When Lulumia stood in front of the church doors, the crescent moon was already hanging in the sky, starlight flowing like water, and the streets were quiet, with only the night wind brushing past.
Just as she expected, most of the carpenters in this world worked as family units.
Their low efficiency meant there was always a queue for anything, and engraving words required both literacy and dexterity—a meticulous task.
With only one night as the deadline, naturally, no one dared to take up the job.
So, Lulumia returned empty-handed.
She raised her head, gazing at the white Grand Cathedral bathed in soft yellow light, and couldn’t help but feel a flicker of hesitation.
On the surface, she looked as if nothing was wrong, but in truth, she was deeply worried.
The Fourth Princess, in both wealth and status, far surpassed Eno.
If Sean and his son, along with Cooper, failed to complete the type molds as requested tonight, she would have no choice but to present flawed samples to the Fourth Princess tomorrow.
People in this world had no concept of “printing”—if the finished products were too unsightly, and the Fourth Princess failed to see their value, she would have lost the gamble.
If the Fourth Princess demanded immediate repayment of five thousand gold coins, and she couldn’t pay, even if Eno wanted to help, she might be powerless.
Would Eno risk her future just to protect her?
Absolutely impossible.
Reality isn’t a novel; someone who has only known you briefly wouldn’t risk her entire career just to save you—that kind of thing only happens in fairy tales.
Was there any other insurance…
Standing at the church doors, Lulumia folded her arms and furrowed her brows.
The answer was no.
No matter how she looked at it, time was too tight.
If not for Amy’s incident delaying things, she might still have some wiggle room, but now, with only one night left, she had no choice but to go all in.
Wait, since the Fourth Princess, Cinderella, had the “Bookworm” label, could she try appealing to her with literature?
A sudden flash of inspiration lit up in Lulumia’s mind as she blinked her emerald green eyes.
The Ounheim Kingdom language was unlike any language on Earth, so trying to move the Fourth Princess with beautiful prose was impossible—she simply didn’t have that level of translation ability.
Instead, rather than deep literary works, perhaps popular, addictive web novels would be more attractive.
However, just picturing the scene where she presented her writing to the Fourth Princess, she couldn’t help but imagine that cold and elegant princess binge-reading web novels, which felt as jarring as dipping dumplings in ketchup.
Most likely, it wouldn’t work.
Better get some rest, and go to Sean’s place early in the morning to check the results.
She had at least arranged for a backup plan—hopefully, nothing would go wrong.
Lulumia let out a long sigh.
There was more than one church temple in the capital of Ounheim Kingdom.
The temple where Eno lived was near the center of the commercial district, close to St. Istel Academy.
The roads were paved with stone bricks, and there was a square right in front.
But at such a late hour, there were few pedestrians—the streets looked desolate.
“Is there something troubling you?”
Just as Lulumia was deep in thought, a church knight clad in silvery light armor walked over to her.
As one of the knights guarding the church entrance, he had already noticed the little girl hesitating at the doors.
“Ah, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about something.”
“If you’re in trouble, you can come inside the Grand Cathedral and sit for a while. Lady Istel protects every one of her followers.”
The knight spoke with a gentle smile.
His warm voice was convincing—anyone genuinely in distress would surely feel goodwill toward the church.
Unfortunately, Lulumia had read too many books of all sorts; the church had long been cast as the main villain in various stories, making it hard to look at it without bias.
Lulumia tilted her head up slightly, blinking with feigned helplessness.
“I’m the magus doll Lulumia of the Immaculate Saint Eno. Sister Eno told me that as long as I give her name, I can go inside. May I come in?”
“Oh, oh! So you’re the magus doll of the Saint. So polite—no wonder the Saint chose you over anyone else. Come in, come in. A nun will show you where you’ll stay. The Saint is still at the Central Cathedral on Nobles’ Street for training and probably won’t return until later.”
After he finished, the knight glanced around with a hint of secrecy and a bitter smile.
“The Saint can be a bit stubborn—thank you for your hard work.”
“It’s nothing, really. It’s what I should do.”
She honestly hadn’t noticed the stubbornness, but the knight seemed well-intentioned in his warning; it was best to keep it in mind.
Lulumia flashed a sweet little girl’s smile.
The knight was visibly delighted and enthusiastically led her inside.
Only after handing her over to a passing nun did he wave goodbye, making Lulumia sigh once again—appearance really was important.
What happened after that was simple.
As this was Lulumia’s first time in the church, and she hadn’t even been a follower of Istel’s teachings before, the nun explained much about the church: the responsibilities of each position, the purposes of different areas, and the church’s origins.
The last part was most closely related to Lulumia.
Thousands of years ago, this world was chaotic and lawless.
All the races fought over scarce resources, and long years of war gave rise to the seven recognized Demons.
Here, “Demon” didn’t mean any particular race but rather referred to any powerful being corrupted by evil thoughts.
Their emergence only deepened the world’s strife, bringing it to the brink of ruin.
At this time, the Great Holy Spirit Istel and other Holy Spirits descended upon the world, bringing with them the “divine-made angels.”
