"Hey, Vena! What's a Crusader?" I asked as we exited the temple. I know the term isn't truly Crusader, but that was the closest thing my translation magic could come up with. There must be a reason behind it.

"Hum, a Crusader is a promotion from Knight or Justicar, but you probably don't know about either of those," answered Vena.

"Sorry about that," I sighed. "You have to explain things to me as if I was six years old."

"Let's see… hum… I am now considered a Faithful. It's the first step in the Holy hierarchy. I can do small healing, but that's only because I am on the cleric's path. As a Faithful, if I am pure enough, I could become a cleric; if I am brave enough, I could become a knight. And if I am honest enough, I could become a Justicar. Messenger is a new class but is not as well understood."

"And the Miracles you have change depending on your class, Right?" I asked.

"Yeah, the cleric can heal, the knight can fight, and Justicar can tell the truth from lies," confirmed Vena.

"Oh, so there are a lot of lie detectors around here." I gasped.

"Not really, no. There is only one Justicar around here and a crusader, but that's it. However, if this were back in our home realm, you would find at least one in a thousand people to be a Justicar. Sadly we are far from home," lamented Vena.

"Really! I assumed the Holy is the major religion around here."

"It kind of is," shrugged the younger girl. "It's just that people not from the Mythic realm don't get their powers from religion. They have their books and bloodlines and care little for the teaching of the Lady."

Wait, does that mean that each realm has its magical system? Are the rules publicly known? Are they even strictly defined?

I was lost in my thoughts when we entered a building near the temple. Then suddenly, we got swarmed by children. They hugged Vena, asking questions about me and being a nuisance. I was surprised to notice that a fourth was non-human. Some had animal features, while others had different skin tones and textures. And here I thought that the Holy was a human religion.

"Calm down, children! You are bothering our guest," a stern voice echoed in the room.

And three older girls and a boy started to gather the children and took them to a garden.

An older woman in her 50s with grey hair in a tidy bun and brown robes approached us.

Vena rapidly stepped forward and almost shouted: "Lady Marca, this is Alice, she got lost after a teleportation accident, and Lady Sana allowed her to stay here for a few days."

"I see..." said the woman. "I hope you understand that this institute can't afford freeloaders. Each meal you eat is food that could be given to a parentless child who has no one in the world."

Holy shit, she is not pulling any punches! This woman is scary.

"Yes, ma'am! I will be out of your hair as soon as possible, ma'am." I saluted.

"Now, then, you can take a bed in the older kids' dorm," said the woman.

Vena and I rushed upstairs and entered a long room with ten bunk beds.

"That woman is scary. Is she the Crusader that would hunt me?" I asked, slightly worried.

"Pufffff!" guffawed Vena. "No! What made you think that? She is a cleric, too, just like Sana."

"I don't know. I thought clerics should all be cute and bubbly," I responded.

"You didn't hear it from me, but she is kind. When Calr left to join the Freelancer guild, she bagged him to stay an extra year."

"Freelancer guild? No, let's not get side-tracked. We were talking about powers," I shook my head. Damn, it's hard to carry a conversation when you know nothing.

"So I explained what Knights, Justicars, and Clerics do. A Paladin is a Knight Cleric, an Inquisitor is a Justicar cleric, and a Crusader is a Knight Justicar."

"So, do you have to be brave and honest to become a Crusader?" I asked.

"Yes, but extra criteria are required for higher class," replied Vena." You can have this bed. It used to be Calr's, but he left to join the freelancer guild."

I put my backpack on top of the bed and stretched. I was so relieved to be finally unburdened.

"Wait! Are those dorms mixed? I thought the boys and girls would be separated!" I said, dumbfounded.

"We have different bath schedules if you are concerned about that," said the younger girl.

"I was more surprised since I thought the higher up would be worried about young teenagers experimenting with their sexuality."

Vena gasped, and her face reddened.

Did I put my foot in my mouth? I did put my foot in my mouth. Why am I talking about sex to a girl who aspires to be a nun? What's wrong with me?

"No faithful would have done that before marriage! It's a sure way to join the Unholy," said Vena.

"Let me guess; the Unholy is an evil cult that will burn in hell for all eternity." I guessed as I tried to redirect the subject to safer grounds.

