A Bold Idea

Abel carefully tucked the green leaf into his uniform pocket.

As if afraid he had missed something, he carefully searched the chapel once more.

Only after confirming there were no other abnormalities did the Night Watchman reluctantly leave the street.

"This power..."

"It doesn't belong to any Aspect of the Church, and I've never encountered this aura before."

"It seems Trino City really has been infiltrated by Beyonders from a heretical faith."

"That person, the swindler, and that Jellyfish must be connected somehow."

Abel simply felt that there were matters he could not make sense of no matter how hard he tried.

"Looks like I'll have to use some measures on that Gais when I get back..."

"By the rules, I also have to report this matter to those above."

The magnificent structure of St. Peter's Cathedral appeared in his mind.

Along with the bishop's face, wearing its gentle smile.

Whenever he saw that face, Abel always felt a physical discomfort.

He exhaled through his nose, and his brow furrowed again.

Abel took another cigarette from his pocket and pulled out the tinderbox tucked against his chest.

Steel scraped across flint, while his worries flickered in and out with the smoke along Trino's streets.

On another street.

The cobblestone road gleamed with a cold white light beneath the moon, speaking of the night's tranquility.

A small, thin figure suddenly darted out from the middle of the road.

Little George was running joyfully down the street.

He had never felt his body so light.

Behind him, a Jellyfish concealing its form frantically waved its tentacles through the air.

Ivan's body stretched and contracted along with the tentacles as he struggled to reach forward.

"Why does flying through the sky feel even more tiring than swimming through water?"

"With mysticism around, does physics just stop existing? Isn't air resistance lower than water resistance?"

He complained weakly, but his movements became faster, as though he did not want Little George to leave him too far behind.

Ten minutes earlier.

When Abel was still one street away from the Small Chapel, Little George had already issued a warning.

"Great Lord, the Spirituality in the air is warning me. That Night Watchman from earlier seems to be heading this way."

He knelt on the ground, his ear fins twitching twice as though he had heard something.

"Could that man mean harm to the great Lord?"

Sensing Little George's thoughts, Ivan silently thought to himself.

What else would it be?

It couldn't be that he remembered he left a Jellyfish here and kindly came back to change its water, could it?

His head hurt. He felt that it would be troublesome if the Night Watchman encountered the scene before him.

"Pay him no heed. Go where you wish to go."

Ivan once again delivered a revelation into Little George's heart.

"Where I wish to go..."

Little George thought of the warm houses along the street, the brightly lit schools of the nobles, and the banks with Roman columns standing before their doors.

He shook his head.

"The Lord's revelation must have another meaning. It definitely isn't those places I was thinking of."

"The Lord wants me to use my power to help more people... Where are there more people who need help?"

Little George seemed to think of something.

He suddenly rose to his feet. The vines beneath him vanished, and the pooled water on the platform scattered down.

"Great Lord, I know where I should go."

"I will carry out Your will and spread the radiance of Your gifts throughout Trino City!"

After saying that, Little George placed a hand over his chest and actually gave a gentleman's bow.

Who knew where he had learned that.

A power of faith, like multiple threads twisted into a rope, flowed from Little George.

Then, without looking back, he ran out through the rear door.

"Hey, hey, where are you going? Why did you stop thinking halfway through?"

There was no time to rejoice over the powerful faith energy.

Ivan followed him out through the rear door, concealing his form in the night sky.

He could feel it.

If the shackles within him had previously been a sheet of paper, requiring only a few strokes of faith energy to break through.

Then the current shackles were like a book, one person's faith alone never enough to fill them.

From the moment he broke through those shackles, Ivan had vaguely held a bold idea in his heart.

"If faith energy keeps growing..."

"Could I, like those so-called gods, eventually ascend to a divine throne?"

"If that happens, I can accept never becoming human..."

"Not enough. One person's faith energy is far too meager for me now."

"Could I only create an organization like the Hidden Cult, like Gais did, to deceive people out of faith energy?"

Ivan shook his head. The faith energy he had gained through deception before—

Compared to that of a true believer like Little George, it did not even have one percent of the effect.

"If that path won't work, then if I want to obtain more faith energy..."

"I can only establish a church, a church that sincerely believes in me."

"Ugh, I'm just a Jellyfish. At most, I can glow a little."

"Not to mention that the Church of Divine Grace seems to hold an absolute monopoly here, and anyone who believes in another existence is treated as a heretic."

"Even without the Church of Divine Grace, it would be extremely difficult to make others form a faith of their own in human society."

As he chased Little George running ahead, he pondered how to establish a faith.

"Why do people believe in gods, exactly?"

"When faith energy was like a wisp of thread, Little George followed the others, nothing more than group identity and psychological comfort."

"When faith energy was like a strand, Little George found that his prayers had been answered by me, satisfying his need for survival and security."

"When faith energy was like a rope, Little George believed that my revelations and gifts had given his life new meaning?"

At that moment, the logic completed its loop.

Ivan understood the connection between faith energy and believers.

He could choose to cultivate more people like Little George and establish a faith that belonged to him.

Little George ran without pause through the streets, heading straight for the southern part of Trino City.

"Tch, why is this kid so fast?"

"It seems a Shaman's abilities can not only communicate with the surrounding natural Spirituality to cast spells, but also enhance the user."

After running for who knew how long, just as Ivan was about to lose feeling in his tentacles.

Little George finally stopped on a street filled with damp, cold air.

At the street corner stood a huge stone building.

Its dark gray walls were covered in moss, and the iron railings atop them were thick with rust.

The streetside was full of vagrants, sprawled out and sleeping in all directions.

Little George carefully stepped over them and walked up to the building.

The building's gates were made of thick iron bars, with several large words hanging above them.

"South York Poorhouse."

Ivan followed his gaze inside.

The grounds contained a rectangular square, with several intersecting buildings in the center dividing the courtyard into separate sections.

"It's not a prison?"

When Ivan first saw the building, the first thing it reminded him of was the prison designs in his memories.

Poorhouse.

The name sounded more like a shelter for vagrants.

Strangely, the streets outside were packed with so many vagrants, yet the inside of the building appeared empty.

Little George gripped the iron bars at the entrance and peered into the Poorhouse.

A furious shout suddenly came from within, followed by a glob of spit that landed by Little George's feet.

"Where did this little bastard come from? You want to come sit in the Poorhouse too?"