The procession of palace knights approached the opposite street of the church. The leader, Sir Valin, directed the procession to go around Spindle Avenue, far away from the cathedral. Sir Laurence Norman asked the knights to change the route after a certain wizard of the school complained that the whistle of the patrol was too loud. His original words were quite polite: With the monks of the Silent School here, this is just a redundant move.
Since the royal party is giving such face, the Silent School has no reason to refuse. Shania, the leader of the school, is a law wizard. She is willing to have a good relationship with the royal family who believe in Gaia. Now Eastman's Church of Gaia is under the management of wizards, and Archbishop Peyton Forrester is like a vase placed on the conference table of Dragon's Den Castle. He could only pretend to be motionless, and then secretly cursed these useless nobles of the kingdom.
Before the Broken Sword Revolution, no one would have dissociated Eastman's church branch from the Silent School. At that time Paton led the goddess's crusade, and all voices belonged to the faith. The School of Silence cannot completely control the church, so it is not the woman Shania Ravenas's turn to dictate to him. Payton felt very angry every time he thought about the changes in the church. The prophecy of White fulfilled the Sun Supreme madmen in the Glorious Council, but the Pope of the Church of Gaia bowed to the school after the Battle of the Saints, causing the alliance between the Western Region and the Cross Knights to fall apart, and the Royal Party to regain power in Eastman. .
In any case, Shania did not completely ignore the Archbishop's opinion. She sent him back to the church to worship the goddess and handed over all the tasks of communicating with the Eastman royal family; but at the same time, she also sent the cross knights to act with the wizards, and the entire Eastman ladder will also be opened to the Gaia Church.
A lot of things will become simpler.
In the evening the gardener delivered the news. Bishop Payton slowly flattened the letter, and the juice from the petals accidentally stained his sleeves. "Go get a lamp," he ordered, "and a clean towel."
The stained glass turned the soft purple letter paper into deep red, and the golden sacred text was dimmed in the sunset, making it difficult to distinguish the characters. He continued to touch them with his hands, erasing the epidermal cells in specific locations, and soon the handwriting changed completely.
Before releasing the new Nightingale, Payton invited a Bresman to train the newbies. Compared with the mixed ascetics, the reservists of the Cross Knights are all warriors determined to be loyal to the church. Their foolish bravery makes the process of transformation extremely long. The Brethians promise that they will be more alert than the average nightingale and blend in less conspicuously with the church. Just half of what he said would count, Peyton thought, and it would be best if he didn't have to pay the price someday like his magic. The dark wizard had no place in the Theocracy of the Silent School, and it was Paton who provided him with shelter.
Dark wizards roamed the mortal realm, and he had never had a good impression of them. The wizards are even more hateful. These guys gather at Wizard's Cliff to study spells and their witchcraft; after arriving at Eastman, curiosity suddenly dominates their behavior. The most important thing is that the wizards' desire to explore Gaia has reached an almost blasphemous level. It is unimaginable that these people are actually the leaders of the Gaia Church! Peyton looked down upon the Council of Light for misbehaving in the name of Lucia, but he had to admit that the cohesion of the Light God cultists was far greater than that of Gaia. The agent will never allow any priest or paladin to think about such incredible questions as the "true origin", "possibility of existence" and "natural phenomena" of the Goddess of Light!
If the gods had not left, the School of Silence would probably be punished by Gaia as a traitor. Payton is convinced. He controls the judiciary, leads people to do good, and will never tolerate evil and heresy. But the goddess has left us...
Wizards have polluted the ranks of gods. The saint of the Silent School was called the "Second Truth" after the Dawn War. This is simply unreasonable. In the eyes of the most devout believers, Bernard Sterling was a complete traitor. He was the source of all irreverence, hypocrisy and division. He was not from the church, and his mystery was no substitute for loyalty.
However, the vast majority of clergy did not think so. Shania's arrival made the church happy, and the Pope ordered him to obey; the wizards of the school restrained their curiosity and pretended to be pious to win their recognition, and the Cross Knights became their errands. The boy is still enjoying it. But Payton won't be easily fooled, and these are the only birds he has at his disposal now.
The news of the letter pleased him. First, the team of wizard Lynde Punabag stayed in the Garden of Flowing Waters for two days, during which they were attacked by local adventurers.
Six Fingers Castle is like a hive with leaky walls, allowing his birds to fly in and out without noticing. Its lord, Sir Isborne - Paton never thought that this guy who only cried about poverty in the Kingdom Council could bring help to the church, and it was even less likely to be a hindrance. The royal party hoped to control the transportation of the Golden Bird River by buying the Court of Flowing Waters, but Duke Tiwen made it clear that he would let it go. To be honest, the Garden of Flowing Waters is just a barren territory. It turns into a swamp every scorching moon, and more than half of the income it brings has to be spent on repairing the dikes.
