Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The king of the future.
As soon as the priest left, the porch quickly became lively.
There was only one guard at the side entrance of the temple. His hair was also tan. He didn’t look like a Templar. He seemed to be just an ordinary guard. His appearance was not particularly serious or scary. After the priest left, the children quickly returned to their original liveliness. Some children looked at the guard’s face very softly and became bolder, and couldn’t help but ask him:
“Who is the priest who brought us? He looks so young.”
“That’s Master Etienne, the youngest priest in the country.” The guard told them, “You are lucky. He only came here two months ago. I heard that he held an initiation ceremony in the capital last year. At that time, a white dove fell on his shoulder.”
“Wow—” the children exclaimed.
“The capital? Is he a nobleman?” another kid asked, “Like the lord of the city?”
“The most noble noble of blood, even our city lord can’t match.” This soldier more or less enjoyed the exclamation of the children, and kept throwing out the popular rumors in the temple. “He just came here before. At that time, all the temple apprentices were stunned by his noble appearance and manners, and almost thought it was the **** of light descending on the earth—you have seen it too, his hair is shining like the sun!”
The children had already noticed Master Etienne’s hair, and they all agreed in unison:
“what-”
Hearing the children’s exclamation, the guard raised his chest and felt proud:
“Master Etienne is the noblest and gentlest priest here today. If he stays here, he will definitely become the youngest priest… It would be great if he could stay here forever.”
“Will he stay here forever?”
“I heard that he was sent to Potzta in order to accumulate some experience so that he will be able to take on important tasks when he returns to the capital. Everyone thinks that he will go to the capital to serve as a priest in a few years, and that he may become a nation in the future. The high priest—”
The guard was talking with gusto, and his mouth frothed, and the door leading to the inside of the temple suddenly opened. Master Etienne appeared at the door, scared the guard to silence.
Master Etienne didn’t say anything, but he had obviously heard what they were talking about. He cast a reproachful look at the guard, and the guard shrank his neck in fright.
But Master Etienne is too young and too gentle after all, and his majesty is slightly insufficient. The guard blinked at the children while Master Etienne was not paying attention. The children laughed as the guard blinked, but they dared not laugh loudly, so they could only secretly **** their mouths.
Master Etienne pretended not to see their little movements, and always maintained a noble demeanor:
“The preparations are over, we can go in now.”
The children who had looked very naughty just now got up from the stools, gentle and tame like a flock of pigeons. They lined up automatically, followed Master Saint-Etienne out of the porch and walked into a smaller temple from the designated route. There are no idols here, only a lonely altar, no sacrifices are placed in front of the altar, and some kneeling mats for prayer are scattered.
“This is the altar of the thirteenth god. He is called the **** of the future.” Lord Saint-Etienne told them, “the gods had made a contract with him and gave him the right to choose believers before the gods. So before you enter the main hall and be chosen by other gods, you must pray to him here. You should have learned a little prayer, but the prayers for this **** are different from the prayers of other gods, so you have to recite it. Come down and kneel on the mat here to pray.”
A temple apprentice handed out small cards with prayers to each child. Alice knew some words, and she saw only one sentence written on the card:
“Great God of the future, may you close your eyes and never wake up.”
This prayer is so strange, it is totally different from what Alice had learned before with her mother. She was feeling confused, and only listened to Etienne’s explanation:
“Generally speaking, prayers are used to express reverence for the gods and to pray for blessings from the gods. But you will find that this prayer is completely different from the content of praying to other gods. The future **** is not a **** that can be easily approached. He is also known as the God of Doom. When he wakes up, all the existing gods will perish, and all order will be destroyed. The only thing we can pray to him is to hope that he never wakes up. You guys. When praying, we must also wholeheartedly, hoping that the strong desire of mankind can postpone his waking time.”
It was the first time that Alice heard of the name and story of the God of the Future. She was feeling curious, and she only heard the question from a quick-mouthed child next to her:
“Why does the future **** want to destroy all this?”
“According to the scriptures, he is the **** of the next generation.” Etienne said, “Destroy, and then use the remains of the world to build a new world in the ruined ruins. This is the meaning of his existence. This process will be very cruel. Fortunately, even the gods must respect the wishes of mankind. The wishes of mankind can delay this event indefinitely…until the world is really out of control.”
