Mystery: Lucky One

"...What happened?" Anthony did not answer her question. At a certain moment, he remembered the disappearance of the donation box of the Storm Church.

Alice handed over the box and said hesitantly:

"The Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom sent me a '0' grade sealed artifact... It is formed by the 'Prophet' extraordinary characteristic of the 'Destiny' pathway sequence 2.

“But, they didn’t give me the information about the Sealed Object… maybe they thought I didn’t need it?

"But, I actually want to take a look. I have something I want to confirm..."

She didn't want to make it too obvious to say the specific reason, so Archbishop Anthony didn't ask this question, but shook his head and answered one of her doubts:
"I understand... However, the people from the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom may not have intentionally kept the information about the Sealed Artifact from you."

Alice looked at him quizzically.

"'The Prophet'..." Archbishop Anthony glanced at the box but did not try to open it. "This is a '0' level sealed item, right?"

Alice nodded and said, "Yes, the number is '0-34'."

"'0-34'..." Anthony repeated thoughtfully, "Although I don't know the specific preservation method of the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, at least, within the Nighthawks, all '1' and '0' grade seals are not in paper form."

"Huh?" Alice opened her eyes wide.

"This is to keep it secret." Anthony looked at her and said meaningfully.

Alice, who was not good at keeping secrets, felt guilty for a moment, and soon couldn't help asking:
"But, in this case, does it mean that every time a saint appears in the church, the seniors will have to start from '0-01' and recite the information of all '0'-level seals and '1'-level seals?"

Alice imagined in her mind the scene of Archbishop Anthony reciting all the information to her, and shuddered with horror.

"...No," Anthony denied Alice's guess, "Normally, there should be special magical items or rituals to solve similar problems."

"Ah..." Alice felt a little disappointed for some reason. She soon had a new question, "Then, are the information of our church separated? In other words, can we retrieve it separately if we want to?"

Alice felt that no matter which answer she gave to this question, it was inappropriate.

The method of looking up information one by one is not much different from the method of having other saints orally narrate information after being promoted to a saint. Both are troublesome and give Alice a headache.

As for the other way - being able to check all the information at once, that would be even more troublesome.

The trouble here mainly lies in the confidentiality level and some special seals, such as "0-08".

After experiencing the incident in Tingen City, Alice knew that although the church's confidentiality level was there, special orders could be issued for some emergency situations, including but not limited to the temporary use of various seals and materials.

But if an extraordinary person whose confidentiality level is not high enough temporarily calls up the information of a "level 0" or "level 1" sealed object, what should be done with the extra sealed object information?
Archbishop Anthony smiled and answered this serious question:
"After you are promoted to a saint, or when you need it, you can touch a sacred object of the goddess and obtain 'authority' after your application is approved.

"Next, you can go and 'read' the information of the sealed object.

"For the information that you don't have 'authorization' for or that your 'authorization' level is not high enough, you won't be able to remember it even if you've read it."

Alice was stunned for two seconds before she realized that this was the power of "secret".

At the same time, she also realized that she seemed to have no "authority".

When her hesitant eyes fell on Anthony, Anthony added as if he had expected it:
"If you have information about a seal you want to know, it would be best to ask the goddess."

Alice gave up immediately. There was no way she would ask the goddess about such a thing. After all, the goddess was not the respected Mr. Fool. It would be fine if she said she was playing around, but she probably wouldn't really be her mother.

Thinking of this, Alice sighed again and said to Archbishop Anthony:

“Then, can you help me contact the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom?
"Just say, I need information about '0-34'..."

"Of course." Archbishop Anthony easily agreed to the request.

Alice let out a sigh of relief after finishing the first task, and continued:

“I have one more thing I need the church’s help with…it could also be mutual help.

"I need the chance to play the role of 'Mage of Doom'."

"'The Master of Doom'..." Archbishop Anthony repeated the name and frowned.

As a Sequence 3 "Bishop of Fear", he certainly would not be unaware of the existence of role-playing, and the church would also provide role-playing opportunities for the Nighthawks and Red Gloves.

But in the final analysis, whether it is the Nighthawks or the Red Gloves, most of those who need the church to provide role-playing opportunities are mid-sequence Beyonders, and almost all of them are from the "Sleepless" and "Corpse Collector" paths.

This is closely related to the potion formula made public by the church.

Of course, this is not the point. The point is that the church is familiar with the way to play each sequence of the "Sleepless" path and the "Corpse Collector" path. Although everyone's playing method is different, it is basically the same in the final analysis. It is easy for the church to provide corresponding tasks.

But Sequence 4 of the "Destiny" path, "Mage of Doom", was a completely unfamiliar potion name, and Anthony obviously had no idea how to play it.

As for other things, Anthony had no interest in exploring. He was well aware of the importance of "keeping secrets", the most important of which was not to explore.

Alice was not surprised by Archbishop Anthony's doubts. She had also thought of this. She said carefully:

"If I'm not mistaken, the 'Doom Mage' should be a character who controls doom and can bring doom to others..."

Anthony's gentle expression disappeared. He looked at Alice, frowned, and repeated:
"Bringing bad luck to others?"

Alice's voice paused instinctively. She looked at Anthony and found that he was looking at her, as if considering how to start talking.

For a moment, Alice remembered the look in the eyes of the Chief of Silver City.

It is undeniable that similar thoughts do occur to him and are indeed consistent with the image she has always had, but after seeing the sincere praise, Alice gradually understood the reason for her discomfort.

