CA – Chapter 45
Chapter 45
The consequence of indulging Lucille was that Tang Qiu’s head was still a little dizzy when she woke up the next day. Her face was pale from the blood loss, and she only felt a bit better after drinking two consecutive bottles of Holy Water of Light.
Lucille wasn’t in the room. Tang Qiu sat up in bed and lifted her sleeve to take a look. Thanks to the prompt treatment yesterday, the bite marks on her wrist and arm were not severe.
She raised a hand to rub her temples, waiting until the feeling of being top-heavy subsided before getting out of bed. She stood before the mirror and straightened her somewhat messy priest robes.
A soft knock came at the door, followed by the maid’s voice, unable to contain its excitement. “Your Excellency the Priest, may I come in?”
Tang Qiu walked over and opened the door, smiling. “Good day.”
“Ah, good day, Your Excellency.” The maid was holding a tray with a damp towel and mouthwash. Seeing Tang Qiu staring at the items in her hands, she explained, “The Marshal asked me to bring these.” She walked to the table and set the tray down.
Tang Qiu raised an eyebrow and asked gently, “Where is Lucille?”
“The Marshal is in the garden.”
Lucille must have given specific instructions not to approach the garden, as the maid stopped at the entrance after leading Tang Qiu there. The manor had been neglected for too long. Although a maid had been employed to manage it, she only came once a month. It was only after Lucille moved in that the maid began to prune the garden.
Compared to the garden at the Holy See, which was meticulously cared for by Reese, the few specks of red amidst the manor’s sea of green looked rather pathetic.
When Tang Qiu found Lucille in the garden, she was squatting beside a cleared patch of earth, loosening the soil with a trowel. A small green seedling lay by her feet.
“What is this?” Tang Qiu bent down, picked up the small seedling, and examined it for a few moments before asking in confusion.
Lucille put down the trowel and stood up. She first glanced at the golden-haired priest, and seeing that her complexion was acceptable, she shook her head and said, “I don’t know.”
She paused, then added, “I found it at Rose Manor.”
Rose Manor… Tang Qiu looked up at Lucille in surprise. She vaguely remembered that when she let Lola go, Lola had also mentioned Rose Manor before leaving.
Tang Qiu didn’t know much about Rose Manor. She had looked through the Holy See’s archives, but they only contained some very superficial records.
In fact, she had always had some doubts about Vandent being sealed off and burned down due to the Black Death. The Black Death could clearly be contained with light magic. Even if the epidemic had spread throughout the city, it shouldn’t have been so severe as to require such a drastic measure.
Moreover, Tang Qiu discovered that the Holy See didn’t seem to have been involved in the Vandent incident at all.
This was very strange and didn’t fit the Holy See’s image on the continent of Statu.
“What kind of place is Rose Manor, exactly?” Tang Qiu handed the small seedling to Lucille and watched her squat down to plant it, probing with her question.
The seedling was already a bit wilted by the time it was planted in the soil. Lucille touched its leaves and frowned, suspecting it wouldn’t last long.
Tang Qiu also noticed the seedling’s condition. She thought for a moment and gestured for Lucille to stand up. Then, she bent down slightly and softly chanted an incantation. A moist, white light flickered at her fingertips, enveloping the seedling. Before long, it became vibrant and full of life.
“Huh.” Tang Qiu withdrew her hand, looking at the seedling with a surprised expression.
Lucille looked at her questioningly. “What’s wrong?”
Tang Qiu stroked her chin, her eyes filled with curiosity. “It’s a bit strange.”
The light magic she used was the same one Reese often used in the Holy See’s garden, which could stimulate plants to grow rapidly. Even if her power of light wasn’t as pure as Reese’s, it was impossible that it only managed to perk the seedling up a bit.
According to her expectations, the seedling should have grown to at least the height of her calf.
“What’s strange about it?” Lucille was still very concerned about the seedling. She wanted to figure out what the nutshell buried deep beneath Rose Manor was.
Tang Qiu looked up and found Lucille staring at her, waiting for an answer. A thought stirred in her heart, and she curled her lips into a teasing smile. “You tell me about Rose Manor first, and then I’ll answer you.”
The faint smile on the golden-haired priest’s lips was infectious, and Lucille inexplicably felt her mood brighten. The blood-red color in her eyes had long since faded, but a trace of desire suddenly surged in her heart again. She wanted to press the person before her down… and feed.
Lucille lowered her eyes, suppressing the sudden impulse. Tang Qiu thought she was unwilling to talk about Rose Manor, and the smile on her lips faded slightly. Just as she was about to change the subject, she heard Lucille speak. “Rose Manor is a place where vampires kept blood slaves.”
