It was a quick and effective use of the presented opportunity and now on Alex’s desk there were several reports. Indeed, he managed to hit the jackpot. Apparently the priest was organizing yearly intelligence reports on the situation in nearby countries and while Alex would love to have stolen a map as well, it was already better than anything he acquired thus far in this life.

After quickly skimming through the parchments, he gathered them once again and carried back to the library. There he went over to the spot where the old priest died and put them on the floor and left.

‘What the f*ck is this security?!’ Alex was shocked.

His initial plan was to have several excuses in the very likely situation when someone caught him, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

‘In that case …’ He grinned to himself.

And for the next months Alex began to frequent the library every day. On his way in he put back a parchment or two he borrowed on the previous day and on the way out he grabbed new reading materials. Scrolls, parchments – he took and read everything he got his tiny hands on.

Or course, nine tens of the information was useless religious bullsh*t, but it didn’t hold him back one bit. Taking things right in front of these old men turned out to be easier than taking a candy from a baby. And the best part was – he didn’t need to wait until he grew up to break in.

Time went by fast and it was already a year since Alex arrived at Saint Theodor’s basilica. Outside the window he could hear loud cheers and prayers coming from all over the city – a clear sign of the Midsummer festival.

‘Interesting. While in some cultures people celebrate this time of the year by lighting up bonfires and drinking beer, these morons cheer while killing infants.’ Alex sighed while shaking his head.

Or course, there was nothing interesting about it. The interesting thing was on his lap – today he managed to ‘borrow’ a detailed map of the continent and this was the item he didn’t intend to return. He already decided to leave the empire at the first opportunity, but for now he was too small and weak.

Meanwhile the grand arena was full of spectators once again. The carriage procession was still on the way and pope had yet to arrive, but cardinals and their chosen were already seated.

“Theodor, didn’t you become mentor last year? How come I don’t see your chosen?” Cardinal Isidoro taunted.

Chosen sitting below began to curiously look around. It was a common knowledge that cardinal Theodor didn’t care for politics and contrary to his colleagues refused to have his own unit of chosen.

“He probably lost the poor kid on the first day.” Cardinal Rudolf piled in, “I bet he doesn’t even remember his name.”

“You would loose that bet.”Cardinal Theodor finally stopped reading the scroll in his hands and scornfully said, “Everyone knows his name is Bond, James Bond.”

This was a common knowledge since pope himself announced it last year therefore cardinal Rudolf didn’t stop, “Indeed. But what is his real name? The one we found out after the investigation?”

“That name doesn’t matter anymore. His new name was given by our Lord and being a good chosen he’s keeping it.” Cardinal Theodor expressionlessly shrugged.

Obviously he didn’t pay attention to the investigation report cardinal Rudolf sent him last year and not only didn’t know Alex’s name, he had no clue he initially belonged to cardinal Francis.

“Oh? If the boy is so pious why isn’t he witnessing the sacred ceremony?” Cardinal Isidoro grinned back.

These word-fights were actually the only form of combat they could win against this old monster thus they enjoyed the process to the fullest. To their luck cardinal Theodor never retaliated physically, otherwise all three of them would be at the Lord’s side long ago. Decades ago there were rumors he was even stronger than the pope and didn’t take that position only because he lacked the ambition thus passing this opportunity to his friend.

“Hmpf!” Cardinal Theodor snorted, “He doesn’t have time for any of this – currently he is learning from my best highpriests!”

Even though he said it with a straight face, he actually did forget about Alex’s existence the moment he left him in Bronni’s hands. He could only silently pray that the pope wouldn’t hear this conversation and the matter would be forgotten. Unfortunately the Lord was deaf to his prayers.

“It is a good idea to continue to educate your mentee while you’re absent.” Cardinal Theodor heard pope’s voice from behind and knew his old friend has found a way to make fun of him again, “I think it would be even better if he began to attend lessons in the college. While I’m certain his general knowledge is above all the other chosen despite his age because of your teachings, he needs to prepare for the next expedition. Four years is not that much. What do you think, cardinal Francis?”

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During this year cardinal Francis won the unofficial competition and was chosen as the leader for the next expedition to the west. The gathering of resources and the conscription for the army was in full swing, meanwhile his chosen were practicing in the college together with the chosen of other cardinals.

Of course, to conquer new lands one only needed military strength, but to keep them and evangelize one has to have a strong group of chosen – Lord’s children who were capable of visually displaying His powers and were taught to convert the masses.

“I agree, your holiness.” Cardinal Francis nodded, “Even though that particular chosen is still a small child, from what I remember his verbal abilities were top notch. With a proper guidance he’ll become a valuable asset in our expedition.”

Cardinal Theodor wanted to retort, but realized he had no clue who the kid was or what happened to him. The only hope was that Bronni at least did assign someone to teach him. Well, there was a slim chance that after the cleansing ceremony was over, everyone would forget about this subject, but he wouldn’t bet on it.

