The master bedroom was enormous. The washroom was located inside, but unlike an ordinary hotel suite, the suite encompassed a washroom, a study, a sunroom, and an indoor putting green—spaces that nominally belonged to the master bedroom but were effectively independent areas.
The study directly opposite the master bedroom resembled a formal office suite, functioning as a reception room for discussing business.
In fact, half of the entire floor had been set aside for the patriarch, serving as his personal and professional sanctuary.
"Put the items down, and you may leave."
"Yes, sir."
After setting down the toiletries, the two maids turned and left, pulling the bedroom door shut behind them.
Karen undressed, stepped into the shower stall, and began washing himself.
He liked to empty his mind when bathing; under the cascading stream of hot water, his thoughts tended to settle into peace.
After finishing his shower, he glanced at the tub that had already been filled with warm water, but chose not to soak in it. Instead, he dried himself off and slipped into a black nightshirt.
Walking over to the bed, he sat down.
The mattress was plush and soft, and the air was suffused with a faint scent of vanilla. He could not tell where it was coming from, but it was certainly not from incense.
Across from the bed, the golden retriever was lying on a large sofa, conscientiously pulling a blanket over itself with its teeth. Once settled beneath the blanket, it seemed to notice Karen's gaze and grinned toothily back at him.
And where was Purr?
Karen let his gaze roam around the room before lifting a pillow beside him, revealing Purr curled up beneath it.
Karen looked at the cat.
Purr looked back at him.
"It's been so many years since I slept in a bed at home. Oh, how I've missed it... Ah, the scent of home."
"Don't you think it's a bit inappropriate for you to be sleeping here?"
"Hmm?" Purr blinked her large eyes. "Is there a problem?"
Then she giggled.
"I'm a cat right now. Isn't it perfectly normal for a cat to sleep in the same bed as its master?
"Or are you saying you don't think of me as a cat?
"If you don't think of me as a cat, what do you think of me as?
"Ohohoho, how could your mind harbor such indecent thoughts, my dear evil god?"
Karen offered her a thin smile.
Purr rested her head back down and closed her eyes, intending to resume her nap.
Then she felt herself being lifted up, her body parting from the soft bed.
"You can't do this! I've been away from home for so many years! Why can't I sleep in a bed?!"
Ignoring her protests, Karen carried her over and set her down on the sofa.
The golden retriever tugged at its blanket, offering to share it with Purr.
"Get lost, you filthy dog!"
Purr leaped off the sofa, but just as she was about to dash back toward the bed, Karen's gaze swept over her.
"Um, Young Master, how about the foot of the bed? Can I sleep at the foot of the bed? Just that spot, just that tiny little corner."
At the foot of the large bed sat an attached upholstered bench.
Karen gave a slight nod.
Purr hopped onto the bench and sprawled out.
Karen picked up a pillow and tossed it to her.
"Oh, my heartfelt thanks to my stingy yet generous young master."
Purr leaned against the pillow, looking at Karen as he sat propped against the headboard.
"Actually, things aren't bad right now, are they?
"Your purification requires a massive quantity of blessed items, as well as an environment that is completely quiet and undisturbed.
"Both of these requirements can be handled for you by the Allens. All you have to do is give the word, and they'll sort everything out at top speed.
"Well, at the very least, they're perfectly capable of doing that sort of legwork."
"I don't know how to run a family."
In his previous life, Karen had only managed his own psychological clinic. While he had employed quite a few staff members, that hardly counted as management in the truest sense.
"Relax. The Allen family has already reached this state; it's practically teetering on bankruptcy. They likely would have faced complete collapse by Eunice's generation anyway.
"They're already sitting at rock bottom. No matter how terribly you manage things, there's virtually no room left to fall.
"Even if, in the worst-case scenario, you do absolutely nothing and merely use the Allen family as a place to cultivate the Church of Order's faith system while letting them run errands for you, that's entirely fine.
"Once you finish your purification, you can create a false identity and enter the Church of Order, with one foot planted inside the Church while the Allens prop up the other.
"After you become an Inquisitor, if you manage to secure a decent assignment, you can bring the Allen family under your protection.
"After all, the Church of Order is notoriously protective of its own, and their fists are very hard."
