"I'm sorry, I didn't know it would turn out like this." Leyn apologized politely to Lumian.
Lumian chuckled. "Isn't this worth another glass of Green Fairy?"
Before Leyn could answer, he changed the subject:
"Outlanders, what brings you to Koldu? Buying wool, leather?"
Many of Koldu's residents made their living herding sheep.
Leyn quietly breathed a sigh of relief and seized the opening: "We've come to visit the parish priest of your village's Eternal Blazing Sun church, Guillaume Benet. But he's neither at home nor at the church."
"No need to say which church—Koldu has only one." Pierre, who'd drunk Leyn's free absinthe, kindly offered this reminder.
The other locals around the bar each drank their own liquor, and no one answered Leyn's question, as if that name stood for some taboo or authority that couldn't be discussed freely.
Lumian took a sip of his drink and thought for a few seconds. "I can probably guess where the parish priest is. Want me to take you there?"
"Then we'll trouble you." Lia didn't stand on ceremony.
Leyn nodded along: "After you finish that glass."
"Sure." Lumian raised his glass and gulped down the pale green liquid.
He set the glass down and stood up: "Let's go."
"Thank you so much." As Leyn beckoned Valentin and Lia to their feet, he offered his thanks to Lumian.
A smile appeared on Lumian's face: "Don't mention it. You listened to my story, I drank your liquor—that makes us all friends, doesn't it?"
"Yes." Leyn gave a slight nod.
Lumian's smile grew brighter, and he spread his arms as if to embrace the other man. At the same time, he said warmly, "So glad to meet you, my cabbages."
Leyn, who'd been about to accept the embrace, froze. "Cabbages?"
His expression was both bewildered and embarrassed. Valentin and Lia looked the same.
"It's our term of endearment for friends. Everyone in the Daleri region knows it—it's been that way for centuries." Lumian explained with an innocent face. "Trust me, my cabbages."
Lia couldn't help glancing around, setting off a jingling sound.
Pierre and the others nodded one after another, indicating that Lumian wasn't lying this time. But the smiles on their faces seemed to say that they were delighted to see the outlanders unable to handle such an affectionate form of address.
Lumian stroked his chin: "Don't like it?
"Then I'll use something else—also for addressing friends.
"My rabbits, my chicks, my ducks, my little lambs—which do you like?"
Leyn's expression grew stiffer, and Valentin frowned.
Half annoyed and half amused, Lia answered, "Let's stick with cabbages—at least it sounds a little more normal."
Whew. Leyn quietly let out a breath, pressed Valentin's elbow, and gave a slight nod. "They all sound like treasured things around the home."
Without waiting for Lumian to respond, he turned and said to the bartender, "The bill."
"Two Ferrin." The bartender glanced at the glasses on the bar.
While Leyn paid, Lia changed the subject: "Lumian—that's a rare name."
"At least it's better than Pierre or Guillaume." Lumian laughed. "If you shout 'Pierre' here, at least a third of the people will answer you. Shout 'Guillaume,' and another third will answer. And this one..."
He pointed at the lean middle-aged man drinking the free liquor: "His full name is Pierre Guillaume."
Lia laughed along, smoothing over the subject of cabbages.
Just before leaving the tavern, Lumian turned and swept his gaze around.
"What is it?" Lia asked curiously.
Lumian answered thoughtfully, "You three outlanders aren't the only ones who came to the tavern today. One more came earlier, but I don't know when they left."
"What did they look like?" Leyn's expression turned serious.
Lumian thought back: "A lady, very refined—clearly from a big city. I can't describe what she looked like. Want me to draw her for you?"
"Can you draw?" Having gotten a sense of Lumian's character, Lia asked warily.
Lumian laughed: "No."
"Then let's go find the parish priest first." Leyn ended the subject.
The night in Koldu village had no streetlamps, but it wasn't pitch dark. The twinkling stars high above cast a serene, faint glow, and together with the yellowish light leaking from the windows of some houses on either side of the road, the party of four walked steadily.
Before long, they arrived at the Eternal Blazing Sun church beside the village square.
On such a dark night, the village's grandest building seemed to melt into the night, appearing a little hazy.
"We've been here. There was no one." Valentin, who'd stayed coldly silent until now, frowned.
Lumian laughed. "No one at the front door doesn't mean there's no one anywhere else."
As he spoke, he led the three around the front of the church to a spot near the graveyard.
There was a dark brown wooden door here.
Before Leyn could knock, Lumian reached over and fiddled at the keyhole a few times.
With a creak, he opened the side door.
"This... isn't very polite, is it?" Leyn frowned.
Lia nodded with a jingle: "We're here to visit the parish priest, not to make trouble for him."
"Fair enough." Lumian was very willing to accept others' correct opinions.
He pulled the wooden door shut and knocked lightly.
