Angel on earth

Two years later on Christmas, 16-year-old Aaron received a gift from his parents after Harry and Dinah's wedding.

It was a large emerald brooch with a mithril backing, and Catherine fastened it to his collar with her own hands.His father told him that it was worn by his mother at the wedding; his mother told him that it was a talisman they gave him as a birthday present with Grandma Isabella, the twelve of Lieyang City The saints have offered their blessings for it.

In the middle of the night, Aaron watched it fascinatedly by the light of the candle for a long time, got out of bed, changed his clothes, and slipped out of the palace.

It's raining in Oath City.

Different from the cold and severe wind and rain in the Emerald City, the night rain in the Oath City mixed with snow particles poured down like waves resolutely overturning a warship, but it was full of a certain kind of cold warmth.The drainage system was renovated once more than 100 years ago, and there is no risk of being defeated for the time being, and it is hard to say for the homeless.

Carrying a large package, Aaron went into the stable and untied his father's beloved horse "Pliers".He was a little drunk because he had been drinking and dancing with Laura Hardy and Lily and Patricia and a lot of ladies.Still, he managed to mount the horse and ride it into the winter rains of the City of the Oath.

In the continuous palace, the wedding carnival is still going on.The soldiers were also immersed in the joy of the festival, and they took turns going to the kitchen to beg for supper.No one noticed that the second young master of Marquess Edwards was missing, only the guard at the city gate recognized the horse and let Master Aaron go.

Half a month ago, Aaron noticed the small church when he entered the city.Dinah's brother Charlie came out of the city to meet the Marquis's family, and saw Harry's nervousness, so he introduced them to a lot of customs, but perhaps only Aaron was listening.

According to Prince Charles, the "West Garden Church" in the suburbs is the embodiment of many virtues such as diligence, piety, and kindness of the Norren people.It was supposed to be renovated 20 years ago, but the related funds have not been paid, either to subsidize the increasing number of unemployed workers, or to build new workhouses and orphanages.Over time, this church has become a monument to the good deeds of the residents of the Covenant City, and it has always stood here.

Hearing this, Prince Charles' guards rushed to drive away the lazy and ungrateful people hiding inside who were desecrating the holy place.

At this time, Aaron still heard the sound of music coming from the church through the distant and heavy rain.The church itself looked like it was going to collapse, and the organ had probably had a lot of metal parts stolen, so the tunes didn't sound as complex and powerful as in other churches.

Aaron already regretted it a bit. After all, it was cold and painful from the rain, and he had been running for so long.But when he heard the vague "God gives you happiness", he laughed to himself, and rushed into the church after a short distance.

The door of the chapel fell to the ground with a clatter. He was startled, and while apologizing, he helped the door up and stuffed it back into the door frame.Although there is still some air leakage, at least the brazier in the middle is stable.

Aaron held up two sacks amidst the cheerful music, and shouted drunkenly:

"Merry Christmas!"

The tramps also happily raised their cups and plates of bland broth, wishing him a happy holiday.

"Happy wedding, Princess Dinah and Mr Harry!"

Women who are dealing with children also wish them well.

Aaron added, "Today is my birthday."

A child wearing a patchwork garland with more dead grass than wildflowers stood up, clutching a half-eaten leaf, and said happily, "Today is also my birthday. Happy birthday!"

Aaron opened his pocket and announced happily, "I'm here for you, then. I've brought cake and a roast chicken!"

"Oh oh oh!"

People cheered and praised the boy "Little Jack" just now, and then gathered around in an unusually orderly manner, waiting in line for distribution.Aaron handed the bag to Jack, and someone asked him if he had any wine, and he said that he had brought it, but he drank it all on the way.Everyone laughed, Jack divided the cake for himself, reservedly tore a chicken leg, took a piece of cake, ran to kiss Aaron on the cheek, then left the rest of the food, and ran to the brazier to share the royal palace with his mother. It's dinner.

