North Shore of Conquest Sea, Adria.
As the sun gradually set, casting the twilight over Adria, the city was bathed in the glow of the evening clouds. Adria Port was bustling at this time, with a crowd of figures gathered at the seaside pier.
Hundreds of figures swarmed near the empty berths along the pier, a sight not commonly seen there at this hour. Among the gathered crowd were journalists desperately trying to push forward, police officers maintaining order, dockworkers watching from a distance, solemn-faced Adria municipal officials and upper-class individuals, and numerous Church personnel in formal attire.
At the very center of the crowd, within a small circle cordoned off by several fully armed knights, stood three figures. One was a middle-aged man wearing a bishop's robe and glasses, the Bishop of the local Church in Adria. Another was a young man in a crisp suit and a polite demeanor, the head of Adria's secret police, the person in charge of the Iweig Deep Concealment Guard in Adria.
These two could be said to be the absolute authorities of the official extraordinary forces in Adria's secret world. In the past, if they attended an event simultaneously, they would undoubtedly be the most important figures. But the situation was different now. Standing between the two of them was a kind-faced elderly man wearing a more luxurious bishop's vestment. The local senior officials of Adria beside him were all solemn, not daring to show the slightest neglect. He was none other than Antonio, the Archbishop who had come from Iweig's capital, Peizi, and was the overall head of the entire Iweig diocese.
Since the Natsuki incident occurred, Antonio had attached great importance to it, even shifting his main work focus onto it. To better coordinate the work on Natsuki's side, he had even personally come to Adria, the mother port of the Church fleet, several days ago and had been handling Natsuki's affairs here until now.
Because of the Natsuki incident, Antonio had been in Adria for nearly ten days. Now, the entire incident was finally nearing its overall conclusion. The pilgrims who had originally been hijacked were about to arrive. Now, Antonio only needed to wait patiently here for the ships to return to port. After personally hosting a welcome banquet for the returnees, this matter would more or less come to an end.
Antonio cast his gaze towards the distance, and with him, almost everyone present looked towards the distant sea horizon. Under everyone's anticipation, the shadows of warships were slowly rising on the horizon. As the fleet continuously approached, the neatly arranged fleet sailing towards them appeared increasingly massive in everyone's eyes. Finally, when the flagship docked at the berth closest to them, everyone looked up at the magnificent and enormous warship.
After the flagship had docked, the gangway was quickly connected to the deck. Then, to the sound of the pre-arranged band playing music, figures descended from the deck one by one. The senior officers of the fleet walked before Antonio amidst applause, performed a solemn salute, and then quickly withdrew. And after the officers had withdrawn.
Everyone's attention focused on the gangway. There, a white-robed Sister with a nervous expression slowly descended, reaching the ground while looking around uneasily. The moment she appeared, the journalists present all their eyes lit up, and they rushed forward, but they were immediately stopped by the police maintaining order at the scene.
With obvious nervousness, the white-robed Sister walked step by step towards Antonio. Looking at the kind old man smiling at her, the white-robed Sister was momentarily unable to express what she wanted to say.
"Uh... Captain... Captain..."
"You must be Sister Vanya, I've finally met you. Nice to meet you, I am Antonio. You've had a difficult journey, thank the Lord for blessing everyone's safe return..." Facing the white-robed Sister before him, Antonio said with a cheerful smile in very fluent prite language. After hearing his words, the white-robed Sister, who had finally reacted, immediately bowed respectfully.
"Ah... it's Archbishop Antonio, I am Sister Vania Chafilun of the Tivian Church. The Lord is above, please forgive my rudeness..."
"Sister Vanya, you are the meritorious minister who enlightened Natsuki, and the protagonist of tonight's banquet. You don't need to be overly constrained by etiquette. Let's go, there are more people waiting at the venue..."
Saying this, Antonio turned and walked out. The two people beside him followed closely, and Vanya immediately followed suit upon seeing this.
...
Time flew by quickly. Soon, the sunset on the horizon had completely faded, and darkness gradually enveloped the entire city. As the lights began to twinkle, the whole of Adria was bathed in the reflected light from both above and below the water surface.
At night, the former Lord's Mansion in Adria was brightly lit. A grand banquet was being held in this official residence that once belonged to Emmanuel.
Inside the hall of the former Lord's Mansion, crystal clear chandeliers illuminated the vast space. Delicious food was laid out on the dining tables, and a choir and orchestra in uniform performed beautiful music together. Upper-class individuals from all walks of life in Adria and representatives of the pilgrims were chatting with each other throughout the hall, and the entire banquet was immersed in an atmosphere of peace and harmony.
