Vivian's Dog

Mubay County, Bagpipe Town.

The Children from the Glass Island church school will be on an annual trip here organized by the school.

After all, there's really not much to do on Glass Island —it's a place where every inch of land is incredibly valuable. The best view is probably the island in the lake where the Silver and Tin Palace is located.

But these Children should be shown the natural scenery outside, so they know that Avalon is not a place with factories that spew thick smoke and make loud noises, or trains that roar on the tracks.

This will also help with the Children's future employment.

The resources of priests on Glass Island are already saturated. Not to mention newly graduated priests and deacons, bishops are plentiful. There are nine churches on Glass Island, each overseen by more than one bishop of Fourth Level or higher.

But in many places, even in a sizable city, there is only one bishop. Most small towns don't even have a bishop, and there's only one priest.

The church has no choice but to use such deceptive tactics to recruit people. After all, the Nine Pillars God Church has a lot of work to do.

We have to send people to all the birth ceremonies, weddings, and funerals in the whole town. Just that alone keeps us incredibly busy... Especially funerals, where a true priest of superhuman level must be present during the burial to prevent the deceased from turning into a ghost.

They also have to lead believers in prayer every day, maintain the statue of the Nine Pillar Gods once a week, listen to confessions and provide psychological therapy, take care of orphans, make holy water, farm in the fields behind the church, and sanctify ritual implements... It would be impossible for just a few superhumans to handle all of this; it would definitely require the assistance of a large number of ordinary people.

On the contrary, their extraordinary work—treating patients that doctors cannot cure, Dispel Undead, and casting curses—occupies only a small fraction of their daily work. In fact, they might not even do it once a day on many days.

Those pastors who graduate directly from the seminary of the Royal Law University and receive their priesthood number less than a hundred a year... which is certainly not enough. So church schools came into being—not universities, but a kind of secondary school.

After graduating from primary school, one can enter a church school, and after completing six years of church school, one is basically an adult.

Then you can do an internship at a church and learn how to become a qualified pastor from the ground up.

The graduates of Royal Law University all graduate at least at the Second Level, and some even reach the Third Level before graduation. They basically intern and train in churches on Glass Island, and after advancing to the level of priest or bishop, they are directly transferred to various regional churches as administrators or bishop candidates.

After their extraordinary level is further improved, they may even have the opportunity to be transferred back to the Theocracy to receive further promotion above bishop. This can be considered a career group, and their life plan is basically aimed at becoming a bishop—if they haven't become a bishop by the age of forty, they will be ridiculed by their classmates.

These students who come from church schools are the majority of clergy in those churches.

Most of them don't even become superhumans until they are thirty years old; they can barely master one Extraordinary Skills, which is their limit.

After they reach adulthood, they will be assigned to various remote towns and villages according to the needs of the church.

They were just teenagers when they graduated. Suddenly leaving their parents and being sent alone to a backward rural area could easily cause them to lose their mental balance.

—After all, their inability to become extraordinary individuals suggests that they lack the talent for the Dedication Path. That implies that they don't actually enjoy acts of dedication... but that's not necessarily true; perhaps they simply lack the foundation and opportunity for "dedication."

This kind of "suffering" experience is actually intended to forcibly stimulate their willingness to dedicate themselves.

If they learn about the meaning of dedication in helping people in impoverished areas, they may have the opportunity to become true superhumans.

But that only works if they actually go.

Therefore, in order to reduce students' resistance, church schools regularly arrange a holiday trip specifically designed to fool the children.

Take the Children on a holiday trip to some of the most scenic resorts.

Let them experience the beauty of nature, and let them realize that "leaving Glass Island is not necessarily a bad thing," and even let them look forward to working in the countryside after graduation. This is to avoid triggering widespread resistance after graduation, so that they don't even want to come.

By the time they graduate and realize that the product doesn't match the description, it's too late to back out—how come this place is so ordinary even though it's the same countryside?

But since I'm already here, why not work for six months first? Maybe I'll become a real pastor after six months.

Even if I leave after six months, a new intern pastor will be transferred over in another six months.

"How pitiful," Vivian thought to herself.

At this moment, the little girl, dressed in a dark blue nun's dress, with silver hair and silver eyes, is smiling and playing with her classmates.

Perhaps it was because she had elven ears, or perhaps it was simply because of her beautiful and lovely appearance. Naturally, a large crowd would gather around her, and she would become the center of attention wherever she went.

"Well then, I'm going to go for a walk by myself!"

Vivian put one hand behind her back and waved the other in front of her, bowing slightly and smiling sweetly, "I'll be back in a bit!"

"Be careful, Vivian!"

"We'll be waiting for you right here!"

Her classmates responded enthusiastically as well.

Vivian hummed a cheerful tune as she skipped along.

But before she had gone far, her steps gradually slowed. She transformed from a naive and adorable little girl into a composed and elegant woman, the carefree smile on her face gradually fading, replaced by a calm.

As she turned a corner, she saw a man with long, damp hair that looked like seaweed standing there silently.

He was tall and thin, and had a gloomy and dangerous aura about him.

He's the kind of person who, if he's holding a pen, people will think he's a poet; if he's holding a paintbrush, people will think he's a painter; if he's singing, people will think he's a wandering singer; but if he's just standing there doing nothing, people will think he's a fugitive.

But Vivian showed no fear whatsoever.

She looked up at the man.

"Did you need something?"

She countered, "I remember giving you your freedom."

"Owner."

Ye Zhi bowed respectfully, his words bordering on humility. "I have finally found you."

You don't need to find me.

Vivian said coldly, "You're no longer my dog."

"I have something to report to you, my master."

I won't listen.

Vivian refused without hesitation.

"Related to Sacred Entity."

"... Never mind, I'll listen."

Vivian changed her tune.