Unlike most villages in the south of Intis, Belon Village has grape growing and winemaking as its main industries, with almost no traditional agriculture and animal husbandry. Therefore, what Angel sees are not large tracts of farmland or pasture, but patches of vineyards, and houses scattered among them.
This makes the whole village compact and neat, rather than like a village where traditional crops are grown or sheep and cattle are raised, where you can't see the end at a glance, but you can't see a few people at a glance.
This is a bit like the Shayo Town in the western suburbs of Trier, but it is not as busy as a big city, showing a sense of relaxation where the passage of time has slowed down.
With this vacation-like feeling, Angel and Bernadette set foot on the dirt road leading to the interior of Belon Village.
After walking a few steps, a cart containing wine barrels was pushed past. The creaking sound of the axles was accompanied by a smell of fermented wine mixed with the aroma of oak barrels that rushed to the two of them.
The man pushing the cart had rough skin and dull eyes. He had obviously lost his consciousness due to too much physical work, but when he passed by Angel and Bernadette, he still stared at them closely. He didn't know whether he was obsessed with their disguised faces, or because their clothes were extremely rare in this kind of rural village.
The man waiting for the cart stopped and walked, and finally reluctantly entered a wooden house. Angel whispered:
"Let's go, let's go to the church in Belon Village first and find out the situation from the local Priest."
Before coming, Angel had already obtained basic information about the village from Julian of "Element Dawn", but in order to prevent omissions, it would be safer to go to the local church.
As for the other major church of Intis, the church of Church of the God of Steam and Machinery is often built in cities with factories and schools. Although most villages also have some steam believers, they do not have corresponding churches.
"This is exactly the question I'm curious about... Why is steam, one of the faiths of Intis, only limited to proselytizing in the city, leaving most of its believers to Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun?"
While walking towards the most magnificent building in the village, Angel glanced at Bernadette who was following him and asked.
"There is no public reason. Both major churches seem to be satisfied with this distribution... But I think this should be related to the fact that God of Steam and Machinery ascended to God's Throne too late, and due to the problem of 'Hidden Sage', he seemed to be affected to a certain extent when he became a god."
Bernadette replied.
Hidden Sage, the secret of the "Moses Ascetic Order" faith God, is most likely the True God of "Mystery Pryer" Pathway, or at least Sequence 1 The existence of...Angel recalled the relevant knowledge in his mind and knew that he was adjacent to "Savant" Pathway where God of Steam was located. He was not surprised by the conflict between them.
The most important thing is that Bernadette also chose "Mystery Pryer" Pathway, and this Pathway's Beyonder often hears the nonsense of "Hidden Sage", which contains a lot of knowledge, some of which are useful to Beyonder, and some of which are tantamount to pollution!
According to Ms. "Hermit" who is also Mystery Pryer Pathway in Tarot Club, most of the time, it is not that they chase knowledge and peek into secrets, but that knowledge chases them and secrets target them.
Thinking of this, Angel asked:
"Have you ever been affected by 'Hidden Sage'?"
"It used to be, but now I can't be affected by Him unless I accept it."
The "Clairvoyant" of Sequence 3 replied calmly.
Is it the legacy of Emperor Roselle, or the result of her creation of "Element Dawn"? Is this organization committed to fighting against "Moses Ascetic Order", and even deliberately breaking up with "Hermit" Cattleya and allowing it to infiltrate the other party's internal organization just to fight against the influence of "Hidden Sage"...
Angel nodded thoughtfully and turned to another topic:
"What we have to face this time may be more terrifying than that 'Hidden Sage'. It involves pollution from the 'starry sky'. Once it is contaminated, even God may be helpless."
In order to avoid forming a complete concept of "Great Old One" and "Outer Deity" in Bernadette's heart, Angel could only vaguely remind the other party to prepare herself mentally, or simply stop there and let Angel, as Angel, who can resist the corresponding pollution, continue the operation alone.
