Alien Knights

In the sanctuary in the backyard of the cathedral, Todd had a good night's sleep. He dreamed that he seemed to be back in the university again in a trance, and lived a peaceful life as a teacher.

A knock on the door early in the morning brought him back to reality.

Sleepy-eyed Todd opened the door and saw a neatly dressed Tristan standing at the door looking at him intently.

Todd straightened his collar and asked, "What's the matter?"

Tristan glanced at the cross on the opponent's chest, and said, "Brother Felicchild, it's time for an early patrol."

"Morning patrol?" Todd looked puzzled: "What is morning patrol?!"

Tristan turned and left: "I'll wait for you at the gate of the backyard."

"Hello! Wait!" Todd yelled twice, but the figure of the other party disappeared in a blink of an eye.

In desperation, he could only return to the room, put on his teaching robe and quickly chased him out.

Tristan, who was standing at the door of the backyard, looked at Todd who was walking towards him, and made a "follow me" gesture.

The two, one in front of the other, followed the foot of the cathedral's wall, inspecting the past all the way.

Tristan, who was walking in front, was more like talking to himself: "The church attaches great importance to the succession of the Holy Acropolis this time, and specially dispatched Cardinal Jacob to take charge of all affairs..."

Todd's face remained calm, secretly remembering the name in his heart.

"Cardinal Jacob opposes all non-church forces, including aliens, scholars, and even those myth narrators on the street. He and my mentor, Cardinal Abel, often attack each other because of disagreements."

Todd couldn't help asking: "Why did you come together? Wouldn't this combination affect the work of the Holy Acropolis?"

Tristan stopped and looked back at Todd: "All this is the Pope's balancing act."

Todd gave a clear expression and said no more.

"Originally there were three forces in the Holy Acropolis. The royalist faction has survived in name only due to the king's terminal illness; the rest are the liberal faction of His Royal Highness Sinclair, and the church faction of His Royal Highness Matide."

After inspecting the cathedral, Tristan took Todd and walked towards the city. He said as he walked: "The entire Holy Acropolis has now been split by two forces. The people in the lower city are influenced by the church, and most of them support His Highness Matide; the nobles and generals in the upper city mostly support His Highness Sinclair."

Before the words were finished, a thin, disheveled woman was walking on the street with her child in her arms. When she saw Todd and Tristan in the black robe of the Holy Cross, she quickly moved out of the way and knelt aside.

Walking past the woman, Tristan suddenly stopped, turned around and stretched the back of his hand towards the forehead of the child in the woman's arms.

After a while, Tristan frowned and said to the woman, "Your son has a fever."

"My lord, I know, I'm planning to take him to church, and the merciful Father will heal him."

Seeing Tristan's solemn expression, Todd took out a silver moon from his inner pocket, and was about to hand it to the woman, but was stopped by the former.

Taking out a small pot of bitter medicinal herbs from his bosom, Tristan handed it to the woman: "This is a potion blessed by the heavenly father. Take it back and boil it in hot water, and then feed it to the child."

Watching the woman leave with the child gratefully, Todd stood there thoughtfully.

"Let's go, there's still a long way to go."

Tristan pressed the hem of his hood and walked slowly along the street.

Todd, who spent a whole day following Tristan to inspect most of the Holy Acropolis, still has the desperate and numb faces of the residents in his mind.

In the evening, Tristan walked to the cathedral's dining hall and watched Todd sitting at a corner table, turning a plate of stew with a wooden spoon.

Tristan walked over and sat on the chair opposite: "What? It doesn't suit your taste?"

Todd glanced at him, and said mockingly: "For a famine city, the food here is really rich."

Tristan shrugged. "You're saying that because you haven't been to an uptown party yet."

Todd was taken aback for a moment, then looked at the meal on the plate without saying a word.

Tristan put a piece of prosciutto into his mouth and chewed carefully: "Brother Fairchild, I heard about you in church, but yesterday was the first time I saw you. To be honest, you are not quite the same as the rumors."

Todd raised his head and narrowed his eyes: "Why is it different?"

"As the confidant of the Pope and the clerk of the Tzu Chi Knights, you are more... restrained..."

Todd smashed a piece of cauliflower in half with a wooden spoon, and said with a smile: "Restrained? Someone who works in my position, if his behavior and words are too flamboyant, he will definitely not stay for long."

Tristan also laughed: "That's right, I heard that your predecessor was transferred to the mission area in the south. After that, no one saw him again."

The expression on Todd's face slowly became serious, but he found that Tristan's smile was even brighter.

After dinner, Todd returned to the room, opened the soul space and summoned Rachel according to the pre-arranged contact time.

"What do you call such a thing in your world?" Rachel took out a wooden stick with beef on it from the boiling hot pot.

