After a long and relaxing shower, Paley dried himself off, got into loose summer clothes, and made his way downstairs. Teerom was the only other person inside, sitting with his head on the table. Everyone else was playing in the river.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Paley drank refreshing cold water and looked in the kitchen cabinets for ingredients to make a sandwich. He managed to scrape together some lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, carrots, and cheese. 'We need to go out and buy some groceries.' He thought to himself as he began dicing the carrots and slicing the tomatoes.
"The dwarves haven't got any work for the past four weeks because of Kelleh," Teerom complained.
"Who's Kelleh?"
"The Kelleh building company." He clarified.
"Oh, what'd they do?"
"They've been spreading rumors about the dwarves. They say they got drunk and attacked a young lady in some alleyway. To think that these rumors have been going on for weeks now." He rubbed his forehead with his palms.
"You've tried to clear them?" Paley put the sandwich together, sliced it into two triangular halves, and took a seat in front of him. He offered one, which Teerom accepted.
"Yeah. Aleisar took Kelleh Blouand to court, but they didn't take him seriously because he's a dwarf, so..." Teerom bit into the sandwich, finding it deliciously juicy.
"Have you tried winning the people over?"
"No, why?"
"You need to get the people of Gouon to believe you, not a judge. Here, I have a plan." Paley started explaining an intricate scheme to Teerom for the next five minutes.
"That sounds great!" Teerom approved when he finished.
"It's my plan, after all. Make sure that few people know about this, especially Kelleh."
"Got it!"
Paley spent the rest of the week as usual. The only notable thing he did was hunt rat monsters that infested the western side of Gouon with Hig. It took them three days to kill every rat, but they received twenty gold coins for it, plus all the hides they collected.
Teerom informed the dwarves of Paley's plan. They were on board immediately and went to the town hall with Teerom to take out a loan of five diamond coins. It was more money than Teerom thought he'd ever see, but it was right there, sitting in his palm.
They used it to build a small Moon Temple outside the northwest gate of Gouon. Luckily, barely anyone used that gate, so they didn't have to worry about the Kelleh company finding out. Also, they erected large walls made of cloth to hide them as they built it.
Lusitra was a country under the Moon Church. But the Lord had no faith, so he rejected any plans to build temples in Gouon. He preferred to have housing and more buildings that were useful to Gouon. People didn't like that, so they protested until he allowed it. Though, by that time, there wasn't enough space to build any temples in the city.
They started construction on Monday, finishing on Friday. They replaced the cloth walls with stone walls, joining them with the bigger one that surrounded the city. At 9:00 p.m., they commenced the last part of Paley's plan. Aleisar stood atop the fifteen-meter tall city wall with a loudspeaker to his mouth.
"People of Gouon!" He called out. The citizens, who were walking on the streets or just relaxing outside, slowly gathered to listen. Aleisar waited until a good number of people came, then pointed to the full, pale moon in the sky.
"If you look above, you will see our Moon watching over us. She blesses us with her grace and brilliance tonight. And so, in honor of the moon, we have built a temple." As Aleisar spoke in his booming voice, people began to come out of their houses too to listen.
"You could not build a temple for her because there was no space in Gouon. Well, we thought, why not make more space then? And so we did!" Aleisar turned to the others standing in front of the temple with pride. They made sure to build the temple about ten meters from the wall due to the next event that was about to happen.
Paley stood on a rooftop at the other end of the street. Aleisar nodded in that him and climbed down from the wall, joining the other dwarves and Teerom. Paley stepped forward toward the edge of the rooftop and raised his palms.
"Rise, Earth Golem: Giant." He said, focusing all of his mana to make a twenty-meter tall, giant earth golem rise in the middle of the street. The people below watched in awe as the giant golem meandered to the wall Aleisar was standing on. It grabbed onto the top and crushed the wall down, revealing the extended part where the temple stood.
It was a dwarven-style, open temple with a statue of the Moon Priestess in the middle. The people cheered at the dwarves standing in front. Paley and the others watched from afar as everyone slowly gathered at the temple and prayed.
"We have plenty of pure water for all of you! Tonight is a full moon as well, so we are double blessed!" Wallas and Gilray bought out barrels of distilled water.
The praying ritual for believers in the Moon Church consisted of first washing your face with pure water. This was said to cleanse the face and let only truth be spoken to the Moon Priestess. Then, you would kneel before her beauty and grace and either say a prayer or ask for forgiveness.