"What about this family?" Karen asked. "I mean, you never told me about the stages or the progression of a family's heritage system."
"Because it doesn't have a system at all—at least, nothing with the distinct hierarchy of a church.
"For example, the early progression in the Church of Order is:
"Purifier—God's Servant;
"Inquirer—God's Revelation;
"Reflector—God's Shepherd.
"Beyond that comes the rank of Inquisitor.
"Other churches may use different terms, but their early stages all consist of the three phases: God's Servant, God's Revelation, and God's Shepherd.
"God's Servant cleanses the body, like sweeping a house clean;
"God's Revelation searches the heart, receiving divine inspiration from god and welcoming the deity's effigy into the home;
"God's Shepherd takes divine revelation and integrates it with oneself through constant contemplation and reflection, akin to decorating and furnishing a shop.
"Once you break through that layer, you reach the Inquisitor stage, which corresponds to the shop opening for business.
"A family faith system, on the other hand, lacks the stages of Purifier, Inquirer, and Reflector entirely."
"No stages at all?"
"None. That is because a god is a supreme and lofty entity who pities mortal kind and sheds divine grace upon believers. It's like a teacher at school: only when you show genuine dedication to your studies will the teacher be inclined to instruct you.
"An ancestor, however, is different. Your relationship with an ancestor is determined entirely by bloodline. If you are born into the family and carry their blood in your veins, you naturally receive their recognition.
"It's like a couple having a child. Do they wait until the child is three or four and make them pass an IQ test before acknowledging them as their own?
"From the moment that child is born—indeed, from the moment the mother conceives—that bond already exists.
"Faith in a family system requires no personal preparation. All it takes is reaching a mysterious resonance with the ancestor."
"Does that mean a family system starts off directly at the level of an Inquisitor?"
"That is true," Purr nodded, then shook her head. "And yet, the disparity is immense."
Shifting her position, Purr sat upright on the pillow and continued:
"First of all, in ordinary circumstances, a family's ancestor cannot compare to a true god; they exist at fundamentally different heights. Of course, that doesn't rule out the few families blessed with truly miraculous bloodlines, whose ancestors drew infinitely close to godhood, or even surpassed certain gods.
"But let's set aside extreme outliers and speak of the norm.
"Most family ancestors cannot hold a candle to a true god, so right from the start, there is a vast gulf in ceiling.
"Next, do not assume that the three stages of God's Servant, God's Revelation, and God's Shepherd are a waste of time. They are the process of laying a foundation.
"Those initial three stages in an orthodox church's faith system are somewhat like finishing high school and then attending university. At most, you might work a part-time job to offset tuition, but you still largely rely on your family to support you.
"A family faith system skips those three stages entirely. It's like someone finishing middle school and going straight into the workforce to earn a living; they don't need family support, and they can pull in a decent income right away.
"Yet in terms of long-term prospects, someone with a university education will undoubtedly enjoy far broader career choices and greater room for advancement.
"Of course, no one can deny that exceptional individuals exist who build great careers even with only a middle school education, but that demands far greater effort and remains exceedingly rare. We must look at the median.
"To use another analogy, an Inquisitor in the Church of Order is like the chief of a local police department, whereas someone produced by a family faith system is more akin to a street gang leader.
"If you truly insist on finding a hierarchy like the one you asked about, there is one: we generally divide it into Tier One, Tier Two, Tier Three... all the way up to Tier Ten."
Hearing this breakdown, Karen remarked with a sigh, "That sounds... exceptionally arbitrary."
"Precisely. It really is that arbitrary, because it lacks intrinsic substance. You could think of Tiers One, Two, and Three as percentages, but they aren't absolute percentages, because the variances within each tier are immense, yet impossible to define with precision..."
"I'm not sure I follow."
"Because a family faith system worships an ancestor. Descendants explore and inherit that ancestor's power through reverence, but every family's ancestor possessed vastly different strength and elemental attributes. Consequently, it's impossible to establish a universal standard that applies to all family systems.
"For instance, back in the day, my ancestor could have crushed your ancestor with a single punch.
"If I'm at Tier One of my family's faith system and you're at Tier Three of yours, the difference in our ancestors' baselines means that when you face me, you'll still feel deeply outmatched."
