Goddess Kaleidoscope

End of this chapter

After waiting for a long time, there was still no response from the carriage, which made the accompanying knights look at each other in bewilderment. Sandy, who was watching from the side, even heard two knights whispering to each other not far away.

"I say, did the young lady run away again?"

"She shouldn't be able to escape... right? We kept the car doors locked the whole way, and only opened them when we got to town. Even if the young lady still has some lock-picking tools she's hiding, she wouldn't be able to find the keyhole from inside the car."

At this moment, Rude emerged from the temple with Romian. He had been busy cooking in the kitchen when he received the news, and it took him a little while to change his clothes, so he came out rather late.

Upon seeing Ludwig approach, Sandy immediately bowed to him. She was a baptized believer in the God of Medicine and a member of the first graduating class of Brewster Academy. She was recommended by Ludwig to work for the Baron's family. Out of courtesy, reason, and gratitude, Ludwig was the person she respected most, even more than her own parents.

The group of out-of-towners present were mostly filled with curiosity, looking up and down at the seemingly overly young priest.

They had all heard the story of Rudd's resurrection from the dead by the grace of the goddess on their way here. Although they found it incredible, since the story had spread so widely and many noble lords and even bishops of major sects like the Church of War had said with certainty that it was true, it must be true.

Moreover, rumors say that this big shot is a chosen one, with strength no less than that of a high-ranking priest, definitely among the top-tier powerhouses.

"Good evening, esteemed knights who have traveled from afar. I am Priest Lud of the Medicine God Cult. May I ask which one of you is Knight Lawrence?"

“It’s me, it’s Lawrence.”

Upon hearing Ludwig's question, the middle-aged knight standing before the carriage responded.

At this moment, there was finally some movement on the carriage. A beautiful blonde girl with blue eyes stepped out of the door. The girl looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old. She was dressed in luxurious clothes and had fair skin. She was obviously a rich girl from a wealthy family, as delicate and beautiful as a flower grown in a greenhouse.

The girl got out of the car, looked around, and then stared at the Knight Lawrence in front of her with a clearly resentful look.

"Uncle Lawrence, are you really going to leave me alone in this remote and impoverished place?"

“Ahem! Miss Olivia, we are not abandoning you, but following your mother’s wishes, we are sending you to this temple for further studies. This is the renowned Saint Rude from the North, and you will be studying under him for the next period of time.”

"This guy?"

Pointing at Lude standing to the side, the young lady known as "Oliffia" frowned, gave Lude a somewhat impolite look, and then turned to Lawrence and said.

"He doesn't look much older than me! How could he possibly be a saint? Uncle Lawrence, you're not lying to me, are you?"

"How could that be... You can't just say things like that!"

Seeing that Olivia had so brazenly questioned Rudd's sainthood in front of him, Lawrence awkwardly hurriedly offered an explanation.

These things should have been explained to the other party beforehand, but unfortunately, the young lady in front of him had been acting strangely the whole way here, refusing to communicate with anyone, which meant that Lawrence hadn't had a chance to say these things to her.

Lu De, standing to the side, could roughly tell that Olivia was clearly a spoiled noblewoman who had been pampered by her family. Her personality might not be considered particularly bad, but she certainly lacked more than one "beating in the streets".

What intrigued Ludwig was that he had previously assumed the girl Duke Gamelin was sending to him was his own illegitimate child. But now, it seemed the girl's mother was probably no ordinary person either.

From the conversation between the two, it's clear that the knights, led by Lawrence, are all under the command of Ophia's mother; after all, the word "decree" isn't used lightly. Therefore, Rudd can basically conclude that Ophia's mother is a noblewoman, and a titled one at that!

But neither Duke Gamelin's letter nor Lawrence in front of him deliberately mentioned Olivia's surname, and Ludwig wisely followed suit, pretending to be confused.

After Lawrence finished whispering to his young mistress, he dragged the still reluctant Olivia to Lude, then pressed her little head down and made her bow to Lude, thus completing the apprenticeship process. Then he had his men bring over a heavy box containing a full thousand gold coins, which was considered the "tuition fee" that Olivia's mother had paid for her daughter.

Lawrence then explained a few more things to Lud. The middle-aged man, in a clearly apologetic tone, briefly introduced Lud to his young mistress's various "great achievements" during her studies at other monasteries, so that Lud could be mentally prepared in advance.

Olivia, now fourteen, has been studying at some of the most famous monasteries in the capital since she was five, sent by her mother.

The original intention was not for her to develop in the religious field, but in the capital, many major religious sects run so-called "high-class monasteries" that cater specifically to the children of nobles and the wealthy. To a certain extent, these monasteries serve as "noble schools," charging exorbitant fees and have essentially become an industry.

Despite her seemingly delicate and charming appearance, Olivia actually displayed an astonishingly mischievous nature from a very young age. She stayed at several prestigious monasteries, causing chaos and disorder in each one. In the end, the abbesses of the monasteries preferred to refund the tuition fees rather than accept this "little devil."

