Have you had enough, Miss Vampire? It's time to get down to business.

But before that, I must recover my original strength, even become stronger than before... I must be as close to the True Ancestor Lilith as possible, otherwise, everything will be in vain.

"You mentioned 'your time' just now? How long ago was that exactly?" Lor was very curious about this question.

"The lady's age is a secret!" Isabella's eyes cleared of the haze and she began to change the subject. "By the way, you just said that the final result of the experiment was the birth of a dragon, right?"

"Yes."

"How big is it? What does it look like? Is it cute?" Isabella asked excitedly. "What's its personality like? Is it clingy? Is it lively and active?"

“It’s really quite active.”

Lor recalled the way the little guy bit Vann's finger mercilessly and nodded.

"I want to raise it, Lor! Can we adopt it? This little guy came into this world all alone, with no one to rely on. He must be very lonely and scared every day! It's too pitiful!"

"Hey, don't talk about Long as if he were a stray dog." Lor sighed softly.

"I'll take care of it!"

"That's not the problem. Dragons are extinct creatures, after all. If someone were to discover it, it would definitely cause a huge uproar. Where are you going to keep it? You can't just keep it at home, right?"

"This..." Isabella was speechless for a moment.

To be honest, Lor had also thought about this.

Raising a dragon or something like that would be so cool!

But the reality is that we have to compromise and give up.

"In short, there's no other way except for Vann to hide it using secret techniques. Don't even think about it." Lor stood up and walked towards the door. "...Okay, let's go home."

"No!" Isabella buried her face in the pillow angrily.

"Alright, you can sleep here tonight," Lor said. "I can finally have my own bed to myself for the first time in a long time... Well, see you tomorrow."

Having said that, he went out.

"Humph, this idiot Lor, he has a comfortable big bed but he doesn't want to sleep on it, instead he insists on going back to sleep on his own little broken bed..."

Isabella turned over in bed and muttered to herself:

"I'm not going back with him. Tonight, I want to enjoy myself! Oh, by the way, why not order room service and have the hotel waiter bring over a bunch of desserts..."

The room became exceptionally quiet.

The place was spacious and clean, but devoid of any sign of life, and therefore seemed quite empty.

This suddenly made Isabella feel a little flustered.

She thought about many past events that she didn't want to look back on, the countless lonely and painful nights, the cold and empty castle hall, and... death.

"I, I'm not afraid of being lonely! It's that servant who's too arrogant. He wants to occupy the bed all to himself without the master's permission! No, he must sleep on the floor tonight!"

Isabella jumped up and ran out the door.

35. Gossip

The next morning, Lor showed up at church as usual.

While rubbing his slightly sore shoulders, he walked into the church.

Isabella is really incomprehensible. She keeps saying one thing after another... She was the one who said she wanted to sleep in the big bed in the hotel, but she came back home a few minutes later.

I said let's switch and I'll stay in a hotel. The room is already booked and we can't waste it.

She still wasn't happy.

"I am the master and you are the servant! How can a servant be more greedy for enjoyment than the master?" Isabella said unreasonably at that time and refused to let Lor go.

There was no choice but to sleep on the floor again.

"Although I can't move houses in the short term, I can at least add a bed in the living room... It's unbearable to go on like this every night for a long time." Lor said to himself.

The floor is so cold, you will get arthritis sooner or later if you sleep on it for too long.

Although I am a superhuman with remarkable self-healing abilities, I cannot take advantage of my youth and neglect my health... I still have to listen to what the old Chinese doctor says.

At the same time, the red-haired exorcist Vivian, who walked into the church just after Lor, accidentally heard his mumbling.

And I felt greatly shocked.

She thought to herself, Luo Er's fiancée looks gentle and quiet on the surface, but she was so fierce at night? She even forced him to sleep in a separate bed?

"Hmm? Good morning, Vivian." Lor turned around and greeted his colleague.

"Good morning, Lor. Um... you've worked hard." Vivian's eyes were a little complicated, with a hint of sympathy. "Well, you have to take care of yourself. Eat more good food."

"?" Lor didn't understand what she was saying.

"No, nothing! Let's go and meet Captain Ronina. Maybe we will be assigned a task today!" Vivian was full of energy and walked towards the captain's office in a hurry.

But Lor thought it would be better if there was no real mission.

After all, I still have to go to the Mystic Association later to ask Vann if he can help me find out the meaning of the words on the silver coins... Besides, the Dark Moon Society is holding a "tea party" tonight, and I don't want to cause any trouble.

He followed Vivian slowly and came to Captain Ronina's office.

Then I found that there were quite a few people in the room.

Including Captain Ronina, the Gordon City Exorcist Squad has a total of eight members, and they were all present today, even Senior Joyce, who had just finished 48 hours of continuous duty and whose eyes were bloodshot.

This situation is very rare.

You know, except for Captain Ronina, other members basically don't stay in the church for too long when they are not on duty. They usually just show up every day, take tasks when there are tasks, and do other things when there are no tasks.

"...Is there a big case?" Lor's expression changed.

"No, I just have something to announce, so I asked everyone to stay a little longer."

Captain Rhonina remained calm, her expression stern. "Now that everyone's here, I'll begin... The new 'Saint', Her Excellency Angelica, is currently on a pilgrimage. I'm sure you all know this. She'll be passing through Gordon City in a few days."

The so-called "Saint" is a rather special position in the Church of Holy Light.

This position is usually held by a young woman with outstanding talent and a strong affinity with the source of "Holy Light". This person must have noble character and dignified appearance, and is responsible for presenting the church's friendly image to the public.

To put it bluntly, he is the face of the Holy Light Church.

Of course, strength is also essential.

