Volume 4, The Lost Files of the Ancient Castle 6: Heroes, Believing and Being Believed (1/2)

Volume 4, The Lost Files of the Ancient Castle Chapter 6: Heroes, Believing and Being Believed

Translator: Doza (proofread by Arcedemius & Erro; C/E edited by lucathia)

“Idiot Ah Ye, what’s wrong with that Ezart? What kind of person says that they have stuff to do and leaves halfway through saving the world? There really aren’t any normal people around you!” I shouted angrily at An Xiang Ye. However, after I’d shouted that, he and Briar both looked at me with a strange expression.

What? Why are you looking at me like that?

Briar reminded me, “Aren-gē, you’re also one of the people close to Ah Ye-gē!”

“That’s right, you’re even my neighbor!” An Xiang Ye said matter-of-factly. “Neither Briar nor Ezart live nearby. If we consider distance, Aren, you’re even more abnormal than Ezart and Briar!”

…

The young master and I looked up at the building in front of us. The young master’s eyes widened, and I was even more at a loss for a response. I had never expected that I would actually be brought to a place like this… It was a place that I should never visit my entire life.

The young master asked in bewilderment, “Yue Gang-gē, why are we here?”

“To eat, of course!” Yue Gang said as if it were obvious. “Ah, I know this isn’t a restaurant, but trust me! There’s food, and it’ll definitely be delicious!”

It is not a matter of trust, but, but… I looked at the cross hung on the door with a growing feeling of helplessness in my heart. Even if I am not actually afraid of the cross and there is probably not a Sin Elimination team stationed in Sunset City… No matter the circumstances, a vampire cannot just openly walk into a cathedral, can he?

“Gē, the sun has risen already. Aren’t you feeling hot?” the young master suddenly asked me. “Take off your cape. I’ll hold it for you!”

I blinked and only then remembered that I was wearing the full set “standard vampire” outfit. I hurriedly removed my cape but held on to it myself instead of passing it to the young master.

After Yue Gang knocked on the door, he turned around and patted me heavily on the shoulder. He tried to reassure me, “Relax! No one will mistake you for a vampire! The priest here is an atheist.”

A priest who is an atheist?

That statement sounded completely illogical. Both the young master and I gave Yue Gang a doubtful look.

Yue Gang shrugged and said, “It can’t be helped. My old man simply doesn’t acknowledge that there are intelligent life forms aside from humans in the world, so naturally he doesn’t believe that there are gods, either! Even previously when there was footage of werewolves on TV, he said that since it’s called a werewolf—‘wer,’ as in ‘man’—it’s just one of the many races of humans. Anyway, still human.”

“Your old man?”

At that moment, the small door of the cathedral swung open. Unsurprisingly, the person who had come to open the door was a clergyman. Yue Gang used his thumb to point at the man and affirmed, “My old man.”

I stared with large eyes. The clergyman, who appeared about fifty years old, smiled as he looked at us. He seemed very kind. He is Yue Gang’s father? Yue Gang actually grew up in a cathedral?

The young master exclaimed, “Your papa is a priest?!”

“Ah Ye, he would be called a pastor,” I advised the young master.

“But I am a priest. You can call me Father Yue,” the clergyman chuckled as he corrected me.

I fell silent for a while, then said politely, “However, Yue Gang said that you are his father. If I remember correctly, celibacy is a requirement for priests.”

“Correct. That’s why I didn’t get married!” Father Yue’s smile brightened even further. Both his appearance and smile were very similar to Yue Gang’s. It was almost as if he were an older and neater version of Yue Gang. It left one with no doubts that they were indeed father and son.

A married priest versus a priest who did not get married but had kids. Is the latter less serious? Being a vampire, I had not researched too deeply into the church.

Yue Gang casually rested his hand on Father Yue’s shoulder and asked, “Old man, I called and told you I was bringing some friends over for breakfast. Is it ready?”

“Of course, and like you requested, it’s a very lavish breakfast!”

The moment he heard the word “breakfast,” the young master’s shoulders immediately sagged, and he cried out pitifully, “I’m really starving!”

“Oh!” Seeing this, Father Yue immediately warmly welcomed us in, “Then, hurry and come in! Don’t let this child continue to starve.”

We walked through the door. It was not the main entrance of the cathedral, but a side door. So after walking in, we were not at the sanctuary, but in a long corridor. On either side, there were various religious items on display. A cross hung on the wall, and there were various editions of the Bible lined up on a bookshelf; but the item that made my heart beat faster was a rifle placed in a transparent glass case.

From the information that my father had gathered, I remembered reading that that kind of silver-white rifle with the cross motif was used from the 1930s to the 1980s. It was a gun that the Sin Elimination teams used specifically to hunt vampires. The bullets inside were always manufactured from silver, as was the bayonet attached to the rifle.

How many vampires has this gun killed? I felt somewhat uncomfortable.

“That is part of my collection,” Father Yue’s voice suddenly rang out right in my ear. I was quite alarmed, and turned around to look at him. He smiled and said, “Isn’t it pretty? Those yellowish areas on it are all made of silver!”

“It is very beautiful.” I spoke the truth. If I assessed it as an art piece, I would have to say that the silver-white gun was stunning. Even though it was inevitable that tarnish would form on the silver parts, considering the age of the gun, it was truly quite well preserved.

“It’s really ironic.” Father Yue sighed and said, “We made such a beautiful object, but it’s designed to produce an ugly massacre.”

“Guns can kill people, but they can also save people.” I smiled in response. Even though I was well aware that they were pretentious, the words were also something that most people could accept. The odds of a gun killing someone truly were much greater than of it saving them.

