Chapter 556 I Forgive You
In the morning, it was just getting light.
Janice went to the Twenty-One Ring with some trepidation.
The higher one climbs into the Theocracy, the narrower the ground becomes, and the fewer people there are. The twenty-first ring is like a gigantic palace... and this is where the Saintes-in-waiting are raised.
After verifying her identity, presenting a token, and registering her blood and soul fluctuations, Janice put on a specially made jewel brooch that could record the entire process, and under the guidance of the two Pope's guards, she followed the prescribed route to the agreed location.
Each candidate saint will undergo various closed-door training here until they acquire the ability to communicate with the Nine Pillars and fully develop all their abilities, or will be eliminated due to any data not meeting the standards, and then they will be released.
The training of a Saint is extremely rigorous, and failing any assessment is not allowed.
With this high elimination rate, any qualified girl will be recruited here after meeting the age requirement - the recruited saints may be eliminated at any time.
The reason there were only women was because the top-level inheritance of the "Eternal Saint" required the inheritor to be a pure, calm, and quiet young woman. Although the Saint "Pure White" was active outside, there were at least twenty or thirty Saint Maiden candidates here.
Those who were not eliminated would be considered as candidates. If anything unexpected happened to the current Saint, the best candidate would be selected to fill the position immediately.
The cruelest part here is that even if you meet all the standards, even if you haven't made any mistakes, even if you are the best in all the assessments... if you eventually reach the age limit, you will still be eliminated on schedule.
To ensure the purity of their thoughts, preventing them from being contaminated by other ideas and thus deviating from their path... Candidate Saints are restricted in their access to individuals during their various stages of study, and all conversations with visitors are strictly monitored. Spreading deviant ideas among these candidates will be considered a crime of the highest order in the Church.
As a temporary visitor, Janice was naturally not allowed to talk to any candidate saints. Therefore, she would not meet anyone on this road.
All of this was planned.
Janice walked through the solemn and silent corridor of the cathedral, the cadenced footsteps of the two papal guards echoing in her ears. The footsteps echoed throughout the deserted cathedral—a corridor hundreds of meters long that could accommodate more than twenty people walking side by side, but now there were only the three of them.
In the extremely silent environment, even the footsteps of two people, echoing in the pure white corridor, sounded like thousands of troops.
An idea suddenly popped up in Janice's mind:
Perhaps it was the best thing Grey did to find Ms. Blue Rose as a mentor for Gloria.
If Gloria were still studying in the 21st Circle, Janice wouldn't have been able to see her. The atmosphere here would have probably made Gloria succumb long ago. Fortunately, she was sent downstairs to recuperate...that's why she might have lived this long.
Mercedes lived here for a long time because she refused to admit defeat. Although she did not have amber, she also joined the controlled fire.
The Controlled Fire is a faction that opposes the Inheritors, and the only Inheritor Mercedes has ever come into contact with is the Eternal Saint.
Presumably, during these years of hard training, she had already developed a deep hatred for the succession system of candidate saints.
The surrounding pure white corridors are almost devoid of any decoration... no sculptures, no paintings, only identical, protruding flame reliefs and lighting.
Pure white candles, pure white flames, an infinite loop. It seems endless, like it's reaching the end of the world—and the gently ascending slope brings a sense of fatigue. The corridors here are all structured like this, and are called "infinite corridors."
There are no road signs or time-marking devices on Ring 21.
There are no clocks or watches, and you can't see the sun, moon, or stars.
Under these circumstances, the Saints must maintain a very regular lifestyle, monitor their own state, and even their heartbeat and breathing rhythms to remember and constantly judge the current time. If their biological clocks are disrupted, they will be eliminated.
This was also one of the ascetic practices that gradually wore away the anxiety of the candidate saints, but it made Janice unable to help but feel anxious.
The road seemed to have no end, and she felt anxious and uncomfortable.
When she turned the corner and finally saw Gray, Yannis immediately shouted and ran towards her:
"——Gray!"
It looked like a huge chapel, but there were no seats for spectators.
The red wooden floor resembled dried blood. The ceiling was a dark crimson, and the room was filled with white candles of varying heights—thousands of them burning quietly, filling the room with a faint, sacred aroma of incense.
I saw the pure white saint wearing her white robe that looked like a wedding dress, kneeling quietly in front of the nine statues.
She clasped her fingers in front of her chest, her eyes covered with ribbons, and from a distance she looked like a blooming lily.
The two Pope's guards stopped far away at the door and let Janice walk past.
Janice was initially very anxious, but as she sniffed the incense, her mood gradually calmed down, and her hurried footsteps also slowed down.
"Gray, why are you..."
...Choose this as the meeting place?
Janice originally wanted to ask this.
But Saint Pure White just didn't even turn her head and said calmly: "This is how I wait for you every day, Janice.
"Every day repeats endlessly, and I don't know if tomorrow will be different. But I can only keep going... I can't worry, I can't regret, I can't give up.
"You've only been walking like this for an hour, and I've been walking like this for one hundred and ninety-five years."
Yannis fell silent and was speechless.
She stood three or four meters away from the saint, but did not dare to move forward for a moment.
She was silent for a long time before she whispered, "I didn't know...you would always wait for me."
"Because I trust you."
