Chapter 286: 62. As Expected
“Did you grow up in the church before?”
In fact, Fisher regretted just leaving the church. When he arrived in the Northern Region on the Flying Fish, he felt the biting cold of the Northern Region, and now that he hadn’t bought any warm clothing, he felt the cold pressing in as soon as he left the church.
He let out a long breath, watching the visible mist disperse from his mouth, while looking for something edible around him, he answered Emhart’s question.
“It was a church school, not a church. I don’t believe in the Mother Goddess.”
“Uh-huh, maybe. You know many followers of the Mother Goddess in your human society on the Western Continent also do many bad things. They love riches and beauty but wrap these desires in the guise of piety. Compared to that, you’re a good guy, fond of ladies, and more of a believer than those clergy in the churches.”
“A person’s good character has nothing to do with whether they believe in the Mother Goddess.”
“Uh-huh, indeed. But I think the church had a subtle influence on you when you were young. After all, it’s been so long, and the impression you have from church school is still of a beautiful nun. It’s almost perfect in comparison to your inability to control yourself! It’s hard to say whether her beauty has slipped into your heart along with what she said.”
“Shut up.”
Fisher expressionlessly grabbed Emhart by the book and threw him towards a snow pile by the roadside, frightening him so much that he spun in the air several times before landing.
“You, you, you! Every time I get you angry, you like to get physical! Are you bullying me for not having hands? Just wait, when I grow hands, I’ll make you pay!”
Angry, Emhart couldn’t even get onto Fisher’s shoulder and just floated around his ear, which indeed made the winter in Sardinia a bit livelier.
The forest, which had just experienced a storm, was not quiet. Fisher didn’t walk in long before he found his prey, a solitary stag. He killed it without much effort; after all, he still had the Fluid Sword in his pants pocket when he fell into the sea, so no matter how fast it ran, it couldn’t escape Fisher’s grasp.
As Fisher carried the unconscious stag and prepared to head back, he took the initiative to ask about the Moon Rabbit Tribe. Emhart, who was still sulking, had no intention of speaking but became agitated again by Fisher’s “You wouldn’t know, would you?”
Without Fisher needing to ask in detail, he told Fisher everything about the social situation of the Moon Rabbit Tribe among the six races.
“The Moon Rabbit Tribe accompanied the Frost Prince to the central Northern Region. They’re as clever and agile as the Slime Tribe, being the smartest among the six races. The Moon Rabbit Tribe is called that not because of the crescent-shaped notch on their ears but because they were creatures of the night in ancient times.”
“It’s said that the Moon Rabbit Tribe can use the moonlight to locate hidden treasures and to see through the secrets buried in a person’s heart, so the Moon Princess is very fond of these fluffy little rabbits. As a result, her brother, the Frost Prince, maliciously snatched the Moon Rabbit Tribe from her and took them away from the snowy mountains, angering the Moon Princess so much that she secretly burned down his house on the Frost and Snow Parasol Tree.”
“After the three Sons of the Phoenix disappeared in the Northern Region, the Moon Rabbit Tribe and the Slime Tribe did not wish to return to the Frost and Snow Parasol Tree as devoutly as the Cangniao Tribe and the Troll Race, but instead decided that living under the snowy mountains was quite nice. So even now, their figures remain active all around the Northern Region.”
While carrying the stag, Fisher thought about this, but he was still confused about what kind of subhuman the “Slime Tribe” really was.
The Slime Tribe was what the people of the Western Continent called this subhuman race; in the Northern Region language, they are called “Kengonba,” meaning “clever colloid.” “Slime” is a fictional monster created by contemporary novelists in the Western Continent, borrowed to translate this unique subhuman race in the Northern Region.
In novels, these shapeless monsters are composed entirely of a jelly-like substance filled with strong acid, and their strong acid can easily dissolve armor and weapons. In recent years, it seems they have also added the setting of attacking young beautiful girls, just like the Western Continent’s demonized Goblin race.
“The Slime Tribe is an impressive race; although they look a bit strange, as if a lake was filled with jelly, they undoubtedly possess a genius for commerce. They are keen on doing business, all kinds of business. It is said they brought countless riches to the Frost Prince and built the earliest merchant ships in the Northern Region.”
