Two days later, in the early morning, on the Dea Plateau.
Two unremarkable carriages moved systematically along the dirt road toward Deya City.
No one spared them a second glance until they reached the gate checkpoint.
“Show your border resident ID!” the inspecting soldiers barked as they questioned the carriages as usual.
Immediately, a man with short, golden-blond hair, dressed in an expensive silk formal suit, stepped out of the first carriage.
He didn’t speak. He simply held out a palm-sized badge and made a shushing gesture, indicating that they should keep quiet.
“A bribe? Heh, you’ve got some nerve, trying it in front of so many people—huh? This is?!” The soldier, who was about to seize the “bribe,” suddenly froze.
The badge the blond man held out was a Church Inspector badge, which granted first-class national clearance within the Sylvia Kingdom!
After a moment of thought, the soldier respectfully handed the badge back and shouted to his subordinates behind him, “Let them through!”
The blond man gave a faint smile and sat back inside the carriage.
The two carriages continued into Deya City in an unremarkable manner, heading straight for the Church of the Goddess of Life…
Ten minutes later, the two carriages stopped in front of the cathedral. The blond man looked through the window at the crowded entrance and whispered, “Action Group, begin the operation. Search for any clues regarding the forces behind the Ninth Saintess mentioned in the tip-off letter. Eve and I will go meet the Ninth Saintess!”
As soon as he finished speaking, five or six people dressed as “commoners” stepped off the second carriage.
Some were dressed as farmers, others as blacksmiths. They scattered like locals who had simply hitched a ride home, drawing no attention at all.
Then, the blond man donned a black robe and stepped out of the carriage.
He was followed by a woman also wrapped in a black robe, though her figure was much more petite.
The two nodded to each other and walked straight into the cathedral.
At the same time, in the very center of the cathedral, beneath the stone statue of the Goddess of Life, the Ninth Saintess, Truth, was conducting her twice-daily prayer.
She stood piously with her hands clasped beneath the statue. The twenty benches behind her were filled with disciples.
Ever since Truth began appearing regularly in the cathedral, the morning prayers had been packed for several days straight, forcing the church to implement crowd control.
“The Saintess has begun her prayer! Everyone, pray quickly!”
“O Mother of all things, embodiment of the source of life, you nourish us with the grace of the spring breeze and rain…”
The disciples followed Truth’s lead and began praying to the Goddess of Life. For a moment, Faith Power flooded in. Only a small portion flowed into Truth’s body, indicating that some disciples respected Truth even more than the Goddess of Life herself.
Even the smallest bit of meat was still food. To bring in more Faith Power, Truth’s prayer became even more “pious.”
“Praise the Goddess, meow. Praise the Goddess, meow. Praise the Goddess, meow. Praise the Goddess, meow. Praise the Goddess, meow. Praise the Goddess, meow…”
Suddenly, a shimmer of light shone upon the eyes of the Goddess’s stone statue, giving the impression that it had come to life and was looking down at Truth. The next second, the Goddess of Life connected to Truth’s consciousness, sounding slightly annoyed.
‘Is this the only sentence you know from beginning to end?’
“Eh?” Truth’s prayer was interrupted by the Goddess’s sudden question.
Four days. It had been four consecutive days! The Goddess had been forced to listen to this little thing meowing for four days straight, and she was bored to death!
As direct subordinates of the Goddess of Life, all Saintesses had the permission to voice-chat directly with her.
Generally, their prayer times and content were not fixed; praying once a week was perfectly fine. The Goddess didn’t care much, as long as they did their jobs.
Thus, some Saintesses reported their work progress once a week, some spoke from the heart about recent good or bad events, and some even sang songs for the Goddess.
Truth was the sole exception. She only meowed.
This made the Goddess want to revoke her private chat permission so that her head wouldn’t be filled with “Praise the Goddess, meow” every morning and afternoon.
However, if she did that, Truth wouldn’t be able to contact her in an emergency.
If she was kidnapped by a Demon one day, the Goddess wouldn’t know in time.
‘Should I scold her?’ the Goddess thought.
