Withdrawing his hand, Samuel looked around. "Speaking of which, is your church wealthy? This church is built so large, everything is luxurious, it doesn't look at all like a small church with few people."
He had been here for about ten minutes now. Although people were coming and going throughout the entire church, they were all clergy. Aside from the "maiden" not far behind him, there wasn't a single believer.
There weren't even many people passing by the church entrance.
But contrary to the low number of people was the church's decoration.
Gothic spire architecture, enormous stained-glass floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides of the church. An almost spotlessly clean environment, a spacious main prayer hall, and rows of candelabras that could illuminate the entire main prayer hall with just candles.
The church was so luxurious, the number of clergy was so high, yet the believers were so few. It was truly strange that they weren't losing money.
Unless some wealthy patron frequently made large donations.
As if reading his mind, Ethen's response followed Samuel's train of thought.
"Just as you guessed," he turned his head to look at the "maiden" behind him, "His Highness is a believer of our church and often donates money to it."
There was a considerable distance between them, yet the "maiden" lifted their head and looked over as if hearing their conversation.
Ah, so it's "His Highness."
Samuel confirmed his earlier speculation.
"Mhm, royalty indeed. I guessed right." The corners of Samuel's mouth lifted, feeling the satisfaction of correctly solving a riddle.
Although that "maiden's" face was essentially a feminized version of the king's face on the banknotes, practically spelling out "I'm related to the person on the money," it was still enjoyable to guess the answer correctly.
"However, I thought the relationship between the church and the royal family would be quite poor."
After all, that's how it was written in the history textbooks; military power and religious authority were like a pair of star-crossed lovers constantly entangled.
Today, I increase your taxes; tomorrow, you launch a great crusade against me.
Although, in a world possessing the extraordinary, whether it's "the divine right of kings" or "the king's right to divinity" wouldn't be debated for as long as in Samuel's previous life. Even without humanoid beings born from human faith or super lifeforms naturally nurtured between heaven and earth, as long as a certain Law Seeker's strength was powerful enough to defeat the entire world single-handedly, then he would be the well-deserved and truly existing "god."
But the more realistic problem was that the royal family might very well possess powerhouses equivalent to the church's "god."
As the saying goes, without equivalent strength, the royal family couldn't possibly hold a higher social status than the church in the public eye.
A puppet emperor wouldn't possess something like dignity.
Ethen thought for a moment, then nodded. "You're not wrong; the relationship between the two sides is indeed not that good."
"But as you said, we're just a small church with few people. The royal family has no need to be wary of us."
That was a lie.
Samuel twitched his nose, feeling he smelled the scent of falsehood in the air.
"Re...ally?" Samuel raised his eyebrows, drawing out his tone. "You're this strong, and the royal family is truly at ease?"
"I remember you said you inscribed yourself into the world, right? A Law Inscriber like you can't even catch the royal family's eye?"
As he spoke, Samuel revealed a slightly exaggerated expression of surprise.
"Could it be that this is actually an ultra-dangerous world where Law Carvers are as common as dirt, Law Inscribers are inferior to dogs, and top-tier powerhouses are fighting everywhere at any given moment?"
"Oh no, in that case, a mere Law Seeker like me has truly become roadside trash."
"No, you're overthinking it." Priest Ethen automatically ignored the offense in Samuel's words. "Although the royal family is strong, they haven't reached the level you described."
"Furthermore, a Law Carver is a great existence that can be referred to as 'Him.' I don't mind, but I still wouldn't recommend you evaluate them with such remarks."
After saying this, he shifted his gaze back to the "maiden," locking eyes with that "maiden" across several rows of chairs.
"This His Highness is my student. Because he has followed me since childhood, he has been excluded from the political center."
"And the reason the royal family allows His Highness to study with me, aside from not trusting him, also carries the intention of monitoring me. Although he doesn't possess the ability to monitor me, the royal family also doesn't overly trust him."
"Wait, *he*?" Samuel repeated this pronoun.
Ignoring that long explanation, Samuel's attention was instantly captured by one particular word choice in Ethen's speech.
In the Liastanian language, the word for the masculine "he" and the feminine "she" were completely different words.
Therefore, Samuel was certain he hadn't misunderstood the meaning.
Samuel cast a look of incomprehension, looking past several rows of chairs at the young person not far behind.
That shouldn't be possible. With his extraordinary vision, he shouldn't be unable to distinguish whether a person was male or female.
Seeing Samuel's puzzled expression, Ethen smiled gently. "Yes, it's 'he,' not 'she.'"
He indicated he hadn't misspoken, and Samuel hadn't misheard.
His tone was quite calm, as if he was long accustomed to this matter.
Samuel's gaze at that young person grew even stranger.
Could it be that he was actually the isekai version of the Frog Prince, who was cursed with a transformation spell by a witch he offended? And because the witch was unskilled, the prince who should have turned into a frog became a super-beautiful maiden instead.
Excellent! The witch was right!
Not appointing her as the Royal Preceptor would be a waste of talent.
His brain processed the information for a few seconds, and Samuel's expression became somewhat odd, sweeping over both the young person and the priest.
If that were truly the case... was it still the classic priest-and-young-boy combination?
I thought we were done with this trope; how is it here again?
So, just one young boy can no longer satisfy the priest's appetite?
His thoughts rapidly diverged, swiftly recalling the scene he witnessed this very morning of Priest Ethen consuming the young boy.
Combined with what he just heard about studying under Ethen since childhood...
Huh? There's even a raising element?
Samuel asked curiously, "What is this? Homegrown vegetables taste safer?"
Ethen fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. "You may have some misunderstanding about me, but 'Heaven' is not the direct consumption you imagine."
"Is that so..." Seeing that Ethen seemed inclined to give a lengthy explanation about what "Heaven" was, Samuel changed the subject. "So, he treats this place as his secret base?"
I don't want to watch background exposition, skip! skip! skip!
"Yes." Seeing Samuel wasn't interested in the theory of "Heaven," Ethen cooperatively followed the topic shift. "Because he has been in contact with me since childhood, it has become difficult for him to be trusted by the true center of power in the royal family."
"Additionally, His Highness has a gentle disposition and isn't very fond of power struggles himself, so he simply spends more time here at the church."