Reincarnated in the Magical Realm

Chapter 8

Even though the priest who appeared this time did not introduce himself, the adults present with national certificates recognized him. As the high priest possessing light attribute magic, Priest Luke was someone all residents of the town of Kexiang would come into contact with. From baptizing newborns to treating injuries and illnesses on ordinary days, to presiding over funerals, everything relied on the assistance of the high priest.

Angelina, an unfamiliar child to the church, also had a deep impression of this priest. Serving as the high priest of the Kexiang church, Priest Luke was an old acquaintance of Angelina's mother, Fiona, and also the officiant at Fiona's funeral. Including today, Angelina had already seen Luke three times.

The first time was five years ago when she arrived in the small town of Kexiang. Following her mother into the church, she glanced behind Fiona. The second time was at Fiona's funeral, where she heard him chant the spells of departure and blessing. The third time was today, with Priest Luke standing less than a meter away.

However, even with a face that perfectly matched the image of a charitable and dignified figure associated with light attribute magic, Angelina still didn't have a friendly impression of him. She vividly remembered their first meeting when she was five. Luke didn't spare her a single glance, forcing her to strain her neck just to catch a glimpse of his profile as he left with Fiona.

During their second encounter at the funeral, Angelina did have direct contact with Luke. After chanting the spells of departure and blessings, Luke, wearing a poker face, stared at her for a while, handed her a notebook where Fiona had written her last words, then calmly averted his gaze, loudly declaring the end of the funeral.

Now, recalling the events, Angelina could still feel the disdain emanating from Luke's gaze during their first encounter. He didn't even bother to conceal it. Today marked their third meeting, and despite Angelina tilting her head up, staring directly at his face, the nearby Luke continued to completely ignore her presence, just like the first time.

Feeling somewhat disheartened, Angelina associated seeing Priest Luke with her late mother Fiona's habit of hiding many things from her when she was still young. Even in terms of Fiona's old acquaintances, it was something Fiona avoided talking about.

Yet, Angelina couldn't stay disheartened for long. Aunt Maria had relaxed her grip earlier, but this time, it was noticeably intentional. Meeting Angelina's inquiring gaze, Aunt Maria smiled soothingly, leaned down, and whispered in Angelina's ear.

"Lily, rest assured. Your auntie is blessed by the goddess of luck today. Later, Lily can go with Jack to get a close-up look at the magical tools of the court mages."

Um, the confidently winning tone did make it quite tempting to believe. Today, Aunt Maria's behavior was strange, mysterious, and somewhat incomprehensible, completely contradicting the practical image Angelina had of her as a bread maker in the past.

Angelina tilted her head, feeling puzzled but refrained from asking further questions. Before, Maria was just a practical baker who didn't treat mages as objects requiring special attention. Today's strange confidence, coupled with the peculiar insistence on court mages, completely contradicted the image Angelina had of Maria in her heart.

Angelina didn't have much time to ponder. Without further special explanations, the activity of extracting national points began.

The audience with national certificates had already formed a queue voluntarily based on the distance of the route and the speed of their reactions. Right after Maria's words, she took a big step forward and stood at the forefront of the first group.

Separated briefly from Maria, Jack immediately stuck to Angelina, his whole body radiating excitement and anticipation. "Lily, my grandmother's national points are high. We can occupy a designated position for seven places."

Faced with Jack's decisive declaration, Angelina found herself at a loss for words on where to start criticizing. Firstly, the National Points Lottery was not selected based on the points' magnitude. Secondly, just because David wrote down seven numbers didn't mean there were necessarily seven corresponding national point holders present.

Seeing Jack so happy, Angelina couldn't bring herself to say anything discouraging. Undeniably, she also held expectations for Aunt Maria's lottery results. After all, she was Maria's temporary granddaughter.

The number of people holding national certificates in the main hall was controlled within a hundred, and with children without national certificates included, there were almost three hundred people gathered in the main hall. For the relatively small town of Kexiang, this level of participation in an activity was considered unusually high.

Despite the high participation, the lottery process proceeded calmly and orderly. Priest Luke held a "card-swiping machine" in his hand, and others queued up to swipe their certificates. When the magical tool, shaped like a card slot, was placed and subsequently removed from the ID card, the embedded magic stones on the edges would light up in red. Then, it would emit the universal "beep" sound and project an illusionary screen, displaying the corresponding national points to the audience.

National points were by no means a matter of privacy. It was as transparent as the registration plate during church affairs, always open and visible. Angelina earnestly remembered every displayed number, and surprisingly, no one had the same national points.

But the most astonishing part was that Jack hadn't exaggerated. Aunt Maria's national points were the highest, the neatest, precisely one hundred thousand points. Beneath Aunt Maria's points, the highest was hovering around ten thousand, while the rest were in the hundreds.

National points weren't only obtained through daily prayers; they could also be earned by completing church-assigned tasks or making outstanding contributions. Many times, the Adventurers' Association would also issue tasks on behalf of the church to earn national points. However, for adventurers, national points were not essential. Registered adventurers usually had personal connections and could find solutions to problems. In most cases, national points were just for show, and when accepting tasks, church missions were the last choice.

Similar to Aunt Maria, ordinary people who could only engage in small businesses without special talents wouldn't take on church tasks with risks. The bulk of their points came from daily prayers. It was unclear how Aunt Maria quietly earned a whole one hundred thousand points, and this miraculous number inevitably stirred up a commotion.

Jack, of course, hadn't thought so much. After seeing his grandmother Maria's points, he excitedly began shaking Angelina's hand, feeling this was his supreme glory.

"Did Aunt Maria take on church tasks?" Angelina whispered gently to Jack. Such private matters couldn't be asked loudly, fortunately, Jack, though proud at the moment, wasn't irrational.

He leaned in, imitating Angelina, lowering his voice.

"My grandmother came to the church today to submit the precious books that the church collected at a high price. I heard it was something my father left behind – an old, particularly tattered book. My grandmother said it was an antique my father collected during his lifetime, useless to keep at home, and the words on it couldn't be understood... I didn't expect that old book to be worth so many points."

After hearing the crucial details from Jack's words, Angelina felt the vague discomfort she had before growing more pronounced. All the audience with national certificates had already displayed their points, and Aunt Maria, as the event's proxy, didn't leave this flaw unresolved.

Maria waved the makeshift wand in her hand, and in mid-air, seven digits composed of water droplets appeared. All these numbers ended with zero and, among them, the last digit read "a hundred thousand."