“Oh?” This time, Tang Qiu was genuinely surprised. She frowned and said, “Are you referring to those nobles as blood slaves?” She didn’t believe that nobles would abandon their status to become blood slaves for vampires—unless, of course, it was consensual or they were forced.
However, Rose Manor had been popular for a long time, yet there had been no news of any noble dying there.
“Not the nobles.” Lucille told Tang Qiu what was recorded in the Edry archives. “It was the servants the nobles brought with them.”
“There’s a rule for entering Rose Manor that only the nobles know.” Lucille lowered her eyes and said softly, “You must bring ten servants to offer to the master of the manor.” Since nobles were all about pomp and circumstance, bringing dozens of servants wouldn’t attract any attention.
As for how many were left by their side when they departed, no one would bother to care about that.
Therefore, Lucille had always believed that the true masters behind Rose Manor were vampires, and their purpose was to feed and create new kin. Of course, the archives didn’t record this, and Rose Manor had been burned to the ground. The nobles who had visited Rose Manor back then remained tight-lipped about it, so she couldn’t verify whether her guess was correct.
Tang Qiu frowned and fell into deep thought, not noticing Lucille looking at her from the side. A rustling sound came from the ground at her feet. Tang Qiu subconsciously looked down, and a skeleton mouse’s head emerged from the soil next to her foot. Its eye sockets stared straight at her as if confirming her identity.
Lucille glanced at it, then bent down and grabbed the skeleton mouse as it tried to slip away. Once it was completely out of the soil, the parchment tied to its body was exposed to their sight.
Erin often used the skeleton mouse to send her letters. Tang Qiu took the parchment from Lucille’s hand, unfolded it, and scanned it. The smile on her face slowly vanished, and her thumb gently rubbed the edge of the parchment.
“It’s a distress letter from Erin.” Tang Qiu folded the parchment, frowning as she spoke softly. “She’s been captured by Black Witches in the Shas Principality.”
“The Shas Principality is far from the Bill Empire.”
The Shas Principality was near the Gru Empire. It would take more than ten days to travel there from the Bill Empire. The fact that this distress letter reached Tang Qiu’s hands could only mean that Erin knew she was currently safe.
Seeing Tang Qiu lower her eyes in thought, Lucille asked coolly, “Are you going to save her?”
Tang Qiu glanced at her, raised an eyebrow, and said with amusement, “How am I supposed to save her?” Setting aside whether she had the ability, just the fact that she was a priest of the Bill Empire’s Holy See meant she needed a legitimate reason to leave.
Obviously, rescuing a Black Witch was not a reason that would be approved.
Rescuing Erin was too risky. She was already walking on a knife’s edge; one misstep and she might not even be able to save her own life. Tang Qiu thought for a long time but still couldn’t come up with a reason that could persuade her to take such a huge risk to save someone.
“She probably isn’t in mortal danger.” If her life were in danger, the distress letter wouldn’t have been sent here, let alone sprawled across an entire page. Lucille thought of the Black Witches of the Anderson Family, and her brow furrowed. “She might have been captured by her own family.”
She didn’t particularly want the golden-haired priest to get involved with the Anderson Family.
Tang Qiu waved the parchment in her hand. “You guessed right.”
“Then give up.” Lucille squatted down to stroke the seedling’s leaves, her tone cold. “You can’t save her anyway.” She only cared about Tang Qiu’s safety.
Tang Qiu didn’t speak. She lowered her eyes, staring at the parchment in her hand, lost in thought. The skeleton mouse scurried around her feet endlessly. She glanced at it, then bent down, picked it up, and stuffed it into her Space Gem.
She had originally planned to stay at Lucille’s manor until nightfall, but because of Erin’s distress letter, Tang Qiu returned to the Holy See early. She took out a map of the Statu continent and carefully examined the location of the Shas Principality. Her finger tapped on the place mentioned in Erin’s letter. Several rescue plans popped into her mind, but she rejected them one by one.
To save her or not? Tang Qiu’s fingertips tapped on the table, the crisp sound clearing her thoughts a little. Her sky-blue eyes, which habitually showed gentleness to outsiders, now held a hint of coldness.
A priest could only leave the Holy See for an extended period if they received an order from a bishop. If they were absent from the weekly Light Baptism without reason too many times, forget about their position as a priest, they would probably be taken away by the Inquisition.
So, how to get to the Shas Principality was a very difficult problem to begin with.