Gray replied, "Agnis would never lie to me, she will definitely come back.
“So I am waiting here… This is my practice.
"You are my Infinite Corridor."
The Saint replied calmly.
Her voice was cool and calm, without anger or anxiety.
It seems that all emotions have been worn away by the endless cycle, leaving only obsession.
"……sorry."
"There's no point in apologizing, Janice. I want to hear your explanation."
"——That kind of thing is good in any way!"
Janice couldn't contain the emotions surging within her—guilt, remorse, anxiety, fear—a tangle of emotions. The overwhelming complexity of her emotions tormented her, and she wished she could rip her heart out of her chest and carve a poem of it with her paintbrush.
After she was promoted to the fifth energy level and became a well-known strong man in this world, respected as a master by people, she had never had such a vulnerable moment.
She even thought that she had grown up and would never be afraid again.
But now, Janice realized that it was simply because she hadn't encountered the things she cared about yet. It was simply because she had become strong enough and was no longer so easily losing the things she cherished.
She clutched the jeweled brooch on her chest, but she still made up her mind to speak. She told Grey the secret of the Wine of Eternal Life and the Tears of Time, and also told her the secret of the theft of the Tears of Time.
If this leads to Freya being held responsible, then she will take responsibility and send her to a safe place at all costs. Janice has made up her mind.
She had already felt very sorry for Grey, and now she had to tell Grey about this.
After hearing this, Gray remained silent for a long time.
"So you care about me so much."
She ignored the anxious Janice and just said softly, "Then why don't you come back?"
"...because of my cowardice."
This time, Janice finally gave her own answer: "I couldn't face my first mistake... so I made more mistakes."
Finally, Gray got up from the ground.
She turned around and said calmly, "Kneel down."
Janice knelt in front of Gray without hesitation.
Gray reached out her hands and gently stroked Janice's cheeks. She lifted Janice's face and made her look into her eyes.
Janice didn't understand at first, but after maintaining this posture for a while, she suddenly seemed to realize something - her pupils suddenly dilated.
Gray's mouth curled up slightly.
"Then I forgive you, Janice."
Gray's cold and calm voice echoed: "In the name of pure white, I forgive your sins."
At that moment, Janice felt something heavy in her heart suddenly disappear.
But she couldn't wait to breathe a sigh of relief for passing the test. Instead, she looked directly at Gray with fear in her eyes: "Could it be..."
"—I'm not afraid of that kind of thing."
The White Saint untied the white cloth that bound her eyes as she spoke, "Because I can no longer succeed the Pope. If it were to be exposed, the impact on the Church would be too bad.
"All the cardinals know this. In this case, I'm less likely to be attacked... because that would conceal the fact that I spontaneously condensed into amber, and the impact on the attacker would be even worse."
She slowly opened her eyes.
Her left eye was a beautiful sky blue, while her right eye was a gorgeous black like the starry sky.
Her eyelids were partially damaged, and her right eye could neither fully close nor fully open. It looked like a prosthetic eye made of glass beads.
“…You have already solidified into amber.”
Janice's expression turned ugly: "Is it because of... me?"
Although there has been no detailed research, the color of amber is basically related to the Tao.
And black is the color of the path of love.
"Don't be so conceited. It's not like I can't live without you, Janice."
Chunbai closed her eyes again and tied the silk layer by layer. Janice immediately stood up and walked behind her to help her tie the straps.
"I was just thinking...that's all. A deserter like you wouldn't understand."
The saint was about to say something, but after looking at Janice, she finally gave up.
She reached out and casually crushed the jewel brooch on Janice's chest. "These conversations might get you and Master Freya in trouble. So don't hand this thing over... If they ask, just say we had a fight and I broke it for you."
“…Is everything okay?”
"As a saint, I do have this power."
Pure White replied.
"Oh, right."
Hearing Freya reminded Janice of something else: "Do you still have Aiwass's dates?"
"Yes. I only took it twice and then no more."
The Saint nodded and said, "If I take them, it might be possible to cure the amber syndrome. But after taking them twice, I feel that the amount is not enough.
"I don't know how long they can last, or whether they'll continue to be born. So, I might as well preserve them for future generations... They might be useful to future elves. So I prayed to the power of amber and preserved them. They should last at least a few hundred years."
"It's a good thing you didn't continue taking it..."
Janice was a little scared, and then explained Freya's theory.
Chunbai was silent for a while, and finally shook his head: "Don't worry too much, it's just a theory.
"However, since Master Freya is here... let's leave them to professionals."
As she spoke, she took out a blue gem ring and said, "They are in here."
"So...what about Cardinal Loki?"
"The investigation is ongoing and the results are optimistic."
The corners of Chunbai's mouth curled up slightly. "The Eighteen Rings have confirmed that Bram's Titan power comes from Cardinal Loki. The evidence has been secured. Regardless of whether I can eventually succeed the Pope, he definitely can't."
"……What?"
Hearing this, Janice was stunned: "Cardinal Loki is the Wildfire Giant?"
She thought of Aiwass who went to see Cardinal Loki alone, and became nervous: "Wait a minute, then you come with me first--"
"Aivaz went to see Cardinal Loki!"
My work and rest routine is recovering. I'll have dinner and come back for the second chapter~
(End of this chapter)
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