CH 8.1

The Loved One (1)

Another child went up. She also closed her eyes and prayed devoutly, and was quickly answered. This time, another god’s mural lit up. Compared to the god who answered Green Hair earlier, this god’s position seemed to be a little bit lower – it seemed that this god’s status was not as high as the god that Green Hair believed in.

But that’s not the point; the point was that the little girl also seemed to be a faithful believer, and managed to move the god with her ardent belief.

Looking at the little girl’s happy and moved look, Lucia felt a sense of crisis in her heart.

No, she really couldn’t do this.

Lucia narrowed her eyes, trying to see what the totems on the murals looked like, but it was like looking at flowers amidst the fog; she could only vaguely see shadows of different colors.

“Lucia, you can’t keep looking at it.”

“Whoa!” Lucia, who was seriously looking at the murals, was startled. She looked at Razelt who was approaching and asked curiously, “Why?”

Razelt explained, “The gods are incomprehensible and imperceptible. They have great powers that cannot be comprehended by humans. If you look directly at the gods without mastering divine arts, you will fall into madness.”

This was exactly the same as what Mystery had told her, was what Lucia thought.

“Then, can we look directly at gods after learning divine arts?”

“When you believe in your god with all your heart, you will gradually get closer to them, understand their power, and get their blessings. Then, you can gradually approach the existence of god.”

Wasn’t this just that after believing for a long time, the person’s whole existence would gradually become like that of a god?

Lucia had a thousand questions she wanted to ask Mystery. She wanted to tell him that she wouldn’t be able to see him for the rest of her life, because she couldn’t believe in him from the bottom of her heart!

…unless, he gave her ten gold coins every day!

It was impossible for her to believe in god. It was impossible for her to believe in god in this life.

There’s no salary, and she would have to spend her time praying… She could barely maintain the facade of belief by treating god as her boss.

Lucia didn’t care whether she could go to the seminary or not, but she felt that everyone else was accepted by a god, and it would be embarrassing if she alone was rejected.

She could only continue looking for Mystery right now!

Lucia carefully looked at the wall again, trying to find Mystery, whose appearance she didn’t know.

Lucia didn’t look at the top positions at all, and looked hard at the bottom of the cliff. After all, Mystery was a bootleg god who didn’t even have a divine domain, so he couldn’t possibly belong at the top positions.

The children went up one by one, and everyone received a response from the god they believed in.

Since this was the first time Razelt was in charge of the assessment, he didn’t think that it was strange. But Louisa who was standing beside him was surprised.

“I didn’t expect that every child would be selected.”

“Is this unusual?”

“It wasn’t like this in previous years.” Louisa said in confusion, “There’s usually some children who doesn’t get selected, and some very excellent children would be favored by more gods. The chances of a god answering everytime and having it be the god they were hoping for is too low.”

“Is that so?” Razelt looked at the murals.

The totems that looked hazy in Lucia’s eyes were very clear in his eyes.

The seven great gods were at the top, dozens of lower gods were below them, and even more subordinate gods and weaker gods were further below.

Each of the gods on this huge mural had their eyes closed and only opened them slightly when they answered the prayers.

When the gods’ eyes opened, the portraits on the mural seemed to come alive, filled with light and color.

Razelt’s eyes were fixed on the god he believed in – Kulatha, the god of wealth and luck.

He was a humanoid creature with the head of a crow. He wore a necklace made of gold coins, and the crown on his head was inlaid with red agate and green turquoise. The hand holding the scepter had six fingers and sharp golden nails. On the scepter was a scale, a legendary artifact that could measure the value of all objects.

“The little girl is going up.” Louisa reminded.

Razelt looked away from the mural of the gods, looked at the tall platform, and found that Lucia was already standing on it.

Instead of kneeling on the ground like other children, she stood upright on the platform, and glanced at the mural below with curious eyes. She had been too far from the edge before and couldn’t see anything.

Soon, Lucia closed her eyes that were as blue as the sky, folded her hands on her chest, and lowered her little head to pray.

When her beautiful eyes were closed, she looked like a sleeping flower, quiet and holy.

“Her aptitude is very good.” Louisa said with admiration, “It’s almost on par with Miss Flora. If she entered the seminary to study, no matter which god she believed in, she would be a candidate for a saintess.”

“Indeed.” Razelt agreed.

Both of them were waiting for a response from the gods. Such and outstanding talent without any background and great potential would be cultivated with great effort, no matter which god’s follower she would be.

But after waiting for a while, they found that the gods in the mural were quiet, and no one responded to Lucia’s prayers.

No response?

This shouldn’t be, right?