[NR] Suited For A Lion - Chapter 780 (Patreon)

Rosha and Robby enter the grey stone building, so average and plain for a church devoted to one of the few world-spanning religions in NeoRealm. Though the Church of Truth doesn’t exactly need to put on airs for the locals.

Inside the pair find a calm scene of people waiting in lines, most only three or less long with the longest only having five people in it. All while along the walls there are seats filled with people.

Robby whispers to Rosha, “Oh yeah, do you want to wait in line or should I? Feels a bit silly when there’s just two of us, but for any group, they are very strict about only allowing a single person to be in the line.”

Rosha shrugs, “I’ll join the line. Which one do we need?”

Robby gestures towards one of the shorter lines, “That one is the notary, which is sort of what we want?” He shakes his head and points at the line with five people in it, “But we probably need that one. They deal more with legal situations and at the very least, by picking the longer line we’re showing that we aren’t just trying to get through the wait quicker.”

Rosha sighs, “Yeah, this probably needs some legal advice before we even get to the truth bit.” And she joins the long line while Robby grabs a chair positioned nearby.

Thankfully, the line moves at a decent clip. Though not because they’re resolving the petitioner’s needs quickly. Rather, the receptionist is simply getting a bunch of information before handing the case off to someone else and sending people deeper into the church.

And when Rosha remembers this is supposed to be a church, she can’t help but look around more closely. Nope, she can’t see it. Looks more like she’s waiting to get her driver’s license. She doesn’t have much longer to ponder on such things, as soon she’s at the front of the line.

The dogkin lady at the desk activates a sound bubble, “Okay, this seems to be your first official visit to the Church of Truth. The bubble of silence will only prevent sound, people can still read your lips and use other similar methods to eavesdrop, so be careful. If you could start with an outline of what you’ll be needing from the Church today, I’ll do what I can to direct you to the correct professional.”

Rosha nods, “Simple enough, last night my party and”, she gestures to Robby, “His merchant group of jackalkin ran into some trouble at a rest stop just outside of the city. My group making their way to the city, his group leaving. There was another group involved also leaving the city.

“We feel that there will be some trouble with the law because of this incident and I was sent here first so however we end up reporting this, our stories can be properly vouched for.”

The lady nods, “Okay, we receive a lot of similar requests, so depending this could be easy enough to handle. Would this be a serious crime?”

Rosha sighs, “If it was simple, I wouldn’t be here right now. We feel there might be more going on than is safe for us to handle on our own and part of what we want is someone from the Church to go out to the scene as a witness and confirmation that we haven’t tampered with anything.”

A frown crosses the receptionist’s face, “Ah, let me get you and your associate into a more secure location. It sounds like we need more details than would be wise to reveal out here.”

She picks up a small disc and squeezes it. Click “Someone will be here in a moment. Please go and wait with your associate.”

Rosha nods, “Thank you for the assistance.” And walks over to Bobby.

He watches her approach, “So, got everything figured out yet?”

Rosha shakes her head, “Someone will be over to take us to a more secure room.”

Robby shrugs, “Eh, fair enough.”

Then they waited, though the dogkin receptionist wasn’t lying that it would be quick. Less than five minutes after Rosha sits down, a man in a white suit walks out from one of the many doors leading deeper into the temple.

Rosha is slightly surprised as this isn’t a local style of suit. Rather, it looks more like the formal wear she is familiar with irl. Though the sharp suit does look quite good on the lionfolk man. His fully lion-like face and golden mane looks quite amazing as a contrast, even if the colors are complementary.

He smiles with closed lips, “Hello sir, madam, please follow me back to my office. Given what has been said, it sounds like you will need my assistance.”

Bobby groans, “I didn’t want us to.”

The lionfolk man shrugs, “I have found that most people who need my services rarely do.”

Rosha sighs, “Isn’t that life? Well, let’s get somewhere secure. The longer we wait, the more chances for complications.”

And so the three walked through the door that the lionfolk had come from. After that, they climb up a flight of stairs and down two more hallways, before being led through a security checkpoint and only after that do they finally arrive at the man’s office.

He opens the door and gestures in, “Please! Take a seat. It will take a minute for the security enchantments to reactivate so we can get comfortable. Would you like some tea?”

Rosha nods, but Bobby declines.

The lionfolk man smiles, “Do not worry, it will not take long to brew. My kettle is one of the inventions introduced by travellers and heats up quite quickly! I will admit, my tea leaves are not the best in town. Though they are a good bit better than what you will find at most inns.”

Once everyone is inside, the lionfolk man closes the door, locks it, and then pulls a strip of runed cloth across the door, which begins to glow.