But Bernadette still maintained that indifferent expression, even smiled, and then said:
"I know, but this is also an opportunity. Maybe with this operation, I can find more clues about my father.
"I suspect that his madness in later life was related to this contamination. Invisible pollution caused his temperament to change, becoming extreme and extreme. He did many things that harmed innocent people and went against the trend of the times, causing people around him to gradually stay away from him, which ultimately led to bitter consequences.
"I still remember that he once told me with some pride that our future journey lies in the sea of stars and in the endless starry sky.
"At that time, his tone was proud and proud, but his expression felt strange to me."
After hearing this, Angel, no matter how slow he is, can detect some abnormalities.
Roselle's phrase "Sea of Stars" was somewhat familiar to her. Perhaps it had also plagiarized some famous works from previous lives, but she knew very well what was in the "endless starry sky".
"Great Old One" and "Outer Deity", each of them are watching covetously outside the earth's barrier, waiting to invade the planet and take away everything they need.
And Emperor Roselle actually wants to go out on his own initiative?
Combined with the emperor's madness in his later years and the break with Orthodox Church, this is probably not only caused by his being blocked from promotion, but also caused by some kind of pollution from the starry sky... Angel took a deep breath, looked at Bernadette with some worry, and reminded:
"You should know that if you fail to reach Sequence 2, even if some knowledge forms a specific concept in your mind, it will cause bad consequences."
"I know the boundaries."
The princess replied immediately.
That's good, I don't want to watch you turn into a monster and be helpless. Even if I pull you into "City of Calamity", it will just turn one kind of pollution into another... But Roselle actually said about the sea of stars and the endless starry sky. Did he already know that the earth under his feet was at that time?
Angel stopped talking, but his mind was full of thoughts. It was not until the two of them walked to Belon Village's Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun that they stopped all thoughts.
Looking up at the golden-domed church dome with onions on their heads like Trier's "colleagues", Angel was the first to enter Prayer Hall from the main entrance, followed closely by Bernadette.
If Trier or Angel walked into Eternal Blazing Sun's church, they would probably hesitate for a moment. After all, there are probably Guardian Angels there who are always paying attention and can pray to True God to attract Divine Punishment. But in remote villages, there may not even be a Beyonder in the church, so there is no need to worry.
There were many believers in the church during the day, most of them locals in simple clothes, but Angel also saw a few tourists or businessmen who were obviously dressed as coming from the nearby city of Aurmir. They sat on the benches, facing the golden altar and the huge holy emblem above, lowering their heads and enjoying a moment of tranquility.
Standing next to the altar is a middle-aged man wearing a white robe and with short, thick black hair. According to the information of "Element Dawn", this is Priest, Raymond of Belon Village Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun.
Seeing the two people entering Prayer Hall, Priest's eyes lit up, and he took the initiative to come to the door from the altar, stood up straight, and opened his arms as if hugging something:
"Praise the Sun! Welcome to Belon, where the light shines."
This was too enthusiastic. If he hadn't been praising God, I would have thought he was a salesman... He used the "hypocrisy" ring to disguise himself, so that Angel, who was not so outstanding in appearance, imitated the other person and praised "Eternal Blazing Sun". Then he took out a holy emblem that had been prepared and lowered his voice and said:
"Raymond Your Excellency, I am from the Tribunal of Trier, and this lady is the priest of Saint Sefus Church of Aurmir."
Looking at the golden circle representing Sun and the lines symbolizing light on the surface of the Holy Emblem, and feeling the hot atmosphere inside the Holy Emblem, Priest Raymond's smiling expression froze on his face.
"I, I..." he stammered and repeated, "I confess, it was that woman who seduced me, and she made me donate last month..."
What is this and what... Angel muttered silently, and found that many believers who were closer to the door turned to look this way. He simply signaled Priest to come outside the church, put away a fake holy emblem with the "Sun" field Charm embedded inside, and continued in a relaxed tone:
"Ms. Beth and I are not here to investigate corruption here, and as long as you cooperate well, I can pretend that I don't know about these things."
