Chapter 132: Erisel In the year 30 AD, King Herod reigned...
In the year 30 AD, a dull and boring scene unfolded in a small border town ruled by King Herod.
The dust in the market was mixed with the stench of livestock and the fragrance of spices, but this did not dampen people's interest. They stopped in a small corner and looked at the girl who was different from ordinary people.
She had incredibly smooth, waist-length blonde hair that reminded people of the scorching afternoon sun. Even more surprising was her pair of eyes that were beyond description.
Noticing that more and more people were coming over, she lowered her head, trying to avoid the pervasive gazes, but the man with the fat face yanked her hair up, forcing her to look up and face everyone's gaze again.
The man, Arisel's father, looked at the monster whose hands and feet were tied with thick hemp ropes, and remembered his right hand pierced by a dagger, and the hatred in his heart deepened.
He looked at the crowd before him, hawking his wares with spit flying everywhere. It was as if the people around him weren't human beings, but ordinary animals. But the harder he shouted, the more people retreated.
It was all right to look at the girl as a curiosity, but buying a living person was another matter. They didn't have enough money to buy a slave for fun.
As time goes by, men become more and more impatient.
He looked at the expressionless girl beside him, and anger rose in his heart.
A mere bastard, yet he dared to try to escape, and even stabbed him with a dagger without hesitation when he was caught. If he hadn't used his hand to block it, he would have been stabbed in the heart and died.
The man suddenly attacked and slapped the girl in the face, but just as he was about to slap her, someone else grabbed his wrist.
The girl didn't expect anyone to come to her rescue, and she couldn't help but look up at the man in front of her. She found that he was in his early thirties, with an ordinary and friendly appearance.
"How much is this little girl? I bought it."
This sentence immediately extinguished the man's anger. He looked at the other person's clothes and found that they were the most ordinary linen clothes. He lowered his standards and sold this money-losing item for a price that could buy three sheep.
The girl rubbed her numb hands and followed the man silently. Only after he accurately said her name did she open her eyes wide in surprise and said, "How did you know my name is Arisel?"
The man didn't answer immediately, but simply patted her head gently, his tone filled with sincere pity: "Fairies are the simplest creatures, so her good intentions led to bad consequences."
After hearing this, Arisel couldn't help but touch his eyelids. "Are you saying... my unique appearance is thanks to the goblins?"
"That's right. Fairies love wonderful colors. Your mother saved a fairy before she died. When the fairy asked for her reward, she was thinking about you in her belly and hoped that you would become a beautiful and intelligent girl. So your eyes became a rare color in the world."
A layer of mist appeared in Arisel's eyes, but she forced it back.
Her parents had been arguing constantly since she was conscious, and when she learned to eat on her own, her mother fled the house, and no one knew where she had gone. Her biological father hated her immensely, believing she was irrefutable evidence of her mother's infidelity.
Her father hated her and beat her.
She hated this cramped home so much, and her patience reached its peak when her father wanted to marry her off.
She escaped
She fled without a care in the world, but her unusual appearance became the reason for her capture. She was tied up by her father and sold at the market. If this man hadn't bought her, no one knew how much worse would have happened to her.
Although she didn't know the man's name and had never seen an elf before, for some reason, Arisel believed in this man from the bottom of her heart.
"What can I do for you?" Arisel asked quietly. She was the daughter of an ordinary family, and apart from being able to do some rough work, she knew nothing else.
The man smiled: "Just accompany me and help those in need, that's enough."
Just like that, Arisel followed the man and embarked on a new journey.
They had no destination, like spectators of the world, wandering from place to place. For some reason, their journeys were often extremely fortunate. Even when they had to sleep in the open, they never encountered a violent storm, always a gentle breeze. Lying on the grass, gazing at the starry sky, they felt an indescribable sense of peace.
The man was naturally intelligent, possessing a profound understanding of many things. Often, the sight of a fallen leaf would bring out a flood of emotion, not only amusing Arisel but also captivating passersby, who thought him truly remarkable.
They wanted to communicate more with the men, so the men's progress slowed down. Sometimes they would camp in one place and stay for ten days or half a month before leaving.
The man's reputation slowly built up as he answered every little question he could. They respectfully addressed him as "Sir," and Arisel earned an interesting nickname: "Little Divine Envoy."
As time went by, Arisel's way of addressing men gradually evolved from respect to "father." When she turned eighteen, she had no choice but to call him "brother."
The reason was simple: six years had passed, and the man looked exactly the same, even the length of his beard hadn't changed. Meanwhile, I had grown from a short, stubble-haired girl into a mature woman. Calling him father felt strange.
