Chapter 138
Chapter 138: A Turn of Events
***
Am I seeing things?
Standing among the crowd not far away, it really did seem to be that big, dopey kid who tried to rob me back in Sylgaria.
I remember he had a younger brother and three little sisters... Carlos had someone send them all to the orphanage afterward, but that was the orphanage in Sylgaria.
Were they also chosen and sent here?
What a coincidence...
"Ah! Big sister, do you know him?" Elle said with a surprised smile, waving toward Abel. "Abel! Come over here, big sister is saying hi to you."
Hmm? Abel?
Wasn't his name Brother Abel...
Abel seemed to hesitate, standing frozen for a moment, before slowly walking over.
"Hi..."
He lowered his head to greet me, and from the look of it... it seemed like he didn't remember me?
Well, fair enough. It had been so long ago, and if I hadn't suddenly seen him here, I probably would have forgotten all about him too.
"Do you still remember me? Back in Sylgaria, you and—"
"I remember." Abel said, his voice low and flat. "I'm sorry."
"Uh..." That actually caught me off guard.
He did remember me... did he think I'd still hold a grudge over all that old stuff?
I even gave you guys food.
"Just don't ever do something like that again!"
"After you, I never did anything bad again." Abel lifted his head and gave me a faint smile. "We were sent to the orphanage. There was food and clothes, no one was going hungry anymore, so there was no reason to keep doing that kind of thing."
I looked at his face.
For some reason, that smile felt off... strangely stiff, like it didn't quite belong there, and his eyes looked completely hollow.
This was nothing like the slightly dim-witted petty thief I remembered... was I misremembering?
"How did you end up here?" I tilted my head and asked.
"Same as them, I was chosen to come to Cataloma."
"Abel got here way earlier than me and Lucas!" Elle chimed in.
"Mm."
Looks like they all got lucky.
Children at Cataloma, as long as they worked hard, had the chance to one day serve the Church, becoming monks or nuns, or even priests and bishops. The stipends the Church paid its clergy were generous, and they'd even be assigned a residence in their district. That meant an absolute guarantee of stability in life, never having to worry about going hungry again.
And the children here... maybe they lacked everything else, but not the will to work hard.
Thinking about that, I felt genuinely happy for them.
"That's really great." I glanced around, didn't spot the face I'd half-expected to see, and turned back to Abel. "What about your brother and sisters?"
"They didn't come." Abel's smile stayed exactly the same. "Only me and one of my sisters made it here. The others... were all left behind in Sylgaria."
"Is that so..."
In this world, separation almost always meant forever. That was obviously not something worth smiling about, so why were you... why were you still smiling?
Something felt wrong.
I couldn't put my finger on what, but Abel was off.
"It's okay, Abel, one day you'll see them again! Trust me!"
Lucas threw an arm around Abel's shoulder, grinning at him with teeth bared, hard to say whether it was meant to be comforting or intimidating.
Abel just kept smiling.
"Big sis—" Elle seemed like she still had something she wanted to say to me.
Clang— clang— clang—
The tall bell tower of Cataloma suddenly rang out. The bell's sound was deep and solemn, one toll after another, rolling out across the sky.
"Ah, the holy bell." Elle's small face looked a little regretful. "I wanted to talk with big sister more... but when the holy bell rings, you can't skip the prayer... we have to get to Father's side."
I nodded to her. "Go on."
"Big sister, you have to come again! Next time, I'll give you a present."
"Sure."
"Ice girl..." Lucas called out to me from the side, then immediately turned around, his back to me. "If, if you ever run into trouble in the royal city... if you can, come find me for help..."
Elle laughed and gave him a punch on the arm. "What kind of help could you possibly give big sister?"
"...I just can!"
With those words out, Lucas walked off without looking back. Abel gave me a light bow and ran off into the distance.
Elle smiled at me. "Big sister, Lucas is a good person."
"Pfft—"
"Big sister, what are you laughing at?"
"No, it's nothing..."
I kind of felt sorry for Lucas.
"You should head over too."
"Mm! I'm off then."
"Bye."
The small figure ran off into the distance with the other children.
"Poor kids, all of them..." The old gatekeeper had been standing in the distance watching this whole time, and only now stepped forward to speak to me. "Being able to come to Cataloma is a blessing for them."
"Mm."
............
The old man led me to a room on the 3rd floor of Cataloma's main building, opened the large door at the far end of the corridor, told me to wait here for a moment, then headed back.
Left alone, I started looking around the director's office out of mild boredom.
An old wooden long table and hard chairs, a row of aged cabinets against one wall, some potted green plants in the corner, not even a sofa in sight.
Very plain, though it did fit Theresa's style.
The only thing in the whole room that could be called decorative was probably the long-handled double-bladed greataxe mounted on the wall, if you could even call that decorative.
The axe was jet black all over, flawlessly crafted, over 2 meters long, fitted into a mirror-polished display case embedded in the wall behind the desk. Just looking at it you could tell it was no lightweight piece... this must be one of Theresa's collectibles, right? Did she have a thing for this kind of stuff?
Couldn't tell.
I stepped over to the cabinet, craned my neck up, and looked at the medals displayed on it.
Aside from the most eye-catching one, a Pontifical Knight insignia, the rest were... I didn't recognize a single one, though they all looked like Church-issued awards. Next to them sat a golden trophy about the size of a head, with a small line of text engraved on its base:
[June, Common Era Year 1179 — Our beloved Sister Theresa, by invoking a great miracle, put a halt to the spread of the plague in the northern region of Isenbell. Her deeds are worthy of praise from all of us.]
Signed: Cardinal George of the Holy Church.
So it turned out Theresa wasn't quite the ordinary figure she made herself out to be, that was just modesty.
The cabinet on the other side was lined with books and documents, mostly Church-related reference materials of various kinds. I spotted a copy of 《Sorrows of Love》 in the corner, stood on my tiptoes to pull it out, brought it to the wooden table nearby, sat down, and flipped through it.
I remembered Sarah mentioning this was a book Teacher Theresa wrote herself.
My lower abdomen was hurting more and more.
It had still been somewhat bearable in the morning, but by now it had reached a level that was impossible to ignore.
What rotten luck...
One hand pressed to my stomach, the other turning the pages. The first page read: All the suffering in this world is nothing but the work of the human heart, nothing more.
Hmm... wasn't that a little extreme? You can't exactly blame natural disasters and man-made catastrophes on the human heart either...
I casually turned to the next page and kept reading. Nothing else to do anyway, might as well kill some time.
I thought I'd be waiting for quite a while, but I'd barely gotten through 30 pages when I heard footsteps outside the door.
Quick ones, and more than one person.
I closed the book in my hand and stood up with a frown. Shortly after, the door clicked open. Theresa walked in still dressed in her nun's habit, but her expression was noticeably serious. Behind her, 7 or 8 monks in black robes followed in close.
"Sister Theresa..."
"Sylvia, good that you're here." She quickly cut me off, her tone slightly hurried. "That shipment arrived in the royal city ahead of schedule. The Gate of Truth has arrived."