Tivian during the day, the Church District under the gloomy sky, the steady bell tolls slowly rippled, the chanting of scriptures lingered long, and citizens coming and going for prayer walked across the wide Church square. The massive Saint Chant Church sat there as always, its sharp spire pointing directly towards Tivian's gray sky.
Somewhere in the Church District, in a spacious office decorated with many plate armors and weapons, Sister Vanya, wearing a white nun's habit, was currently sitting on a high-backed chair at a large desk, seriously browsing and reviewing the documents piled on the desktop. On both sides of her, two not-so-thin stacks of documents had accumulated.
Vanya wrote quickly on the pages of the documents with rapid strokes. Just then, there was a light knock on the office door. After hearing the sound, Vanya paused slightly, then looked towards the room's door.
"Please come in."
After Vanya spoke softly, the office door opened, and then an elderly-looking Sister slowly walked into the office, then walked towards the desk inside the room and placed a document on it.
"Captain Vanya, this is the procurement list for Enchante Hospital's large-scale medical equipment this time. Please take a look." The old Sister said respectfully to Vanya before her. After seeing this, Vanya immediately put down her pen, stood up, and spoke.
"There's no need for such formalities, Sister Anlei. This position of Archbishop, I am only temporarily acting in it for a short while. I haven't truly taken this position. Like you, I am just an ordinary servant of the Lord, a regular Sister."
Facing the old Sister before her, Vanya also responded with a very humble posture. Sister Anlei, facing Vanya in this manner, also smiled and nodded, then continued to speak.
"Captain Vanya, you are too modest. Even an acting Archbishop is still an Archbishop. Your appointment was directly issued by the Holy Mountain; there are no issues at all. For the current Saint Chant Church, this is a special period. How to get through this period smoothly still requires relying on you, Captain Vanya..."
"Sister Anlei, you overstate it. Although I am temporarily in the position of Archbishop, my main responsibility is only to oversee the hierarchy, to prevent cultists from taking advantage during this period. As for the specific duties of an Archbishop... I don't know much, so I don't want to issue orders casually. After all, my previous position was just a Sister in the Historical Scripture Department. Even after serving as the Holy Relic Custodian, I was only doing educational work and have no experience with administrative affairs..."
Vanya continued to speak so humbly. Listening to her words, Sister Anlei slowly took two steps, looked at the documents piled on the desk, and after seeing the text on them, continued to speak.
"Captain Vanya, you are too modest. After you took office, you only familiarized yourself for a few days, but you already started handling many things properly. The speed at which you review these documents is also getting faster and faster, and many matters are handled quickly, precisely, and just right, especially the work related to financial auditing, which has amazed even some professional deacons. Lately, for some time, everyone has often seen you working late into the night. Your efforts and talent are seen by many in the Church."
"Not at all... I am just doing my best. After all, some matters within the diocese require the Archbishop to make decisions. I cannot keep delaying them. I can only make my own decisions after trying my best to understand the situation."
"Sister Anlei, don't look at how many documents I process... In fact, many of them don't have direct decisions made. I just write down my opinions and put them aside for now, planning to consult with other relevant deacons later before making a judgment. For matters in this area, I still need to rely heavily on you experienced deacons..." Vanya continued to respond in this manner, and Anlei also slowly began to speak.
"Your cautiousness and prudence in this job are reassuring. During the time Captain Francesco has been away, the Tivian Church has been able to operate smoothly, largely thanks to your efforts, Captain. Although this is your first time dealing with administrative matters, your recent performance has been very good. You indeed have a lot of talent in this area."
"Whether it is your affinity and appearance when preaching to the faithful, your administrative and learning abilities in handling public affairs, or most importantly, your piety and faith in the Lord, Captain Vanya, you have achieved near perfection. It is truly an honor for the Tivian Church to produce such a talent as you. Many old deacons in Saint Chant Church, including myself, can foresee that your future in the saint church is boundless."
Sister Anlei said this to Vanya. Listening to her words, Vanya was momentarily unsure how to respond humbly, so she continued to speak.
"Uh... these are just the Lord's blessings..."
Vanya began a small, devout prayer. In fact, the virtues Sister Anlei had just praised about her were not entirely wrong. As for Vanya herself, her excellent affinity and appearance towards the faithful were indeed her own good qualities, while her superb administrative and learning abilities were thanks to Dorothy.
