After a whole morning of practice, Anatole had probably mastered the sword in his hand, tight but soft, flexible but sturdy. A sword is like a pen, it takes a lot of writing to have beautiful letters, a lot of forging to have a sharp blade. The curved design of the blade makes the slashes powerful, but to maintain those slashes is not easy, it requires a hand with metacarpals like a magician, able to adjust the thrusts but also need the iron will of a warrior to not let it shake. Those who can control their own sword are the truly strong.

"You should rest a bit, I will go get you some water." [Nicholas]

The priest was the same as always, that same diligent appearance, running back and forth to take care of the children. These days, father has not been able to sleep, at night he only dreams about that "nightmare", at that time he only knows how to pray to God "give me faith to be able to bring her back".

That night, like every other night, my father still recited the prayers, and when he finished, he still sat in front of the statue of God, he still prayed for her safety, sometimes he could not hold back his tears and burst out. Father had been trying not to cry for a long time, it was not that he did not want to cry, he just wanted to be stronger to be able to protect the children he always loved with all his heart.

"Do you miss her so much, Father?" [Anatole]

He quietly walked into the chapel, the quiet night air only had the dim light of the burning lamps that had not been turned off.

"Can't sleep yet?" [Nicholas]

"Maybe so, Father, but I see that you seem to be too worried lately. It will not be good for your health in the long run." [Anatole]

Father's voice was more tired than usual, as it had been lately. There were so many feelings in his voice that he couldn't express, it was like a stab in the gut.

"I understand your good intentions, but what can I do, I'm so worried about her...what if they..." [Nicholas]

"They won't harm her anytime soon!" [Anatole]

Even though it was just a simple word, it somehow saved a broken heart. He gave the benevolent father a little more hope, that there was still time, that there was still something to save...

Father suddenly looked at him, his eyes shining with a faint hope.

"Why do you think so?" [Nicholas]

"If they wanted to kill her, they would have done it right away, but this clearly has the intention of kidnapping her for a long-term purpose... that is, they won't harm her for about a week after bringing her back, and why do I think so? Here." [Anatole]

He handed Father a leaflet from the Church of Enlightenment.

"It says there will be a big gathering this Sunday... if I'm not mistaken, it's in 2 days, maybe they'll sacrifice her? It's clearly written on the location. It's just my guess that they'll sacrifice her, but I'm familiar with their action, they do have gatherings and sacrifice an Arcanist or someone they consider a threat. Next Sunday, we'll try to find her and rescue her..." [Anatole]

At this point, Father couldn't hold back anymore, he grabbed Anatole's hand, as if he was about to burst into tears like a 3-year-old child who had been given candy. As if he wanted to thank him so much, but he seemed to be in a hurry, and before he could think much, he asked directly.

"Then why don't we go now?!" [Nicholas]

"Calm down, Father, I know that she is definitely hidden somewhere that is very difficult to find, and will only appear when the time comes for the sacrifice...so in these two precious days, we must plan carefully to save her..." [Anatole]

Father took a deep breath to calm himself down, and his calm voice from that day also returned. Because Father himself understood that he needed to calm down.

"Alright, thank you, so do you know exactly when the gathering will be held?" [Nicholas]

When Anatole saw that Father had calmed down, he spoke directly.

"I haven't, they always agree on a specific time, either during the day or a few hours, usually only on that day do they know when they will organize their action. That's why it's quite difficult for the Foundation to track down these secret gatherings, especially when it's a sacrifice that's extremely important to them. I'm not too sure about this either..." [Anatole]

"So you mean that during those two days you'll need to know the exact location and time they'll organize it, right?"

"Yes, we'll survey and evaluate everything before we act, avoiding causing as much alarm as possible." [Anatole]

Father smiled, the rarest smile, that was when he knew there was still hope, that he could still bring his daughter back.

"Okay, I believe you." [Nicholas]

"And how did you get this flyer?" [Nicholas]

"I went to the black market and picked it up, I don't usually stay here when I'm bored, do I? I still go to some secluded places, I like to walk around." [Anatole]

"That's right, no one can stop you from doing anything..." [Nicholas]

Anatole smiled wryly, then turned to ask his father.

