The Emissary Delegation
The Emissary Delegation
After all, whenever the church sent an emissary delegation, the members were always elite warriors. They were not only blessed with civil and martial virtues, but also looked good enough to represent the church. She was very confident about her fighting skills and the rites of the church. But when it came to her appearance, how good-looking could a woman who was swinging her huge sword in battlefields all day long be? Thinking about this made her uncomfortable.
According to Priest Mira, their delegation would head to a small town in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Their purpose was to deal with the blasphemous event of a prince harboring witches. Aside from the priest leading the delegation, there were another 10 members of the Judgment Army. One of them was even the stony-faced cool captain she had once met in Hermes Defense.
But from the looks of it, the man was still stony-faced even in the absence of combat. Alicia felt the temperature dropped a fair bit just by standing next to him.
Priestess Mira was completely different. She was over 40 years old and had a pair of wise-looking eyes. She wore a constant smile on her face when she discussed anecdotes about the church. She was sophisticated and warm without losing an ounce of grace. Even in front of the archbishop, her poise was unabated. Alicia had heard many times that she would likely be the next bishop.
What surprised Alicia, however, was that Mira as a civil official rode her horse as well as those in the Judgement Army. In these two days, she led the procession, from the forest in the mountains to the town tracks. She kept her horse moving at a stable pace while minimizing any physical exertion. This was a skill that would take a person of the Judgement Army a long time to master.
"We're heading south, aren't we?" Someone in the procession asked after leaving the Hermes area and entering the Kingdom of Graycastle.
"No. Border Town is too far away from us. I don't want to hurt my butt if we travel by land," Mira waved and said, "and we'll go east to Deep Valley Town. There's a river that can take us directly to Redwater City. From there, it'll be an easy path to Longsong Stronghold."
"When did you join the church?" Alicia asked curiously, "You're not only familiar with anecdotes of Holy City, but also well-versed with the secular world."
"12 years ago. I was exactly 30 years old then," Mira replied.
"That's so late!" Alicia exclaimed. "As far as I know, the older a person is, the more difficult it's for her to comprehend the teachings of the deities. But you took only 10 years to promote yourself from a believer to a priest. That's incredible."
"Yes," Mira smiled. "That's the charm of the church. I was the daughter of a merchant. I followed my father and learned to do business in the Four Kingdoms. We bought ordinary local commodities and resold them for higher prices in other places. The price could go several times higher. Take the emerald coral of Seawindshire for example. We bought it from a local fisherman for 20 or 30 silver royals. We then put it into a water tank, carried it to the Kingdom of Everwinter, and sold it for a gold royal. If the coral had a good color and well-distributed branches, we could sell it for over five gold royals. I used to wonder why the same item would have two different values."
"Because... it was rare?" Alicia replied.
"That was what I thought at first." The priestess nodded. "But something happened and my opinion changed. There was a noble in the king's city who harbored a witch capable of changing the temperature. He came up with different ways before he finally succeeded in growing Seawindshire corals in the Kingdom of Everwinter. He modified the basement under his yard into a huge pool with an overhead skylight. His harvest was about once a year. The corals he grew were more than our yield for 10 back-and-forth trips. But the trade road was so long that my father only took it once a year. As a result, the emerald corals flooded the market. The noble even sold them both to the palace and aristocrats. If a rare object became more common, it was only fair that the price would drop."
"But just two years later, the palace refused to accept low-priced emerald corals, thinking they were counterfeits. Not only did my father not slash the prices by half, he even doubled it. As for the noble, he was discovered by the church and charged with the crime of harboring witches. He, together with the witch, was tied to a stake and burned to death. But I knew his corals were not counterfeits. They were exactly the same as the ones my father sold."
"The idea that a rare object is priceless isn't wrong. But there are other factors affecting the price of an item. This is the simplest example. Since the palace of Kingdom of Everwinter treated the emerald corals as a symbol of luxury, they set its value. When more emerald corals appeared, the rules of royalty were impacted. Thus on the day of the noble's execution, the queen even threw a big celebration. Do you think these items are like those of us who're secular?"
"Like... what?" Alicia was lost.
"Like the people, the children under the throne," said Mira word by word,"we are born with a price, and this price doesn't reflect our real value. Just like this emerald coral, we are obviously same, but some are at a low price, and some are too high to be reached."
"Too high for us to attain… You mean the nobles."
"The nobles are like the corals of the palace of Kingdom of Everwinter." The priestess smiled. "We're all born having the same hands, feet, a pair of eyes, and a mouth. However, their prices are set at the highest value. That's not determined by their own abilities, but by the rule of the royalty. So I joined the church. At least, in the new Holy City of Hermes, your birth doesn't limit your value. If we could turn the entire continent into the final holy city of the church, then that would be our so-called divine state."
"You've made a very good point!" Alicia nodded repeatedly with excitement coursing through her. If they really manage to build Kingdom of God as per Mira's descriptions, where people were born without classes and there were no lowlifes and serfs, it would make a beautiful landscape.
"Kingdom of God?" The stony-faced captain of the Judgement Army scoffed and stepped forward. "How many more people do they want to turn into cold-blooded monsters? Honorable Priestess, and how much do you know about God's Punishment Army?"
"Hey, you..." Just as Alicia was about to reprimand him for his lack of courtesy, Mira stopped her.
"The God's Punishment Army is made up of the most powerful fighters in the church. They're faithful, willing to devote themselves, and brave enough to join the God's Punishment Army."
"Not bad. You're right about them being the most powerful fighters and converting into the army. But what they convert into aren't warriors, but a group of emotionless monsters instead!" Having coldly spat out this sentence, he rode away and ahead of the team.
"How rude!" Alicia said angrily. When she met him in Hermes, she considered him a calm person with the steadiness of a general and the bravery of a soldier. How did he become this kind of person?
"It's alright. He's just distracted." Mira shook her head. "Setbacks and sacrifices are inevitable in the building of Kingdom of God on earth... But at least we're willing to do so."
When the team arrived at the next town, it was already dark. The priestess led the delegation to the church to take a rest. After dinner, they went back to their rooms. Alicia followed the captain and stopped him in the hallway.
"Priestess Mira is our leader. What did you mean by saying those things earlier? Have you forgotten all the rules of the church?"
"You're Alicia, aren't you?" he only spoke after a moment of silence.
"Yes, I'm a caption like you. I asked for your name as early as in the Months of Demons, but you said nothing. May I know your name now?"
"Abrams," he answered without expression, "as for why I said that…? Do you have any siblings?"
"No." Alicia suddenly remembered that Abrams once said his elder brother was a member of the God's Punishment Army.
"I have one. We grew up together in the church. We knew each other so well like we were one person. Later, he took the initiative to accept the conversion and I never saw him again. The chief justice told me that his conversion was so successful that he was now doing special missions for the church. I was very happy for him." He paused. "That was until I saw him again in a cathedral one day. I called his name and want to go forward to hug him. Guess what I saw." His expression showed a hint of pain. "A stranger. It was as if he didn't see me. He walked straight past me. There was no light in his eyes at all, which only stared straight ahead. His movements were completely inhuman."
"..." A shiver ran down Alicia's back. She badly wanted to shout that he was lying, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came.
"The God's Punishment Army deprives their fighters of human emotions. They're nothing more than a group of walking corpses." He pushed stunned Alicia away and returned to his room without looking back.