Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

Chapter 564 I Come to Work for You
872
In Trier, on Saturday afternoon, Audrey was invited to have tea with Miss Irene.

Audrey was led by the pastry maid to the afternoon tea restaurant reserved for young ladies. Their footsteps echoed back and forth in the mansion, which seemed empty due to the small number of people. Occasionally, they would run into one or two servants who had other duties along the way.

The social customs in Intis were obviously much more relaxed and casual than those in Loen. When Audrey entered the tea restaurant, Irena was lazily leaning on the "chaise longue" that was very common in Intis, holding a stack of documents and letters in her hands, and exquisite snacks were placed on the small round table next to her. When she saw Audrey coming, she waved her hand and greeted her without getting up.

If it was in Loen, Audrey should have been thinking about whether to show humiliation and turn away, or think that the host was too neglectful and didn't care about the feelings of the guests she invited.

But this was Intis, so Audrey sat down at the table naturally, and the pastry maid behind her closed the door and left.

Audrey observed the servants of the Montemar family last night. She found that every servant seemed to be busy, but had no complaints.

The mansion seemed to have gone through a major layoff. It was supposed to be a Loone-style "one servant per room, one servant per job", but now it's very streamlined, leaving only one or two servants with the same duties, and the rest were all laid off, resulting in every servant having nothing to do. The "snack maid" she brought here was responsible for the snacks for the whole family, snacks before and after meals, and snacks for afternoon tea, so she couldn't serve the guests and the owner. Audrey couldn't imagine how busy the clothing maid and shoe maid would be.

Audrey was deeply unaccustomed to this. She had experienced this kind of confusion in servants' duties in the southern continent, but the customs of the southern continent were ultimately different from those of the northern continent. At the same time, more doubts enveloped her:
All the letters and invitations from this mansion did not refer to itself as "Marquis's House", but directly stated the family name and the invitees.

This was so strange. After all, it was precisely because of the title and honor of this distant relative that Earl and Lady Hall were willing to send Audrey here. But after Audrey came here, she found that the Marquis's status was not needed at all?

Yesterday, she and Miss Irena had a brief encounter, and ended the brief conversation with the excuse of concern for her to rest well after the long journey, inviting her to rest well in the mansion tonight, and to come and talk in detail today, and to hold a welcome banquet for her after the baptism. The exchange was too brief, and Audrey could not judge the other party's specific personality, so she rested in peace.

Since the other party is a demigod and a high-ranking priest of the church with certain real power, then he is of course the real master. Audrey thinks that today's conversation is suitable for raising these questions. Who knows, maybe this girl is the real heir to the title.

After she sat down, as if there was an unspoken time point, Irena put down the documents in her hand and pushed up her sunglasses.

With a push, the sunglasses got stuck on her orange curly hair like a headband, and she smiled at Audrey:
"Good afternoon, dear. I was worried that the sunshine in Intis would be too bright in the afternoon, which would make the guests from afar uncomfortable. I didn't expect that your beauty would make my little living room more beautiful."

This was a normal compliment, but it still made Audrey want to retreat tactically.

It was just an impulse, and she didn't even hide the fact that she was a little scared.

After knowing that she had to go to Intis, Audrey had already done a lot of homework. With her Beyonder ability, she could learn everything very quickly. However, in Loen, most of the content related to socializing in Intis was sarcastic and negative.

"Your compliments are very enthusiastic, Miss Irena."

She smiled and said to the hostess of the mansion, blinking naturally:
"According to the social style of Rune, you should first compliment the weather today, or subtly choose one or two pieces of jewelry on me, then improvise, and finally compliment my appearance."

Irena also laughed:

"It sounds like a law-abiding country. I haven't been there much except for missions."

After that, she pondered for a moment, put on a serious expression, and said seriously:

"Dear Miss Audrey, the gold jewelry on your chest matches your hair color so well, it adds luster to my afternoon tea—" Before she finished speaking, Irena laughed, muttering to herself that the style of pretending to be serious really didn't suit her, and then she spoke with interest:
"But Audrey, although you were born in Loen and are a typical noble lady, I feel that you are full of adventurous and active spirit just like me. The Southern Continent is a good place. The children there are very cute, and the people there are not all crazy, right?"

A lady who was unwilling to be a tool for marriage and contacted the Aurora Society on her own initiative, and a lady who had a dream of the extraordinary path, ignorantly became an extraordinary person but finally found her own direction, the two looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

"Well, I should welcome a sister who has come from afar instead of talking about faith and such."

