While the other cardinals heaved a sigh of relief, it was time for Alex to become confused. What did him choosing the ‘mentor’ had to do with the west?

Silence filled the room as everyone looked at the pope who fell deep in thought.

After a couple of minutes he asked, “Bond, why did you choose cardinal Theodor?”

“Your holiness, I feel like the Lord wants me to read and write … a lot … and … and then I saw the scroll in cardinal’s hand …” Alex spouted out some nonsense that came to his mind and purposefully stuttered.

“So you saw a sign … interesting.” Pope said while holding his chin, then he turned to Theodor and grinned widely, “This is a joyous occasion! Guided by the Lord, cardinal Theodor has been chosen by his first chosen!”

But cardinal didn’t find the wordplay funny at all.

“I’m not a babysitter!” He blurted out holding back curses.

“Don’t worry. It’ll do you good to teach something to the younger generation, for example – the proper manners. Maybe you’ll learn some as well.” Pope snorted.

“But Adolfs …” Cardinal Theodor wanted to argue, but pope interrupted.

“It’s ‘your holiness’ to you! Alright! The case is closed.” Pope clapped his hands as if dismissing any potential arguments, “Regarding the leader of the expedition – we’ll choose another day. I’m hungry.”

Alex watched how pope vanished in front of his eyes once again. The old man’s speed wasn’t something anyone could sniff at. The three competitors shrugged and also left. While none of them won, none lost as well thus there was no reason to feel down.

In the room only Alex and cardinal Theodor were left. They awkwardly stared at each other for few minutes until cardinal finally broke the silence.

“What in the world should I do with you now?” He said more to himself than to Alex.

“Well … your excellency … you could show me where I will stay and then order some priest to teach me how to read and write.” Alex bashfully said, “I promise I won’t bother you one bit.”

It was obvious that the cardinal didn’t want him around and Alex gladly welcomed that. In addition, from how cardinal addressed pope, on the first name basis, or rather tried to address, one could easily judge they were old friends and the new ‘mentor’ just got punished as a prank.

Cardinal Theodor finally got up while angrily cursing to himself and walked towards the door.

“Let’s go!” He said with a sigh, “Follow me and don’t get lost!”

For the next couple of minutes Alex ran after his mentor who didn’t move at the pope’s speed, but paced himself so that Alex could barely keep up. When they left the coliseum building and climbed in a large, golden, covered carriage pulled by four white steeds, Alex was slightly out of breath. Since cardinal was silent, he also didn’t say anything, but closed his eyes, put his palms together and began to meditate.

Cardinal gloomily glanced at the kid in front of him, but then opened his scroll and began to read.

They drove for a quarter of hour in silence and the only thing one could hear were the cheers and prayers from the crowd outside. Obviously the cardinal’s golden carriage was easily recognizable. It stopped in front of a large building also built in white marble similar to the rest of the city center.

Judging from the cathedral peaks close by, they didn’t go that far – only the full streets made the route seem longer. Unfortunately Alex didn’t have time to look around and had to chase after his mentor again.

“Your excellency!” As soon as they entered a short, fat and wrinkled elderly priest with a long gray beard and even longer hair, dressed in a gray robe solemnly greeted.

Cardinal nodded and expressionlessly said to Alex, “This is my basilica, you’ll stay here.”

Then he turned towards the priest, “Bronni, teach him how to read and write. And he’ll need a place to sleep as well.”

“As you wish, your excellency!” Priest said and slightly bowed.

But before Alex could add anything, cardinal vanished.

“Follow me!” Bronni beckoned and Alex for the third time today had to run after someone. Even though he practiced running in that weird kindergarten during the past months, his body was only three years old and it didn’t matter how much he cultivated the force of nature thus he soon was out of breath and panting heavily. The fact that he was almost dying from thirst made the running only more exhausting.

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The basilica was huge and Alex only intuitively recognized their approximate location when Bronni stopped in a long corridor with many wooden doors at each side.

He opened one of those and pointed towards the ill-lit room behind it, “You’ll stay here. The west wing is where all the underpriests sleep. The chapel is on the first floor, but if you’re not lazy, you can leave through the western exit and go pray in the Saint Theodor’s cathedral next door.”

“What about …” Alex wanted to ask only to get barked back by Bronni.

“Don’t interrupt me! There are two meals per day, also on the first floor. Tomorrow morning come to the library on the third floor, I’ll assign someone to instruct you … right and go find Elgor later in the evening, he’ll give you a proper clothing. An underpriest can’t run around in a snow white … who do you think you are, the pope himself? Hpmf!”

‘Underpriest? What the hell just happened?’ Alex was left in daze standing next to his new room alone, still panting.