Todd put a large bunch of various meat and vegetable skewers into the bottom of the pot, then closed the lid, and opened a can of cold beer for Rachel and himself.

"If you eat it directly with a wooden stick, it's called Chuan Chuan Xiang; if you put the ingredients into a bowl, it's called Malatang."

Rachel, who was fanned by the spicy oil on the hot beef, opened her mouth and quickly took the beer handed by Todd, gulped down a big gulp, closed her eyes and let out a pleasant cry from her throat.

"This feeling is great!"

Seeing the joy on Rachel's face, Todd laughed.

He opened a bottle of sand tea sauce, and poured another dish each: "Dip this before eating, it will taste even better."

With a blissful expression, Rachel ate the ingredients on the plate bite by bite: "Sometimes, I really want to live here for the rest of my life. Outside, there is no food, no TV series, and no potato chips!"

"Your thinking is very dangerous." Todd took a sip of cold beer and said with a smile: "You know, in my world, what do you call someone who has your thinking?"

"What?"

"House girl."

Rachel raised her eyebrows and said, "House girl? Doesn't sound like a good name!"

Todd waved his hand: "Okay, okay, let's not talk about this, I will go to the dinner party at the Holy Acropolis tomorrow night. Do you have any clues about the information in the city?"

Rachel stretched out her hand and threw a booklet with a thickness of two centimeters in front of Todd.

Todd was a little dumbfounded: "What is this?"

Rachel gave him a blank look: "This is the noble material for the banquet tomorrow night."

"so much?!"

"You must memorize them all before you go."

The wooden sign in Todd's hand fell to the ground blankly: "Memorize it all?!"

"Of course, if Felichild has a secret deal with His Royal Highness Sinclair, it means that he should know many nobles of the Holy Acropolis and memorize these materials so that others will not be suspicious."

As Rachel spoke, she ate a piece of luncheon meat full of peppers and drank half a can of beer.

Todd accepted the materials with a bitter face, and suddenly remembered something, and said to Rachel: "What do you think of Tristan?"

Rachel's mouth was stuffed with food, and she said inarticulately: "What's wrong with him? Did he cause trouble for you?"

"That's not true, he is very cooperative." Todd slowly drank the beer in the can: "Through getting along with him today, I think he has a lot of prejudice against the church, and he may be someone who can be won over."

Rachel finally swallowed the food with the beer, and patted his chest: "He and his mentor, Abel, have something to ask from Muxi City, and Muxi City can also use their power in the church. The relationship between the two is nothing more than that. If we want to win them to our camp, I don't agree."

Todd leaned forward: "Oh? Tell me, why don't you agree?"

"First, he is not a heterogeneous species. What he cares about is the safety of scholars and mentors. You can't guarantee that one day in the future, when the interests of the two conflict, he will not turn his sword against us..."

Hearing this, Todd couldn't help but said: "You can't deny everything just because he is not a heterogeneous species? Besides, even if he is a heterogeneous species, many of them are our enemies."

Rachel shook the wooden sign and said: "Once a person is marked with a heterogeneous sticky note, it means that he has no way to retreat. He can only choose to stand on the opposite side of the secular world and fight for freedom for himself. As for the way to fight for freedom, the elders use violent attacks and high-handed rule, while Muxi City uses alliances and alliances. Compared with the two, I am more optimistic about the latter."

Hearing Rachel's speech speed getting faster and faster, Todd gave him a surprised look.

The woman's face was flushed, and Todd counted the empty cans in front of her, and there were as many as twelve cans.

Drinking beer in the soul space will also get drunk?

Todd just had this idea, only to hear Rachel continue to say: "So, I hate two kinds of people the most. The first kind of people try to use their alien abilities to enslave and destroy their compatriots to protect their own interests; the second kind of people try to deny their alien identity and anesthetize themselves with normal life."

"Rachel, you seem drunk..."

"I didn't." Rachel, who was blushing, rolled her eyes and said while thinking, "Where did I just say?"

"That's right! There is another reason, and that is Tristan's mentor—Cardinal Yarborough!"

Rachel rubbed her brows vigorously, and said with a distressed expression: "Among the people I've met over the years, there are a few that I still can't understand, and that old man in Yarborough is one of them."

Todd stood up with a wry smile, helped Rachel up and said, "You really drank too much, I didn't expect you to drink so lightly... Well, I'll take you out, and you have a good rest at night."

Rachel hugged Todd with her backhand, her mouth was full of the pungent smell of beer and chili: "I have seen one of your collection, but it uses ice cubes in it, do you want to try it?"

Todd looked blank: "What collection? What ice?"

Rachel kissed Todd's lips, the sharpness of the former's tongue made the latter frown.

With a smirk on her face, Rachel slowly squatted down.

"Oh my god! What are you doing?! You are crazy! So hot! So hot!"