Although neither of them put her on an equal footing and both held her high up, how could those vigilant eyes be compared with admiration and gratitude?
Alice gradually realized that she was disgusted by others' vigilance and caution towards her, as if she would do something outrageous if she wasn't careful - please, is she that kind of person? She is not, and Klein has always believed in her!
She suddenly lost interest in continuing speaking and looked up at Archbishop Anthony without saying anything.

This attitude was like a child throwing a tantrum. Archbishop Anthony paused, glanced at Alice, and then said in his gentle voice, "I think there should be other ways to act, right?

"I can see that although you like to play, you don't like to do things like this."

Alice stared at Archbishop Anthony without saying a word, trying to tell whether he was lying. Soon she failed, lowered her head, and said while rubbing the floor with her toes:
“You’re right, there are indeed other ways to act.

“It’s probably okay to help others get rid of bad luck or something.

"In short, it shows a kind of control over misfortune."

As Alice said this, she thought of Admithal in the underground market of the Dragon Bar.

As a natural born "monster", he is different from other ordinary people who are born with Sequence 10. He is born with Sequence 9.5 of the "monster" pathway.

This was his luck and also his misfortune.

Before he had any idea about acting, Alice gave him a recipe for a "monster" potion, which, as she said, ended his past bad luck but did not necessarily symbolize good luck.

Just like although the name is "Mage of Misfortune", the ability gained after taking the magic potion of "Mage of Misfortune" is not to control misfortune, but to control the probability of things. As for whether the things represent luck or misfortune, no one knows.

Thinking of this, Alice muttered thoughtfully:
“Luck and bad luck don’t actually exist in isolation… Even if we control the probability of every event happening, we still can’t say whether every event is luck or bad luck.”

Alice's joyful spirit responded to this statement, and she realized that this was also part of the method of acting - luck and bad luck did not exist independently, but were interdependent.

And even if you are the one who controls misfortune, you cannot truly control misfortune.

There was something of a hallucination about this acting, and Alice thought of the "winner" and the "lucky one" again.

It was not until Alice saw the sarcastic words "Happy Birthday" written in pinyin in the "Accessories for Making Fortune" that she realized that those who are chosen by fate are the real "winners."

It wasn't until Ince Zangwill showed up and pulled the beating heart out of her chest that Alice realized the importance of not relying on luck.

Although she didn't change much at that time.

From this perspective, the "Disaster Priest" that she has not played will probably have one line - "Disaster also means opportunity."

Thinking deeper, maybe “machines” can also be inaccurate sometimes, and “monsters” can sometimes be more human than humans…

Of course, those were too far away and had nothing to do with Alice. At this moment, she was standing in the basement of St. Samuel's Church, listening to Archbishop Anthony's response:
"Is this so..."

Alice immediately came to her senses and looked at Archbishop Anthony with expectant eyes.

Archbishop Anthony shook his head, frowned slightly and said:
“Honestly, I’d love to offer you the opportunity to act, and it doesn’t even require consent.

“The problem is, I don’t know where to put you.

"Even if I put you in the Red Gloves or Nighthawks team, no one would treat you as an ordinary team member. But if you are not treated as an ordinary team member...

"Do you have the ability to lead a team independently and complete tasks on your own?"

Alice shook her head very self-awarely.

This is where the problem lies, Archbishop Anthony frowned and continued:
"If you can be a little patient, there may be an option."

Alice looked at Archbishop Anthony curiously, waiting for him to continue.

Anthony exhaled, and then continued:

"You could consider becoming a priest in the church, or even a bishop or archbishop..."

Having said this, he paused slightly, glanced at Alice, and added:
"Of course, you don't have to deal with these chores like I do. In fact, we all know that you are probably not qualified for this job... but your salary will be less than that of a normal bishop."

Alice's eyes lit up.

This is the biggest difference between the Church of Night and Alice's impression of it - the priests here include not only priests, but also... female priests. Would it be appropriate to call them Mother Priests?

Alice wasn't sure, because the church uniformly called them priests, unlike the Storm Church, which clearly called them fathers.

Likewise, the Church of Evernight has no shortage of female bishops and archbishops. According to information within the church, the goddess also has no shortage of female angels and followers.

It can be seen that the goddess is indeed actively promoting gender equality... uh, wait, gender equality?

Alice blinked twice, realizing what she had overlooked.

She believed that the idea of ​​gender equality was not something she had brought up, and she also knew that there was more than one goddess promoting gender equality, but this did not prevent Alice from having certain doubts - the main reason was that she had a very simple way to verify it.

"That's a good idea," Alice said to Archbishop Anthony with a smile, "but I still need some time to prepare."

After a brief pause, Alice continued:

“I’m actually not familiar with the work of a bishop or something like that—of course, it’d be better if it’s not that high, so that I can get used to being an ordinary priest.

"But even so, I still feel that I need some induction training to get familiar with the job content and workflow...

"Besides, I'm not familiar with the church's scriptures... Is the new scripture not yet written? Are there any old ones here? Can I take a copy back?"

——The creation theory of God in the "Ancient Sun God" scripture exposed everything, and on the goddess's side, if it was true, Alice didn't believe that there would be no trace of it in the scripture.

The part about the Creator doesn't count. In Alice's impression, there are many poems in the scriptures of the Church of Evernight. Unfortunately, she didn't listen carefully during class...

Alice sighed in her heart and silently prayed that Archbishop Anthony's answer was yes, otherwise she would have to spend money to buy it. (End of this chapter)