madnovel Chapter 5 Report
Chapter 5 Report
Today is Monday, not a day off, so there weren't many people going into the church for Mass, in fact, quite few.
Although the number was not large, the quality was generally high. The believers, both men and women, were all well-dressed and fashionable, and most of them seemed to have very good living conditions.
This is not surprising, as churches never refuse any believers, not even the most humble ones.
However, the division among believers was still very serious. No middle-class or aristocratic believers were willing to tolerate the dirty poor and to perform the same rituals with them in the same enclosed space.
Clearly, the church recognized this situation, so they often provided relief to the poor on Saturdays or Sundays, giving them food and artificially dividing the believers so that the poor would come to church to pray at a fixed time, leaving the rest of the time for the relatively wealthy and well-off believers.
Gradually, it became a custom for everyone to come and pray at a certain time. It was clear that most of those who came to pray at St. Serena's Church today came from good families.
Even so, Evan stood out among the believers.
This was not only because of Evan's outstanding appearance, but also because of his superior attire.
His long tailcoat, stiff-collared white shirt, large bow tie, and brand-new leather boots, along with his dark hair and handsome face that could grace a magazine cover, made Evan an instant head-turner as soon as he entered the church.
Not to mention the exquisite cane inlaid with huge turquoise in his hand, and the intricately patterned gold pocket watch on his chest. Even the most clueless person could tell that this was the most popular style this year. The two together were worth at least 300 gold pounds.
Some stylishly dressed young girls were immediately intrigued and eagerly inquired about Evan's background from their parents and those around them. However, they clearly didn't find out anything, because Evan didn't often appear at the church. In the past, he would pray in a private prayer room in his own villa and rarely came to the church.
But this only aroused the girls' great interest, because it showed that Evan's status was noble and that he was not in the same social class as them. So they looked at Evan with even more fervor, and their eyes even seemed to gleam with a hint of green.
After all, in this era, many girls hope to achieve upward social mobility through marriage. Therefore, these girls who came with their parents not only paid close attention to Evan's movements, but also subtly guarded against the movements of other girls. Their parents were obviously happy to see this happen.
Fortunately, this was a church, and the bishop who was about to preach was about to arrive, so everyone maintained a necessary level of composure, but the church was not as quiet as before.
Evan ignored the stares coming his way, or rather, he was already used to it. Whether in his previous life or his original self, he had never lacked girls who wanted to get close to him in school, so he was used to these situations. What interested him more was the situation inside the church.
In his previous life, Evan was a member of the Great Foodie Empire and was an atheist throughout his life. He knew very little about church architecture, and most of his knowledge came from history textbooks.
My only contact with religion was going to church with classmates on December 25th, but that was mainly to watch the fun and I didn't participate in any religious ceremonies.
The original owner disliked large group activities and, in addition, was instructed by her brother to keep a low profile. Therefore, she prayed in the prayer room at home when she had religious needs and never came to the Church of St. Serena.
As he entered the church from the outside, Evan kept looking around. The church had a distinct Western Gothic architectural style from his previous life on Earth. The front was a tall, mottled bell tower located between red and blue lattice windows, with huge central buttresses that pierced the sky.
Stepping into the church and walking along the aisle into the prayer hall, the tall windows inlaid with fine red and blue stripes let in light tinged with two colors, making the surroundings appear unusually dim.
Evan found a seat nearby where there weren't many people around, placed his top hat and cane on the table, clenched his fists, closed his eyes to rest, and looked like a devout believer. This made others who wanted to approach him hesitate, for fear of displeasing Evan.
A short while later, the bishop who was preaching came out.
The bishop, surprised by the slightly more chaotic church than before, coughed once. After the church quieted down, the bishop looked around and immediately spotted the eye-catching Evan. It wasn't just because Evan stood out in the crowd, but also because the bishop, with his keen eyesight, noticed that many girls were absentmindedly glancing at where Evan was sitting.
The bishop, who had been through it all, smiled slightly, said nothing more, and began today's sermon.
Behind the bishop, on the wall directly opposite the main gate, there are more than twenty fist-sized round holes that run through the inside and outside, letting in the sunlight from outside.
In the deep, dark prayer hall, like stars twinkling in a black curtain, the bishop preaching appeared even more sacred, inspiring heartfelt submission and obedience. Even Evan, from Earth, was immersed in this sacred atmosphere.
The bishop's voice wasn't loud, but thanks to the church's unique architectural design, it resonated throughout the entire hall, echoing and reverberating. It was as if Evan's soul had been cleansed, allowing him to easily release the various emotions that had been suppressed since his transmigration. Evan knew that there might be extraordinary forces at play behind this.