Dorothy used information channels to make herself the host and Vanya the port, sharing her immensely powerful computing and memory capabilities with Vanya. Relying on the superhuman information processing ability of a high-level ""enlightenment"" Extraordinary, Vanya was easily able to handle the Archbishop's administrative work she was originally unfamiliar with and achieve astonishing results.
In fact, if Vanya fully utilized Dorothy's information processing ability and casually controlled a few Corpse Puppets to assist with communication, she could handle all the administrative work of the entire Tivian Church by herself. This would put hundreds, nearly a thousand administrative staff members out of work, sending them all to the grassroots execution end to do things, turning the Tivian Church into a one-person Church by becoming a central administrative computer herself, and the efficiency could be countless times higher than the previous religious bureaucracy. However, for now, Vanya doesn't need that level of information processing ability; she only needs a little help from Dorothy to handle the Archbishop's affairs well.
As for the last virtue of Vanya that Anlei praised, her extremely high piety and faith... that's a matter where benevolent people see benevolence and wise people see wisdom. At least for Vanya herself, she has never betrayed the Holy Mother's doctrines, so saying she is devout doesn't seem to be a problem.
Afterward, Vanya continued to have a brief exchange with Anlei, and then Anlei withdrew from the Archbishop's office on her own. Seeing Anlei leave, Vanya immediately sat back down in her chair and let out a slight sigh of relief.
Just as Vanya had not been sitting for long, the Archbishop's office door suddenly knocked again. Vanya paused slightly and spoke again.
"Please come in."
Responding to Vanya's words, the office door was opened again. Then, no one immediately walked out from the opened door. Instead, after waiting for a while, a Sister cautiously peeked out from behind the door. When Vanya saw the person's appearance, her eyes lit up.
"Isn't this Aurora? Is something the matter?" Looking at the Sister who appeared before her, Vanya spoke directly. She knew the Sister who had come; it was indeed her colleague from the Historical Scripture Department.
"Ah, this... Captain! This is the archival overview summary for this quarter from the Historical Scripture Department, presented for your review, Captain Archbishop, according to custom!" Saying this with a clearly very nervous tone, the Sister named Aurora quickly jogged to Vanya's desk with a document, then placed the document on the desktop. After seeing it, Vanya thought for a moment and spoke.
"Ah... yes, the Historical Scripture Department... it's about time for the quarterly archival summary. I used to be very busy around this time... I miss it a little..." Vanya said this. Although she is also very busy now, she is busy with different things.
"But then again, shouldn't the quarterly archiving overview be submitted by the head of the Historical Scripture Department in person? Why are you here, Aurora?" At this moment, Vanya remembered something and said to her colleague in front of her. Aurora, who was already standing uneasily, was slightly startled after hearing Vanya's words, and then immediately explained.
"Ah... Captain, you mean Clergyman Robert? He took people to Glamorgan for ruin surveys and hasn't returned yet. So after everyone finished the summary, they were worried about who should submit it, because no one was qualified and no one dared to go. Finally, everyone decided to draw lots, and in the end... well, I was drawn..." Scratching her head, Aurora said with some distress. Vanya, after hearing her words, spoke with a slight chuckle.
"What's there to be afraid of? Aren't we all colleagues?"
"Uh... that was before, now Captain..."
"It's the same now. Everyone is a servant of the Lord, just with different positions. Besides, my current position is only temporary, there's no need to be so reserved. Come, relax a bit, maybe we can talk more..." Vanya said with a smile to the Sister in front of her, who was almost the same age. However, the other party did not seem to relax much and kept talking to Vanya in a tense state, not daring to say much herself, only answering when Vanya asked a question.
Looking at this familiar yet unfamiliar colleague from the Historical Scripture Department, Vanya sighed slightly in her heart, and then did not continue to force the conversation. After giving a couple of instructions, she let the other party leave. Watching Aurora jog out of the office and close the door, Vanya sat back down in her chair.
Afterward, she looked at the scenery outside the window. Vanya looked through the window at the wide square in front of Saint Chant Church, watching the groups and groups of young Sisters around her age, walking with light steps, laughing and talking as they moved forward. She couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion in her heart.
Vanya thought about it carefully. More than a year ago, she was almost no different from those Sisters. At most, she was just a junior deacon, and there wasn't much of a gap between her and ordinary Sisters. She also worked, prayed, and slept with them every day.
Once upon a time, Vanya and her Sister colleagues were respectful to their intermediate deacon superiors of Black Earth level. When they encountered senior deacons of Chalk level and ordinary Bishops who came to handle matters from other places, they didn't even dare to say a word to them. As for Archbishop Francesco, the highest-ranking person in the entire Prit diocese, she could only catch a glimpse of him from afar during major ceremonial events and didn't even have the slightest thought of interacting with him.
