CH-009

The second night after the massive failure of the public mass in the Savoy Parish.

People in the tavern were spreading the word: the day after Grandma Bessie was murdered by a demon, Father Alis had helped the Sheriff catch the killer with just a few words.

Clearly, just the night before last, everyone had been mocking the Father for the grand failure of a public mass that no one attended; now, everyone in the tavern was back to picking through each other’s sightings and rumors.

“If only Herens had come out of his hunter’s cabin. I heard he was there at the time.” A burly man gripped his ale mug and said with an air of gravity, “He was scared out of his wits. He was in a daze when he came back and even asked me for time off. Otherwise, we could have bagged a deer today—what a total waste!”

Another middle-aged man eating snacks felt something was off and said: “I ran into Sheriff Rayleigh on the road, and he seemed normal? Just a bit rambling, kept saying ‘incredible’ or something like that.”

The burly man then said: “Eh, after Sheriff Rayleigh left, Herens and another girl were still in the church; they hadn’t left. You all know Herens is usually brave—in the winter snow, he dares to hunt a bear single-handedly, standing there grinning like a fool even when splashed halfway with bl00d. Yet he said he experienced the most terrifying thing of his life inside that church. He laid straight down in bed the moment he got back, didn’t even eat dinner.”

“Hiss—”

As these words fell, the listeners below all sucked in a breath of cold air.

“What kind of terrifying thing was it exactly?”

“How scary!!”

“My god—this is just too terrifying, isn’t it?!”

The waitress helping pour the wine also joined the conversation, “So what exactly did they go through?”

“Did they see Hell?”

“Did the Father turn into a man-eating monster? If Father Alis finds out Herens and the others told his secret, will he eat them?”

“I’m suddenly so scared!”

Amidst the agitated voices all around, another voice suddenly rang out, saying: “I remember Yvonne seemed quite normal; she went back to work at the town library in the afternoon. They seemed to come out of the church at the same time.”

“Yvonne’s mouth is the hardest to pry open. How could we possibly know what she actually saw inside the church?”

“If I had known, I would have followed and peeked in secret too.”

The group realized they had no more clues.

However, the emotions in their hearts remained as turbulent as the midnight sea, unable to settle for a long time.

At this moment, their savior, Sheriff Rayleigh, finally appeared. Everyone rushed to pull at him, asking what exactly happened inside the church.

Sheriff Rayleigh usually did plenty of muddled things and loved to curry favor with superiors or nobles, but he was normally well-read and knowledgeable. He was the “Story King” of the tavern, and everyone loved listening to him talk. Most importantly, he was very reliable when it came to major matters; if there were problems among neighbors, he could offer advice and cover for them. Most of the time, Sheriff Rayleigh spoke up for commoners like them.

Therefore, he still held quite a bit of authority in everyone’s hearts.

Seeing how actively they were gossiping, Sheriff Rayleigh looked quite unperturbed, his calm gaze landing on the ale. The people around him immediately poured him a large, brimming mug. The snow-white foam raced to bloom upon meeting the air, and the aroma of the wine instantly assailed the nose.

Working all day—isn’t it all for this one mug?

Sheriff Rayleigh was happy inside, but he wasn’t in a hurry. He wanted to keep them in suspense, taking a large gulp first before saying slowly: “If I haven’t guessed wrong, Father Alis is very likely a high-ranking Bishop sent over from the Metropolis.”

A definitive conclusion.

The people around him followed with diverging thoughts.

“Is he even higher than that Bishop in Carson City who manages an entire diocese?”

“How can a Bishop from the Northern Territories compare to a Bishop from the Metropolis? Take sacred vessels for example—the church vessels in the Metropolis are all made of gold, while the ones in the Northern Territories are at most brass, right?”

“But Father Alis looks way too young, doesn’t he? Is he even twenty? And he’s already a high-ranking Bishop? The Church is really getting worse and worse these days…”

Sheriff Rayleigh wasn’t in a hurry to voice his thoughts. He let everyone finish their discussion before he started saying: “There are only two reasons why someone so young could become a high-ranking Bishop of the Metropolis.”

He held up his first finger, “Father Alis comes from the family of some high-ranking Cardinal or Archbishop in the Metropolis; he won at the starting line. Think about it, we still don’t even know what Father Alis’s surname is.”

“That could also be because he’s a commoner with no parents, so he has no surname.”

Sheriff Rayleigh was unhurried. “Can a commoner become a high-ranking Bishop? Setting aside high-ranking Bishops, even a Priest isn’t something an ordinary person can become. This isn’t like Elder Jacob, who is a permanent Deacon. A Priest, like a Bishop, is a true Celebrant, while a Deacon is there to assist the Celebrant.”

“This…” The other party was instantly speechless.

Someone said: “Sheriff Rayleigh, didn’t you say the other party ‘might’ be? Then he might also ‘not’ be a high-ranking Bishop, isn’t that right?”

This was the main event.

Sheriff Rayleigh cleared his throat and said: “Now I will tell you what I saw inside the church. From what I saw, Father Alis can directly see the hidden sins of the confessors. He only came to the church this month, yet he could see through every bit of Ander’s movements over the past two months without missing a single word.”

For the next ten minutes, Sheriff Rayleigh described everything that happened in the confessional with vivid excitement.

