Chapter 55: Persona

If Lu Mian remembered correctly, today, the afternoon of March 30th, Pierre Béry would go to the church to pray at a fixed time. In the loop before last, he and Raymond had bumped into him because of this, and in the last loop, he had also met him in the village square at about the same time.

But it was already three or four in the afternoon!

"When did he go?" Lu Mian pressed.

Ma Erdi recalled and said:

"It's been about a mile's walk."

In the countryside, except for a very small number of people, almost no one owned a clock or watch. Descriptions of time were often completed through specific events and landmarks, such as the season for picking grapes, the time it takes to walk a mile, and so on, and so on.

Of course, if the time was short enough, people could perceive it relatively clearly, so "a few minutes" and "a quarter of an hour" would also appear in oral expression.

A mile's walk? That's not long... Lu Mian had thought Pierre Béry went to the church in the afternoon and hadn't returned yet.

One mile in Cordu village was one kilometer in the Intis metric unit.

Bidding farewell to Pierre's mother, Ma Erdi, Lu Mian left the Béry house and walked toward the village square.

He didn't know if Pierre Béry had gone to the church in the afternoon and was going again now, or if he had been accidentally delayed in the afternoon and hadn't been able to go.

If it were the first possibility, Lu Mian could feel the surging undercurrent—Pierre Béry frequently going to the church to find the parish priest was absolutely abnormal; there must be some terrible thing brewing.

If it were the second possibility, then the problem was huge!

Before Lu Mian, who retained his memory, and Aurora, who already knew about the loop, made attempts, "history" shouldn't appear different!

If it really became different, that might mean the laws of the loop hadn't been truly mastered by the siblings, or there were other people who could retain memory.

Thinking of this, Lu Mian said "Ah" and raised his hand to lightly slap his own cheek.

He had been too shocked just now, to the point of forgetting to ask if Pierre had gone to the church in the afternoon.

This was very important.

"Turning back to ask now would be too suspicious. I can only wait to probe him sideways when I drink with Pierre later." Lu Mian quickly suppressed the annoyance in his heart and strode toward the square.

Entering the "Eternal Blazing Sun" church, he saw the parish priest, Guillaume Bénet, standing in front of the altar where various sunflowers were placed, facing several people sitting in the first row of chairs, not knowing what he was talking about.

As soon as Lu Mian passed through the main door, Guillaume Bénet shut his mouth and looked toward this side.

Plotting? Lu Mian revealed a smile and, while walking toward the altar, sized up who was listening to the parish priest's "sermon."

He saw the shepherd Pierre Béry, saw the scoundrel Pons Bénet and the several thugs following him, saw the parish priest's mistress Madena Bénet and Sibyl Bénet, and saw a man who made him feel both surprised and thought it reasonable to be here—Arnaud André, Naroka's youngest son, a farmer in his forties.

"Hi, Pierre..." Lu Mian greeted with a face full of smiles, but paused halfway.

The second half of his sentence was originally "Aren't you going to treat me to a drink? Why did you come here?" but he suddenly woke up, remembering that this agreement hadn't appeared in this loop.

That was something that only happened in the loop before last and the last loop. In this loop, this was the first time Lu Mian had bumped into the shepherd Pierre Béry.

As the prank king of Cordu, Lu Mian's on-the-spot reaction was extremely fast. He immediately adjusted his body, faced the altar, and opened his arms:

"Praise the Sun!"

With the help of this ritual, his thoughts turned rapidly, and he quickly had a new excuse.

After praising the sun and receiving a response from the parish priest, Lu Mian turned his body and said to Pierre Béry, who was sitting at the edge of the first row and looking at him with doubt:

"I heard people say you returned to the village, so I hurried to your house to find you, but you came to the church."

He didn't say who he heard it from. Anyway, it was inevitable that Pierre Béry would be seen by people on the way from his house to the church.

If there were really no eyewitnesses, Lu Mian had a backup candidate:

Ava's father, the shoemaker Guillaume Lizier.

"What are you looking for me for?" Pierre Béry, wearing a deep brown long coat, stood up, his blue eyes carrying a gentle smile and a bewildered emotion.

Lu Mian had already prepared the excuse and said with a smile:

"I want to hear you talk about the things you encountered on the way to the transfer. Different countries, different villages, different places, it must have been extremely interesting."

He also liked to find shepherds who had returned from the transfer to chat in the past, enriching his reserve of knowledge.

Without waiting for Pierre Béry's response, his gaze fell from the messy, greasy black hair to the brand-new leather shoes:

"Got rich?"

"The employer this time was relatively generous, and shared quite a few things with me." Pierre Béry answered with a smile. "I'll treat you to a drink later."

"Good." Lu Mian was waiting for this sentence.

He even pressed:

"When are we going?"

This showed the style of a regular at the old tavern; in order to get a drink, he didn't even want his face.

