Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 10 Does the pressure of faith come from money?
Early the next morning, Alice was awakened from her sleep by Lingge, who gave her a difficult task.

"Tomorrow is the seventh day of worship. I'm going out to buy some things. You clean the chapel." He handed a broom to Alice, who was still dazed with drooping eyelids, and asked with a frown, "It's just sweeping the floor. You should know how to do it, right?"

This seemed to be a question about the lower limit of human intelligence, which immediately irritated Alice's fragile glass heart, causing her to suddenly perk up and shout, "What kind of talk is this? Since I, Alice, have said that I want to be a qualified maid, then I will do what I say! Sweeping the floor is nothing to me, a genius player!"

She really likes to say the words "genius player". Is this a great achievement in another world?
Lingge did not realize that he had unknowingly accepted the setting of the other world. Seeing Alice's energetic look, he believed in her ability. After giving her a few simple instructions, he left the church, leaving the girl alone, waving her broom, imagining herself as an invincible knight who was about to conquer the most stubborn and vicious enemy in the world.

The good news is that Lingge thoughtfully closed the door before leaving, so there is no need to worry about passers-by seeing her "lively and active" appearance.

Perhaps, this is also to preserve the reputation of Tianxin Church.

After showing off for a while, Alice finally realized that this kind of self-entertainment was really silly, and she was also under performance pressure, so it was not the time to fool around.

So I obediently grabbed the broom and started to clean the chapel. Although it was boring, I still comforted myself that this was a daily task, a way to improve my favorability, and a small transition before starting the main story. As a genius player, I must be able to endure loneliness and patience, and I must firmly believe that good days are still to come...

Just when she was getting into the groove and was about to hypnotize herself successfully, footsteps were suddenly heard at the stairs. Then, a pink-haired little girl in pajamas, wearing a pair of fluffy slippers, yawned and walked down the stairs.

Alice, who was struggling with the dust, took some time out of her busy schedule to greet her: "Hi, good morning, Metien."

"What is the Seven Days Ceremony?" She supported the end of the broom handle with both hands, rested her chin on it, and stared at the little girl with her ruby-like eyes, revealing her strong desire for knowledge: "Some kind of religious ceremony? Why do we need bread and milk?"

As she explained, Alice was relieved to have finally cleaned the main hall, which was lined with oak benches. She didn't feel tired at all, just bored.

She bowed her head slightly, put her left index and middle fingers together, and tapped her forehead, lips, and chest. After completing a simple morning ritual, she turned around and said to Alice, "The great goddess created the world in seven days, so we use the number 'seven' as a cycle to hold rituals to thank Her for Her mercy and selflessness. The ritual held every seven days is called the Seven Days Rituals. In addition, there are sacrificial ceremonies held every seven weeks, great eulogies held every seven months, and consecration ceremonies held every seven years. However, the latter ceremonies have not been held for a long time."

The next places to be cleaned were the altar area with the goddess statue and the main altar, as well as the corridor leading to the kitchen. Alice thought that she should be able to finish the cleaning before Lingge came back, so she wanted to be lazy and took this opportunity to ask Metien about something.

At this point, a hint of disappointment flashed across her eyes. Alice saw it clearly, but she was a person with high emotional intelligence who would not poke people's sore spots at such a time, so she calmly changed the subject: "I see, then, what are bread and milk used for? I heard that some churches like to distribute communion during prayer ceremonies, with bread representing God's flesh and milk representing God's blood. After eating the communion, it means that God is with you. Is this the same for you?"

"Good morning, Sister Alice." Metien replied, and at the same time, she scanned the chapel on the first floor, but did not find any familiar figures. She couldn't help but ask curiously, "Where's Ling? Is he out again?"

Metien wrinkled her nose upon hearing this and looked at her in surprise: "How could you have such an idea, Sister Alice? The goddess created the world and life. She is the mother of each of us. How can we hurt Her with such a malicious metaphor? Even if there is such a saying, it must have come from those cultists who like to use such rebellious and evil words to deceive the world. You must not be fooled!"

"It's our church's routine prayer activity." While answering, Metien had already walked down the stairs and came to the statue of the goddess.

