I went so far as to create a perfect vessel for this great me, those old geezers just send down an apostole?! And it had to be that accursed Skill god at that?!!" the black sludge filled with hatered cursed the god who chased him away from the divine realm.

The black sludge was a former god who fell from grace over six million years ago for his machinations in the mortal plane. The sludge back then was known as God of Evolution and was a fifth pillar alongside Skill, Creation, Life and Death gods. Coincidentally it was him who gave birth to Gods of the numerous races, who in the end overpowered him. God of Evolution was caught in act of forcefully breeding humans with monsters and further manipulating the offsprings through painful evolution. Once he was caught, he was stripped of his divinity and thrust into the hell where he was supposed to stay forever.

That however failed as he was half eaten by a demon who then got summoned into mortal plane and possesed a forest dragon. At that time, the God of evolution took over the body of the first prince of the Beastman kingdom and forcibly make it compatible with his remnants. Though that ended up in failiure as the body couldn't withstand the force and rot from the inside out. The worst part was that the soul of the prince was still holding the lumps of meat together and the Evolution god used that to prolong his suffering.

The God of Evolution went through the mountains looking for a new host before abandoning this one, but had no luck. He thought he could use frozen humans who failed at killing an evil dragon here in the mountains, but failed at it too.

"Damn it! Those things are frozen solid, it looks more like a curse then magic… should I use that dragon instead? It's awfully silent, I know! I will took over it's body while it's asleep and then will go on a rampage!!! That should replenish my Soul Power enough to kill that accursed apostole! Gah-gah-gah-gaaah!!!"

[Author Note: I added subskills of Unique skills into the apprisal to make it easier for reader what each unique skill can do. However remember that skills can evolve and gain new abilities]