Lumian just felt distressed out of habit and did not stop his sister.
When Ava, Raymond and the others turned around and walked towards the nearby buildings, he deliberately stayed at the end and whispered to Aurore:
"If Novel Weekly calls back, come and call me."
"Don't worry, I won't be careless about things like this." Aurore gave Lumian a look that said "Don't worry about me."
With festivity and joy, the blessing parade was full of songs and kept knocking on the doors of the villagers in Koldu Village.
Finally, they arrived at the executive officer's residence.
This was converted from a castle during the Solon royal period. It is located on a hill on the edge of the village of Cordu. It is dark in color and has two towering towers.
The outer wall surrounding the building had long been demolished, and Lumian and others walked through the garden specially opened up by the Beiost couple and arrived at the door.
The double doors were about four or five meters high and the same brown-green color as trees, looking very heavy.
However, it is divided into two parts, upper and lower. If you are not welcoming guests, it does not need to be fully opened. Only the two-meter-high part below needs to be opened.
The "Spring Fairy" is the embodiment of spring and the messenger of harvest, and naturally deserves the most honorable treatment. At this time, the heavy double door has been completely opened backwards, and Mrs. Pualis is standing there in a light green corset dress.
Her maid, Cassie, stood to the side, half a step behind, carrying a basket made of woven branches.
Ava walked over and sang a song of blessing.
Mrs. Pualis listened quietly with a smile on her face, appearing noble and reserved, making the young people who followed the "Spring Fairy" want to look but dare not.
Seeing this, Lumian, who had "overheard" the other party doing dirty things with the parish priest, chuckled in his heart.
The song ends, and Ava exchanges the tree's seeds for a basket of eggs.
At this point, the blessing parade ended, and Lumian, Raymond and other young people surrounded the "Spring Fairy" Ava and went to the mountain river not far from the village.
Next comes the second part of Lent:
Waterside ceremony.
Arriving at the place where she usually herded geese, Ava approached the clear river, danced a simple dance, and repeated the previous song, while Lumian and other young people all stood still, seven or eight meters away from the "Spring Elf".
After doing this, Ava took out the chopped turnips given by a villager from the basket at her feet and threw them into the river.
As she threw them, she sang:
"Good harvest! Good harvest!"
After Ava finished throwing, Lumian stepped on the ground, ran over in a few steps, bent down, took out the chopped turnips from the basket, and threw them into the river.
"Good harvest! Good harvest!"
He shouted loudly.
The remaining young people reacted a whole beat slower than him or even more. They could only crowd together and run towards Ava for fear of falling behind. They took out turnip pieces, radish pieces and other not-too-precious things from the basket, threw them into different places in the river, and shouted "Harvest".
Raymond did not get the upper hand, nor could he get the upper hand over from others, so he was the last one to complete the ceremony.
The next second, he saw the malicious smiles of Lumian, little Guillaume and others.
The young men rushed forward and lifted Raymond up.
They shouted "Good harvest" and threw Raymond into the water.
With a splash, Raymond fell into the water, and his clothes and hair were instantly soaked.
The people on the shore picked up dirt and branches and threw them around him.
This is the fixed process of the waterside ceremony: the last person to complete the prayer will be thrown into the river and is not allowed to come ashore. He can only swim downstream for a distance, quietly return to the village, hide at home, and cannot go out before dark.
Raymond wiped the water droplets off his face, fluttered for a few seconds, and then went downstream.
The blessing parade team then surrounded Ava and walked towards the "Eternal Sun" Church on the edge of the square in Cordu Village.
By this time, it was almost noon, and most of the villagers had gathered here, including Lumian's sister Auror.
Compared with its "colleagues" in the city, this church is not grand, only about 11 or 12 meters high.
Its dome is arc-shaped, and from the outside it looks like the top of an onion, while when looking up from the inside, what comes into view is a magnificent mural of the sun.
The whole church is dominated by gold in tone and looks very bright, which is also the common style of all churches in "Eternal Sun".
The altar is located on the east side, with various sunflowers surrounding a huge holy emblem.
On the surface of the holy emblem, the golden sphere and the lines representing light form a symbol with a strong mystical meaning.
This is the symbol of the "Eternal Sun".
Behind the altar, high up on the wall, there are two pure glass windows inlaid with a little gold leaf. Every day when the sun rises, the light will shine from here onto the holy emblem.
Correspondingly, there are two similar glass windows on the west side of the church to capture the glow of the setting sun.
Since this was not a formal church ceremony but a traditional folk celebration, the parish priest Guillaume Bennet did not appear and was presided over by the administrator Beaustère instead.
Ava, still dressed as the "Spring Elf", stood beside him. The sounds of flute, lyre and other instruments rang out, and the villagers sang songs praising spring and praying for a good harvest.
They had not rehearsed, so the singing was not in unison, and some people even danced while singing, making the scene seem very lively.