“The Slime Tribe is just like the greedy dragons in your Western Continent myths, not only insatiable but also completely lacking in bottom lines. This is also what the Moon Princess dislikes most. I’ve heard that as long as the price is sufficient, they can even sell the marks of their own tribe.”
As Emhart continued talking, he seemed unsatisfied, but in Fisher’s sight, the rather dilapidated Healing Rot Church appeared. At that moment, the church door was open, and a nun with rabbit ears, holding a tattered book, stood at the entrance, anxiously watching the forest outside. When she saw Fisher carrying the stag, she let out a sigh of relief.
Interestingly, the girl’s emotions seemed to be single-threaded; first, a relaxed expression appeared on her face, then it changed to surprise upon seeing the huge stag, followed by admiration for Fisher’s strength, and finally to an expression of wanting to say something but hesitating.
“May the Mother Goddess bless. I thought you had fainted in the forest; you seemed to have sustained a serious injury before. Wait, is that a deer? Did you kill it?”
Fisher exhaled a breath of hot air. Just as he was about to enter the church, he saw Ilos put her hands in front of him, shaking her head in refusal.
“Mr. Fisher, this is a church. How can you kill a living being and bring its corpse into the eyes of the Mother Goddess? This simply won’t do! And look at how cute the deer is; do you really have to eat it?”
I’m not eating the deer; am I supposed to eat you?
Seeing Ilos’s pitiful expression, Fisher almost said this.
But he didn’t show any surprised expression; after all, he had some understanding of the Mother Goddess’s church. Although ancient doctrine allowed believers to eat meat, it had to be from beings that died naturally, just like how she was picking up those dead shells by the sea earlier.
The rule of killing and eating flesh was established in churches outside Cardu, mainly in Nali and Shivali. After all, meat is simply too delicious, and it must be eaten.
“If I don’t eat something soon, I’m going to starve; the Mother Goddess will punish you for not letting me eat, and the most crucial thing is that at night, I might turn into a hungry ghost and come looking for you.”
“No, no, don’t come looking for me, don’t come looking for me. Well, hurry and eat! Just eat it outside! But you absolutely must not starve and come looking for me at night; I already have trouble sleeping at night!”
Fisher’s joking words scared Ilos enough that she hurriedly covered her rabbit ears. She seemed genuinely afraid that the starving Fisher would come looking for her at night for revenge, making him chuckle silently.
Hmm, wait a minute, didn’t Emhart say that the Moon Rabbit Tribe could see hidden things in the moonlight? Wouldn’t her current thoughts be related to that?
Fisher threw the now chilled stag onto the ground. Just as Ilos reached up to cover her ears, he suddenly realized that she was holding a copy of the Genesis. It seemed she was just studying the scriptures.
Fisher remembered that when he made mistakes at the church school, he would be punished by Teresa to copy the Genesis. As a mischievous child, he had a significant number of penalties to copy the Genesis, which included but was not limited to fighting, secretly running to the street to use his innocent little face to trick the kind ladies of Saint Nali into giving him pocket money, and peeping at Father Trun’s erotic novels hidden in the drawer.
As of now, Fisher still owed Sister Teresa fifteen copies of the Genesis.
Fisher silently chuckled, shaking off the overly familiar memories, and lowered his head to start using the Fluid Sword to process the stag’s corpse.
“Zizz~”
“Yes, yes, just this level of heat, and sprinkle a little salt and seasoning, it will be ready to eat. What are you waiting for?! Clumsy!”
“…”
Sitting at the door of the Healing Rot Church, Fisher frowned as he stared at the shimmering, oily deer meat, unable to believe that it was so simple to make a food delicious. Hmm, if he ignored every sentence that Emhart said earlier, which was beyond his expectations.
It turned out that this guy Emhart had mastered many gourmet recipes and learned its content thoroughly, and was able to teach Fisher, whose cooking was barely edible.
The roasted meat infused with Northern Region spices was quite tasty. The aroma spread far in the cold air of winter in Sardinia. Whether people in the distance could smell it was unclear, but the Moon Rabbit Tribe girl chanting the Genesis at the church door surely caught a whiff.
