novelraw Chapter 288: The Healing Rot Church
Chapter 288: The Healing Rot Church
Fisher's gaze was groggy. At this moment, his eyelids felt as heavy as a thousand catties; no matter how much strength he used, he could only lift them a tiny bit. It was just like the wave of exhaustion that surged up when one was sick with a fever or cold. But unlike ordinary humans feeling unwell due to contracting an illness, he was simply too tired.
His memories at this very moment were somewhat blurred. He merely remembered swimming vigorously forward amidst the maddened storm, lacking even the strength to simply discern the direction. His only companions were the ceaseless exhaustion and the salty taste of the ocean.
In a daze, Fisher opened his eyes, but everything before him was incredibly blurry, rendering him unable to distinguish things. A ringing in his ears exploded like thunder, acting alongside sounding bells recording the time in his surrounding environment to instantly bring him back to his childhood days spent studying in the church school.
He remembered that the church school from his childhood also had such chiming bells. Churches liked to use the heavy chimes of bells to tell time, calling these bells "World Warning Bells." In accordance with the story in the Scripture of Creation where the Mother Goddess banished her children to the mortal realm to undergo hardships, the chime of the bells advised those who heard them to maintain their excellent moral character and not indulge themselves...
Fisher opened his mouth. Everything before his eyes was incredibly blurry; he could only faintly discern a female figure wearing a nun's habit with her back facing him. The surrounding air, carrying the savory aroma of seafood soup, made him feel hungry. But even so, he still felt like he was dreaming.
"Sister Teresa?"
Within Fisher's blurry vision, the back figure of this blonde woman wearing a black nun's habit gradually merged with a certain figure from his memories, causing him to somewhat melancholically and subconsciously call out to the other party.
Remember that Fisher grew up in a church school in Saint-Nazareth when he was young? Inside charity institutions like church schools, there were often church clergy members who came to supervise the work here. They would impart the church's Scripture of Creation to the children growing up in the school, and also teach them some practical life skills.
And the one who left the deepest impression on Fisher's memory among them was a nun from the church. Her name was Teresa.
Although later on when thinking of her, he would always particularly recall her because of her proud bosom as a defining trait, evidently, for Fisher, that nun possessed other more brilliant merits that allowed him to remember this nun—who had only spent a few years with him—until now."Eh?!"
But the person before his eyes seemed startled by Fisher's sudden speech. She took a step back, clutching her chest, before turning her body to look at him. She didn't understand what Fisher was saying at all, because the words Fisher just spoke were in the Naris language.
"You... um, what are you saying? I am Ilos, the nun here. I brought you back to the church after saving you by the seaside. You're fine now..."
The Northern Border language?
That sudden Northern Border language snapped the groggy Fisher back to reality. He suddenly sobered up, then warily glanced at the other party's chest—which, though having taken shape, was vastly inferior to Sister Teresa's—and finally confirmed that he wasn't dreaming right now, but was in reality.
The person before his eyes wasn't Sister Teresa, but another nun... Hm, and a demi-human nun at that?
With a mild headache, Fisher pressed a hand to his head and sat up. He surveyed his surroundings, discovering that this was the exterior of a cleanly swept confessional, which was also the exterior of where ordinary clergy members rested.
Small-scale churches usually didn't have so many complex facilities and structures; they only needed to possess the most fundamental setup of a Mother Goddess church—namely, a Mother Goddess statue, a confessional, and a prayer hall. The church before his eyes was precisely like this. The confessional was both the end of the church and the central hub connecting its various parts.
Opposite the confessional was a small room for nuns and other clergy members to rest. To the side were the stairs leading up to the bell room on the second floor. And directly facing it was a massive Mother Goddess statue. Further forward from the Mother Goddess statue was the prayer hall that occupied the largest area, with rows of long benches neatly arranged inside, serving as a sanctuary to listen to the Mother Goddess's teachings and pray piously.
"Where am I?"
Fisher spoke using the Northern Border language. He felt somewhat confused; he was in the Northern Border, so why would there be a church enshrining the Mother Goddess here? Shouldn't all the shrines here be feather temples worshipping the Frost Phoenix?
"Ah... here, here is within the McDowell fiefdom of the Sardin Woman's Country... Erm, um, the [Healing Rot Church] outside Hearthome Castle's urban area. Oh, you fainted by the seaside earlier, so I brought you back to the church first... So... Ah! And your things! Although I don't know if they're yours, I put them all over there."
She was squatting in front of an iron pot. Stewed together like a hodgepodge inside the pot was a lot of sea shell meat and wild vegetables, with a bit of spice unique to the Northern Border added in. It smelled quite enticing. Fisher looked up at the pair of rabbit ears on her head, only suddenly noticing at this moment a slight little bulge behind the other party's nun's habit, revealing the shape of her rather short rabbit tail.
Fisher grew increasingly hungry.
But upon hearing the term [Healing Rot Church], he finally understood the current situation.
Several centuries ago, when the [Death-Rot Plague] swept across Schwari, a sparse few infected individuals spread the disease into the Sardin Woman's Country at the southernmost tip of the Northern Border, which was the territory of today's McDowell fiefdom. Although the Northern Border was severely cold with sparse gatherings, upon learning that this group of West Continent people had contracted the disease, the locals still restricted their range of movement.