And it was so. Right after the ceremony ended, cardinal Francis with a wide smile reminded Theodor to send his mentee to college as soon as possible. Of course, he only got an ‘extra’ chosen, but to see the old man blushing from embarrassment was a nice bonus.

In the end cardinal Theodor didn’t care much about it after all. He told Bronni to ‘send the kid from the last year over to college’ and forgot about him again. For Bronni, on the other hand, it took some time to find Alex. The old man from the library did his best to play dumb in order to keep his little slave, but in the end had to give in and the next day Alex was escorted to the College of evangelism.

Luckily he was allowed to grab his ‘travel bag’ that had some goodies he accumulated during the past year in it, including few maps.

The college turned out to be something else from what Alex expected. Not only it was located far outside the capital, it also looked more like a secluded monastery – hidden within forest covered mountains and encompassed with a tall stone wall, probably over four meters high.

The road took three days and it was already late evening when he arrived. The whole place looked dark and gloomy, but at the same time peaceful. Alex jumped out the carriage and instinctively took a deep breath. While Serenity didn’t have the smog of the modern cities and he lived in the center where it was relatively clean, the mountain air always felt refreshing. He already forgot this feeling he last had … right … in Switzerland, when he brought Old Tony ‘Bardo Thodol’.

“You must be Alfons.” An aged voice woke him up from daydreaming.

“Greetings, your grace.” Alex bowed towards the old man in red robes trying to suppress the nauseating feeling hearing the ugly name again.

While he was reminiscing, bishop came through the tall wooden gates to personally receive him. Normally one should have felt honored by such gesture, but after throwing a single glance at the old man, everything inside Alex screamed ‘pedophile!’.

Formally there was nothing wrong with the bishop – he was neatly shaven like everyone else in the highest clergy, his gray hair was nicely combed, the red robe was clean and tidy. But what happened next only increased Alex’s suspicions.

“What a nice child!” Bishop took a step closer instantly covering the distance of three or four meters between them. Most likely this was the speed that allowed him arrive at the gate the moment the carriage stopped. After stroking Alex’s head a couple of times, he took Alex’s little hand in his and walked towards the gate.

Alex was not certain if the movement earlier was bishop’s instinctive reaction or a display of power, but the warmth he felt flowing from the bishop’s palm was definitely not a joke. He knew that in the beastworld beastmasters used the force of nature to subdue beasts and to communicate with them while here he experienced first handed how pope used holy power to knock him out. During the past months he also read about several screening techniques that could be performed with the holy power and most likely bishop was currently doing something similar.

It didn’t matter what exactly bishop was looking for. Just as if he was tested by polygraph, Alex fully relaxed and thoughtlessly replied to every question. Even though the warmth coming from bishop’s palm and spreading throughout his body was making him uncomfortable, there was no way someone would go through such lengths to harm him, thus the only option was to smile and ignore it.

From the side it looked as if a caring grandfather was on the walk with his favorite grandchild who kept curiously glancing around and politely asking questions. Actually Alex was surprised by what he saw. He expected everything to look similar to the downtown of the Serenity, but houses, similar to the walls surrounding the college complex, were built from dark stone and were at best two storeys high.

The only exception, of course, was the white marble church in the middle. The rest of the buildings were constructed in three circles around it – the two outer rows were one storey high and the inner – two. Between houses there were neat walkways built in cobblestone and if one looked at the college directly from above, it would resemble a carriage wheel. Basically it was a miniature version of Serenity, except here was clean and tidy everywhere and instead of regular crowds there were quite a few young people in robes of different colors around and older priests in their traditional gray robes.

‘Looks like a male-only monastery.’ Alex thought and the bishop’s next words made his hear stand on end.

“Let’s go to my place first so we can talk.” Bishop said with a wide smile and pulled Alex towards one of the buildings in the inner circle.

‘For the love of god, do whatever you want – just don’t ‘bless’ me!’ Alex was almost in panic.

These religious hypocrites were nothing good and in his first life he had heard enough stories in the news about children being abused by clergymen.

Before he could begin to consider ways of acquiring a quick reincarnation, the bishop said, “Don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong. I won’t punish you.”

‘F*ck!’ Alex cursed to himself, ‘What the hell is wrong with me? Am I a newbie or something? Getting jumpy only because someone said something I didn’t like?! I need to get better at controlling myself!’

What Alex didn’t realize was that the bishop only felt a slight fluctuation in the flow of the holy power within him only because he was holding Alex’s hand and constantly monitoring. Physically Alex didn’t have any reaction at all therefore the simplest guess was that the boy for a split second got instinctively scared from authority because he was disciplined at some point in his short life and there was nothing else to it.