The Great Holy Spirit Istel, unwilling to watch as the creatures of the land destroyed each other, performed a miracle and split the continent into five parts, separating the races.
She then led her army of divine-made angels—highly skilled in battle—alongside the other Holy Spirits, to sweep across the five continents and eradicate the Demons and their followers.
However, such miracles and years of war left the Holy Spirits exhausted, giving the seven Demons an opportunity.
In the end, the seven Demons launched a desperate counterattack, battling the Holy Spirits on the Central Continent.
The grand war ended with the defeat of the Holy Spirits.
In her despair, the Great Holy Spirit of Water sacrificed her body and most of her soul to Seal the Demons.
The surviving divine-made angels told the people that the Holy Spirits’ power would one day be exhausted, and that all races needed to establish systems before the angels passed away, to guard the Seal in their place.
So, the church was founded to find suitable Saints, making them the heroes to guard the Seal.
With this history as the backdrop, a tradition arose: before being chosen as Saint, each candidate had to select one or more magus dolls as assistants.
Divine-made angels themselves were magus dolls, the only difference being that they were created by the gods, while dolls like Lulumia were crude human imitations.
To Lulumia, this story felt like a myth or legend.
Every religion liked to set up a savior for people to believe in. But seeing the nun describe the Seal with such vivid detail, perhaps this wasn’t just legend—it might really have happened.
After all, this was a world with magic.
“What does the Seal look like? If someone with ill intentions found out, wouldn’t it be easy for them to destroy it?”
Lulumia purposely played the part of a naive child to tease the nun.
“Of course not.”
The nun covered her mouth and chuckled.
“The Demons aren’t sealed in any particular place, but locked inside Badges of Original Sin imbued with miraculous power. Even a Saint who knows everything about the Seal would find it nearly impossible to undo, let alone outsiders.”
“Uh… That badge isn’t called the Badge of Original Sin, is it?”
“Hmm? You already know, little Mia?”
“Isn’t there also a team that collects Badges of Original Sin all over the world to Seal the Demons?”
As she spoke, Lulumia began to sweat. Wasn’t this just like a novel she’d read before?
Luckily, the nun shook her head, smiling kindly as if looking at a naive little girl.
“Of course not. All seven Badges of Original Sin are sealed without exception and are kept by various churches and states. To be safe, there’s never just one Saint overseeing a Seal. The Badges of Original Sin are jointly managed by His Holiness the Pope, the local royalty, and several Saints—just to avoid any mishaps.”
“That’s good.”
Lulumia let out a breath of relief—thank goodness she hadn’t been sucked into a book; things were just similar.
Then the nun seemed to remember something and added, “By the way, Lulumia, you’ll need to be careful in the future. There’s some controversy in the church regarding Saint Eno. As her magus doll, you’re bound to be affected, so be extra careful with your words and actions—otherwise, troublemakers will use it against you.”
“Thank you for the reminder. I’ll be careful.”
“It’s late—why aren’t you resting yet? What are you two talking about?”
Just then, a scolding voice came from behind Lulumia.
She turned to find a much older woman also wearing a nun’s habit.
Upon seeing her, the younger nun immediately tensed up like a mouse seeing a cat, head bowed.
“Lady Sharina, this is Lulumia, the magus doll Saint Eno chose today. I was just telling her what she needs to watch out for.”
“Have you finished cleaning the sacred vessels?”
“N-no, I’m sorry! I’ll do it right away!”
The young nun lowered her head even further and hurried off almost at a run.
Only Lulumia and Sharina were left in the cold, magically lit corridor.
Sharina gave Lulumia a strange sense of pressure.
She could clearly feel that this woman didn’t look at her with the kindness others did—in fact, there was hostility in her gaze.
“You’re the magus doll that Lady Eno saved, aren’t you?”
Without waiting for a response, the older nun snorted coldly, almost muttering to herself in disdain.
“Low in mana, no combat power, and a reputation so bad even dogs avoid you. Lady Eno is a Saint candidate from the borderlands—she needs every possible advantage to win the Competition. With your abilities, staying by her side will only drag her down.”
“I don’t know what trick you used to fool Eno, but when this all blows over, do the sensible thing and leave. I’ll see you’re compensated.”
Sharina paused, eyes narrowing as she looked down on Lulumia with a dangerous glint.
“But if you shamelessly insist on clinging to Lady Eno, for the sake of helping her win the Competition, I’ll deal with you my own way. This is not the place for you, weak magus doll. Lady Eno needs better helpers.”
Not giving Lulumia a chance to speak, Sharina glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and walked off, leaving only a cold breeze swirling Lulumia’s platinum skirt and giving her goosebumps.
“Bah.”
Lulumia vigorously rubbed her arms, glaring at Sharina’s back.
“Dog’s eyes look down on people.”
If this was before she’d been kidnapped, she would have been furious.
But now, with a Mindfulness value as low as 10, she could clearly see her magic stats.
She’d have to raise her magical power soon, or she’d always be underestimated.
Lulumia pouted.
For now, she had to prepare what she’d say to the Fourth Princess tomorrow, get some sleep, and be ready to check the results in the morning.
Let’s hope nothing goes wrong.