Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

Tia stretched and smiled, saying, "Okay, I left some bread in the oven if you get hungry. You can knock on my door if you need anything."

Anne was sulking, her cheeks puffed out like some kind of hamster.

The black-haired girl in front of her seemed to have become even more hateful. She clearly knew everything, but she just wouldn't come to comfort her.

He's a complete scoundrel.

Anne didn't want to say anything more and turned to go upstairs.

She walked up the stairs in a rather unpleasant mood. As soon as she turned a corner, she saw some red-haired idiot girl in the study who had taken off her coat and was only wearing her underwear. She was pressing and pressing her overly full breasts and making incomprehensible sobs.

Immediately following was the swishing sound of a fountain pen; Vera, wearing only a coat, was writing furiously. On her desk lay an anatomy textbook, and on the wall hung a complete anatomical diagram.

Hearing the noise behind her, Vera first gave him a pleading look, then cried out, "Annie! Please help me! I don't want to copy anymore!"

Downstairs, Tia said quietly, "Vera! You can't let others help you with your studies. Copy pages 117 to 155 of Basic Anatomy again, making sure to copy it according to your corresponding body part. I will be watching you with a ritual."

"Waaah—I was wrong, I'll never pretend I don't know it again, I really learned this part!"

"That won't do either. Reviewing what you've learned helps you understand new things. Besides, didn't you repeatedly emphasize that you didn't understand it at all? Hurry up and copy it, or you won't get any food tomorrow."

Anne: "......."

She roughly knew where the clothes came from.

Wow, it really is used in teaching!

.................

.................

The following day, Saturday morning.

Anne, still groggy, opened her eyes and yawned as she got out of bed, clutching the large teddy bear Eleanor had given her.

As soon as Annie finished washing up and came out to the living room, she saw on the dining table a plate of fried toast coated in egg and sprinkled with maple syrup, along with a plate of fried sausage and chilled orange juice.

There was a note left on the table.

"Remember to eat breakfast. It's freshly made, so eat it while it's hot. There's also a slice of toast; if Vera wakes up, you can ask her to have some. I'm at the Papal Palace, so don't wait for me. (heart emoji)"

"Well......"

Anne paused for a moment, then went upstairs to call Vera without eating.

Vera was completely absorbed in studying last night and didn't sleep a wink. She had only dozed off for a short while and mumbled, "I want to sleep more."

Anne was too embarrassed to wake her up, and obediently said, "Then I'll put the toast in the oven first. Vera, you can take it out to eat when you wake up."

"Hehehe, thanks Annie."

"It's nothing. You can go back to sleep."

She was initially a little upset, but when she found out that Vera had been severely punished by Tia and made to copy texts all night because of her, she felt a little embarrassed and even ashamed that she had misunderstood her.

After all, it was she who instructed Vera to do this. If she hadn't begged Vera to cover for her, Vera wouldn't have been punished for pretending not to know.

She went to Tia's bedroom again, pushed the door open and found it wasn't closed, but she couldn't find Tia inside.

It looks like they've gone out.

Anne went downstairs, drank some orange juice, and while eating toast, took out an envelope to write a letter. Eleanor hadn't been writing to her much lately, but she'd been receiving letters frequently, some to Anne, some to Vera, but very few to Tia.

Although it wasn't great, it did make Annie a little happy.

Eleanor is a good girl, Anne thought.

Not long after she finished writing the letter to Eleanor, Vera rubbed her eyes, went downstairs, heated up some toast, and ate it.

Vera rubbed her eyes sleepily, took a big bite out of her toast, and asked curiously, "Isn't Tia up yet?"

"It seems they went to the Papal Palace, right?"

"oh oh."

Anne cut the sausage in half and gave one half to Vera, then asked curiously while drinking her orange juice, "Vera, how are your preparations for your promotion ceremony going?"

"I need about another month to prepare. If I finish the exam, I can go abroad for a trip."

"Eh, going abroad? To avoid Avalon?"

Anne knew that Vera was pursuing alchemy, but she didn't expect Vera to plan to go abroad directly—she originally thought Vera would return to Newport to complete her advancement.