"What, no! It's not like that! The Unholy is the counterpart of the Holy. They are both needed for balance. It's just that Unholy people lose access to the Holy Miracles, so they can no longer become knights, clerics, or Justicars," corrected Vena.

"Oh! That's surprising! So you believe in balance; does that mean you encourage people to become Unholy to preserve the balance".

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"No! That's not it! We believe in the Holy! We tolerate the Unholy for the sake of balance."

I bet my last Kit Kat that some people actually believe in the balance back in their home world or realm.

"What classifies as Holy and what does not?" I asked.

"The Holy is when you follow the Lady's teaching, while the Unholy is often caused by following your baser needs," said the girl.

"So it's more in the Law vs. Chaos scale rather than good vs. evil," I muttered.

"Law... Chaos, what do you mean? But yeah, the Lady said that the unholy isn't evil," nodded the girl.

"Never mind the Alignment for now; who is the Lady you keep talking about? Is she your god?"

"She is not a god. She is a Holy of Holies, a step further than Paladin and Crusader, where you combine all three classes, but unlike other Holy of Holies, she is immortal. They watch over us alongside her husband, the Lord Holy Unholy."

"wait! I thought that clerics couldn't get married." I asked.

"I never said that! Clerics can get married. They seldom do because they are stronger when they are celibate."

The door was opened by a girl the same age as Vena, and she excitedly ran toward us.

"Vena, I got permission to visit the Soulbook shop from Sana." She said excitedly, "Will you come with me, please?"

"This is wonderful, Louis!" replied Vena. "You will come too, right, Alice? You must see the bookshop; it's one of the best things around."

"I can come as long as we get some food first. I am starving. And coffee, do you have coffee?" I said.

"Eeeh... coffee is too expensive for me. I can buy you tea if you want," said Vena apologetically.

I blinked. "I completely forgot about the money situation. Please tell me if it's the standard Copper, silver, and gold coins."

I think I have seen people exchange metal coins back at the market.

"Close enough, it's copper, bronze, silver, and gold," said Vena.

"How valuable is each currency?" I asked.

"One bronze is 60 coppers, one silver is 60 bronzes, and one gold coin is 60 silvers," replied the other girl

"Louis. Thank you! But that is not really what I meant. Let's see... How much is the price of a loaf of bread, a horse, and a small house in the neighborhood."

"The bread is ten copper coins almost everywhere. A horse is much more expensive, with eight silvers for a normal one, maybe double for a battle mount. A house would be at least ten gold," replied Louis.

"Horses would be cheaper in our realm," said Vena. "People around here prefer other kinds of beasts."

"I see, so one copper is worthless, and gold is so rare most peasants never see it," I said.

"Pretty much," said Vena looking at Louis, who nodded at her.

"So… if I happen to have some gold Jewellery with me. I can turn it into coins, right."

The girls' eyes widened. "We can take you to a jewelry store and sell it," said Louis.

Should I trust these girls? Of course, I should. I refuse to live in a world where such sweet girls would betray me ...I am such a sucker. How did I survive this long being so naive? Well, I don't care; I chose to believe!

I open my backpack and extract the jewelry box. Seeing my laptop reminds me to shut down my phone and hide it in one of my backpack pockets.

"What's that?" asked Vena, looking at my phone.

"I will show you later," I replied. "More importantly, what do you think of this?"

When I said I was prepared to be Isekai'ed, I wasn't joking. In North Africa, there is jewelry popular among affluent women. It's called the Mahazma, roughly translated to The Belt. It consists of 15 to 25, depending on the woman's waist size, antique gold coins from the Roman or Ottoman period. The coins are attached with gold threads to form a belt. All of that leads to a minimum of 200g of pure gold. I bought one three days ago. Sixteen gold coins, 223g of gold for the price of 13000$. I call it worth it. I also have a silver necklace and a platinum ring. But the gold belt will do for now.

"So do you think I should extract the coins or..." I glanced at the two girls as I said this, and they were shocked. Suddenly Vena started glowing. "Hide the gold! Fast!" hissed Louis at me. And then she shouted: "Lady Marca Vena is ascending to Cleric."