Paley found the ritual odd. It was also very distracting that the Moon Priestess was completely naked, but he could agree that she was a beautiful woman. She had medium-length hair tied up in a bun and an expression of indiscriminate kindness.
He spotted a knight watching everyone praying to the Priestess and approached her. The knight was of the moon church, given away by the moon's crest on her chest plate.
"Hello," Paley greeted naturally.
"Why, hello." The knight replied in a young, feminine voice.
"Are you here to pray?" He asked.
"I wish to, but those dwarves are bad people. I cannot pray at their temple." The knight answered, sighing in disappointment.
"They aren't bad people. Those rumors are fake, spread by Kelleh because the dwarves were becoming more successful than them." Paley explained.
"You mean the Kelleh company?" The knight asked, and he nodded, "Huh, they *were* the ones who first made a statement in the paper about it. Thank you, I shall clear this up immediately." The knight walked over to the shrine and stood in front of it and the crowd of people.
"Everyone! I must tell you something important."
"What is it, madam knight?" One of the men waiting to pray at the shrine asked.
"These dwarves have been wrongfully accused of something they did not do. The Kelleh company has been spreading these false rumors, which you believed for some reason. I mean, did the woman who they supposedly harass even come forward? Does anyone know who she is?" No one answered her, "I thought so."
"But why would Kelleh Blouand do such a thing?" A woman from the waiting crowd asked.
"Dirty competition, I call it. She was jealous of the dwarves' building skills and was afraid that they may take her customers from her."
"...Screw that woman!" "We'll spread the word!" The crowd became furious with the Kelleh company.
"Come on, everyone. Tonight is a time for prayer! Don't taint it with anger." Battdur, an avid believer in the Moon, stepped forward. Teerom, who had been hiding away behind the temple pillars, saw Paley watching the knight. Paley gave him a smirk.
"Teerom, you are one hell of a schemer!" Aleisar patted Teerom on the back and walked over to the knight to thank him.
"Huh? Oh, that plan wasn't-" Rock suddenly covered his mouth, and he turned to Paley, who was shaking his head, telling him to take the credit. He walked over to the orphans, who had been waiting at the back of the crowd, after releasing the earth on Teerom's mouth. Madella wasn't a faith-driven person, and neither were any of the orphans as a result.
That night, Teerom came home with a beaming smile and a bundle of contract scrolls in his hand. The dwarves let him take them home to show to his family. Jurie and Madella were the only ones home; Jurie sat by the fireplace and read a book as usual, and Madella kept her company. He burst through the door, startling them both to their feet.
"We've got clients!" Teerom waved the papers around, ecstatic.
"How many!?" Jurie hurried over, matching his excitement.
"15!" he exclaimed, and they jumped with joy together.
"It's going to be a busy week for you, huh?" Madella smiled.
"It's all thanks to- speaking of which, where's Paley and the others?" He suddenly realized the orphanage was empty.
"They all wanted to go with him to train," Jurie said.
"To the mana zone?"
"To the mana zone."
"I have to thank Paley. Without him, I wouldn't be holding these." Teerom rushed out of the cottage and made his way to the mana zone.
"Tell them to come back!" Madella shouted after him. He gave her a quick thumbs up and disappeared into the forest.
Pure pandemonium greeted him when he arrived. He stepped through the thinning trees and into the Fulguron's nest where Adimia was running around slashing at Earth Golems with his sword.
Rauba and Paley were training their magic together atop a tree. Amasha and Reben were with them, trying to replicate the spells they were using, but they hadn't unlocked their magic fully yet. Reben would wait two more years before he'd have to use an Awakening ring if his magic stays locked, and Amasha had to wait a much longer time.
"Paley!" Teerom called out. He walked around the nest to avoid Adimia and the Earth Golems and arrived at the foot of the tree on which Paley trained.
"What's up?" Paley saw him down there and flew down, leaving Rauba to continue trying to increase the number of times she could use Firebolt.
"Thank you, man." Teerom gave Paley a big, tight hug once he landed.
"For the moon temple idea?"
"For everything." Teerom took out the bundle of contracts and showed it to him, "But look at how many contracts I got! Fifteen!"
"That's fifteen more than usual," Paley joked.
"Hey," He thwacked the back of his head, smiling. "Well, mom says to come back." He said.
"Okay," Paley turned to the Golems attacking Adimia, "Fall." He held his hand out toward them and swiped his middle and index fingers down, making the Golems crumble onto the ground.
"That's awesome," Teerom commented.
"I know, right?" Paley flew back up to the top of the tree to pick up Rauba and the others, then took them all back to the orphanage.