God Will Favor the Believer!

"God will favor the believer!"

As dusk approached, the young priest finished offering a verbal blessing to the middle-aged couple at the door and turned to leave.

"God will favor the believer!" Hurriedly echoing the sentiment, the couple watched the priest depart before closing the door. They handed the holy bread distributed by the priest to their nephew Adam and daughter Lina, saying, "I'm going to cook dinner; we have salted meat today."

"That's wonderful, Aunt Maggie." Adam smiled brightly. His cheerful expression was undoubtedly infectious, putting others in a good mood.

Watching his aunt and uncle busy themselves, Adam stuffed the holy bread into his mouth, bracing for the burning pain that followed.

I must find a way to leave the Holy Sound Kingdom. Enduring the agony, Adam swallowed the rest of the bread and began to contemplate his situation.

Holy bread was white bread baked by the priests of the Holy Sound Church using flour mixed with holy water. It had no special properties of its own, but because the holy water had been blessed by the priests, it carried a faint trace of holy power.

Therefore, it could purge evil.

Adam happened to be among the "evil" being purged.

Adam's original name was not Adam Boku, nor was it his former alias, Nather Riges; it was a name that felt completely out of place in this world.

Thirteen years have passed since I came to this world without me even realizing it. The thought flashed through Adam's mind.

He had originally been an ordinary person from another world. On his way home from work, he had driven his car into a black hole that appeared out of thin air, only to be reincarnated into this world—a place of divine arts, magic, and otherkind.

Unfortunately, he had been reincarnated as an otherkind creature shunned by most human factions: a werewolf.

So-called otherkind were not actually that different from humans; they were simply distinct in certain aspects, hence the label. Werewolves were one such type.

The biggest difference between werewolves and humans was that most werewolves lost control during the full moon. They would grow sharp fangs and claws, standing like giant wolves, and would usually lose their sanity, becoming bloodthirsty and hunting everything around them.

Fortunately, Adam was among the minority who could control their transformation. Even after shifting, he could suppress his bloodlust and maintain a degree of reason.

This involved the distinction between innate and acquired werewolves.

Innate werewolves were born to werewolf parents, just like humans; these were known as pureblood werewolves. Acquired werewolves, however, could be created through infection, curses, sorcery, and other means.

Adam was a half-pureblood werewolf. His biological father had been a werewolf, and it was precisely because of this that Adam was able to hide in Roa, a border city of the Holy Sound Kingdom. As long as he didn't transform, he was indistinguishable from a human.

The Holy Sound Kingdom was a theocratic nation filled with church priests. For various reasons, every church viewed otherkind as their greatest enemy and maintained specialized squads to hunt them down. Once captured by the Church, otherkind were either burned, hanged, or imprisoned until death.

In short, most met only one end: death.

Therefore, Adam's goal was to cross the Roya Border Wall and head to the Loken Kingdom on the other side, where it was said that the living conditions for otherkind were much better.

Adam had scouted the area; the wilderness of this world was crawling with monsters, making the path between the two countries far more dangerous than simply crossing the border wall.

He was currently staying with the Boku family. Nominally, he was the nephew of the head of the household, Aris Boku, but in reality, they had no blood relation.

The real Adam had died at the hands of bandits. He had been a naive boy who had come to Roa to seek refuge with his uncle after his parents died of illness.

When Adam first met the real Adam, he had learned most of his information without even needing to pry. By the time he saw him a second time, the naive boy was already a corpse in the hands of bandits.

Witnessing this, Adam realized he needed an identity. He avenged the real Adam, disposed of the bodies, and arrived in Roa under the name of Adam.

"Brother Adam." The call made Adam turn around. A seven- or eight-year-old girl came running over, hugged his legs, and looked up at him with sparkling eyes. "Did you finish your holy bread?"

Lina Boku, Aris's daughter and Adam's nominal sister. After half a month of living together, she had come to trust him implicitly.

"I finished it. I'll be sure to save some for Lina next time, okay?" Adam smiled and ruffled her hair, messing it up before tying it back into braids for her.

He didn't like eating the tasteless holy bread that caused him pain, but he had to maintain the impression of being "normal" to avoid exposure.

Watching Lina happily dash into her mother's arms to ask if her braids looked pretty, Adam turned away, walked to the second floor, and looked out the window at the dusk scenery of the border city.

I have to leave soon...

Early the next morning, Adam went out to sell the Boku family's homemade pickle pies and greeted the surrounding neighbors.

The neighbors had grown familiar with Adam, calling out his name with smiles.

Half a month ago, this nephew of the Boku family had come to seek refuge after his parents died of illness, his face swollen from a hornet sting on the way. Now that the swelling had gone down, he was quite a handsome young man.

As Adam sold the pickle pies, he gathered information. It seemed his disguise was adequate. He didn't look like the real Adam, and although Aris hadn't seen his nephew in years, he still had some impressions. If he had suddenly seen a complete stranger, he likely would have been suspicious.

That was why Adam had deliberately kept his face swollen. Over the past half-month, as his face gradually thinned and his features became clear, he had built up enough familiarity that Aris never harbored a shred of doubt.

While hawking his wares along the street, he began to scout, casting a glance toward a distant mansion. That was his target.

The Holy Sound Kingdom and the Loken Kingdom were currently in a state of hostility and had closed their borders. It was difficult for ordinary people to even get close, let alone cross the Roya Border Wall. To do so, one had to leverage the power of the nobility, as most border nobles were involved in smuggling.

Generally speaking, it was nearly impossible for a commoner to get involved in a noble's smuggling business, even with years or decades of effort. Their servants were usually hereditary, serving the nobility for generations to earn their trust.

An outsider, no matter how they proved themselves, could never gain that trust.

However, there was an opportunity now.

Those bandits were backed by this Baron Mansla. Adam recalled the information he had extracted from the bandits. After memorizing the layout of the area, he called out his wares for a while longer before leaving.

He still needed to make many preparations; otherwise, both the nobles and the Church in the city had the means to deal with an underage werewolf like him.

When he returned to the Boku house, Aris and Maggie had not yet returned.

The Boku family was not wealthy, barely managing to make ends meet, especially since Adam's arrival.

It's time. Adam patted the head of Lina, who had run over at the sound of his arrival. He calculated his next moves. Previously, to avoid suspicion, he couldn't act too capable, so he had spoken little and done much.

Now that they were growing closer, Adam felt he could act more appropriately. He could help the Boku family become slightly more prosperous without exposing himself, ensuring he wouldn't be a burden.

Bringing out knowledge from another world is too abrupt. Besides, the worlds are completely different; some things are entirely incompatible, and that knowledge might not even be useful.

"Even if it's useful, if it's too far ahead of this era, I might just be accused of demonic possession and sent straight to the stake. Or, if it involves someone's interests, I could be branded a lowly thief who stole a noble's secrets." Adam knew the character of the Church and the common folk of this era all too well.

His gaze swept across his modest home, and Adam spotted a book with an illustration on its cover.

"Perhaps I could try becoming a painter."

Being a painter was a decent path in this world, especially if one worked on religious commissions, a field Adam happened to be quite familiar with.