After a long silence, it was Loren who spoke first:

"Why are you wearing these clothes again? Didn't I buy you normal pajamas?"

"I..."

Luna stammered, unable to get a single word out.

"Whatever, if you like it, that's fine."

Loren yawned, not paying too much attention to Luna, and simply lay down beside her, intending to sleep.

But as soon as Loren lay down, he heard rustling sounds. Luna quietly moved to a position behind him.

Loren initially thought Luna just wanted a hug, but then she grabbed his pants, only to instantly let go the moment he turned his head.

"I... I want to..."

Luna turned over, knelt down, then lowered her upper body, presenting herself in a posture that seemed to say 'I'm yours for the taking'. She couldn't utter another word beyond that.

"What are you trying to do..."

"I had Anna tutor me... I want to... Anyway, I beg you..."

By this point, Luna's entire body was trembling with tension.

"Anna again..."

Loren muttered under his breath. But since things had already progressed this far, he couldn't just disregard the young girl's feelings. Besides, Luna had just turned eighteen not long ago.

When she felt Loren's touch, Luna almost fainted. She bit her lower lip, forcing herself to stay conscious.

...

"Luna actually put it into practice so quickly, earlier than I expected."

In the morning, when Mirrorheart came to clean Loren's bedroom, she looked at the mess on the floor and the unconscious Luna, and made a comment.

"So you had a hand in this too, didn't you..."

Loren was used to it by now. Whenever something like this happened, it was definitely Mirrorheart's instigation. After all, given the witches' personalities, they would never come into contact with such things in their lifetimes.

"Don't you like it?"

Mirrorheart picked up the used tissues from the floor, sniffed them, and then put them away.

"That's not the point. Can you please throw that stuff away? If you keep this up, I won't let you clean the room anymore."

"Oh."

Hearing Loren's words, Mirrorheart reluctantly threw the tissues into the trash bin.

Luna wouldn't be able to attend school today, but it didn't really matter whether she went or not. The teacher wouldn't dare call her name anyway.

Loren didn't wake Luna up and went downstairs to eat by himself. He'd let her rest properly for now.

"Movila, have you found anything?"

"No, there's nothing abnormal in the Royal Capital at all."

Movila shook her head. She had been monitoring the Royal Capital and the surrounding cities.

"Based on that person's frequency of attacks, something should have happened in the Gedlan Kingdom last night too, right? Could he really be wary of me?"

Not long after the meal, Koranda knocked on Loren's door, bringing him the latest news:

"Master Mentor, another city was attacked last night."

The Gedlan Kingdom had many of Movila's informants. Since Movila hadn't seen anything, it meant the attacked city wasn't within the Gedlan Kingdom.

"Where? Do you have a map? Let me see."

Loren had only mentioned it casually; he didn't expect Koranda to actually have brought a map.

"Right here."

Koranda marked the attacked location on the map. Loren still remembered the other places that had been attacked. Before reaching the Gedlan Kingdom, the path suddenly turned, not entering Gedlan territory at all.

"Could it really be because the Nofica Theocracy has more people, making sacrifices more efficient? Perhaps he never intended to come to the Gedlan Kingdom at all, and the route was just to mislead us...

"Did you increase the defenses in the surrounding cities after the incidents?"

"Of course we did. Evacuating civilians at such a time isn't realistic, so we strengthened the management of entries and exits. Any unfamiliar faces are investigated. We also dispatched more clergy members there...

"But it was still useless. The disaster still occurred. Even the Bountiful Church lost dozens of Scarecrows..."

The death of dozens of Divine Envoys is a massive blow to any church. It's only because the Bountiful Church has so many members that they can withstand such losses.

"If there's really a method to conceal oneself, normal investigative methods won't find it."

Putting himself in the other's shoes, Loren felt that if he were the one conducting this sacrificial ritual, no one would be able to catch him.

"And this ritual is very likely controlled remotely. Quickly investigate who has been to these places before.

"Setting up a ritual with such a large scope definitely wouldn't be a small operation. Following this line of thinking, we're bound to find some clues."

"I am enlightened..."

Koranda looked devout, carefully remembering Loren's words.

"Also, I've researched a method to block the sacrificial ritual. It's not perfect yet. To improve it further, we'd need to fully understand the specific principles of the sacrifice, but it should be usable as is."

Loren handed a note he had written yesterday to Koranda. It contained some runes.

"Find some objects imbued with the power of the God of Bountiful Harvest, inscribe these runes on them, and then scatter these objects in various places.

"If the perpetrator wants to sacrifice an entire city, he will inevitably sacrifice these objects along with it. At that point, the authority of the God of Greed will clash with the authority of the God of Bountiful Harvest. This is the God of Bountiful Harvest's territory. It might not completely block the ritual, but it can certainly interfere with it, giving us a chance to react."

At this moment, Koranda's eyes widened in shock. She was astonished by Loren's efficiency. In just one night, he had developed a method to counter the God of Greed's sacrificial ritual.

"With your presence, the Bountiful Church is sure to become the strongest church..."

After a long silence, all that remained in Koranda's mouth was praise for Loren.

"Enough, less flattery. Did you interrogate the Greed Worshippers in the Royal Capital?"

Mentioning this, Koranda put on an expression of righteous indignation:

"After a night of investigation, I found that the number of Greed Worshippers in the Royal Capital far exceeds my imagination. There are even quite a few nobles among them...

"We captured many and killed many. Unfortunately, we didn't extract any useful information. They were indeed secretly making sacrifices to the God of Greed, but they were unaware of the gray fog that devours cities.

"Given their profit-seeking nature, I don't think they could be so stubborn as to prefer death over talking. The only possibility is that they genuinely don't know..."

Koranda clenched her fist. Yesterday, Movila also saw her directly punching a Greed Worshipper to death, so Loren's trust in her had increased somewhat.

"That's normal too. Greed Worshippers are also hostile towards each other. They compete and fight to get more from the God of Greed, even going so far as to kill other Greed Worshippers. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Moreover, there are ranks among Greed Worshippers. Those who can offer more sacrifices are clearly more likely to gain the God of Greed's favor."

Koranda didn't reply further. She lowered her head, looking thoughtful.