The first thing Todd did upon waking was to touch the church's authorization certificate beside him.
Thankfully, everything is still here.
He sat up in bed, pressing his throbbing temples with two index fingers. His mind was reeling, and he saw stars. He clenched his teeth, thinking, "No wonder researchers hate socializing so much." A night of drunkenness had ruined all his plans; he was completely incapable of working.
I got dressed and opened the door.
They encountered monks hurrying along the corridor. The monks glanced at Todd expressionlessly and continued on their way without stopping.
The monk understood that his reputation within the monastery was utterly ruined. In the past, he was at most criticized for laziness and impiety; now, he was likely to be labeled as colluding with the church and infatuated with worldly affairs. On the other hand, he was already incredibly fortunate that he hadn't been expelled without Master Myris's formidable influence.
Like a mouse in a marketplace, Todd tried to hide his body in the shadows of the building to avoid attracting attention, and moved slowly towards the monastery gate.
Unfortunately, they were eventually discovered.
Karin, dressed in a monk's robe, stood in front of Todd, her expression displeased: "You forbade me to go yesterday, but you must take me with you today!"
The monk rubbed his temples, wanting to refuse outright, but when he recalled her terrorist-like remarks about frantically painting walls yesterday, he suddenly felt that it might be better to keep her by his side.
“Today you can come with me…” Seeing the girl’s excited and happy expression, Todd immediately added, “But you must follow my instructions and absolutely cannot do anything reckless.”
Having received the other party's full promise, the two set off together towards the foot of the mountain.
Todd had a general plan for the formation of the Exorcism Corps and the development of Twilight Harbor, but he needed to do some research first.
With his extensive network, quick wit, and local connections, Huggins was naturally the best person to consult.
When they arrived at the smelting plant at the foot of the mountain, Todd walked around the expanded furnaces but didn't see Hudgens. Instead, he found Edgar, who was sulking, and Jerry, who looked dejected.
Seeing their expressions, the monk asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong with you two?"
When Edgar saw Todd, his pent-up complaints finally found an outlet: "Don't even mention it! To cure this big oaf's problem, we took him to a downtown circus, paid to get him into the haunted house, and tied him to a wooden post with a rope. But after only a minute, he started crying in terror, broke the rope, snapped the post, beat the performers half to death, and even burned the tent down!"
Counting on his fingers, the little kid started calculating one by one: "Personnel medical expenses, material repair costs, prop purchase costs, tent repair costs, audience fright compensation... All the money we earned in three days went into it. Luckily, no one died, otherwise I would have been banned from the industry for life!"
Todd glanced at little Jerry, whose head was drooping lower and lower, and sighed deeply. It seemed that using fright to stimulate the adrenal parasites wasn't a good idea.
Karin, who was next to him, suddenly laughed.
"That scene would be hilarious!" The girl's comment surprised the others. "Just imagine, when the fire starts, people would scatter and run like animals with their tails on fire, creating chaos. Don't you think that would be funny?"
Rather than helping Jerry overcome his rage, Todd suddenly felt that he should prioritize correcting Miss Foreman's values.
“How can this be funny?!” Edgar straightened up, his face full of righteous indignation: “The props and tents are burned beyond repair, the performers will need to recover for more than a month, and the performance will be forced to stop for a long time!”
Upon hearing this, Karin raised her head, revealing her face beneath the monk's hood.
Edgar recognized the face and trembled. His voice rose three octaves involuntarily, his tone becoming like that of a devoted fan from his past life: "Miss Black Sheep! I didn't know you would come here. Your performance is my absolute favorite!"
Todd then realized that, apart from himself, only Huggins seemed to know about Karin's decision to stay at the convent.
The girl picked up where she left off: "That fire..."
"It was burning so hard, flames were shooting into the sky, and smoke was billowing everywhere! The entire circus rushed to put out the fire. You have no idea, the scene was truly..."
Hearing Edgar abruptly change his tune and start talking about the book with exaggerated words, Todd covered his face and thought to himself, "You little brat, do you have any shame?"
After listening for a while, the monk, unable to bear it any longer, had no choice but to interrupt the little brat: "Where are Hudgens? I don't see him anywhere."
Edgar paused, scratched the back of his head, thought for a moment, and muttered to himself, "It seems like telling you now probably won't make any difference..."
Um?
What does that mean?
Edgar pointed southwest: "Start from here, walk in that direction for half an hour, there's a village there, Uncle Hudgens went there."
Seeing the other person's inscrutable expression, the monk didn't ask any more questions and set off with Karin towards the village.
Edgar followed as well. He seemed to want to say a few words to Miss Black Sheep, but he didn't have the courage. He just followed behind the two of them, step by step.
Jerry, who had just made a mistake, didn't want to stay alone in the smelting plant, but he was also afraid of being scolded, so he just followed at a distance.
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