Tang Qiu put away the map and stood up to walk to the door. Just as she opened it to go out, a young child shot out from somewhere and bumped into her.
“Ah, s-sorry.” The little girl, dressed in an ordinary acolyte’s robe, covered her eyes and apologized to Tang Qiu. A small stone flew towards the back of her head, but Tang Qiu raised her hand and caught it. She looked up in the direction the stone came from and only saw two figures hastily running away.
These seven or eight-year-old children were the Holy See’s Light Believers, future acolytes. Tang Qiu had just seen them yesterday, so she had some impression of the little girl who had bumped into her. She bent down slightly and gently took the little girl’s hands away, seeing a bruise at the corner of her eye. She frowned and asked with concern, “Are you alright?”
She softly chanted an incantation and used a healing spell on the little girl’s eye. A white light flashed, and the girl’s swollen eye could finally open a little. She whispered her thanks, “Thank you, Priest Grace.”
Tang Qiu stroked the little girl’s hair and said softly, “Why don’t you tell Acolyte Jonas?” Jonas was usually in charge of managing these Light Believers.
The little girl looked dejected. “It’s okay. They’ll stop bullying me once they leave.”
Light Believers were not allowed to leave their quarters freely. The little girl was afraid of being discovered, so she bowed to Tang Qiu and hurried away. Tang Qiu followed behind her, watching her back disappear. When she reached the corner, she unexpectedly saw Reese leaning against a stone pillar, staring blankly in the direction the little girl had gone.
The sound of footsteps made Reese look over. Upon seeing it was Tang Qiu, she raised an eyebrow and called out with a smile, “Priest Grace.”
Tang Qiu curtsied. “Archbishop Reese.”
She didn’t know how long Reese had been there, but seeing her stare blankly in the direction the little girl had left, she must have witnessed everything. Tang Qiu pondered for a moment and asked tentatively, “Did the Archbishop just see a little acolyte run past?”
Reese nodded nonchalantly. “I did. And I saw a good show.”
She really did see everything. Tang Qiu thought of the little girl and tried to speak up for her. “I believe that while an acolyte’s aptitude is important, their character should also be taken into consideration. Otherwise, sending them to the Central Church might cause unnecessary trouble.”
Although she only caught a glimpse of their backs, Tang Qiu recognized that one of the two who had bullied the little girl was a believer Reese had selected to be sent to the Central Church.
And the little girl from just now was one Monica had chosen. Her aptitude and character were both excellent. Tang Qiu had also been quite optimistic about her, but since Reese was the one making the final decision, Tang Qiu’s regret and Monica’s anger were all in vain.
Speaking of which, Tang Qiu really couldn’t figure out what standards Reese used to select believers. Perhaps it was just her mood?
Reese curled her lips into a smile at Tang Qiu’s words. She twirled a lock of her hair around her finger, looking quite pleased as she said, “Is there a problem with their character?”
“In any case, they’re very much to my liking.”
Tang Qiu: “…”
“The Central Church won’t be troubled by such a small matter.” Reese left with that ambiguous remark. However, after taking just two steps, she seemed to remember something and turned back to Tang Qiu. “Tell Monica that this time, when we send the believers back to the Central Church, I want her to personally escort me along the way.”
A thought stirred in Tang Qiu’s heart. “Sending believers back to the Central Church?” The Central Church was to the southwest of the Gru Empire. However, Reese had only just selected the believers from the Bill Empire; she still had to personally visit other countries to make her selections.
This escort mission would take a very long time, and it was also an opportunity to leave the Holy See.
Reese keenly noticed the subtle change in Tang Qiu’s eyes when she heard her words. She was no longer in a hurry to leave. She turned and sized up the golden-haired priest, saying softly, “Are you interested in this?”
“To be able to witness the splendor of other churches and personally protect Archbishop Reese’s safety—if I were entrusted with this duty, I would feel greatly honored,” Tang Qiu answered cautiously.
Reese watched her with a smile as she spoke. When she finished, Reese even clapped her hands lightly and said with a sigh, “If those words had come from Monica’s mouth, I might have been even happier.”
Tang Qiu smiled slightly and said without a change in expression, “With Priest Monica escorting you, she will certainly ensure the safety of you and the believers.”
Reese stroked her chin, pondering. “What if she refuses me?” She winked at Tang Qiu and said with a smile, “Since you’re so interested, if you can help me persuade her to agree, I’ll make you the other escort. How about it?”
Was Reese such an understanding person? Tang Qiu’s brow furrowed imperceptibly, then smoothed out again. She nodded with a smile, her tone gentle. “I’ll give it a try.”
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