The Guide of Dawn

Morning sunlight streamed through the wooden window into the attic, outlining two shapes beneath the thin gray-white blanket.

Two heads, one black-haired and one white-haired, poked out from under the covers, lying peacefully asleep on the bed.

Clang, clang, clang...

The bells of Crimson Cathedral struck eight times, reminding the city-state's still-sleeping residents that dawn had arrived and they could safely go out.

Wei En's calm face creased slightly. He opened his bleary eyes. "It's light out."

"Tina gets up."

Hm?

What was that voice?

Wei En turned his head and found himself staring straight into Tina's hollow eyes, so close...

He shot upright and stared at the white-haired girl in shock. "Huh? Tina, why are you— I'm—"

Tina blinked once and calmly sat up, revealing a stretch of pale, clean skin...

"Pfft, cough cough cough..."

Wei En nearly choked on his own saliva at the sight. What the hell was going on? How could she dare not wear anything?

He hurriedly felt himself over, then lowered his head to look.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. At least his clothes were still on...

The white-haired girl indifferently put on a black pleated skirt, her eyes still fixed on Wei En, as if she had no idea how serious this was.

"Tina, you... why are you in my home?"

"Tina missed Wei En."

Seeing that her expression had not changed at all, Wei En scratched his head. He was numb... Should he believe that or not?

"Uh, Tina, your age..."

"Tina is sixteen. Dawn permits partners."

The corner of Wei En's mouth twitched. A m-minor...

Although his current body was eighteen, the soul inside it was twenty-two...

Still, he understood what Tina meant.

According to the Covenant of the Church of Dawn, people in this world counted as adults once they were over sixteen.

But damn it, Tina's appearance made it really hard for him to connect her with the word "adult."

Wei En rubbed his tightly furrowed brow and said in distress, "I remember Lacy telling you yesterday that you're only allowed to follow me during working hours. You..."

"Tina doesn't know."

The white-haired girl said it with full confidence. She had not "heard" the big-chested woman say anything like that, so that meant she did not know.

"All... all right."

Wei En sighed helplessly. Right now, it really seemed like there was nothing he could do about Tina.

Hit her? Leaving aside whether he could beat her, just that frail little body made him unable to bring himself to do it.

Scold her? How was he supposed to scold her?

Aside from blurting out his secret as a wizard of the Specter School when they first met, the white-haired girl had been nothing but polite to him afterward...

At least in words, she was very close to him.

"Uh, Tina, turn around first. I need to change..."

Tina immediately turned around without the slightest hesitation.

That obedience made the expression on Wei En's face even more pained. Too... too obedient...

Before long, Wei En was fully dressed. He tidied his hairstyle in front of the mirror, making himself look a little more ordinary.

He did not wear the Secret Investigation Bureau uniform, nor did he wear the gorgeous outfit issued by the Specter School. Instead, he found a set of his predecessor's slightly oversized clothes and put them on.

Since he was going to Crimson Cathedral, he had to dress in a way that fit a lower-middle-class identity.

That way, he would not draw too much attention.

"Tina, I'm going to carry out a mission in a while. You go to the Secret Investigation Bureau and wait for me first."

"Tina goes together."

"Hm?"

Wei En looked at Tina, who at some point had grabbed his clothes, and shook his head. "No. There's only one Dawn Radiance Potion, so you can't go. And besides..."

"If Lacy finds out, I'm dead."

The white-haired girl looked up at him. "Tina doesn't want Wei En to die."

"So listen to me. After breakfast, wait for me in the office."

"Tina knows."

Seeing her agree, Wei En patted her on the head and smiled. "That's more like it. Keep it up from now on."

That was right?

Tina felt the warmth coming from the top of her head, as if a beam of light had shone into the darkness. Her indifferent expression wavered slightly. "Tina will keep it up."

"Let's go. I'll take you out to eat, and we'll pick up some necessities while we're at it."

As he spoke, Wei En opened the node switches of the defensive rune formation one by one and took Tina out.

"Yo, Wei En, you're up so early..."

Yuan caught sight of the white-haired girl following behind him and froze for a moment. Then an ambiguous expression appeared on his face. "Didn't expect you to find a girlfriend this quickly. You've got a bit of my style from back in the day."

After locking the doors and windows, Wei En raised an eyebrow at him. "Uncle Yuan, I remember you said before that you had lovers on every island in the Kordo Sea. I can't compare to you."

"Haha... that's all in the past. And it wasn't just the Kordo Sea, either. Over here in Shatland, there were also..."

"Also what, Father?" Kali stood behind him, her bright eyes staring at him without blinking, smiling gently and kindly.

"Also quite a few... no, wait, when did I ever say I had lovers?" Yuan's smile stiffened. How could he not realize Wei En had set him up?

Wei En looked at him with a teasing expression. "Just a few days ago. I remember you even told me not to tell Sister Kali..."

"Father, you can actually tell me about things like that," Kali said "obediently." "When I go to the church today, I'll pray to Dawn for you and ask that you find a new lover soon."

"Ahem..." Yuan glared at Wei En and hurriedly changed the subject. "Wei En, why are you dressed like that? Did the Secret Investigation Bureau fire you?"

A man as upright as him had lost his lifelong good name... This was all Wei En's fault. The bastard had repaid kindness with betrayal.

"They didn't."

Wei En smiled shyly, as if those earlier words really had only been casual remarks. "These past few days, I've been praying to Dawn, and it seems I've gained something from it. So I wanted to go with Sister Kali to the church and get tested."

Hearing that, Yuan's eyeballs nearly popped out. "You? Praying to Dawn? What kind of joke is that? You're a wiz—"

But before he could finish, Kali grabbed Wei En's hand in delight. "Really? You've become a believer beneath the great Dawn Radiance too?"

Wei En looked at Kali, who was so close at hand, and unconsciously leaned a little closer. "Really. Under Sister Kali's influence, I finally took this step bravely. It's all thanks to you."

"That's wonderful. I knew it—the radiance of Dawn would shine on you forever, Wei En."

"Uh, this..."

Yuan panicked. Silly daughter, he's a wizard, a wizard of the Specter School! How could he possibly become a believer of Dawn? He's lying to you.

Too sinister. Just to get closer to his family's precious jewel, he was actually pretending to be a believer of Dawn.

Wei En did not care what he was thinking. His eyes lowered to look at Kali's bear—no, at the Covenant in her hand. "Sister Kali, could I borrow this Covenant?"

"This? Of course."

Kali stuffed the Dawn Covenant into his hand and asked, "Wei En, you don't have a guide of Dawn yet, do you?"

"A guide?"

Yesterday, Lacy seemed to have mentioned that when someone entered the church grounds for the first time, the Church of Dawn would arrange for a devout believer to guide new believers like them onto the right path.

"I don't yet..."

"Then I'll be the one to guide you, Wei En."

PS: Thank you very much to the two big-shot readers, 20200623145315289 and Nanke Dumeng, for your tips. Thank you a thousand times.