Several strikes occurred in Coster, and the news quickly spread to all parts of the country.
"Indulgences... have you heard about it? The church is a liar. They randomly found a group of illiterate workers and printed the indulgences. Now that the matter has been exposed, those workshops have gone on strike!"
"How, how is it possible? Then what I bought is not..."
In just a few days, everyone in the Horli Kingdom, from rich merchants and nobles to poor beggars, was talking about this matter, and they didn't even bother to avoid it.
-The news spread so quickly, partly because of the chain of events that happened in Coster on the day of the strike.
That afternoon, a large group of people gathered at the door of the church, holding big signs with slogans in their hands. They demonstrated all afternoon before being driven away by guards. What was written on those signs were probably words such as "Indulgence Scam", "Church Secret Workshops Exploiting Labor", "Hell's Five Gold Coins" and the like.
Such a sight naturally attracted a lot of attention, and when passers-by asked about it, they spread the word, and within an hour the city was full of uproar.
Coster was devastated by the news that day.
Many people ran to the announced workshop location, kicked open the closed door, and immediately discovered many half-finished indulgences. Therefore, no one questions the authenticity of the protest anymore. Those who had spent money ran to the church door angrily, and the crowd of demonstrators became even larger.
"I can't believe it...those priests are a bunch of liars! This is so hateful!"
"Oh my god, is this true? In order to let my grandfather go to heaven, our family didn't know how long it took to collect five gold coins before the disease struck... What should we do?"
"Liar! Give me back the money! What qualifications do you have to speak for God?"
Coaster was not a place with a strong religious atmosphere to begin with. Coupled with a series of previous shocks, people's favorability towards the church has dropped several times. And this time, it became the straw that broke the camel's back, and anti-church sentiment completely broke out in the entire city.
After the protest crowd in front of the church was dispersed, countless people even took to the streets, imitating the demonstrators, making various banners and placards, and shouting loudly in the streets. Coster's church was so frightened that the doors were locked, and the priests did not dare to show up, let alone make any statement. That night, many physical conflicts broke out in the city between fanatical believers and marchers, but the government was completely unable to stop it because the situation was so chaotic!
At the same time, as one of the top trading cities, Koster has extremely close connections with all parts of the Horli Kingdom. With such a big incident happening to Coster, the radiation speed will naturally accelerate.
Of course, it took almost only two days from the time the incident broke out to everyone becoming aware of it - this speed is still a little abnormal if you really want to say it, it was so fast that it seemed like someone was deliberately adding fuel to the flames.
But in fact... In addition to the protest march that broke out in Coster, there were indeed people inside who contributed to the spread of this incident.
"It actually caused such a big fuss..."
Benjamin stood in the attic of the academy's ANBU, opened the window, looked at the angry crowd on the street outside, and couldn't help but reveal a hint of schadenfreude on his lips.
He didn't expect that inciting a strike would go so smoothly - obviously, the pent-up grievances of the workshop workers were deeper than he imagined. As soon as he got the news, everyone took action immediately.
The initial group of protestors at the door of the church were basically members of the Black Nightmare Society pretending to be members. At the same time, Benjamin contacted the secret departments of colleges across the country, and the rumors they had prepared long ago were instantly poured into the river of Horli Kingdom like a vat of ink.
The turbidity of the "river water" was even worse than Benjamin expected.
Different from the poster incident, this time the church seems to have touched the bottom line of the people, causing many people to be truly angry. Not only Cost, but many other cities also witnessed varying degrees of protests. At least half of the churches in Horli Kingdom had to be closed urgently. On the Havenright side, I heard that even the Royal Army was dispatched and the city gate was sealed. No one knew what the chaos was inside.
So far, the church has not issued a statement to explain what is going on, but Benjamin is certain that the image they have established over the years is completely over!
How can they explain it
For example, the church in Coster has not opened its doors for three days in a row. All the priests were missing, and all kinds of indecent organs were painted on the exterior walls of the church. It is clear that the church's emergency response seems to have suddenly broken down at this moment.
As for why it was scrapped...
"You must suppress those mobs quickly! And those dozens of workers who went on strike at the beginning, where are they? Arrest them quickly!"
In the city hall, the priest walked in cautiously and broke into the mayor's office. It wasn't until the door was closed that he dared to take off his outer cloak, revealing his priestly robe, and hurriedly yelled at the local person in charge.
However, the person in charge spread his hands and showed a helpless look.
"We have been working hard to suppress it," he complained, "but the mayor disappeared and has not been found yet, and there are so many people making trouble. I am only a temporary person in charge, and there is only so much I can do."
"So what? The matter is such a big mess, and if you don't want to solve it, then the blame will be placed on you from above, and none of you will be able to escape!"
The person in charge heard this and nodded hurriedly: "Yes, yes... we will definitely find a way to solve it."
The priest was still dissatisfied: "You said the same thing when I came here last time, but it's been a few days, what have you solved?"
"Sir, you are wronging us!" the person in charge said quickly, "There are so many believers in the city, and something happened now, we must send people to protect them, otherwise the mob will not demolish their homes! Do you think so? , we have been extremely busy these days, you... don't worry, we will do our best to stabilize the situation!"
"... If the matter is not resolved yet, I will come again tomorrow."
"Yes, yes, you can come over whenever you want..."
"snort… "
Finally, the priest put on his cloak, hiding his robe and face, turned around and walked out of the office, leaving the city hall. After the priest left, the person in charge looked at the door that had been closed again, suddenly put away the flattery on his face, and snorted dissatisfied.
He turned around and took out a document from the drawer.
The title of the document is a line of large characters - "Emergency Measures", and the signature on the side is from Havenright, and it is also stamped with the unique emblem of the royal family. It looks very fresh, as if it has just arrived.
The person in charge looked at it, suddenly walked to the oil lamp, placed the document on the flame, and watched with cold eyes as it burned slowly... to turned into ashes.
Half a minute later, he poured the ashes into the trash can, as if nothing had happened, and sat back down, shrugging his shoulders and lowering his head, as if he was busy at work.
There seemed to be a small piece of paper tucked among the government documents he opened. On this piece of paper that was turned over casually, words such as "invitation" and "nightmare" can be vaguely seen.