After the song was over, the young priest sat on the piano bench for a while, then stood up, walked to the edge of the round platform, and bowed his head to greet him:

"Happy birthday, Aaron."

Aaron was looking up at him.

The boy suddenly forgot what he wanted to say, let alone why he came here.He stared blankly at Mikhail. The latter was standing on the pitch-black round platform with damaged railings. The rain was still leaking from the top of his head, but his short, extremely light golden hair seemed to be exuding a soft radiance. After a while, Ya Only then did Len realize that it was the light reflected in Mikhail's blue-purple eyes.

Mikhail came to the City of Oath to accept the canonization of the queen and bishop, just a few days ago.According to the agreement between the church and Noren, the canonization of some ranks below the cardinal requires the approval of the royal family.Mikhail has quietly mastered the theocracy of the Emerald City. Although it is a bit imperial, he still has to come to the City of Oath to walk through the procedures; when the Marquis family came, they brought the blind father with them.

At this time, the mirror was not very clear, but Aaron somehow felt that Mikhail looked a little younger than himself.

In the middle of this year, Aaron also ran to Chuxinger Church to find him on such a rainy night, and was shivering from the cold.Aaron went to ask for blessings, because it was his coming-of-age ceremony the next morning.According to the rules of the family, he is qualified to practice medicine independently after the ceremony is held, because all of them cut off people for the first time on this day.Of course, other old doctors will watch. In the past, there were children who were not interested in medicine at all. The head of the family would draw a line for him and guide him to make a cut. The rest is the work of the veterans.

Most of the other children hold their ceremonies around their 15th birthdays, but Aaron’s is a bit late because his birthday coincides with Christmas, and the road to the Emerald City is very difficult to walk in winter. A patient at this level is estimated to be dead on the way.What's more, in order to let the children show the best attitude and skills, Emerald City chose some nobles.When Harry was 15 years old, even under the guidance of Roberto, Catherine, Alfred and Harry's little uncle who rushed back from the city of oath, he cut the eldest son of the Duke of Stirling and insisted on completing all the work. His legs and feet were weak, and he was helped out by Aaron and vomited.Although it was just a simple cecum resection, Roberto did not inform anyone in the Sterling family in advance. If Isabella and Maria hadn't helped mediate, the two families might have started a war.Even so, the Duke of Stirling sent a pennant with the Edwards family arms after his son recovered, emblazoned with "Church Watchdog".

Aaron was even more nervous than Harry, because he was a little dizzy, and his previous study focused on pharmaceuticals.It's okay to ask him to clean and mend the wounds of rabbits and puppies, but it's hard to cut people with his hands.What's more, when he was running around in the castle those few days, he learned from some uncles who were not strict that his patient was the younger brother of the Marquis of Riven, and the result of Catherine's test was that there was a tumor in her stomach.Although it is obviously not his turn to make it to the end, nervousness is inevitable.He slept in the church for the first night, only to realize that Mikhail had been sitting on the sidelines reciting blessings and prayers all night when he woke up, and hurried back to the Emerald City on horseback in the early morning, which seemed to be a flight.

His coming-of-age ceremony went unexpectedly smoothly, but after that, like some kind of annoying exchange of equal value, troubles followed.

Aaron shook his head, took the towel handed by someone else and wiped it off, smelling a greasy sour smell on it.

Mikhail turned away without waiting for a while, and went down the stairs slowly and carefully.He had just emerged, and with a burst of lightning and thunder, the West Garden Church trembled slightly, and a pile of stones fell down from the platform he had just stood on.

After a while of screaming, someone said: "You are very lucky, may the sun god bless you, Father Mikhail!"

"Thank you."

Mikhail trotted over clumsily: "Is anyone injured?"

"No."

"My heart is hurt. If you are willing to sleep with me, it will be fine." An old prostitute said with a smile.

"Lola, what are you talking about!"

"The priest will definitely not want to, can I?"

