magic high school

Chapter 163 The Eve of the Dinner

Li Ge and his group tried to crawl inside, and found that only an eleven-year-old could enter.

If I were still sixteen, I wouldn't be able to squeeze into this hellhole, not even if I tore it open.

Then, after Li Ge emerged covered in soot, he said, "I saw quite a few young corpses inside the chimney—"

Everyone else:

"————"

"How could this happen?" Valerie asked immediately. "Why would they do this? Throwing children down the chimney!"

Although she seemed very angry, Li Ge immediately added, "I think you're mistaken. These bodies weren't thrown in. They were most likely accidentally killed while cleaning the chimney, and the cathedral was too lazy to clean them up, so they've just been left inside."

Valerie:

'

"So why make the kids clean chimneys—" she continued to argue.

"Didn't you see? I could barely move inside. To clear the chimney quickly, we need even younger children," Li Ge said.

Valerie: "————"

"By the way, it seems that when cleaning the chimney, the church might be worried that the workers will slack off, so they'll light a fire at the bottom to let the smoke fill the inside, so that they can finish the job as quickly as possible," Li Ge added.

Valerie: "————"

This discovery was so hellish that she couldn't laugh.

"Didn't you do this when you were a child?" Yilian asked Ling.

Zero shook his head. He hadn't actually discovered the remains before, or perhaps he had, but hadn't recognized them at the time.

"When I was a child, all I had to learn was to pray and sing hymns," he said.

The group exchanged glances, perhaps all realizing a crucial point: this was the church's differential treatment of "pure children" and impure children. So, how did the church determine purity and impurity? Was it by the heart, the body, bloodline, or faith?

It's most likely a matter of faith or bloodline.

"I'll also tell you the nuns' changing of the guard schedule, and the busiest time before the banquet. This is our freest time. And, are you really not coming with me?"

Zero seemed to really want Li Ge and the others to take this opportunity to hide in one of the cabins on the ship that brought them to this fantasy world, just like he did, so that they could sneak out and head to the vast world outside.

"You go first, but be careful and don't hide in dangerous places. Also, stay hidden in the cabin and don't get caught," Li Ge reminded him. Although he was just an NPC, Li Ge really hoped that he could escape and eventually become a great sage.

He saw a thirst for knowledge in the child's eyes, not the kind of innocence or foolishness, but the genuine longing of a child.

I wonder if I had this look in my eyes when I said I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child.

However, after leaving elementary school, I forgot that I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child.

Ling ran a few steps, then looked back once more. He didn't wave, just glanced at her, then disappeared into the darkness.

Soon, it grew dark. The group had been secretly tinkering with the radio all along, and eventually managed to install a simple input and transmission device.

However, there was no response. Xiaoye continued fiddling with it, saying, "It should be fine, I see the signal is being sent, so either there's no corresponding cell tower nearby—"

After fiddling with it for a long time, the radio still only repeated the same sentence, so they finally had to give up.

Aside from that, they still couldn't seem to contact the Holy Knights organization that the radio kept mentioning. Li Ge and the others also tried to enter the cathedral, but it was unusually crowded today, with almost all the nuns present, making it difficult for them to sneak in.

At the same time, many others became chosen children and joined the ranks.

As for the old priest's cottage, he had been inside all day. So they decided to wait until the evening banquet, when the priest was to attend the children's feast, and then sneak into the cottage to gather intelligence, hoping to make contact with the Holy Knights organization.

After it got completely dark, Zero finally seemed unable to sit still any longer: "I really have to go, otherwise it will be a long time before the next ship arrives."

"Okay, then I wish you a successful escape." Li Ge gave him a small blessing.

"Okay, you guys have to escape too. I'll go outside and scout things out first, and then I can help you." The kid was quite honest; at least his thoughts weren't bad.

Li Ge suddenly felt a pang of emotion. Although there seemed to be many deep problems here, the education here, whether it was doctrine, prayer, or worship, was still meant to encourage people to do good, so that the children here were at least essentially kind and innocent.

Perhaps so; children raised in this way are the "pure children" they speak of.

Zero left anyway, despite his final invitation. But Li Ge and the others had their own mission. The nuns called the children who entered the Divine Child's Banquet "ascending to Heaven," and the exam task also required them to ascend to Heaven.

There must be some connection between these things, so they absolutely have to go.

Perhaps it wouldn't be too late to escape after attending the Divine Child's banquet.

