Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

... I'm sorry, the church is poor, we can't offer you anything in return."

"Don't be, we all have our circ.u.mstances, I didn't bring Sandra back for a reward."

"Sister, this big brother wants to help, but he says I can't make the commswatch work without your NDA, so I brought him with me"

Sandra said while waving the commswatch in front of Sister Agatha. She took the commswatch off Sandra's hands and put it on her wrist. Patting Sandra's head she turned and looked at Z.

"It seems like our little Sandra has been really busy tonight. Where are my manners? Please come inside."

Z followed behind Sister Agatha as they passed the pews in the church, reaching to the back they found a door leading into what seemed like living quarters.

Sister Agatha opened the door while little Sandra and Z followed behind her entering the living quarters. Dozens of little heads turned and looked at the open door curious about this big brother that came in with their beloved sister.

"Alright kids, this is... Silly me, I realised I haven't asked for your name."

"It's alright. My name is Zero, nice to meet everyone"

Z smiled as he looked into the crowd of children, they were young and innocent and Z felt an instant connection to these kids.

"Okay kids, go prepare for bed, I will speak to Mr. Zero in the library, after that I'll check on all of you to see that you're in bed! No exceptions!"

Sister Agatha ordered as she walked into a room with Z. Sister Agatha walked to the corner of the room and poured Z a glass of water.

"I don't know how much Sandra has told you about this place, but let me just share with you about the church.

So this is a branch of the church of light in the holy capital, in this branch, there's only me here and I'm in charge of taking care of the orphans in the area. But as you can see, because we're located near the slums, we get a lot of abandoned kids, the younger ones will get adopted by richer families and the older ones will just stay here until they are old enough to work."

"I see, in that case, since you're part of the church of light, wouldn't you get funding? It should be enough to feed the children right?"

Z asked curiously as to why the largest organization, the reason why the capital was named the Holy capital, branch Church would be struggling that much.

"The church of light has cut my funding, the management felt that we've been giving out too much charity recently and has stopped my funding. But I'm not worried, because the church has already told me that they would bring away some kids to the holy capital to go through training to be templars. That's the best I can ask for."

"Templars?"

Z asked with curiosity

"Templars are the blessed warriors of the god of light, they are really strong and can defeat every heretic and protect the world."

Sandra cut in from the side excitedly talking about the templars. Sister Agatha could only pat her head and smile.

"The templars are guards and warriors that report to the pope, they can mobilize the various manifesters under the Holy capital and in someway are aides to the pope."

Z nodded, in some way he knew about the templar's existence and their working in the shadows for the pope.

"Oh right, since you're struggling, I've decided to put in a donation, it's not much but I hope it will help."

Z scanned his watch over Sister Agatha's

<beep>

The transaction went through finally and sister Agatha looked at her watch in shock.

"2000 credits? Little brother, this is too much! How can I take this amount from you?"

"Just keep it, it was given to me by an old man he wouldn't let me go if I didn't accept it."

Z remembered the scene of Daymas forcefully asking him to accept 5000 credits for saving Soli, he had told Z, to use the credits to buy some equipment and get stronger, hopefully, he could become a high ranking military personnel someday.

Sister Agatha had a tear roll down her cheek, she was touched that someone would give aid in times like this when the world was in the midst of a Famine and food is a rare commodity, someone would part with his money just to help some little orphan children. It showed her that there was at least a little kindness in the world.

"Thank you, little brother, these kids would have something to eat, even though its nutrition bars."

Z smiled,

"It's getting late, I should go..."

"Oh right, let me walk you out."

Z stood up and walked out of the door with Sister Agatha beside him. He pats Sandra on the head one last time before walking back to the slums.

After closing the door behind her sister Agatha spoke to herself. I hope nothing happens to him walking through the slums.

After entering the slums, Z instantly felt uncomfortable. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing and he felt something was off.

"Young sir, would you be so kind as to give us some credits?"

"Sorry, I have no credits"

"I saw you! You were with the girl from the church, you went there to help her. Don't lie to us telling us you have no money. Help us as you helped them."

Z ignored the homeless guy and started walking. The homeless guy shouted louder and louder.

"Give us a donation would you!"

A drug addict who was lying on the ground stood up meekly as he shouted at Z. From everywhere the slum dwellers slowly stood up and started to walk forward together approaching him from all sides keeping him surrounded.

The homeless man who spoke up, in the beginning, stepped forward, smiling as he revealed his rotten teeth.

"We have reports that the girl asked you for a donation and you wanted to comply. We also have reports that you donated 2000 credits to the church. Such big acts of charity won't go unnoticed, why don't you help us. We need some credits to survive too."