Folsan could do nothing but silently seethe while Flotol panics around him, the villagers are starting to act unwise and he fears that he has no control over this kind of hysteria. Decision making so fundamentally insane that there is no real root to it, let alone a religious one.

  Reasoning with them now is truly pointless, there is nothing he can do except to go along with what they want while also leading them through it all.

  "Calm down, Nogjaf is still in the village." He becomes the voice of reason, attracting the attention of most, if not all of the villagers. Everyone goes silent and those who are still panicking follow suit, this is the charisma afforded by years of making these sheep listen to him.

  Every word he says weighs a lot, and in times like these, people cling to them like it is their lifeline. They think his decisions are the best, and they would be right to do so, for only he is wise enough to lead such a chaotic group of illiterate and otherwise useless villagers.

  "Together we can raid his house and drag him out of here, isn't that what we all wanted in the end? To make the man responsible for angering Rontress pay and then asking for her forgiveness?" At times like these, he is genuinely thankful for the perks his main class and subsequent sub classes have given him.

  Without them, he would be a sitting duck, unable to form words, in such a state, the villagers would be upon him, attacking him with fervorous haste and the kind of panic only present within those who know desperation intimately.

  "With him in our hands, we would be able to stop Rontress from doing anything drastic. I too wish to avoid such a fate so let us be calm and work together so that we are able to live for another day."

  He hated the fact that Rontress has forced him to do this but he can only play along with what she's planning for now, he still does not know the full extent of that girl's plan however it is clear the aim is to bring him down from his position... And possibly elevate herself at the same time.

  The first part, he can understand, he himself can admit that he's never been the best head priest during his years of service but for a little girl like her to be so ambitious that she can think she can lead Flotol?

  What a joke! Who does she think she is?!

  "You're right, Rontress wants Nogjaf so we look for him!" The man nods. "Then after that we can ask her to forgive us! It's not our fault that Nogjaf attacked her!"

  "Yeah!"

  "It was his jealousy! Not us!"

  "Exactly! We should all be asking for her forgiveness! Not continuing this conflict!"

  Lots of screaming, this lot. Folsan looked on impassively while the people of Flotol began making promises to never make the same mistake and how angering Rontress was never part of their intention.

  They let it happen whether they liked it or not, and whatever reason it is they have for doing so— be it subconscious hate or fear of repercussions. — doesn't change the fact that they could have banded together and done something to help.

  Rontress has no doubt thought of this as well, making the current declarations pointless because the young girl would never forgive any of them.

  "But what happens if Nogjaf is no longer there?"

  Folsan's heart spiked when he heard the question, he took a second to calm himself and said, "then we send out people to search for him, Rontress she wants him and no one else, I don't want to know what happens if Nogjaf isn't here."

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  He made sure to emphasize the fact that it was Nogjaf that Rontress mentioned before she left, if the idea of replacing Nogjaf comes to these people, they might just use him as a substitute for the village head.

  Folsan was sure that Rontress would be more than happy to kill him given the chance, but he would fight til the end so if she wants that to happen then she's gonna have to work hard. Incredibly hard.

  "I'll organize a search party if Nogjaf goes missing, now let us go, we need to make sure that we capture and imprison him before nightfall."

  Folsan leads the large group of villagers towards the largest house in Flotol, there's a good chance that they will feel envy— and by extension, hate. — once they see Nogjaf's house, and once that happens, it should remove some attention from him.

  Once they reach the only three story house in Flotol, the villagers quickly moved, a pair of guys taller and larger than Folsan by a feet walked to the door, they tried twisting the door knob to open it but once they realized it was locked, the two men simply chose to kick it down.

  Folsan wasn't focused on them however, instead, his eyes were intently staring at the empty spots where Nogjaf's carriages used to be.

  So he's already run huh? That's too be expected, in fact, Folsan should have known that this would happen as well. Nogjaf wasn't exactly hard to predict, the man served his personal interest compared to everything else so of course he'd run the moment things turn bad.

  With Nogjaf no longer in the picture, Folsan must secure his safety, the villagers would find someone to blame if he doesn't convince them that Nogjaf should be their priority and so he must prepare arguments that will convince them to go out and search for the missing village head.

  He waited patiently as men and women rushed into the abandoned house, they were very eager to come inside, which implies these people are doing more than just looking for Nogjaf.

  Stealing is the most likely outcome, it's one that Nogjaf personally expected even.

  And that's why there will be a few trinkets left behind, that will buy the man enough time to leave Flotol and anyone who searches for him afterwards will be treading through several feet of snow for hours on end.

  Folsan was also given time by these trinkets, it allows him to think of the logical next step and figure out what to do now that Nogjaf is really out of the picture, with the noble who hired them absent, the adventurers should stop following orders as well.

  He's on his own and the only thing he has at his disposal are his sub classes. Is that enough? No, of course it's not enough, words can only do so much...

  He needs to shift the blame, not at himself, but at someone else, he needs to find a scapegoat. But who?

  His eyes scanned the ground and momentarily found Flutt's, his mind worked then, thinking up of plans to bring down the priest, that or... He can use Flutt's influence to sway the villagers to their side, the fact that Oguarez is with them should deter everyone from attacking mindlessly as well.

  Folsan inched his way to the pair, making sure that the crowd doesn't notice his movements, it took longer than expected and Flutt was staring at him through it all but he reached them in the end.

  "The villagers are getting restless." He wasn't stupid, he knew that Flutt was suspicious of him, he also knew that Oguarez had changed sides. "We need to keep them in check, otherwise everything will become chaotic, that or they start killing each other."

  He played into Flutt's heart, which just bleeds for everyone, these villagers are not the exception. Folsan smiled at the priest, Flutt was looking pensive, thoughtful, and so was the executioner.

  The last one didn't matter since Oguarez will defend them regardless once the villagers start attacking but getting his mind to think a certain way wasn't a bad development.

  "You're right, if this keeps up, they'll start blaming each other again, just like what happened earlier." Flutt bit his lip and stared at the crowd. "But what can we do here? They're all hell-bent on finding someone to blame, Rontress' threat has only made that worse."

  Which was done on purpose by the girl no doubt, she's smarter than she looks and Folsan knew everything so far has been orchestrated by her.

  Granted, he didn't have the resources or power to fight back due to it being winter so all he could do was weather the storm of her starving Flotol and then threatening it with her magic, once spring comes around and he's able to contact the rest of the church though? Everything will be different. He knows it. She knows it.

  Both of them know that it's only a matter of time until things start to tilt towards Folsan's side again, and she must be rushing to get him out of the picture.

  All he needs is to survive for a bit longer and he's going to win, just a bit more, and he needs Flutt's help to do that.