Vera nodded and said, "Although it's possible to do it in New Orleans, it's still quite dangerous, especially now that I'm employed by the church, the surveillance is much stronger. So I plan to complete my promotion on the Ansu Sea."

"I see..."

"Ah! But that's a story for later. We were originally planning to go to the Iris Garden, but the Iris Garden is currently... oh my, so delicious!"

Anne skewered a sausage onto Vera's plate, smiled for a moment, and casually said, "If you like, you can have half of this too. But if you're going to Ansu Sea, the academy has an armed research vessel that goes to the Iris Flower Park; maybe you can go with it."

"Is there really such a thing? That's great. But doing something like that must be very tiring, right?"

"It's nothing."

Annie shook her head slightly.

This is no big deal; it's just adding one more person to the crew, not to mention Vera is a priest. We can just fill in the ship's chaplain.

She and Vera chatted for a while, and then discussed Tia's birthday.

Annie was a little angry about this.

I shouldn't have prepared a birthday present for that jerk. Last night, even though I knew there was a misunderstanding, I still let her misunderstand, and she was angry but I didn't even try to comfort her.

hateful!

But since he was, after all, the heir to the Mercury family, Anne felt it wouldn't be good to vent her resentment on Vera. Besides, she couldn't let Vera think she was being petty, so she decided to stick to her principles.

But the debtor........

...............

Far away in the Papal Palace.

Tia carefully used her paintbrush to complete the colors on the paper. The painting depicted the First Holy Mountain Conference, a work from two hundred years ago. Actually, this kind of painting is best restored using a computer, pixel by pixel.

Lacking the necessary resources, she could only use the Great Philosopher Sequence 8 ability "Beyond Opposition" to see the details of the painting and then manually repair it.

After the painting was completed, Peter circled it and exclaimed, "This is truly a masterpiece of skill. Little Sulph, have you ever thought about coming to the Royal Cathedral as a restorer?"

"Then forget it," Tia said, spreading her hands. "You'd better give me the imperial edict quickly. I need it urgently."

"Don't worry. The imperial edict will be sent directly from Herod City to Mistmoon City."

Peter asked the priest to carefully put the painting away to air dry, and walked ahead, saying, "You seem a little rushed. What happened?"

"It's nothing... really."

Tia thought for a moment and said, "If we're really talking about it, don't baptized believers come to church the following year to receive a small silver cross?"

Peter nodded and said, “That’s right. This was established by the previous Pope Isaac. At first, it was only for devout believers, but later it was extended to all baptized people. A finely crafted cross from the Church is worth two gold pounds, which can save a child who has just come of age and left school for a while to find a job.”

Tia said, "Then give me a cross. Oh, and please remember to have your name engraved on it."

"I'll make one for you later." After saying that, Peter asked in surprise, "Is that all?"

The old pope was greatly surprised: This is not like Tia's style!

After a moment's thought, Tia added, "Do you have the sheet music for ancient church hymns?"

-----

Chapter 213 Herod the Holy City

Herod, the holy city of Irene, a region of the Papacy.

Herod was built on a mountain, but unlike the earthly paradise envisioned by most believers of the Holy Church, which was built around a mountain range, the entire city of Herod was spread only on the sunny side of the hills. The holy mountain was right in the center of these ring-like hills.

Moreover, the architecture is not the domed structure found in church classics, but rather features towering spires and numerous high towers.

The dome is a style of the Holy Church and the Ansu people, not the Church itself. It's like in Ansu novels, the Iris people would passionately storm the palace and bravely face the cavalry's iron hooves to their deaths. The Iris people stormed the palace merely to steal some supplies to supplement their income, while the ones who would truly fall under the cavalry's blades were the Ansu craftsmen from several uprisings.

The modern church state and the ancient kingdom described in the scriptures of the Ansu Holy Church are completely different things.

The modern papacy is not a tightly organized political entity like a kingdom, but a strange alliance of small autonomous entities managed by numerous churches, with Herod being the largest of them.

In Tia's stereotype, this thing was even more ancient than the ancient kingdoms described in the church's scriptures, a direct return to primitive communes. Apart from having an office in the holy city of Herod, each church was basically a complete severing of ties.

