"Cordo deep sea abalone, snow mushrooms from Sain Snow Mountain, cheese from Klande..."
On the way back, Wei’en and Kali followed the nu Yuan provided and detoured to a high-end shop in the Ruer District to buy the ingredients.
"Let’s get extra snow mushrooms and cheese, but not the abalone... Are you sure Yuan said these are all my favorite foods?"
"They’re not?"
Kali pondered for a mont, then shook her head. "No, this isn’t on my list of favorites."
"Your call," Wei’en didn’t press the issue, placing the deep sea abalone back on the shelf. "We have 16 shillings left. Is there anything else you’d particularly like to eat?"
"Hmm... Can we get that?"
"...Isn’t that grass?"
Wei’en followed her finger. All he saw was a vegetable with tiny green leaves.
"You’re the one who eats grass! That’s clearly Green Jade from Klande," Kali retorted playfully.
"Alright, whatever..."
’Yuan already paid, so I’ll just go with her choice.’
"All done."
With that, the two of them, laden with bags, headed for Golden Street.
It was worth noting that Wei’en had also bought a white dress in the shop, which cost him nearly 1 gold pound.
This made Kali blush for a long ti, but when she found out it wasn’t for her, she was so embarrassed she wanted to find a hole to crawl into.
’Still, he’s so considerate, willing to spend money on a dress for an Undead Creature...’
By now, the sky was gradually darkening. Wei’en belatedly realized that dark clouds had filled the sky, brewing a storm.
He had been in this world for over ten days, and this was the first ti he had seen rain.
No, counting his predecessor’s ti here, it had only rained once in more than a hundred days.
It was a strange phenonon, especially for a coastal city like Caster.
Kali noticed it too. "Hurry, hurry, it looks like it’s about to rain."
"Yeah."
The streets were full of people rushing about, just like them. Most were probably trying to finish their business before the last bell chid.
The believers who, during the day, had been hostile toward the Secret Investigation Departnt for disrupting the Dawn celebration, now fell silent when they saw their uniforms, offering no harsh words.
This surprised Wei’en. He had expected the Dawn Believers to keep hounding mbers of the Secret Investigation Departnt, but their anger hadn’t even lasted a single day.
They ran in silence for a while before Kali suddenly asked, "Wei’en, last ti... you said your faith in the Dawn was fake, right?"
"Not exactly..." Wei’en began, but looking into Kali’s clear eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to lie. He could only nod and admit, "I’m still a long way from the path of faith in the Dawn."
"I knew it. When lbel told , I didn’t believe him. So you’re really not a Dawn Believer..."
Wei’en didn’t know how to explain. The matter of the Forbidden Item—the Resurrection Coffin—was still classified and could not, under any circumstances, be revealed to the Dawn Church.
"Then have you ever considered truly walking the path of faith and becoming a Dawn Believer?"
Wei’en hesitated, then shook his head in refusal. "I’m not considering it."
’Dawn, Storm... right now, they all just seem like sanctuaries dressed in fancy clothes. The likes of the Eternal Life Association and the Despair Sect, by contrast, were at least purely evil, which made them easy to avoid.’
’Besides, he found it difficult to place his hope in the Lord of Dawn.’
’No, to be more precise, he wouldn’t place his hope in any god or master.’
From the very beginning, Wei’en’s goal had never changed. He just wanted to survive in this world. That was all.
Kali nodded dejectedly. "I see."
She didn’t know why hearing Wei’en’s refusal made her feel so miserable.
It was just like that morning when she’d heard about the Dawn Believers’ hostility toward the Secret Investigation Departnt, and when she’d learned that lbel had made a move against Wei’en.
To her, lbel was a gentlemanly and polite Knight—magnanimous, benevolent, and kind... but to outsiders, he was cold, cruel, even bloodthirsty.
’It was as if everyone around her had changed, no longer the wonderful people she had once believed them to be.’
’Or perhaps, they were always like this?’
"Kali, don’t overthink it. When we get back, we’ll make a good al and get so rest. We need to be ready for work tomorrow."
Wei’en didn’t know what she was thinking, but he could clearly sense her bad mood. After offering a token phrase of comfort, he didn’t know what else to say.
’This wasn’t so romantic pursuit. The effort it would take to find topics for conversation would be better spent getting ho, studying, and improving his abilities.’
"Mmm."
Kali nodded slightly, her large, bright eyes downcast. Anyone who wasn’t blind could see how dispirited she was.
"If only I could think like you..."
"Hmm?"
"I an, for the longest ti, I dread of becoming the Saintess of the Dawn Church, but now..."
Wei’en hadn’t expected to hear this from her. He thought for a mont before asking, "Then what was it you desired? Was it the fa that cos with being a Saintess, or the responsibility that the title carries?"
"I..." Kali faltered, stunned. Her goals? Her desires?
She rembered when she was very young, when Yuan had just brought her to the Caster City State and opened the Morris Clinic.
Every day, she would follow Yuan as he faced all sorts of "sick" people.
So were suffering from plagues, so were heavily wounded and bleeding, but most were the contaminated whose bodies had beco deford.
Yuan would treat their afflictions one by one. For those with deformities, in particular, he would always cut away the mutated parts of their bodies...
User Comments
0 comments from readers