"But I wonder how you know so much? I thought you were just hanging around the church? Did you learn a lot before?" [Anatole]

The priest was not surprised by his question, he replied quietly.

"No, I dropped out of school at 16 and have been on this path for a long time, I only know how to read and write or know the basics..." [Nicholas]

"But who was taught how to hold a sword..." [Anatole]

"Yeah, obviously no one taught me that, before that I only accidentally learned a little from the History books I read, they were quite interesting, and I used to pick up newspapers that fell on the street to read." [Nicholas]

"But where did you get the books that you read? In a place like this, where would you find a bookstore or a library?" [Anatole]

"Oh right, I forgot to show you, there is a fairly large basement under this church, usually just a storage room, not worth worrying about. But there is a whole warehouse full of books down there as if someone had given us that treasure of knowledge, I don't have much time to clean them up so they are probably covered in cobwebs. Do you want to take a look?" [Nicholas]

"Okay, let's go?" [Anatole]

The priest led him to the back of the chapel, behind which was a wooden vault door painted red, looking worn and rough as if it had been eroded by time. The door slowly opened and the dim light of the oil lamp appeared. Two figures bent down and gradually walked deeper into the darkness.

Inside was indeed a dusty warehouse filled with all sorts of junk, the dust still clearly visible in the air with the characteristic rusty smell of scrap metal that could never be restored. But there was the smell of old paper from books, books that were probably still quite new, not at all in harmony with the shelves that were still shaking.

He walked through each bookshelf and examined the books, including cooking, history, geography... or even a guidebook for Arcanists. It seemed that this church hidden deep inside was not as simple as its dilapidated exterior.

"Strange, there are all kinds of books here and there are more than I thought, this makes me a bit suspicious..." [Anatole]

"What are you wondering about?" [Nicholas]

"Doesn't it seem strange to you, Father? Normally, the book vaults of churches would be filled with books on rituals, religion, or the Bible... but there are absolutely none, and there are even books on other scientific topics." [Anatole]

"I was wondering the same thing as you, I thought that maybe this vault belonged to someone who owned it before. But maybe that person forgot to clean this place? After all, I'm not the first person to be in this church, and I should probably thank that person for leaving me books to read." [Nicholas]

"Yes, a very generous person..." [Anatole]

He walked around and kept tapping on the wall. This caught Father Nicholas's attention.

"It's nothing, Father..." [Anatole]

Suddenly, he revealed a surprised expression as if he had found something.

"...it's just a habit." [Anatole]

"Did you find anything?" [Nicholas]

"I don't think you'll believe it, there might be a hidden room behind this wall." [Anatole]

Father Nicholas was also somewhat surprised.

"Really? Then how do you think we'll get there?" [Nicholas]

He thought for a moment.

"First of all, there's nothing suspicious around here, so does that mean this is a sealed room with no exit? We have to break this wall..." [Anatole]

"Yes, but do it gently, I hope the children are still sleeping soundly." [Nicholas]

He went to get a sledgehammer and knocked down a large section of the cellar wall...sure enough, what appeared before the two of them was something like a small cave, with no exit or entrance, it seemed like they had accidentally discovered a cave underneath the church?

Anatole quickly climbed inside to investigate while Nicholas waited outside the cave entrance.

Indeed, there was nothing special inside the cave, except for a rather heavy vertical stone lying in the middle of the cave as if it were a joke of nature.

However, Nicholas's sword suddenly emitted a bit of golden light as if it reacted to what was inside the cave, as if there was something hidden in this small cave below the church. It seemed that there was nothing more to learn, Anatole just took a stone from the cave, put it in his pocket and walked out.

Sure enough, when he went outside, the sword no longer emitted any golden light.

"There's nothing inside?" [Nicholas]

"It's nothing, just a normal cave, who would have thought that there would be a cave under this church..." [Anatole]

"Well... then there's nothing to worry about, sleep well." [Nicholas]

"You too." [Anatole]

But they had accidentally found the answer to a question that would never be known...