Pastor's Tantra

Aiwass carefully looked at the old ritual master in front of him, who was usually quite low-key.

Queen Sofia succeeded to the throne sixty years ago. She was not yet twenty years old at that time.

Since Old Iben knew Sophia at that time, can we say... that he was actually only in his early twenties when he met Jacob Alexander?

He has a white beard and his naturally curly hair has turned gray. Even wearing Avalon-style clothing, one can still vaguely capture a hint of the temperament of a foreigner from his facial features.

His oily green pupils were also covered with a layer of gray due to age. If he had been young, he might have been a handsome young man with deep eyebrows, black curly hair, and a beard.

And what did Jacob look like at that time, so that Iben, who had not seen him for decades, would feel familiar when he saw Aiwass?

Thinking of this, Aiwass was in a daze for a moment.

"Jacob Alexander..."

He immediately focused his mind and replied softly: "He is my grandfather."

Iben was a little confused: "But I remember that you are not from the Moriarty family..."

"James Moriarty is my adoptive father."

Aiwass explained: "When I was a few years old, all my parents and relatives were killed. It was my adoptive father who raised me."

"...It's actually like this."

When the old man heard this, he slightly opened his already cloudy eyes and murmured to himself: "This kind of thing will happen in Avalon..."

He was silent for a while, looking like he had aged a few years.

"They were all cursed to death."

Aiwass continued calmly: "According to my investigations over the years, my grandfather died of typhoid fever fourteen years ago."

"Ha. Typhoid fever..."

Hearing this, Iben sneered: "It should be the typhoid curse. That is the curse invented by Jacob... His idea about the curse at the time was to keep a low profile as much as possible - it is best not to let people realize that this is curse.

"It seems that the person who killed him should have learned curses from him."

It was like an experienced old doctor who suddenly laughed when he heard students discussing a complex disease and intervened in the conversation to give the exact answer.

The sigh that he "had to take action" after all, overflowed with the nostalgia for the past, giving people a sense of calmness and reliability.

Aiwass was still wondering why Avalon's court ritualists were so weak... After hearing Iben's story, he thought Queen Sofia was just interested in his moral character.

But at this time, the strong self-confidence in the old man made Aiwass really feel his self-confidence.

Even if the energy level is low, it does not mean that he is weak.

"At that time, what we, the Hands Without Scales, only wanted to do was to help people deal with some big bad guys, seek justice for people, or teach them some lessons. But the Hands Without Scales didn't want to be so famous that they became people's trust and reliance.”

Iben sighed: "This is the experience I shared with Jacob."

"……experience?"

"Yes, experience."

Iben's pupils were deep, and there was a bit of sadness that he couldn't let go of: "If you are too famous, then people will always come to you to solve problems. But we are not gods, not to mention that even gods are not omnipotent.

"However, people dare not blame the gods, but they dare to blame us. They will blame the failure on us for not doing our best - although this is also true, but when there are more commissions at hand, we will inevitably have a focus. And if someone If you come to request but refuse the other party, you will also be blamed by people. Not only that, you will even be criticized and criticized by your partners...

"Is that the fault of the person who came to request? Of course not. But it is not our fault, let alone the fault of the critics. Everyone gathers together with good wishes, but why can’t the good original intention achieve the same good thing? What’s the ending?”

Iben seemed to be telling something, or whispering something to himself.

"These are the lessons I learned from my hometown. I told these things to Jacob and told him clearly in advance - from the very beginning, we were not the saviors of everyone. We can never save everyone. , so don’t let people’s expectations too high from the beginning; we can’t accomplish everything, so don’t let people trust us too much.

"The Scaleless Hands, under the leadership of Jacob, have always maintained a low profile and existed as a secret society. Only those few who know about our existence can ask us to do something. And these tasks have their heavy costs. … It’s not that we’re trying to make money off of this, it’s just to limit people from putting all their hopes on us. In my experience, that just crushes us.

"Only those who are willing to pay any price for revenge can often get our response. In addition, we are usually the active party - taking the initiative to find what we should do. At that time, we were very free, Like the legendary Rogue."

The old ritual master sighed: "To be honest, those days are very happy now that I think about them..."

He looked at Aiwass and chuckled as if testing and self-deprecating: "But don't you think we are too ruthless? It is obviously an association formed to help others, but it does not accept commissions from others."

"...No, you are right."

