Chapter 3: Eleena

“I only have tea, is that okay?”

Xi Wei had only been occupying this cottage for three days after all, so he had a lot of household items missing. In spite of that, there was no chance he would waste divine energy to create those things.

Objectively speaking, these three days were the poorest and simplest Xi Wei had lived in both his lifetimes.

He missed his phone, computer, and takeout dearly…

“It’s alright, I’m fine with it even if you only have plain water!” Eleena chirped, her silver twintails swaying rhythmically as she rocked excitedly in her chair.

Pouring her a cup of tea, Xi Wei took out a dinner plate, deftly cutting up the roasted meat into smaller pieces and arranging them neatly on the plate before serving it, placing it carefully on the old wooden table.

Eyes sparkling, the young girl immediately reached for a piece of meat, and was about to eat it before she noticed Xi Wei’s gaze on her, so she held in her excitement and started nibbling on it daintily like a well-mannered little lady.

“Don’t mind me, please eat all you want,” he couldn’t help saying, smiling wryly.

“That won’t do. My father said that I must always be polite and well-mannered,” Eleena said earnestly.

“Oh?” Xi Wei raised his brow curiously.

If he remembered correctly, Eleena was an orphan who was currently living with her uncle.

“Ah! What do you mean by that expression Mister Xi Wei? Don’t you believe in me?” The little one exclaimed in dissatisfaction, the threat coming out weak due to the sauce stain at the edge of her mouth.

“No, I was just a little surprised that someone from such a remote village like this cared about manners,” he explained.

Actually the way he said this held some prejudice against Kennington Village, and if it were anyone else from the village here today Xi Wei would not have said anything of the sort. However through the past few days of interacting with Eleena, he knew that the girl was not someone who would go around running their mouth, nor was she someone who assumed the worst of someone.

True to his assumptions, Eleena did not even realize the slightly demeaning context in Xi Wei’s words, only pouting softly and grumbling, “My father had said that my mother was a noblewoman from the city, and that one day I might have a chance to meet my maternal relatives one day. That’s why I have to always be well-mannered, even though I think it’s very troublesome…”

Hearing her words, Xi Wei could almost visualize the makings of a grand ten-season-120-episode soap opera about love and fantasy in his mind…

However as a deity, he did not have too much interest in the family matters of a mortal, so he quickly changed the topic.

“Eleena, what deities do the people from your village worship?” he asked carefully.

“My father worships the God of the Hunt and the Goddess of the Forest, while Grandpa Elder and my aunt believe in the God of Harvest and the Lord of the Mountains, while my father hopes that I can worship the God of Light just like my mother did…” she recounted, stretching her fingers with each person she talked about.

“Did worshipping the God of Harvest do any good? Did the harvests in the village become more abundant?” Xi Wei continued on asking.

“Uhm… Maybe just a little..?” Eleena replied absently, but judging from her expression she didn’t believe in what she said either.

“I don’t worship the God of Harvest, nor am I a part of the Natural Sect1. If you have anything to say you can just tell me, hm?” Xi Wei said encouragingly, his tone gentle.

“…It actually wasn’t of any use, the harvests were even lacking last year. Grandpa Elder was almost extorted to death by the tax officer!” Eleena complained indignantly.

Xi Wei nodded internally—this was all to be expected. A great majority of commoners would worship two or more deities at once, dividing the little time they had left to pray and worship to different deities and causing many of them to only be shallow believers.

After all, one of the prerequisites for wanting to become a true believer 1of a deity was to completely devote oneself to a deity, or two deities who had close relations with one another.

This type of scattered worshipping from commoners made it so that the blessings they got from that deity would be extremely ineffective, so much so that there would not be any real difference to traditional farmers back on Earth who were at mercy of weather and natural disasters.

Realistically, even if a commoner devoted all their time and devotion to worship a deity, their prayer would still be too insignificant to attract the attention of a deity.

Normally no one would worship more than three deities at a time, unless they were of the same sect, or of the same deific origin. If they did, they would have been seen as excessive believers, on the same level as atheists.

There were two reasons why commoners still worshipped deities even though their lives were still miserable. Firstly, they wanted to find spiritual support, and secondly it was because commoners were exploited by churches—with the churches having almost monopolized medical treatment, knowledge, and most of the manufacturing industry.

If commoners wanted to receive medical attention, they would have to worship a deity; if they encountered bandits or beasts and wanted the help of the Crusaders, they would need to worship a deity; even when they need to buy certain goods, they would have to worship specific deities…

Under the influence of how society worked like this, even if worshipping a deity did not help with their lives or even making it harder for them, commoners would still choose some deities to worship.

“Mister Xi Wei, which deities to you worship? The great Gospel of Life? Or is it the great God of Light?” Eleena asked curiously, tilting her head. “Your Sacred Healing Arts are so powerful, the deity you’re worshipping must be extremely powerful too!”

Finally asking about the subject he was trying to bring up, Xi Wei gathered his spirits and nodded. “I believe in an extremely rare and honorable deity!”

“Which one?” According to plan, Eleena asked curiously, her attention attracted by the prospect of an unknown deity.

“Have you ever heard of the God of Games?”

“The God of Games..?” Eleena shook her head in puzzlement. “I have never heard of Him…”

“He is a great deity with countless spheres of influence! Unfortunately, this also became His downfall. He was so omnipotent that the other deities were jealous of Him and banned Him from expanding His influence, making it so that he had no fame in the mortal realm,” Xi Wei said solemnly, “I am the priest of the great and devilishly handsome God of Games, looking for someone who can become a Saintess under His name… Eleena, are you willing to become the Saintess of the God of Games?”

Although these words sounded like a strange perverted man trying to kidnap a young girl, Xi Wei swore that he was not a pedophile. He asked her purely out of the merit that she was the one he had come into contact the most in this time he stayed in this village.

At the same time, he thought that Eleena was a pure, adorable and gifted young lady who fits the bill of the Saintess he had in mind perfectly.

“S… Saintess?” Eleena’s mouth hung agape as her eyes widened comically.

“Yes, a Saintess! If you join our church, you can immediately become our Saintess!” Xi Wei continued, trying to persuade the young girl to join.

Eleena considered for a while before eventually shaking her head.

“I’m sorry Mister Xi Wei. Thank you for your goodwill but I think I’m still going to worship the God of Light like my father wanted me to,” she said apologetically.

“Is that so…” Xi Wei sighed heavily and hung his head, having failed to convince her.

That being said, he did not continue to force the young girl to listen to him, since true belief could not be forced.

‘A failure, huh…As expected, just three days of interaction wasn’t enough to get me a Saintess…” he thought dejectedly.

Fortunately it wasn’t completely a bust, as the remaining divine energy he had left could probably last him another four days. Now he had to decide whether he should continue staying in Kennington, or to leave for another village to try his luck.

Even if he could not get his church a Saintess, developing a couple of believers would be good too…

“Uhm…” Eleena looked at the roasted meat still on her fork longingly, then looked back at Xi Wei. “Can I still eat…?” she asked carefully.

“Eat, eat…” he sighed in exasperation at how the girl was acting. “I’m not that stingy.”