Even the Ecumenical Patriarch, whom they considered the "Supreme Bishop," was actually just a figurehead who didn't even qualify as a monarch. He spent his days in his small house in Herod and even had to pay an entrance fee to visit the Holy Mountain.

This is simply unimaginable to the Ansu people, who value order and authority; they cannot fathom how such a system can maintain its rule and function.

Humans cannot conceive of things outside their own world. This was also true for Patriarch Julian.

At this very moment, in a house facing the street in Herod.

Julian had just finished tending to the flowerbed outside the door and was about to close the door with a watering can when he saw a carriage slowly come to a stop on the street.

A priest in a white robe stepped down from the carriage; the gold cross and rose pattern on the chest of his robe indicated that he was a guest from the cathedral.

This surprised Julian.

Just now, a group of priests from the cathedral came to deliver gifts from the Church of Anzu. Why are they here again?

The priest arrived at the door, bowed, and said, "Bishop Julian! Good day!"

"Good day. What are you all doing here...?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot to mention why I'm here. It's a letter from Bishop Peter of the Church of Ansu, requesting that you issue a decree."

"A royal decree? Why is Peter suddenly asking me for this?"

Julian hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Let's go in first."

The pastor thanked him repeatedly and, after following Julian into the entrance hall, briefly explained to Julian what Peter's request was all about.

The interior furnishings and decorations are very simple.

He doesn't look like a top-tier Sequence 2 transcendent, nor a world-renowned nobleman, nor even a priest.

Instead, it felt like stepping into a working-class family's home, complete with a living room, kitchen, and bedroom, but lacking any space for a prayer room.

Julian asked the pastor to sit down first, poured him coffee, and said calmly, "Explain things clearly first."

The pastor explained, "Bishop, this is roughly the situation. Isn't the Holy Church helping with the rebuilding of the Church through the Iris Party?"

"That's true, but..."

“Because Bishop Peter discovered the lineage of the Aristotelian sect in the Iris, he wanted to invite them to join. However, the bishops of the Aristotelian lineage have been out of contact with the Papacy for a long time and dare not believe Bishop Peter’s invitation, so they want to ask you to issue a decree.”

“I understand that. But isn’t the Alephant faction located within the Empire? How did Peter make contact with them?”

“Bishop Peter did not explain, only that if you agree, write a decree to the City of Mistmoon.”

The pastor paused, then added with some disbelief, "But Bishop Peter mentioned that the Aristotelian sect not only still exists, but it is also quite profound, with many priests, a strict tradition, and well-ordered discipline. He believes that the church can be rebuilt by incorporating some of the characteristics of the Iris sect into the Aristotelian doctrine."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Julian nearly choked on his coffee and said to the priest:

"You mean there's a powerful church force within the Empire that isn't under the jurisdiction of Pinnock's Inquisition? That's impossible!"

The priest said, “Bishop, I think so too. But Bishop Peter said that you don’t have to pay for writing a decree, so why not give it a try?”

Julian was left speechless, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

That's really true.

Whether it's true or false, his imperial edict is worthless anyway.

This thing is rare, but if he wanted to, he could issue ten thousand imperial edicts in bulk. After all, he's not a king or governor, not even a figurehead.

Julian said, "In that case, I'll write one later."

"By the way, could you please ask the Archbishop of the Empire about the situation of the Yale faction within the Empire? Don't mention anything about Peter; just ask casually."

"As you wish." The pastor rose respectfully.

The priest immediately took his leave and boarded a carriage to the cathedral in the very center of Herod.

Once he arrives at the cathedral, a priest will use a special ritual to contact the Archbishop of the Holy Solomon Diocese in the Solomon City Cathedral of the Empire to learn about the specific situation.

Julian was in a daze for a moment, still not quite recovered from Peter's letter, and casually touched the porcelain pot on the table that was being used as a flowerpot.

This porcelain jar is quite beautiful.

The porcelain jar also bears painted designs from the burning process, depicting King Solomon's invasion of Herod, the plundering of the library and church. Judging from the style, it is likely a work from the late Solomonian period.