Irena got up from the chaise longue, but her movements were still lazy, and her hair was not tied up, hanging loosely behind her head:

"It's break time now. I never like discussing work during break time - it's troublesome enough. Would you like to try some macarons, Audrey? This is our favorite dessert since the Roselle era."

Audrey blinked and said, "Of course."

She observed Irena's reaction and felt that she did not seem to care much about her faith. She even complained about the heavy work assigned by the church. This was very different from the image she had heard along the way: "Miss Montemar has a pure heart, has followed the Lord since she was young, has a devout faith, and finally became a saint", "She is kind and gentle, has a heart towards light, and serves the Lord devoutly". If it weren't for the fact that the other party's path was obviously "the sun", she would have suspected that Ms. Irena had also made up a false identity for herself.

But in the final analysis, it is not surprising that aristocratic women who rarely go out have a "social impression" that is slightly different from their own but in line with the aesthetic tastes of others. This is also the case with Audrey herself.

Using a knife and fork, Audrey cut the dessert on the plate and put this dessert, which she rarely ate in Loen, into her mouth.

It was a strange feeling to not have a maid waiting by her side at any time, but this environment was also more private and relaxing. While tasting the dessert, Audrey made some simple speculations and thoughts. Finally, she showed her curiosity:
"Ms. Irena, the church said that I will be baptized tomorrow. Is there anything I need to prepare?"

Irena was cutting the chestnut cake in her hand. Upon hearing this, she put down her knife and fork and comforted the newcomer:
"Nothing to note... Baptism is a way to express your determination to the Lord and to show that you are willing to be baptized. There is nothing special about the ceremony itself. In addition, there are two types of baptism: sprinkling water on your hands and making a cross on your forehead, while the latter is to immerse your whole body in the pool and be held by the priest. You are a converted demigod. Although the latter is more sacred, you should choose the former."

After that, she thought for a moment and continued:
"Of course my family's belief is the Eternal Sun. I was baptized right after I was born. When I secretly joined the Aurora Society, they didn't even have an initiation ceremony. They simply gave you some inspection tasks, and after you successfully completed them, they invited you to participate in group prayers."

"But now, the Aurora Society has been standardized, so the initiation ceremony has become more and more formal..."

At this point, Audrey saw a hint of helplessness and fatigue on Irena's face:
"Some people think that there is no need to be bound by the formality, especially from the analysis of the Bible, the ancient saints also baptized people with water. The more open faction does not advocate any formality, so there is no baptism. Yearning for light in the heart and praying to the Lord is considered conversion."

"Among them, the saints and angels who originally belonged to the Aurora Society strongly demanded that the true baptism ceremony be reenacted according to the ancient Bible, that is, immersion. The whole body of the baptized person should be immersed in water, and then be lifted up by the clergy. When they open their eyes, they should feel the spiritual light of God's awakening. Some even demanded that it must be in clear and pure living water like rivers, streams, and streams... But you can rest assured that since the tsunami, the city is all seawater, and even the most fundamentalist Aurora Society believers no longer make such suggestions."

"Well, does this actually concern your own thoughts?"

Irena thought for two seconds and took the initiative to speak: "After all, you are a saint, and you joined the Psychological Alchemy Society when you were in Loen. You have the right to choose your own way of baptism. If you have any ideas, I can help you tell the church."

So that's how it is... Audrey really didn't sense much piety towards faith and gods from the other party's words, or maybe it was that Miss Irena would sit up straight and speak seriously when talking about gods, but become relaxed and casual when talking about church-related clergy matters. This made her come up with a guess.

"I understand. Thank you for your kindness. I will think about it carefully."

Audrey felt that she had completely understood what the other party meant, and could see Irena's kindness towards her. She pretended to be casual and said, "When I was at the Cathedral of Light, I saw an acquaintance I knew in Loen, Mr. A from the Aurora Society."

"It's him... I'm also a messenger of the Aurora Society, but there is no communication between him and me." "Yes, he has also become a saint, and is still as pious as before." Audrey said meaningfully.

Irena paused for a moment while cutting the cake. There was no emotion on her face. Instead, she smiled and said, "You're right. He's still the same as before, and even worse. Audrey, there are many devout people in our church, but people like Mr. A are still a minority. Are you a devout believer? - I think you may not be, otherwise you wouldn't have come to me."

This is too direct!

Audrey suddenly felt that her implicit probing had become pretense, but even a "manipulator" would not be confident and arrogant enough to think that everything would develop as she wished. In this case, she simply followed the words of this direct and enthusiastic lady and said:
"I originally thought that my faith in the goddess was devout and unshakable, but later I realized that it was just a habit. I have awe for every god, but... now it is really difficult for me to believe in any of them devoutly."

