Demi-Human In The Wrong Time

125 The Holy Church

Altair did not eat the breakfast that Lily made that morning either. Instead, she opened another bag of cookies that were prepared for her in her satchel. These ones had different colored little candies baked into them. Each candy had its own type of filling as well, however, the spread of the different types of candy fillings were spread out intelligently across each cookie so that the taste did not clash with itself.

It was obvious that it took a lot more effort to make than the previous ones.

Of course, the moment that Allie laid her eyes on the cookie that Altair was munching on for her breakfast, her face was immediately painted with longing for the food. It was impossible to ignore her looks and even Sief and Lily noticed it.

They were completely confused as to why Allie was making such an expression towards Altair. They even gave her confused looks as well in response to Allie, hoping that Altair would enlighten them as to what Allie was after. That was when their attention was drawn to the strange circular food with colored pieces of something cooked into it that was in Altair's hand.

Altair's brow twitched under the gazes of three people who were all watching her for their own reasons. She knew that if she shared these cookies than the bag would be emptied very quickly of its contents. She was hesitant to do so, even for Allie, however.

This was because this bag of cookies had a type she had not eaten before and they were amazing. They were far better than the other cookies she had seen that were prepared for her inside the satchel. They were also the fewest in number that she had as well.

Including the one cookie she had eaten so far and the one that she was currently eating, there were only ten of them that had been prepared. She was sure that Allie would probably want at least three. If she gave any to Sief or Lily, she might as well say goodbye to the bag of them.

Thinking to here, Altair begrudgingly gave Allie three of them while giving Sief and Lily a filthy look. They were adults so she was certain they would have the willpower to resist asking her for any even after seeing Allie eating one of them.

Once Allie took a bite of the cookie a smile bloomed across her face and she excitedly said, "Thank you, Aria!" She then walked around while openly eating them before Sief and Lily's interested gazes.

Altair quickly hid the remaining cookies at the bottom of her satchel. She would eat the rest later and would make do with just two of them for breakfast for now, even though the hunger pangs were slightly unbearable.

In order to escape from them without allowing them to ask her for a cookie, Altair quickly spoke up, "I'll be going to the church for now, so I'll leave my bag here. I'll be back for it by the afternoon."

The Holy Church forbid people from entering its glory while carrying bags or wearing hates. It was an odd rule, but that also meant that Altair had to leave her bag somewhere. Sief's home was the most readily available location, though Altair didn't know if it was safe at all. It was still the only place she could leave it at regardless.

The thought of what Sief told her as being true did not cross her mind even once as she prepared to leave the Sief's home.

Allie was the first to protest her leaving though by running up and tugging on her shirt several times while crying out in a cheated tone, "I thought we would be able to play today!" It was clear that, at some point, she had gotten the idea that Altair would play with her today in her head.

Altair had no intention of doing that as she had other things to do and she didn't want to get too close to her.

Thus, Altair gave Sief and Lily a look of "deal with this girl" that was obvious and demanding. Altair didn't expect that her look would get ignored as they both averted their gazes at the same time. She sighed inwardly and gave Allie a warm smile. She then leaned in and said, "If you behave yourself, I'll be sure to give you some more cookies when I get back."

Allie's eyes brightened under the obvious bribe and she quickly let Altair go with a, "I will be the goodest girl in the whole world!"

Altair patted her head before she turned and walked out of the house. A cool morning air brushed past Altair the moment she stepped outside and it caused her to shudder briefly as goosebumps crept across her body with the passing of the wind. She rubbed her exposed arms with her hands instinctively to try and bring some warmth back to her body. Her efforts afforded her a very small amount of warmth that she was able to give herself.

Then Altair frowned at her own actions and burned some Mana to heat herself up. She felt the warmth spreading from her core through her body within moments and took her hands off herself before she started moving towards the market. The Magic she used blocked out air and caused it to brush past her instead of actually making contact. However, the downside was that there was no way for her to stop the Magic once it was started until it wore off naturally. So if one used it during the summer, they would suffer the consequences later when the wind was the only respite from the heat and they couldn't even receive that.

At this point in time it was still very early in the morning. The only people doing actual work as the sun was still working on dispelling the darkness of night were farmers. Everyone else would probably still be eating breakfast. As a result, the way through the market was surprisingly empty. It created a stark contrast to the heavy traffic of the previous day to Altair.

She took this chance to hurry through the market street towards where the tallest building she could see was. As the churches were always massive buildings compared to their surroundings and had a bell on top of them as their trademark symbol, it was very easy to identify the building that Altair was heading towards as a church.

She made her way through the mostly deserted streets of the town. Before too long, the church grew near and could be seen in full detail as she approached it. The stairs leading up to the church were vast in width, easily capable of allowing at least twenty adults to walk side by side all the way up with no problems. The double doors were painted scarlet red and above them were stained glass windows depicting some man standing with an arm outstretched to a vague man-like figure above him.

Altair couldn't stop herself from frowning as she saw a Holy Church up close again. The frown lasted for a moment before she wiped it off her face and went up the stairs to the door.

Even the church was deathly quiet this early. There was no way to tell if anyone was inside just from the outside. The sturdy double doors were closed and looked to even be locked.

But Altair knew the truth. She knew that the priests of the Holy Church were the ones who were up even before the farmers.

She pushed on the sturdy and heavy looking double doors and they opened without a sound. They swung open with ease and revealed their insides to the outside world.

Like all other Holy Churches, this one had a similar front layout. There were rows of pews lined up on either side of the center isle. The stone floor was covered in a white carpet and there was a single scarlet carpet that lined the center isle to the other end of the room. On the far end of the room was a single podium that was raised up through eight steps. There was a piano behind the podium as well. On the opposite wall was a door that led to the inner chambers of the church.

During sermons the light would pour in through the stained glass window and be focused upon the priest giving his speech. Altair had seen this before and, in the past, found it to be quite beautiful when it went with hymns and song.

Now it just made her skin crawl.

Inside the church were several people walking about while they cleaned the inside of the church. The women were dressed in a single forest green dress that went to their feet and the men were dressed in scarlet red robes with a white hat.

Only one of them turned to Altair when she opened the doors. It was an elderly man who gave Altair a welcoming smile as he said, "Welcome to the Holy Church." He then suddenly squinted as if he couldn't really see Altair from where he was and then he asked, "What brings you to the holy Church so early, young girl?"

Altair walked into the church and approached him, making use of the noble training she got at the Marnithok mansion. Even though she wasn't wearing a dress, she still walked with more elegance than commoners usually had, which drew the attention of some of the surrounding people who were cleaning. She then respectfully bowed to the old man before saying, "Good morning, Father."

The old man heartily chuckled at her display. "My, my, such good manners for one so young. Now, why have you come, my child?"

Altair spoke as innocently as she could manage, "I want to know about the Demi-Humans."