Knights Bay is different. As one of the most important ports in the kingdom, even though it was previously harassed by fishmen and was forced to close its shipping routes, it has only prospered in recent years, and the wealth it creates has gradually approached the revenue of the national treasury. Even though the wealth of the Western Territory is not yet comparable to that of the royal party, the help of Knight's Bay to the royal family cannot be underestimated. Flying Eagle City had made preparations long before the fishman Earl DeWitt Hearn returned to the territory, and now Peyton's Nightingale mainly flew to the bay.
I'm afraid there will be more knights than fishermen in Knight's Cove now, Peyton thought, just like there were during the Raven Wars.
He still does not agree with the late king's decision to launch a massive attack on Motog when he was attacked from both sides. The Nagas and the Oath Keepers Alliance behind them have always had bad intentions towards humans, but now the Royal Party has decided to cooperate with those lower races. He could not accept that an alchemy train spewing steam and black smoke was running in the kingdom of the goddess, and its footprints were about to extend from the freezing Ice Territory to the Iron Claw City, the center of the kingdom.
Duke Tiwen is short-sighted and believes that the No. 1 train project can involve the energy and wealth of the royal party, which is a good thing for the Western Territory. Payton begs to differ. Murlocs and dwarves are not my kind and cannot be trusted. In fact, even the gods they believe in are not orthodox. As a result, the Nagas saw further ahead than the Eastmans, and they were the first to withdraw from the Oath Keepers Alliance; after the Eastmans' royal party abandoned their allies, they tried their best to get through.
And the Blood Tribe is about to become the second one. I hope the news in recent days will make Norman and the eldest son of the king he serves regret. If His Majesty the Pope can see clearly the nature of wizards, the Church of Gaia should also break away from the Silent School and become a pure land for the goddess' devotees...
... Peyton still thought so before learning about the deal between the vampires and the priests.
The second message is related to this. His nightingale confirmed again and again before he dared to report the information. Payton doesn't blame him, he still can't believe it. The convent provides loving care to homeless mothers, but not for the sake of their children. The archbishop of Eastman knew that some women with hard-to-change sexual proclivities could not help but have secret meetings with men, so he asked the nuns to take good care of them and would never let them go unless they paid a certain price. Of course, if there are nobles and wealthy businessmen who are willing to tolerate their mistakes and even atone for their sins, Payton will not stop them. The repentance of the fallen is what Gaia hopes to see. He is not as harsh as Lucia and only hopes that people's hearts will become good.
But their jailor had evil intentions. Payton took the towel and candlestick brought by the maid and watched the purple-red juice staining the snow-white cloth. Evil is blaspheming... The repentance of evildoers is more precious, and the evil deeds of those who do good are especially hateful. No matter how you look at it, these devils are unforgivable.
He also immediately determined the method of disposal: the priests involved in the transaction would be expelled from the church and then secretly burned at the stake - such people are no different from crazy demons. They do not need sympathy, and repentance is hypocritical. Moreover, once His Majesty the Pope learns of this, I am afraid that the Archbishop of Eastman will have to be replaced, and the pure land of the Kingdom will surely be overrun by the heresies of hypocrites and wizards.
The consequences were foreseeable and the matter had to be handled flawlessly. Damn it, just in time for the Silent School to visit Eastman... he was discovered by the messenger from the tower. Peyton thought of the heads in that monastery. Croita didn't care about the life and death of mortals. They had always set their sights on Knox... Gaia's blessing, I hope things will not develop into a worse situation. No, he needed to prepare for every possibility.
As soon as the reply was written, the gardener left and returned. "You're just in time, I need a new cat face."
"My lord, you have a new letter. It is not the flower... from Knight's Bay." The gardener handed a roll of parchment to the Archbishop. On the white wax fire seal, dark cyan lines form abstract fish scales.
…
The church seemed empty except for the nuns and Knights of the Cross in the backyard. Uriel knew that there were crossbowmen lurking on the balcony, and the nursery must also be heavily sealed. The pure land of worship to the gods had become a battlefield, but he still didn't think there would be a foundation for divine magic here. That thing didn't even exist in the Yotsuba Castle. .
Maybe Iaconi didn't think he could escape with Roma, so he didn't put any restrictions on him. Uriel followed the Cross Knight underground, and a chill hit his face, reminding him of the tomb in the backyard of Blumnot Church. Stone steps spiral down, and golden torches light up the walls.
The Cross Knight guarding the dungeon is missing a leg, and the pink scar makes him look hideous. This man's name was Gemo, and he had probably been a jailer longer than Uriel. "Fairwin? Didn't you volunteer to guard the door?" he said as soon as he saw Iaconi.
"The tide of the Golden Bird River rises in the evening, and those people will not come today." Iaconi replied, "I am here to confirm the testimony of a strange brother."
