Eavesdropping

He needed to investigate without triggering any anomalies that might restart the loop early, so Lumian could only consider starting at the fringes of the problem and working his way deeper, one step at a time, as circumstances allowed.

His preliminary plan was to seek out the Parish Priest's mistresses that afternoon and use eavesdropping, leading questions, and other methods to find out what they knew. If that yielded nothing, or he had no opportunity for the time being, he would go to the church to see whether he could meet the Parish Priest and chat with him face-to-face about everyday village affairs.

Lumian's first target was Sybil Berry. She was both the mistress of the Parish Priest, Guillaume Béné, and the sister of the shepherd Pierre Berri. With close ties to both highly suspicious figures, she might know something.

-Lumian's friend Little Guillaume, whose full name was Guillaume Berri, was Pierre Berri's distant cousin. They did not even have the same hair color, and they did not live together.

Sybil Berry was twenty-four and already married. Her husband, Jean Mori, was a middle-aged man approaching forty.

He had been single for over thirty years, and the reason he had managed to marry Sybil Berry was that he had asked for very little in the way of a dowry.

As for Sybil Berry's willingness to marry with so little property, Lumian suspected that she had already become the Parish Priest's mistress by then and needed a husband to act as the father of any illegitimate children she might have. The Parish Priest, meanwhile, had probably made her some private promise.

Although Intis had liberal social customs and illegitimate children were common, many husbands and wives, however angry they were upon finding out, were still willing to keep their spouses' illegitimate children in the household. After all, that meant another unpaid manservant or maid in the future, with no right to a share of the property. But the clergy of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun were forbidden to marry or have children, so they often found convenient fathers for their illegitimate offspring.

Lumian made his way to Jean Mori's home, a low house on the edge of Cordou Village.

The grayish-white building had only one story. The bedroom was behind the kitchen, while the other side connected to the cellar, held wooden storage barrels, and doubled as a living room and dining room.

There was no washroom, only a shed erected behind the house.

Rather than knocking and going inside, Lumian quietly went around to the side of the house and crouched beneath the bedroom window.

Someone was sitting inside. Lumian could hear his breathing and judge how high above the ground he was from it.

Before long, light footsteps traveled from the kitchen to the bedroom.

As a Hunter, Lumian naturally formed an estimate of the walker's weight without needing to calculate it.

It was probably a woman, most likely Sybil Berry.

In Lumian's recollection, Sybil Berry had smooth black hair. Unlike the other married women, she did not like putting it up, preferring to leave it loose or tie it into a ponytail. It made her seem like an unmarried girl.

Her features were not particularly striking, but they were soft, rounded, and fleshy.

At that moment, Jean Mori, who had been sitting silently in the bedroom, spoke in a dull voice. "Did the Parish Priest come by this afternoon?"

His voice was as dull as the man himself. When people chatted beneath the elm tree in the Village Square, he was the sort who only said a word after everyone else had spoken four or five sentences. Together with his often-uncombed black hair, lackluster brown eyes, and poorly shaved beard, it gave him a gloomy appearance.

"He did." Sybil Berry's voice still held a little of a young girl's clarity.

That was simply how she naturally sounded.

Jean Mori fell silent for a while, then asked,

"Did you do that sort of thing?"

"We did," Sybil answered quite openly.

Jean Mori fell silent again. Only when Sybil started back toward the kitchen did he say, "I have nothing to say about the priest, but you need to be wary of other men, especially Pato Russel."

Pato Russel was Madina Benet's husband. His wife was also the Parish Priest's mistress.

Listening beneath the window outside, Lumian inwardly clicked his tongue.

What a tangled mess of relationships!

His estimation of the Parish Priest's lust rose another notch. The man had visited Sybil Berry that afternoon and was meeting Madame Pualis that evening. He was practically a model worker in the field of illicit affairs.

If he had devoted a little more of that energy to church affairs, his cunning and methods would have long since earned him advancement through the clerical orders and made him a Beyonder.

-The clerical orders were the ranks of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun's clergy. The first rank was Doorkeeper, the second Reader, the third Cantor, and the fourth Assistant Liturgist, also called Acolyte. The fifth was Subdeacon, and the sixth Deacon, also called Pastor or Priest. The seventh was Bishop, also called Presbyter or Celebrant in some places, the eighth Archbishop, and the ninth Cardinal. The Pope stood outside the clerical orders.

The sixth rank and above were known as the major orders, which, in Aurora's words, meant they very likely possessed supernatural abilities. The lowest three ranks mainly handled church chores and assisted with rituals. Over the past few centuries, they had become ranks in name only and were no longer considered true clergy. Fourth-rank Assistant Liturgists were usually recent graduates of a theological seminary, while fifth-rank Subdeacons could preside over rural churches on behalf of true Pastors.

Cordou Village followed the same arrangement: a fifth-rank Subdeacon served as Parish Priest, a fourth-rank Assistant Liturgist served as his deputy, and several servants handled miscellaneous tasks.

