Rebirth in the Magic Continent

8. Doubt

Even though the Magus who appeared this time didn't introduce himself, the adults who had national cards at the scene recognized him.

As a high priest with light-attribute magic, Magister Rook was the one that all the residents of Kesrang Town would come into contact with.

From the baptism of newborns, to the treatment of weekday injuries and illnesses, to the hosting of funerals could not be done without the help of the Grand Priest.

Inari, a child unfamiliar with the church, also had a deep impression of this cleric.

This cleric, Rook, who held the position of High Priest of the church in Kesrang, was an old acquaintance of her mother, Fuchsir, and was also the officiant of Fuchsir's funeral.

--

Counting today, Inari had already met Rook three times.

The first time was five years ago, when she first came to the small town of Kesrang, when she entered the church with her mother, and glanced behind Fursil; the second time was at her mother's funeral, when she listened to him chanting the spells of the afterlife and blessing; and then the third time was today, when Magister Rook was standing less than a meter away in front of her eyes.

However, even though Magister Rook had a charitable and dignified face that perfectly fit the image of light-attribute magic, Inari still had no friendly impression of him.

Inari fondly remembered the first meeting when she was five years old, Rook did not drop a single glance for her, and it was only through her own desperate tilting of her head that she was able to see the side of Rook's face as he turned around and left with Fushil.

The second meeting at the funeral, Inari did get to meet Rook head on.

Rook, who had finished chanting the Blessing of the Past Life spell, put on a poker face, gazed at her for a moment, handed her a notebook in which Fucile had written her last words, and then, calmly averting his eyes, loudly proclaimed the end of the funeral for the day.

Thinking about it now, Inari could still feel the disgust that flowed from Rook's staring eyes at that time, and he didn't even bother to hide it.

--

Today was the third time we met. Inari tilted her head and stared straight into his face, but the near-by Rook still completely ignored her presence as he did the first time.

Inari was a bit demoralized, seeing Magister Rook reminded her of the fact that her deceased mother, Fursil, always hid many things from her when she was still young. It was in the area of her mother's old acquaintances that was one of the things that Fuchsir avoided talking about.

However, Inari couldn't lose heart for long, as the intensity of Aunt Marlene's previous relaxation increased again, but this time it was clearly intentional.

Meeting Inari's questioning eyes, Great Aunt Marlene smiled reassuringly and bowed slightly to Inari's ear, and

“Lily don't worry, your aunt is blessed by the goddess of fortune today. In a moment Lilly can also join Jerry for a closer look at the court wizard's magical props.”

......

Well, that tone of triumphant certainty did kind of make you want to believe it. Today's Marlene was acting mysterious and unintelligible.

Inari tilted her head, a bit puzzled, but didn't ask any further questions. In the past, Marlene was just a pragmatic baker, but completely did not treat magicians as objects that needed special treatment ...... Today this strange confidence, coupled with the strange obsession with court magicians, completely contradicted Marlene's previous image in Inari's mind.

Inari didn't have time for deep thought. Without more special instructions, the reading of national points began.

The spectators present who possessed national cards had already consciously formed a line according to the distance of the path and the speed of their response. Aunt Marlene took an arrow step forward directly after the words fell and stood in the first division of the line.

Jerry, who had been briefly separated from himself by Great-Aunt Marlene, also posted himself at once, with excitement and anticipation written all over his body and soul, and

“Lily, my grandmother has so many national points that one of the seven positions is designated to be taken.”

At Jerry's arbitrary declaration, Inari surprisingly didn't know which point to start spitting at for a moment.

First of all, [National Points Draw] is not a sorted selection according to the high or low number of points; once again Dai Li's writing of seven numbers does not mean that seven corresponding National Points must exist in the presence ......

Seeing how happy Jerry was now, Inari couldn't say anything discouraging, and anyway, it was undeniable that she also had expectations for the result of Aunt Marlene's drawing. Right now she was still Great Aunt Marlene's temporary granddaughter.

--

The number of people holding national cards in the main hall was kept to a hundred, and counting the children without national cards, there were nearly three hundred people gathered in the main hall. For this not-so-large town of Kesrang, the number of people participating in this event is considered to be a surprisingly high level of enthusiasm.

Despite the heat, the selection process was carried out in a calm and orderly manner.

Magister Rook held a “card machine” in his hand, while the others lined up to swipe their documents.

When the card slot shaped magic prop was put on and then left, the magic stone embedded on the edge would also light up red, and then emit the “drop~” sound that was common in all worlds, and finally projected an illusory light screen, showing the corresponding national points to the outside world.

National Points were certainly not a private matter. It was directly equated with the registration plate when doing business at the church, and was never open and transparent.

Inari carefully memorized every number displayed, and amazingly, no one had the same number of national points.

But the most amazing thing was that Jerry wasn't exaggerating the fact that Great Aunt Marlene's National Points were the largest, the neatest, of all the numbers that appeared, exactly 100,000 points.

All the points under Great Aunt Marlene hovered around ten thousand at the highest, with the rest in the hundreds being the norm.

Naturally, national points are not only obtained by punching the daily prayer card, but also by completing tasks commissioned by the church, or by making any outstanding contributions.

Often times, the Adventurer's Association would also send out national points on behalf of the tasks provided by the church... However, national points were not a necessity for adventurers.

Registered adventurers basically have their own personal connections, and can find a way to solve things when they come across them. For the most part, national points were just a fiddle for adventurers, and when it came to picking up quests, church quests were the last choice.

Ordinary people like Aunt Marlene, who could only do small business and had no special talent, would not take the risky missions issued by the church, and the bulk of the points were spent on daily prayers.

I don't know how Aunt Marlene earned enough points to earn 100,000 without moving, this incredible number of points unsurprisingly triggered a clamor.

Jerry, of course, didn't think so much of it, and he was so excited to see his grandmother Marlene's points that he began to shake Inari's hand, only to feel that this too belonged to him as a supreme honor.

“Did Aunt Marlene take the church assignment?” Inari whispered softly into Jerry's ear, this kind of personal question could not be asked in a high-profile manner of course, but fortunately Jerry, although proud and self-satisfied at the moment but not so much as to lose his mind.

He followed Inari's general example of coming closer and lowering his voice.

“My grandmother came to the church today to turn in the precious books that the church had levied at a high price, I heard that it was something left behind by my father, I had a sneak peek at it this morning, it was a particularly worn out ancient book. My grandmother said that it was an antique book collected by my father during his lifetime, which happened to be the book that the church demanded, and it was useless to leave it at home, and the words on it were unreadable ...... I didn't realize that the worn out book was worth so many points...”

Inari, after listening to the crux of Jerry's words, only felt that the vague sense of incongruity she had felt before was now getting worse and worse.

--

All of the spectators with national cards had already displayed their points, and Maria, who was the commissioning agent of the event, had no such faults as leaving it in suspense.

Maria waved her simple wand in her hand, and seven numbers made up of water droplets appeared in mid-air, all of which were integers ending in zero, and the last digit of these seven numbers was “100,000”.