Master Etienne had a solemn expression, and did not look at the child who asked the question, but looked up to the ceiling, as if thinking of something particularly terrible. Alice was still full of questions, but instinctively realized that she shouldn’t be asked at this time, so she closed her mouth tightly.
Etienne didn’t give any additional explanations, he knew that most of these children didn’t understand them, and even more explanations would be useless. He summoned a few temple apprentices and asked them to organize these children to kneel in front of the altar one by one, closing their eyes and saying prayers silently. Compared with the important ceremony to be carried out later, this ceremony is somewhat perfunctory, more like a rehearsal and informal prayer to prepare the children. The area of this small temple is small, and the order seems a bit chaotic. Anyway, the God of Doom has been asleep, and perhaps people don’t think it needs to show much respect for him.
After the ritual, the children followed the temple apprentices to the next hall, while those who were not in their turn stood behind silently. There were also a few children who were instructed to recite words by apprentices in the temple because they could not read or were particularly stupid.
Alice can recite such a simple prayer in a few strokes. But she hesitated and didn’t step forward and stayed at the end of the line.
After the death of her mother, Alice has been in a resentment that is not commensurate with her age. She hated the world and hated the gods who refused to help her mother. Now she is only for her future livelihood, so she has no choice but to choose the gods. But the words that Master Etienne said just now gave her a new idea—
If possible, she wants to be a believer in the future god.
If an adult knows her thoughts, she will definitely think this idea is too crazy. But Alice was young and she thought things were simple. The name of the future **** fits her wish; among the gods, he is isolated and helpless, just like her. Only these two points are enough to make her identify with him and want to choose to serve him.
Besides, she didn’t have time to think more, because during this time, the few stupid children in front of her had finished their prayers and happily followed the temple apprentices. When Alice came back to her senses, she discovered that she and Etienne-sama were the only ones left in the little temple.
Master Etienne seemed to think she could not recite the prayer, so he came over and asked her:
“Why, can’t you remember? There are still words you don’t recognize? It’s okay, it’s very simple.”
He is a lot taller than Alice. In order to be parallel to her, he pulled a kneeling mat and knelt beside her, put his hand around her shoulders and held the card in front of her, pointing with his fingers, teaching her word by word. .
Alice had never had such close contact with an older man, and she felt her body stiff. There was a little incense in Etienne, mixed with his own taste, and gave a vague fragrance. Alice smelled the scent that seemed like nothing, and she felt nervous and shy.
Etienne has been presided over this kind of rituals every month recently, and often has to contact with children of this age. At this time, she didn’t feel anything wrong, but only taught her to read the cards with her fingers. Alice couldn’t say that she had memorized it, so she reluctantly followed him twice. Seeing that she could read it, Etienne asked her to recite again, then turned to look at her and asked:
“OK?”
Alice nodded shyly, and Etienne got up to help her find a kneeling mat and put it right in front of the idol and let her kneel down. Before praying, Alice raised her head and asked Saint Etienne:
“Master Etienne, what is the name of the God of the Future?”
Etienne was startled when he didn’t expect to be asked this question, but he still replied:
“The names of the gods we know now are all personally descended from the gods to believers. So far no one has become a believer of the future god, so no one knows the name of the future god.”
This answer is regrettable, but it is also very reasonable. Alice closed her eyes and said in her heart her own prayer:
“Great God of the future, I am willing to be your believer. Please wake up and open your eyes to see me.”
After the prayer was finished, nothing happened.
Alice looked at the altar in front of her, somewhat disappointed.
Is her prayer too mediocre to impress the **** of the future, or is this **** in fact non-existent? After all, everything about the future **** is just a legend, he doesn’t even have a **** name or a **** image. Perhaps it was a bit too rash to pray to him rashly like her. Of course, it is more likely that the future **** slept too well and didn’t even hear what she was talking about.
Etienne watched her in a daze. Although she thought the child was a little weird, she didn’t think much about it. Only when she was not used to kneeling and praying, she walked over to hold her hand and helped her get up from the kneeling mat:
“Let’s go, you should go and accept the god’s choice.”