Without a doubt, Evan was a devout believer in the Holy Light, but he was also an energetic young man. As a clergyman, he maintained an air of solemnity and sanctity in front of others, yet he still experienced repression, anxiety, anticipation, and other troubles or emotions.
At first, Evan had simply hoped that Mulan would come to yearn for the Holy Light, because he could tell that this exceptional young man was not truly a devout believer.
As they talked more and more, Evan discovered that Mulan was even more remarkable than he had imagined. He was witty and learned, and after giving them some thought, he could even suggest answers to many of the theological questions that troubled Evan. They might not solve the problems, but they offered fresh perspectives.
This made Evan increasingly certain that Mulan was born to embrace the Holy Light. Meanwhile, their conversations were no longer limited to those between a priest and a believer. Without realizing it, they had become friends.
Some friends needed a long time together before they proved themselves trustworthy, while others revealed their sincerity after only a brief acquaintance. In Mulan's eyes, Father Good Head was the latter sort.
Mulan wanted to make some new friends in this world, too. Evan, in particular, was a Holy Temple priest who had genuinely perceived the power of the Holy Light, making him an ideal companion for heartfelt conversations or joint research.
Compared with the sincere and straightforward Evan, however, Mulan was a much more calculating fellow. They had not known each other long, but Mulan had tested him in almost every encounter, gradually learning about his past, temperament, and habits.
After fooling around for a while, Mulan and Evan finally called a truce.
In the open space outside the corridor leading to the Holy Temple's inner rooms, Mulan had taken off his coat and rolled up his shirtsleeves. With Mulan on the left and Evan on the right, they each gripped one end of a bedsheet and wrung it out together.
Water pattered out of the twisted sheet. Then they shook it together, tossed it over a drying rail, and spread it out.
Mulan was just about to put his coat back on when Evan went off to fetch a mop and broom, making Mulan's eyebrow twitch.
"You aren't planning to..."
"Yes. Since you're here, things will be much easier for me."
"No, no. I have a ball to attend. It must be getting late, so I need to go."
"It's only the afternoon. There's plenty of time!"
It was the weekend. Although the Holy Temple had no official days off, weekends held no particular religious significance in its scriptures either. Perhaps out of habit, Valentine's Holy Temple tended to be quieter on weekends.
Unlike what Mulan remembered from Earth, although the measures of days, weeks, months, and years were roughly the same, the concept of the weekend did not originate in religion. Instead, it too came from ancient astronomical observations. The moon of this world had a small satellite of its own, and its orbit around the moon and the cycle people could observe had established the seven-day week.
In ancient times, this satellite of a satellite had been called the Hidden Moon and the Wyrd Moon. People regarded it as a second moon. It appeared only occasionally, and its apparent size changed far faster than that of the first, larger moon. This seemed eerie, causing many people to fear it.
The ancient custom of resting on the weekend arose because the Wyrd Moon obscured most of the Radiant Moon on that day. People considered it an ill omen, felt uneasy, and wanted to hide at home.
Only as astronomy gradually developed did some people begin to understand the relationship between the two moons. Even so, in many places, plenty of people still feared the Wyrd Moon.
A quarter of an hour later, Mulan and Evan were cleaning the Holy Temple's main hall, which had not been particularly dirty or untidy to begin with. Besides sweeping and mopping, they had to wipe down every chair. Mulan felt that this work could replace his exercise for the day.
"Say, Evan, how often do you clean this place?"
Evan was wiping down a chair. He raised his head to look at Mulan.
"Every weekend, on the day of rest."
"You do it yourself every time? Have you ever thought about hiring a cleaning woman or something?"
Evan continued wiping the chair, his gaze turning toward the Holy Light statue at the far end of the temple.
"Making the temple spotless with my own hands is a form of spiritual practice, too. Besides, it's only once a week. Back at the Holy Temple Orphanage, going to clean the temple with everyone was something I really enjoyed."
"You were that devout even as a child?"
Mulan rinsed his cloth and wiped down a bench beside Evan. He was just as meticulous as Evan, with no intention of slacking off.
"Hahaha, when I was little, devotion had nothing to do with it. We all got sweets after we finished cleaning. Sometimes we even got a bit of cake!"
Mulan fell silent for a moment, then immediately smiled, looked toward the Holy Light statue, and teased Evan.
"You're admitting inside the temple that you weren't devout as a child. Aren't you afraid God will punish you?"
"God naturally understands my devotion now, so there's no fear in my heart. All right, get back to work. There are still dozens of chairs to wipe down. We don't want you actually missing that ball!"
"Yes, yes, yes. Ah..."
Mulan sighed, seriously considering whether he ought to visit Evan on weekends in the future.
In just two hours, the entire temple was spotless. Mulan still had ample time to make it to the ball, so he was in no hurry to leave. He sat with Evan in the seats closest to the Holy Light statue and chatted.
After rambling about all sorts of trivial things, Mulan suddenly looked at the Holy Light statue and asked a question.
"Why does the temple have a statue of the Holy Light rather than a statue of God?"
Mulan had barely leafed through any of the Holy Temple's scriptures. Whenever he had a question, he simply asked Evan, who naturally knew the answers to such things.
"God is beyond comprehension. He may never reveal himself, or he may take the form of a person, or indeed anything at all. God loves humanity, but he also loves all things. The Holy Light is God's blessing upon humanity, a symbol of his grace. For mortals to presume to know God's form is blasphemy. Thus, we erect statues of the Holy Light, and the places where we preach are Holy Temples."
"I see..."
"Then how does God view wicked people who enslave and oppress the kind and the suffering?"
When Mulan asked this question, he had no intention of challenging God. He cleared his mind, allowing himself to ask out of pure curiosity.
"Good and evil are mortal judgments. God sees us differently. He loves everyone and accepts everyone."
"What about you, then? What would you do?"
"I would primarily try to persuade and guide them."
"And if persuasion doesn't work?"
"People will awaken to their humanity beneath the Holy Light."
"But what if some of them are simply villains who won't listen to reason?"
Evan glanced at Mulan, thought for a moment, and finally answered.
"Then that's a matter for the royal family and the government. The Holy Temple does not intervene in secular affairs."
"What about you? If no one recognized you, and you weren't wearing your priest's robes, what would you do if you saw something vile happening? One more condition: you're the only person around."
Evan kept a straight face and held back for a few seconds before asking in all seriousness.
"Can I cover my face?"
"Uh, sure."
"Beat him up!"
Mulan stared for two seconds, then finally burst out laughing.
"Hahahahaha! You'll never become a bishop, you rascal! Hahahaha..."
Just as Evan was beginning to feel the urge to hit him, Mulan hurriedly rose and regained his composure, declaring that it was getting late and he really had to leave.
Watching Mulan get up and leave, Evan looked at the benches beside him. Whether he or Mulan had wiped them down, they were all spotless. A smile rose unbidden to his face.
The darkness of the world cannot conceal your nobility. May the Holy Light shine upon you, my friend!
PS: Because of the display settings, only one corner of the map in the bonus chapter is visible. You can use the zoom controls in the upper-right corner to see the whole map.