Goddess Kaleidoscope

At their first meeting, the Medicine Goddess's cool demeanor lasted less than three seconds before she was shivering from the cold. Lu De gave her his outer robe and took her to the inner kitchen to warm up by the fire for a while before she finally recovered. If she, the Medicine Goddess, had actually caught a cold from the cold, that would have been quite a mess.

While Evelina was squatting in front of the stove to warm herself, Lud, who hadn't eaten dinner yet, busied himself at the stove, and chatted with her while cooking. The two, one human and one god, got to know each other for the first time.

Through conversation, Ludwig first confirmed Evelina's intellectual condition. Although she was a bit slow-witted, she was at least not mentally disabled. What Ludwig found particularly interesting was that, despite being less than thirty minutes old, she could speak fluently and possessed a certain level of basic common sense.

Lude roughly guessed that the knowledge she possessed was incidental information from the faith she absorbed. However, since all of this faith came from the few hundred villagers of Pine Village, her current knowledge base was extremely limited; she couldn't even write the language of this world.

However, it didn't matter that the goddess was a bit silly. What frustrated Lude the most was that this guy was really useless. And ultimately, it was mainly because he didn't have enough faith! The faith that Lude had collected over the past few months had been completely used up just to awaken Evelina's consciousness and to create her physical body for walking among mortals. Now he had no extra power to cast any more divine spells.

So for Ludwig, the long march has only just begun, and the real hardships are far from over!

It is important to understand that faith is the source of divine power and the foundation upon which every religious sect exists in the world. The operation and expansion of the entire religious system depend on this divine power. The reason why priests hold a transcendent position, and why some powerful sects can even rise above secular governments, is entirely due to the intimidating power of divine magic!

Unlike magic, which mortals can cultivate on their own but require certain personal aptitude, divine magic is a power that mortals borrow from gods. As long as they are recognized by the gods of their respective sects, they can obtain the corresponding usage rights. High-ranking members even have channels to communicate with the gods.

Therefore, compared to magic, divine spells have the advantage of being easy to cast and costing no personal resources, but their daily usage is limited. Mages, on the other hand, can use potions to replenish their mana and continue casting, provided they have the financial means. So, in most cases, when a priest and a mage of the same level fight, the priest wins, because after casting their divine spell, there's a high probability that these guys will pick up their finely crafted iron scepters and charge in for close combat.

However, although priests do not need to have magical aptitude, it is true that not just anyone can become one. You need to stand out from the vast number of believers, join the sect as a formal clergyman, and then gradually improve your rank within the sect before you can gain the right to use divine magic.

As far as Lude knew, most religious sects in this world had similar organizational structures. After the war of the gods three hundred years ago, most of the surviving sects, in order to avoid conflict, no longer forced their followers to worship only one god, but instead used other means to win them over. As a result, the evolved sects became more like media companies with extremely high power.

The lowest-ranking clergy in a sect are usually monks, who are newly enrolled trainees. Their main job is to do odd jobs in the temple, and occasionally they will be sent on missions to spread the gospel to remote areas.

In some shady cults, these low-ranking monks may even be reduced to tragic D-level personnel, becoming materials for sacrificial rituals.

Typically, after five to seven years of training, monks will be promoted to priests based on their aptitude and performance, becoming official members of the sect and beginning to use divine magic. Priests usually serve as lower-level officials in major temples or are sent to small chapels in rural towns to take charge.

However, even among priests, the treatment varies from sect to sect. Those who are better off, such as the Church of Light or the Church of the Four Seasons, which have a grudge against Lud, have many followers, their temples are generally wealthy, and the gods they worship are more powerful, so they have more divine power to share with their followers.

Official priests of the Church of Light can choose to use three low-level divine spells or one mid-to-high-level divine spell per day. In case of emergency, they can even use three more spells in advance, at the cost of being unable to use divine spells for the next three days.

Therefore, there is a story about the Holy Light Cult in this world: you can't fight their priests in the few minutes before midnight, because when they get angry, they can unleash nine divine spells on you in one go!

Above priests, the next highest-ranking clergy are bishops. These are mid-to-high-level leaders, usually in charge of the main temple of a town or region, and their status in the local area is on par with that of the city lord and nobles.

From monks to priests to bishops, most religious sects in this world have adopted this hierarchical model, and the differences between different sects are mainly reflected in the higher levels.

For some small and medium-sized religious sects, the entire diocese's sphere of influence may only be the territory of one city. Therefore, the bishop is the highest leader of the sect, and there is no need to make the organization too redundant or to bring out a bunch of clergy to consume the hard-won divine power of their own god.

However, large religious sects that control one or even multiple countries are different. They have larger territories and more believers, so they need to establish higher-level clergy above bishops to divide their spheres of influence into dioceses. Depending on the sect, the titles of the diocesan heads also vary, including archbishop, cardinal, and those in red and purple robes.

Large religious sects at this level have essentially become religious regimes. Secular monarchies either cooperate with them or become their vassals, and even the change of the throne requires the sect's approval.