Amid the chaotic laughter, Little Jack ran to deliver cakes to Mikhail and Aaron on behalf of the others.Aaron grabbed Mikhail's waist, took a plate, and pointed his little finger at the woman who spoke just now:

"There is another plate for Miss Laura, Jack, this is the money I bought Mikhail."

"It's too cheap!" Laura bargained with him, "At least give me another half."

Amidst the roar of laughter, Aaron blushed and was defeated.Laura stood up triumphantly with her hips on her hips, kissed Little Jack hard on the face, took the broken plate that didn't know whose name it belonged to, and took a bite of the sweet and greasy porcelain queen cake sandwiched with cherry jam and cream.

Mikhail and Aaron took a seat on the side and shared a plate of layered sponge cake, still smeared with roast chicken grease.

Mikhail's side was always dry and warm, but Aaron didn't dare to get too close, looking down at the water droplets on his hair.After a while, he found himself staring at Mikhail's legs, which had no place to stretch out under his black robe, and neatly huddled together, and hastily brought up the topic:

"...I want to go to church."

It took Mikhail a long time to ask: "Why didn't you find Isabella?"

"She definitely won't agree." Aaron calmed down, "I want to enter a monastery to become a monk, the kind that can't get married in the future, what is that word...Of course, I don't want to stay in the monastery, that's so boring .”

"Isabella would very much like you to marry Miss Hardy."

Aaron curled his lips: "That's why I came to you."

Mikhail tilted his head.Aaron squeezed close to him and said casually:

"Laura likes Fred and doesn't like me. I like Laura quite a bit, but that's all. There's no need for marriage."

Fred Hunter was Aaron's cousin. He had come to the Emerald City a few times to play and had a few worship services. Mikhail knew him.But he was still a little puzzled: "Is she your fiancee? Sorry, I don't know."

"Ah, that's not true, it's just... a lot of people think so. Tristan did a good job." Aaron scratched his head, "She's 20 years old. I like her... but it's not—never Frey She likes it so much. If I let him hesitate, she will miss Fred. Now you understand, Mikhail. I come to be a monk, it will be different, and it will be a good thing for the Church, why? Well, Mikhail, it is your duty to do good."

Mikhail said firmly: "You are not just for this."

Aaron was silent.

After a while, he stood up and said briskly: "Yes. So, you will help me, won't you, Mikhail?"

"Is it true what happened between her and Mr. Hunter?"

"Yes what's the matter?"

"I don't know."

"Don't understand what?"

"I don't understand... why would anyone not choose you?"

Aaron froze.Mikhail frowned and looked at the air in front of him, obviously not comforting him, but seriously distressed.

"That's not what you should say," Aaron said softly, "Forget it, Misha."

"Should I also forget what you said?"

"What did I say?... I'm drunk, if..."

After a moment of silence, Mikhail nodded and stood up: "The rain stopped. I'll take you back."

"No need." Aaron said quickly, stuffing the things he had been clutching into his pocket even faster, "I can find it myself!"

As when he came, Aaron slipped back to the palace on his horse, and was lucky enough to come out of the stable without being found.But he was a little depressed for some reason. He went to the kitchen to drink and laugh, but was denounced by the maid, dragged to the bath by Cedric and Lily, and vomited all over the floor.

The next day, Aaron miraculously did not have a fever. He even put on new clothes and went out to participate in activities with Harry and the princess family.Catherine didn't ask him where he put the brooch buckle, but when the group went to condolences to the people in the slums, Aaron spotted Mikhail in the alley with sharp eyes, squeezed through layers of guards, and ran over , looking up at him.

Mikhail didn't say anything, he fastened the emerald on his scarf roughly, gave him a short hug, turned around, climbed over the fence, and ran away.

Another month later, the Edwards family set off to return to the Emerald City, and the newly promoted regional bishop Mikhail Kupala was among them.Harry and Dinah will not go there until the Queen's birthday is over in the middle of the year, and there are still many things to prepare.