I hurriedly hid my jewelry box in my backpack and kicked it under the bed just before Marca and the older kids rushed inside.

"I can't believe it!" Said the older cleric. "I knew she was close but not that close! I thought she would at least need another year".

'Is she alright?" I asked worriedly.

"She is more than alright; she is ascending," said one of the boys.

"It will take her around 10 minutes to regain herself. Help me guide her to the bed".

When Vena was lying on one of the beds, Marca asked: "So what happened."

"I think it's best if we talk alone," said Louis looking at the gathered kids

"Oh! It's not fair!" said the boy.

"You heard her kids. Get out!" ordered the old woman menacingly.

When we were alone, Marca looked at us expectantly.

"I am not sure about what happened," I hesitantly said.

"I know exactly what happened!" said Louis. "This idiot flashed enough gold to buy herself a minor nobility title, and when the worldly possession didn't tempt Vena, the Holy judged her ready to ascend."

"Show me the gold!" said the woman, fixing me with an iron glare.

I hesitated.

"For the Lady's sake, I have been a cleric for 30 years. I am not going to turn Unholy now for a meager sum of gold," said the priestess.

I extracted my jewelry box and opened it in front of the cleric. Her surprise was less evident, but she was still surprised.

"You idiot!" she said. "Don't go tempting 16-year-olds who have nothing in the world with enough money to build another temple".

"I am sorry… I... but if this was such a big deal, how come Louis didn't ascend too".

Louis stiffened, and Marca scowled at me. I put my foot in my mouth again, didn't I?

"Well, sorry if I am not fit to be a cleric! I don't want to be a cleric anyway! I want to get married as soon as possible, have ten kids, and love them like I was never loved!"

Shit! Expecting all orphan girls to become nuns… That's a new low, even for me.

I was surprised when Marca hugged Louis and whispered: "Even if you are not a cleric, you are still a good girl, one of the best I have ever had around here."

"I am sorry... I didn't mean to offend you. I am just ignorant." I said with a shameful voice.

"No! I am sorry I overreacted. I am sure you didn't mean anything by your words," muttered Louis.

"Anyway, there is no way all this is staying here tonight. Why don't you go and summon Justicar Gray? We will ensure you have all your money in the bank by the end of the evening."

Louis left the room, leaving me alone with Marca, who was examining me silently. Luckily, Vena woke up before the silence became too awkward. She jumped from the bed and started dancing.

"I did it! I did it!" She put her hand over Marca and shouted, "HEAL!" Then out to me and shouted again, "HEAL." She ran back to Marca when the older woman smacked her forehead.

"Stop playing with your Miracle, you idiot."

The following twenty minutes passed as Marca lectured poor Vena about the importance of her new class and how she could make herself stronger. I was as captivated as Vena since everything about magic was new to me. From what I understood, Miracles are what our lord and savior, Brandon Sanderson, would classify as a Hard Magic System; they are, at least in the cleric's case, a strictly defined set of spells; most of them focus on healing, but there are also blessings and cleaning, and curse removal. There is also an ultimate ability that only female clerics and paladins can perform called the virgin sacrifice. A celibate female cleric can give away 20 years of her youth to perform a powerful spell. It is so powerful that it could even revive someone who died less than one minute ago. The Lady could perform the virgin sacrifice non-stop because she was immortal. I wanted to ask about the logistics of a married woman performing the "virgin" sacrifice, but I didn't want to put my foot in my mouth again.

We were still in the middle of the lecture when Sana, Louis, a woman in steel armor around my age, and a bald man in black robes in his 40s entered the dorm room.

"Congratulations on your ascension, Vena," said Sana.

"Who would have thought that little Vena would grow up so fast?" said the woman I labeled "knight" in my head.

Vena jumped from her seat and hugged the two women. She looked at the older man, hesitated for a second, then hugged him.

The older man patted her gently on the head and said: "We will celebrate your ascension later. Now, you and Louis should wait outside while we talk with Alice," said the man.

Vena was already hugging Louis as Sana closed the door behind them.

"I am sorry about this," smiled Sana. "But we need to investigate you just to be safe."

Well, Shit! I am so bad at this; I broke the first rule of being Isekai'ed on the first day. I attracted too much attention to myself.