However, religious figures are, after all, human beings. Even gods have emotions and desires, let alone religious figures. Therefore, in order to balance the internal power struggles between different dioceses, these large religious sects often hold regular elections to elect a supreme leader from among the diocesan officials!

This system wasn't difficult for Rudd to understand. Using a company structure from Earth, believers were product users, monks were employees, priests were section chiefs, bishops were managers, archbishops were department heads, and the pope was the CEO. As for the gods worshipped, they were naturally the chairman of the board, holding the shares!

So Lude's current predicament is that the shell company finally has a chairman, but this chairman has no money to pay salaries, and the employees below have to continue to work overtime to support this useless female boss who is good for nothing except her face and figure.

Soon, Lu De's dinner was ready: two bean flour pancakes and a pot of vegetable and egg drop soup. The free-range eggs in the soup were a thank-you gift from an old lady in the village a while ago, to thank Lu De for helping her cure her rheumatism. Lu De hadn't been able to bear eating them, but since the statue was being completed today, he took them out to treat himself. However, he discovered that the goddess was so useless, and his original joy was immediately dampened by more than half.

Just then, Rudd suddenly noticed that the goddess beside him was staring longingly at the egg drop soup he had just ladled into his bowl. Although he wasn't sure whether the goddess needed to eat, Rudd couldn't stand being stared at so intently by a little girl, so he had no choice but to hand her the soup.

Would you like to try some?

"Uh-huh!"

With a joyful expression, the goddess Evelina took the soup bowl with both hands. Like a cat afraid of getting burned, she first carefully blew on the hot soup before taking small sips, a very happy smile unconsciously appearing on her face.

Looking at her adorable appearance, Lude couldn't help but smile. Putting aside his initial excessive expectations of her, Lude found that he actually found it difficult to have any ill feelings towards this simple and cute little girl.

"Drink slowly, there's more in the pot."

He poured himself another bowl and sat down to eat. Then he suddenly remembered that he hadn't taken off his mask. Although wearing this disguise didn't affect his eating or drinking, it wasn't his own face after all, so when no one else was around, Lud tried his best to show his true face.

As for Evelina in front of them, she was a goddess they had created. It seemed that there was a special bond and connection between them, just as the old astrologer had said, so they felt an instant connection upon first meeting.

Without hesitation, Ludwig reached out and removed his mask, but this act of "tearing off his mask" startled Evelina, who was sitting opposite him, and she almost dropped the soup bowl in her hand.

"You, you, how have you changed so much!?"

"Did I ever say I was an old man...? Unbelievable! You really didn't notice?"

Looking down at the stone mask in his hand, and at the genuinely unfazed expression of astonishment on Evelina's face, Ludwig couldn't immediately tell whether his goddess was truly incompetent or whether the "Smile of Hume" was such a powerful disguise that it could even fool the eyes of a god.

Just as Lud was about to explain to the surprised Evelyna the reason for his artifact and his disguise, a tiny point of light suddenly flew in through the wall from the outside, slowly drifting past the person and the god in the room...

End of this chapter

The faith that flew in was very small, only the size of a soybean. If you don't look closely, you could easily mistake it for a lost firefly.

Lud was not surprised to see this. Over the past few months, although more than 80% of the faith he had collected came from organizing believers to carry out "religious activities" on-site, he also had some small, miscellaneous income on weekdays.

According to Ludwig's observation, this kind of faith mostly arose unintentionally among believers in the village. Perhaps something good happened in their daily lives that made them happy, and they subconsciously praised the goddess.

The faith generated in this way may be small, but as the number of believers gradually increases in the future, it can accumulate into a considerable income.

This also made Lud realize that in addition to organizing more group activities, he also had to find a way to properly integrate some religious concepts into the daily lives of the villagers, so that they could always think of the Medicine God and thus generate a continuous stream of faith.

Thinking about the important direction for future development, Lude casually grasped the small ball of faith light. Possessing the primordial fire within him, he could not only see the power of faith, imperceptible to mortals, with his naked eye, but also actively touch it with his body. Whenever he had free time, Lude would hold a little in his hand. It had a very subtle tactile sensation when squeezed, and it was easy to become addicted to playing with it.

But just as Lud was playing with his faith as a stress-relieving toy, Evelina suddenly became agitated. She put down her half-finished soup bowl, screamed, and lunged at Lud.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Give it to me! Give it to me now!"

Stumbled after being suddenly pounced on by the goddess, Lud realized that what she wanted was the small ball of faith in his hand. The way she looked at it was like a predatory…orange cat pouncing on its prey!

You want this?

"Ah."

Seeing Evelina nod, Lud handed her the ball of faith. Like him, she could touch faith with her bare hands, grabbed it, and without a word, stuffed it into her mouth, then made a very obvious swallowing motion.

"Wow! It really is food!"

Like a child chewing on candy, Evelina finished her Faith and smacked her lips a couple more times, still looking like she wanted more. Just then, another ball of Faith flew in, and Lud was quick to snatch it away. When Evelina saw this shameless guy constantly stealing her food, she immediately pounced on him again.

