While Nimrod was thinking, Lumian completed his advancement as well, becoming a Sequence 8 Provoker.
Since they had traveled between worlds at midnight, it was already quite late here. After Lumian completed his advancement, the two returned to Cordu Village.
For Lumian, that meant returning to his room to sleep; for Nimrod, it meant returning to Sefirah Castle and projecting his Spirit Body into Lumian's dream once more.
Early the next morning, Lumian enthusiastically went around rallying the people he knew, discreetly telling them that a priest from the Central Church would preside over this year's Lent Festival. His pitch was that "God has seen their suffering and intends to perform a miracle during this Lent."
The people in Cordu Village who had already begun believing in the Circle of Inevitability under the Father of the Parish's guidance did not believe him at first. Yet after hearing Lumian's words, they unexpectedly reaped far greater rewards on several outings.
This inevitably stirred all sorts of thoughts in the villagers' minds, and some dangerous rumors even began circulating in the tavern:
The Father of the Parish's claim that "the constellations are about to change, and good fortune will soon come to them" actually referred to a miracle bestowed by the Eternal Blazing Sun. The Father of the Parish, who had always oppressed them, had concealed this fact and made them believe it was a gift from him.
Some of these rumors were Nimrod's handiwork, while others arose as stories grew distorted in the telling. Whatever the case, the Father of the Parish's presence seemed to be rapidly fading from the minds of Cordu Village's people, and the Lent Festival slowly began amid this atmosphere.
Nimrod, however, preferred to call it "public opinion." Considering that this was Lumian's dream, the formation of this