>>5199474>>5199483>>5199488>>5199508>>5199513"Fine, you have a right to your secrets, digging into your personal life is an inquisitor's job." You assure Serpico that you won't pry further if the subject is something that discomforts him.
"Glad we got that sorted out. Maybe I'll tell you one day, a man needs a second opinion on these matters."
"If it's about Farnese, I'm just as clueless as you are. Are you really sure she's taking a liking to me? She's very rough around the edges."
"Absolutely. If she actually wanted you dead, she would have left you to rot on quicksand, would have been a lot easier too..."
"Not wanting you to die is not a cutesy thing your crush does, that's basic human decency."
"You'd be surprised at how many people lack it these days. That goes double for the commander. Mozgus was the one that reinforced those rules on her. If you can believe it, she is just doing a tamer version of his average workday. God is forgiving and tolerant, until you do something I dislike, then I put you in an iron wheel and tear you limb by limb."
"He just does that to everyone he meets?"
"Not everyone, just the ones we send there. Farnese thinks that his trials are just and that she's doing the right thing by letting him judge her suspects, but I've never seen one person come out of his inquisitions and live to tell the tale."
"He can't be seen well by the people."
"Oh, The See loves him. Legitimately, he's done a lot of charity work and funded several organisations for Vritannis. Philanthropy is his middle name, and though most of it comes from what the poor would consider money laundering, he does more with his net worth to help the poor than the average noble. Just make sure not to protest against him, or he'll crush your teeth in with the holy bible itself."
"If Farnese is set on following his footsteps, she must be very popular..."
"I wish, ever seen a 0% approval rating? She's as close as it gets to it if you ask the Iron Knights. Granted, most of the guys here are total scrubs, figure a guy like you can defeat half the army with a butter knife in hand, but they got a lot more than what they signed up for. Some starved, some have dehydrated, some of them got lost, caught by the plague, killed by Farnese investigating something that was clearly out of their capability, you name it. I don't think most of them have even read the full scriptures, they're just here because they're afraid of disobeying her."
"Vandimion must be a hard name to go against, huh?"
"That's the only reason the council hasn't ditched her yet. You think the last holy lady would have taken 2 years to find The Black Swordsman? Put me in a dress and give me 3 months, done and done. They've even told her to focus on helping Mozgus in Albion, but she still wants to prove her worth by taking him in, or else the time she wasted will really be for nothing. It's why she settled on you as her silver medal. She really wanted you to be a ghost."
