"Rare steak, are you sure? Sister?"
Behind the counter of the restaurant, the waiter asks Vania. In this cafeteria frequented by clergy, it’s rare for someone to order a steak cooked rare. After all, a rare steak still has traces of blood, which most religious individuals would find hard to accept.
"Well... I thought about it, but I think I’ll go with medium-well instead."
After a moment of consideration, Vania changes her order, and the waiter nods in response.
"Alright, Sister. Please take a seat, and your meal will be ready shortly."
The waiter replies, and Vania follows his instructions, finding a seat near the front of the restaurant. She then furrows her brow in thought.
“Earlier, I suddenly felt like ordering a rare steak... but I usually go for medium-well…”
“Hmm, but now that I think about it, I’ve had medium-well so many times. It’s normal to want to try something new. Maybe next time I’ll actually order a medium-rare steak to try it out…”
Vania thinks to herself. After careful consideration, she feels that her earlier impulse wasn’t unreasonable. In fact, she now regrets changing her order to medium-well and decides that next time, she’ll definitely try a rare steak.
"Hey, Vania, you’re quick."
A nun dressed in the same attire as Vania sits down across from her, placing her plate of pasta on the table and greeting Vania. Vania looks up in surprise.
"Oh, Sister Aurora, what a coincidence."
Vania responds. The nun across from her is a colleague from the Historical Scripture Department, one of the few nuns working there. While they aren’t particularly close, they are familiar with each other, given that they see each other almost every day.
"Since it’s a coincidence, let’s eat together. I’ve been exhausted these past few days. Chatting over a meal helps me relax."
Aurora says, and the two begin to chat. Since they work in the same department, their conversation naturally revolves around work. However, as they talk, Aurora gradually steers the conversation toward gossip about their colleagues and even their superiors.
"By the way, Vania, have you noticed? Deacon Cork has been making more frequent rounds lately. Seeing him walking around during work hours makes me feel so pressured."
Aurora lowers her voice as she speaks to Vania, who nods in agreement after taking a bite of her steak.
"Yeah... That’s true. Deacon Cork used to prefer staying in his office for research."
"Exactly! He used to focus on academic work in his office, probably aiming to transition to a High Priest position or get a promotion. I wonder if he’s made some breakthrough now that he’s out and about?"
Aurora continues, and Vania ponders for a moment before responding.
"Transitioning to High Priest or getting a promotion... neither is easy. If he’s done well academically, he might have a chance at becoming a High Priest. But for a promotion, he’d need not only sufficient spirituality but also some notable achievements."
Vania explains. Within the hierarchy of the Radiance Church, there are parallel promotion paths: the High Priest line and the Deacon line.
The High Priest line consists of leadership roles, typically responsible for overseeing a region’s church affairs. This includes positions like parish priests, archpriests, bishops in major cities, archbishops in key cities, and finally, cardinals and the pope in Holy Mount. Each position corresponds to the leadership of a church district of varying sizes.
The Deacon line, on the other hand, includes non-leadership or secondary leadership roles within the church, generally referred to as Deacons. These range from junior deacons, intermediate deacons, senior deacons, executive deacons, and so on.
Generally, deacons assist high priests. While high priests and senior deacons are of the same rank (both requiring White Rank clergy), high priests hold greater authority and access to more spiritual resources compared to senior deacons.
For example, Vania herself is not just an ordinary nun. As an Apprentice-rank Beyonder, she also holds the position of a Junior Deacon.
As they eat, Aurora continues to chat with Vania. During their conversation, Aurora occasionally takes out a locket and opens it, gazing at it with a nostalgic expression.
Vania asks curiously as she finishes her meal, noticing Aurora staring at her open locket. Aurora snaps out of her reverie and responds.
"Ah... Sorry, I was just suddenly missing my mom. I was looking at her photo."
With that, Aurora turns the locket toward Vania, revealing a small photo of a woman holding a young girl. It appears to be a childhood photo of Aurora and her mother.
"Missing your mom..."
Seeing the photo, Vania feels a pang of sadness and finds herself suddenly missing her own mother.
But there’s a problem: Vania grew up in a church orphanage. She has no memory of her parents, yet now she feels a sense of longing for people she’s never known.
“I feel like I’ve been getting overly sentimental lately…”
Vania thinks to herself, then finishes the rest of her meal.
After dinner, Vania takes a short break before heading to the cathedral for evening prayers. Once the prayers are over, she finally returns to her private dormitory.
Back in her room, Vania doesn’t immediately go to bed. Instead, she sits at her desk and opens an old book.
This is a new mystical text given to her by Dorothy, titled “The Thorn Whip”. It was a drop from their recent battle against the vampire Claudius. After Dorothy finished reading it, she passed it on to Vania.
Vania has been reading a portion of the mystical text every night. Compared to using bulky instruments to observe mystical texts at work, directly reading them feels much more comfortable.
After reading a page or so, Vania feels a noticeable discomfort in her mind. As usual, she closes her eyes and prays to Akasha to cleanse the accumulated cognitive poison.
East of King’s Campus, Green Shade Town, No. 17.
Dorothy, dressed in her pajamas and lounging on the sofa reading a novel, hears the familiar daily prayer and, without much thought, extracts the accumulated cognitive poison from Vania, converting it into spirituality.
However, after the extraction, Dorothy frowns, surprised by the result.
"Huh? This time, the extracted spirituality contains Shadow, Lantern, Chalice, and Revelation? Wow... That’s a lot. Almost all six spiritualities in one go?"
Dorothy mutters, setting down her novel and pondering the situation.
"I remember the last mystical text I gave Vania was ’The Thorn Whip’, which is purely Shadow-themed. Logically, it should only extract Shadow and Revelation. Where did the Chalice and Lantern come from?"