The Weeping Goddess, also known as the Lady of Whips.
Her divine name was Aemetha, a lawful good deity whose tenets taught her followers to achieve the salvation of the soul through the endurance of suffering.
Just as a great forest harbors every manner of bird, so too did the world of the gods harbor its share of eccentric deities — and the Weeping Lady was one such oddity.
The God of Suffering, Ilmater, at least merely taught his followers to endure and submit to hardship, but Aemetha was different — she demanded that her priests and followers actively abuse themselves, finding redemption through pain!
Heavens above! Even Ilmater only asked his followers to endure — he never asked them to self-inflict harm!
In short, Aemetha's followers were a band of masochists, and her priests were even worse.
Whenever a grand festival arrived, the priests and followers of Aemetha would gather together and use leather whips, wooden stocks, and even red-hot branding irons to perform their "prayer," thereby earning Aemetha's divine grace. Among the Weeping Lady's clergy, there were also several rather wondrous divine spells specifically designed to enhance one's ability to endure pain.
Such a deity naturally had no market among ordinary commoners and was, in fact, rather rare. Raylin had nearly failed to recognize her at first, though she did enjoy a certain following among those with rather… special tastes.
As for the goddess's priestess walking the streets and imploring passersby to inflict pain upon her in exchange for donations — that was a longstanding tradition of the temple.
"Sorry, but my faith is in the Knowledge God Ogma… this is really…"
Raylin did not consider himself a pervert, so he immediately brought up his convenient shield.
"The Goddess teaches us not to care about the identity of the one who inflicts pain. For they bring us redemption through suffering, and we should be grateful to them… please help me perform my 'prayer'!"
The priestess's face was resolute.
"I…" Raylin was truly at a loss for words. And seeing the crowd around him growing larger by the moment, he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Just as Raylin tossed a gold coin into the little girl's collection box and raised the whip, planning to go through the motions and be done with it, a sudden chill ran through him — as though some terrifying predator had locked its gaze upon him.
Sensing danger, he immediately dodged aside, evading a devastating bolt of battle qi.
Crash!
The formidable blade of battle qi swept through the spot where Raylin had stood moments before, slamming into a slab of bluestone floor behind him and shattering it to pieces, revealing the formidable strength of the attacker.
Along with the strike came the delicate yet furious shout of a young girl: "How dare you — this despicable and shameless act of bullying women and children is nothing short of an insult to my path as a Knight! Laphinia will absolutely not let you get away with this!"
"Which idiot?"
Raylin turned around in fury. Being publicly begged for torture was embarrassing enough, but now he was being treated as a villain bullying the weak. Even he felt a bit embarrassed by it.
"You dare do it but not admit it? Everyone on the street saw your atrocity! You despicable, shameless scoundrel!!!"
The person who had just launched the sneak attack was a young and beautiful female Knight. Her wine-red long hair was simply tied into a ponytail, and her beautiful face was flushed with anger. Her eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Raylin, shooting out hateful fury, as if she wished she could bite several chunks of meat off his body.
"A high-ranking Knight? Have you even figured out the situation?"
Raylin looked at her Knight's attire and the tall warhorse behind her, feeling somewhat surprised.
Although both were physical professions, compared to the hard-luck loser class like a Warrior, a Knight was the tall, rich, and handsome type among physical professions.
Not only was the full suit of Knight's armor expensive, but even the warhorse capable of mounted combat was not easily obtained.
At this time, the value of a warhorse was often more than ten times that of an ordinary nag! Not to mention the need for dedicated grooms and other attendant professions.
With the aid of a warhorse, a Knight's mobility and destructive power were incomparable to a Warrior's.
Moreover, a high-ranking Warrior who had solidified their faith could even transform into a [Temple Knight], possessing casting abilities—truly the template profession for a prince on a white horse in the hearts of many noble maidens!
'So young to have become a high-level professional. This little girl's family must be well-off, probably nobility or something...' Raylin sized her up. Based on the attack just now, he judged her Knight level to be at least level ten or above.
'Chip! Scan!' Raylin silently commanded in his mind.
[Ding! Task established, beginning scan!] The Chip faithfully executed Raylin's command, and soon a large amount of information was fed back.
[Name: Laphinia. Gender: Female. Strength: 10. Agility: 6. Constitution: 7. Spirit: 5. Estimated Strength: Knight Level 10! Possesses Proficiencies: 1. Mounted Combat: When fighting together with a mount, the mount's abilities are boosted by 11% to 19%! 2. Armor: Full-body Knight armor increases physical defense, but also correspondingly reduces magic resistance.]
