Chapter 491 - 490: Impact

Sevin Terry fell silent, and remained silent for a long time.

Upon seeing the newspaper and hearing Amber’s words, this priest immediately connected all the events that had occurred in Lu An City lately, linking together the propaganda campaign that the Cecil Clan had been conducting all this time. Although all these matters were beyond his experience and cognition, he could still analyze the Cecil Clan’s methods and objectives.

"You want to strip the Holy Light Church of the support of the people of the southern borders, to expel the church by inciting the populace, essentially cutting off the church at its roots—looks like Duke Gawain Cecil doesn’t like any authority other than his own on his territory."

"I didn’t expect a priest to see through such ’worldly matters’ so clearly," Amber looked at the priest in front of her, slightly surprised, "but that’s basically the idea."

"Are you so sure I’ll help you with such a thing?" Sevin Terry looked into Amber’s eyes, "Don’t forget, I am still a cleric of the church."

"To be honest, I don’t believe it, but our leader does," Amber responded candidly, "He once said a saying—the entire Holy Light Church couldn’t possibly have only one Wright with a conscience. As a large organization, the Holy Light Church surely has a variety of voices, and among them are some that align with our interests, and as long as interests are aligned, we can attract and strive for support."

"You say you want to exile the church, yet you also say you want the people to receive the Holy Light. What exactly do you intend to do?"

"Why bother asking me—after seeing those pamphlets, can’t you guess?" Amber spread her hands open, "I don’t quite understand the taboos of you religious types, but in my view, releasing the right of classical interpretation, allowing the public to directly access theological knowledge, lowering the authority of the church, permitting free belief... all these are good things, and I believe you and your two friends here agree on this, otherwise you wouldn’t have come."

"Maybe so... but can you really do it?" Sevin Terry straightened his posture, looking directly into Amber’s eyes. He couldn’t sense any powerful energy fluctuations from this half-elf girl, but he knew what a terrifying force stood behind her. Today, his choice might very well decide life or death, but still, he had to say it all, "Driving the Holy Light Church out of this land and replacing it with you—or the puppet New Church that you support, you’re just replacing one authority with another. Is there really any fundamental change? You might implement a set of new doctrines, maybe a bit more gentle than the Holy Light Church, a bit more enlightened, but does that mean the Holy Light has truly reached everyone? Authority will ultimately appear, as long as there is a group with more discourse power, more resources, and better channels, authority is still authority, only whitewashed, beautified, with seemingly shiny methods."

This time, Amber was truly a bit surprised. She sized up the fearless Holy Light cleric in front of her and nodded slightly: "Go on,"

"... You measured the clergymen in Lu An City by ’conscience,’ choosing me based on that, but if I may speak frankly, I don’t think you’re more ’just’ than the church—though you have successfully turned the church into an object of people’s hatred and crafted yourselves as the image the people yearn for, I don’t see you as superior to the church. You guide people’s emotions with those flyers, place masks with partial truths on the cathedral’s clergymen, and use money and power to create momentum that makes you appear grand and righteous, but when the church distributed porridge in times of famine, did you publicize it? When the Church Knights periodically purged monsters at the magic focal points, did you publicize it? Did you publicize your own mistakes?

"You say you want to overthrow the authority of the church, but the Cecil Clan is just another authority—the difference being, the church may be controlling the people with faith, while your Duke... he will use his power to control faith."

The Intelligence Agency operatives present were infuriated, immediately surrounding him with hands on their weapons: although Sevin Terry was a priest, he was not adept at combat, and he carried no sacred artifacts now. At such close range, operatives carrying specially crafted Beyonder gears could easily kill a priest before he had time to cast spells—as well as the two partners beside him.

The two priests next to Sevin Terry also grew tense, but their first reaction was still to protect him—they were also ready to lay down their lives.

Amber blinked, and at this moment of sudden tension, she sincerely remarked: "Wow, you make a really good point!"

A member of the Intelligence Agency almost dropped his molten-edge dagger: "Boss?! Please wake up..."

Amber waved her hand to interrupt her subordinate, looking earnestly at the equally astonished Sevin Terry: "Indeed, I think you make a really good point—in fact, aside from not summarizing it in the four words ’theocracy granted,’ what you said is almost identical to what Duke Cecil told me."

The priest, prepared to die, finally lost control of his tense expression: "...Ah? That Duke... he said such things himself?"

"Not only did he say it, but he also explained the process in detail to many of us," Amber nodded frankly, meeting Sevin Terry’s shocked gaze, "Do you think we claim to be righteous messengers? We’ve never said we represent righteousness—we simply represent progress, or rather... we represent higher efficiency and value."

As Amber spoke, she picked up the newspaper: "See this newspaper? What do you see in it?"

Sevin Terry frowned: "Your propaganda tool?"

