In the morning he woke up early again and went to sweep the church. The same old priest had the night shift again and smiled back when Alex greeted him with the usual “Lord, guide us!”

After the prayer he, accompanied by Josh, Otto and Sandril went to highpriest Kiril’s lesson again and the first part went by the same boring way the last one did.

When the priest excused boys to go and have breakfast, at the entrance to the kitchen they were blocked by a dozen or so chosen in black robes. All of them were over the age of ten and one, the oldest was definitely at least sixteen years old.

The three not belonging to cardinal Francis were told to go in and only Alex was left calmly smiling at the crowd.

“Why didn’t you come last night?” The boy from yesterday took a step forward and angrily asked.

“You told me to not come!” Alex said still smiling back.

“I said you have to come to training grounds after the sunset!” The boy hissed in even angrier voice.

Currently the oldest one was looking at him with a frown and apparently that caused him quite the stress.

“Yes!” Alex nodded, “And you said I should come if I know what’s good for me, therefore I didn’t go and you even left so fast I couldn’t even thank you properly yesterday!”

“Thank me?” The boy blurted out in confusion.

“Of course! That was the test you gave me and I passed! We know that the best thing we can do for us is to pray to the Lord, thus, because of your test I dutifully prayed last night! I really, really, really am thankful to you, brother! From now on I will pray every evening! No wonder other chosen say we all take care of each other and you began looking after me just as I arrived! Lord, guide us!” Alex excitedly said, bowed and prayed in the end, and under the stupefied faces of the older chosen entered the kitchen.

He ignored the loud laughter coming from chosen belonging to the other cardinals and went straight to get his porridge. Of course, he knew the matter was not over, but at least he did amuse himself a bit.

“What happened?” Josh whispered when he joined them at the table.

He did hear chosen from his group laughing, but didn’t know why.

“I thanked them for the test. It was a tricky one.” Alex seriously said and began to eat.

The three had question marks all over their faces, but since Alex didn’t explain more, they could only join him and eat.

The next couple of days went by in a boring fashion and Alex almost forgot about these unimportant things since he was mostly focused on figuring out where bishop Phelippe stored his ‘good stuff’.

It was the evening of the fourth day when he was once again stopped by chosen in black robes. He was walking back from the highpriest’s lesson when they spotted him near his house and immediately encircled. There were thirty or so boys of different ages belonging to cardinal Francis and batches of others nearby as well who came over to watch the show.

This time it was the eldest who spoke first. Apparently they took this matter seriously and after the last fiasco he didn’t intend to let one of them become laughingstock like the last time.

“Alfons!” He sternly said, “You have violated the rules and your punishment has been decided! You will …”

“Who the f*ck made you the leader here?! Who the f*ck do you think you are?!” Alex immediately interrupted and shouted in his shocked face.

When the chosen belonging to the other cardinals began to hysterically laugh, he sat on the ground, closed his eyes, put his palms together and prayed so loud, most people on the college grounds heard him, “Lord, guide me! There is a huge pile of trash in my way, please help me to sweep it away! I’m only four years old and lack the strength, but I promise I’ll work even harder from now on! Not only will I sweep your holy church every morning, I’ll sweep the footpaths as well!”

He did his best to perform one of the cultivation techniques while shouting and even though the effect wasn’t close to what pope achieved in the coliseum back then, it was hard to stay deaf to the child’s prayer.

Of course, Alex decided to use this opportunity and expand his surveillance area – after this prayer no one would be surprised to see him sweeping anywhere in the college grounds. In addition, he would become a religious nutcase in the eyes of the other chosen and they would leave him alone.

There was no doubt that the bigger boy would dispose of him as soon as the opportunity arrived, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon, at least not before the expedition and Alex was certain he would vanish on his own before they left Serenity.

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There was only one way this situation could be resolved. The moment Alex began his mad prayer, the laughter stopped and most of the chosen quickly left. Few in the black robes stayed since their leader was still here, but even he was not certain how to act.

As soon as the first priest arrived with a question ‘what’s going on here?’ everyone dispersed, but Alex opened his eyes and began to thank the priest and with his usual ‘Lord, guide us!’ went back to his room. The event was over.

From the next day on Alex continued to sweep the church and after the breakfast – the walkways around the college grounds. Highpriest Kiril kept teaching the three little chosen the same basic stuff over and over and there was nothing for Alex to learn so he intended to use this time properly.

Another bonus was that all the chosen except his ‘classmates’ began to avoid him like a plague. Even the ones who lived in the same house as him, closed the doors to their rooms when he walked by. But if any other child would’ve inwardly suffered, Alex barely could hold back his cheers – everything went according to the plan. He did feel uncomfortable for being in a spotlight, even for such a short while, but this was a long term project and soon every single person in the college grounds would forget about him, or rather – stop noticing.