And in the blink of an eye, it was now. Vanya found that she had actually taken the position of Archbishop, handling the affairs of the entire Prit diocese. Those she once had to look up to were now looking up to her. The status, power, and authority she had never thought of before were all placed upon her, making it difficult for her to adapt for a while.
Looking back, Vanya found that her previous fate was the same as that of thousands upon thousands of ordinary grassroots Church personnel. Although not particularly ordinary, it was unremarkable. What changed all of this was the response to that prayer in the Church cemetery in Igwin County a year ago.
'From that moment on, my fate must have been personally written by the Divine. Where will this fate eventually lead me?'
Sitting on the chair, Vanya thought with some melancholy in her heart. Just at this moment, a familiar voice sounded in her mind.
"Great Aka, who records all things... Please connect me with Sister Vanya...
"Sister Vanya, are you free now?"
Hearing this voice, Vanya was slightly startled, and then immediately sat up straight in her seat, and then also responded in her mind.
"It's Miss Dorothea... What is it? I'm taking a break during work."
"It's like this, some old friends have sent you a letter again." Dorothy said to Vanya. Hearing her words, Vanya was suddenly surprised, and then seemed to remember something and immediately responded.
"Old friends... Do you mean the Wolf Blood Society?"
"Yes, not long ago, I received a letter from the 'White Prayer' account of the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild, as always from that group of wolf cubs." Dorothy's words echoed in Vanya's heart. Then, an image of an unfolded letter appeared before Vanya's eyes. Vanya had a clear view of the contents. After looking at it for a couple of seconds, she frowned.
When dealing with the Werewolf Smith, Dorothy specifically designed it so that the Wolf Blood Society would think there was an insider in the Church who could be developed, known as the White Prayer. For a long time after that, the Wolf Blood Society consistently used the Craftsmen's Guild channel to secretly contact that White Prayer, attempting to corrupt them.
And this White Prayer, of course, referred to Vanya. For a period after Smith, she obtained letters from the Wolf Blood Society through Dorothy and had been communicating with them, even successfully obtaining the ""Cup"" Holy Emblem used for Dorothy's promotion from them. After both Vanya and Dorothy left Tivian, because Dorothy herself also began to rely on her connections in Tivian to obtain letters, her contact with the Wolf Blood Society also decreased. After returning, the other party had not contacted her. This was the first time Vanya received a letter from the Wolf Blood Society since her return.
"Tivian Church turmoil... worried about the unstable general environment... confirming my situation...
"Miss Dorothea! The people from the Wolf Blood Society are trying to get information about the Church's internal affairs through me! They want to confirm the truth of the rumors outside and figure out the reality of the Tivian Church... They are probably going to take action again!"
After finishing reading the letter sent to her, Vanya said to Dorothy in her heart with a serious expression. It was obvious that she could see the intention of this letter at a glance.
"Hmm... You think the same as me. The Wolf Blood Society has been laying the foundation in the Tivian Church for more than just a day or two. They won't miss this opportunity when Francesco is not here..."
Dorothy then responded to Vanya, while Vanya continued to speak seriously.
"Now the Wolf Blood Society has ill intentions towards Saint Chant Church... No matter what, I must never let them succeed. Miss Dorothea, now we must figure out what their specific intentions are? Do I need to use a reply to trick them into talking?"
"Not yet. Setting traps and tricking them in the letter... This is risky. If they are careful enough, they will notice something abnormal. What we need is to reply to them with a normal attitude and reveal a little bit of information to gain trust." Dorothy's voice continued to sound in Vanya's heart. Vanya couldn't help but look puzzled after hearing this.
"Just a normal reply... and include a little bit of information? Is this to gain trust and then better trick them into talking?"
"No, no, no, I said that setting language traps in letters is relatively risky. We don't need to take such risks. With them... just a little bit of normal communication is enough."
"Just... a little bit of normal communication... is enough?"
"Of course, trust me."
Sitting somewhere, Dorothy, with a smile on her face, responded to Vanya through the information channel. At this time, in her hand, she was holding the brand new letter that she had just obtained from the Craftsmen's Guild not long ago.
Even communication through a medium... is still communication. For a Scarlet level Dream Interpreter, even communicating through writing in a letter can deconstruct the other party invisibly and complete a personality profile.