"Does Tier Ten mean a complete replication of the ancestor?" Karen asked.
"Yes, but those who can replicate an ancestor are few and far between. I've certainly never seen one. The bloodline becomes diluted over generations, shared among you and the rest of your clan. On top of that, there are all sorts of circumstances: for instance, your ancestor might have attained that height through rare fortunes or by consuming some unique treasure, none of which are available to you...
"Therefore, the trajectory of any family faith system is almost always a downward slope. One can only employ certain methods to slow the decline... or, with enough luck, open up new avenues of growth.
"For example, by absorbing and assimilating other families' faith systems. At the very least, that enriches your own lineage's foundation, and there's a miniscule chance that descendants who concentrate two faith systems will undergo positive mutations.
"The simplest example: a husband with an earth-attribute family faith system pairs with a wife possessing a nature-attribute family faith system. The child they produce might very well inherit both earth and nature attributes. These two attributes can achieve harmony and mutual reinforcement, and there is a certain probability that this dual affinity will be passed down to the next generation.
"Because of this, families with complementary attributes frequently arrange marriages.
"And even if the attributes aren't complementary—or have no correlation whatsoever—families will still arrange pairings whenever the opportunity arises, just to see what happens. Who knows? It might yield unexpected results, right?"
"The way you describe it, family faith systems and what you families do... it sounds like..."
"Sounds like what?" Purr waited for Karen's analogy.
"It sounds like breeding hybrid rice."
Purr blinked. "That's an unfamiliar analogy, but can I take it to mean something like selective breeding for superior traits?"
"More or less."
"Then yes, that's exactly what it is.
"And so,
"we have always known
"that weakness is our family's original sin.
"Once you become weak enough, your kin will be reduced to breeding stock for other families—in short, pigs in a sty.
"In fact, many years ago, the slave markets already had a category for such 'pigs.' Descendants of such-and-such family would be put up for sale, available for any family wishing to buy them back and test their luck.
"Among them, female slaves fetched far higher prices and sold much more easily. From both an economic and a psychological standpoint, it was far more acceptable for a buyer's family to have a female slave conceive and bear an heir.
"That said, rare male slaves of exceptional value did exist. But such a male slave had to carry the heritage of a truly extraordinary family faith system. They often commanded astronomical sums at auction!"
"Woof! Woof! Woof!" the golden retriever suddenly barked at Purr.
Purr froze for a moment, then snapped back, "Shut up, you dead dog! How dare you try to drive a wedge between us!"
The golden retriever shook its head and flopped back down.
Purr turned back to Karen and said with complete earnestness:
"Take you, for instance, Karen. In a slave market, you would command an exorbitant price. You are the sole surviving bloodline heir of the Inmerlais family, and on top of that, you're exceptionally handsome.
"There would certainly be noblewomen who, captivated by your looks, would yearn to bear powerful bloodline heirs with you."
Karen leaned forward, watching Purr as she sat on the pillow atop the bench.
"Is that why you've been so eager for me to stay with the Allens?"
Purr mirrored Karen's posture, crossing her paws before her and resting her chin upon them as she looked back at him.
One human and one cat gazed at each other in identical poses.
"Karen, I've never concealed my motives, and I trust you've always seen through them.
"I love squirrel mandarin fish, so I beg you to make squirrel mandarin fish for me. Isn't that perfectly normal?
"It's not as if I deceived you, claiming I was poisoned and that only squirrel mandarin fish could cure me.
"Right?
"Besides,
"I know that from your perspective, this method of joining feels very uncomfortable, especially after I told you about those specialized slave markets.
"Yet you mustn't forget one thing:
"Who was it
"that chose the Allen family for you?"
A thoughtful expression surfaced in Karen's eyes. That was, in truth, his final misgiving.
"To be honest, I'm not familiar with that old fossil Anderson. When he was born, I had long since left the family. But Diss knew him.
"As I see it now, that old fossil is indeed a useless failure when it comes to managing the family, advancing in the faith system, or educating his descendants.
"And yet... why was Diss willing to sit in a study with a 'useless failure,' sipping tea and chatting with him?
