historical

A few seconds prior.

While Basil couldn't tell whether Iliana was lying by the emotion that her Mana—she was doing a good job in hiding it—or her story—he didn't feel anything wrong with it—a part of himself was screaming that he should make sure of something.

He knew Iliana, like any other Mage, was secretive, but he didn't really feel the need to probe about something she would tell him sooner or later. He was aware that Iliana wouldn't possibly tell him the full truth; he had intended to wait for the time when she was ready.

This time however, he felt like he needed to make sure of something; he didn't see anything wrong with her story, but he was feeling a sense of incongruence that he couldn't bear.

'Guide, who is the person that is currently speaking to me?'

[Solving the Host's puzzlement...]

[The person who is talking to the Host is called Iliana Pacifer. She is a...]

The Guide told him any things about Iliana—physical aspects, Magic mastery, and such—but Basil quickly tuned the rest of the information out. The moment he heard that Iliana was also a Pacifer, he ignored his surrounding; he was mind-blown.

He was thinking about so many possibilities of what had actually happened in the past, and Iliana's relation to the events.

He remembered that there had been some points where she had to leave because she needed to "clean the trash." He didn't know what it actually was, but he had thought Iliana had meant killing the enemies she had made.

Right now upon knowing that Iliana was a Pacifer however, the story was different. Pacifer Clan, due to its history, was hated by the Church—the Betrayer as what Caesar had called them.

Although Caesar didn't really say anything about the Church's role in the betrayal—he had always talked about the "Empire" or the people in power—Basil was sure that the Church was the true mastermind of the betrayal.

Since every record regarding Pacifer Clan had been erased, no one knew of the feud between the two sides. Of course, the Church was also doing a good job of keeping it a secret.

None of them openly showed their aggression toward him currently, despite their hatred with Pacifer Clan. They were afraid of exposing the truth—their true self—that they had painstakingly hidden from the world for thousands of years.

In his past life however, since the situation had been pretty much chaotic at that time, at the moment he had declared himself a Pacifer, the Church had quickly "condemned" him, finding everything he had done was blasphemous.

It was not very different than his current situation, but the Church was very subtle in their aggression compared to what they had done to him in the past.

Different to what had happened to him however, in Iliana's case, the Church had played it so good, he could only figure it out now that she had been in a constant war with them. Only now that everything made sense to him as to why Eugene, the Church's loyal dog, had schemed against Iliana.

He had always thought the problem had been on him; he had thought that Eugene just wanted to make him suffer due to his jealousy toward him. Now, he knew why Iliana had been targeted: she was a Pacifer.

Of course, another question would naturally come up in Basil's brain: 'How could the Church know Iliana was a Pacifer too?' He had never heard Iliana declared herself as one nor had Iliana ever attached Pacifer behind her name.

Countless of possibilities ran through his head once again, but he decided to stop thinking once he remembered he could actually figure it out by himself rather than just hypothesizing. Iliana was behind him; he could just ask her, and and piece everything together.

Of course there was a possibility that Iliana might lie, but he didn't actually need the whole truth to know what was actually going on. He just needed to know a few things to confirm the thing he needed to confirm.

Despite of how complicated his thought was, all of the thinking had actually taken him only a few seconds. Therefore, the silence between him and Iliana didn't last that long.

Pushing his body upward until he made a handstand pose, he spun his body with his hands toward Iliana, and sat himself—this time, facing her.

...

Present.

Basil could see Iliana was about to open her mouth, but instantly shut it when he gazed at her. He didn't have any intention to figure her out, but the brilliant way she hid her emotion and how convincing her story was intrigued him.

Therefore upon facing her, he couldn't help looking at her curiously. Of course, he was aware that from her point of view he was just intimidating her to force the truth out of her mouth. This is the reason why he put a small smile to ease her.

"Tell me more about this lady."

There was a few seconds of silence, before Iliana spoke once again. "I guess you have already figured out who I am talking about?" Basil nodded simply, and Iliana lightly sighed at that. "Very well. As you expected, I am talking about your mother, Maya Pacifer."