The people of that era were ignorant, lacking the understanding of science we possess today... No, rather, even today after the technological revolution, humanity remained the same. Anyway, at that time, people viewed this epidemic as the Mother Goddess's punishment for her children. During those dark days when they were unable to resolve the epidemic and passively awaited death, churches served as the final place where people placed their hopes.
Historical records documented that during the more than ten years the Death-Rot Plague spread, the speed of church construction increased by dozens of times compared to before the Death-Rot Plague outbreak. A massive number of churches were constructed, entrusted with the people's most straightforward wish—namely, "healing the rot." They hoped their pious voices could obtain the Mother Goddess's solace, halting this ruthless punishment upon her children...
But evidently, this behavior was utterly useless in curing the Death-Rot Plague. Only after the [Tolga's Anti-Rot Agent] burst out of nowhere did this religious fanaticism, which could be called a loss of sanity, slowly grind to a halt.
Now, the massive number of Healing Rot Churches built in the West Continent during that time had either been demolished or had their names changed. Because the churches established during that period were all such small-scale, inferior-quality churches seemingly rushed to completion, it was very difficult to preserve them to this day. Regardless, Fisher had never seen one within the borders of Naris, nor had he heard of any remaining when he previously visited Schwari. Yet he didn't expect to still see an existing Healing Rot Church within the borders of Sardin Woman's Country...
However, Fisher swept a glance around. He only saw the traces of this blonde rabbit demi-human before his eyes, without seeing any other clergy members. He didn't know if they had gone out, or if she was the only nun here.
"I understand. Thank you. A storm at sea caused me to suffer a disaster and fall into the ocean. I didn't expect to safely reach ashore."
"That's truly too dangerous. You're not from the Northern Border?"
The Ilos before his eyes picked up a bowl. She scooped a little seafood soup and shell meat from the pot into the bowl. Then, just squatting in front of Fisher like that, eating her meal while eating melons, she asked Fisher like this.
"..."
Fisher's stomach grew increasingly hungry, his eyes staring straight at the seafood soup in the other party's bowl. After a very, very long time, he still hadn't replied to her words.
That gaze looking forward with great anxiety was caught by the slow-witted Ilos. Her action of chewing the shell meat became slow. After blinking her eyes, only then did she protectively place the bowl in front of her chest and said,
"Wait, wait, wait, I don't have any extra bowls here. There's only the bowl for me alone..."
"I can use yours to eat."
"No... No! Like that... doing that will give me a baby! This is a betrayal of the Mother Goddess. Then I wouldn't be pure anymore... So, you should still tolerate it a little, alright? Wait until this afternoon... Oh, no, the carriage going to Hearthome Castle won't arrive until tomorrow. Then wait until tomorrow when I go to Hearthome Castle to buy you eating utensils, alright?"
A baby?
No, what are you talking about?
Fisher's expression was somewhat complex, because for a moment he actually couldn't distinguish whether she had fabricated an excuse because she didn't want to let him eat, or if she actually truly thought so. He opened his mouth but momentarily couldn't think of any words of rebuttal. He had no choice but to wave his hand and said,
"I'm not hungry... By the way, did you happen to see a book near me? The cover of the book even had an eye and a mouth growing on it, and it looked very ugly."
Fisher extended his two index fingers, roughly gesturing the square outline of the Book Viscount. Ilos, drinking her soup, blinked her eyes and hadn't answered yet. Just recounting her head to look toward the direction of the confessional where his white shirt, walking stick, and hat were resting, they saw that book, which had been lying on the floor vomiting seawater for who knew how long, suddenly float up.
"Fisher?! Where are you?! Wait for me, I'm coming to save you immediately... Eh?"
He shook his head. His enormously agitated expression from just a moment ago turned blank upon seeing Fisher and Ilos before his eyes simultaneously turn to look at him.
Who am I? Where am I? What was I trying to do again?
"Emhart?"
He shook his head. After a book took in far too much water, it would simply end up like this, its mind becoming somewhat unclear. But after a second or two, he still recalled something. Only after confirming he was safe did he finally heave a sigh of relief as if enlightened, and said,
"That's great. I thought the two of us were going to sink as corpses into the ocean. Truly good luck... Wait, I seem to have faintly heard someone cursing me in my groggy state, saying I'm ugly?"
Fisher wordlessly turned his head to look at the seafood soup in the pot in front of Ilos. He was thinking about how to get his hands on utensils to eat a meal; meanwhile, Ilos buried her head in drinking her soup. It had been far too long since she communicated with other people, let alone two people... Oh wait, one person and one book!
Simply far too many things had happened today. How should she put it? She saved an extremely handsome human man along with a book of his. If Sister Charut was still around, she would definitely feel surprised too.
But from the corner of Fisher's eye, he suddenly noticed the innate notches resembling crescent moons on Ilos's pair of rabbit ears. He felt somewhat suspect, yet not daring to ascertain that his luck was actually this good.
It seems that in the sequence of the Snow Mountain Familiars from before, was there a demi-human named the [Moon Rabbit-kin]?