Alien Knights

Todd, who bid farewell to the two nuns, was walking in Muxi Town, and suddenly found that there were many more strange people in the town than before.

These people were well-dressed, in stark contrast to the hurried and busy residents around them. They pointed at the houses on both sides of the street, and stopped from time to time to ask the passers-by on the street who the owner of the house was.

A resident on the road was found, and he wanted to ask what was going on.

Because Todd was wearing a lab coat, the residents didn't recognize him at first. After a while, the latter looked at the face of the inquirer, opened his eyes wide, and shouted in disbelief: "Master Shengzi! It's Mr. Shengzi!"

This voice immediately attracted the attention of everyone on the street, people gathered like a tide, and there was an endless stream of praise and blessing. Seeing that the situation was not good, Todd said a few prayers, crossed himself, and quickly slipped back.

At the gate of the church, Huggins was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, circling back and forth on the spot.

Todd's appearance, in the eyes of the man, was like the arrival of a savior.

Huggins looked at the other party's clothes up and down, and hurriedly said: "My lord! Quick! Go and change into your holy order!"

Seeing the panicked look of the man, Todd touched the bridge of his nose in confusion, and asked amusedly, "What are you doing in such a hurry? Could it be the Pope? Haha!"

Huggins' solemn expression made Todd, who realized that the atmosphere was not right, laugh a few times, and stopped involuntarily.

The other party's next sentence made Todd jump up from the ground in fright.

"The holy envoy of the Papal Kingdom is arriving soon. 』

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"Is there anything wrong with my attire?" Todd, who was wearing a full set of holy orders, stood at the entrance of the town, looking at the eastern plain, and asked Huggins beside him.

Around the priest, a large group of people with good deeds had gathered long ago. The news that the Pope's envoy is coming has long been spread all over the streets and alleys by well-informed people.

Huggins tensed up nervously, didn't notice Todd's inquiry at all, and didn't say a word.

At the end of the plain in the distance, a team of knights holding the holy cross meandered over. Seeing the team approaching the town, Todd lowered his head and looked at the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a figure coming in front of him.

A purple-red foot-length gown, with a white knee-length blouse in the middle, and a large purple-red shawl on the outside, with a cross hanging from a green striped rope sitting on the chest.

Todd quickly straightened his posture, and said reverently: "Dear Holy Messenger, you have brought the infinite mercy of the Heavenly Father, please bestow upon us apostles..."

cough cough!

This sounded so familiar that Todd raised his head. Seeing who it was, he asked in surprise, "Bishop Fabian, why is it you?!"

The bishop turned his head to the side in embarrassment, and it was only then that Todd noticed that there was an unremarkable young man in a black deacon robe standing beside him.

This man was in his twenties, with fluffy and curly brown hair, a straight body, and unsurprising facial features, but his smile made people feel warm.

Todd looked at the ordinary black deacon uniform on the young man, looked at Bishop Fabian in disbelief, and stammered and asked, "This...is this...?"

The bishop also seemed a little helpless and puzzled, and he only heard him say: "Friend Todd, let me introduce you. This is the holy envoy of the Papal State, Tristan Gresham Bennett."

Before Todd could say hello, the envoy took two steps forward and grabbed the priest's sleeve. What he asked surprised the former: "I heard you have an alchemy laboratory?"

Looking nervously at the other members of the Papal State's envoys, Todd found that the expressions of the Holy See knights and entourage were normal, with a familiar look on their faces.

Not knowing what the envoy's intentions were, Todd, whose brain was tense and blank, laughed a few times dryly: "My lord envoy, it's almost noon now, why don't you have lunch first..."

Tristan turned back to the leading knight of the mission and said, "You go to dinner with the priest's entourage first."

Watching the other members of the mission follow Huggins towards the town, but the envoy looked at him expectantly, Todd sighed deeply, and had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead Tristan towards the small laboratory building.

When the two passed by the door of the church, they happened to meet Rachel and Karin.

Just when Karin was bouncing and talking about interesting things with Todd, the latter found Rachel and Tristan looking at each other on the street with big eyes to small eyes.

The holy envoy from the Pope's country looked at the wide nun's robe on Rachel's body, his face was flushed, and finally let out a snort, and couldn't help laughing.

The dean of the convent gave the young deacon in front of her a hard look, pulled up the reluctant Karin, and strode away.

Looking at the nun going away in amazement, Todd was in a state of confusion, and asked the young man, "My lord, do you know this sister?"

Tristan wiped the corners of his eyes and nodded with a smile: "Ah, yes! That's right, it's just a relationship."

Lie to ghosts, look at you, you are clearly acquaintances with that little fox!

With such slander, Todd opened the door of the laboratory.

Tristan's eyes lit up, and he walked into the "ocean" of laboratory equipment and reagent bottles, carefully inspecting everything, and finally set his sights on Todd's microscope.

Laymen watch the excitement, while experts watch the doorway.