“‘The Mother Goddess and the stars beside her looked upon her fallen child. On the first day, he crossed the mountains. On the second day, he crossed the rivers. On the third day, he entered the forest. He looked up at the sky day and night, trying to see his beloved mother from the vast canopy.’”
Ilos recited the scripture, but as she spoke, the sticky sounds of her saliva became more pronounced. Interestingly, her eyes uncontrollably wandered to the roasted stag sizzling in the snow.
The deer is so cute; it must taste good.
No, no, no, what am I thinking? That’s a violation of taboo; eating that will incur the Mother Goddess’s punishment!
Fisher took a bite, and to his surprise, it tasted quite good; compared to the meat he had roasted previously, it was like heaven and earth.
“It’s delicious.”
“Right? With me, Emhart around, you won’t starve, understand? Read more, and you can be as excellent as I am.”
Fisher ignored Emhart, who was ready to explode with this little praise. He took a piece of the roasted deer meat and handed it to Ilos, who was sitting at the church door, saying to her,
“Do you want to eat? You didn’t get enough with that little shell meat, right?”
“Eh? Me? No, thank you for your kind offer, Mr. Fisher, but I can’t eat the meat of killed beings; this is the Mother Goddess’s.”
“Uh-huh, but in fact, the current church decree doesn’t have this rule anymore. They referenced the words in the Genesis to explain it: ‘His child traveled for seven days and nights, and His child cried for seven days and nights. The Mother Goddess reached out and cast a piece of flesh from her arm to the mortal world, which was intercepted by the stars on its descent, spreading and falling into lakes and mountains, becoming tangible animals.’”
Even after twenty years, Fisher still remembered the contents of the Genesis perfectly. As he ate the meat, he said,
“‘The stars said: Why do you harm yourself like this? The Mother Goddess sighed: My child sheds tears due to hunger, and my heart bleeds for his tears. If my blood can exchange for my child to stop crying, and as long as he can sincerely repent, what’s wrong with that? Therefore, the Mother Goddess’s child ate the animals formed from his mother’s flesh and blood by the guidance of the stars and lived.’”
Ilos opened her mouth in surprise. She found this passage familiar but suddenly couldn’t remember which chapter of the Genesis it was from. As she was about to bow her head to flip the Genesis, Fisher, with a blank expression, answered for her.
“Don’t bother flipping; it’s the fourteenth section of the second chapter ‘Ymir.’ And by the way, didn’t you miss a few passages about the conversation between the stars and the Mother Goddess in the Genesis?”
“Eh? Then that…”
Ilos anxiously lowered her head, flipping through the ancient Genesis in her hands, which was almost falling apart, her rabbit ears twitching repeatedly. She seemed a bit embarrassed, pausing for a long while before continuing her sentence.
“Actually, my teacher, who is the true owner of this church, Sister Shalu, told me that the Genesis in the Healing Rot Church was damaged. It’s said that a hundred years ago, the McDowell Fiefdom implemented religious control, which caused many pages of the Genesis I studied to be missing.”
“I see.”
Fisher ate the deer meat with little interest, but in Ilos’s eyes, this man from the Western Continent, the true origin of the Mother Goddess’s church, seemed to understand the Genesis very well. If so, could he possibly help her repair the missing parts of her Genesis?
“Um, Mr. Fisher, you seem very familiar with the text of the Genesis. Could I trouble you to help me see which parts my Genesis is missing?”
Eating roasted meat, Fisher’s body paused slightly, and the expression on Emhart’s face on his shoulder instantly turned into the deadpan “as expected” fish-eye look.
Fisher gently set down the piece of roasted meat in his hand, then turned to look at Ilos, who was sitting at the church door in classical nun robes. The flames from the roasted deer cast flickering lights across his expression and eyes, making Ilos feel a bit guilty and embarrassed.
Waiting for Fisher to swallow the deer meat he was chewing, he calmly spoke:
“Of course. But you said it’s a ‘trouble’ for me, right?”
求求投票、打赏和支持，这对我来说十分重要！
万分感谢支持！
(End of this chapter)