Guillaume Béné needed only one more promotion to become a true Pastor.

"I know," Sybil Berry replied simply to her husband's warning.

Jean Mori changed the subject.

"Has your brother Pierre come back from moving the flocks?"

"Yes. There's an important ritual coming up that needs his help," Sybil explained casually.

A ritual? Lumian's eyelid twitched.

Jean Mori pressed her. "The Lent Festival celebration?"

"No, a ritual for god," Sybil replied impatiently. "Stop asking. You'll find out when the time comes."

Jean Mori murmured his assent and said, "Praise the Sun!"

Sybil did not respond. She left the bedroom and entered the kitchen.

Lumian immediately reached a conclusion.

Sybil knows something about the Parish Priest and the shepherd Pierre Berri's secret dealings, but her husband, Jean Mori, knows nothing!

The ritual she mentioned isn't the sacrificial ceremony at the Lent Festival. It's very likely connected to Twelfth Night!

Having learned something, Lumian left the Mori family's home and headed for the two-story building where Pato Russel and Madina Benet lived.

Unlike Sybil, Madina Benet had brought her own share of property into her marriage. Pato Russel had also received his rightful share from his family, so they had been able to build a fairly decent house and owned more than twenty sheep entrusted to the shepherds.

Lumian did not know when Madina had become the Parish Priest's mistress. He only knew that over the past year, before the Parish Priest had taken up with Madame Pualis, Madina had been his favorite. Perhaps the taboo surrounding their identities had kindled a particular fire.

At that moment, Pato Russel, who wore a gentleman's mustache in imitation of the Administrator, was pacing in the kitchen. He asked Madina, who was directing the maid's work,

"When are we inviting the Parish Priest over again?"

His face was eager. He hoped to attach himself to the man who held real power in Cordou Village.

Madina glanced at the maid doing the cooking, who was Pato's father's illegitimate daughter, and said in a peculiar tone, "I don't know. It depends on his mood."

And his physical condition, right? Lumian muttered silently from his hiding place outside.

"Haven't you been going to the church to pray a lot lately? You could ask him while you're there." Pato Russel refused to give up.

Going to the church a lot? Lumian frowned.

Are the Parish Priest and his lot plotting their secret affairs in the church?

They really aren't showing the Eternal Blazing Sun or Saint Sies any respect...

After listening a while longer, he left the Russel home and headed for the church at the edge of the Village Square, hoping to speak to the Parish Priest face-to-face.

But when he arrived at the church, the Parish Priest, Guillaume Béné, was already gone. Only the deputy Parish Priest, Michel Garigu, stood before the altar.

He was an outsider from Dalege who had graduated from the Bigos Theological Seminary. The Bishop had sent him to Cordou Village the previous year to serve as Guillaume Béné's deputy. He was usually sidelined and only handled the registration of deaths, marriages, and births.

During the previous loop, Lumian had arrived at the church just as the Parish Priest was leaving. The man had told him to return the next day to pray, giving Michel no opportunity whatsoever to hear believers' prayers or confessions.

Michel was tall, no shorter than Lumian had previously been. Since drinking the Hunter potion, Lumian felt that he had grown another two or three centimeters and was now nearly 1.8 meters tall. Michel was a delicate-featured young man with curly brown hair who still looked a little inexperienced.

Looking at Michel Garigu in his white robe trimmed with gold thread, Lumian spread his arms.

"Praise the Sun!"

After offering the salute, he watched Michel closely, wanting to see how the deputy Parish Priest would react to the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun's ritual greeting.

If he showed any hesitation, Lumian would be able to conclude that the Parish Priest's group had dragged him into their affairs.

Michel Garigu immediately returned the same gesture.

"Praise the Sun!"

He showed no hesitation at all, and his yellowish-brown eyes were full of joy and anticipation.

Judging from what Madina Benet said, the Parish Priest and his group often discuss things here. As the deputy Parish Priest, Michel ought to have noticed something, right? Rather than ask directly, Lumian glanced around and said, "The Parish Priest isn't here?"

"He left some time ago," Michel replied. "Three outsiders came looking for him a quarter of an hour ago, but they couldn't find him either."

The deputy Parish Priest's gaze was eager, as though asking whether Lumian would like to make a confession while he was there.

Considering that the Parish Priest might have circled around and slipped back into the church to wait for Madame Pualis to bring dinner, and could be listening to his conversation with Michel at that very moment, Lumian deliberately sighed.

"Never mind, then. I'll come back tomorrow to pray."

The light instantly faded from Michel's eyes.

Lumian turned and left the church, planning to sneak over to Michel's residence after dark to see whether he could obtain any useful information.

Seeing that the sun was about to sink behind the mountains, he returned home and asked Aurora, who had set out the plates, "Did you find anything?"

Aurora nodded slightly.

"Besides the anomalies you mentioned, I also found something a little suspicious about the deputy Parish Priest, Michel Garigu."

"Huh?" Lumian did not hide his surprise.