The ball made the town very lively, completely unlike the silence it had in daily life.
The ball was hosted in front of the Sun Shadow cathedral, at the very center of the town. It was built on relatively high ground, so there were a total of three large squares that were set up like steps of a stair, with the smallest one at the very top, right in front of the cathedral.
The second square was situated at the side of the hill, which formed an enclosure around the entire cathedral.
And the third square was naturally the largest, situated at the foot of the hill. Even as the largest square of the church at the very bottom, it was still taller than the residential district, which clearly showed the influence of the church and religion in this area. Apparently, there was no concept of a country in this world, only the various areas that were under the direct jurisdiction of the cities they house, so it made sense for the church to become the highest authority.
The three squares also served to divide the citizens of Lohr into three levels.
The highest square, which was the closest to the church, was only accessible to the members of upper society and devout followers of the church.
The second square was the place for the merchants and some relatively notable members of society to gather, and this was also where the Farnate family had arrived. Comparatively speaking, the Farnate family was one of decent influence within Lohr, which was also the reason why Farnate cared so much about concealing the fact that his daughter had the blood of evil.
His son Chromie was currently studying in a relatively influential academy outside of town, and as long as Farnate could keep this up for a little while longer, his son would graduate with honors. At that time, Chromie would only need to work hard for a bit to become a member of Lohr's government; after which they would no longer need to gather at this second square, but rather the top square and officially become a member of Lohr's upper society.
If not for the fact that an abrupt death would cause the Sun Shadow church to investigate and discover her blood of evil, Farnate would have already killed his daughter off without hesitation.
Perhaps I should send her off to visit a faraway relative sometimes in the future.
At that point, I'll just say that she fell down a cliff and her body couldn't be discovered.
Glancing at his daughter, Farnate harbored such thoughts.
Shaking his head, mister Farnate then courteously smiled and greeted some of the people around him, followed by a completely normal conversation. His flash of intention to kill off his daughter was perfectly hidden like it had never existed.
Negary slowly strolled along the square, where a priest was preaching the teachings of the Sun Bible to a crowd, drawing the attention of many. Of course, there were also those who only pretended to be drawn in.
If you wanted to stand firmly in Lohr, not making a connection to the Sun Shadow church was akin to seeking death.
As the sun slowly set, everyone began to enjoy the rare monthly atmosphere of the night. After performing their missionary work, the church no longer interfered with everyone's actions. After enjoying the delicious food and drinks supplied by the church, some men and women whose faces were flushed red alike started to make their ways towards some relatively secluded and quiet spots.
This would be a night of revelry, in more than one meaning of the word.
Lan Shan was also approached by a few men, after all, Miss Chloe's body was quite well-endowed, and her delicate constitution contained a sense of feeble beauty.
However, as she had been taught by Negary, she didn't bother with these people's approaches and simply took a stroll, eventually reaching her destination.
Standing near the metal railing, Lan Shan looked down to see a few buildings that were plunged in complete darkness. They were clearly residential buildings, most likely the houses of the church's members and their families.
During this period of time, Negary didn't only remain silent in his room without doing anything, but due to the transmigration method he used, he needed to collect existing germs as material to construct the Soul's Blood that was his foundation.
Since this body needed to participate in Spirit Cleansing day, Negary didn't modify it too much. On the other hand, as he didn't have ample flesh to work with, he could only use the little germs from this body to create a few viral tools.
In Lan Shan's eyes, a large amount of germs gathered to form a lens, almost like that of a pair of binoculars that allowed her to see further, when necessary, it could also be taken off to not arouse vigilance.
After confirming the target, some golden liquid flowed out from her tear ducts, which then fell below together with the viral tools in her eyes.
This was the amount of Soul's Blood that Negary had been able to synthesize in the past few days, which now contained Negary's soul. As the Soul's Blood fell freely on the ground, it solidified into a small golden rock.
In fact, Negary wasn't even using interference force, only his [Virus Manipulation] ability to control the Soul's Blood.
On this so-called Spirit Cleansing day, it was said that monsters would stop their activity during the night. Sure enough, ever since twilight, Negary had been sensing a presence that carried extreme heat lingering in the air, most likely the power of Sun Shadow church.
However, to Negary's surprise, this extreme heat power wasn't like that of the New Deity and Progenitor Dragon, as it didn't contain a will within itself.
This power could affect Negary somewhat, but wouldn't restrain him too greatly. It was understandable, as this wasn't the Sun Shadow church's headquarters, but Negary still remained especially cautious and decided against using his interference force.
There was a reason why he didn't send this Soul's Blood away from the second floor of the Farnate manor.
First of all, most of the people who frequented that street weren't particularly high in status, if he took them over, he would most likely become restrained in their bodies like he was restrained in Chloe's body.
Secondly, Negary had actually formulated a plan.
〖 Relatively speaking, masquerading as a Sun Shadow church member's family is dangerous, but it is essentially the shadow under the lamp. Furthermore, I would have more chances to collect information, perhaps even infiltrating the Sun Shadow church itself 〗
For this reason, a bit of risk was acceptable.
…
Inside a certain house, a young man was having dinner, not at all passionate towards the liveliness outside. While he was a family member of the church's personnel, he wasn't even as devout as the normal citizens outside.
Perhaps it's because I'm not obscured by the sense of mystery.
The young man thought in his mind. Those priests who were scum in human form had more than once exposed their true forms in front of him, so the pretty words they spouted were anything but believable to him.
For this reason, the young man wasn't particularly concerned with 'being cleansed by the light of the run', and simply took some food home with him. The light of the sun shone on them every day, so if all it took to be cleansed was bathing in sunlight at dawn, that cleansing was too cheap to matter.
After finishing his meal he left to return the dishes, but when he returned, he noticed a glint in the darkness. A bit curious, he came to check and found a small pebble that gave off a golden glow.
Did one of the guests drop it?
Watching the golden pebble that seemed to be glowing at a unique frequency, the young man's confused gaze slowly turned into greed, which gradually grew greater and greater until it finally surpassed his rationality.
A simple visual trigger such as rhythmic reflection of light was enough to cause the young man's emotions to go out of control; nothing could be said except that Negary's understanding of the creatures called humans was becoming deeper and deeper by the day.
"Precious, it's my precious!" the young man whispered under his breath, hid the golden pebble into his chest pocket and hurriedly ran back home.
On the way, he bumped into someone but didn't care to apologize at all. Instead, out of fear that they would take away his precious, he started to run even faster.
