Pastor's Tantra

Irises, Les Eygents.

A lady wearing a hat and a light green satin dress, carrying her small shoulder bag, was sitting in one of the few holy temples in the city, praying quietly with her eyes closed.

She looked pretty, the type that was very attractive. She had long curly dark brown hair that was almost black, and wore light makeup. She didn't wear any jewelry, which gave people a pleasing "ordinary beauty" feeling.

Father Cassius, who was consecrating the holy image by wiping it with holy water, looked at her from a distance, a little absent-minded for a moment.

He knew her—at least he knew her name. This was information he had obtained when he was distributing gifts during a festival.

Her name is Clara. She is a dance teacher at an art college in Les Eygents. She teaches ballet to the daughters of some wealthy people during her vacation. She speaks softly and always smiles silently with her eyes bent. She gives people the impression of being a very gentle person who doesn't like to talk or socialize.

She looks like some noble lady...

This thought came to Father Cassius’ mind.

This is not surprising. After all, in Iris, nobles can easily die in an uprising. And as the Iris Kingdom develops, some families that have been prosperous for a hundred years may suddenly fall into decline one day. And once women from those families lose the protection of their families, it is often difficult for them to find any decent jobs except for etiquette, dance, and music.

Even... even such a job may not be found. Compared with men, women often find it more difficult to be self-reliant.

It's not that he can't endure hardship or that he lacks the ability. It's because Hawkeye likes to capture people from these poor noble women.

They all have good looks, figures and temperaments, and can become good dancers with a little training. If they are willing to be assassins, they can have more assassination opportunities than male assassins. If they are not willing, they can also use various means to provide funds to the organization. From this perspective, Hawkeye actually does not want them to support themselves.

"Father Cassius," an old voice came from behind, "Come here - there seems to be some noise coming from the barrier."

"Oh well."

Cassius, who was slacking off, heard his teacher's voice and responded quickly.

As he left, he subconsciously glanced at Clara again.

A middle-aged gentleman, who was dressed appropriately and stably and looked to be of considerable means, sat down next to Clara.

He did not communicate with Clara, but closed his eyes and prayed quietly with the same serious expression.

"Padre Cassius?"

“——Here it comes!”

Cassius looked at Clara reluctantly again, then wiped his hands and hurried over.

As he left, the middle-aged gentleman sneered softly.

"That kid seems to like you, [Dancing Skirt]."

His mouth was still moving the prayer, but a completely different sound reached Clara's ears.

"I know."

The same is true for Clara.

She responded softly, her voice seeming even colder than her gentle and peaceful appearance.

"He's your hook too?"

"No, just the bell."

Clara replied: "It's already been hooked, and we can pull the net in any time."

Hook and bell are both code words in the Hawkeye organization. The former refers to those who can help others make money or do dirty work, and those who are controlled by the organization - for example, they have the other party's handle, or can be bribed with money and beauty.

The meaning of a bell is "something that can be used to attract attention." For example, some assassins would marry civilians who were completely unaware of their identities, in order to conceal their identities and allow themselves to legitimately enter certain places or have a good reason to go to a certain place.

As long as the action is reasonable, non-directional astrology is ineffective for them. Because their motive for assassination will be obscured by the motive of another thing, thus being confused - for example, a person plans to accompany his children to the zoo, and kills someone on the way back. Then predicting his trajectory at this time can only reveal that he intends to go to the zoo.

Avoiding astrology that can predict the future is a must for high-ranking assassins. Those bigwigs, especially the Son of the Moon, often spend a lot of money to hire ritualists and astrologers to intercept curses and assassinations. If divination is unavoidable, the astrologer may know what the assassin is going to do before he himself does.

The essence of astrologers' divination is to make limited predictions by testing the will of others, not that they can really see the future.

If the protection of identity is lost... a person with no social connection and no identity is too easy to be found out. Even without astrology, ordinary intelligence gathering and identity verification will cause their assassination operations to fail due to various accidents. It is even possible that all the people in a base will be exposed or arrested directly because of the exposure of identity.

Clara, a dance teacher, and the wealthy family with three sons, could not have any reasonable intersection on the surface. They both cherished the identities they had built for many years and obviously did not intend to break them because of some unreasonable behavior. The most suitable place for them to communicate was the church.

Although there aren't many devout believers here because of the bad relationship between Iris and the Church, it's not surprising that anyone believes in God. And there won't be any eavesdropping devices or predictive rituals set up in the church... This is a safe enough place.

It was enough for them to exchange information during prayer.

"Are you just fishing? Or do you really want to marry him?" the man asked.

"It depends on his performance."

Clara said calmly, "That guy is an honest man with a gentle personality. At least he can be a bell. He has the qualifications to become a bishop... Since the teacher has decided to follow the Church, we'd better build a good relationship with the people of the Church in advance, Xiaolu."

"Yes, I know."

Although he is already the father of three children, he has the cute nickname "Little Deer".

The politely dressed entrepreneur was silent for a while, then asked his young-looking senior sister about the matter: "How's the investigation going?"

"It's basically certain that it's in the basement of this church."

"Dancing Skirt" said softly, word by word.

"It's dark under the lamp..."

Xiaolu lowered his eyes calmly: "Should we report it directly? Or should we investigate further? We can let those young assassins come and test the waters. It just so happens... they are quite excited recently."

"…Just report it. This is enough. If you investigate further, I'm afraid something bad will happen."

Wuqun was silent for a while and still did not respond to Xiaolu's words.

She lowered her eyes somewhat sadly.