Ice Vapor Goddess

Chapter 25 Shepherding
After touring the church, Siron left through a small door, walked through the withered garden covered in snow, and arrived at his two-story house.

"Go upstairs and rest, tidy up, you can stay on the second floor," Siren said to the seven knights. "Joseph, take me to the kitchen."

"Wait a minute, Your Excellency..." Kyle stepped forward anxiously, "The master bedroom is upstairs, we..."

Xilun waved his hand: "It's too cold on the second floor. You guys can stay up there to keep me warm, and you can also rescue me in time if I'm in danger. If you think the decoration is too luxurious, bring down two sets of beds and bedding. I'll stay in the concert hall."

The knights reluctantly accepted the explanation and went upstairs to pack their things.

After they had all left, Joseph whispered in Siron's ear, "Your Excellency, don't be too good to the servants. A comfortable life will fuel their ambition, and plenty of meat will strengthen their violence. Desires will never be satisfied. If they live too well, they will covet what is yours."

Xilun gave Joseph a half-smile, which made the latter tremble and his fat face slicked back.

"Joseph, I come from the countryside."

"Yes, Your Excellency." He kept wiping his sweat.

Do you know how to raise sheep?

"I don't know, Your Excellency, please teach me..."

Siren squinted as he walked toward the kitchen, saying, “We will grow the best pasture and lead the sheep to graze in rotation. In the cold winter, we will use turnips, soybean cake, and other things to help pregnant ewes and weak lambs. During the birthing season, we need to guard them day and night, help ewes with difficult births, ensure that the lambs can get colostrum as soon as possible, and provide extra care for weak lambs.”

"You are so hardworking!" Joseph flattered, wiping his sweat.

"Not only that—we also have to provide medicated baths for the sheep, get rid of lice and ticks, regularly trim their hooves to prevent foot rot, and record mating, lambing, weight gain, and diseases in a thick book."

"That was really hard work..."

"So, Joseph, there's something I've never understood."

Joseph swallowed hard.

"Sheep are such a hassle. I wonder if there could be a kind of livestock that eats little, lives poorly, can treat itself when it gets sick, can actively create wealth for me, is hardworking, efficient, rests little or no, and has a docile temperament."

"Your Majesty the Bishop..."

At some point, Xilun's expression turned cold, and he silently looked at him: "So, you're God's shepherd, so you really treat your fellow human beings like sheep? Even sheep deserve to be fed and made happy, so why can't you do the same for humans?"

Joseph suddenly knelt down, weeping and shouting, "I was wrong! Your Excellency! I was wrong! Please forgive me!"

Seeing him like this, Xilun really couldn't tell whether it was a genuine expression of emotion or an act, but it was most likely the latter.

"Get up. What kind of behavior is this? You're not allowed to kneel anymore." He pulled Joseph up, even bending down to brush the dust off his black robe, which almost made Joseph jump. "Your Excellency! Although I will absolutely obey your orders and will never kneel again, my reverence for you remains unchanged. Even just standing beside you, I prostrate myself in your radiance. Your commands are divine pronouncements to me..." he said excitedly, his face flushed. But Siren simply rummaged through the cupboards in the basement kitchen and handed Joseph a potato.

"Uh... what do you mean?"

"Go get me some potatoes, and some simple meat—and some tomatoes and peas, damn it, this kitchen is all empty." Xiren pulled out a pot, holding potatoes in his left hand, the pot in his right, and a tin-plated spatula in his mouth.

"You...you want to cook it yourself?"

"Is there a problem? Hurry up, weren't you just talking about an oracle? Is this how fast you execute oracles?" Xiren glared at him. "Also, go and call Mathilde, Aldridge, and Sam over, then they can wait in the dining room for their meal."

Joseph scrambled out of the kitchen, and the moment he turned around, his chubby face, which had been flushed with excitement, instantly calmed down.

He did indeed wear a mask, a mask he had earned through years of navigating the power structure of the church.

“From the countryside, too… I’m the same…” he muttered to himself. The Bishop of Xilun was a shepherd, while he was a farmer. He had neither good looks nor outstanding talent. After the enclosure movement, he lost his only property and worked hard to become a gatekeeper for a church, responsible for guarding the gate.

Humiliation, torture, misunderstanding, pain, insults... How many hardships must a landless peasant who has never attended seminary, is illiterate, and cannot understand the scriptures endure before he can become a priest?

Life taught him the only rule: under the violent oppression of others, he learned to flatter and opportunize, to obey and to be a dog.

“Bishop Delrant…” he took a deep breath, “You’re a good man, but you should have met me years earlier, not now… I didn’t climb to this position for almsgiving…”

He pushed open the door, the priest's black robe fluttering in the biting wind, and then resolutely walked into the snowstorm.
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Soon, seven people sat down in the restaurant: Mathilde, Sam, Eldridge, Joseph, Logan, Kyle, and Fafnir, the newly joined squad leader.

They sat awkwardly beside the embroidered tablecloth, and Joseph silently lit the candlesticks.

Below the kitchen, the bishop was enthusiastically preparing food, but that was usually the cook's job, the work of a servant.

No cultured, respectable man would work at the stove, because the smoke would blacken their pristine white cuffs, the heat would soften their crisp collars, and the kitchen smells would make their perfume sound coarse and unpleasant.

But it was the bishop's order, so they could only wait there, and anyone who tried to stop them was kicked out.

Mathilde swore this was the first time she'd ever been kicked out of the kitchen—who would want to go into a place like that?

Seven people sat upright at the table, counting the flower petals on the tablecloth over and over again, their toes almost digging through the floor.

Mathilde was the only one who seemed more relaxed, perhaps because she was the only person here who was on equal footing with the bishop. Her eyes darted around the wines on the shelf.

Twenty minutes later, Celen rang the kitchen bell, and all seven men except for Sam, who was missing a leg, rushed into the cramped kitchen, scrambling to carry the plates.

(End of this chapter)