It was already half past ten in the morning when Shad returned home from the Black Raven Library. After confirming the effect of the new magic, he did not cook at home. Instead, he left home with Mia, who had become interested in playing cards, and took a carriage to the Church of Dawn.
When I was looking for a carriage at Saint Teresa's Square, I could already feel the festive atmosphere because of the young priests in their robes distributing pamphlets. When I approached the Dawn Square, the joyful atmosphere created by the religious festival in the city became even stronger.
After the Thursday two weeks before, the City Hall also intended to help the city recover from its trauma through a large-scale civic event, so it provided a lot of help for the Holy Prayer Festival in the summer of 1853.
With the Dawn Church as the center, all the nearby blocks were hung with banners and ribbons. I don't know whether the City Hall paid gold pounds or the Dawn Church paid money, but the holy emblem of the righteous god Mr. Dawn was hung on the exterior walls of the shops on the streets directly connected to the Dawn Square.
Pigeons flew through the foggy sky. Crowds of people gathered at the church and the surrounding streets. The lively festival also attracted more vendors to set up stalls on the roadside, but the town hall turned a blind eye to it.
The carriage was unable to enter the celebration site and could only drop Shad off at the intersection at the edge of the square.
There were people everywhere, and the sound of hawking could be heard everywhere around the square. The lively atmosphere frightened the cat in Shade's arms and made it shrink tightly in his arms. Shade knew Mia was timid, but he didn't expect her to be so timid.
Therefore, he did not bother to wander around the square where tents were set up, but walked straight into the church.
Although the preparations for the Feast of Holy Prayer were very busy, priest Augustus had less time to spare once the festival actually began.
When Shad saw him, the old priest was sitting in the last row of seats in the church's side hall, listening to a sermon by a middle-aged priest.
Normally, even on Sundays, such a church side hall would only be half full at most. But today, not only was it completely filled with believers, but some people were even standing partially in the aisle against the wall.
Knowing that Mia was very well behaved and would not bark, Shad held her and stood next to the priest. The priest nodded to Shad, signaling him to listen patiently.
So Shad stood here for twenty minutes, listening to the sermon that he was not very interested in. After that, he walked out with the priest and the crowd.
It was lunch time, and Father Augustus invited Shad to eat in the church. During the Holy Prayer Festival, the church's restaurant was open to some invited believers, and the meals were very sumptuous, so Shad took Mia out with him, wanting her to have some good food.
During the meal, Shade also revealed that he had recently obtained a magic potion known as the "elixir of life" and wanted to ask Priest Augustus to help identify it. The priest was very interested in this and took the potion from Shade at the table, but did not identify it in the church:
"I'll need a few days. I'll tell you as soon as I have news."
After lunch, everything went according to plan. Outside the church was a lively celebration, while inside the church was a rather serious religious activity.
Xia De was arranged to attend a small prayer meeting, in a room with thick curtains, candles and incense, praying to Mr. Liming with believers. If this is not a church, then this scene is a standard cult ceremony.
Later, together with Father Augustus and other visitors, he watched the baptism of three selected three-year-old children from senior believers' families. Shade had experienced baptism in the steam age once before, and this time it was even more solemn. In addition to high-power gas lamps, steam pipes were used to spray steam mist, making the entire venue foggy.
The scene was not funny, the solemn architecture of the church, the colored glass, the religious murals above, all combined perfectly with the hazy feeling of the steam and fog. This excited the reporters who were taking pictures nearby, and also made everyone present wet.
Except for Mia, who had it hidden in her clothes by Shad.
Shade only needed to follow Father Augustus around the church. The old priest was in a very good mood today. During the break, he took Shade to see a new painting hanging in the church corridor.
The painting is quite large, framed in a gilded frame, and is located in the corridor leading from the main hall to the eastern wing. The painting is dark in color, with no white space left. People in various dresses are gathered in a circle around the painting, and the center of the painting is outlined with light strokes of the stone bricks on the ground. There is a carriage parked on the left side of the center of the painting, and there is a beautiful and elegant woman's face in the carriage window, and two people are standing on the right side of the painting.
One of them held a pistol, and the other stood in front of him with his arms outstretched.
The man with open arms is almost the center of the painting, and the artist has used the most delicate brushstrokes to paint him. Using ink and color, it seems as if there is a beam of light shining on the head of the man in the painting, making him look like he is bathed in holy light. People who look at the painting can tell at a glance that this is the protagonist of the painting.
"This is... ... "
Priest Augustus laughed, causing the wrinkles on his face to accumulate. He was in a really good mood.
Xia De couldn't help but smile, and bent down to check the nameplate of the painting. There were two lines of words on the nameplate. The upper line recorded the date when the painting was hung here, and the lower line read:
Blessed World - Memorial of the Feast of Holy Prayer 1853
"How is it? This was painted the day before yesterday, and it was hung here just before the Holy Prayer Festival. When you were not here this morning, there were reporters taking pictures here. Maybe this painting will appear in the newspaper tomorrow."
Father Augustus said.
Xia De had no complaints. It was a good thing that his experiences were remembered by others.
He just asked out of curiosity:
“Will this painting hang here forever?”
Xia De only remembered that the scene was very noisy. There was none of the sacred solemnity in the oil painting, nor did he feel as if he was sacrificing for some noble reason.
"It may be hung for decades. You don't have to worry. I know you don't want more people to know what you look like, so the face in this painting doesn't look very much like you. In addition, Queen Diana has also seen this painting and gave her guidance on her appearance in the painting. She is also very satisfied with this painting."
The priest nodded and said, then asked with a smile:
"Shad, how do you feel?"
Of course, outsiders could not have imagined that they would leave a mark on the church in Tobysk for decades in this way:
"Does the church always hire someone to paint this kind of painting?"
People were coming and going behind the two of them, and the festive atmosphere infected everyone. But no one could recognize that the protagonist on the wall was standing here and looking up at it.
"Of course, this kind of painting is only done when it is worth remembering. You just happened to save the queen, and you were seen by many people, and it happened to be the Holy Prayer Festival. If it was an ordinary day, and you just saved an ordinary person, I'm afraid you would need to be shot eighteen times in the street before..."
The old priest shrugged and said nothing more. Although it sounded cruel, this was the reality.
Xia De's speech was also in the side hall. The church had prepared the speech long ago and asked him to speak without a script. Although the stranger was busy with exams last week and had no time to memorize the script, with "her" there, Xia De read it twice and she was able to roughly repeat it.
Therefore, during the half-hour speech, Shaddu just followed the voice in his heart and translated the ancient language she used into the modern common language of Draerion.
The content of the speech was not new, the theme was "God loves the world, God blesses the world." Although the core doctrines of the five churches are different, they are all religious groups that encourage people to be good, and they use similar methods to promote their churches.
The content of the speech was not very fresh, but the church writer made it fresh with great writing skills. He even combined the experience of Shad on the day he was shot, making the slightly preachy content of the speech very attractive.
People who can write speeches are rare talents, no matter in this world or in the stranger's hometown. Therefore, after the speech, Shad wanted to ask Father Augustus to take him to meet the writer.