"Hey, anyone there? If no one answers, I'm coming in." His voice was very low, as if he were talking to himself in the night.
Silence filled the church for a moment.
The next second, Lumian pushed the door open again and pointed inside: "Let's go in."
Leyn had wanted to refuse, but looking at the deep darkness beyond the door, after thinking for a few seconds, he exchanged a glance with his companions.
"All right." He stepped forward, slowly but firmly.
Lia and Valentin followed close behind.
At this moment, the four silver bells tied to Lia's two boots and the sides of her veil didn't make a sound at all.
In the dim, gloomy surroundings, the four pressed forward.
Suddenly, Leyn stopped and said in a hushed voice, "There seems to be some sound?"
"Yeah." Lumian agreed wholeheartedly.
As soon as he finished speaking, he shoved to the side and, with a clang, opened another door.
It seemed to be the church's confessional. Faint starlight flowed in, revealing a simple low bed and a naked man in his prime.
The man in his prime was pressing down on a woman's pale, naked body.
For a moment, everyone froze—including the man and the woman beneath him.
A few seconds later, the man twisted his head around and roared at Leyn and the others, "You sons of bitches! You've ruined the Holy Church's operation!"
Amid the echoing roar, Lumian—who'd long since slipped behind Leyn and the others—waved his hand, laughed, and said very quickly, "Looks like we found the parish priest! See you tomorrow, my cabbages!"
Halfway through, he'd already turned and dashed for the side door, the last words trailing off on the wind, growing fainter and fainter.
At that moment, the same sentence surfaced in the minds of Lia, Leyn, and Valentin at once.
The words spoken by that middle-aged man called Pierre Guillaume:
"This kid is the village's biggest prankster. You'd better keep your distance from him..."
...
Under the starlight spilling from high above, Lumian began to whistle.
Hands in his pockets, he strolled leisurely along the country road.
"So the parish priest really is having an affair with Madame Pualis.
"These outlanders clearly carry some status. The parish priest surely won't dare do anything to them. He'll have to pay a steep price to stop word of his adultery in the church from getting out, won't he?
"Hmph, serves him right for always having designs on Aurore. I've waited a long time for this chance..."
Muttering to himself, Lumian returned to his home on the edge of the village.
It was a two-story house built half into the ground. The first floor was a kitchen that doubled as a sitting room, with an oven and a large stove.
"Aurore! Aurore!" Lumian called as he climbed the stairs.
No one answered him.
The second floor had three rooms plus a washroom, all with their doors standing open now.
Lumian glanced into them one by one but didn't see his sister.
He thought for a moment, then went to the end of the hallway and climbed up a ladder propped there onto the roof.
The orange-red roof was wrapped in the pervasive night. In the center sat a figure, hugging her knees, quietly gazing at the starry sky.
She was an exceptionally beautiful woman, with long, thick golden hair, pale blue eyes, and vivid, striking features.
Now her gaze was fixed on the sky, on those twinkling points of brilliance, her expression serene as a statue.
Lumian said nothing. He moved over beside the woman and sat down as well.
He raised his head slightly and gazed at the distant mountains and forests, listening to the sound of a gust of wind sweeping through the trees.
After some time, the woman raised her arms and stretched lazily, with no regard for poise.
"Aurore, I don't understand what's so worth looking at in a view like this—worth coming up to the roof for so often." Lumian spoke up.
"Call me 'big sister'!" Aurore crooked a finger and rapped Lumian lightly on the head.
Then she sighed, her expression darkening: "A philosopher once said that only two things in this world are worthy of awe: the morality in one's heart, and the starry sky overhead."
Lumian glanced at his sister's slightly melancholy face and said deliberately, "I know this one! Emperor Roselle said it!"
"Pfft..." Aurore burst out laughing.
Then she sniffed, her pretty golden eyebrows shooting up: "You've been drinking again!"
"It's called socializing." Lumian took the cue and brought up what had just happened. "I ran into three outlanders..."
Aurore couldn't help but laugh. "I'm honestly afraid the parish priest will be frightened into some illness."
The next second, her face turned serious: "Lumian, stop provoking the parish priest. He won't do anything to me, and getting a new one would just be more trouble."
"But I hate him the moment I see him..." Before Lumian could finish, Aurore had already stood up.
She looked down at her younger brother and smiled. "All right, time for bed, my drunk little brother."
As she spoke, Aurore gave a casual flick of her hand, scattering a bit of silver dust.
Then her whole body floated up, like a little bird, drifting slowly down from the roof and into the second-floor window.
Lumian watched quietly, then called out anxiously, "What about me?"
"Climb down yourself!" Aurore called back mercilessly from inside the house.
Lumian pursed his lips, and the smile on his face slowly faded.
He watched the silver points of light swiftly wink out in the night, sighed softly, and murmured to himself, "I wonder when I'll be able to have supernatural power like this..."
Chapter 2