politics!
wealth!
Belief!
These three things that have existed since ancient times have ruled this society, and more fields have been derived around these three core factors. However, no matter how society and the times change, this society, this world, and even the entire universe will always change. We must always revolve around these three points, and no one is an exception.
Kubal and others called this dark little room the Parliament on the Top, and they used "above the roof" to describe the special status of each participant here.
Everyone is a well-deserved number one in their industry and field, a person who is still on the top of the social tower.
Yes, it is not a small group. Each of them is the most outstanding in their own field and the one who stands tallest. There is no such plural adjective to vaguely summarize their status. The only one is the only one.
Someone once called the Imperial Cabinet Office the center of the empire. In fact, it was not there, but here!
When Du Lin called out the name Kandy, the chattering voice suddenly fell silent for a moment. After about ten seconds, he accurately called out Du Lin's name, and found the empty chair next to Du Lin and sat down. .
He flipped the chandelier, which started to shake, and the light in the room became much brighter.
"I knew it was you. When I heard your voice, there was another person in my heart. I said to myself, 'Hey, you must know this guy. He is your good friend!', See, so I I guessed it was you. I didn't expect that we could meet here. This is really the arrangement of the evil goddess of fate..." He stretched out his hand, "It's nice to see you again, Mr. Dulin."
Du Lin also shook hands with him from behind. The trace of mystery and the sense of sanctity that originally existed here were completely shattered with the appearance of Kandy. He can make anything surprising become ordinary, as long as Where is he.
Then Kandy introduced Du Lin to a thin shadow behind him. The silhouette of the shadow looked very thin, only about 1.5 meters tall, and very slender. "This is our boss, the believer closest to God. , you can call him Abel, but I usually call him old man..."
Kubal closed his eyes behind him. The little old man known as Abel was panting like an ox. It was hard to imagine that that thin body could have such terrifying strength. When he breathed, it was like a broken bellows was working. Whoosh.
This old man is actually... the Pope of the Orthodox Church. As people often say, power is always accompanied by money, but besides the two, there is another otherworldly thing, and that is faith.
As the largest religious organization in the empire and even surrounding areas, the Tianzheng Bishop Church has been restricted and suppressed by the imperial royal family and the cabinet for a long time in the past. But this really means that the Tianzheng Bishop Church is vulnerable and can no longer resist.
No, never, this is all an illusion, and those who create such illusions to confuse the people will soon be sitting in this dark room.
A religious organization with more than 100 million believers will naturally be suppressed by the regime, but it is absolutely impossible for the regime to suppress this religion to the point where it cannot hold its head high. All of this is man-made and scripted.
As for why everyone does this, including His Holiness the Pope, it is actually very simple - interests.
Everything in the world cannot escape the word "profit". From the moment a newborn is born, no one has taught him/her/it anything. He/she/it knows how to explain a concept and interests through crying. His immediate concern is that he/she/it is hungry.
Even new lives know how to assert their rights and interests to obtain benefits, let alone a more mature social organization or an organization like religious belief that is good at playing with people's hearts
On the surface, the Church of Heavenly Righteousness has been suppressed to the point where it cannot hold its head high and can only rely on fundraising to survive. However, the huge number of new figures determines that their hardships are not real hardships. In addition, the constant charity galas and In various charity activities and religious activities, their lives are no worse than before, and even better than before. Because they are weak, people are willing to sympathize with the weak, so those who beg always look miserable. If someone wears clothes worth thousands of dollars and jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars and kneels at the station to beg, he is either a madman or a liar.
Religious concessions are not really a sign of an inability to resist political pressure, but a natural reaction that occurs when a group of people in the room have negotiated a deal.
If there is one word to describe this room, top is not that correct. Dulin feels that control will be better.
Everything decided in this room controls every aspect of the country, from ordinary people's working lives, to their marriage income and children's education, and even their beliefs will be decided here.
For a moment, Dulin's pulse was a little faster. He seemed to be very focused on chatting with Kandy, but he was thinking about why this guy appeared here.
No need for any probing, Kandy said it himself, "Abel brought me here this time to recommend me to take over his seat. To be honest, I was very nervous and anxious before coming here."
"The old man described this place as a nest of conspiracy and the source of evil. He always scared me. He described the people here as man-eating demons..." He paused here, "Sorry, I'm not "Say you...", then he tilted his body and looked at the shadow behind Du Lin, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean you, sir."
He shrugged, "I hope you can forgive my mistake in wording. After all, I live in Sunset City. You know that the schools there teach more about theology and the like. They are willing to teach us to memorize." Those runes used for hunting monsters only exist in knight novels, and they do not allow us to learn more normal knowledge. This makes me sometimes feel ridiculous that the words I say cannot fully express what I want to express. Case."
After he rambled for a while, he remembered and asked, "By the way, why are you here?" Du Lin was about to say something, but Kandy stopped him in advance as if he could see him about to speak. , "No, don't tell me, please, let me guess first..."
"You...", he touched his chubby chin, his small eyes were not very bright in the dark. The paint on the surface of this table is very special. After special treatment, it is not just as simple as ordinary matte, it can absorb Most of the light to ensure "safety" in the shadows of the room.
