Blessing Ritual

Blessing Ritual. Under the blinding sunlight,

Roy ran along the broad street paved with stone slabs.

Passersby all turned their eyes toward Roy, but he left them only a back full of boundless vitality.

Only after crossing several side streets did he enter the Lower District.

As Roy rushed into the narrow streets of the Lower District, he failed to notice a thin elf hiding in a nearby alley. His hair was greasy, his eyes bloodshot, and he watched the passing pedestrians with alert eyes, looking like a homeless vagrant.

A dagger was tucked between his belt and belly as he stared at Roy's retreating figure.

Only after a while did he retreat into the narrow alley.

Compared to the bustling Upper District, the buildings here were older and the streets much narrower.

Even the drainage ditches on both sides of the streets had become a single channel. In some places, the stone slabs covering the ditches had disappeared entirely, exposing the grime hanging inside.

Especially on rainy days, rainwater gathered in the Upper District rushed down the slopes, washing the foul oily sludge from the Dark Channel all over the streets.

The buildings here were packed tightly together, and clothes of every color hung drying from the roofs of every house.

This was where commoner elves lived, and the environment here was even worse than Brown Street by the harbor.

Brown Street lay on the edge of Castleton City, right next to the harbor docks. At the very least, the buildings there were not packed together like this.

Elves had poor people too, and there were quite a few of them.

Many young elves left their hometowns after graduating from the academy.

Running from Elf Academy to the Goddess of Freedom Temple had taken nearly an hour.

Roy's legs had gone weak from exhaustion, and even the air in his lungs seemed to have turned salty.

When he arrived at the temple entrance, Roy saw that the large iron gates were open and believers were streaming into the courtyard.

Roy followed the crowd into the temple courtyard.

Novice Priest Abbott was standing at the entrance to the Main Hall. When he saw Roy, he quickly said,

"Roy, Priest Reid said that if you came, you should go find him in the Study Room at the back."

"Got it!"

Roy shouted in reply.

After going around a row of cypress trees on the side, Roy entered his resting room.

He opened the wardrobe, took off the sweat-soaked clothes he was wearing and hung them on a hanger. After wiping away some sweat and resting for a while, he changed into his Novice Priest robe.

Then Roy went to the Study Room to see High Priest Reed.

Knock, knock, knock.

Roy stood at the door and knocked. A voice came from inside. "Come in!"

Pushing open the door, he entered the Study Room. High Priest Reed was flipping through a thick book at the round table, where a stack of letters was also placed.

When he saw Roy enter, he nodded to him. "Roy, go help Priest Ocido in the Main Hall first. He may not be able to handle everything by himself. Come find me once you're done over there!"

There was also a strange map laid out before High Priest Reed. Roy glanced at it and saw that over ninety percent of the irregular parchment was blank. Only a small area in the lower-left corner bore simple markings of mountains and rivers, while a red dotted line stood out sharply among those lines.

The book High Priest Reed was reading was also an atlas. Roy could not understand what he was doing.

Roy bowed to High Priest Reed, said, "Understood," and left.

Stepping over the threshold of the Main Hall, Roy discovered that believers of the Goddess of Freedom had packed the entire temple. Everyone sat on the benches with their hands clasped together, devoutly reciting prayers.

The recitation in the hall was astonishingly uniform.

It gave Roy the illusion that he had entered a school and heard the sound of students reading aloud.

Priest Anderson stood on the raised platform with his hands clasped, his expression solemn. With his eyes closed, he devoutly recited the prayer.

The believers below followed him in prayer.

More believers continued to enter from outside, finding empty seats and joining the prayers.

The sound of prayer had a calming effect on the mind, but Roy had not even memorized the simplest line yet.

He could manage if he read from a book, but then he would not be able to recite with his eyes closed.

Roy felt that he needed to spend more time practicing, at least enough to make himself look more professional.

The temple had also formed a choir, but this time Roy saw none of its members and heard no singing.

Rather than taking the central aisle, Roy followed the edge of the hall and quietly made his way toward the room with the Holy Water Pool.

Novice Priest Abbott stood below the platform, closest to Priest Anderson, reciting the prayer along with everyone else.

Roy did not see Jasper.

He had heard that a great deal of Holy Light gathered in the temple during every prayer session. Yet Roy found that only Priest Anderson's body was filled with a dazzling mass of Holy Light, while Novice Priest Abbott had only an extremely faint cluster inside him. The other believers were not bathed in Holy Light at all.

These believers were all praying, but it seemed to have no effect whatsoever...