Todd paid attention to his gaze, and immediately understood that this holy envoy was definitely a master of alchemy. While the other party was focusing on the microscope, he secretly moved a wooden board to block the passage leading to the back room of the laboratory.

"Is this also an alchemy tool?" Tristan touched his chin with his right hand and held his elbow with his left hand, with a curious expression on his face.

Todd kicked the strip of cloth on the ground to cover the gap under the board, and said in his mouth, "My lord, that's called a microscope, and it can see very small things."

The man turned his head excitedly and asked loudly, "Very small? How small?!"

Todd moved quickly, changed his position, walked up to the man, opened the wooden box of the microscope, took out two glass slides, poured a drop of water on them, and put them on the viewing platform.

Tristan watched the priest's movements, especially his eyes lingered on the glass slide for a while.

After adjusting the eyepiece and objective lens, Todd signaled the envoy to come and watch.

A few seconds later, the man yelled, causing Todd to squint his eyes and dig his ears.

Tristan pointed at the observation hole with trembling hands, and stammered, "What are these things?"

Todd looked closer to the observation hole, and said slowly: "The largest object that looks like the sole of a shoe is a paramecium; the long green object is an Euglena; the one that is connected into one piece should be a cyanobacteria..."

The man pushed him away, put his eyes back together, pulled a stool beside him, and sat down without any reason.

Todd scratched the back of his head, looked at the wooden board behind him, and said cautiously: "Master Holy Envoy..."

The man's head remained motionless, he waved his hands behind him, and said kindly, "Call me Tristan, Father."

Todd continued, "Okay, Tristan. About lunch..."

"If you want to be hungry, go and eat first, don't worry about me."

Todd rolled his eyes and cursed in his heart: Nonsense! How dare I let you stay here alone, there are still a bunch of shady things here, if the church finds out, I can go directly to the stake!

"Father, do you have a pen and paper here?"

Hearing what the other party said, Todd quickly opened the locker under the table, and said in a hurry: "Yes, there are, just wait a moment."

After watching Tristan get the pen and paper, he looks at the observation hole of the microscope while writing and drawing. Todd sighed, rubbed his stomach, and began to rummage through the leftover pancakes from last night in the laboratory...

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"My lord, it's almost time for dinner. The people from the mission are..." Huggins stepped into the door of the laboratory, and was so shocked by the scene in front of him that he forgot what to say next.

The envoy, who was wearing a black deacon robe, sat in front of the microscope intently, with a pile of sketches on the table.

Our Lord Todd, sitting on a small bench, rubbed his stomach with one hand and rested his cheeks with the other, with a depressed face written all over his face.

Huggins looked at Todd, then at the envoy, and said hesitantly: "The knight commander of the mission is looking for the envoy..."

"Stop talking, no matter what you say, he won't listen." Todd stood up, waved at Huggins, walked to Tristan by himself, and pointed to the man's arm.

Huggins hesitated a bit, and finally set up Tristan with Todd, and walked towards the door amidst the other party's protests.

The dinner was arranged in the side hall of the church. Due to hasty preparations, it was all ordinary food and drinks.

The Holy Angel Tristan of the Papal State made a speech. He first paid tribute to the Father, then thanked Bishop Fabian for his company, and finally thanked Muxi Town for the hospitality.

After listening to the other party's speech, Todd was a little dazed. Because the envoy did not mention his most concerned issue from the beginning to the end-whether the church agreed to establish a knight order in Muxi Town.

Naturally, Todd couldn't ask directly about this kind of thing, so he could only make indirect remarks while chatting with Tristan during the banquet.

To his surprise, the envoy was obsessed with alchemy despite his young age. In social situations, he is smooth like a loach. No matter how Todd reminds him, the other party just pretends to be stupid, plays Tai Chi, and never mentions the matter of the Knights.

In the end, Todd lost his temper completely, so he could only temporarily give up his plan to ask, and chatted about other topics.

"I thought the church regarded alchemy as a scourge." Todd took a sip of the red wine.

Tristan touched the fruit on the dial with a fork, and said with a smile, "Would you be surprised if I told you that in the Pope's kingdom, many people, whether bishops or nobles, are studying alchemy?"

Todd's eyes widened: "But isn't alchemy...?"

"That's right. The Church once had a "Sacred Ministry Encyclical" that defined alchemy as heresy, but that was eight hundred years ago. The charm of turning stone into gold and the "Sage's Stone" will attract anyone. But having said that, this kind of thing is still not on the table, and can only be done in secret."

After listening to the other party's words, Todd thought of the scene where he was tried for heresy, and hesitated to speak.

Tristan looked at his expression and smiled: "I've heard about you before... Silver Ring Diocese is still too remote, and many things will naturally change here. Speaking of which, you and I still have some connections. The laboratory you found under the San Sidro Monastery..."

Todd jerked his head up, looked at the man, and waited for his next words.

"... once belonged to my master."