"Truly a high-level profession, even having mount stat boosts!"
Raylin nodded inwardly, but this brazen scrutiny made the other party even angrier.
"What has happened to this city? To allow such a scoundrel to commit violence in broad daylight—has this city become a place that worships devils and demons?"
The young Knight's chest heaved with rage, especially with the look of watching a show on the faces of people by the road, making her feel even more furious.
"Take back your baseless accusations! Sir Knight!"
At this point, it was actually the previous flogging priestess who stepped forward: "My goddess Aemilia has always stood firm against evil! Furthermore, you must apologize for interrupting my prayer ritual earlier, otherwise it will be considered blasphemy against my goddess!"
"Huh?! What?... What? What?"
Lafinina's mouth slowly gaped open, her face frozen in a dull stupor.
Then, a squad of patrol officers pushed directly through the crowd and stepped in, glaring unpleasantly at the young Knight: "You've disrupted public order. According to Article 329 of the municipal statutes, you must pay a fine of ten gold cro, or we'll throw you in prison..."
...
"God of Justice! How can such a thing even exist! In my hometown there was never any of that..."
After the uproar subsided, the onlookers, patrol officers, and the priest all dispersed, leaving only Raylin and the young Knight, Lafinina.
At this point, however, her face looked like a giant red apple—it was flush with shame.
But just as she was about to name the goddess, the young woman immediately caught herself. No matter how bizarre or ridiculous this deity's conduct might be, she was still a goddess! One had to maintain at least a show of respect, otherwise the inquisition tribunals of the various temples were no joke.
"You're an out-of-towner, aren't you? This goddess's reputation really isn't all that well-known, but before setting out on your travels, you really ought to do your homework on these matters. Otherwise you could end up unknowingly violating a taboo, and the consequences would be quite severe..."
Raylin lectured Lafinina with a perfectly straight face, though his expression was practically bursting with suppressed laughter.
After paying the fine, the demands of the Aemilia priestess as restitution were truly bizarre—she wanted the young Knight to thoroughly flog the priestess herself.
Faced with such a request, Raylin, with great "kindness," handed over his own portion of the obligation to the young woman, asking her to complete both as part of the apology.
One could well imagine how utterly humiliating it must have been for a young Knight who prided herself on nobility and justice to have to beat a helpless person like some sort of villain.
But fortunately, everything was finally over; otherwise, Raylin suspected that Lafinina would have had no choice but to throw herself into the sea.
"I understand!"
The young Knight walked over to her warhorse, turning her back to Raylin to hide her embarrassment: "Also, I apologize for my earlier behavior. I shouldn't have treated you that way without first investigating the situation properly!"
As a Knight, Lafinina did a commendable job of upholding the code of chivalry—at least when it came to championing justice and admitting her mistakes, she performed well.
"My name is Lafinina, a Knight currently on her travels. It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"Mm! My name is Raylin, and I'm a mercenary!" Raylin scratched his head.
A wandering Knight? What a joke! Everyone knew that the Knight profession placed the highest demands on logistics. Without a professional groom and squires to manage weapons and armor, a Knight lord was practically useless.
Raylin cast a sympathetic glance at the warhorse behind Lafinina.
Sure enough, the animal was already looking listless and malnourished.
"A noble girl studying to become a Knight is already strange enough, but now she's wandering about completely on her own? How open-minded must her family be? Could it be one of those legendary runaway-bride situations?"
Being stared at directly by Raylin made Lafinina hang her head in embarrassment.
She abruptly mounted her warhorse in a fluid, swift motion—a testament to her rigorous training. "Our meeting today started with some misunderstandings, but I'm glad it ended on a pleasant note. Could you tell me how to get to the mercenary guild?"
"Head east—you'll get there quickly!"
Raylin was thoroughly speechless about this girl, who had probably been brainwashed by Knight novels.
"Thank you! One day we shall meet again! Under the guidance of fate!"
The young Knight gave her steed a dashing kick, and the mount roared off into the distance.
"Wait—that's west. You're going the wrong way…"
Raylin watched the direction the young Knight had ridden off in, but she had already disappeared from sight.
"A high-ranking Knight who's also a roadblock and an idiot—now that's truly rare. Setting off on an adventure without any preparation at all. I just hope she doesn't end up knocked out by an ogre or some goblins on the side of the road and turned into jerky…"
Raylin silently prayed for her, then headed back to his inn.
For him, what he had witnessed today was nothing more than a small amusement in the long journey of his life—hardly worth any more of his attention.