Lude shielded the enraged goddess with one hand, while holding the faith he had just grasped high in the other. Some physical contact inevitably occurred between the human and the goddess. While the goddess's tackling with her unborn child was undeniably satisfying, her endless antics were undeniably annoying.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute! Let me take a look before you eat!"

Lud had previously attempted to study the power of faith, but since the goddess had not yet been born, he had to exercise restraint and lacked a reference point. Seeing Evelina devour faith whole had rekindled his interest in research.

So he waved the faith in his hand and spoke to Evelina in the tone of a philanderer using a lollipop to lure a little girl.

"I need your cooperation in conducting some tests. If you agree, I'll give you this, and I'll get you more in the future. How about it?"

"Are you serious?"

"I can guarantee that I keep my word."

Evelina thought for a moment, then finally nodded.

Rudd's first test concerned the way faith was absorbed. This thing is invisible and intangible to mortals, and although Rudd, who possessed the primordial fire, could see it, touch it, and temporarily store it within his body, he could not truly use it for himself.

Lude handed the second portion of faith to Evelina, instructing her to try absorbing it in other ways. She easily did so with a simple grasp of her hand. This meant that Evelina could absorb faith simply by touching it, and her earlier use of her mouth was purely for the enjoyment of the "eating" process!

Then, as if by magic, another ball of faith appeared in Ludwig's palm, but this ball of faith was noticeably different in color, glowing with a soft emerald green light.

This bundle of faith was "stolen goods" that Lud had casually intercepted while passing by a temple of the goddess of the four seasons during his escape. He had kept it until now, and occasionally took it out to compare with the faith he had collected in Pine Village.

He discovered that this green faith could not blend into the colorful auspicious clouds, so he took it out and gave it to Evelina. She took it, squeezed it for a long time, and finally returned it to Lud with great disappointment.

"I can't eat this."

"As expected! The power of faith that has been generated can only be absorbed by the corresponding god, and can only change the object of the believer's faith."

The human and the god then conducted some small tests. Lude prepared to write down the information obtained from these tests in his notebook, while the goddess Evelina became fascinated with an interesting little game. Like a cat seeing a laser pointer for the first time, she enthusiastically went around catching the faith that kept flying in.

Lud quickly finished taking notes, looked up at the moon outside the window, and estimated that it was probably around eight o'clock in the evening. For Lud in his previous life, this time of day might have been the beginning of his nightlife, but now that he had transmigrated to a backward fantasy world, he could only adapt to the local customs and adjust his daily routine, going to bed early and waking up early with the locals.

At this moment, Lu De noticed the goddess lady who was still staring intently at the south wall, and a question popped into his mind... What should we do with this girl?

"Um... Miss Evelina, may I ask you something?"

"Oh! You're asking again? Go ahead and tell me."

"I just wanted to ask, do you have a place to stay? I mean, can you... like other gods, 'whoosh' back to your divine realm from the mortal world?"

What are you talking about?

The man and the god stared at each other in an awkward silence that lasted for a full minute. Lud finally realized that he had just asked a stupid question that was foolish for both of them.

"Alright! Looks like I'll have to clean out my new room again."

There are many empty rooms at the back of the temple, divided into eleven rooms on two floors, and there is also a cellar in the backyard that has collapsed halfway.

However, before Evelina arrived, only Lud lived here, so he simply cleaned four rooms on the first floor: a bedroom, a study, a storage room (with a hidden door in the basement), and a kitchen.

Now that there was suddenly an Evelina, Lud decided to be a gentleman and give her his bedroom, while he would spend the night on the recliner in the study next door.

"You can sleep in this room tonight. I'm in the next room. If you need anything tonight, just come and wake me up."

"Huh? Aren't you coming with me?"

"..."

Completely subconscious, Lud glanced at Evelina's stunning face and alluring, curvaceous body. He had to admit that for a fleeting moment, a wicked thought had crossed his mind.

Fortunately, these thoughts were quickly suppressed by reason. Lu De thought to himself that he had been a people's policeman for eight years, and there were some principles he should continue to uphold!

End of this chapter

The first night living with my goddess... nothing happened!

Having declined the goddess's "invitation," Lude spent the night alone in his study. He only woke up groggily the next morning when he felt someone gently poking his cheek with their finger. When he opened his eyes, he saw Evelina standing in front of him, staring at him expectantly.

When are we having breakfast?

"Sigh... Did I end up with a goddess or a cat?!"

Luther stretched his stiff body, put on Hume's mask, and prepared to go out to get breakfast. It was just dawn, and most of the villagers were still asleep, but no one could be sure that someone wouldn't suddenly come knocking, so wearing a mask was always a good precaution.

The breakfast for the human and the god was simple. Lud went to the vegetable garden in the backyard, dug up some potatoes, put them in the oven to roast, and then reheated the leftover soup from last night. Lud was already used to such coarse food, but the seemingly delicate goddess Evelina ate it all with surprising speed and efficiency.

"You're easy to take care of."

"Huh? What did you just say?"