Chapter 76: Sermon

“As a deity, He was thrown into prison, ultimately rescued by the allied forces of the blood nobles and dragons. After that, He said, ‘You must love one another, regardless of race…'”

Meng Linna, preaching from the altar, swayed her head as she spoke.

As an old bishop who’d done this for a lifetime, she was so familiar with such matters that she didn’t even need to think; her mouth opened, and she knew what came next.

For Na Naya, this kind of sermon was all too familiar.

Though as a saintess, she still had to listen seriously from below, her heart couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed.

Not to mention Meng Linna’s style of dragging out the endings like an old monk chanting scriptures—if she didn’t fall asleep on the spot, that already counted as her being very attentive.

But for Yanan’s adventurers, the legend of that deity presiding over law that Meng Linna spoke of was always a bit interesting.

Stories they hadn’t heard before were the rarest; they listened with great relish, and even after the service ended, they were still a bit reluctant to leave.

“I didn’t expect Teacher Meng to be surprisingly good at storytelling!”

As soon as the sermon finished, Stone Fang and Kelly, who’d been supporting from the audience, crowded over to congratulate Meng Linna.

“I’m just faithfully recounting the goddess’s story,” Meng Linna humbly lowered her head. “Everyone’s just hearing it for the novelty since they haven’t before; if I preached this a thousand times here, you wouldn’t react like this.”

“Teacher Meng is too humble!”

Many adventurers around were quite interested in Meng Linna’s sermon; quite a few tossed coins into the merit box.

They also recruited quite a few new believers.

After the sermon ended, the chapel’s day could be considered to have come to a close.

The four of them worked together to wrap things up, then locked the doors and left.

Today was exhausting too.

Though they’d agreed to go eat afterward, before that, the two suggested buying a cup of milk tea for Meng Linna first, whose mouth was parched from preaching.

“Miao Miao Niya, four cups of milk tea… Sigh, what are you doing again?”

The chapel and guild were separated by just one wall.

At this moment, Miao Miao Niya stood behind the counter, pouring water into the milk.

Miao Miao Niya wiped the sweat from her forehead and set the watered milk aside. “Lately, a lot of people have been interested in my milk tea and want to make it themselves, so quite a few have come to buy my milk, meow.”

“Leaving aside why they’d buy milk from a catgirl, you jerk, you’re definitely shortchanging again, right?”

Toward Miao Miao Niya, Meng Linna had always viewed this guy as the most black-hearted merchant.

Facing Meng Linna’s disdainful gaze, Miao Miao Niya wagged her finger in refusal. “No, no, from that look on your face, you must think I’m watering the milk! As the most honest merchant, how could I do something so unethical!”

“Heh.” Meng Linna was slightly interested in the merchant’s sophistry.

“I’m very particular about food safety, you know—raw milk that’s gone through no processing at all isn’t very hygienic no matter how you think about it!”

With that, Miao Miao Niya even picked up a jug of raw milk nearby and shook it.

“So I’m washing the milk with clean water; just rinse it once and it’s clean!”

As expected, a black-hearted merchant was still a black-hearted merchant.

Meng Linna said expressionlessly, “Please make us four cups of milk tea with the raw milk over there. Since it’s raw milk, you can save on the labor for your water-washing; at least give us a discount of one or two gold coins?”

This time, it was Miao Miao Niya’s turn to be shocked. “Robbery? You drink milk tea at my place and expect me to pay you?”

Stone Fang on the side reacted too and immediately stood by Meng Linna. “Just say if you’re giving it or not!”

“Guh!”

Miao Miao Niya, humiliated into losing money.

***

After seeing off Stone Fang and Kelly, the entire chapel was left with just Meng Linna and Na Naya.

Though they’d recruited new believers, it hadn’t reached the point where they could take in acolytes yet.

Once evening came, even though it was such a large chapel, only two rooms had lights on.

“Good night.”

Na Naya formally bid Meng Linna farewell and returned to her own room.

Though they’d originally discussed that she would preach from the stage, no matter what, she just couldn’t do it well, so in the end, she had to trouble Meng Linna, who’d cast healing divine spells for half a day, to take the stage.

The morally corrupt scumbag lady turned out to be surprisingly reliable, while she herself was completely unreliable.

Na Naya hugged her knees with both hands and couldn’t help but start blaming herself a bit.

As a saintess candidate, she was completely clueless about basic theological lessons; when it came time to preach on stage, she completely showed her true colors—what a shame.

‘If only I could become an adult as reliable as that too.’

Though the age difference between the two wasn’t that big, in front of the scumbag lady, she felt completely like a child, whether in figure or performance.

Especially the figure!

Just slightly recalling the spring scenery she’d accidentally grabbed yesterday made Na Naya suspect if there was something wrong with her brain.

Was there something in this world that felt so comfortable to grab?

At least, she hadn’t grabbed anything so soft and comfortable before.

As a substitute, she grabbed her own chest.

Calling it “grabbing” felt a bit odd, since you couldn’t really grab a flat steel plate; a more accurate term would be “touch.”

But since it was a steel plate, naturally, she couldn’t expect it to feel very soft.

Huge blows in every aspect—Na Naya couldn’t help but start doubting herself.

‘Am I really an adult?’

She blocked out the voice of the evil fire god in her mind clamoring

“Go find Meng Linna and have her help you become an adult.”

Na Naya sat in place and thought for a bit, then decided to take a bath.

At least wash up first and calm down; lately, for some reason, her negative emotions were piling up more.

She put the clothes she needed to change into and the bath towel in a basin, then headed toward the bathroom.

The one thing Na Naya was most satisfied with about this chapel was the bathroom.

Besides the single-person bathing room, there was also a small bath pool; she really liked the feeling of soaking in the bath pool.

Before, to experience a bath pool, she’d chosen to rent outside, but those single tubs always left her a bit unsatisfied.

Though the chapel’s bath pool was limited in size too, it could at least hold three or four people soaking together; for the petite Na Naya, it was no problem at all.

The bathroom side had no lights on at all.

Summer nights always got dark late, but Na Naya still subconsciously turned on the lights.

If the lights weren’t on, Meng Linna probably hadn’t come over, right?

With that thought, Na Naya changed out of her clothes in the storage room and wrapped herself in the bath towel.