ALL NOVEL Chapter 116 – The Key Answer
“My cute little daughter, give her back to meee!!”
“E-elder, where are you?”
The temple was immediately noisy and busy with the appearance of the legendary elder priest, followed by the frenetic lady that had a case of a failed purification as well as the saintess running around.
Birdieeeeeeeee! Is the old man gonna fry her and eat her? I mean, birds belong to the same category as chickens and they are delicious, but… No, Ann, no! No eating daughter!!
Ann’s mind wandered off to many different places as usual.
How the heck can such an elderly man run as fast as the lightning and disappear like that? We’re much younger than him but we’re losing him?! Is he actually a ghost?
Laura thought as she was catching on her breath.
…What daughter? The elder priest didn’t seem to have kidnapped someone though…? What’s going on?
The others spectating the whole circus in action were in blanks.
They were in for more confusion when they saw Priest Debienne, a duke, and several other people following the clueless and exhausted saintess and her friend who had just experienced a failed purification ritual.
“Where did they go to?!” Ann was confused, trying to figure out where her beloved emergency food was taken to.
“I think they went there and entered that door, what did you see?” Laura asked as she wasn’t so sure herself.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you! If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking!” Ann said, pissed off because she was tired and confused.
“Well, I am not so sure myself, so I was asking you so you can take a good look and think! You should’ve seen them but you must’ve overlooked it, so think Ann, think with that little head of yours!” Laura was also in an irritable mood.
“…,” Allen, Debienne, and the others made it in time to witness the two girls suddenly getting pissed off at each other for no particular reason.
Allen had witnessed them quarrelling before they suddenly went into buddy-buddy mode, so he was only confused for a moment, but Debienne and the others were taken aback by this unexpected development.
Are they in that time of the month at the same time?
“Let’s check it out then!” Ann finally decided.
“But what’s in there, actually?” Ann muttered.
“It’s… the library,” Laura said.
“Library? Not kitchen?” Ann raised her eyebrows.
“…” Why would you think the elder priest will go to the kitchen in a hurry like that?!
Laura couldn’t comprehend her bestie’s train of thoughts.
If the elder priest Matthias were hungry, he could’ve asked for food instead of stealing a very small bird that won’t be filling one’s stomach that much to cook…
The door was opened and sure enough, it was a library.
Contrary to what Ann had expected to be a small library for a temple that would only contain one category of book—book of the divine and religion, the library was quite big. Although it wasn’t as big as the royal library or even the library in the Schwartzen residence, it was still an applaudable library for a temple.
Perhaps thanks to the years of being told to be quiet in the libraries, Ann and Laura turned their walking into a silent ninja mode.
Laura had walked into this library many times over, so she went straight to look for Matthias and Birdie, while Ann was still looking around in curiosity.
Ann wanted to prove one thing: Is it true that books in a temple’s library will be filled with topics about the faith itself?
Ann quickly scanned the books in the shelves. Most seemed to be books about the faith and the deities of this world.
And the others were…
Right. She couldn’t even read the language!
Is this the ancient language?
It’s like reading Chinese as an English-only speaking person…
Ann didn’t pay attention to what was in front of her, and as a result, she bumped into Laura who halted in her steps.
“Hey, what was that for?” Ann whispered to Laura.
“…I mean, what’s Elder Matthias doing with Birdie?” Laura asked as she pointed to Elder Priest Matthias and Birdie who were in front of her.
Ann’s eyes turned to the direction Laura was pointing and she, too, was at a loss for word.
The same goes for Allen, Debienne, Faye, and the rest of the priests who caught up in time with them.
“Oooh, magnificent! Wonderful!”
“Chirp, chirp, chiiiirp!”
The small dot of a pink furball was so eye-catching on the brown table.
Birdie was chirping proudly as her face turned smug and her chest puffed up.
Looking at that kind of Birdie never failed to make Ann want to squeeze the bird dry…
Meanwhile, Elder Priest Matthias was busy circling over Birdie with eyes full of amazement, his right hand holding a magnifying glass that he used to stare intently at Birdie. His left hand was holding an old and tattered-looking book that was opened. Elder Priest Matthias’ gaze lingered on Birdie through the magnifying glass before it went to the content of the book, and back to Birdie again, and so on…
“Uh…,” Ann slowly approached Elder Priest Matthias, taking a look on what he was doing as well as stealing some glances to the content of the book he was reading.
“…”
No good, it’s all in a gibberish language I can’t understand!