“A person holding a knife can only kill one person at a time, and he can protect that one person behind him; a person holding a gun can kill several people at a time, and he is still only protecting that one person behind him; a person in control of the launch button for a missile can kill several thousand at a time, but he too actually only wants to protect that one person behind him… So who is the person behind your back?”

I was stunned for a moment and turned to look at Father Yue. He smiled at me. Then, as if he had never said a thing, he gestured toward the end of the long corridor, saying, “Come and eat breakfast. Yue Gang has already taken your little brother to the dining room.”

Having said that, he walked off by himself toward the doorway on the other end of the corridor. The door was not fully closed, and I could see the young master’s and Yue Gang’s figures. They were already seated in front of the dining table and eating ravenously.

Behind me… As I pondered over it, I walked behind the young master and stood to his left. That was the place a butler should stand. Then, I noticed Yue Gang giving me a puzzled look. I quickly pretended I had only needed to pull a chair out, and sat down.

The moment I had done so, Father Yue passed me a plate filled with scrambled eggs and bacon. That was a lot more down-to-earth than thinking over what sort of person was behind me. I had to consume an entire plate of things that I simply did not want to eat… No, he also took a few round buns and placed them on my plate, and then filled a bowl with oatmeal, topped up my glass with fruit juice, and piled some sausages on my plate.

Father Yue said warmly, “I heard that you two had to search for my idiot child the whole night, and never got a chance to eat! So eat more. Please don’t be courteous!”

“… Thank you.”

If I had realized earlier, I would have done all that I could to reject Yue Gang’s invitation. Unfortunately, a thousand gold cannot buy foresight. I could only pick up my knife and fork and get rid of the food in front of me mouthful by mouthful, although from time to time, the amount would actually increase…

When I had finished about half the plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in addition to the food that had been repeatedly added on, I stood up and said, “My apologies. I would like to visit the restroom.”

Father Yue smiled and said, “Go through this door, walk to the end, and then turn left.”

“Thank you.”

The moment I entered the restroom, I closed the door and squatted beside the toilet, throwing up. After vomiting for a while, I felt much better.

Even though I could consume food other than fresh blood, being a vampire, I was still unable to eat a great quantity. That was because a vampire’s stomach and intestines were simply unable to digest such food. Father had made full inquiries about things of that nature shortly after I was born, so I knew I could not eat great quantities of human food. As a result, I had never tried to eat so much before.

So it turned out that if I ate too much, I would throw it all back up. It was apparent that I had better use an excuse such as being too full, and stop eating.

I carefully tidied up my appearance and returned to the dining room. However, everyone else had already finished. It seemed that I had truly been away for too long. The young master was listening attentively to Father Yue, and Yue Gang was on the phone.

As I walked past Yue Gang, he rolled his eyes at me and said crossly, “Did you fall in? We left your plate there for you. If you’re still hungry, go to the kitchen and get more food yourself.”

“I cannot eat any more.” I forced a smile as I replied.

He merely grunted in response and resumed his phone call.

I returned to my seat. At the moment, Father Yue was giving a detailed explanation to the young master.

“The most important thing is not whether God exists, but what you believe in. This ‘what’ is then your god—your hope, because you can believe that miracles are possible, and so you will be able to stand strong and not crumble.”

The young master asked uncertainly, “But, what should I believe in? God? But if God doesn’t exist, then how can I believe in him?”

“Old man!” Yue Gang suddenly shouted at us. “I have to go back to the station. That bastard Xie Wei actually lied to me. Last night, he told me that he would conduct a police raid on the bar N/H, but he never showed up. He nearly got me killed by those guys! And in the end, he actually ran off to look for trouble with Dragon Peace… Tsk! Charles, stay here with your little bro and enjoy yourself. In any case, my old man is sick of doing nothing, and he especially loves talking to people about atheism.”

Father Yue glared at him. “I’ve told you many times before, I’m not an atheist, you little brat!”

Yue Gang grabbed his bag of guns and jacket lying off to one side and patted my shoulder, saying, “Then I’ll be leaving! If I have time, I’ll invite you for a meal again!”

I nodded. “All right.”

After Yue Gang left, Father Yue continued to talk with the young master. “Fine, then let me ask you, when you are in despair, who or what will you pray to for a miracle?”

The young master thought for a while, then said, “I don’t pray.”

“You really are a special young man.” Father Yue laughed as he said, “In Sunset City, whenever I ask people this question, usually the answers that come out are all the heroes’ names. You don’t believe that a hero will come to save you?”

The young master looked at Father Yue, but did not give him an answer.

Upon hearing Father Yue’s words, I had a spark of understanding. He truly was not an atheist. He just did not insist that a god should definitely be called “God.” Humans had many different religions, and different religions prayed to different idols. But no matter whether the idol that one prayed to was called a god, or a demon, or even a hero, all humans prayed for the same thing—a miracle.

Perhaps, a hero truly is a god. The religion of the new age.

I do not know if gods and demons despair, but what I do know is, heroes are human beings, and there are times when humans will despair. When a hero is in distress, who should he pray to? I was rather expectant of the young master’s answer, but at the same time, I also felt that the answer might again be… a lonely perseverance.

The young master said with utmost seriousness, “I will not cry for help. I have already relinquished the privilege to cry for help. I can only stand up by myself.”

As expected, I was not wrong.

Father Yue chuckled and asked, “So, this is a hero’s answer?”

I froze, and slowly registered what he had said. This priest actually knows that the young master is a hero?

The young master’s expression was still very calm. He asked quietly, “How did you find out? Does Yue Gang also know?”

“I was the one who told Father Yue.”

I looked toward the source of the voice. A slim woman, whose face was very familiar, stood by the door.