"You are here to participate in this..." He turned around and looked at the little old man Pope, "What are you doing?"
"On top of the parliament!"
Kandy slapped his hand, "Yes, the Supreme Council. You are also here to participate in the Supreme Council, right?"
Du Lin had to nod in agreement, which made Kandy very happy. He smiled and suddenly froze for a moment, "Where did we just talk? Ah, yes, I was very anxious and uneasy. But now I am much better. , because my friend Du Lin is also here, which greatly solves my emotional problem, and it can be seen that we are in harmony, otherwise we would not have met by such a coincidence. "
"What did you say you were here for?" He scratched his head, "Sorry, did you just say that? Sometimes I suddenly find that my recent memory is not particularly good. I just did what I did a second ago. I immediately forgot about it the next second, and what’s even more frightening is that when I want to recall it, I can’t even find a single clue.”
"There was another time when I was thirsty and wanted to drink water, but I took a cup and searched for it in the room for more than half an hour. It was not until I searched the room but couldn't find it that I unexpectedly found the cup in my hand that was in the way. That thing is my cup!”
"I must have been cursed by some evil force or brainwashed by the doctrine. You don't know. Every time we take theology class, it's like hypnotizing me. I always fall asleep without knowing it..."
For more than 20 minutes, Kandy never stopped diverging his thoughts, from his emotions to his athlete's foot, and then to his dog's recent case of ringworm...
He doesn't need to think about whether there is anything to say, because for him, there is never enough to say!
As some footsteps gradually appeared in the surrounding doorways, under the friendly fist of His Majesty the Pope, Kandy was finally beaten and closed his mouth.
He stood a little aggrievedly behind Abel's chair, but even so, Dulin could still notice that this guy was constantly communicating with him through his body postures in the dark. What was even more frightening was that he could actually see You have to understand what Kandy's somewhat vague movements mean.
crazy!
When all the seats around him were filled, Kubal spoke first, "Magnus has agreed to let Dulin replace him as one of us. According to the regulations, we will vote. If more than half agree to Magers' proposal, So starting from this meeting, Du Lin is considered a formal member of us, and everyone can vote. "
The room was very dark, so dark that he could only see a limited number of places. Dulin looked at the dark space and some blurry shadows around him, and was curious about how these people voted, until they put their hands on the table. within the range of light.
There were originally nine seats around the table. After so many years of constant waves, there are now only seven left, so there is no need to worry about whether there will be a "tie". There will definitely be a clear winner.
The voting process was not that simple. Although no one communicated with each other, Dulin could see that there were still a lot of articles in it. Kubal represented two votes - he represented his own vote and Maggs's. One ticket.
In other words, only two people need to support his and Mags' proposal, and Dulin will be admitted.
In fact, this involves a lot more risks than Maggs had planned before. If it weren't for this attack and his current situation, it would have been impossible for his request for a vote to fail in his normal state.
But now, these people have not expressed their opinions for a long time.
However, Du Lin didn't panic, and Kubal didn't panic either, because they already had the third vote before that, which was the support of His Majesty the Pope.
His refusal to vote now is a strategy. Once he expresses his intentions prematurely, it is likely to scare away some fence-sitters who fish in troubled waters.
You must know that for any project that requires voting and is truly democratic, there must be some people who do not want to offend anyone and do not want to lose the benefits.
These people tend to maintain the situation at a relatively balanced level, so that their interests will not be damaged. Stability always has more stable benefits than turbulence.
Therefore, they will vote based on the voting performance. For example, when Kubal's side is stronger, they will vote against it. When the number of opponents is relatively large, they will vote for the Yes side.
They don't represent anyone, they only represent themselves and their own interests. What they need to do at this time is to convince them with the benefits.
For a minute that lasted longer than a year, Dulin suddenly started to sweat. Just when he thought he should do something, a hand suddenly placed on the table.
The hand didn't look that old, and Dulin couldn't confirm who it was just through the vague outline, but he had to thank this guy.
Then the Pope also voted in favor, and it soon became clear that whether other people voted was of little significance.
"Then the matter is settled, Dulin, you can sit down..." Kubal pointed to the chair next to him. Dulin, who was standing behind the chair, spared the chair and sat at the edge of the table.
After standing still for a few minutes, the Pope also said, "I am getting older and older, and some things in Sunset City have long been out of my hands. I have reached the age of retirement, and it is time for me to rest, so This time I propose the Archbishop of Kandy to take my seat and ask everyone to vote.”
This vote was much faster than the previous one. No one had any strong objections to the four-vote vote, but Kandy could not sit down this time because there is no place for him yet.
Fortunately, most of the time, the meeting of the Supreme Council does not take too long, so Kandy does not need to worry about him standing for a longer time. Maybe he is more concerned about when he can speak
Next is the real content of the top meeting. The atmosphere of the meeting is very free, even a little loose. There is no clear person to preside over the meeting. Everyone basically says what they think, and they say it whenever they think of it. Somewhat messy.
This is not good. It lacks a core soul character and is a waste of everyone's time.
Sitting in this room for the first time and participating in a meeting as a formal member, Dulin thought about what it would be like if he presided over this meeting.
(End of chapter)