Chapter 574 - SHE IS NOT THE PRIESTESS

"I am fine," Kace said in a low voice. He didn't sound convincing at all for the girl, but Hope remained silent as their fingers intertwined to each other while Carina and Chiron did the same. Their eyes were on the podium, but their mind and soul were somewhere else. No one would know what they were actually thinking at that moment. 

The procession of this funeral ended uneventfully, which was one hour later. As odd as it sounded, this was the first funeral that was attended by the whole race of the centaurs' altogether. 

On a normal occasion, Chiron would attend a funeral with Carina or Zarrn and be the representative of the centaurs, or he would not come at all. 

That was why the whole village couldn't help, but take a second glance towards the horde of the centaurs among them. No one really paid attention towards the extra people that those centaurs had taken with them, which was Hope—who was really grateful for that.

Kace had been through so much, he didn't need that kind of attention that could possibly make his feeling even worse. 

The last part was to have the priestess to end the procession. In that case she had to make an appearance. 

However, it had been a year since the villagers saw her in person after the battle with the demoness. 

Therefore, not only the villagers were thrilled to see the centaurs, but this also would be the first appearance of the priestess after such a long time. 

The priestess was the guardian of the village. The village itself was a place where many creatures lived. These were the creatures who managed to be saved or escaped from the vampires and witches from the mainland. In other words, this village was a shelter for those unfortunate, innocent creatures. Their new home.

Beside Chiron, Leroy walked away towards a building on their left side, which would be the place where the priestess made her first appearance and ended this whole procession. 

In front of a massive white door, there was a little girl around the age of twelve, standing there, waiting for the priestess. 

The little girl was the young maiden, who had been taking care of the priestess and relayed her order since the priestess secluded herself. 

"Terra, how is the priestess?" Leroy asked the young maiden while his eyes kept looking at the white door, waiting for it to be opened. 

"The priestess is fine, but her appearance will be very short, because she still needs to recuperate." The girl called Terra answered him, her voice didn't suit her age. She looked mature and calculative at the same time. 

Since Terra was holding an important role as the priestess's trusted right hand, people from the village always treated her with the utmost respect, just the way they treated the priestess. 

"It is rare to see the whole race of centaurs here," Terra remarked. Since the centaurs, with their body form, looked taller than the rest of the villagers, they looked undeniably outstanding among them. 

"Wasn't the priestess who wanted them to be here?" Leroy asked, his brows slightly knitted together. 

Terra frowned as well as she said. "No, the priestess had not given any order since four days ago."

Four days?

"Wait?" Leroy seemed to remember something. "Didn't the priestess give an order to the centaurs to stop me from killing the murderer of the hunters?"

This became very weird for Leroy. 

"You almost killed the murderer of the hunters?" Terra slightly raised her voice in disbelief. "So, what made you stop?"

Leroy was at loss. He remembered clearly what Chiron said that night. "Because Chiron came to say he was sent by the priestess to let the beast alive."

Shock was written all over Terra's face. "Of course not! Why would the priestess stop you from doing so?"

"I don't know," Leroy and Terra shifted their eyes toward the chief of the centaur, "But, why did Chiron lie to me?"

The centaurs had a high morale, it was unheard of that they were lying about this kind of matter, moreover to save the killer of the people from this village. 

Though Leroy was a human, thus he didn't have a life span as long as the centaurs, but he heard the loyalty of the centaurs from his father and people before him. 

"I think you need to talk to him about this," Terra narrowed her eyes towards the people beside Chiron. "Who are those people? I had never seen them before. Are they new here?"

Leroy knew who Terra was talking about, but he didn't have a chance to tell her about Kace and the rest of these new people either. He could've let her know about the fact that Kace was the one who killed those hunters, the reason why they were here, attending this mass funeral, because at the same time the priestess came out. 

The white door was being pushed open from the inside, as a woman in her white dress and long silky white hair waltzed out of the building.

The aura that surrounded her was amazing, she looked like a goddess herself with the way she carried herself and how she glanced towards the podium through her white mask. 

"Is she always wearing a mask?" Hope asked no one in particular. 

At first, Hope thought the priestess was a young lady or at least not someone with white hair, but on second look, it was not the body of an old woman. But, she was definitely not old enough to have all of her hair white. 

Did she dye her hair? Hope thought to herself.

On the other hand, Chiron heard her mumbling questions and he answered her. "She is not the priestess."

"She is not? What do you mean?" Hope tilted her head to see Chiron, even Kace also frowned upon hearing Chiron's statement. 

And then Hope remembered about the conversation between Chiron and herself when Carina was trying to bring Kace back from his unconsciousness. 

The centaur pointed at the direction of the mountain Uzu, not to this village. 

"It's the demon who has been pretending to be the priestess," Chiron said curtly as he freed his hand from Carina's and touched something on his h.i.p.s, this gesture was followed by the rest of the centaurs.