"Come on, let's split into groups. One team will go to the priest's hut, and the other team will sneak in through the chimney and then hide inside the cathedral's ventilation ducts," Li Ge said.

Normally, such covert and evasive missions are usually assigned to Li Ge and Xiao Ye, since the two of them are already very skilled at petty theft and have become specialized infiltration personnel.

However, this time Valerie volunteered to take on the task herself.

While the others looked hesitant, Xiaoye said, "I'll go with Valerie, since she's thinking of coming this way."

"Alright, be careful. If you feel it's dangerous, just use your Noble Phantasm. It's better to suffer a backlash than to be caught on the spot," Li Ge reminded him.

Xiaoye nodded. So they split up like this: Lige and Yilian went to the priest's hut, while Xiaoye and Valerie hid behind the cathedral to see what the priest's banquet and the ceremony of ascending to heaven were all about.

And so, just as the appointed time arrived and Gensokyo began to bustle with activity, they set out. Valerie and Sayo went to the chimney they had scouted that morning and slowly climbed inside.

Eleven-year-old Valerie was slightly larger than Li Ge, perhaps because girls develop faster at that age. So, although Li Ge was half a head taller than them at sixteen, eleven-year-old Li Ge was probably shorter than them.

This made it very difficult for Valerie to climb inside the chimney; she almost got stuck.

"Actually, I should have stopped you from being so stubborn. It's obvious that it's best to leave this to Yilian," Xiaoye complained.

"Don't say that, we're already here. Besides, I'm really curious about what these divine children are up to." Valerie squeezed into the depths of the chimney. Then suddenly, she heard a noise inside the house, which immediately silenced Yoru.

This chimney doesn't lead directly to the ventilation duct; it leads to a warehouse. There's a vent on the other side of that warehouse; you have to go through that to reach the ventilation duct.

Therefore, it is quite normal for there to be someone in the warehouse.

"Hurry, where did Zero go? We can't find her!" a giant nun said.

"We've sent people to search everywhere, but we still haven't found him. What should we do? We're still one person short of the number of Pure Children the Divine Child requires—"

"There's still time, don't rush. Just grab any child to replace Zero. That aloof, arrogant girl, I really don't like her, so let's use her as the Child of Purity."

"good!"

After the two nuns took out some tools from the storeroom, they seemed to rush off to arrest the person.

And the haughty girl they were talking about seemed to be that fairy?

"Pfft—" Valerie almost burst out laughing. "Let her act all high and mighty like a princess. Even Li Ge isn't as good at pretending as her. Okay, now she's got the hate in her eyes, huh?"

She's still keeping a record of how she tried to recruit her, never expecting that a teammate she had her eye on would turn out to be this kind of person.

"Stop gloating. Let's take this opportunity to hide in the ventilation duct. No one should come in for a while," Xiaoye reminded her.

As for gloating, it's best to do it less often, lest the boomerang hits you on the head later.

So they easily crawled out of the chimney, not caring about the dust and filth on their bodies, quickly covering up their tracks, and crawled into the ventilation duct on the other side.

Meanwhile, after the old priest left, Li Ge quietly arrived at his hut.

"Yilian?" Li Ge asked.

"clear!"

The two were longtime roommates and had a great understanding. Yi Lian instantly turned into a puddle of water and slipped into the crack. For Yi Lian, turning into water was completely effortless.

Because his true form is water, and his human form is merely a disguise, turning into water is more of an instinct.

Soon, Yilian discovered the trigger switch the old priest had set up. If Li Ge had barged in recklessly just now, things would probably have turned out differently—

That would trigger those mechanisms, thus alerting the priest and the nuns.

"That was close, thank goodness we were careful." He muttered to himself, then transformed into a knife in his watery state. He slowly deactivated the two mechanisms at the door and in front of the bookshelf before opening the door and letting Li Ge in.

The old priest's house wasn't big; it only had a bed, a bookshelf, and a desk.

However, when Yilian pressed a switch, the light bulb in the room turned on.

"Looks like they discriminate here too. We can only use oil lamps, while the priest can use magical lamps," Yilian complained.

"Let's start gathering intelligence; that's the most important thing," Li Ge said immediately, starting by looking for the items on the old priest's desk. The documents and books there were things he had only recently come across, so they were quite important.

On the desk lay an opened letter, the envelope bearing the seal of the Vatican.

Li Ge pulled out a letter, on which was written: We've found the hacker who attacked us; it was a hacker sent by the old Pope.

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