“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling just a bit confused.
“First, can you tell me what happened when you were intending to break into the castle,” Carmine asked. “I’ve been quite confused for a few days now. The group just disappeared. I received a message that said that everything was okay and to keep doing what I was doing. Salicia was gone, and all of the other girls had left.”
I frowned a bit at that message. Maybe, the girls just didn’t want to worry Carmine. Maybe, they were afraid Carmine would attack and try to free me, so they decided not to tell her what was happening. I decided to explain to her everything that had happened from when we got into Lord Reign’s keep, to how I tried to use Return, and then was captured and tossed into the dungeon alongside the champions as some kind of cruel joke of his.
I even told her about my new job, my disappearing tattoos, and perhaps the most worrying thing, I could no longer detect her as a slave! As far as I could tell, my connection to Carmine as a slave was gone. Carmine admitted that it was the same with her. She just didn’t feel my presence. It was like when she was in a dungeon and I was outside the dungeon. Our connection was distant and foggy. However, we were right next to each other, so I should have been able to detect her perfectly. The party connection between us worked fine.
Carmine listened and added when she thought things were relevant. Eventually, she looked up at me with a bit of a serious expression on her face. “I think I can tell you what happened.”
“I’ve only heard of such a thing happening once before. It’s in the archives of the church. It has to do with the origins of our most recent split in the church.”
“Huh? Split? Oh, you mean the church of big breasts versus the church of small breasts? You’re saying there is a story to that?”
“Yes… the story goes that the Archbishop once battled a powerful demon lord. Her goal was only to keep him distracted long enough for reinforcements. She succeeded. That demon lord used a soul sword and struck the Archbishop down. However, she was a powerful healer, and her soul power was strong. Rather than dying, she managed to keep her soul alive… both halves surviving. However, they were completely split in two.
“They ended up forming two separate bodies, with two separate personalities. One woman had the breasts, a cool demeanor, and a cunning mind. The other was flat-chested, excitable, and fiery-tempered. However, they were both the Archbishop. At first, they were trying to work on a way to bring themselves back together, but as their studies continued, they became more different and more individualized. The two halves became irrecoverably separated. They refused to turn into one woman again.
“That fighting continued to grow, eventually turning to how they wanted to run the church. Instead of loving the mother and the child, the larger breasted Archbishop put favoritism on the mother, and lesser importance on the child. They fought relentlessly until they split the church in two. The church of the flat-breasts went south into present-day Esmere and the Ost Republic, while the church of the large chest remained in the area that is now Aberis.”
“What are you saying? What does that have to do with me?” I asked, getting a sinking feeling.
“Master, I believe that when you cut free your party to let them return, you also cut off a piece of your soul!”