Ann was frustrated. She could only understand one thing from the book, and that was the book contained several pictures of what seemed to be fantasy beasts.
Is this book actually titled ‘Fantasy Beasts and Where to Find Them?’
Laura followed suit after Ann and took a look at the book that the Elder Priest Matthias was reading.
“Isn’t that the ancient book of ancient beasts? And that page you’re opening… eh…?” Laura tilted her head in confusion.
“You can read that?!” Ann looked at Laura in amazement.
I didn’t know my bestie could be this awesome…?!
“Not as fluent as Elder Priest Matthias. In fact, I am having trouble comprehending why he would be reading that entry and looking at Birdie… Clearly they are different specimens all along… But they are both birds, hmmm…,” Laura wondered.
Ann took another look at the book’s page and saw that there seemed to be an ancient drawing of a majestic and large bird in it.
Based on how they drew the bird in that page, it seemed to be some kind of a mythical bird… it was similar to a phoenix, but… yeah, it looked nothing like Birdie, so why would the priest open that page and look at Birdie with amazement?
“Uhm… Elder Priest…?” Laura decided to call out for the elder.
“Oh… You have finally come,” Elder Priest Matthias said nonchalantly, without even turning his gaze away from Birdie and the book.
The way he said it made all of them froze in unison.
It was as if the elder priest had been here all along, and that he had summoned them all there, anticipating their appearance in that spot.
When in fact, it was the elder priest who had bolted out of nowhere and they had to catch up with him…
Debienne could only heave a sigh stealthily.
“Elder Priest Matthias, pardon us for interrupting, but… Can you enlighten us as to why you’re here with my friend’s little odd bird over there? And can we resume our talk from before?” Laura was very careful to her tone as well as language, causing Ann to send her piercing gaze that seemed to ask ‘Who are you trying to fool by acting all nice like that?’
But Laura paid her no mind and continued to wait nicely for Elder Matthias’ response.
“Ah, let’s put that aside. Let’s talk about the bird first.”
Elder Priest Matthias said without even sparing them a glance.
“…………,” Ann looked at Laura, then at Allen, Faye, Debienne, and the other priests in the room with a very questioning gaze.
‘What the heck is going on? Is the Elder Priest a maniac of exotic birds?!’
Ann’s piercing gaze was met with the others’ gazes questioning the same thing too.
How can a failed purification ritual be something less important than a mere… unique, exotic bird?!
Had Ann known this, she would’ve put the small little blob of pink in a cage and leave her in the Schwartzen residence so that things wouldn’t have escalated to this.
Look at how this small pink bird managed to distract the elder priest from the more serious matter at hand!
Noticing the others’ expectant gazes demanding explanation from her, Priest Debienne cleared her throat before calling out to the priest, “Elder Matthias, we understand that the small bird is very peculiar that you’re interested in examining her, but… We are currently in trouble due to the failed purification ritual that happened just today. This purification ritual’s success is very important since it also involves the kingdom’s future, so…”
As Debienne smiled in reverence, her heart was a bit upset.
Has this elder gone senile with age? Now the responsibility to demand explanation from him falls to me as the most senior priest in this room…
“You all don’t get it, do you?” Elder Priest Matthias put the book and the magnifying glass down, next to Birdie.
As Elder Matthias turned around slowly, Birdie jumped from the table to the Elder’s shoulder, still with her chest puffed up.
“This bird here is the answer to the matter you’re troubled over. She is the key you’re all looking for.”
Elder Priest Matthias stated with a tone that seemed to say, ‘That’s why you youngsters ought to listen to your elder until your elder’s finished! How can you all miss this and don’t know anything about it, anyway?’
The whole group was in silent, trying to digest what the elder was saying as their eyes darted from Elder Matthias’ face that didn’t have a hint of joking at all, and then towards the proud Birdie, and then to the elder again and…
“Whaaaaaat?!”
“Say that agaaaainnnn?!”
“B-Birdieeee? Why? H-how? No wayyyyy!!”
Everyone opened their mouths in surprise and confusion.
Is this for real?
But how come, why, how? What? Who? Where? When? Who even am I?????
Their brains seemed to be overloaded due to the many sudden turn of events that they could never even imagine in their wildest dream.
Especially Ann, for she was the one who had lived in this world for the shortest time among them all.
If someone were to wake her up now and tell her that she had been dreaming all along, she might as well accept their explanation as the truth, for this reality seemed way too bizarre to be real…
Birdie is the key answer to our grave problem?!
This… this small pink blob of fur that doesn’t seem all that great?!
