When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 703: The Secret Fire of Windmill Land
Armand, the designated successor to the Holy Axis civil service, has been stationed in Dam City for two weeks, but it seems that nothing has happened.

The workers were still moving wooden boxes, carrying bone china on straw pads into the cabin, and then moving the silk in the cabin to the dock.

Newspaper sellers riding donkeys stuffed newspapers into the cracks of doors or windows of every room. Tea restaurants and pubs were still filled with idle citizens and speculators.

The oligarchs are still attacking the Yilin newspaper, and the editor-in-chief of Yilin is still calling on people not to hoard sugar.

But where they couldn't see, everything was changing secretly.

On a deserted street near the dock, three men in coarse monk robes were walking slowly. Occasionally they would stop and pretend to tidy up their clothes, but they would secretly turn their heads and look around.

The three of them stopped beside an abandoned green-walled chapel. They knocked on the door covered with rusty nails. After about ten seconds, an eye appeared in the gap in the door.

After confirming that there were only three of them, the skinny old priest inside the door opened it and pointed behind him: "Come in quickly, we're waiting for you."

This church, covered with vines and ivy, looks desolate on the outside, but is clean and tidy on the inside.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the monk who was preaching immediately looked up and reached down with his right hand to grasp the crossbow under the pulpit.

Only when he saw the three people in front of him did he loosen his grip on the crossbow: "So you are the three brothers from the Orledge family. You are late today."

"Damn you devil bishop! They won't let us go until we clean the chimney." The oldest, Oleg, held out his hands and showed everyone the soot in his fingernails. "But the chimney is not my responsibility at all, and I missed dinner because of it."

Dozens of low-ranking monks and helpers in the church all shouted condemnation in unison.

They rolled up their sleeves, revealing the body hair that was stuck to their arms by sweat, and almost used up all their strength to curse their abbots or workshop owners.

Although living in a windmill land that is envied by other places for its wealth, the lives of these ordinary people are not as easy as they imagined.

The remnants of the church and feudalism still weighed heavily on the lower-level monks and laborers, leaving them no time even to look up at the sky.

Although Windmill Land is semi-autonomous, there are still a large number of religious landlords and feudal nobles who are loyal to the church and the Kingdom of Leia.

Although the citizens and craftsmen hated them, they had to rely on them for their livelihood because only these senior clergy and nobles had sufficient purchasing power.

"Okay, okay, let's talk about the complaints later." The monk knocked on the table, "Where were we talking about... Oh, yes, we talked about it before, the Holy Father gave humans the right to be born free, and endowed humans with wisdom and reason in his own image, so the free choice you make is what the Holy Father expects you to do..."

After finding a row of seats and sitting down, an Orange took out a notebook and raised his hand: "But if that's the case, does that mean the church doesn't need to exist? If that's the case, why does the Holy Axis need to exist?"

“No, no, no.” The Holy Fathers monk immediately denied, “We in the Holy Word sect deny the legitimacy of the Church of the Holy See City, not the necessity of the existence of religious organizations, just like we do not deny the necessity of confession, but deny the legitimacy of indulgences…”

"I understand. What you mean is that a Holy Father's shepherd organization should unite believers, guide them to do good, and protect their believers from the devil. The representatives are collectively elected by the believers." Another low-level monk, his eyes lit up and asked immediately.

"Yes, very smart, you are really smart." The monk of the Holy Fathers could not help but look at these people with admiration.

Perhaps due to the differences in education and economic levels, the low-level monks in Windmill Land understood the various ideas of the Holy Way Sect much faster than the low-level monks in Thousand River Valley.

"...The difference between the Holy Union and the church is that the church seems to only care about the believers' world of faith, but it actually controls everything about the believers, while the Holy Union seems to only care about the believers' real world, but it will never restrict your freedom unless you violate the covenant that everyone has jointly formulated..."

"…So what does the Holy Father encourage? Labor, freedom, equality…We love everyone…"

"…When we talk about the devil, we refer to his deeds, not his heart. If he behaves like the devil, no matter what his appearance is, how is he different from the devil…"

A light was lit in the desolate and smelly little church. Besides the preacher's sermon, the only sound that could be heard was the scraping of pens by the monks and their helpers across paper.

However, this bean light was not only lit beside the abandoned churches on the canal. In the attics of luxurious houses in the city center, preachers told citizens about the value of freedom and the absurdity of indulgences.

In the manors and autonomous villages on the outskirts of the city, young farmers gathered around the Holy Word missionaries who had just finished a day's work.

On the deep and dark Windmill Plain, countless lights that seemed as if they would be blown out by the wind in the next second were lit up one after another. However, the cold December sea breeze could not blow them out at all. Instead, they burned brighter and brighter.

Slowly, slowly, there will be more and more lights like this, until they are hot enough to ignite the darkness covering the sky.

…………

Under the bean-sized but bright whale oil lamp, Armand sat by the fireplace. His hair was wet from fresh washing, and wisps of white steam rose from the heat of the fireplace.

During this month, Armand sometimes hid in his riverside villa to write furiously, and sometimes ran to the streets or the wild to wander around and chat. The investigation report that was originally only a thin page of paper is now as thick as an index finger.

There was a reason why Horn decided to send Armand to the windmill, and his resume was quite suitable for this job.

Although Armand was a central monk, he always did a lot of local grassroots work, either uniting people or developing local organizations.

During the military training period on Autumn Island, Armand was in charge of developing the loyalists in Jeanne d'Arc.

During the conquest of Jinhe Township, Armand developed a network of monks and priests in Cassia County.

After the Battle of Rapid City, Armand was also responsible for organizing the Holy Fathers in Hotham County and Upper and Lower River Counties.

There is a reason why Armand and René have a good relationship. The two have cooperated on the secret front countless times.

This time, the mission in the windmill land was even easier for him to accomplish. The atmosphere here is much better than that of the closed and conservative Thousand River Valley.

Putting down the pen in his hand, looking at the list of members of the Holy Fathers Society in front of him, Armand couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.

The number of monks and observers of the Holy Fathers' Society in Windmill Dam City has reached about 300, mainly poor citizens, self-employed farmers, laborers and low-level monks.

Although there are only more than 30 real core members besides a few lecturers from Qianhe Valley, they are already actively participating in social life.

Armand picked up a booklet from the mess on the table and read it over and over again.

Unlike the veiled reprints and criticisms in Yilin, these booklets are all about topics that cannot be touched at all.

The metaphysical ones include classical theodicy and the right to freedom, and the physical ones include the exposure of the absurd corruption of monks and a large number of jokes about the Inquisition and the Holy See.

There are also a lot of reports and records from the public, such as a day in the life of a porter, a day in the life of a potter, a day in the life of a farmer, etc.

The next step was to begin printing theological pamphlets of the Holy Word sect and to start preaching extensively with these members as the core.

Whenever he thought of this, Armand's originally tired spirit would feel much better.

"boom!"

The door was kicked open with a loud bang, and Armand, who was concentrating on his work, was so frightened that the booklet in his hand fell to the ground.

"Armand!" Ruffier rushed to Armand's side, stepping on the solid wooden floor with his deerskin boots, and slammed his hands on the table. "I ask you, I ask you, Sugar, when will it arrive?!"

(End of this chapter)