# Chapter 26: A Cathedral-Level Church with Only Seven People Must Have a Conspiracy Hidden Within
Since he now knew that the black-haired warrior before him, who appeared heavily injured but exuded a constant sense of threat, was actually the heir to the lordship of this land—though given the current situation, the "heir" part could be dropped—the conversation became much easier.
The doors were quickly opened to let the two in. One of the Paladin Knights ran toward the back of the cathedral, seemingly to report to the higher-ups. After Joshua stated his purpose, the two priests immediately began preliminary wound treatment in the reception hall.
"Please temporarily release your left hand's instinctive resistance to Holy Light."
A relatively young priest explained to Joshua, "You are a Gold-rank warrior. If you don't cooperate, our divine arts won't take effect."
"Makes sense." Having been surrounded by legendary-rank priests in the past, Joshua had genuinely forgotten that under rank suppression, even friendly healing could be weakened. He straightforwardly released the instinctive Repulsion of his Battle Qi toward external energy in his left hand and said, "Begin."
Hearing this, the two priests nodded and simultaneously cast their divine arts.
"True Word·Cleanse." "True Word·Blood Flow Halt."
A standard sterilization and Hemostasis procedure. However, seemingly afraid that Joshua's Gold-rank body would resist the divine arts too strongly, the priest casting the Cleanse divine art appeared to overexert himself. Not only Joshua, but even Ying and the three Paladin Knights had all the dust on them swept clean. The entire reception hall instantly became spotless.
At this moment, the Paladin Knight who had left earlier returned. Following behind him was a middle-aged priest of Silver High-rank. His hair was completely white, yet he showed no signs of aging. His nose bridge was straight, his gaze sharp, and he looked very reliable.
"Teacher Atannis."
"Teacher Atannis."
Seeing him, the two priests immediately bowed.
"Finished? Not bad."
Taking a rough look at Joshua's bloody and mangled left hand, the middle-aged priest named Atannis clearly understood how well his two students had performed. After encouraging them briefly, he looked directly at the warrior before him and shook his head. "Joshua, how did you get yourself into this state?"
"I'd like to ask you the same, Uncle Atannis. Why is Saint Lawrence Cathedral so short on people? From the sound of it, it seems like besides us, there's no one else left in the entire church."
The two appeared to be acquaintances, but now was not the time for idle chat. The pain-numbing effect from rage had completely worn off. Indescribable pain shot from his already shattered left hand straight to his brain. Joshua was practically grinding his teeth as he spoke.
"Come with me to the quiet room first."
Atannis naturally knew how painful such an injury would be. Without another word, he turned and quickly walked toward the back of the prayer hall.
Joshua and the two priests immediately followed. The four knights closed the main doors and then hurried after them. However, just as Ying was about to follow as well, she heard Joshua's command: "Ying, just look around the hall for now."
"...Understood."
Though she didn't know why, Ying's delicate face clearly showed the word "confused" written all over it. But since the order was given, so be it.
In the quiet room, the black-haired warrior sat on a stone chair, his left hand placed in the center of a circular crystal rune disk. Priest Atannis held fine tweezers, carefully picking out bone fragments from the mass of flesh. The other two priests—one looking very young, seemingly just over twenty, and the other at least thirty-four or thirty-five—assisted. The younger one used the divine art "Shadowless Light," while the slightly older one used the divine art "Pain Relief" while releasing a trace of Holy Light to ensure Joshua's left hand condition didn't worsen.
It was almost no different from modern surgery.
"Alright, the larger bone fragments have been repositioned, and the small bone particles are all cleaned out. Now begins the formal restoration."
After a while, Priest Atannis let out a long breath and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Getting old, eyesight isn't what it used to be. Almost pinched your blood vessel off."
The younger priest immediately complained, "Last year I said I'd buy you a pair of goblin glasses, but you refused."
"Enough nonsense."
