He Holds a Rose from the Abyss - Chapter 40.1

Chapter 40.1

When Song Xinan crossed over, he was in the slums of the imperial capital, Sangster. The sky was cramped, the rain kept falling, and the whole world seemed to be trapped in front of his eyes.

He looked at the unfamiliar faces reflected in the gutter, and for the first time felt a little confused.

His new name was Raphael, which he quickly accepted, and began living in the slums. His new identity had no family, living here alone.

Life here was not comfortable, he had to work a lot in exchange for meager money, but also often experienced a series of uncontrollable factors such as protection money trifecta, being robbed, and maliciously inflating food prices.

Song Xinan often had a feeling that he was here to work as a coolie, where he had no past, no friends, no dreams, and no future.

Until that church service. Even with such poverty, most people in the slums will stick to this habit of worship.

But even in such a world, Song Xinan didn’t believe in gods. He watched with cold eyes the merciful expressions on the faces of the priests, and the look of salvation on the faces of the civilians who seemed to be in a muddled state of confusion.

He knew that his primary goal was to get out of the slums. The security here was very poor, and robberies and murders could happen at any time. Neither the Magic Association nor the church cared much about these things. In such a world, the life and death of civilians were not even comparable to a scroll of magic.

He first stepped into the church because of a dispute with a magic apprentice. The apprentice hired him to dissect some magical creatures, but when the work was done, he was not paid.

Later, the apprentice stumbled with the summoning magic, a two-headed monster chased Song Xinan two whole streets, and he had no choice but to run into the church.

Song Xinan was in a state of embarrassment, with many injuries on his body, and a large cut on his right knee. The fat priest who always smiled came up to him and asked, “It looks like you have suffered a lot of injuries, do you need help?”

“Can you… give me a healing magic?” Song Xinan cannot be injured. Once he is injured, he will lose almost all of his jobs, and his current money cannot last until the day he recovers naturally.

The fat priest’s expression was slightly compassionate, but his eyes were very indifferent.

‘It was as if he was hesitating to save an ant,’ Song Xinan thought.

“You don’t have faith in the God of Light, do you? I don’t feel faith in your body,” the fat priest said.

Song Xinan was stunned.

“If you don’t have faith, even if I help you, it won’t do me much good.” The fat priest gave a “tsk” and left again.

Song Xinan sat in the corner of the church, curled up into a ball. The sky began to rain again, and the outside seemed to be shrouded by a layer of inextricable fog.

He thought about whether he would be cleaned up by that apprentice magician first if he walked out, or whether he would be drenched by the heavy rain first and die a little in a situation where his wounds were worsening.

The messy thoughts were entangled in his mind, but when he heard the sound of prayers in the church and gazed at the dome of the church, those messy thoughts suddenly disappeared.

His right hand was over the wound, but his soul seemed to have detached itself from the body and gazed at this self that was still struggling.

The next moment, his right hand shone with white light, and the wound on his knee slowly began to heal under this white light.

The church was still praying, people were still praying for a better tomorrow, and Song Sinan was in this unattended corner with his right hand clenched in a fist.

‘I seem to have found my own faith. This will be the foundation of my life,’ he thought.

Song Xinan later tested the power of his divine magic, and he could only use it for 1 minute each time. But 1 minute was enough, and with his shallow knowledge, he could not yet predict how strong his ability could be.

But with this, he became a trainee priest of the church.

By the time he entered the church as a trainee priest, the fat priest had completely failed to recognize him.

This new batch of apprentice priests all bowed their heads, lined up in a line, and stepped forward one by one to listen to the arrangement of the fat priest.

The fat priest looked at Song Xinan and asked him with a smile, “Raphael, you must obey the commandments of the church and always keep your faith, and God will bless you.”

“Yes, I will always keep my faith in the gods,” Song Nanxin replied.

‘I believe in myself,’ he thought.

Life in the church was much better than in the slums, at least he didn’t have to worry about food and clothing. All he had to do every day was say some prayers, practice the divine arts, and pay attention to the benevolent image of the priest when he went out.

He behaved like a gentle and courteous priest, patient with all the commoners who came to pray.

In this numb, mechanical repetition of the day, Song Xinan began to feel lost. He couldn’t find a way to go back, he had no nostalgia for this world.

He practiced his divine arts in silence, and on an ordinary day, found the magic apprentice who once wanted to kill him.