The only somewhat discordant place within this peaceful atmosphere was in a corner of the hall, where a group of journalists had gathered, swarming a white figure and cornering her against the wall, relentlessly asking all sorts of questions.
"Sister Vanya, could you please tell us how you enlightened those marginal barbarians?"
"Sister Vanya, we heard that you even actively treated the barbarians who hijacked you at the time, is that true? Where did your courage come from?"
"Sister Vanya, many believers in Adria now believe that it was the Holy Mother's manifestation that allowed you to enlighten the barbarians during the crisis. What do you think of this statement?"
"Uh... I just did what I was supposed to do, it's nothing big..."
...
Countless questions assailed Vanya like a storm. Having never seen such a scene before, Vanya was flustered and overwhelmed in her haste, unsure of how to answer. Only after the staff at the scene drove away the journalists did she finally manage to escape.
After getting away from the journalists, Vanya let out a long sigh of relief. After picking up a cup of juice from the table, she went to a window and began drinking. Just as she was halfway through, a familiar voice sounded from behind her.
"Heh heh, Sister Vanya, how do you feel about the banquet?"
Hearing the voice, Vanya immediately turned around and saw Antonio walking towards her with his unchanging smile. Upon seeing him, Vanya, who was still holding the cup, shuddered. After putting down the cup, she immediately bowed to Antonio and said.
"The Holy Mother is above, Your Grace the Archbishop, I really like the banquet you arranged. The place is beautiful, the music is lovely, the food is delicious, and I got to meet many important people... I've never had such a grand and luxurious banquet in my life... It's just that, such a banquet is still... a bit too extravagant for me..."
"Extravagant? No, no, no? This isn't extravagant at all. For you, who saved hundreds of pilgrims and brought tens of thousands of Natsuki's marginal inhabitants to conversion, this banquet is just a small welcome ceremony from me. Your achievements for the Church are substantial. After you complete your promotion, there will be even more rewards given to you. If just such a banquet makes you feel extravagant, then perhaps you need to properly find your current position, Sister Vanya, you are not just a simple intermediate deacon anymore..."
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With a smile, Antonio said this to Vanya, while Vanya paused slightly. After a hint of unease appeared on her face, she continued to speak.
"Your Grace the Archbishop... I know that the merit of bringing hundreds of thousands of Natsuki's people to conversion is great, but... but I feel a bit strange that this merit has suddenly fallen upon me."
"Strange?" Hearing Vanya's words, Antonio's brows furrowed slightly, while Vanya continued to speak softly.
"Yes, Captain Archbishop, you may not know this, but during the days I was kidnapped, although I did actively treat Natsuki's people and actively tried to preach the Holy Mother's teachings to them, the effect was not very good... Very few of them could understand what I was saying. Although I kept trying to make them understand the truth, the effect was actually minimal.
"Captain Archbishop, Natsuki and the others announcing their formal conversion was actually very sudden. They announced that I had enlightened them when I completely did not expect it... They were clearly very resistant to my words before, but suddenly they all listened to me... This makes me feel like there might be something..."
With a hesitant tone, Vanya recounted the "truth" she had seen and heard on Xia Shu Island to Antonio. Before Vanya could even finish explaining the truth she knew, Antonio spoke with a serious expression.
"Sister Vanya, you are worrying too much..."
"Eh... I'm worrying too much?"
"Yes, you are worrying too much, Sister Vanya. Regarding Natsuki's matter, you don't need to worry too much, and don't doubt yourself. You are the one who rescued the entire pilgrim fleet and caused the hundreds of thousands of marginal people of Natsuki to convert. You enlightened Natsuki, there is no doubt about this. No one can question this, not even yourself... Do you understand?"
With meaningful words and a serious expression, Antonio spoke to Vanya like this, his tone exuding a certain dangerous aura. Seeing Antonio's appearance, Vanya swallowed nervously, then wanted to say something but hesitated. After hesitating for a long time, she finally spoke.
"I understand, Captain Archbishop. I am the one who made Natsuki convert... I will no longer be confused..."
"Hehe... It's good that you know... It's good that you know... Holy Mother above, Sister Vanya, I have seen the sincerity and kindness in your heart..."
With a mysterious smile, Antonio said to Vanya. He knew very well what role this young Sister in front of him played in the situation concerning Natsuki. In Antonio's eyes, although Vanya was important, she was completely kept in the dark and knew nothing about the overall truth, so it was understandable that she was a bit naive. Antonio did not intend to tell Vanya the "truth" of the matter. In his opinion, for her, a young Sister involved in such deep conspiracies concerning the Ebergrass Church, the less she knew, the better.
