The Withdrawn "Karen"

"All right, it's done—though it's rather ugly." Old Saman puffed on his pipe while looking at the coffin before him. This coffin... if it could even be called a coffin, had an exterior that was anything but smooth. Numerous runes and array markings lay exposed on the outside like a tangled mess of wires in a slum. The joints where the wooden planks met were exceedingly rough, devoid of any craftsmanship and visibly slapdash at every turn. Alfred stroked the coffin, reflecting on the day and night of frantic labor. He could not help but be impressed by Old Saman's spatial forging craft; in this field, the old man was a true master. Previously, Alfred had never stepped into Saman's domain and had felt little appreciation for it, but once he had truly entered it, he could perceive the old man's towering expertise. "For future coffins, just follow this process. Of course, you won't have to rush like I did this time, so you'll be able to make them look quite nice." "Once I make a new coffin later on, I'll move you into it." "Don't! No, by all means, don't! It might look hideous, but at least I made it myself, so I have peace of mind. Ugly or not, it definitely works. "I don't want to lie in a coffin that hasn't passed quality inspection. The last thing I need is for you people to come check on me after a few years, only to find what little spirituality I have left has long dissipated, turning me into a puddle of minced meat. If that happens, I won't even be able to cry if I wanted to." "You ought to have more faith in me." "Well, true. Aside from being a bit obsessive, your ability to learn is genuinely astounding. Where did you study your array knowledge?" "Elder Hoffen." "Elder Hoffen? From which church?" "The Church of Principles." "How come I don't recall such a figure in the Church of Principles? Given his age, he should have been quite famous thirty years ago." "It's natural you wouldn't know him, for he was an elder who guarded the Church of Principles' Wheel of Principles." "Oh, is that so? A remarkable figure indeed." Dinkum and Pike were already somewhat numb with exhaustion, but clutching the five hundred Order coupons each had received as overtime pay, they still stood ramrod straight, waiting for their next instruction. Old Saman's gaze swept over the two of them, and he chuckled. "Heh, these two God's Servants look like they're about to experience God's Revelation." Alfred looked toward them and said, "You've worked hard. Go downstairs and rest." "Yes, sir." "Yes, sir." Pike and Dinkum walked out, their legs somewhat stiff. It felt as though if they kept working overtime, it would be hard to say who this rushed coffin was actually meant for. "I'm about to lie in here, but where is that kid Karen? Still not back?" "You should learn to show respect to the young master." "He hasn't said a thing, so why are you making a fuss?" "Why would the God on high need a church?" "I know, I understand." Old Saman waved his hand. "It just feels a bit surreal, like having a dream after dying, unsure whether I'll wake from it." "There is an issue in your array." Alfred picked up the diagram. "What is the core configuration of the array here?" "I thought you wouldn't notice," Old Saman said with a smile. The coffin was one thing, and the array was another; twelve coffins had to coordinate with the array to achieve their true effect. "Is this... a sacrificial slot?" Alfred asked. "Naturally. I'm willing to bet the place where the First Knight Order slumbers has a similar setup. Think about it and it becomes clear—how could spirituality just appear out of thin air? "Even if you're nurturing a flower, you have to water and fertilize it." "Understood. I see." "Hm? That's it?" "That's it." "You have nothing else to ask about the core slot of this array?" "It might be an issue for others, but for the young master, it is nothing." Alfred knew well that his young master possessed a miracle-like ability. The cost he paid for "Awakening" was extraordinarily low, which meant he could replenish a corpse's spirituality in the cheapest possible manner. In other words, if that core position remained vacant, the loss of spirituality from the beings lying in the twelve coffins would merely be suppressed to a great degree. However, if the young master went to stand at the core position every few months, channeling his accumulated spirituality into it, he could maximize the array's effect, allowing it to "nourish" the beings within the twelve coffins. Old Saman considered this an immense challenge. The Church of Order paid an astronomical price every year just to maintain the scale of the First Knight Order. "You need not worry about these matters." Alfred tapped the coffin with his knuckle. "Lie inside and enter your slumber." "I want to wait for Karen to return and say one last thing to him. He can't do this. I'm still awake, yet he went out on his own. Did he go to a banquet?" "Yes, dinner." "What dinner could be so important?" "Very important." "Fine." Old Saman took another drag from his pipe and chuckled self-deprecatingly. "My physical organs have begun to deteriorate; the hit from tobacco is growing faint." Just then, Xili's voice drifted from outside: "Young Master, you're back." Instead of heading to his bedroom, Karen went straight to the storage room. Walking up to the coffin, he reached out, touched it, and said: "How ugly." Thanks to his past work on Mink Street, Karen possessed refined aesthetic standards for coffins. "As long as it works." Old Saman lowered his pipe, his voice dropping slightly. "Then we can only ask you to