Norton ignored him.
The boy didn't seem discouraged, or rather, Norton had never acknowledged him during this entire period, so he had long grown accustomed to it.
The boy placed the pastries on the ground in front of Norton, wisely wrapped in a clean cloth, then hugged his knees, letting his luxurious clothing get stained with dirt. He rested his head on his knees, those innocent eyes blinking unwaveringly at Norton who was wrapped in tattered cloth, his face showing a melancholy that didn't match his age.
Yet paired with his European child's sculpted features, he somewhat resembled the little prince described in storybooks.
"Mr. Beggar, what do you look like?"
"Mr. Beggar, what are you drawing?"
"Mr. Beggar, Jennifer said she doesn't like playing with me. She said she likes Henry."
"Why is it like this? Mr. Beggar. She said before that she liked me the most."
Great, just a fucking little simp!
Norton listened to the boy's naive words, feeling they clashed sharply with his somewhat twisted inner self.This feeling made him quite uncomfortable.
Thankfully he wasn't Father Norton, otherwise the situation would probably have taken a completely different tone.
Norton turned his gaze away from the boy, leaving behind a trace of red.
Of course, it was the crimson streak of his eyes cutting through the air.
The boy continued pouring out his seemingly sorrowful heart to the so-called Mr. Beggar, thinking that since he had accepted his kindness, he would become an audience for his outpouring. Little did he know that not a single word of his confession was being heard by the beggar before him.
Norton crouched in the corner, gazing into the distance at the Church, letting the boy beside him continuously vent his melancholy emotions.
His nails, elongated from the withering flesh of his fingers, looked somewhat narrow yet could leave deep scratches on the ground like steel blades, allowing him to sketch out the patterns he desired.
Norton was outlining a simple diagram of the Church, along with the positions of the Church Knights and Missionaries he had determined through sound.
His constant lurking around the Church during this time hadn't been without gains. Through sound and scent detection, he could roughly determine the distribution of personnel inside the cathedral.
Like where the crowded areas suspected to be living quarters were, where the defecation spots were, where there were fewer people, where the footsteps were heavy with the sound of armor, suspected positions of Church Knights...
The enhancements from super hearing, super smell, and super vision were comprehensive, unlike those superheroes from movies in his previous life who had various super abilities but seemed completely incapable of using them properly.
Nowadays, Norton could fully defend against sneak attacks relying on his physical capabilities alone. Even with just his hearing and smell, he could detect a fly passing within a hundred meters around him, which was one reason why Norton still hadn't moved away.
His physical abilities were too formidable, so formidable that they gave him confidence.
For now, he only feared the Church's special countermeasures and being ganged up on by creatures like Werewolves! That's why he had been carefully observing, testing, and experimenting here, trying to see if he could survive in this world without consuming beef.
Time slowly passed, the sun gradually setting in the west.
The boy who had been pouring out his troubles to Norton left satisfied. He didn't seem to care whether Norton was actually listening; he just needed a tree hole to confide in. Or perhaps he thought Norton was like those little monsters hiding in tree holes from fairy tales, always listening to his complaints.
Norton reached out and wiped away the ghostly scribbles he had scratched on the ground with his fingers, then stood up, preparing to return to his Clock Tower to fully recreate this on the walls.
Norton took a step, about to leave, but suddenly stopped.
These Church Knights, brainwashed by the Church into near idiocy, still went out every night, but it was visibly clear they returned with absolutely no results.
Oh wait, they did have some gains—they managed to hunt at least three Werewolves.
This made Norton extremely happy.
He knew his decision to enter the city to avoid Werewolves had been correct.
He had witnessed the Church Knights hunting Werewolves firsthand.
Although these Church Knights were trained to be somewhat dull by the Church, their combat skills were truly exceptional.
And this was without those Golden Saints appearing! If those Golden Saints showed up, probably not just Werewolves would be in danger.
But those biological weapons seemed to only be activated when needed. Norton had been observing the Church in Rino City for almost half a year now and still hadn't spotted any trace of those Golden Saints.
In summary, Norton's life hadn't been greatly affected by the change in Pope for the time being. He could still hide within Rino City, living peacefully, buying time to allow himself to grow.
Several months passed, and those damn bats that always loved showing off their affection in front of Norton finally produced one offspring.
Born upside down, still hanging inverted on Norton's withered, wrinkled chest.
"Squeak squeak squeak..."
The newborn bat pup spontaneously learned to hang upside down not long after birth, which truly amazed Norton.
And this little thing actually drank mother's milk! The mother bat, probably feeling that Norton hadn't eaten for too long and needed nutrition too, specially flew to Norton's face, hanging upside down, wanting to offer him a taste...
"Thank you so much!" Norton's hoarse voice echoed through the top of the Clock Tower. He removed the mother bat from his face, then took the small bat hanging on him off as well, hanging them both on the Branches he had set up nearby specifically for their inverted perching.
Truth be told, because the top floor of the Clock Tower was sealed off, it remained quite dark, making it a suitable living area for these light-averse animals.
No one would expect that in a place that had remained virtually untouched since its construction, there would actually live a family of four.