Vic got out of the car and stood before the church.
It was a very ordinary community church. Strictly speaking, it was a product of the Order God Church's implementation of the "Order Regulations."
After the churches' influence had been pushed out of the secular world on a massive scale, a void in "faith" had emerged. To satisfy their spiritual needs, people had invented new "deities" and spread new stories.
Essentially, this sort of church served much the same purpose as the community hospital, park, or department store. It was a functional building.
Vic did not know why Mr. Alfred had put him in charge of this place. He stood outside for a long time, but apart from its location on Mink Street, relatively close to No. 13, he really could not see anything special about it.
Until he stepped inside.
He froze, because he saw a familiar figure standing there with a watering can, watering the grape arbor in the courtyard.
Without the slightest warning, that person had appeared before him, the person... he had once respected and loved to his very bones, and hated just as deeply.
He had lifted him into the clouds, then left without a word, sending him crashing down.
Had he never seen the view from those heights, the fall would not have felt so great, nor the blow so devastating.
Rasma raised his head, straightened his back, and looked at Vic too.
He had not noticed Vic's arrival beforehand, because he had long since grown accustomed to leaving only a tiny sliver of his consciousness on that third-floor bedroom in the villa. Only when something stirred there would he investigate.
He mocked himself as a dutiful caregiver. The moment that "patient" pulled the bedside bell, he would appear at his summoned post.
The