The face of the magic apprentice turned pale, and he murmured, “…don’t kill me, don’t…at least not at this time.”

“I don’t want to kill you, I’m just here to collect my fee, and by the way, I should pay you back for the injuries I got that day.”

The apprentice shivered and took the money from his pocket, but there was not enough money, so he said, “I’ll go into the room to find it, you, you, wait for me here.”

Song Xinan watched the apprentice turn around with a pale face, and fell as he walked into the room.

This reaction was so strange that Song Xinan’s mind moved and followed behind him.

Then, Song Xinan saw a teenager lying on the ground.

He fell in a pool of blood, and his eyes were closed, not knowing whether he was alive or dead. Song Xinan only saw the pattern of sunflower on his robe.

After the magic apprentice noticed Song Xinan, he was very agitated: “You can pretend that you didn’t see anything, I’ll give you more money, don’t say anything if you take the money… Otherwise, I will fight with my life… you don’t want to fight with me…”

Song Xinan didn’t intend to take care of this matter at first. The sympathy in his heart had already disappeared, and he was not sure that he could defeat this magic apprentice within 1 minute.

He was already reluctant to help others if there was not enough benefit.

The moment Song Xinan turned around, he suddenly remembered the pattern of the sunflower, which was the crest of the Howard family.

A thought popped up vaguely in his heart, and before it could take shape, he snatched out his divine magic and fought with that magic apprentice.

The magical apprentice was indeed red-eyed, and he was fighting back with magic like his life depended on it.

The second before Song Xinan felt the loss of divine magic power, he trapped this magic apprentice with divine magic. He raised his hand and still gave up the idea of killing.

In this world where morality is lower than power and the law is like a void, he had become somewhat numb, but still set some bottom line for himself.

He knew that if he didn’t kill this magic apprentice, he might have endless troubles, but if he crossed his own bottom line, maybe he would fall into a deeper abyss.

Song Xinan took the boy away from the magic apprentice. He first gave him a brief wound treatment, quietly waited for the arrival of midnight, and then used the healing magic.

Song Xinan’s first words to the teenager were: “I saved you, I need the Howard family to do me a favor.”

That teenager’s expression was bewildered at first, but before he could thank Song Xinan, he heard such a sentence, and he was obviously stunned.

Song Xinan: “You should be a more important person in that family, so do me a favor, no need to thank me, and we’ll be clear.”

The stunned expression on this teenager’s face faded, and he raised his chin: “I am Berg, what favor do you want the Howard family to do for you?”

Song Xinan simply said a few words.

Berg agreed quickly, with almost no hesitation, he stood up with support: “Is that just a little thing? You can ask a little more, Howard’s reputation is still useful.”

He took a few steps, his legs softened and he knelt down again. Berg felt his head was very heavy. He gritted his teeth and asked, “Is your priest’s healing technique so useless?”

Song Xinan tried to use the healing technique again. He was still very confident in his own abilities, but looking at Berg’s weak appearance, he hesitantly asked: “You are… like this because you are hungry, right?”

Berg’s face turned pale, and he was still making a meaningless rebuttal: “No, I…”

“Let’s go eat.” Song Xinan took Berg to a small restaurant.

The teenager from the Howard family expressed strong dissatisfaction with these cheap meals: “Is this the standard of living of you priests… This is too unpalatable…”

Song Xinan ignored him.

“You… don’t you ask why I’m there? Aren’t you guys always curious about the movement of magicians?” Berg looked into his eyes.

“But I’m not curious,” Song Nanxi said.

In his eyes, the battle between magicians and priests was a good opportunity for him to be promoted quickly.

“That guy is studying necromancy…and wants to use my body to study…” Berg said anyway.

When they walked out of the restaurant, it started to rain again. Although Song Xinan could use magic to cut off the rain, the magic time could not last until he walked back to the church, so he planned to wait for the rain to stop before returning to the church.

Berg looked at the rain, then looked at Song Xinan, and turned his head: “Thank you.”

The voice was so small that Song Xinan felt it was an illusion.

“Although you also asked the Howard family to help you, still, thank you.”

Berg stopped looking at Song Xinan, and a blush appeared on his face. He had always been arrogant and domineering, and he always spoke with a sharp edge, and he was not used to saying such soft words.

“I’ll go first.” He ran into the rain without even using magic.

Heavy rain washed over the whole world, seemingly washing away the stains of the day as well. Song Xinan looked at the teenager who ran forward in the rain until he disappeared from sight.