make do for now." "It's no hardship. Once I close my eyes, I won't know a thing. Lying anywhere is the same." "I'll replace it with a new one for you later," Karen said. "No need, no need, I don't care about that." "Well, I care." Karen looked at Alfred and instructed, "The twelve coffins must ultimately match in style, or it will bother my eyes." "Understood, Young Master." Karen turned back to Old Saman and asked, "Do you still need to go outside for a stroll?" "No, there's nothing worth seeing. Everything from my past life is settled. I just wanted to wait for you to come back so I could say a few words to you." "Go ahead." "In the future, will I be your slave?" Just as Karen was about to speak, Old Saman answered his own question: "Or will it be like heaven and earth showing no mercy, treating all living things like straw dogs?" "Which one do you prefer?" "The latter. I can understand what kind of relationship it truly is, but at least it's much easier on my pride." "Very well, the latter it is." "Mm. So, the next time I am awakened, please... please be a bit more lofty and dignified." "Understood. I will." "Then I'll go to sleep." Old Saman climbed into the coffin of his own accord. Before closing his eyes, he smiled and said, "Closing one's eyes without a single care in the world really feels wonderful, as if I've regained that feeling of going to sleep after playing outside all day as a child." Karen said, "When going to sleep as a child, one usually looks forward to waking up tomorrow, because one can keep playing." "Yes, exactly." Old Saman placed his hands over his chest, forming the ritual seal of the Church of Pamires: "I've assumed my posture. When I am next awakened, I shall offer you my praises." "Unfortunately, I have little interest in your praise." "Yes, yes, yes, that's the feeling. That dignity." A smile tugged at the corner of Karen's lips. Old Saman cleared his throat and called out: "Good night!" Alfred closed the coffin lid. The internal array activated, and Old Saman sank into a spatial seal. "Did Dinkum and Pike do well as helpers?" Karen asked. "Your subordinate believes they did fine. While there are still many technical aspects I haven't fully mastered, replicating these coffins following the template won't be a problem." "Good, that's reassuring." "Also, Young Master, Pike and Dinkum seem on the verge of entering God's Revelation, likely within this month." "I noticed." "Their talents are mediocre, but fortunately, they met you, Young Master." "Keep an eye on them." "Yes, Young Master. When the exact time approaches, I will inform you in advance." "Why inform me?" "Only you, Young Master, have the right to grant them revelation." Karen instantly grasped Alfred's meaning and asked, "Isn't that taking too big a step?" "Only when they receive true revelation can they truly be counted as our own." Seeing Karen hesitate, Alfred continued, "The God of Order is too far from them, but you, Young Master, are right by their side." "I understand. But before their revelation, I will give both of them a choice. If I forcibly distort their revelation, what difference would there be between me and the God of Order?" "I trust they will make the right choice." Alfred added the next line silently in his heart: *After all, the God of Order only pays them a hundred a month.* Karen returned to the bedroom. Purr was lying on the bed wrapped in a small blanket, having evidently just bathed. "Oh, my busy little Karen is finally back." "Do you really enjoy greeting me like that?" "Not particularly, but I feel greeting you this way highlights my status as your elder." "You worry too much. No one has ever mistaken you for being young." "Oh, you talk as if your mouth was smeared with Wien soybean paste today!" "I'm going to the pottery studio tomorrow. Have you two listed your requirements for the puppets?" "Mmh, not yet. I plan to wait for Little John's break from boarding school so he can paint portraits for the two of us." "So much trouble?" "It's not easy getting the chance to appear in human form; of course we have to be prudent." Kevin immediately nodded as well. "All right, let me know when you're ready." Karen washed up in the bathroom, returned to the bed, and lay down, saying: "Today, the old lady seemed to recognize me." "The old lady? Your maternal grandmother?" Purr rolled onto its side and looked at Karen. "She recognized you?" "I don't have absolute confirmation, but that was my impression. She doesn't seem to believe in the God of Order." "Mm, she likely believes in Progenitor Arte, a very mysterious family faith system." "You know about it?" "I only heard Diss mention it once before. As you know, Diss has always placed great importance on family. Even though the Guman family didn't know about the Inmerlais family's existence, Diss certainly knew about them." "Are you sure?" "In what regard?" "I feel she recognized me, yet she didn't reveal my identity and did her best to conceal her agitation." "You mean she might know something about the Inmerlais family?" "I'm not sure. If she simply noticed I was hiding my identity, she should have found an opportunity to speak with me alone to ask. She skipped that step, as if she was convinced my concealment was entirely necessary." "I think, considering the Guman family's safety, hiding your identity from them is the best course. Thirteen Mink Street has the slumbering Diss guarding it, but this place has no one." "I know that." "I don't know much about the Arte family. They've always been very mysterious. All I know is that they seem to possess a strange perceptive ability. They