Aiwass's fingers unconsciously tapped the armrests of his wheelchair and whispered: "No one is omnipotent... Therefore, not all requests can be granted. If you are dragged into a professional field that you are not familiar with because of sympathy, efficiency will be lost." The success rate will be much slower.”

Aiwass certainly doesn't blame them. He just felt as if he had been punched by words.

Isn't he himself such a person?

It's just that Aiwass is lucky and hasn't encountered the kind of bad things that would dampen his enthusiasm; or maybe he is strong enough and can always fulfill other people's requests.

——As long as it’s a favorable situation, we are all good brothers.

Aiwass is not ignorant of this truth. It's just that he, who has never failed before, became slightly swollen due to luck.

but……

Did it turn out that my grandfather was doing this kind of thing back then?

No wonder my father took the path of devotion and became a pastor...

"So, the manuscript left by Jacob...do you have any clues?"

In a rare encounter with someone who knew his grandfather, Aiwass pressed: "Some say he may have been killed over a manuscript he was about to publish."

"Manuscript? This..."

Old Iben showed a guilty look, which was the regret that he wanted to help but could not intervene: "I'm sorry. The Scaleless Hands was formed during the Hangman King era. Two years after I joined, the Hangman King passed away. The Queen had just ascended the throne when I was arrested. After that, I was taken away by Her Majesty.

"I also went back a year later... because I discovered that Her Majesty Sophia and the 'Hanging King' are not the same kind of people. Maybe we can make Avalon better and heal people without resisting the royal family. Unfortunately. I planned to form a team of ritual masters for His Majesty, and I would also take this opportunity to give the ritual masters of the Scaleless Hand a legal identity.

"But when I went back to find Jacob and the others, I found that all our previous strongholds had been abandoned. All contact methods had been cut off, and I didn't get any response when I wrote to them. I guess..."

When the old man said this, he seemed to be choked by memories. The depressed words turned into long, grainy sighs like bellows.

——Presumably, they thought I had betrayed.

Although Iben didn't say it out loud, Aiwass had already guessed what he was thinking.

Rationally speaking, this makes perfect sense. Don't naively leave the survival of other partners to Iben's conscience just because of feelings and trust.

But that's what it says. This is still quite hurtful.

...However, that should have been sixty years ago.

The Scaleless Hand gradually disappeared and was replaced by the Noble Red, almost fifty years ago. In other words, Iben really doesn’t seem to know what will happen ten years later...

It's a pity that the clue has been cut off again.

Aiwass had some regrets.

But he took a chance and continued: "My parents seemed to have been exterminated because of that manuscript. According to my investigation, they should have been killed by the Iron Hook Demon."

"...Iron Hook Demon?"

Iben frowned: "There should be professional curse masters, right? Could it be..."

"No. Probably not from Scaleless Hands."

Aiwass explained: "The name of the curser is Aziz. Aziz bin Abdul. What do you have a clue?"

Hearing this name, Iben's expression suddenly changed.

Like an old lion suddenly opening its eyes and standing up unsteadily. It is also like a wild wolf that is so weak that it is about to die and opens its eyes under the moon. The desolate and decisive killing intent makes people feel chilled.

"--Where is he?"

"...He left long ago. It is said that he passed through the desert and went to a country in the east...maybe Parthia, or maybe Horus."

Aiwass answered the question first, then paused and asked, "Do you know him?"

This was an unexpected development.

He originally thought he could ask Iben about his grandfather...but he didn't expect that Iben knew very little about his grandfather, but he actually knew the curse master who cursed Alexander and his wife.

"A fat black guy, huh?"

Iben asked rhetorically.

"Yes. His face is brown and somewhat hunched."

Aiwass nodded in response, repeating the appearance of the man he saw from the advancement ceremony: "He was wearing huge gemstone rings on all ten fingers... More than ten years ago, he was a man who looked about A middle-aged man in his fifties. He should be sixty or seventy now."

"……it's him."

Iben was silent for a long time and then said softly: "I was betrayed by him when I was in Anxi.

"He is my junior brother and my nephew. At the same time, he is also a slave who was rescued by me after the city was destroyed.

"He betrayed us, who were wanted, and used our information in exchange for the identity of free people, a big house, eight female slaves, and became a curse master serving the good Lord...

"...He's coming to Avalon too."

Around two o'clock Chapter 2 Meow~