With these words, she used some of her "Instigation" abilities, which immediately softened Raymond's expression. He smiled ingratiatingly and proactively asked:
"What do you need me to do?"
Angel looked at Bernadette, who took out a picture from the wanted order, but omitted the reward amount and other content, and showed Nast Solomon on it to Priest:
"Have you seen this person?"
Raymond did not dare to neglect, took the portrait and looked at it carefully in the west slanting sunlight, and nodded hesitantly after a moment:
"Last month, a foreigner came to Belon. He claimed to be a descendant of a certain villager more than a hundred years ago. He came back here to rebuild Ancestral Home and bury a relative... No relevant information was found in the administrator's information, but he said that he could donate 50,000 Verl D'Or to repair the church, so I made the decision to accept him... His appearance is somewhat similar to the person in this portrait."
A few points is enough, the picture on the wanted poster is not that accurate to begin with...Angel thought about it and asked:
"Is he still in the village now?"
"His Ancestral Home location is in the forest to the west. Some people did live there more than a hundred years ago, but due to inconvenient transportation, they gradually moved to the current village location... He rarely appears after entering the forest. Occasionally, he will hire some young people to help him dig foundations and build walls. The most recent time should be two days ago."
Raymond replied while recalling, pointing to the west side of the village.
Living in seclusion and hiring laborers, Nast is not really building his father's tomb, right?
Angel looked in the direction pointed by Raymond and found a dense forest not far from Belon Village's vineyard, with a faint trail leading deep into it.
While she was observing, Bernadette on the side asked:
"Did anything unusual happen here after he came to the village?"
"Something unusual..." Raymond was stunned for a moment before answering, "This gentleman is very generous. Many young people are unwilling to do farm work after helping him; there always seem to be wild animals wandering outside the village at night, which has not happened in recent years... In addition, the grapevines that have been harvested have begun to grow again, and it is already winter!"
Listening to the other party's somewhat confusing word order, Angel quickly caught one thing that was truly "abnormal":
The vines continue to grow!
According to previous speculation, the pollution on Nast comes from "Mother Goddess of Depravity", and this Outer Deity and Sefirah "Brood Hive" and "Moon" and "Mother" Pathway may have some power to promote plant growth. As a result, after Nast stayed here for a period of time, the nearby grapevines experienced overgrowth problems.
Thinking of this, Angel stopped delaying. She put on a serious expression and said to Priest Raymond:
"We will continue to investigate, and you are not allowed to leak this matter, otherwise your name will be on the Tribunal's list!"
These words made Raymond's face turn pale. He hurriedly nodded in agreement and watched the two ladies leave from the door of the church and go straight to the forest to the west. Their figures quickly disappeared between the vineyards and the low farmhouses. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the Prayer Hall somewhat tiredly. He followed the door behind the altar and returned to his own lounge.
After locking the door, he lifted up the mattress on the bed, opened a hidden compartment below, took out the wooden box inside, poured a stack of gray and blue banknotes and gold coins on the table, counted them carefully, and put them all into his pocket.
Then, Raymond opened the window of the room and looked outside. His eyes stayed on the path leaving the village, and his expression changed again and again.
In the end, he sighed softly, closed the window, sat back on the chair, his whole body went limp, half lying on the table, and muttered something:
"The great Eternal Blazing Sun, Indestructible Light, the incarnation of order... I confess to you..."
His chattering voice became deeper and deeper.
On the glass window behind him, a vague shadow disappeared, and the dark yellow Sun light slanting westward seemed to become a little stronger, shining into the room, making Raymond feel a warmth.
This gave him the illusion that God was personally listening to his prayers. His heart lifted and his prayers became louder:
"Great Eternal Blazing Sun..."
Immediately, Raymond's expression changed.
"Great Mother, your followers have discovered foreign enemies, and they are about to enter the forest..."