Approximately a month later Alex was called over by bishop Phelippe. When Figar let him in the familiar room, he saw highpriest Kiril and bishop discussing something.

“Great timing!” Bishop smiled his usual, wide smile, “We were just talking about you. Come in!”

“Lord, guide us!” Alex prayed and bowed.

“Ye, right.” Once again bishop was not certain how to respond.

On one hand it was just a greeting, but on the other – it required him to pray as well. But in that case he had to bow towards a kid, therefore in the end he chose to ignore Alex’s greeting, just like Kiril always did.

“You see, Alfons, there is a small problem.” Bishop continued, “We received some information from the capital and … well, in short, turns out you have acquired some excellent skills and knowledge for a boy of your age.”

‘So you got your investigation report. Ok. Now what?’ Alex inwardly smirked.

“We have some rules around here.” Highpriest Kiril said in his thundering voice, “Only chosen at the age of seven can enter the college, at six under special circumstances. You, on the other hand, are only four, but already have the knowledge of someone who had studied here for two, three years.”

‘So why the hell did you drag me here? I could’ve stayed in capital … wait … something’s wrong! Did my cardinal die? No, I would’ve heard of it. Then what?’ Alex wrecked his brains trying to quickly find an answer, ‘Right! The pope himself said I have to go on that damned expedition, so you brought me here to prepare! Then where’s the problem? Prepare me!’

“Uhm …” Alex clenched his small fists and in a weak voice said, “You all are very, very smart and you definitely can teach me a lot! Please, don’t give up on me!”

Seeing his ‘despair’ bishop laughed, “Hahaha! Young chosen surely are adorable. You misunderstood. It’s not that we don’t have anything to teach you, but you are physically too small for that. On the other hand your prayers are so strong, we can feel the holy power within you from some distance, you know?”

‘Ok. Good news is that the cultivation techniques work. The bad news – I urgently need to upgrade them or learn how to hide the force of nature from others!’ Alex thought.

“You see, it would be stupid to waste a talent, that is why the three of us have gathered here.” Bishop said.

“What if … what if I would listen to the lessons from other teachers as well?” Alex said and after noticing a frown on Kiril’s face he fake – took a step back as if afraid, but continued, “Don’t get me wrong, highpriest Kiril is very wise, but my three friends are … just … so stupid and he has to teach them same thing over and over again and it becomes boring. If I could learn more …”

Alex tried to make his voice sound weak and disappear in the end.

“So you want to learn more.” Bishop said while knocking his fingers on the table.

Meanwhile Kiril plucked his gray beard again. Apparently both men were deep in thoughts, but Alex didn’t want them to come up with something inconvenient for him, therefore broke the silence first.

“If there are things I can’t practice yet, I could learn the theory, right? I can go step by step to become like you, I don’t need to become smart in one day.” He said.

“Hmm. What do you say?” Bishop turned to Kiril, but the latter either said or showed something that Alex didn’t notice and bishop smiled again beckoning, “Alfons, come here. Don’t worry, I need to check something.”

‘F*ck!’ Alex cursed to himself.

Either bishop intended do some kind of MRI or simply knock him out – Alex didn’t like any of the options, but he also had no choice thus obediently came closer. Indeed, after bishop put his palm on Alex’s head, he found himself lost in the darkness, just like when the pope used similar technique.

“What do you think?” Bishop asked the highpriest.

“He’s not normal.” The latter said and shook his head.

“All of them are abnormal! That’s what it means to be ‘chosen’!” Bishop said, “The thing with this one is that he can’t display his holy power. But I’m certain he’s awakened – the event with wolves proves that and after he consumed the Lord’s seed there were also some peculiar signs.”

“Details.” Kiril almost ordered, but bishop didn’t mind his way of expression – they have known each other for decades and he was certain that the highpriest was not disrespectful.

“At first, his forehead lit up and I almost thought his awakening had something to do with holy vision or a similar skill.” Bishop explained, “But then his heart region began to pulsate with holy power reflecting his heartbeats.”

“Holy heart?” Kiril raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Listen further. Then his whole body began to give this slightly golden halo, but a very light one, barely discernible. During the day even I could’ve missed it. My theory is that he has either some kind of mutation or a unique holy ability that we haven’t seen yet. It could be something general – since the whole body was involved, but it also could have something to do with his head – like vision or mind. And then – the heart. You see how interesting this is?” Bishop asked.

“Mhm.” Highpriest nodded, “This would definitely explain his excellent verbal abilities and the amazing memory as well the ability to easily write at such age. I would bet he awakened long before the ceremony last year, it’s just that no one noticed at the time.”

“Indeed. That is the only reasonable explanation.” Bishop nodded, “So, what should we do with him?”