Ander was so terrified by Father Alis’s words that his face lost all color and his legs practically went soft. It took Sheriff Rayleigh dragging him along to get him to the station.

“I heard before that there are a very small number of high-ranking Bishops in the Church who possess God-given powers. Those people are key candidates being groomed as the Papal Reserve.” Sheriff Rayleigh slammed the table hard, “Father Alis coming here is absolutely no accident; it must be a conspiracy by the Church!”

The crowd was startled awake by this sound, their expressions turning grim as they leaned in to hear Sheriff Rayleigh continue.

“Our Northern Territories have shown signs of wanting to break away from the Church’s control for years. The Church has always been sensitive to this kind of wind and movement.”

Sheriff Rayleigh tapped the tabletop, his tone low, “Now people’s hearts have changed; they are unwilling to follow blindly. Take our Savoy Parish—we haven’t had a Priest for over 20 years. Can they tolerate that? Sending Father Alis here this time, I’m afraid they mean business.”

The audience couldn’t help but chime in: “Indeed.”

Someone interrupted, “I heard from my relatives living over in Carson City that they originally didn’t like attending mass because the Bishop at that church asked for a bunch of donations every time. My relative isn’t rich either and was simply unwilling to attend every time. As a result, after they collectively stopped going as much, the Bishop over there said they were hiding followers of some heretical church. He even insisted on checking their activity itineraries during last October’s Harvest Festival like a madman, trying to find traitors of the heretical church. It made everyone very unhappy. Later, to save trouble and not be continuously disturbed, my relative started attending mass according to the rules.”

“This is definitely just looking for various ways to establish authority.”

“So annoying—!”

Someone frowned and whispered a complaint.

Another person followed: “The Metropolis must feel that our side is hard to manage, so they sent a big figure with a background over, right?”

“Everyone, don’t waver. Think about it—we’ve held out for over twenty years. How can we let our future be affected by a newly arrived Father!”

Sheriff Rayleigh’s expression wasn’t particularly in agreement. He said with a heavy look: “That man is not simple. I only looked at him a few more times and felt like my thoughts were seen through by him. But I just couldn’t bring myself to hate him; I only felt… like my soul had been washed by something. My whole person relaxed, and I even felt more powerful. Recalling this kind of thing is actually quite terrifying!”

After these words fell, it was like a heavy stone pressing on their hearts.

It’s not hard to reject malice; people won’t actively choose to endure it.

But facing gentle kindness, people can’t help but sink into it.

In the tavern, the more everyone listened, the more curiosity toward Father Alis began to sprout.

However, this bit of curiosity was also like a spiderweb coiling around their hearts—exquisite, quiet, yet deadly.

On Sunday morning the next day, Raymond, the eldest son of Elder Jacob, drove an ox cart through the market.

Before he left, he didn’t forget to pull the reins and ask the crowd loudly: “Does anyone need anything brought back? I’m going to Carson City.”

Having just heard the rumors about the dangerous Church in Carson City yesterday, hearing “Carson City” again today made the air suddenly stagnate.

People exchanged looks, chills running down their spines, thinking to themselves that Father Alis’s small maneuvers were finally about to begin.

A high wall of vigilance was instantly built.

Someone pressed: “What are you going to Carson City for out of the blue?”

Raymond gave an honest smile: “Lord Alis commissioned me to bring back some salt. He wants to make his own Holy Water, saying it will help crops take root and sprout earlier. When the Holy Water is made, Lord Alis also plans to post a notice in the square, hoping you all can make use of it too.”

The phrase “sprout earlier” was like a drop of honeyed water fed to their parched and tasteless mouths.

The breathing in the crowd visibly grew heavy.

Several farm women unconsciously gripped their aprons.

To the farmers who relied on the heavens for food, this was practically like the devil whispering beside them. Their heels unconsciously scraped the ground, and the words “I want it” in their hearts almost escaped from their throats on their own.

“How could this possibly be realized?” A clear-headed voice made everyone calm down, “I’ve never heard of such a thing!! Stop talking nonsense.”

Raymond was also very sincere: “Actually, I don’t quite believe it either, but Lord Alis just gave a smile, and we had no way to refuse him. In fact, we just feel he originally has this kind of ability and is waiting for us to wait and see. I also really want to see what kind of situation it is exactly.”

This voice made the people around fall silent.

After the creaking sound of the ox cart completely disappeared, a hoarse, low voice rang out from a quiet corner of the crowd: “I actually saw it—”

“What?”

Everyone turned back sharply, their gazes instantly focusing on the speaker—it was exactly the old man who said he wanted to go to the toilet to slip away last time.

At this moment, his cloudy pupils flickered with a strange light, as if he were traveling through time to see that morning once again.

The old man’s thin fingers gestured, his tone slow and low, as if immersed in it.

“That day when the Father left, on the path he walked, there were things like golden powder floating, like a veil condensed from sunlight, floating by his side. Thinking carefully, those were actually small golden spirits surrounding the hem of his robe.”

He paused, unconsciously making a long-forgotten sign of the cross on his chest, “He was like a god descending at that moment, walking past me.”

The moment the old man’s voice fell, the entire market became so quiet that the sound of leaves rubbing in the wind could be heard.