Lumian opened and closed his mouth but no sound came out, as if he was just going through the motions. Auror beside him, on the other hand, was singing with great devotion, but it didn't look like she was praying for a good harvest, but was taking the opportunity to have some fun and hit some high notes.
Since it was just a perfunctory response, Lumian had plenty of time to look around.
He did not notice anything unusual in the villagers' behavior, and subconsciously looked up at the golden sun mural on the dome.
Suddenly, Lumian knew why he always felt something was wrong.
Many people in the village haven’t praised the sun for a long time!
For a village that believes in the "Eternal Sun", words like "Praise the Sun" and "My God, My Father" should appear frequently in daily life, but when Lumian thought back to this period of time, he found that he rarely heard them!
As a lay believer, he didn't usually say such things. In addition, he had offended the parish priest and had not been to the church to participate in any activities for a long time. So he didn't think there was anything wrong before. Until today, when he was in the solemn and dignified environment of the church with gold hanging high, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Then, the content of the letter for help that he had restored appeared in his mind:
“We need help as soon as possible.
“The people around me are getting weirder and weirder.”
The people around him were becoming more and more strange... At this moment, Lumian had a deeper understanding and recognition of this sentence.
He looked around again, trying to find the figures of Leah and other outsiders.
But Ryan and his companions did not seem to be there to observe the Lenten celebrations.
“Really? He didn’t show up when he should…” Lumian muttered in his heart.
He pretended not to notice anything, made a sound, and joined the chorus.
When the singing died down and the celebration was over, he leaned close to Aurore's ear and whispered in a low voice:
"Go home first. I have something to tell you later."
As the person escorting the "Spring Fairies" parade, he also has to participate in the last part of the ceremony and cannot leave early like others.
He also had no intention of forcing his way out of the church, as that would likely cause the abnormality to erupt prematurely.
Aurore nodded thoughtfully:
"good."
She didn't ask any more questions and left the church with Mrs. Pualis and most of the villagers.
Before long, the only people left here were the young people who had participated in the blessing parade and Ava, the incarnation of the "Spring Fairy."
All the donations received before, except those thrown into the river, were placed next to Ava. In addition, there were also symbolic items such as hay, axes, shovels, whips, and goose sticks.
Next, Lumian and the others only needed to wait for someone outside the church to come in and announce that the "Spring Fairy" was leaving, and then they could surround Ava and take off her laurel wreath, necklace, branches and leaves.
During this process, they need to leave a gap for the "Spring Fairy" to leave Ava's body.
After about twenty or thirty seconds, footsteps were heard at the church door.
Lumian looked over instinctively and saw two people.
One was Pierre Berry, a shepherd who had come back specially to participate in Lent. He was thin with slightly sunken eye sockets, and wore a dark brown long coat with a hood, a rope tied around his waist, and new black leather shoes on his feet.
The difference from before was that his greasy black hair seemed to have been washed and looked clean and smooth. His messy beard had also been trimmed and was not only not as long but also much neater.
At this moment, his blue eyes were still filled with a faint smile as always.
The other was the parish priest Guillaume Bennet, who was still dressed in a white robe with gold thread, which represented the clergy. He had light black hair, a slightly hooked nose, and a dignified temperament. Even though he was not tall, almost 1.7 meters, he still towered over Pierre Berry next to him.
The parish priest... How did he come in? Lumian was surprised and confused.
As a clergyman of the "Eternal Sun" Church, he should not appear in such a folk celebration without the "Praise the Sun" segment.
Thinking that the parish priest and his gang were secretly planning something, and that he had severely offended him, Lumian came to his senses and immediately retreated slowly, stealthily but resolutely towards the stained glass on the side.
Because it was not yet time to surround the "Spring Elf" Ava, this group of young people were standing in different places, so his actions were not conspicuous.
Ava was a little surprised to see the parish priest, but when she thought that he was the most prestigious person in the village and that he was more suitable than anyone else to announce the end of the Lenten celebration, she smiled again.
Soon, the parish priest Guillaume Bennet and the shepherd Pierre Berry came to Ava.
The former said in a deep voice:
"Send the 'Spring Fairy' away."
The people other than Lumian began to prepare to rush towards Ava and surround her.
"Send the 'Spring Spirit' away!" Shepherd Pierre Berry shouted and bent his back with a smile.
Not good! Seeing this, Lumian's heart moved, and he subconsciously stepped forward with his right foot, leaning forward.
Before anyone could react, Pierre Berry picked up the axe from the pile of items, clenched his hands, straightened his body, and swung it hard!
With a "puff", a large amount of blood spurted out from Ava's neck, and it seemed as if a ball of thick red mist was quickly forming there.
thump.
Ava's head fell alone to the ground, rolled several times in the blood, and finally faced up.
There was still obvious joy in her eyes.
Lumian ran two steps in her direction, his heart sank, and he immediately turned around and ran towards the stained glass on the side.