The man never refused these titles. He was always a guy with an overly good temper. Even though he now had countless devout believers and other followers, he still looked like an ordinary middle-aged man.
She always wore linen clothes that had been washed until they were bleached, and had a calming smile on her face.
Even though Arisel had been with him the longest, she still felt she hadn't learned a thing from him. She had no philanthropy and didn't enjoy selflessly helping others, especially men who had committed crimes. She didn't believe they could be redeemed.
She hated their obscure and vulgar gazes, which made her feel extremely uncomfortable. Although they didn't say anything or do anything, it made her feel even more suffocated.
Fortunately, I am a small messenger of God after all, and I have not encountered any bad things.
She continued to follow the man, thinking that nothing would change, when a strange church quickly flourished under their noses.
Arisel looked around and felt that something was clearly wrong.
She frowned and looked at the crowd shouting in the street. She watched for a long time before she realized what they were talking about.
Church of Light...?
The more she listened to his words, the more she found them laughable and baffling. The teachings he spoke of were pure empty rhetoric, nothing more than a collection of adult words torn apart and forcibly pieced together, creating a tangled mess.
Arisel hadn't taken this small group seriously at first, but he never imagined that in just a few years, it would become an immensely large group. Believers can gain eternal life, while non-believers are destined to go to hell.
They divided the sect into different classes, like a pyramid deliberately fashioned by humans. Under their airtight control, they became an ironclad prison. They also invented many horrific and bizarre stories, threatening ordinary people to join them or face damnation and torture.
Just like that, before Arisel could react, the Church of Light had become a behemoth that could cover the sky with one hand. Except for a group of people who firmly supported the Master, the rest of the people wavered and withdrew from their group.
"It's their freedom to go or stay." The adult wasn't angry. "I keep telling everyone my thoughts and repeating them over and over again because I hope everyone can achieve freedom and happiness. It's not for any worldly success."
But... many times, weakness is the original sin.
Arisel was noticed by the so-called messenger of God, who looked at her with greedy eyes, as if he was looking at a piece of fresh meat.
The other party first amicably called the adults and themselves together, and said in a high-sounding manner that since both parties were messengers of God, it was natural for them to communicate more. If the man hadn't restrained Arisel, she would have spat in the guy's face! He was clearly a thief, and he dared to come to see them now.
Perhaps realizing the other party's good temper, the other party became even more arrogant and directly asked to take Arisel away and make her the bride of God.
The man's expression finally changed. He stood in front of Arisel, a hint of anger in his tone: "You are already seventy-five years old. How can you force me to marry you? Please go back. I will never agree to this!"
Others might think these words were harmless, but only Arisel knew that the man had never been so angry.
The disgusting old man walked away, and Arisel breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the matter was over, but then an unparalleled disaster struck.
That man is a scourge. He must be eradicated before the world can truly find peace. Thus spoke the apostle of God to the congregants in a church adorned with gold and diamonds.
This was a thoughtless and illogical statement, yet people believed it without a doubt. Under the pretext of protecting humanity, they actually hacked the man's temporary residence to pieces with knives in broad daylight and kidnapped him.
"No, how can you do this!" Arisel screamed, charging at the crowd. But her angry shouts were easily ignored by the crowd. They simply walked on, not wanting to bother with the frail woman.
It wasn't until she bit a believer's hand like a mad dog that the man pushed her away angrily: "This girl deserves to die! She's always been with the devil, she must be no good!"
The others followed suit, as if without a thought: "Yes, she was influenced by the devil, she is unclean, she deserves to die."
Several men came over and effortlessly held her limbs down, making her previous efforts look like a joke.
Arisel had never hated her own weakness so much, having her power suppressed so easily. The man, who seemed to be of higher status, had a look of brainwashed numbness in his eyes, his cloudy eyes staring at her neck.
"No!!"
The screams stopped, and Arisel's neck was easily cut, and he lost his precious life.
Unbeknownst to her, the man had also died, only to be reborn three days later. His resurrection had left everyone utterly terrified. They finally knew who the true god was.
The man found Arisel's body and entrusted her to a pious woman.
"Sir...what are you doing?"
"I have my mission and must leave this place. So I can only ask you to take good care of her."
The woman already knew the man's true identity, so she naturally nodded in agreement.
"When she wakes up again, she will become her ideal self. This is my compensation to her." The man stroked her pale, cold cheek and said softly, "Goodbye, Arisel."
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