Well I already guessed it but this city is unsurprisingly HUGE.
I walked around for a while, the huge cape that came with the coat was hiding my features well enough to at least hide my fallen horns. My halo, not so mutch.
Thanks to me displaying proudly my own firearm on my back, it could at least counteract the prescence of my pretty much pitch black halo, simply signifiing that I sinned enough to gain such a color.
Essentially, I'm trying to say without word : "I may be a fallen, but my firearm still respond to me, so my sin isn't that bad, I promise.".
Which, considering this is Laterano we're talking about, actually worked.
I don't know how nobody batted an eye at my status as a fallen but well, I'm definitely not complaining.
Considering this is, once again, Laterano, I'm tring out my gun.
Didn't really mention it before but it's a rifle, more specifically a Dragunov SVD, so just an average sniper rifle.
Well if you don't mention that it is FULL of runes on it, which begs the question, who the hell was my mother to own that kind of gun ?
Yeah, this isn't my own guardian gun, couldn't really have one as a fallen so I took my mother's one.
...
Sound's weird she parted with it ?
Yeah, would be if she wasn't ... you know ...
Dead ?
Shockers I know.
Well it would be a lot more shocking if I didn't know it from my second set of memory. It really puts a distance with both of my parents. They were soldiers in the Laternian army doing what was seemed to be closer to mercenary work, one day a man came in the house and gave me her gun. Didn't thought too mutch of it until realisation settled in.
I, well not me exactly, cried for a couple hours straight.
Took him month to get over it enough to live normally.
Who took care of a orphaned, fallen sankta like me ?
Well, you see, my parent seemed to have what was essentially life insurance.
Because of that I was, well, loaded with cash.
Why am I in a random alleyway then ?
Cause I couldn't really profit of it for very long.
Because of my young age, I can't really use the money stored up. So I can't use the large sums of money I own.
Because of that my house couldn't get paid and I got kicked out.
At the time I was 11. Pretty young to roam the streets don't you agree ?
Well you're partially wrong.
From our perspective as outsider, yeah, it's not normal.
Here though ?
Regular Tuseday.
Like explosion.
Those happen every, like, 30 minutes.
... Mhm ?
How did I survive without food ?
I didn't.
I survived out of food donation for the poor.
Ironic for someone as loaded as me.
Some people let me take priority since I was pretty young then.
Well it's still the case I guess.
It's just kind of weird since I'm used to being so tall that people mistook me for a 22 year old when I was like 15 back then.
Now I'm just average height for my age I guess.
Continuing with my firearm, this gun is pretty impressive not gonna lie.
The recoil from me just firing it reinforce the idea that my body isn't strong enough. Although, I found out something pretty cool.
It seems like this body has good talent with firearms.
Considering I never missed a shot even with the worst posture you have seen.
Well, I guess it was compensation for being born a fallen ?
Karmic compensation I mean.
... ? Oh, yeah.
As an Atheist you might find it weird I believe in karma.
Well, it's because I don't exactly do.
More like, I believe that there will always be good with the bad and vice versa.
.
..
...
This is getting annoying.
This city is just too huge, can't find anyone spetific in here.
Well if I'm the one searching.
On a rather positive note :
I found a point of interest.
Well more like they found me.
Turns out my black halo is still pretty easy to follow in a crowd of bright halo, doesn't even need lighting at all.
Go figure.
So, from my memories, those kind of things happened every once in while.
Church officials wanted to talk to me.
It seems to be a monthly thing.
Well they are trying to make me join the church.
Since my life would be easier under it's "guidance"
Oh, so much easier !
(That was sarcasm, by the way)
The thing is, I may accept their offer right now.
By accepting I could get a easier acces to pretty much anything.
Getting out of the church is the biggest problem.
Well, as long as I don't show enough power to force the church to lock me up in Laterano or to use me as a weapon, I should be fine.
Kind of.
"You should seriously consider my offer this time, you may have lasted this long alone, but living like this isn't healthy !"
Hypocrisy at it's finest.
There are hundred of thousand of kids my age doing mercenary work to just have a piece of stale bread and you guys offer me free lodging.
Well, I may badmouth their policies all I want, it's more of the "Law"'s fault than anything.
Also, only in Laterano can you consider doing something like that.
I mean, can you imagine giving proper care to kids in someplace like Kazdel ? Or Chernobog ? Even in Lungmen, which is at least decent compared to the other two, you wouldn't even imagine doing that.
"-are you sure this is worth it ? He still is a fallen."
"Of course, while he is a fallen, he has been monitered for a while, we found out that his arts are very powerfull, so we can use him even though he fell. He should be happy to be used for such a greater purpose."
Oi, oi, I can hear you just fine you grandpas in the background ! ... Can I take it back ? All the nice thing I just said ... Just ... Ignore them.
"... I don't like fighting." Much. But with cool super power I might get to like it.
"D-don't worry ! You won't have to !"
"*whispering* Do you think he heard us ?"
"*whispering* Not a chance, he's just a kid after all, he probably can't even differentiate between good or evil, such a child must be put on the right way."
Urgh, why, using your faith to justify your horible action...
What's with this sentence that could come out straight from a fanatic's mouth ? Does those guys really want to recruit me or to use me as a meat shield ? I'm not like some kind of Overpowered kid that can go toe to toe with their Apostolic Knights... Well, considering I have no idea what kind of arts I can use and them talking about it seems like they want it ?
