Chapter 102: Cheating Is Still Cheating? |
Seeing Bishop Mathers again, Aiwas is shocked by his youthful appearance—mid-thirties, vibrant, with curly brown hair and amber eyes, dressed casually in a beige wool shirt with elbow patches, not his red bishop’s robe. Aiwas had forgotten Mathers’s aged look was a deliberate display for teaching the Fire Offering ritual, not his true self. Recalling Lady Meia, Mathers’s sister, Aiwas notes their resemblance, realizing Mathers, at 46, and Meia are older than they appear.
Mathers, sensing Aiwas’s second-tier Dedication level, is equally stunned. Having taught him four holy skills last week, he expected talent but not a one-day advancement to second-tier, considering ritual preparations. Initially, Mathers suspected Aiwas hid prior superhuman status to wield the holy sword in the key, which requires 33 mana—impossible for a first-tier priest. The key’s “Flame Empowerment” was meant for defense, not the once-a-month Holy Sword Technique, which Mathers hadn’t mentioned. News of Aiwas’s sword use sparked suspicion of deception, but seeing him confirms Mathers’s error, sparing him embarrassment before Sherlock or Mina.
Mathers marvels at Aiwas’s speed, surpassing even the Eternal Pope’s mastery of Blessing, the hardest holy skill. Most priests stall here, unable to advance to second-tier or join the Church. Mathers, who took a week, thought himself a genius until now. Aiwas admits he hid mastering Blessing to avoid attention, citing Mathers’s reaction to his instant Fire Offering grasp as proof of his abnormality. Internally, he credits his “experience” (cheating), but justifies it as earned, jokingly noting he “stole kills.”
Mathers warns that rapid advancement risks obsession, as higher tiers amplify a path’s influence, eroding one’s original self. He planned to advise slower progression at third-tier, as fourth-tier rituals grow harder, require career planning, and impact the mind. As a fourth-tier “Holy Tomb Guardian,” Mathers reached the tier’s limit before 30, earning charge of the Candlekeeper Cathedral, where Aiwas’s biological father was his student. He questions if excessive path purity sacrifices one’s original identity, recalling his youthful arrogance. Believing himself superior, he clashed with his parents, who warned his Dedication veered toward Love. Unable to save Aiwas’s parents despite his talent, Mathers reflects on his limits.
Aiwas, intrigued, notes Mathers’s firsthand account of his parents’ fate, unlike the dream ritual’s fictionalized history, offering a chance to learn the true past.
(Chapter End)
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