"No, what you should see is that we can print hundreds of thousands, if not more, of these newspapers in a single day, and that we can quickly spread this newspaper throughout the entire southern borders. We can propagate new policies and evangelize the same way, why? Because we are more advanced."

"The civilians in Cecil Castle do not suffer from the cold in winter because we’ve built an excellent Magic Energy Heat Exchange Station. They don’t go hungry throughout the year because we use factories to produce alchemical potions that increase grain yields. They can freely discuss scriptures, receive Holy Light treatments, and obtain free Holy Water. Origin doesn’t matter for learning doctrines and becoming clerics, as we’ve reformed the church’s organization and fundamentally revised the religious laws. We’ve also found a more effective way to utilize Holy Light, enabling mass production of Holy Water and Holy Artifacts..."

"So when you see these new laws, new doctrines, and new things, don’t rush to ask whether these things are righteous. Instead, ask the citizens of Cecil Castle whether life is better now or before—

"Even a fool would tell you that a well-fed and warmly dressed life is good!

"A priest—I usually call people like you ’filthy priests’, but I’ll address you as a priest—you don’t see Cecil as more righteous and even think what we did in Lu An City was dirty and vile. For these thoughts, I have just one comment—excellent! You are truly a clever person, and I enjoy dealing with clever people."

Amber paused, while Sevin Terry had unknowingly taken a half step back. This tall, thin middle-aged man seemed to be struggling for breath. This was the first time in his life interacting with someone so unabashed, unmasked, unavoiding, without pretenses or hypocrisy. He was accustomed to talking with various ’high society’ people who excelled at nothing but discussing their morality and honor, while this half-elf before him, representing the Cecil forces and presumably holding significant status... had a rather peculiar style.

"Indeed... I’ve realized... in your pamphlets, you rarely emphasize the words righteousness and glory," the priest said with a wry smile, shaking his head, "What you emphasize most in your leaflets is that everyone can eat well and dress warmly, everyone can learn doctrines, and free Holy Water is available..."

"That’s right, that’s what we ’unrighteous’ people are gonna do," Amber laughed, "I heard from Wright that you rose step by step from the civilian ranks to become a Priest, and even now you continue sending the donation money you receive each month to the countryside—so, are you interested in Cecil’s ’unrighteous’ authority? We will exclude dissenters, we will control the southern borders, and we will use all sorts of glamorous or not-so-glamorous methods to achieve our goals, using the words that Duke Gawain Cecil once said to me—he will resort to any means, spare no cost, employing all tricks and calculations, with not an ounce of aristocratic spirit, to govern this land—just to make it prosperous and strong.

"Perhaps we are not magnificent and righteous, perhaps we are merely an authority set to replace the Holy Light, but we can enable all people in the southern borders to live better lives, and the Holy Light can continue to exist on this improved land.

"Priest, are you in for such an unrighteous matter?"

The room fell silent, Sevin Terry’s heart was pounding, and after several deep breaths, he finally spoke: "... There are about a hundred church members in the city opposing Fran Belon, most of them are lower-rank, but we control the small chapel area on the outskirts..."

"All the awakened and correctly aligned clerics will receive friendship from Cecil, as long as you are willing to abide by our laws and accept the new doctrines, you can continue to operate on this land, and you remain messengers of Holy Light, and even this Lu An City... can continue being the ’Holy City’."

If Amber’s previous words just delivered a tremendous psychological impact to Sevin Terry, then this response truly calmed his heart.

The situation was already irrecoverable.

Lu An City was sliding into the abyss, and everyone in the chapel area knew this. The influence of the Holy Light here had fragmented, and henceforth, any actions by the cathedral’s priest Clergy would only hasten this collapse—whether sitting idle, engaging in futile debates, blocking flyers, or even executing more extreme and bloody suppressions of civilians ... None would hold any hope.

All along, the church held the power to speak, and now the Cecil Clan had gained greater power in this regard, so naturally, a church reliant on ’faith’ for survival couldn’t continue.

There really were no options; four days ago, when Sevin Terry returned to the chapel area under escort from the Disciplinary Monks and Church Knights and found a note tucked into his pocket signed ’daughter of the Goddess of Shadows’, he knew this.

To save the lives of those few fellow-minded comrades in the church, he had to agree to Cecil’s request.

Before this, he just wanted to see what the face of the power set to govern all would look like.

Now he seemed to see—it was indeed not a glorious, great ruler, but it was a more fitting ruler.

"What should I do?"

Amber smiled: "We need to take the cathedral—with the civilians of Lu An City—and you will become the symbol and representative of the awakeners in the Holy Light."

("Everyone, the unusual PV2 is out!! I’m telling you, the scene visuals are extremely strong, especially the small chapel. It’s like they burned money to make it; who knows how much funding they put in to prevent visual breakage...)

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