Inheriting a Lost Bloodline, My First Task is to have heirs?!-Chapter 453 - The Long Journey Isn’t So Boring Anymore (Part 2)

I looked at Void with one of my eyebrows raised and couldn’t help but ask, "And all the members are okay with this mission? They just blindly follow and do whatever they were told?"

Void shook his head and replied, "Not really. Some members never return and choose to stay with the mothers of their children. They chose to get married and live with a complete family. If a member doesn’t come back within a year, a templar searches for them to confirm if they still want to return. If they no longer have the intention to return, all their memories about the church are erased. If they already have a child by the time a templar finds them, if it is a boy, the church takes the child away. Their memory of having that child is altered in their minds in a sense that they will think that the child died at birth. If they gave birth to a female child, they can keep it and they are deemed lucky, I guess."

I nodded my head in understanding and couldn’t help but comment, "How cruel but at the same time very efficient. They make sure all connections that are no longer useful are cut cleanly. These templars are like soldiers, right?"

Void nodded his head and explained that they are like the cleaner of the mess that members commit. They do everything possible to keep the secrets of the church hidden to non-members and they deal with those that chose to leave the church as well. They do the dirty jobs so to speak. He also said that they are the members who are equally gifted in magic and physique and the church finds the best partners for them since the children of templars are the next generation of templars as well.

The backstory of the church just gets more complicated as he described that the role of the saintess is like that of the "Mother of the Church". It is not only in a guiding or leadership sense but in the literal sense as well. She is a woman with excellent physique and magic abilities that matches that of a templar and is deemed as the reincarnation of the goddess. She is assigned to provide blessings to whoever she deems worthy among the members and she can bless as many as she prefers.

I couldn’t help but furrow my brows at the description that Void just provided. I couldn’t help but think that it is just like a woman leading a household and she picks the ones that she wants to be her lovers. In this sense, isn’t the whole church turned into her personal harem then?

As if hearing my thoughts, Void added, "I think we are having the same thoughts about the saintess role. She does take in members as her lovers and have children with them. It is a weird role as they are deemed higher in rank than the pope too. It is a powerful position and the members of the church, though I don’t really want to admit it, are the crème of the crop."

I couldn’t help but ask in confusion, "Huh? What do you mean?"

He smiled and said, "They think just like you, my wife. Even if they take in all those male infants, they only keep the exceptional useful ones in the end. The child has to be exceptional in looks, intelligence, physique and ability to control mana. They are under strict education and are provided the best of everything during the first 12 years of their life under the guidance of the abbot. If even after all the support and they still did not excel on all those aspects, the children are sent out of the church to fend for themselves with no memories of being ever part of it. It is like how orphanages release children before they turn 13."

I sighed and responded, "But all those children they send out are children of the members, correct? And the fathers of those children are fine with that?"

Void shook his head, "Not all of them are fine with it. Some of the members, if they found out that their child did not make the cut, they leave the church together with their child. Their memories are erased and they live the rest of their lives as ordinary people. These people though, the ones that chose to leave the church or kicked out are still above average in human standards so they still end up as important people in different occupations. Some of them work in the magic tower, some become officials of the government, teachers in the academe, business owners, merchants, etc."

I stayed quiet for a while as I try to process all these information that I just got from Void. Eventually, I had one last question for him, "Is there a way to tell if a person is a previous member of the Church of Lumienere that just left or got kicked out?"

Void shook his head, "Sadly, there was nothing in the archive that says anything about that. Since they want a clean cut like you said, I don’t think they will leave any mark on those people that can be used as proof of their previous connection with the church. They are very cautious in everything they do."

All in all, Void thinks that though their views on how to keep the church strong and existing is quite twisted, they don’t kill people or steal resources from the poor so they can still be deemed as a neutral entity. They continuously provide help to those who need it the most. They provide food, medicine and even monetary assistance to poorer areas while at the same time, growing their number of believers as well. It was a win-win for them too.

I sighed and held my forehead as I think that I would be having a migraine. Didn’t that priest I met in Rigden called me a "goddess"? Does that mean he thinks that I am the next saintess of their religion?

Damn. This is going to cause trouble for sure.

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