But no matter how one looked at it, this was better than getting torn apart by wolves. He stepped into his new room and realized it only looked ‘normal’ only because of his own size. For a grownup it was tiny and barely had place for a bed, chair and a small cupboard.

A small window that fulfilled the function of ventilation as well as that of a lamp was right above the bed. Alex immediately crawled on the narrow windowsill and glanced outside only to see a wall of another building.

‘Well, I guess this is my life now. Let’s see what the library looks like tomorrow!’ He grinned to himself.

The next morning, after a simple breakfast that included only a porridge of a weird taste, Alex arrived at the library on the third floor. His new gray robes were way too big and he was walking while pulling them up like a clumsy damsel, but that was the best what Elgor, the storekeeper could find.

Turns out the new underpriests were usually around the age of fifteen to twenty, but sometimes cardinals out of charity took in some younger children. While they were not as young as Alex was currently, his presence didn’t produce too much attention and he was mostly ignored.

“Bronni told me to report to the library.” Alex turned to the first person he saw.

The old, thin man, who sat at the entrance while reading a scroll in his hands, was also a priest. Underpriest or highpriest, Alex was not clear about their ranks yet, but, truth to be said, he never cared for such things anyway.

“That’s highpriest Bronni to you, child.” Elder patiently explained and then said, “I was waiting for you. What exactly are our orders again?”

‘Looks like they don’t communicate here much. That’ll make things easier.’ Alex smiled to himself.

“I’m here to learn how to read and write so I could assist with copying writings.” He said.

His idea was simple – this world unlikely had invented printing, thus all the books were periodically rewritten by hand to preserve the information within. After becoming one of the people assigned to this task, Alex would be able to access what he needed the most – this world’s knowledge on rebirth or reincarnation, depending how one called it.

The old man stared at him in surprise for a minute, but then sighed and got up.

“Alright. Follow me.” He said while opening the door to the library, “We do lack helping hands around here … but aren’t you too young? Don’t get me wrong … I wouldn’t dare to question …”

But Alex didn’t hear the latter part because the old man mumbled it in his beard and also because he was struck speechless at the view in front of him. They entered a dusky hall with a high ceiling filled with tall wooden bookshelves and from what Alex could discern, they were stacked with scrolls from top to bottom. From his point of view it seemed as if he stepped in a dark forest, except he was able to discern the tops of the trees. The library was even filled with a smell of rotting trees, but probably that was how few tons of old parchments smelled.

Alex already began to pray for the most interesting things to be found on the lover shelves, when the old man brought him back to reality, “I don’t have much time to spare to teach you, but we can have our lessons here every morning. Of course, it’ll take months for you to learn how to write and I don’t intend to waste my good ink on you ...”

Needless to say the old man changed his mind few days later when he realized Alex could almost fluently read most of the texts. From that moment on he spared no time or resources to teach this young ‘genius’ who was not only quick minded, but also polite, humble and pious.

Alex tactics payed off – old people, even the peevish ones, love smart and cute kids. After ten or so days he had already proven himself enough to be allowed to copy some simple texts and after a month – longer scrolls.

The old man, who turned out to be a kind of a head librarian, instructed Alex to keep his own abilities hidden and not talk about the ‘important work’ he was doing for the security reasons, but latter quickly understood that a kid like him would quickly got ‘promoted’ and moved somewhere else and the old just wanted to keep the obedient slave for himself.

Alex didn’t mind though. Especially because he was soon assigned a new, bigger room with a large window that was located on the third floor right next to the library. While furnishings were still primitive, there was a desk besides his bed and from then on it became his new workplace.

There was only one problem. While he got something to read, literally everything the old man gave him was some kind of religious nonsense. He was not allowed to touch anything on the shelves and he felt like slowly loosing his mind because there was no way out from the prison he so masterfully created himself.

Alex still could freely move around the basilica, in fact, he had to since the canteen and toilets were on the first floor. He even went to the cathedral next doors from time to time, but, while he met the other priests regularly, they only greeted each other with a stingy nod.

He even didn’t know anyone by name except Bronni and Elgor and for some reason the old man in the library didn’t ask for his name or introduced himself! Alex began to miss the chatty guards at the cages the day he was almost killed in the ritual, but there was nothing he could do to change the situation, at least not now.

Currently he had only two options. First – he had to be patient and wait a few years, or most likely a decade, until he earned enough trust to be allowed to freely browse the library. Second – had had to be patient for a few years, probably three or four, until he was grown enough physically to break in to the library.

While Alex preferred the second option, both were tied to ‘being patient for few years’ thus he continued to cultivate the force of nature, while reading and copying religious texts in his free time.