Chapter 50: A Monastery’s Unwelcome Guests

Listening to the young girl’s words, which sounded suspiciously like an attempt to abduct the little boy, Luo Jia’s lips twitched involuntarily. He had grown accustomed to this wicked woman’s peculiar sense of humor, but still…

‘Why drag me into this too?’ he fumed inwardly. ‘How dare she claim *this Demon King* likes a trashy woman like her!’

‘Tsk…’

Ignoring the silver-haired young man’s tsundere outburst, Allyrose focused on trying to cheer up the child. However, before the little boy could even brighten, suddenly…

Another visitor, seemingly troubled, pushed open the heavy doors of Allyrose’s monastery, coming to call.

Hearing the sound of the door, the black-haired girl instinctively turned, ready to greet a new client. Instead, she saw the formidable trio of Vivian, Tok, and Jennelle striding swiftly through the entrance.

‘Well… well, well…’

‘Why *these* three?’

Allyrose was instantly speechless. To encounter this group looking for trouble on the first day of the monastery’s opening felt utterly inauspicious!

Yet, moments later, the girl calmly rose. She gently took the little boy’s hand, whispering for him to go to the upstairs lounge for a snack. Only then did she slowly walk to the corridor, standing beside Luo Jia, who had already instinctively blocked her path.

She crossed her arms, tilted her head, and spoke:

“Welcome, indeed. Oh, for the Saintess to grace my humble monastery, it truly brings boundless splendor! Ah… but Vivian, my dear, weren’t you supposed to be at school today? To what do we owe this esteemed visit? Surely… you haven’t come for prayers, have you?”

“Didn’t Sister Allyrose also skip school?”

Vivian blinked, feigning a sweet and adorable demeanor, intending to lower Allyrose’s guard. She then glanced at the little boy heading upstairs, a cold smirk forming in her heart. Finally, she looked up at Allyrose, her sweet voice immediately turning into an accusation.

“Sister Allyrose, you seem to be rather undisciplined. After spending so many years in the Holy See, how dare you now open a church without their permission? While I can understand your desire to return to your old profession, rules are rules, Sister Allyrose. If this matter reaches His Eminence the Bishop, I’m afraid… I won’t be able to intercede on your behalf.”

‘Heh—’

‘Well, well, well.’

Watching her opponent immediately accuse her of unauthorized proselytizing, Allyrose blinked disdainfully. Then, she offered a slight smile, pointed to the signboard hanging above the main hall, and retorted forcefully:

“Vivian, my dear, I believe you’ve made a mistake~ This isn’t a church; it’s a monastery that I commissioned! A monastery, a *monastery*! The difference between the two is vast. A church belongs solely to the Holy See, that’s true, but… a monastery is not like that. It is a place for devout practice by individual or groups of clergy, and it absolutely can be established without the Holy See’s consent!”

As she finished, the black-haired girl let out a soft snicker, staring at Vivian with an expression that implied she was looking at an idiot. This little golden-haired schemer hadn’t even grasped the internal regulations of the church, confusing a church with a monastery. She had handed Allyrose an opening right from the start, and yet she still claimed she would ‘intercede’ with the Bishop.

‘I’m *so* grateful, please, by all means, don’t plead for me. Otherwise, Allyrose would suspect that even if she were innocent, she’d still be sentenced to be burned at the stake.’

“You…”

Faced with Allyrose’s thinly veiled contempt, Vivian nearly lost her composure, almost pointing at the black-haired woman’s face and cursing her aloud right there.

However, moments later, she calmed herself, taking ragged breaths, silently chanting, ‘I am a lady, a lady. I must not stoop to brawling like a shrew; it would… it would ruin my image!’

So, after a moment, Vivian managed to regain her composure, then let out two awkward, forced laughs. After some thought, she changed tactics, continuing her passive-aggressive attack:

“You’re truly a joker, Sister Allyrose~ Of course, I know your signboard says ‘monastery’~ But… the reality… doesn’t quite seem to match, does it~ That little boy just now, he was praying to you, Sister Allyrose, wasn’t he?! I heard you two chatting when I came in…”

Vivian then smirked triumphantly and began to slowly approach Allyrose. She stopped directly in front of the black-haired girl, then, putting on an intimate facade, immediately threatened:

“Is this also… something a monastery can do? Sister Allyrose, if it’s truly as you say, wouldn’t everyone be able to open a monastery and essentially own a church to receive prayers and offerings from believers? If that were the case, what use would churches be?”

“Uh… this…”

Allyrose quietly averted her gaze, then recoiled two steps in disgust. When her back accidentally brushed against Luo Jia’s chest, the girl’s face flushed, and she quickly turned her head.

She saw… the silver-haired young man gently steadying her waist. As Allyrose turned, he lightly patted her shoulder, then suddenly spoke in a low voice, defending her:

“Allyrose was merely praying to the divine with the little boy, not one party praying *to* another. The boy simply had some minor life troubles, and Allyrose was joking to cheer him up. It doesn’t meet the standard for a formal prayer. Furthermore, the Holy See’s regulations contain no specifics on what constitutes a prayer, whether a monastery can conduct prayers, or how many people praying together count as a prayer. The scriptures don’t even touch upon these matters; it’s an extremely vague situation. I’m not sure where Saintess Vivian heard these rules that she’s applying to us. If there are explicit regulations, please be so kind as to present them for us to see, would you?”

‘Hiss—’

Listening to Luo Jia’s machine-gun-like barrage, even Allyrose was somewhat stunned. Primarily, the black-haired girl had never imagined…

That a mere demon, mind you, a *demon*! Such a demon could be so knowledgeable about the Holy See’s internal rules and scriptures. This, this, this…

This was practically equivalent to a fifty-year-old homeroom teacher understanding esports, a foreigner understanding the Four Great Classical Novels, or a humanities Ph.D. understanding quantum physics!

‘Uh… though the last one might actually be somewhat normal.’

‘Ahem, but that’s not important. What’s important is…’

‘How did this Luo Jia fellow know all this?’

‘Uh…’

After a long moment, Luo Jia, still being stared at blankly by Allyrose, felt a bit awkward. ‘Ah… I knew I shouldn’t have spoken. The moment I did, I exposed the fact that, for Allyrose’s sake, I had stayed up all night studying every useful piece of knowledge about the Holy See.’

‘What to do, what to do… Am I suspicious now?!’

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