"Why would he endure a failure's relentless chatter, urging him not to be so negative?"
"Weren't the ties between the Allen and Inmerlais families forged by you?" Karen asked.
"Yes, they were forged by me. But can the Allen family with me be compared to the Allen family without me?
"More importantly, can the Inmerlais family with Diss be compared to the Inmerlais family without him?
"Back then, I chose to befriend the Inmerlais family because I saw them as a steady producer of talent for the Church of Order. It's remarkably difficult for a single family to consistently produce such church elites.
"And at that time, I was at the height of my glory; forging ties with any family required nothing more than a word from me.
"Afterward, though, I turned into a cat, and Diss grew up from a child.
"The history of the Inmerlais family can be cleanly divided by Diss's emergence. From that moment on, what qualifications did the Allen family possess to maintain ties with an Inmerlais family that had Diss?
"Diss was bold enough to bomb the Temple of Order. Would he care about some so-called family friendship left behind by the previous generation?
"Even Rasma had to speak to Diss with utmost caution. What right did Anderson, the head of that pack of fools, have to sit and drink tea with Diss?
"So,
"could it be that Diss realized long ago that while Anderson is an idiot in most respects, his instincts in certain areas are extraordinarily sharp?
"Just look at how, the moment you entered Allen Manor, he brushed aside all opposition to hand family leadership over to you."
Karen said nothing, for he had considered another possibility.
No one understood his grandfather's character better than he did. This was the grandfather whom even Mina and Lunt held in profound awe, a man who wouldn't waste the breath to exchange perfunctory courtesies with irrelevant outsiders.
Above all, whenever Diss arranged a matter, his meticulous foresight was so thorough it bordered on chilling.
He seemed never to make a pointless arrangement. Every step laid the groundwork for some future event, and one only realized it long after the fact—or even gained a sudden, deeper epiphany months later.
Purr put it bluntly:
"You might say I saw your potential and your future, so I wanted to pull you into the Allen family to help steer my fallen, useless clan back onto the right path.
"Then... what was Diss's reason for personally receiving this pack of Allen fools time and time again over the years?"
Purr leaned forward further, but overbalanced, somersaulted, and ended up sitting directly before Karen, her tail curling up in front of her belly out of habit.
"Could it be that while that idiot Anderson was encouraging Diss to pull himself together, Diss was actually studying the Allen family's faith system?
"Could the Allen family's faith system be precisely what Diss considered the finest complement to the Inmerlais bloodline?"
Karen spoke up. "Grandfather wanted his descendants to live peaceful lives as ordinary people, free from the darkness of the church circles."
"That was the later Diss. The earlier Diss might not have thought that way. Besides, even if he had that intention, maintaining relations with the Allens before that outcome was finalized is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, isn't it?
"Look at what Diss prepared for you:
"me,
"that stupid dog,
"and that radio sprite.
"On top of that, you're not short on money.
"That's why you had the idea of picking up and running off, because you could easily live in seclusion in Wien and take everything at your own pace.
"The Allen family might offer you help, but it will also bring you trouble, and an enlightened egoist like you hates nothing more than trouble and responsibility.
"If you could think of that, would Diss have failed to anticipate it?
"Why would he pressure you into a blind date with Eunice? Why insist that his most beloved, most treasured grandson come stay with the Allen family?
"Anderson certainly didn't have the face to command that.
"Since you chose to embark on this path,
"why
"couldn't Diss have been planning ahead for his... great-grandchild?
"You might resent me for treating you like a stud over these past few days, but who's to say Diss didn't view the Allen family as living in a pigpen he laid out decades ago?"
Purr opened her mouth, bit her own tail, then pushed it forward and splayed her paws.
"My advice is to wait and see. Of course, you've already taken a bath here and are preparing to take an afternoon nap in the master bedroom, which means you've already analyzed things and made your own judgment.
"Still, let me remind you: if you believe Diss always acted in your best interest,
"then upon receiving Diss's instructions,
"as his most precious grandson,
"how should you have responded?"
Purr clapped her front paws together, though the thick pads produced no sound.
Even so, she imitated Karen's tone:
"'Yes, Grandfather.'"
Karen glanced at the light outside the window and said, "I'm going to take a nap. We'll probably have dinner together tonight."