Irena laughed and joked:

"You can't say such things outside, but it is true that you should never forget to fear the gods at any time."

"Of course, I'm not that pious. If I were a devout believer of the Fiery Sun, I wouldn't have taken the initiative to join the Aurora Society, right?"

The two young demigods looked at each other and laughed at the same time again.

The atmosphere of afternoon tea is harmonious and lively.

……

Klein had a headache because he had tried to randomly call passers-by into "Utopia", but until now he had not received any normal feedback that could serve as a basis for the role-playing of "Secret Doll Town".

It was even worse at the beginning. Somehow an "ancient scholar" ran in when the city's bugs had not been fixed yet, and messed up the order of the entire city and the relationship between the marionettes. Klein had to wake up temporarily and drive him out.

"Is it more difficult than I thought?"

While enduring a real mental headache, Klein thought with difficulty:

"My condition seems to be getting better, but it also seems not to be. If I can't get some stable feedback, it will be bad."

As for the Secret Doll Town, Klein had actually been thinking about how to create it a long time ago.

Although we were completely rushed before, we are now basically on the right track:

If the interference of external factors is eliminated, his best choice is to build a secret doll town overnight somewhere in a country in the northern continent, and connect it with the surrounding cities through railways, rivers and roads.

In this way, a large number of outsiders will arrive in the Secret Town every day, and there will be very strong interactions with the surrounding areas: on the one hand, the towns without affiliated villages will definitely buy grain, salt, cloth, ore, sugar and other necessities of life from other places, and on the other hand, it will also have its own output, which can be sold to surrounding cities, towns and villages. In this case, merchants, laborers, travelers and other groups will come and go very frequently, and at the same time, they will interact a lot with the residents of the Secret Town.

Under the influence of various strong interactions, it won't take long for the Secret Doll Town to give birth to a corresponding area in the spirit world. When the fate of the residents becomes detailed and real, Klein can complete the ritual and temporarily stabilize the state.

The whole process may take less than three months, and the utopia may even be built overnight.

——That was why he immediately chose the snowfield of Feysac.

Now the town has some reluctant interaction with the outside world. Yesterday, a hunter was trapped in the mountains by a snowstorm. The residents of Utopia rescued him and provided him with some help. Seeing that the town was short of supplies, he tried to establish trade with the town where he lived.

But the problem is that this plan cannot be kept secret.

In today's era, it is impossible to hide the fact that a town suddenly appears in a certain place. Soon, government employees, police, and reporters will come to investigate, and the various strong interactions that follow will also make more and more people know about this city and understand this city. This is a problem that cannot be solved through illusion abilities, unless the secret doll town does not interact at all with the surrounding cities, towns, and villages, or interacts less frequently, but that goes against the requirements of the ritual.

When the news of the Secret Doll Town spreads, Klein will undoubtedly be targeted by the God of Thunder.

By then, destruction will certainly be easier than protection, and he can only move his secret puppet town with him, which will cause the early interactions to lose their effectiveness, just like the experience of the Dark Wolf.

With no other choice, Klein did it anyway because he was fairly certain that the Demon of Knowledge would not sit idly by and watch his town being destroyed by the God of Thunder. Although there was an element of gambling involved, it was still very stable at the moment.

At the same time, Klein will rely on some of the authority of Sefirah Castle to "graft" certain nodes of some roads, rivers, and railways outside the Secret Doll Town, making it one of the stops on some people's journey.

This cannot be kept completely secret, but once the "weird phenomenon" spreads, Klein can easily remove the original "graft" and change the "entrance" irregularly.

With such a strategy, only the "entrance" is transferred, not the Secret City itself. The effects of various interactions with the spirit world can be retained and will not be interrupted, so the ritual can proceed steadily.

Of course, this solution also has big problems, that is, the scope of interaction is limited, and it cannot have a profound impact on daily life in all aspects. In addition, the frequency and intensity of interaction will not be too high.

Just as Klein was thinking, he suddenly heard a strange prayer.

"Is that Klein? Hello, Fool?"

This prayer immediately caught Klein's attention. He looked at it in astonishment and saw an extremely familiar red-haired figure in the prayer scene. Beside the figure was a boy with silver-white hair who looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old.

Medici!
And Ouroboros? ?

Klein looked at the silver-haired boy twice in surprise. The boy seemed to have noticed Sefirah Castle's gaze and took two steps uncomfortably. Seeing this, Medici knew that Klein was looking at him, so he immediately said:
"Hey, Fool? I heard that you just captured Feysac. Is there any place convenient for me to go for a walk?"

TBC
------

good night!