Priest Ocido was responsible for the Holy Water Pool in the rooms on the west side of the temple. There were also some believers waiting in line in this room.

When Roy entered, he saw Priest Ocido standing alone before a stone platform, upon which sat a deep silver basin filled with clear water.

An elf believer with an ashen face knelt before Priest Ocido. Priest Ocido dipped one hand into the silver basin, then sprinkled the water over the believer's forehead.

When he saw Roy enter from outside, he quickly gestured for him to come help.

Priest Theodore had Roy use a silver ladle to scoop Holy Water from the pool and distribute it to the believers who had completed their baptisms.

There really were some Holy Light Particles floating in the water of the Holy Water Pool.

If one focused carefully, one could see specks of golden light floating on the surface like fish scales.

The water in this Holy Water Pool was clearly well water that Roy and Jasper had drawn from the well yesterday morning. The Holy Light within it was constantly dissipating, so Priest Theodore had to keep blessing it with divine arts.

Standing to one side with a silver ladle, Roy distributed the Holy Water to the believers one scoop at a time.

After completing those rituals, Priest Theodore's face had turned as pale as paper. Only after all the believers had left the temple did he return to his room with unsteady steps to rest.

Seeing the happy looks on the believers' faces as they left carrying their Holy Water, Roy felt that they were even more devout than he was.

After the believers left, the Main Hall and the baptism room were a complete mess.

Roy took out a broom and began cleaning. Before long, Novice Priest Abbott joined him.

"It never used to be this troublesome. The Holy Grail could fill the water with the power of blessings," Abbott said with a sigh.

Roy stopped. He had not expected the stolen Holy Grail to have such a function.

Abbott sighed as he moved the benches aside. "Now it's impossible. All Holy Water that grants blessings has to be blessed personally by Priest Theodore. I just don't know whether the Holy Grail can still be recovered."

"Why does Priest Theodore need to bless the water with divine power?"

Roy could not quite understand.

"Why do you think these elves became believers of the Goddess of Freedom Temple?" Abbott asked Roy. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Of course, it's because the temple's priests can help them heal illnesses, drive away their gloom, and give everyone beautiful hopes."

"The Holy Water is the benefit everyone receives after each gathering and prayer session!"

"Wouldn't drinking Tree of Life Sap be better?" Roy asked.

Abbott cried out indignantly,

"Of course drinking Tree of Life Sap is better! But don't you know that all Trees of Life are controlled by the Moon God Temple? And only Silver Moon Elves can receive Tree of Life Sap here. Other elves don't get that benefit. A cup of diluted Tree of Life Sap sells for five hundred kele on the Black Market."

Roy froze in place. He had never considered the value of Tree of Life Sap.

Ms. Belinda had always brought it back before and casually left it on the dining table. Sometimes Roy even forgot to drink it in time...

Roy thought that if not for raising him and allowing him to live in an environment free from discrimination by other elves, perhaps Belinda could have lived quite comfortably in the Upper District.

Abbott had already changed the subject. Perhaps because he felt Roy was also a Novice Priest, he poured out his grievances to him. "I don't know what exactly is going on. We pray several times longer every day than before, yet the Holy Light Power we receive is not even half of what it used to be. The Goddess seems to be getting farther and farther away from us. Roy, how have you been feeling lately?"

"Me?" Roy was slightly stunned before he said to Abbott,

"I've only just begun to sense Holy Light Power. I still haven't memorized those Holy Prayers..."

"Oh, then you need to work harder."

After saying that, Abbott slightly lifted his chin, and his sense of superiority immediately showed on his face.

Carrying the broom, he turned and walked toward the other side of the hall. He even walked on tiptoe, bouncing upward with every step, as though he had found a source of joy in Roy...

After Roy finished cleaning the Main Hall, he returned to the Study Room to see Priest Reid.

Priest Reid had already put away the mostly blank parchment. Only a geographical atlas remained on the round table. When he saw Roy return, he pointed to the chair across from the table, signaling for him to sit down. Then he began with the same old lecture.

"Mages gather magic power through meditation. We gather Holy Light through prayer."

Priest Reid paused and looked at Roy.

"So whenever you have time, you should pray. Be more diligent, and you will always gain something. Little by little, it adds up!"

Hearing High Priest Reed repeatedly emphasize prayer, Roy asked him, "Teacher, do we pray just to gather Holy Light?"

High Priest Reed immediately covered Roy's mouth and said in a quick, stern tone,

"As clergy of the Goddess of Freedom Temple, you must never think that way. We pray to affirm our faith, and it is the Goddess's response that grants us powerful divine strength."