Everyone knew what direction Father Joseph was referring to. The direction that they were going toward. The direction of the Holy Grounds.
To call it the holy grounds even though they were tainted felt wrong.
Jake didn't understand why there was a Holy Ground in the middle of a city. It was supposed to be a sanctuary for a saint, a place of peace.
What peace and quiet could be found in the middle of a city?
As they walked toward the clock tower, Jake noticed something truly interesting. The clock tower moved. It actually told the time.
Decades without maintenance and repair, and yet it still functioned. It blew Jake's mind.
The clock was rusty, completely brown in color. That was definitely not the intended color of the clock hands.
And when the minute's hand moved, there was a sound that could be heard when they got closer. The sound of metal scraping. A clock that was about to die, yet kept beating.
Everyone was tense. They had no idea what was it that put them off, but there was something around them that was definitely strong and was watching them.
"Not here. We have little time. Let us go further in. That which watches us will only act when the light falls." Father Joseph said from inside his carriage.
All this taking seemed to take a toll on his voice. It was congested, and his speech was much more difficult than before.
Ganshin nodded, and they picked up their pace.
They reached the square, or rather, circle that the clock tower was placed in.
At the center of a giant circular roundabout, the giant clock tower blocked their view of what lay ahead. There were two roads visible. Two different directions from where they stood.
But obviously, they had to go further down, to the one place that they didn't have a visual.
They walked past the clock tower, round the roundabout, and toward the road that led away from the tower.
The road was much cleaner here for some reason, like not even the weather could do something to it.
Jake paused for a moment as he went down and ran his hand through the smooth surface of the road.
"Marble? For a road? How extravagant did this place look when it was actually maintained?" Jake thought to himself as he got back up and continued moving so that he wouldn't have to block the path.
The way that they were headed did not seem that dangerous. And it was a completely different scene than what they had seen before.
There were no big buildings that crowded the view. It was a plain place, a few buildings here and there sparsely decorating.
But there were small rises in rare spots. But these rises in heights, they were buildings that clearly belonged to powerful people.
They were headed to a section for the powerful. The residences of the nobles and the rich. Each one of them had large pieces of land, and now, Jake understood why there would be a Holy Ground here.
The walk went further down, and the entire caravan faced the other city wall that curved around the city to protect its rear.
The city walls clearly defined the boundaries, and for a moment there, Jake felt like the city he was in felt way too small. Why would a city be so small, for them to be able to cover this distance in such a small time?
But he realized that the clock tower wasn't exactly the center of the city. It was to the left, and toward the entrance more.
The residences took a lot more space than what it seemed like. If the Holy Grounds were at the edge, it was going to be a long walk.
But someone came to Jake's rescue.
"I can feel it. My Bible is reacting to it. We are near the Holy Grounds!" One of the male priests shouted.
Ganshin immediately turned around, his cold eyes piercing the air and his gaze sweeping the priest who just spoke.
The priest's joy immediately turned into regret as he gulped and raised his hands, to show he had done nothing wrong at all.
"We have to maintain a low profile. We have a time limit. And I am aware of where the Holy Grounds are located. If I didn't, then I wouldn't have taken the task of leading the caravan." Ganshin said.
Even as he said this so that the entire caravan could hear it, his voice seems low. It was just loud enough for the farthest person to hear.
"I-"
Before the priest could even respond, or even possibly apologize, Ganshin put his right index finger on his mouth.
Silence, the gesture shouted.
The priest nodded, and he slightly bent his head down, ashamed of himself.
Ganshin turned around, completely unfazed by what had happened, and he continued to walk forward.
But Jake took these cues to look around. The Holy Grounds were somewhere near them? Maybe they were close enough for him to actually be able to see them?
Eventually, his eyes locked onto a building in the edge.
It had almost nothing around it. Just a giant wasteland for all Jake could see.
And on top of this building, there was a peculiar symbol. It was an arrow. An arrow that pointed to the sky, with a circle that housed this arrow.
Jake knew what this symbol was.
An arrow that basked in the sun. This was the symbol of the church of Light.
Jake knew that Saint Ester was of the Church of Light. If he was from any other church, the church of light wouldn't be sending so many people and incurring such an expense.
From where he stood, he could also judge the time it would take them to reach the church.
"Twenty minutes if we are slow." Jake thought to himself as his eyes did not move from the church's location.
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