"Adam, big brother!" Lina's voice rang out from outside the door.
Adam set the cat down gently, having already lifted the paralysis curse and sutured the small wound. Though the injury was treated, he couldn't yet engage in any strenuous activity due to the vitality interference he had caused earlier.
When the door opened, Lina walked in holding a small jar, asking excitedly, "Big brother Adam, how about we go pick some fruits and make dried fruit?"
"Did you already finish the dried fruit I brought home last time?" Adam crouched down, pinching Lina's cheek. "And how did you find this jar?"
The Head Monk had given him plenty of dried fruit, which Adam had packed into jars and rationed out to Lina, careful not to let her eat too much. He had hidden the jar well, yet somehow, the little rascal managed to find it and consume it all in one go.
"Hehehe," Lina giggled sheepishly, clutching the jar and trying to brush it off. She then tugged at Adam's sleeve, asking again, "Please take me to make dried fruit, big brother! I promise I won't steal it again!"
"Where did you hear that from?" Adam shook his head with a smile, picking up the empty jar. "And what about the nuts the Head Monk gave you the other night?"
"They're all gone," Lina muttered, almost burying her head into the jar, her voice barely audible.
"You little rascal!" Adam ruffled her hair affectionately. "If you want something, tell me, but no dried fruit for now." He explained to her how dried fruit was made and why it wasn't possible at the moment.
"I'll buy some for you later, but promise me you won't sneak any more. If you do, I won't buy any next time," Adam said, glancing at the sky. He still had time, and the store wasn't too far, so it shouldn't be an issue.
One of the benefits of his cooperation with Doug was that financial matters were no longer a concern.
After leaving the house, Adam politely declined Kro's offer to escort him. Since Adam had started his studies in earnest, his time had become increasingly limited. His schedule had grown so packed that he hadn't gone to bed before midnight for days, whether he was studying, training, or practicing meditation.
However, the laws of life were constant. Even with the modifications made by meditation and life models, certain natural rhythms couldn't be ignored until the process had fully matured.
Adam knew that some things couldn't be rushed, but he also had much ground to cover, so he pressed on, even at the expense of pushing himself hard.
Today, with Anthony absent, he had completed his initial objectives and decided to spend some time in everyday life. Walking through familiar streets and chatting with neighbors he hadn't seen for a while, Adam's tense mind seemed to relax just a little.
Soon, he arrived at the shop. As he pushed open the door, a figure caught his attention.
A young man with brown, curly hair was intently gazing at the dried fruit in the display case, as if lost in thought.
When the young man noticed Adam's arrival, his eyes widened in surprise, instinctively setting Adam on edge. However, the young man quickly smiled, turning to the shopkeeper and saying, "This one, can you wrap it up for me?"
The young man took the dried fruit and, with a look of uncontainable bliss, popped a piece into his mouth, as though on the brink of tears from sheer happiness.
He didn't acknowledge Adam again, leaving the shop with a broad smile, clutching the fruit.
Adam, holding his own package of dried fruit, left the shop, his thoughts now completely different from before.
"Who was that? He seemed a bit off." Adam's keen senses detected something strange. The young man had reacted with genuine surprise upon seeing him.
"I'm currently in a state where my soul weight is dominant, so my knight training can't be sensed. He didn't use mental energy to probe, so he probably couldn't detect any abnormalities in my energy."
"That leaves three possibilities."
"First, he was simply startled by my appearance and charm."
"Second, he may have seen my information elsewhere or recognized me, but didn't expect me to be here."
"Third, the side effects from the Tears of God ritual."
Whichever of these possibilities it was, none seemed particularly friendly toward Adam.
Back at the Bookhouse, after feeding Lina some dried fruit, Adam went upstairs to check on the cat.
"Wait..." Adam suddenly rushed downstairs, finding Kro and asking him to run an errand for him—to inquire about some information from Doug regarding the Church.
"Hopefully, I'm just overthinking it." With that done, Adam returned upstairs and resumed his training in both knightly and sorcerer disciplines.
When Gold arrived, he seemed to notice Adam's state and subtly slowed down his pace of instruction, only correcting a few minor issues in Adam's technique.
"Mansira seems to have a big business deal coming up. He asked me to meet him today to discuss defense matters," Gold said after Adam finished his training. "If you want to pressure him, you could approach this angle."
"Just be careful, though. Don't get me involved—my finances rely on this job," Gold added, gazing out the window as if lost in thought.
"You could ease up on these trips," Adam said with disdain. Gold always seemed to have a different fragrance on him, sometimes cheap, sometimes expensive, depending on when he received money.
"You're too young to understand," Gold chuckled, his eyes glinting with a teasing look. "But if you really want to try, you could approach that Mourning Banshee. I can guarantee she won't refuse you if you ask."
Adam shook his head, not bothering to argue, instead quietly planning his next moves.
Given the current situation in Roya, the non-human organizations needed to be dismantled quickly, with elite units formed from within, while others would be discarded.
"Otherwise, we risk attracting too much attention," Adam thought, reflecting on the information he had gathered on each member of the non-human factions—their behavior, values, and whether they were trustworthy. He then created a ranking system to decide who would be abandoned and who would be selected.
Abandonment wasn't necessarily a bad thing, nor was selection always a positive outcome. Adam pondered it all carefully. Glancing around, he saw that Gold had left without him noticing, probably off for another round of street deals.
Shaking his head, Adam climbed into bed to rest.
The next morning, Adam rose early and went downstairs to meet Kro, where he finally obtained the information he had been seeking.
"The children of man offered the autumn harvest fruits to the gods, and on the first day, the gods tasted them and praised their sweetness."
"The children of man continued offering the fruits, and on the second day, the gods marveled at their fragrance."
"On the third day, when the children of man failed to offer the fruits, the gods inquired."
"The children of man explained to the gods that the fruits couldn't last long; they would rot and become foul, which the gods would dislike."
"The gods rebuked the children of man and instructed them to transform the foulness into sweetness."
"Following the gods' instruction, the children of man discovered wine, jam, and dried fruit." — The Divine Word: Chronicles of the Children of Man
Perhaps because of the scripture, the monks in the Church were especially fond of fruit-based treats such as jams and dried fruits.
In earlier days at the Divine Academy, most children, including many orphans, were sent there. Due to limited resources, the only snacks available to them were dried fruits, which, due to the poor conditions, became their only source of comfort.
In one monk's biography, it was described that faith and dried fruit were his last two pillars of survival.
The aristocracy played a major role in reforming the academy, but if the academy had been running well beforehand, even the wealth of the Holy Sound Kingdom's nobility might not have been enough to push the reform forward.
"Could that man have been a monk?" Adam furrowed his brows, a faint suspicion creeping in. He turned to Kro and said, "Let's head to the South District Church today."