For example, the new Saint, Her Excellency Angelica, is said to be only in her early twenties, but already possesses fifth-level strength and has an astonishing talent.

"Her Excellency the Saint won't stay with us for long, but we still need to pay attention," Captain Ronina continued. "For the next period of time, everyone should strengthen patrols to eliminate hidden dangers and prevent accidents as much as possible. I will assign each of you an area of ​​responsibility..."

The area that Lor was assigned to happened to be near his home.

He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was okay. If they just increased patrols, it wouldn't delay the evening "tea party".

"Okay, we've finished talking, everyone can disperse," Captain Ronina announced.

However, my colleagues didn't seem to have any intention of leaving.

"It's a rare occasion for so many people to gather together, so maybe it's a good time to bond?" a female exorcist wearing glasses and looking quite bookish said. "I heard that one of our colleagues is quite bold. Not only does he live with his fiancée, but he also revels every night..."

"And this fiancée is a stunning beauty! Don't you think so, Vivian?" another colleague said.

"When will the wedding be held? We will definitely be there to show our support!"

...The news spread quite fast.

This is good. When I'm with Isabella in the future, even if other colleagues see me, it won't arouse any suspicion... And after spending these few days together, I can confirm that Isabella is very good at hiding her spiritual power, and the possibility of her true identity being discovered is very small.

However, whether it can be hidden from the eyes of the "Saint" who is about to visit is a question.

Should we let Isabella leave the city and avoid the limelight at that time?

"Ahem, about the wedding... I guess I'm going to disappoint everyone for a while." Lor acted a little embarrassed and brought out his prepared excuse. "Isabella and I have known each other for a long time, but considering the high risk of my current job, her family has never been in favor of us being together..."

Fortunately, this world does not have a complete household registration system, and Lor deliberately made Isabella's background vague, making it difficult to verify.

"Wow, so she came to see you despite her family's objections?"

My colleagues praised me in unison:

"You're really good, Lor. You actually made a girl so devoted to you!"

"It's okay. As long as the matter is settled, her family will have to accept it!"

For a moment, the office was filled with a happy atmosphere.

……

After dealing with those gossipy colleagues, Lor went to the duty room again and confirmed the portrait of the wanted criminal "John the Cleaner" again before leaving the church.

As soon as I went out, I heard someone making a "puff puff" signal sound not far away.

...is the second-level mystic Fan En.

Hey, bro, isn't your "secret code" too obvious? It's practically saying we're going to do something shady.

Fortunately, this person would "solicit customers" near the church from time to time. Even if other colleagues heard the secret signal just now, they would only think that I met with him privately to buy secret talismans.

Lor winked at Vann, indicating that he should follow him to a corner where they would not be seen by others.

"Why are you here? Didn't you agree that I would come find you?"

"A big shot like you must be incredibly busy. How could I possibly ask you to make such a special trip?" Vann rubbed his hands, looking incredibly flattering. "I spent the entire night in the association's library researching, and I finally completed the task you assigned me! I was so worried about delaying your important mission, so I rushed over to report right away!"

Lor raised his eyebrows:

"So, you've figured out the meaning of those words?"

36. I am very good at judging people.

Vann said he investigated all night.

Somewhat exaggerated.

But he did put in a lot of effort.

"When I first saw those words, I felt they looked very familiar. I must have seen them somewhere before."

Vann explained, "After much thought, I finally remembered! Back when I was a first-level rookie, I was very interested in archaeology, so I read some relevant literature... including some papers on the 'Aria Civilization'!"

"Aria civilization?" Lor frowned. "That lost ancient civilization shrouded in mystery?"

He didn't know much about archaeology, but he had read about it in internal church materials.

The so-called "Aria Civilization Ruins" is not a single site, but a general term for a series of ancient building complexes.

These ruins have the same architectural style, which is exaggerated, grotesque, and huge in size. They are often located on the tops of high mountains covered with snow all year round, or on deserted islands in the midst of chaos, which are obviously not suitable for human survival.

What's even stranger is that no human remains were found in any of these ruins.

All the buildings were empty, showing no signs of human life.

All in all, there's something weird about it.

"As expected of you, you have a considerable understanding of these things unknown to the general public!" Vann flattered. "The mainstream view in academia is that this must be an ancient civilization that once made extensive use of supernatural powers... Otherwise, it would be impossible for human power alone to build such a large complex in such an extremely harsh natural environment!"

"So, the texts I asked you to investigate are related to the 'Aria Civilization'?" Lor asked.

"Yes, the characters you gave me are shaped just like the ancient characters found at the ruins of the Aria civilization!"

Fan En said excitedly:

"Currently, civilization has not yet fully deciphered this ancient language, and we can only understand the meaning of some of the characters. However, fortunately, the two lines of words you gave me can be fully translated into today's common language! Their meaning is—

"When the false light fades, the truth hidden in the darkness will emerge."

Hearing this, Lor frowned, feeling that this sentence was quite meaningful.

But what exactly it means is impossible to guess without more information... The only thing that is certain is that this sentence is very important to the Dark Moon Society. Perhaps it is some kind of creed of theirs?

From this perspective, perhaps the purpose of this organization is not just the free exchange of materials and information.

Instead, they want to use these activities to achieve other goals.

Also, why are these people connected to a lost ancient civilization?

"It's really unexpected that a high-ranking figure like you in the Church of Holy Light would be interested in things like ancient ruins..." Vann sighed, then realized his gaffe. "Ah! Boss, I didn't mean to test your opinion. I was just a little curious! Just pretend I didn't say anything!"

Lor had a blank expression:

"This isn't something you should be curious about. Besides, the note I gave you with the words on it..."