I swear, I should just leave, seems to be the same type of things I did every time they came to me.
...
Well I'll just walk away then.
"-not a total loss, he still answered today, this is great progress !"
"We could simply just, take him under the jurdiction of the church..."
"Do you want to bear the consequances of us taking a child in the middle of the street ?"
... Again, isn't that classified information ? Shouldn't you take such a talk back to your base ?
? Oh, how can I listen in on them ?
Simple, I hid in a alleyway nearby. They can't see me, well neither can I but the goal is to listen in on them, not spy on them.
... Isn't listening on them spying anyway ? Well kind of, but considering it's about me they are talking about I think I have the right to hear what they think about this situation. If I can also get the reason as to why they are specificaly watching me and not other people.
"The cardinal want that kid whether he want to come or not, while the cardinal is patient it doesn't mean we should keep playing around."
"While you are correct, if we push him too far he may flee Laterano, and at that point it wouldn't be possible to keep him hidden from the other faction."
"... All of this is getting on my nerve, we should just finnish this mission already, just taking him to see the cardinal would be enough."
"If this continue the Notarial Hall will find this and the cardinal is not going to like people interferring in this matter"
"All of this for just a kid..."
I think I heard enough, I should just go for now. Lest I alert them to my prescense and get myself caught.
But this is a good amount of info I just got.
A cardinal want my art ability, but I think I have a idea about what they really are interested in.
My usage of my gun.
Normally, a fallen can't use firearm anymore, the main reason is that the guns seems to be comming from the "Law" or are restricted by it, which would imply that no one that the "Law" doesn't approve of can use said guns.
Altought I'm more inclined to think it's because of the "Sins" than restriction on the guns themselves, since Fiammeta can use her's.
Anyway, since this period of history is still close to the Battle of the four Emperors, the Laterano church is begining to take place as the mediator for wars. This could be an opportunity.
To get into the church without being confined by it I need either absolute power that can't be ignored, or absolute trust.
My strengh being that of a kid, I probably can't do mutch in the line of fighting for now.
? Oh the perfect aiming ? Well it's more like an aimbot than anything, it just show me the path the bullet is going towards and allow me to make split movement at an absurd speed to perfect the shot and make sure it land excatly where I want it to.
It may be a really good abitlity as a Sankta, but right now I shouldn't rely on that alone.
Ways to shoot me down or even approach me faster than I can even percieve exist.
And a lot of people can do such things. It's a world where some people fight each other to the death as a sport.
It's a world where a old man who lead a contry need to be stronger than any one under himself, one who beat every apolistic knight under him in arm wreastling just because he can.
This world is freaking crazy.
So I devised a plan :
To get into the Legati.
The Legati are diplomats who mediate between contries. They are absolute existance who make sure that no second great war happens again.
Gaul, who was the reason of the first one was crushed by 3 smaller contries, well more like 2 and one man than anything (from what I gathered in the story anyway).
That just show how mutch "Absolute power" can be a thing in this world, The Witch King being the best exemple.
Even tho he also checks out another, more niche but mutch more on point saying.
"... Absolute power corrupt absolutly."
As an individual has all the power in the world, the more likely he would be blinded by it and become obsessed, that is why this kind of thing is dangerous.
"What are you talking about ?"
?
W-wait, did I say that out loud in the middle of the street ?
How embarrassing...
Wait, were did I see this face ?
... Wasn't that the boss of that one Laterno based event ?
Something, The Martyr ?
"Andoain, we don't have time for this"
"Can't I, at least, look after our fellow ?"
"Our fellow ? He is a fallen, nothing about him has to do with us."
There really only one answer to give in such a situation.
"... Rude."
"Excuse me ? Rude ? It's you who should apologize for living, you who transgressed the sacred laws of our people, don't expect us to treat you like anything more than fodder."
"Ahahah, excuse him, he still think so stifly even after so long, even when the Pope himself showed himself more understanding of the fallen plea he still has this mutch resentment towards them, don't take it to heart, not all sankta are againts fallen, if your patron gun still hasn't rejected you, then you're still one of us, don't worry too mutch."
How quaint, for someone who will later be a "Saint", one who can shoot at other sankta yet keep his unblemiched halo. Well, if his fight with the Pope didn't sell it to me, his status as a captain of the Pontifica Cohors tell me he really is strong.
Altough I already know how he will end up. As just a shell of a men who can only look in front of him until he saw what the "Law" truly was.
Then he will just be a wanderer with the only objective to destroy that thing.
A goal I can somewhat relate to considering what the hell this thing is.
A jailer for us, the sankta, that inhibit our freedom.
This could be an opportunity tho.
One that I could take ample advantage of.
Well, the kind of question I'm about to ask would look weird considering what I just said, but to enter the Legati taking the short road will force me to get recognised as a very good catastrophe messenger, which I have 0 idea how to become.
From what I gathered, they simply feel the catastrophe comming and have the authority to demande an evacuation of any non-mobile city and the immediate movement of any mobile one.
Well, I guess the long way it is.
"... Excuse me but can I ask a question ?"
"..? Yes of course, what is it ?"
.
..
...
"How can I join the Pontifica Cohors ?"