"Yeah." Alice replied casually, "He said tomorrow is the Seven Days of Gift, so he has to go out and buy some things."

After hearing this, Metien understood, and a look of realization appeared on his face: "So that's the case, then he must have gone to Uncle Brady's bakery on the Strand. We bought the bread and milk we needed for the seven-day ceremony from there."

She tried to persuade him earnestly, but Alice decisively passed the buck and made a righteous cut: "I don't know, I just heard others talk about it, it has nothing to do with me. Well, if I continue to talk about it, it will easily be included in the sensitive word library, so let's talk about the uses of bread and milk."

What is a sensitive word library? Metien tilted his head, but did not ask further questions, and said: "In fact, bread and milk are not used, but distributed. Anyone who is willing to go to Tianxin Church to participate in the seven-day ceremony and listen to the goddess's teachings can receive four loaves of bread and half a pint of milk after the ceremony. Although they are all black bread mixed with bran, if you eat sparingly, you can eat them for several days."

"Oh?" Alice noticed that there seemed to be a small loophole in Metien's statement: "Anyone who is willing to participate in the seven-day ceremony can receive it? It is not limited to the goddess's believers?" "Of course not." Metien replied in a matter-of-fact tone: "Father said that all lives are children of the goddess, and they should not be treated differently. If that happens, even the goddess will be disappointed."

"But wouldn't that make it a charity?" Alice asked in confusion, "It would cost a lot of money, right?"

Seeing how frugal Lingge is, he doesn't look like a rich man.

"That's right. Most of the annual income of Tianxin Church is spent on this. Just to maintain the balance between income and expenditure, Lingge has consumed a lot of energy, and I can't help at all..." The little girl's voice gradually lowered, she slowly raised her head, her eyes fell on the mottled ceiling, feeling a little melancholy.

Alice thought back to yesterday's argument and suddenly understood something. She smacked her lips and said, "So that's why he wants to close Tianxin Church? This way there won't be any financial burden, and there will be subsidies and new jobs, right? This is much better than before. If it were me, I would make the same choice... uh, actually I was kidding, ha, hahaha!"

As she spoke, she laughed out of guilt, because she suddenly realized that Metien was a staunch opponent of closing the church, and she was able to stay as a maid because of Metien's insistence. The two of them could be considered good comrades on the same front, but she said something that was equivalent to betrayal. If it were in the game, it would be unreasonable if her favorability didn't drop by 70 or 80.

Will she be fired? Alice, the maid with the shortest tenure in history? I don't want such an achievement at all!

She was worried, but fortunately, Metien didn't notice her "inadvertent remark" and just retorted loudly: "Lingge is not that kind of person! If it was for money, he could have closed the church long ago. Why wait until now?"

Alice thought about it and it made sense. She couldn't help but become more curious: "So, what really made him make up his mind was not the economic pressure, but the so-called "Religious Decree"?"

Metien nodded sullenly: "Yeah."

When it came to the Religious Laws, she was not very interested, because that was the culprit of all the events and the culprit that disturbed her peaceful life.

Alice, who knew nothing about the content of the decree, searched carefully in her mind and found that there was no similar decree in the history of the earth. It should be a background setting unique to the game world view, just like the goddess worshipped by Lingge and Medien.

He immediately showed a strong interest that was completely different from the little girl: "So, so, what kind of law is it? Can you tell me in detail?"

"If I were to go into detail, it's very complicated because the decree covers many aspects. I heard that the original text alone is more than a hundred pages thick."

"Then don't go into detail. I don't mind."

Alice humbly asked for advice, and Metien couldn't refuse, so he simply explained the core content and main measures of the "Religious Decree" as Alice wished.

"To put it simply, in the past, only churches that were listed as cults by the Kingdom's Ministry of Religious Affairs were prohibited from building churches and preaching publicly. The Religious Decree has expanded this scope to all churches except the seven major orthodox churches. Regardless of the size or number of believers, they must complete rectification and close the church within the specified time. Otherwise, it will be regarded as a violation of the decree and will be forcibly banned. If they resist, they will even be arrested by the cult and the countries on the mainland."

"So domineering?"

Alice blurted out, and then focused on the strange term that suddenly appeared: "Cult Union? What is this?"

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)