After hearing this, Lude thought to himself, "So it turns out this kid is already blacklisted in the education circles of the capital, and no monastery dares to accept him. That's why he took another route and came to Pine Town, far away from the capital, to study." However, Lude guessed that this was probably just the surface reason, and Lawrence hadn't told him the real reason.

Having explained everything clearly, Lawrence, after delivering Olivia to Lud, disregarded the late hour and immediately set off with his men back to the capital, leaving Olivia alone. It was unclear whether she truly trusted Lud or simply didn't want the child.

In short, watching the knight disappear into the distance, Lude's expression was just like Olivia's, bewildered in the chilly night wind.

"I have a feeling these guys..."

Glancing at the resentful blonde heiress beside him, Lude was too embarrassed to say the second half of the sentence, "get rid of the burden," in front of her.

Regardless, the person had indeed been delivered to him. Lu De coughed twice and turned to his newly accepted disciple.

“Miss Olivia, at your mother’s request, from this day forward you will be an outer disciple of my Medicine God Sect. Romian, take her to the dormitory to put down her luggage and familiarize her with our surroundings. I will take care of the kitchen.”

"Yes, Master."

Although she didn't give him a friendly look, Olivia didn't immediately argue with Lud, but instead remained quite arrogant and silent.

However, the child still acted like a typical young lady, going inside empty-handed without any intention of carrying her two large suitcases herself. Fortunately, Romianne didn't seem to mind and readily helped her carry them.

Upon seeing this, Lu De raised an eyebrow and immediately called out to the two of them.

"Romian, give her a bag of luggage and let her carry it herself."

"Master, I'm alright..."

“You are her senior, not her servant. It’s okay to help each other, but you have to keep it within limits and let her take a bag by herself.”

Seeing that Lude was adamant, Romian hesitated for a moment, then handed the lighter bag to Olivia. Olivia, however, looked completely bewildered. Judging from her expression, she seemed to interpret Lude's action as a form of "showing off." Her beautiful, large, light blue eyes were fixed on Lude as she muttered something, as if in a fit of pique.

"Hmph! Take it then! This young lady... ouch..."

As Olivia reached out to take her luggage, she nearly tripped over the suitcase, and her face immediately turned bright red.

Her two large suitcases were packed full. Romian, because of her Argonian blood and the fact that she had helped with chores since she was a child, was naturally stronger and could carry one in each hand without any trouble. On the other hand, Olivia, a young lady who had never lifted a finger, could only be described as having no strength at all, and she struggled to carry both of them with both hands.

The difference between the two is so great that it's almost laughable.

Realizing she had made a fool of herself, Olivia abruptly turned to stare at Lude. His face was full of the loving smile of an old man looking at his granddaughter, but paired with his overly young face of eighteen or nineteen, it was unexpectedly extremely mocking, making Olivia feel an intense rage.

Under Lud's watchful gaze, Olivia stubbornly refused Romian's renewed offer of help and staggered into the temple alone, carrying her suitcase.

The group returned to the temple, and Rudd arranged for Olivia to share a room with Romian. There were actually other rooms available; a new two-story building had been constructed in the backyard during the temple's major renovation to serve as dormitories for the nuns. However, given Olivia's situation, Rudd dared not assign her a room alone.

Upon learning that she would be sharing a room with someone else, Olivia immediately protested. The higher monasteries she had previously attended would at least provide her with a private room, and some even had an entire courtyard, with one or two nuns to take care of her daily needs, allowing her to enjoy a life no less luxurious than that of the nobility.

But even these "most basic" conditions, which Olivia considered "most basic," could not be met by Lude, making this young lady, who was used to being served, feel that she had been neglected like never before!

End of this chapter

If possible, Lude would really like to arrange for Olivia to stay in the school dormitory. After all, the temple is his "old nest," and there are too many things here that are not convenient to disclose to the public. It would be bad if she accidentally saw them.

But the problem is, given the temper this girl is currently displaying, if she were to be placed in a school, she would definitely have a conflict with other students. Just thinking about that scenario gives Lu De a headache!

So after much deliberation, Lude decided to leave her at the temple for now to see if he could correct her spoiled brat temper before sending her to school, depending on the situation.

However, on her very first night at the temple, Ophia gave Lud and the others a good demonstration of just how bad her spoiled princess temper really was.

Since it was the weekend, a day when the family usually treated themselves to a nice meal, Lu De, planning to nourish himself for the fall and winter, meticulously prepared a lamb rib hot pot. He thought that since Olivia was coming, he might as well throw her a welcome party.

But when Olivia arrived at the restaurant after putting down her luggage, she saw a large pot of bubbling soup in the center of the table, surrounded by bowls and basins filled with half-cooked ingredients. Her already unhappy face fell even more.

"You...you're letting me eat this?"

"Hot pot! Haven't you ever had it?"

Aina, who was mixing sesame paste in her special bowl, looked at the new "little golden retriever" with some confusion, not understanding what was so surprising about it. But Olivia was already trembling with anger, feeling that this was a greater humiliation than making her carry her own luggage at the door!