"Very well, Young Master Karen." Purr rolled back onto her upholstered bench.
Karen lay down, pulled the blanket over himself, and closed his eyes. Purr's words continued to echo in his mind, but after such an exhausting journey, he was indeed worn out.
Curled on the bench, Purr reached out a paw toward a small dial affixed to the side and turned it gently.
A faint, crisp melody began to play like a lullaby. The master bedroom seemed to have been designed with its presence in mind, and the notes drifted and danced through the space. Far from disturbing anyone on the verge of slumber, the soothing sound gently coaxed them into sleep.
Purr lay flat, listening to the lullaby drawn from the depths of her memories. A trace of melancholy touched her eyes, but soon, she drifted to sleep.
In bed, Karen did the same, slipping into dreams amid the quiet, gentle lullaby.
...
"Uncle."
"Hey, Karen, you're back!"
"Good day, Aunt Mary."
"Oh, my Karen has come home."
"Aunt Winnie, where are Mina and Chris?"
"School has started, didn't you know?"
"I see."
The familiar staircase—first floor, second floor, third floor.
Karen walked to the study door, raised his hand, and knocked.
*Rap... rap...*
"Enter."
Pushing the door open, Karen saw Diss seated behind the desk.
"Grandfather, I'm back."
Diss set down his fountain pen, looked up at Karen,
and asked:
"I heard Eunice is pregnant?"
...
Karen opened his eyes, feeling an intense numbness and soreness throughout his limbs, as though the exhaustion stored in every cell of his body had been completely released during that single sleep.
The discomfort quickly faded, replaced by a surge of physical and mental vitality.
He had slept deeply and soundly.
However,
when Karen looked up at the mantle clock before the bed, he saw that the hands pointed to four-thirty. Outside the window, the sky was pitch-black. This was not the afternoon; he hadn't merely slept for a two-hour nap, but straight through to the early hours of the following morning.
"Whew..."
So he had missed dinner as well. For a guest, this was a severe breach of etiquette.
Karen threw back the blanket, preparing to wash up.
To his surprise, Purr, who had been sleeping on the bench, had somehow shifted onto the blanket over his chest. With the toss of the blanket, she tumbled off the bed with a soft thud.
Fortunately, a thick rug covered the floor, so the fall didn't hurt. Purr was sleeping so heavily that she didn't even wake; she simply rolled onto her side and continued snoozing.
After all, it had taken Karen half a month to reach Wien, but Purr had spent over a century on her journey home.
Karen entered the washroom, washed up, and opened his suitcase to change into formal attire.
By now, he was feeling somewhat hungry. In any case, he needed to apologize for his absence. While Anderson and Bede were likely sound asleep, he could at least express his regrets to the night servants.
Yet,
when Karen pushed open the bedroom door,
he was stunned to find three men sleeping in the hallway outside.
Mike was asleep in his wheelchair.
Mr. Bede was asleep in a chair.
Anderson was asleep on a makeshift cot formed by three chairs pushed together.
The sound of the door opening woke them. Mike stirred first, followed by Bede. Old Anderson, whose light sleep had caused him to open and shut his eyes first, waited until his two sons had stood up before "accidentally" rolling off the chairs and tumbling onto the carpet.
Patriarch Bede rushed to help his father up, but the old man shoved his son's hands aside, looking directly at Karen with a broad smile.
"You're awake, child—
"Oh, no, Young Master Karen."
"What are you all..."
"It's like this, Young Master Karen."
Old Anderson climbed to his feet, while Patriarch Bede beside him held up a thick stack of folders.
"These are the ledgers for the Allen family's various businesses and assets. Please look them over."
Patriarch Bede held the documents forward. Mike wore a grave expression, an additional red welt from a cane visible on his face alongside the previous one.
Old Anderson stood shivering on his arthritic legs, his lips quivering as he gazed at Karen with fervent hope.
Karen placed his hand on the documents,
and then
gently pushed them away.
Instantly, Old Anderson's face turned ashen; his legs ceased shaking, and his lips stopped trembling.
Yet Karen's next words brought the color rushing back into the old man's cheeks:
"Let's go to the study."
Chapter 85