But doing so would conflict with her persona of being all-accepting, and it might lower their favorability.
As her direct subordinate, it was better to maintain a good relationship…
After some thought, the Goddess came up with a proper solution and interrupted Truth’s “prayer.”
“Actually, you don’t know any of the prayer verses at all, do you? I can tell that a certain someone hasn’t been studying her Saintess Rituals very seriously.”
“Uh, well…”
Truth turned her head away and rubbed her nose. ‘So the Goddess has been listening to my prayers seriously all these days? This is embarrassing…’
Truth began to wonder if she should rebel on the spot or try to make an excuse.
But before she could decide, the Goddess continued, “Alright, no need to think of an excuse. I don’t mind. If you really don’t want to pray, you can just go through the motions. There’s no need to keep repeating the same sentence. Consider it a small privilege I’m giving you.”
The Goddess decided to let Truth do as she pleased. She had enough Saintesses already; one more or less didn’t matter. Besides, Truth’s existence was only for researching the Ancient Priest Power. In the end, her fate was to be turned into a collectible anyway.
“Really?” Truth was a little surprised. She hadn’t expected this Goddess to be so magnanimous.
“Are you questioning me?”
“No!” Truth shook her head. “I was just so happy that I reflexively confirmed it. Thank you, Goddess. This way, I’ll have more time to think about how to handle things over at Wangsheng City!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
The Goddess was also surprised. Was the reason Truth was being perfunctory with her prayers because she was constantly thinking about her work? ‘She’s quite the hard worker then. It seems she’s a workaholic just like Mary.’
“I have been working very hard to develop Deya City!”
“Then you must continue to work hard… Ah, someone is looking for you.”
As the Goddess spoke with Truth at the cathedral entrance, a man and a woman wrapped in black robes walked past the benches filled with disciples.
They approached Truth, who was standing with her back to them. Then, the Goddess’s divine presence gradually faded.
Truth slowly stood up and turned around. She tilted her head at the two strangers in black robes.
“May I ask if there is something you need?”
“Greetings, Lady Saintess. There are too many eyes and ears here. Please, let us speak in private.” The blond man pulled out his Inspector Badge and bowed slightly as he whispered.
“Very well.” Truth nodded and led the two into the lounge behind the cathedral.
Inside the lounge, before Truth could even speak, the blond man and the woman behind him took off their black robes, revealing their Inspector uniforms. They began to introduce themselves.
“Please do not take offense at our lack of etiquette. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Marius, a Senior Inspector for the Church. This is Eve, my assistant.”
Marius performed a perfect, standard bow toward Truth. Eve did the same.
Her sharp, black, ear-length hair gave her a cold and elegant look.
From beginning to end, her eyes were fixed on Truth, though it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Truth simply covered her mouth. “Oh, so you’re Inspectors?”
“Uh… we showed you our identification badges from the very start,” Marius replied, feeling somewhat confused. ‘What’s going on? I feel like the Ninth Saintess is a bit airheaded.’
Truth really didn’t know what the badge meant.
Even though it had “Senior Inspector” written on it in large letters along with the symbol of the Church of the Goddess of Life.
Unfortunately, the words “Senior Inspector” weren’t written in Chinese.
Marius turned his head to look at his companion, Eve, asking with his eyes for her first impression of the Ninth Saintess. Did she look like someone who would use violence to intimidate others, use power for her own selfish gains, or consort with third-party forces?
After a brief silence, Eve spoke up.
She was visibly emotional as she pointed at Truth and shouted, “Are you kidding me? The Ninth Saintess must have been framed! How could she possibly do such low-life things? She’s clearly so cute! And so airheaded!”
“Eh?” Truth was startled. So was Marius.
“No, what is wrong with you? I told you, looks are not the primary standard for judging a situation. If you keep acting like this, you’ll never become a regular Inspector!”
Indeed, because her three views often followed the “five features” of a person’s face, Eve’s original one-year internship had already been extended to two years, and there were signs it might be extended even further.
“Are you telling me to suspect such a cute Saintess? I’d rather stay an Apprentice Inspector for the rest of my life!”