Chapter 290
Viviane’s Dog
Shepherd’s Bay Country, Windpipe Town.
The children from the Church of the Nine Pillars God’s school on Glass Island were being organized by the school for their annual trip here.
After all, there wasn’t much to do on Glass Island itself. It was a place where every inch of land was precious. The most scenic spot was likely the island in the lake where the Silver and Tin Hall was located.
But they still had to let these children see the natural scenery outside, to let them know that Avalon wasn’t all smoking, rumbling factories and trains endlessly roaring on their tracks.
This would also be helpful for the children’s future employment.
The resources for priests on Glass Island were already saturated. Let alone newly graduated deacons and sub-deacons, even bishops were as common as. There were a total of nine churches on Glass Island, each with more than one Fourth Tier bishop guarding it.
But in many places outside, even a fairly large city would only have one bishop. Most small towns didn’t even have a bishop, and only had a single deacon.
The Church had no choice but to recruit people through such coaxing and deception. After all, the work of the Church of the Nine Pillars God was quite extensive.
They had to send people to every birth, wedding, and funeral in the entire town, which alone was incredibly busy. Funerals, in particular, required a genuine priest of Extraordinary level to be present at internment to prevent the deceased from becoming Und.
They also had to lead believers in praying daily, maintain the statues of the Nine Pillar Gods once a week, listen to confessions and provide psychological counseling, care for orphans, manufacture Holy Water, farm the land behind the church, and sanctify ritual implements. A few Extraordinary individuals would certainly not be enough; it required the assistance of a large number of Ordinary Persons.
In contrast, treating patients that doctors couldn’t cure, and dispersing the Und and curses, which were their core Extraordinary duties, only took up a small portion of their day. There were even days where they might not do such a thing even once.
The priests who graduated from the Royal Law University’s Seminary and directly received their Episcopal Crowns numbered less than a hundred per year. This was certainly not enough. Hence, there were church schools – not universities, but more like middle schools.
After graduating from elementary school, one could enter a church school. After completing six years of church school, they would basically be adults.
Then they could intern at a church and learn from the ground up how to become a qualified priest.
The graduates from the Royal Law University had at least Second Tier upon graduation, with some reaching Third Tier even before graduating. They would basically intern and train at the churches on Glass Island, and after advancing to the ranks of deacon and bishop, they would be directly parachuted into local church branches to serve as managers or bishop Candidates.
As their Extraordinary levels further increased, they might even have the opportunity to transfer back to the Church to receive further Promoted above the bishop level. This could be considered a career track, with life plans essentially aimed at becoming a bishop. If they weren’t a bishop by the age of forty, they would be ridiculed by their classmates.
And these students who came from church schools were the majority of the clergy in those churches.
Most of them wouldn’t even become Extraordinary until they were thirty, with reaching the limit of barely mastering a certain Extraordinary skill.
After becoming adults, they would be assigned to various remote towns based on the church’s needs.
And when they first graduated, they were just young adults. Suddenly leaving their parents and being assigned alone to a backward rural area could easily destabilize their mindset.
After all, their inability to become Extraordinary meant their talent for the Path of Devotion was weak. This indicated they didn’t particularly enjoy acts of Devotion. But this wasn’t necessarily true; perhaps they lacked the foundation and opportunity for “Devotion.”
This experience, akin to “suffering,” was precisely to forcibly stimulate their aptitude for Devotion.
If they could comprehend what Devotion meant while helping the people in those impoverished areas, they might have a chance to become formal Extraordinary individuals.
But that would require them to actually go.
Therefore, to reduce the students’ resistance, church schools would regularly organize a special holiday trip specifically designed to dupe the children.
They would take the children on trips to the most scenic resort destinations during their holidays.
This would allow them to experience the beauty of nature, and also to realize that “leaving Glass Island might not be a bad thing,” and even make them look forward to being assigned to rural areas after graduation. This was to prevent widespread resistance from occurring after graduation, where they wouldn’t even come.
By the time they actually graduated, they would discover that the reality didn’t match the expectations, and by then it would be too late to back out—how could the countryside be so ordinary when it’s still the countryside?
But since they were here anyway, why not try working for half a year first? Perhaps after half a year, they would become true priests.
Even if they resigned after half a year, new intern priests would be transferred in within another half a year.
“How pitiful,” Viviane thought.
At this moment, the little girl in a dark blue nun’s dress, with silver hair and silver eyes, was playfully roughhousing with her classmates with a bright smile.
Perhaps because she had the ears of an elf, or perhaps just because her appearance was delicate and lovely, a crowd naturally gathered around her. Wherever she went, she became the focus of everyone’s attention.
“Then, I’m going to wander around by myself!”
Viviane placed one hand behind her back and waved with the other in front of her, bowing slightly with a sweet smile. “I’ll be back soon!”
“Be careful, Viviane!”
“We’ll wait for you right here!”
Her classmates responded with great enthusiasm.
Viviane hummed a happy tune, skipping as she walked.
But before she could walk very far, her steps gradually slowed. Her demeanor shifted from the innocent and charming manner of a little girl to one of composure and elegance. The carefree, lovely smile on her face gradually receded, replaced by calmness.
As she rounded a corner, she saw a man with long hair that curled and was damp like seaweed standing there silently.
He was tall and thin, exuding a somber and dangerous aura.
He was the type of person who, if holding a pen, might be mistaken for a poet; if holding a brush, a painter; if singing, a wandering musician; but if he just stood there doing nothing, he would be taken for a fugitive.
However, Viviane showed no fear whatsoever.
She raised her head and looked at the man.
“Do you need something?”
She asked, “I remember I gave you your freedom.”
“Master.”
Yeats bowed respectfully, his tone even bordering on subservient. “I have finally found you.”
“You didn’t need to find me.”
Viviane said coldly, “You are no longer my dog.”
“I have something to report to you, my Master.”
“I’m not listening.”
Viviane refused without hesitation.
“It concerns a Sacred Entity.”
“…Fine, I’ll listen.”
Viviane changed her mind.
