94: Chapter 94 God Doesn't Care? (Bonus Chapter, Debt Settled)

Royal Capital Church.

Today is the weekend; the church is not receiving believers, and the main gate is tightly shut.

Although the weather is sunny and the sun is bright, the doors and windows are closed, and inside the solemn church where the magic crystal has not been activated, the light is dim.

"Creak—"

The tall crystal glass door is pushed open just a crack, and Haige nimbly slips inside and closes the door.

Walking through the aisle between the two rows of pews, he arrives at the feet of the faceless statue of god.

The Bishop of the Royal Capital Church—Jarvis, kneels on a cushion, looking up at the statue of god, his eyes pondering something.

Jarvis wears a clean, wide white priest's robe, with long, greying hair draped over his back.

His face is covered in wrinkles, making it difficult to distinguish his features, and deep within his cloudy eyes, there is a hint of confusion.

He holds a church bible in his hands; clearly, this scripture, supposedly bestowed by the god, is not enough to resolve his doubts.

"Teacher." Haige stands behind him and says in a low voice, "News has come from the Bala City branch; Potter's student violated church regulations by fighting a Professional within the city, and in the end, both sides perished together."

His cloudy eyes show no fluctuation as he asks, "Are you sure?"

"The new bishop of Bala City witnessed it and strictly inspected the battle scene."

"I understand."

"Teacher, should we..."

Waving his hand to interrupt him, Jarvis says in a hoarse voice, "Could he have become an undead?"

"The body was blown to smithereens, and it was within the radiation range of the church's monitoring magic crystal; it is absolutely impossible."

"So, why care about a dead person? Isn't that a waste of time and life?"

"I will remember Teacher's words."

He looks up, squinting, and examines the statue of god shrouded in dimness, its smooth, featureless face: "Haige, do you believe that gods exist on the Saul Continent?"

"The student's faith in the gods is pure, without the slightest impurity."

"Speak plainly."

"If there really were a god, they would surely first bring divine punishment down upon everyone in the church."

Jarvis's wrinkles bunch together: "Including you and me?"

"Including Teacher and student." Haige smiles.

"Hahaha... So you think there are no gods on the Saul Continent."

Frowning, Haige ponders for a long time: "There should be."

"Why?"

"Miracles truly exist."

"Then." The confusion in Jarvis's eyes deepens, "Why do the gods not bring divine punishment upon our evil deeds?"

Not waiting for Haige to speak, he mutters to himself, "Of course, it is because the god does not care?"

Haige, standing behind him, doesn't quite understand, so he nods in agreement.

Bala City.

After Zhang Mu revived, he activated the Shadow Technique to leave the Marvin Magic Family residence and quietly tailed the church procession.

Following them to the church, he watched the bishop and the Fanatic go inside. Zhang Mu did not leave; he poked his head out from the mouth of a small alley opposite the main gate and kept watch all night.

Until dawn, when he was certain the other party hadn't discovered anything unusual, he dusted off his bottom and left.

He found an empty corner to deactivate the Shadow Technique, then used the Transformation Technique to construct an image of an ordinary Knight-class Adventurers for himself, and swayed back to the inn.

He went upstairs and knocked on Frederica's door, but no one opened the door for a long time.

He ran to knock on the doors of Saldari and Alice, but it was the same.

Scratching his head, he went downstairs to the bar to ask, and the receptionist girl told him that the three elves had checked out at dawn.

Zhang Mu suddenly realized.

They must have thought he was dead and that the labyrinth exploration had ended, so they left this Bala City, where they had no reason to stay long.

That's fine; next, he has to go to the perilous Silent Forest to find treasure, and he will inevitably need to use mutation magic, so acting alone is more convenient.

We shall meet again if fate allows.

Having figured out the reason, Zhang Mu didn't intend to linger here and turned to walk toward the main entrance.

"Have you heard that rumor?"

"The whole of Bala City should know about it, right?"

"Every deep night, a terrifying monster wanders the streets."

"Many townspeople throwing out trash at night have encountered it; a monster with fangs jumps out of the trash heap, opens its bloody maw, and devours humans."

Zhang Mu, who had walked a few steps, almost died laughing.

What kind of ridiculous rumor is this?

Although he doesn't particularly like the church, he cannot deny that in a city with a church, no monster can sneak in silently.

Even if such a powerful monster really snuck in, was its brain kicked by a donkey that it would dig into a trash heap?

Do monsters not have any dignity?

Shaking his head with a smile, Zhang Mu continued walking, but when he heard the two girls' next sentence, his footsteps faltered.

"It's not just fangs, oh; I also heard the monster has a pair of ears growing on its head that can absorb human Mental Energy!"

Turning around and rushing to the bar, Zhang Mu leaned his upper body almost entirely into the bar: "What kind of ears?"

"Ah?!" Startled by his ferocious expression, the girl tremblingly used her index and middle fingers to make a "V" shape, placing them on top of her head, "I, I heard it's like this..."

Rabbit ears? Not cat ears?

Zhang Mu's eyes became suspicious: "Are you sure?"

"Sir Knight, I also heard it from Aunt Mary next door." The little girl was scared to the point of tears.

Did I guess wrong?

But... because the Lake Kingdom extremely rejects demi-humans, the number of demi-humans within its borders is already very scarce.

In the remote Bala City, would two demi-humans appear so coincidentally?

Pondering for a moment, Zhang Mu continued to ask: "How tall is the monster? Is it small and thin, or burly?"

"Sir, Sir Knight, I really don't know..."

Seeing that he couldn't get anything out of her, he apologized to the girl and turned to run out the main gate.

Standing on the street looking left and right, Zhang Mu furrowed his brows, pondering where to go to find the "monster."

Saying Bala City is remote is relative to prosperous cities.

It is still a city, after all; looking for a "monster" alone in the crisscrossing streets and alleys, who knows how long it would take, and one might not even find it in the end.

"There's no other way; let's just look for it first."

If it really is Lia, and she is wandering the city alone, then the Kas Town townspeople must have met with misfortune...

Wandering at night, trash heap...

Zhang Mu's eyes lit up, and he turned his steps; she wouldn't dare expose her tracks, so she probably wouldn't dare go to the trash heaps on the main streets.

Making a judgment, he specifically ducked into the secluded alleys that townspeople rarely set foot in, rummaging through the trash piled in the corners.

From the bright sun to the sunset glow, he had absolutely no gains.

After turning over another pile of trash and not finding anyone, Zhang Mu sighed and slumped against the base of the wall.

Searching for a day, he hadn't found a single thing; huh, there is another pile of trash at the alley entrance.

Standing up in surprise, Zhang Mu walked toward the alley entrance with long strides.