After all, in Olivia's memory, dining was a very particular affair, requiring a lavishly decorated restaurant, exquisite silver cutlery, and servants who would stand by her side to meet all her dining needs at any time. None of these conditions, which she took for granted, were present here.

As for "hot pot", she, who was born in the capital, had never even heard of it!

The only time she could recall seeing a similar cooking method was when she happened to pass by the kitchen of her own castle and saw a group of servants pouring all the leftover food and kitchen scraps into a large pot to cook (pig swill). The mixed smell almost made her vomit on the spot.

The boiling pot in front of her, though not currently emitting a nauseating smell, stirred up unpleasant memories for Olivia, causing her to subconsciously feel a tickling sensation in her throat.

Olivia was now convinced that this was a show of force from that despicable priest, and that he was deliberately trying to disgust her!

"I'd rather starve to death than eat this kind of thing! Humph!"

After uttering a harsh remark, Olivia turned and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving everyone present looking at each other in bewilderment, completely baffled as to why.

"Um...does she not like hot pot?"

"Really? Hot pot is so delicious, how could anyone not like it?"

"Master, should I go and take a look?"

"No need. I guess she's just had a long day in the carriage and doesn't have much of an appetite. Let her take a nap and recover. We'll eat our own food."

Smiling, Lude stopped Romian, who wanted to follow, and glanced at Olivia's departing figure, knowing exactly what was going on.

Meanwhile, Olivia returned to her dormitory, slammed the door shut, and collapsed onto her bed. Lude was right about one thing: Olivia had indeed lost her appetite after a long day in the carriage, but that didn't mean she wasn't hungry at all.

After lying there for a short while, Olivia got up and went to her two huge suitcases. She took out a box of snacks from a hidden compartment and sat down on the edge of the bed to eat them.

"Hmph! Luckily, I was prepared..."

Holding the snack box, Olivia ate most of it in one go, finally quelling her hunger. But looking at the remaining half box, Olivia couldn't help but frown. This was the only "ration" she had packed in her luggage, and once it was gone, it would be all gone. She did have some savings in her private stash, but sooner or later it would all be gone, and it was definitely not a long-term solution.

Olivia felt she had never longed for home so much, for her loving mother and her obedient servants. If her mother knew of the terrible "mistreatment" she was suffering here, she would never stand idly by. "Saints or whatever, drag them all out and behead them!"

Before this, Olivia had visited many monasteries, but these monasteries were either in good condition or located near the capital, no more than a day's journey from her family's castle, making it very convenient to return home.

But this time was different. She didn't know which scoundrel her mother had listened to, but she had actually agreed to send her to a place so far from the capital. She had been traveling by carriage for ten whole days, and had also spent nearly eight days on a riverboat. Along the way, Olivia felt the weather getting colder and colder, and her heart grew colder day by day.

No matter how audacious Olivia had been in the past, she knew that the distance from here to the capital was far beyond what she could walk back on foot.

"Hmm... I need to think of a way."

Olivia hated the monasteries she had stayed in, even though the conditions there weren't bad and she could still live like a noble lady. But life there was just boring and tedious for her.

Those wrinkled nuns were all stubborn old fogies, watching her all day long, forbidding her from doing this or that, and forcing her to memorize those tedious scriptures and learn cumbersome aristocratic etiquette with the other girls, as if they wanted to turn them into puppets. Olivia was driven mad just thinking about such a miserable life.

So Olivia decided to rebel in her own way. Whatever the nuns forbade her to do, she would do it anyway, and she would incite the other girls in the convent to join her. After all, given her status, even if the abbess caught her, she wouldn't dare do anything to her. She would continue until she drove everyone in the convent mad, until they could no longer tolerate her and respectfully sent her home.

She had carried out similar acts of rebellion more than once, and each time she had succeeded. This not only earned Olivia a formidable reputation within the kingdom's monastery circles, earning her the title of "Golden Devil" from the nuns, but also convinced her that this was a viable strategy with an almost 100% success rate!

However, before taking any action, she needed to scout out the terrain and thoroughly understand the inside and outside of this seemingly small temple.

While Olivia was plotting how to trick people, Lude was enjoying a hot pot meal with his four beautiful female disciples at the restaurant.

Thanks to the rise of hot pot culture in the area, Lude took the opportunity to promote chopsticks from his hometown on Earth. They are now accepted by the townspeople as the proper utensil for eating hot pot. Everyone initially thought they were difficult to learn, but once they did, they all found them to be much easier to use than forks.

However, as he was eating, Lude suddenly realized that Kanna, who was always inseparable from Aina and had the same cravings, was not there.

Because this little thing lives by consuming the divine power provided by Aina, it is essentially equivalent to a medicine god's messenger. When Aina broke through to the second tier, it also ascended to heaven and gained a cool transformation skill.

Having acquired her new skills, Kanna was no longer content to just play inside the temple. Every few days, she would transform and fly out. She would either bully her two older brothers in the paradise inhabited by the demi-humans or explore the forest, like a kitten in the throes of puberty, full of curiosity about everything.