novelraw Chapter 317: Solitude
Chapter 317: Solitude
After entering the church, everyone inside, whether believers or clergy, bowed respectfully to Loren. Loren simply waved his hand, signaling them to skip the formalities.
"Is the Pope in? I need to speak with him."
Loren saved the time it would take to go through multiple layers of communication and went straight to the highest authority in the church.
"His Holiness the Pope is currently studying the Prismatic Void-Gnawing Beast. Please wait a moment; I'll fetch him right away."
The nun bowed to Loren and then ran off to find the Pope. The fruits on the branches extending from her eye sockets swayed wildly as she ran, making Loren feel a bit nauseous.
Luna hid behind Loren, surveying the interior of the church.
She wasn't particularly afraid of the church. Having hidden her nature well since childhood, Luna had never witnessed how the church dealt with witches, but she also rarely visited churches.
Meanwhile, the church staff also noticed Luna. Seeing that Loren had brought her even on a visit to the church, they mentally reassessed Luna's importance to Loren.
Loren and Luna sat down to wait for a while. Loren also took the opportunity to answer some questions for the church's nuns. Before long, Astaros (the new Pope) hurried to stand before Loren.
"Master Mentor, what brings you to me?""I've encountered two assassination attempts, both from followers of the God of Dreams.
"One was during Luna's birthday party, where a Dreamwalker disguised as Luna's classmate tried to kill me. The other was in a dream, though the Dreamwalker in that dream has already been killed by me. His corpse should appear in reality as well; you can search for it.
"Two Dreamwalkers entered the borders of the Gedlan Kingdom. You should understand what that implies."
"I see..."
Astaros grasped Loren's meaning. In the past, if divine envoys from other gods came to the territory of the God of Bountiful Harvest to assassinate Bountiful followers, the Bountiful Church would at most issue a condemnation. That's why criminals from the Church of the God of Vows and Wind didn't dare flee here.
But now, the target was Loren. They had to take some measures.
Loren still held no expectations for them. The church had two possible courses of action: either send someone to demand an explanation from the followers of the God of Dreams, or give Loren sufficient compensation to placate him.
Based on Loren's understanding of these useless individuals in the Bountiful Church, they would most likely choose the latter.
"Alright, that's all I have to say. You all know what to do."
Loren had nothing more to say about the Bountiful Church's approach. For the God of Bountiful Harvest, this was indeed the choice with the highest benefit.
After all, the God of Bountiful Harvest's territory was rich in resources; losing a little was no big deal. Moreover, Bountiful followers reproduced quickly. Combined with the monstrous trees created during the Bountiful Harvest Festival, their numbers would only keep increasing, thereby continuously strengthening the God of Bountiful Harvest's power.
Once the God of Bountiful Harvest's power was sufficient, it could then eliminate other gods in the Divine War.
This was the optimal solution for the God of Bountiful Harvest, but not for its followers.
"Wait, Master Mentor!"
As Loren was about to leave, Astaros called out to him.
"What else?"
Seeing the Pope acting so subserviently to Loren, the assembled clergy in the church were already used to it.
"I wanted to ask about the Prismatic Void-Gnawing Beast..."
"Are you asking for a method to completely eradicate the Prismatic Void-Gnawing Beast, or about the feasibility of using it to deal with other churches?"
Loren saw right through Astaros's thoughts and stated it bluntly.
"The latter..."
Having his little scheme seen through, Astaros felt a bit embarrassed, his old face unable to hide it.
"I advise against it. Protecting the environment is very important. If the environment is damaged beyond a certain point, something terrible will happen."
Loren didn't specify what that something was. The fewer people who knew about a high-risk anomaly like the Child of Nature, the better.
Leaving aside things like memetic contamination, just the ideas of certain madmen were dangerous enough.
If Noah learned of the Child of Nature's existence today, he'd be at the seashore discharging nuclear wastewater tomorrow.
Due to the Orthodox Gods stealing authority and the Outer Gods watching covetously, this world was actually quite fragile. Summoning the Child of Nature would also be much easier here, at least compared to the world Loren lived in during his previous life.
"Understood..."
Astaros nodded. He listened to Loren well, after all, he just wanted to help the Bountiful Church secure benefits.
...
On the way back, Luna kept thinking about how to start a conversation with Loren. From the time they left until now, she hadn't spoken much with him. She felt this trip had been a waste.
"Master Mentor..."
Finally, Luna mustered the courage to call out to Loren, but unfortunately, nothing followed.
"What is it?"
Loren turned to look at Luna. She was still as timid as before. After a long silence, she finally spoke:
"I want to know about your past experiences."
"This..."
This was the first time anyone had asked Loren such a question. He thought for a moment before answering:
"There's not much to say about my past experiences. Right after I arrived in the Gedlan Kingdom, I found Anna and Naclis. My circumstances weren't great back then; I took the two children to perform on the streets every day..."
Recalling that period, Loren thought it would have been nice to have an erhu back then.
Loren was very weak at that time, and he couldn't expose his knowledge, so he could only work as a village teacher. Life only improved a bit after he met Cecelia.
That kind of life continued until he wrote the Hymn, after which his status skyrocketed.
Loren originally intended to tell this story to Luna, but Luna shook her head:
"I want to know about your story before you met Anna and the others."
Anna and Naclis occupied a significant part of Loren's story, so when Luna listened, she always felt she had arrived too late.
"This..."
Regarding the story from even earlier, Loren truly didn't know how to tell Luna about it.
Telling Luna about transmigration wouldn't really matter. After all, the witches were the people Loren trusted most; they wouldn't spill these secrets. It's just that these things could shatter their worldview, which wasn't a good thing either.
So Loren could only slightly alter the story. For example, he used to live in seclusion in the mountains, keeping company with the small animals there, until someone set the mountain on fire.
This also fit Loren's persona. For someone like him to appear suddenly, the only possibility was that he had been in seclusion before.
Loren's appearance had always been a point of doubt, but his status was too high for anyone to dare question it.
Now, even if Loren said he was sent down by the God of Bountiful Harvest to save all living beings, they would have to believe him.
These stories were quite ordinary, but Luna listened with rapt attention.
"Did you ever tell Naclis and the others about these things before?"
"Actually, no."
These experiences weren't particularly meaningful, and since no one asked, Loren couldn't be bothered to mention them.
A happy smile appeared on Luna's face. Now, she was special too.