In Antonio's eyes, after learning that the credit for Natsuki's conversion was entirely hers, this Sister Vanya was not overwhelmed by the sudden great achievement. Instead, she discovered the strangeness in it and spoke out directly, even though this might affect her great achievement. This also showed Sister Vanya's upright character, unmoved by fame or fortune. Antonio couldn't help but feel comforted by such an upright and kind young Sister with a clear self-awareness.
Regardless of the truth about Natsuki, Sister Vanya is at least a worthy servant of the Holy Mother in terms of character..."
Antonio sighed in his heart, and just as he was about to bid farewell to Vanya and leave, Vanya suddenly spoke in a whisper.
"Oh, there's one more thing, Captain Archbishop. Actually, I have a letter here from Anman, the elder of Natsuki. He secretly entrusted it to me when I left, saying that he wanted me to personally hand it over to the Archbishop of Peizi."
"Well, it's a letter written in their Natsuki script, which I can't read. Elder Anman there instructed me that it must be handed over by me personally. At first, I was worried about how I would meet you, but I didn't expect you to pick us up directly in Adria..."
As she spoke, Vanya took out a rolled piece of rough paper from her person and handed it to Antonio. Antonio's eyebrows furrowed slightly upon seeing it, and then he immediately used his ability to confirm the extraordinary traces on the paper. After confirming that there were no problems, Antonio picked up the roll of paper and began to unfold and read it.
Just as Vanya said, the paper was entirely written in Natsuki script. However, because Antonio had dealt with Natsuki quite a bit, he also recognized Natsuki script, so reading it was not difficult. In a short while, he had finished reading all the contents on the paper.
The content of this letter was very simple. It said that Natsuki was trying to establish a secret contact method with the Church.
According to what was written in this letter, Natsuki was currently trying to clean out and eliminate the Ebergrass Church's spies. During this cleaning process, Anman discovered that their original secret contact line with the Net Flow Church in Peizi might have been exposed to the Ebergrass Church. Therefore, Anman expressed the desire to change to a new line and re-establish a secret contact with the Net Flow Church.
Anman claimed in this letter that, due to concerns about the Ebergrass Church's strong infiltration capabilities, he did not trust ordinary Church personnel, and therefore entrusted the most trusted Sister Vanya to deliver this letter on his behalf.
The letter recorded a telegram address and a string of codes. As long as this code was sent via telegram to this address between 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM every day, they would be able to get in touch with the new secret telegram station prepared by Natsuki. Currently, Natsuki had a batch of intelligence about the Ebergrass Church obtained from spies, which needed to be quickly conveyed to the Net Flow Church through a safe channel. Therefore, they hoped that the Net Flow Church would also send the code as soon as possible, and since the old secret contact method had been exposed, they would temporarily no longer use it.
'To guard against the Ebergrass Church, Natsuki is preparing to establish a new secret contact channel? This makes sense for Natsuki, which has just been infiltrated by the Ebergrass. However, this contact method is a bit strict, after 12:00 PM until 5:00 PM... sending the code to the designated telegram address... But I have to go back to Peizi early tomorrow morning, and there are no telegram stations along the way... There's nowhere to send a telegram...'
Looking at the paper in his hand, Antonio thought to himself. Anman in the letter said that he had some intelligence about the Ebergrass Church to send over. Antonio naturally wanted to understand this intelligence in time, but if he followed his original plan and set off directly tomorrow morning, there would be no telegram stations for a long time along the way, and thus no way to receive the information from there.
After reading the letter in front of him, Antonio did not make a decision immediately. Instead, he walked out of the venue and notified the accompanying personnel to send a message to the telegram address that Natsuki had previously used to contact them, and as expected, he did not receive any reply. Therefore, Antonio confirmed that what the letter said was true, and Natsuki was trying to establish a new secret contact channel with them.
After confirming this point, Antonio immediately made another decision, which was to temporarily postpone tomorrow's itinerary. He would wait until he had contacted Natsuki and obtained the Ebergrass Church's intelligence before setting off back. Anyway, for Antonio, this was only a matter of waiting a few more hours, and Antonio was not in a hurry.
Similarly, because this matter itself involved deep secrets, Antonio did not announce the change in his itinerary at the banquet. Very few people in the entire Adria knew about his sudden change in plans.
...
In the dark of Adria, while the banquet was still ongoing at the old lord's mansion, in another waterside restaurant, Dorothy was sitting in a private room, writing on a small piece of paper before a table laden with food.
Across from Dorothy, a female university student wearing a white dress, with slightly darker skin and a proud figure, was sitting there, flipping through a small booklet with a strange expression. Upon closer inspection, it was the guide booklet for the Net Flow Church.
Neffnis, who had also come to Adria, looked at the brief map in the guide booklet, and then looked at the Church museum in the distant square outside the window, illuminated by brilliant lights. The strange look in her eyes deepened.