Looking at Basil, Iliana couldn't find any hint of surprise or elation from his face upon knowing his mother's name; he even made her feel she didn't really need to talk about it any longer. Still, she didn't stop speaking.

"Maya was a very beautiful woman. Her violet hair was so long, it almost touched the ground; I liked brushing her silky hair, since touching it alone felt amazing." Iliana smiled nostalgically. "Oh, she was a smart woman too; she could make an awesome perfume from any flower she stumbled upon."

Basil lightly hummed to himself. 'It seems Iliana was closer to my mother more than I thought.' Making perfumes had been also one of Iliana's hobbies in his past life. She liked to visit many gardens, and took any flower she laid her eyes upon either for her collection or to make perfumes.

"She knows many things about flowers, and she was also the one who made me like flowers. She was kind, thoughtful, full of care, and soft-spoken; I could even fall asleep just by listening to her voice."

In his last life, Basil hadn't heard this many things about his mother. He hadn't even known what his mother had looked like or what kind of a person she had been; what he had been told about was her name. Therefore, he paid close attention to Iliana, now that he could hear it now.

"Maya could sing, and her voice sounded heavenly. She was a pacifist in nature; she hated conflict to her core, so she avoided conflict at all cost. However, she was actually a strong woman who you don't want to mess with—she can be stern when she needed to."

Iliana touched her earlobe, and absentmindedly fiddled with her small lotus patterned earring.

"She gave me these earrings on my birthday. They are not luxurious, but they are a treasure to me; she really liked lotus, so they remind me about her so much. That's why these earrings are special."

She stopped fiddling with her earrings, and sighed in mixed emotion—bitterness, nostalgia, sadness, and relief. Raising her head and looked at Basil in regret, she said, "Sorry, but that's the only thing I can tell you about your mother. I only stayed with her for not more than five years."

"I see..." Basil caressed his chin thoughtfully. "Can you tell me how she died?"

At the question, Iliana slightly widened her eyes; she didn't expect Basil would ask such a question to her. Mage or not, one would normally be reluctant talking about that kind of stuff. As expected of Basil, he was indeed different.

"Before I tell you about that, I want you to know about how the Church sees Pacifer Clan in entirety ..." Iliana paused to look at Basil's reaction. He merely gestured with his chin, and Iliana continued speaking. "Pacifer Clan is a clan of heretics."

Basil had expected something like this would come out; he wasn't surprised. He had been more than once chased by a group of Paladins for a "blasphemy," which he had never done in his last life.

While he got the reason of why Pacifer Clan was labeled as a clan of heretics—due to the history between the two—he still wanted to confirm what his mother's version of story was. Therefore, he asked Iliana.

"What actually happened between the two?"

"Being a non-believer is a tolerated act, especially if you are a Mage. However, you'll be labeled as a heretic the moment you say something that 'offends' their gods, regardless of your status."

Basil quirked his eyebrow in curiosity, as he didn't quite get where the conversation was heading to. Ignoring Basil's reaction, Iliana kept talking.

"Pacifer Clan is not only consisted of talented Mages, but also faithful worshipers ... Of another God. The Church doesn't like them because of this, and that's why they were banished out of the Human Empire."

Although Iliana hadn't told what was the name of the "God" that Pacifer Clan worshipped, Basil had an inkling that this "God" was the same person with the one Caesar had called 'Our Lord.'

There were two possibilities on why Iliana didn't explain to him about this God. First, she genuinely didn't know of the Pacifer Clan's history, which is rather strange since she was a Pacifer who had also lived with another Pacifer—his mother.

Second, she was still keeping it a secret from him for some reason. Either way, Basil didn't really care much, he had a more important thing to ask.

"If they were banished from Human Empire, how could my mother remain in Braxtein Kingdom?"

"How did you know your mother remained here? Assumption?" Iliana chuckled lightly. In the next moment however, her eyes turned still and cold. "This place was a hellhole for her, Basil. Your mother didn't remain here; she was held hostage."

Basil didn't need to be told; he knew who had held his mother hostage.

The Church.