aren't an aggressive or dominant family, but they have persisted for a very long time. "Moreover, unlike the Allen family whose direct descendants all live in Allen Manor, their lineage has always been very dispersed, yet it has never died out. In fact, they hardly resemble a family with a family faith system at all." "Woof! Woof!" Karen sat up and looked at Kevin, who had just walked in. Purr translated, "The dumb dog says the Arte family was blessed by the God of Eternity." "The God of Eternity?" Purr explained, "Apparently a principal god from an even more distant past." "Woof! Woof!" "The dumb dog says the God of Eternity was born before the God of Light. Before the God of Light and the Church of Light became the orthodox god and church, that position belonged to the God of Eternity and the Church of Eternity." "Woof! Woof! Woof!" "Near the end of two eras ago, the God of Eternity suddenly fell into ruin. "Therefore, the divine war in the first half of the previous era was essentially fought between the faction led by the God of Light and the faction of the God of Eternity, with the objective of purging the world order left behind by the God of Eternity." "Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!" "The Arte family once guarded the God of Eternity, though it's unclear whether an accident occurred before his ascension, midway after it, or if the god simply walked the mortal world as a human once again. "In short, the God of Eternity was moved by the warmth and harmony of the Arte household, so he bestowed a blessing upon them, wishing that their family would love and care for one another generation after generation." Purr asked, puzzled, "That story sounds very familiar. It seems the Light Era records a similar tale; the God of Light loved doing that kind of thing when walking among mortals as well." "Woof! Woof!" "The dumb dog says all stories of gods are copied from one another. "He also says the purpose of churches revising mythological narratives is simply to obliterate and erase history." "Two eras have passed, and this is now the third era. The God of Eternity must have fallen long ago. Is the effect of his blessing still active?" "Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!" "It definitely grew weaker and thinner, but if a family member procreates with a high-ranking priest, the bloodline is very likely to be activated. The Arte family is mysterious precisely because they have no ambitions. Often, they don't even know they belong to the Arte family. Moreover, strictly speaking, this blessing doesn't even count as a family faith system, because it doesn't conflict with any faith at all." *So, Uncle Aisen and my mother were able to trigger the Arte family's bloodline resonance because of my grandfather, Old Delon?* *Wait, that's not right.* *What about Grandmother?* Karen recalled his grandmother's reaction upon seeing him. In truth, her bloodline had already been awakened. That made sense. With the Guman family being a family of Jurists, any woman who could marry Old Delon would hardly be an ordinary person. "Today, I finally understood why Mr. Aisen became like that. He sensed the agony his elder sister felt before her death from contamination, and in a dream, he made the choice to end her suffering. "Because they both awakened the Arte bloodline, a specific connection might have been forged between them. I suspect it grants family members sharing the bloodline a more direct, indescribable perception and empathy toward one another. "This is a blessing, "but in a sense, a blessing can sometimes become a curse." Uncle Aisen had no issues with his personal character or mental clarity. Karen even felt he resembled Captain Neo in some ways; both were tough and calm. After all, becoming a Jurist was no easy feat. It was simply that he could never step out of that circle. Purr looked at Kevin and asked, "You're very familiar with the Arte family?" "Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!" "Uh..." Purr froze. "What did Kevin say?" "The dumb dog says that in the last era, many nobles—the truly powerful ones—in order to satisfy their longing for beautiful romance, would deliberately hunt down people with the Arte bloodline, extract their bloodline and soul, and consume them together with their lovers, converting the blessing into a beautiful love story. "Some political marriages even went so far as to prepare potions refined from the blood and souls of Arte clan members for the prospective couple, ensuring the bond felt genuine. At one point, it became standard fare for political unions." Purr added, "However, in this era, that practice has long died out. I've never heard of such a thing; otherwise, that idiot Bernard would definitely have procured some." Thus, everything had two sides. A god's blessing and a god's curse might merely be two sides of the same coin; the thing itself remained unchanged, while humans simply viewed it from a different angle. Karen spoke up: "Richard must have awakened the Arte bloodline as well, or is on the verge of doing so." That explained why Richard, a young master of noble birth, was so naturally fond of and familiar with him, a mere "God's Servant." "Indeed, that should be it," Purr agreed. "Wait." Karen raised his hand. "There's still one person missing. That person might have had it too." "Meow?" "Woof?" "Mr. Aisen has endured mental torment to this day due to the influence of bloodline power connecting him to his sister. That person might have been enduring the exact same torment all along." Karen pointed a finger at himself, and said: "The withdrawn 'Karen.'"