Chapter 48: The Divine Being Peledi

“Miss Josuna, I’m back.”
The examiner pushed in an exquisite silver trolley. On it rested a crystal sphere shimmering with a faint violet halo. Behind him, an elderly man in a solemn clerical robe entered at a slow pace, the golden sacred patterns embroidered along his collar gleaming under the light.

“So fast?” Josuna looked at the examiner in surprise.

Strange—hadn’t he only just left?

Josuna clearly remembered that the procedure to apply for resonance testing was long and tedious. Ordinary people might fail to get an appointment even if they applied a day in advance. Even with her own badge, it shouldn’t have been this quick.

“Miss Josuna, we happened to encounter His Eminence the Cardinal on inspection, and he granted special approval to expedite the process,” the examiner explained respectfully, his gaze subtly sweeping over Peledi.

“I see.” Josuna nodded.

There were many methods for testing affinity with Holy Light—potions, blood drops, stimulation, runes—but none compared to resonance, the most ancient and also the most effective method. It was said that the first person in the world to obtain the power of light did so through resonance.

Resonance testing involved using a material from nature with extremely high magical affinity and bringing it into contact with the human body. If resonance occurred, it meant the person possessed affinity; the stronger the resonance, the better the aptitude.

Resonance testing was highly accurate, almost never wrong. It was convenient and extremely precise, clearly displaying the degree of affinity of the person tested. It didn’t require further examinations like other methods that produced vague results.

Its advantages could be listed endlessly, but it had only one drawback—one that encompassed all its strengths: it was too expensive.

Crystal spheres had a limited lifespan. Each use reduced that lifespan by one. And since the raw materials could no longer be replenished, every crystal sphere used meant one less in the world.

“So this is the one Miss Josuna recommended?”

The bishop at the side looked Peledi up and down, his eyes full of admiration.

If Josuna was this certain, then this young lady’s elemental affinity must be extraordinary.

Especially judging by her outfit—after only a glance, the bishop was convinced Peledi’s light-element affinity must be very high.

Generally speaking, the higher a person’s affinity with light, the more their mental state differed from that of ordinary people. In the Church, this meant their spirit had transcended the mortal realm and was reaching toward the divine.

Being able to wear an erotic maid outfit as if it were proper formal attire and walk calmly into a cathedral—this alone showed that this young lady’s mind was far from humans and very close to the gods.

The probability that she possessed high light-element affinity was enormous!

“Yes, that’s me. My name is Peledi. I’m just an ordinary commoner.”

Peledi smiled and inclined her head slightly, keeping her body half-bent in a respectful posture toward the two clergymen.

Her attitude made both men stroke their beards and nod in satisfaction.

In reality, Peledi was only trying her best to hide the mark left on her neck by Feiye.

The original collar had been torn apart by Feiye. To conceal the mark, Peledi had no choice but to remove her thigh ring and tie her original collar around her neck instead.

Only now did she realize that the thigh ring wasn’t some meaningless decoration—it could actually be useful in critical moments!

But the collar was too small. Worn around her neck, it still left part of the mark exposed.

A blood-red rose pattern engraved on the neck could easily lead to misunderstandings.

And this was the Church’s headquarters. In a place devoted to Holy Light, having something so extremely “disloyal” appear here made Peledi seriously worry that if she were exposed, these two old men might turn against her.

What she worried about even more was whether Feiye would explode into conflict with the Church and kill these two bishops just to stand up for her.

She really could do something like that.

Out of respect for Peledi, Feiye hadn’t killed Josuna. Instead, she had taken part of her memories, making her forget she had ever seen Feiye. On her way out, she even plucked Little Green’s fur clean.

Peledi could clearly feel Feiye watching her from outside the window behind her, her gaze scorching hot. The two bishops and the examiner seemed unable to see Feiye.

Perhaps Feiye possessed the ability not only to pass through walls and seize memories, but also to make herself invisible to others?

Feiye’s “danger level” in Peledi’s mind rose yet another notch.

“Miss Peledi, please place your hands on it,” the examiner said with a smile.

Peledi raised her beautiful hands and placed them on the crystal sphere.

Then she suddenly felt the entire sphere begin to tremble violently.

Light burst forth, dazzling and brilliant!

Golden radiance instantly filled the whole room.

Peledi had seen this phenomenon before—when her younger sister underwent a Holy Light affinity test, it had looked just like this!

And what’s more, Peledi could clearly feel that this wasn’t even her limit.

It could be brighter!

As the sphere vibrated faster and faster, if one looked closely, they could even see extremely fine cracks appearing on its surface.

Truly worthy of being Church-made.

Peledi was already too tired to complain about the quality of Church-manufactured items. One defective product might be coincidence—but why was everything here so low-quality?

Or was it Church policy that all manufactured items had to be bad?

Crack.

With a faint, brittle sound, the crystal sphere bounced Peledi’s hands away.

The air fell into silence.

After a long while, the still-dazed bishop finally came to his senses. His face lit up with wild joy, his beard almost standing straight up, and most eye-catching of all was the bald patch on his head—it shone brighter than usual. Then he lunged forward and grabbed Peledi’s arm.

“A Saint Maiden—she has the bearing of a Saint Maiden!”

The room erupted into cheers.

Outside the window, Feiye squatted on the ground hugging her knees, burying her head as she listened to the joyful voices coming from inside, pressing her face even deeper down.