Eleithia never imagined that she would become a member of the messenger group one day.
After all, when the church sent a group of messengers, the team members had always been elite warriors. She is very confident in her fighting skills and the etiquette of the Holy See, but when it comes to her appearance... Where can a woman who runs around the defense line all the year round and swings around with a big sword all day long? Thinking of this, she felt a little uncomfortable.
Hearing from the priest Mira, they were going to the western town in the Kingdom of Greycastle to negotiate a blasphemous incident where the kingship shielded the witch. In addition to the priest who led the team, the envoy consisted of ten judges, one of whom was a cold-faced captain who had a relationship with the Hermes line of defense.
But now it seems that even if he is not in battle, he still has a cold face. Just standing next to him, Elexia will feel that the temperature has dropped a lot.
The priest Mila is the complete opposite. She is over forty years old and has a pair of wise eyes. She always laughed and talked about the anecdotes of the church. She was well-informed, enthusiastic and graceful. Even in front of the archbishop, her demeanor remained undiminished. Eleithia has heard more than once that she is very likely to be a candidate for the next bishop.
And to the surprise of the female samurai, as a civil official, Mira's riding skills are not much worse than other judges. For the past two days, she has been leading the team to the forefront, from the forest mountains to the town trails, she can Allows the horse to maintain speed while reducing physical exertion. This skill can only be mastered by judges who have been trained for a long time in horsemanship.
"Aren't we heading south?" Someone in the team asked after leaving the Hermes boundary and entering the Kingdom of Greycastle.
"No, Border Town is too far away from us. If I go overland, I don't want my butt to be worn out." Mila waved her hand, "Let's go east first to Yougu Town, where there is a river leading to Chishui City. Chishui City. It will be very soon to reach Longsong Fortress."
"When did you join the church?" Eleithia asked curiously, "Not only do you know all kinds of anecdotes about the Holy City, but even the secular world."
"Twelve years ago, when I was thirty years old," Mira replied.
"It's so late," she said in surprise. "As far as I know, the older you get, the harder it is to understand the teachings of the gods. It's incredible that it took you only ten years to be promoted from a priest to a priest."
"Yeah," Mila smiled, "this is the charm of the church. I, originally the daughter of a merchant, followed my father to trade in the four kingdoms, and brought ordinary goods from one place to another. The price difference will be several times. For example, the emerald green coral in Haifeng County, bought from local fishermen, only has twenty or thirty silver wolves per plant. Put it in the water tank and bring it to the palace of the Kingdom of Eternal Winter, and you can exchange it for a golden dragon. The condition is good, the branches are evenly shaped, and even more than five pieces can be sold. I often think, why are there two different prices for the same item?"
"Because... rarity is more expensive?" Eleithia said.
"I thought so too at first." The priest nodded, "But something happened later that changed my opinion. A nobleman in the capital secretly hid a witch who could change the temperature. He came up with various methods and finally He can raise corals from Haifeng County in the cold Everwinter King City. He transformed the basement in the yard into a huge pool with skylights on the top to let in light, which can be harvested about once a year, which is more than our ten round trips. There is still a lot. And this long trade route, my father only runs once a year. So there are more emerald corals on the market, and he not only sells them to the palace, but also to those big nobles. If it is rare If it's expensive, the price of emerald coral should keep going down."
"But only two years later, the palace refused to accept those low-priced emerald corals, believing that they were all counterfeit products. The price of the corals sold by my father not only did not drop, but doubled. As for the nobles who stole witches, it was The church took it out and tied the witch and the witch at the stake to be burned to death. But I know that the coral he raised was not a counterfeit, it was no different from the emerald coral that my father shipped."
"It's not a wrong idea that something is rare and expensive. There are many reasons for determining the price of commodities. This is just the simplest example - because the Everwinter Palace regards emerald coral as a symbol of luxury, and its value is artificially prescribed. When more emerald coral appeared, it hit the royal rules, so on the day of the execution, the Queen had a big celebration. Do you think these goods are like the world of us?"
"Like... what?" Eleithia didn't come back to her senses.
"Like the people under the king's power, child," Mila said word by word, "we are given a price from birth, and this price is not the embodiment of our true value. We are like this emerald coral, obviously the same, have Some are cheap, some are unattainable.”
"Unattainable... You mean nobility."
"The nobles are the corals of the Eternal Winter Palace," the priest laughed. "They were no different from us when they were born, with one pair of hands, one pair of feet, one pair of eyes and one mouth. However, they were artificially set at the highest value, This inequality does not depend on their own abilities, but from the stipulations of the kingship. So I joined the church, at least in the new holy city of Hermes, and birth does not limit your value. If we can put the whole continent It has become the ultimate holy city of the church, the so-called kingdom of gods, and it is nothing more than that.”
"You said it very well!" Elesia nodded again and again, excited in her heart. As if the kingdom of God on earth as described by Mira could really be established, where the people were born regardless of blood, and there were no pariahs and slaves, what a beautiful sight it would be.
"The Kingdom of God? Hmph... How many more people do they want to become cold-blooded monsters?" The cold-faced judge of the army commander shook the reins and stepped forward, "Lord Priest, how much do you know about the God's Punishment Army?"
"Hey, you—" Elesia just wanted to tell him to be polite, but she was stopped by Mira before she could say anything.
"The God's Punishment Army is the most powerful fighters of the Church. They are transformed from the Judgment Army with firm belief, willingness to sacrifice, and fearlessness."
"The most powerful is not bad. It is also good to need the transformation of the Judgment Army, but what they transformed is not a warrior, but a group of emotionless monsters!" After he coldly dropped these words, he rode his horse to the front of the team.
"It's a rude person!" Elexia said bitterly. When Hermes saw him, she felt that he was calm in the face of danger. He had the calmness of a general and the bravery of a warrior. How could he become This kind of people
"It doesn't matter, he's just uneasy." Mila shook her head and said, "In order to build the kingdom of God on earth, there will inevitably be setbacks and sacrifices... But at least we are voluntary."
When the group arrived at the next town, it was already late, and the priest took the messenger group to the church to rest. After everyone had eaten, they all went back to their rooms to sleep, but Alexia followed the commander of the trial army and stopped him in the aisle.
"Sir Mila is our leader, what do you mean by doing that? Have you forgotten all the rules and regulations of the church?"
"Your name is Alexia, right?" He said after a moment of silence.
"That's right, now I'm the commander of the Judgment Army, just like you. I asked your name back in the Moon of Demons, but you didn't say anything. Can you tell me your name now?"
"Abrams," he said blankly, "as to why I did that... do you have any brothers or sisters?"
"No." Eleithia suddenly remembered that he had said that his brother was a God's Punishment Army.
"I have. He and I grew up in the church together, and we knew each other as if we were one person. Later, he took the initiative to accept the transformation of the God's Punishment Army, and I never saw him again - the presiding judge told me, His conversion was very successful, and now he is out on a special mission in the church, and I am sincerely happy for him." He paused, "until one day, when I saw him again in the cathedral, I called out his name. , came up to hug him, but guess what I saw?" A trace of pain appeared on Abrams' face, "A stranger. He walked past me as if he didn't see me at all. , his eyes are dead, staring straight ahead, and his actions are not human-like at all."
"..." A chill rose behind Eleithia, she wanted to shout out that the other party was lying, but she couldn't say a word when she opened her mouth.
"God's Punishment Army has been deprived of people's feelings, but it's just a moving dead thing." He pushed aside Elecia, who was stunned, and walked towards his room without looking back.
...