The people from the Fog Horn Fraternity soon left.
"How did it go?" Dorothea moved closer to Vanessa.
"Everything went smoothly. They were fairly friendly overall. I showed them Elsa's wounds, and at least they believe in our strength now." Vanessa smiled in satisfaction. "We agreed to work together to uncover the culprit behind the Family Annihilation Case!"
Indeed, the ability to return from the dead was an extremely direct demonstration of power. That was also why they had chosen Elsa as their leader in the public eye. "I still feel strange about doing this..."
"With the canteen as our base, we have a public identity. Those Machine Priests won't just leave us alone; they'll even offer us protection." Vanessa stepped forward to help as well.
"And we don't even need to go out of our way to recruit people. The canteen comes with its own customers, and everyone who comes here is a worker from the Hearthfire District. They're perfect recruits for our faith!"
With a finger she had conjured, she pointed at the workers eating at the long tables.
A newly arrived worker had just collected his food and sat down. After he had eaten a few mouthfuls, someone came over to join him.
They exchanged a few quiet words, then grew increasingly engrossed in their conversation, neglecting their food even as it went cold.
"See? All we need to do is wait here, and a steady stream of promising believers will come to our door. We just have to send people to preach to them."
Dorothea pressed her lips together, concern showing in her eyes. "Mm, I know growing quickly is a good thing, but is it really all right for us to bring so many people into the faith like this?"
Most of the secret societies