Glaring at his student, the white-haired middle-aged priest's expression turned serious. "Begin."
With the command, a blazing white light rose from his hand and infused into the crystal disk. As the divine runes on it were lit one by one, a milky white radiance began to flicker at its center. Under this light, Joshua's left hand, which had been blasted to pieces, slowly began to heal, restoring itself to its original state as if time were flowing backward.
"Good, that should be enough."
The middle-aged priest cut off the energy output. The milky white light gradually faded. Joshua eagerly tried clenching his fist and nodded with satisfaction. "Aside from feeling like there's a slight gap in the bones, it's indeed completely healed."
"Barring any accidents, as long as you ensure proper nutrition, with Gold-rank self-healing ability, it should be fully restored by tomorrow."
Priest Atannis stepped forward and removed the crystal disk. He said seriously, "But be careful. Don't use your left hand with full force for two weeks, unless you want to come here again—next time won't be free. If you weren't an acquaintance, this procedure would cost three thousand gold coins."
"No problem—but, Uncle Atannis, aren't you a priest of the Punishment Council? How did your healing light suddenly become so powerful?"
Standing up, now that his left hand was healed, Joshua had no reason not to ask this question. "Could it be that this thing allows different types of Holy Light to convert between each other?"
His gaze fell on the crystal disk held in the white-haired priest's hand.
The former legendary warrior didn't recall such an item existing in the game back then. If it were really this useful, there would have been no need to bring a mix of gray knights, paladins, and judgment knights when forming parties back in the day. They could have just grabbed anyone and been done with it. But then again, the church had so many good things; it was normal for them to hide things from players.
"Correct. A divine rune disk made from spiral crystal, capable of converting between Heavenly Blazing Holy Light, Healing Holy Light, and Judgment Holy Light. It's precisely because of this that the Archbishop led an emergency team a month ago, taking most of the Paladin Knights and priests to the Far Sea Holy Mountain. As a result, the entire church now has only seven people. Otherwise, those bastards outside wouldn't have had their chance."
Sighing, the self-proclaimed middle-aged white-haired priest furrowed his brows. He said solemnly, "Joshua, I'm neither blind nor deaf. You were only Silver Mid-rank before, but now you've advanced to Gold. There was such a commotion outside, and with this severe injury—have you already killed those people?"
"They're all dead." Concise and to the point. Now, Joshua finally spoke in a serious tone to the white-haired middle-aged man before him—the old steward's good friend, the Punishment Priest of the Church of Justice, Atannis. "Whether it was my uncle or the mastermind behind it all, they're all dead."
"...Comboli, Victor, you two go out first."
Hearing their teacher's command, the two priests, despite being extremely curious about the conversation to follow, decisively walked toward the door. The last one out even closed the door behind him.
Atannis stood with his back to Joshua, silent.
Joshua wasn't surprised at all. This man was one of the reasons he had come to the church, though the main purpose was still healing. Atannis was a good friend of the old steward. The two often drank together at the dwarf tavern in the eastern part of the city. Back then, Fan hadn't aged yet and looked very young, which always made people think it was a father taking his son, or a grandfather taking his grandson, out for a drink. Word spread, and the two friends who had bonded over their shared love of gardening ended up being rumored to be friends across generations bonded by drinking. The white-haired priest, in a fit of anger, demanded that everyone call him "middle-aged" and never say the word "old" in front of him again.
It was indeed an amusing story. If only the old steward were still here.
After a moment of silence, Atannis, who had his back to Joshua, suddenly laughed. He turned around, looking directly into Joshua's deep, almost black red pupils, and said cheerfully, "I really didn't expect it to be this fast. It hasn't even been two days since I received the commission."
Shaking his head, he took out a very ordinary-looking letter from his bosom. "Yours."
Joshua took the letter. He noticed the signature written in Flowing Cursive Script.
[To the New Head of the Radcliffe Family - Joshua Van Radcliffe]
[Your faithful Fan]