Pierre Béry looked at the parish priest, Guillaume Bénet, and received a corresponding hint.

"How about after dinner?" he suggested.

"Good." Lu Mian agreed very readily.

Then, he sat down on the second row of chairs closest to him under the gaze of the shepherd, the parish priest, Pons Bénet, and others.

"..." Pierre Béry was stunned for a second. "Aren't you going back?"

Lu Mian laughed:

"I haven't prayed for too long, so I'll take this opportunity to pray a bit, lest the gods think I'm not pious enough."

"You guys continue, you guys continue. Don't worry about me."

After saying that, he closed his eyes, lowered his head slightly, and crossed his arms over his chest.

Pierre Béry, Guillaume Bénet, Pons Bénet, and others looked at each other, unable to continue.

After waiting patiently for a long time, seeing that Lu Mian never ended his prayer, the parish priest looked at Pierre Béry, signaling him to ask.

Pierre Béry came to Lu Mian's side and patted his shoulder:

"How long are you going to pray for?"

Lu Mian opened his eyes and said seriously:

"I plan to pray until dinner time. Anyway, there's nothing else to do, and I can do a confession later."

The parish priest, Guillaume Bénet, felt his temples twitch.

He looked at Madena, Sibyl, Pons, Arnaud, and others who were waiting for him, exhaled slowly, gave a wink to the shepherd Pierre Béry, and pursed his lips toward the door.

Pierre Béry received the meaning the parish priest wanted to convey and hurriedly said to Lu Mian:

"I've finished praying. Why don't we go to the old tavern now?"

"Good!" Lu Mian stood up with a swoosh, his face full of smiles, no longer having any seriousness or piety.

He had discovered earlier that his arrival made it impossible for the parish priest and others to continue their plotting, so he used the prankster's mentality to force another delay until Pierre Béry was forced to leave early.

He believed the parish priest could see that he was performing, but if he didn't cause a bit of trouble when encountering similar things, would he still be the prank king of Cordu village?

The persona must be maintained so as not to be suspected!

What Lu Mian regretted was that his sister should have already gone to the Béry house to find those three sheep to communicate. Otherwise, if he had sent "White Paper" to the church to eavesdrop on the parish priest and their plotting, he would definitely have been able to master quite a bit of useful intelligence.

Maybe he could do that next loop... but would Pierre Béry detect being monitored? He wasn't simple, at least stronger than the parish priest who was still an ordinary person... As Lu Mian's thoughts flew, he followed the shepherd Pierre out of the church and walked toward the old tavern.

…………

Inside the sheep pen behind the Béry house.

Aurora, wearing a white waist-length dress, came around from the small woods and crossed the wooden fence.

As a beautiful lady who rarely went out and was particularly eye-catching, she could only choose this quite concealed route; otherwise, it would be very easy to be stopped for a chat, or even encounter suspicion.

"I don't know when I'll be able to learn secret arts regarding invisibility and shadow concealment..." Aurora sighed silently and walked toward the three sheep that had shrunk to the side of the hay pile.

As she walked, she said in Highland language:

"Don't be afraid, I am an enemy of the shepherd Pierre Béry."

The eyes of those three sheep, whose hair was brown due to dirt, suddenly showed dramatic changes, first vigilant and worried, then full of hope, and then full of bewilderment.

They didn't retreat again and let Aurora walk to their front.

Aurora said further:

"I discovered your specialty using a certain method. You were originally humans, right?"

The eyes of those three sheep were instantly filled with shock, ecstasy, hope, and doubt, and they instinctively bleated.

Aurora swept a glance at them:

"You can't speak, but you can write, can't you?"

One of the sheep was stunned for a second and quickly drew on the mud.

It wrote a very simple Highland word:

"Yes."

It was saying they were originally humans.

"What exactly happened? Why did you turn into sheep?" Aurora thought for a moment and added at a very fast speed, "You each write the first part, middle part, and last part of the event to save time."

Those three sheep made a division of labor and wrote different contents on the surface of the mud with their hooves.

Not long after, they each finished a sentence:

"We were caught."

"Held a ritual."

"Wrapped in sheepskin and turned into sheep."

A ritual magic that can turn people into sheep using sheepskin? Phew, this is clearly much lower in difficulty than directly turning people into sheep... The only problem is, who was that ritual praying to? Aurora's thoughts rolled as she asked:

"Was it Pierre Béry who caught you? Was it just him?"

She wanted to confirm the current strength of the shepherd Pierre Béry.

"Yes." One of the sheep wrote.

Another sheep wrote more:

"He had a companion, both were very powerful."

Before returning to the village, Pierre Béry already had very strong strength? Aurora suddenly detected something wrong:

Why did such a Pierre Béry act as if he were led by the parish priest Guillaume Bénet?

The current Guillaume Bénet should still just be an ordinary person!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 56 =====