It has only been five days since Evan transmigrated, and most of that time he has been under the surveillance of the witch Helen, engaging in a battle of wits and courage with Lady Sharon to gain her trust.
These past few days, Evan has been acting, living behind a mask, dancing on eggs while in shackles, with no time to care about anything else, let alone truly examine his own emotions. After all, for anyone, time travel is a life-changing event.
Even if it weren't for his own plans, attending this Mass and sermon today would have been of great benefit to Evan, at least alleviating the complex and intractable extreme emotions in his heart.
Putting everything else aside, just considering the extraordinary individuals who are presented to the audience, the complex emotions that Evan is suppressing are like a time bomb that could explode at any moment, potentially fatal.
Half an hour later, the bishop finished his sermon and then led the believers to donate money.
Ordinary believers, if they do not have a need for confession, will leave the cathedral after donating money. However, today many believers are reluctant to leave.
As the line of people donating money gradually thinned out, Evan put on a top hat, took out two 10-pound notes and two 5-pound notes from his wallet, and followed the dwindling crowd of donors.
When the bishop noticed the striking young man dropping large denomination banknotes into the donation box, his already smiling face softened even more.
Normally, aside from donations made in person or donations made after death, the maximum amount of donations that a church donation box can receive is only a few dozen pounds.
Several dozen pounds is almost three or six months' income for some wealthy families, yet Evan donated it all at once without hesitation, which shows that Evan is definitely not an ordinary rich man.
Of course, although the bishop remembered this generous and handsome young man, he would not stoop to the level of a bishop by going up to him and striking up a conversation.
Before the altar in the church, he represents the Church of the Night and the Goddess of Night. Under the goddess's gaze, he would not treat anyone with special favors based on the amount of their donation.
Evan was the last donor. He had his own purpose in entering St. Serena's Church, so after stuffing the banknotes into the donation box, he tapped his chest four times clockwise and said directly to the bishop:
"Your Excellency, I wish to confess!"
The bishop looked at Evan with some surprise, because most of those who confessed in the church were middle-aged or elderly people, or young girls and thieves who had done wrong, or some businessmen whose consciences were not completely lost. It was very rare for a young man like Evan to want to confess.
But the bishop was merely somewhat surprised; with his extensive experience, he simply pointed to the confessional next door and said with a smile:
"The goddess is the best listener; you can tell her anything."
Evan tapped his chest four times clockwise before walking towards the confessional, inwardly muttering to himself:
"If the goddess is a 'listener,' then the true creator truly can't go mad. After all, the goddess is the lord of slumber and silence; if she gets tired of listening, you can simply tell her to shut up!"
The Listener is Sequence 8 of the Mystic Path, while the True Creator is the God of the Mystic Path, having an extraordinary connection with the Extraordinary Ones of this Path.
Stepping into the confessional and closing the door behind him, Evan had just sat down when a somewhat aged voice came from behind a partition:
"Child, you can say whatever you want to say. Don't be afraid. The goddess is watching over you with mercy and will surely understand you."
Evan had prepared what he was going to say, but when he heard the goddess of the night watching him, his heart skipped a beat, and he almost forgot what he was going to say. He paused for a moment before uttering what he was about to say:
"Your Excellency, my name is Evan Horn, I am the younger brother of Congressman Robert Horn, I live in the Golden Sycamore District, and I just graduated from Hoy University this year."
I am an enthusiast of occultism, so I have attended many occult conferences and met many people.
Some of them displayed supernatural abilities in front of me, hoping I would join their small group. I couldn't resist the allure of the occult and joined a fortune teller's occult circle.
In subsequent interactions, I discovered that they were not a group of occult enthusiasts, but an organization that promoted evil gods and even wanted to recruit me. He claimed that the god he believed in was the true creator, and slandered and blasphemed many righteous gods, including goddesses.
I was furious, but I didn't argue with him. Instead, I flattered his point of view, which made him less wary of me and trust me more.
Please forgive my predicament on behalf of the Goddess. In order to gain the trust of these cultists, I had no choice but to feign compliance. Only today did I find the opportunity to come to the church to report to you. Please, you must find the police to arrest these cultists who blaspheme against the Goddess.
Evan finished speaking in one breath, and then waited expectantly for the old bishop next door to forgive him on behalf of the goddess.
The old bishop in the cubicle was completely dumbfounded. With his extensive experience, he didn't believe that Evan could fool the cultists without being completely fooled. He preferred to believe that Evan had become a cultist whose mind and values had been warped. For a moment, the entire confessional fell silent.