Chapter 431 Literature
Conquered the northern coast of the Mediterranean, the town of Troyes in southern Castile.
Troyes was peaceful and quiet at night. A dim light was on in a suite of a high-end hotel near the port. Dorothy, dressed in pajamas, was sitting on the sofa in the room, examining the otherworldly knowledge she had recently retrieved using the secret teachings of the Wolf Blood Society and the miscellaneous news from the library, trying to confirm their origins and uses.
This time, there were two copies of alien knowledge exchanged. The first copy, "The Secret Rules of Voodoo", came from a world that was almost the same as the Earth where he lived before. He had heard of the so-called Voodoo before.
Voodoo is a religion that originated in West Africa. It is the product of the indigenous people of West Africa fighting against the religious invasion of European colonists. It is said that during the colonial movement on Earth, when the powerful colonists occupied the land of the indigenous people and enslaved them, they also brought their own religion, Christianity.
The colonists forced the natives to convert to Christianity, but the natives did not want to give up their original beliefs, but they could not compete with the powerful military force of the colonists, so they came up with a way to pretend to believe. The natives mixed the gods they believed in with the gods and saints of Christianity, worshipped the colonists' God as their own god, and also integrated their own religious rituals into Christianity, retaining the core of their original beliefs under the shell of Christianity, in order to resist the religious invasion of the colonists.
This special way of belief, after continuous development and the integration of various other messy things, finally formed Voodoo. On the earth where Dorothy originally lived, Voodoo is still thriving and is even the state religion of some countries.
The "Secret Rules of Voodoo" in Dorothy's hand now is the experience and rules accumulated by the West African natives when they were disguising their beliefs in the early days of Voodoo. Since Xia Shu's current situation is quite similar to that of the West African natives, much of the content above can serve as a reference for Dorothy.
Another piece of knowledge is "The Hidden Volume of the Amakusa Cross Sect". This piece of knowledge comes from the world of A Certain Magical Index, and the Earth world where Dorothy used to live actually also has similar content.
The Amakusa Cross Church is the product of Christianity... or the Christianity of the Magic Index world, which was formed after it was spread to ancient Japan. Christianity began to spread to Japan in large quantities during the Warring States Period. After the end of the Warring States Period and the beginning of the Edo Period, the shogunate regime that unified the world abolished the spread of Christianity in order to consolidate itself, and began to persecute Christians across the country. Under the high pressure of the shogunate, the Japanese Christians were forced to go underground and became an underground church.
The Amakusa Cross Cult, which has gone underground, has always been under the pursuit of the shogunate authorities, so it has to use all means to hide its beliefs. In the long-term confrontation, they have created a series of actions to carry out secret religious activities, specializing in doing them under the table.
For example, they would combine the teachings of Christianity with Shintoism and Buddhism to a limited extent, worship the Catholic God and saints of Christianity as gods or Buddhas, hide various religious activities in various daily lives at the time, secretly perform rituals or chant in seemingly ordinary daily activities such as daily conversations, dressing, walking, and dining, use daily life to confuse the shogunate and maintain their beliefs in secret.
And this "Hidden Volume of the Amakusa Cross Sect" talks about such a method of integrating religious activities into daily life. It records the methods and experiences of how to simplify, conceal and make various rituals daily. If you read it in its entirety, you can even conduct religious activities in busy areas in public.
Although the name of Amakusa Cross Church is unique to the world of Magical Index, there was actually a similar organization in ancient Japan in the original Earth world where Dorothy lives. The Cross Church of Magical Index is actually similar to Christianity.
Voodoo is a religion in which the people of West Africa worship the gods and saints of Christianity as their own gods in order to preserve their original religion. Amakusa Cross is a religion in which ancient Japanese Christians worship the gods and Buddhas of theology and Buddhism as their own gods or saints in order to preserve their Christianity.
Although these two seem to be completely opposite, they are actually the same in nature. They are both some means that people have to take in order to preserve their beliefs under the oppression of a powerful country. They are both methods of covert resistance that people spontaneously developed in the struggle against the powerful. Although the two pieces of knowledge worship completely different gods, they are both valuable experiences accumulated by the protesters in the process of resistance, which is of great help to Dorothy's subsequent work.
'With these two things, plus the secret document from the Wolf Blood Society, I have a wealth of reference materials. Now I just need to get the detailed information about Xia Shu's beliefs, and then I can officially help them draw up a guide for false conversion. With so many references here, it's not difficult at all.
'In this way, Vanya and the other pilgrims are safe, the people of Xia Shu are saved, the church's power is expanded, and I have gained a new batch of spirituality. You, me, and everyone else... It feels like everyone is happy. With this ending for every family, is there really no one who is losing out?'
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy thought thoughtfully. After carefully thinking about Xia Shu's series of experiences, she had an idea in her mind.
'By the way, how did Xia Shu, a native of South Island who rarely had contact with the outside world, know so much about the lack of escorts on the Pilgrim's fleet, and then launch a precise attack on the fleet's route?
'The time and place are so strange, this must be an ambush specially arranged after obtaining sufficient intelligence. However, the intelligence of the church is not easy to obtain. This can't be divination. Even I can't break the church's anti-divination defense, let alone Xia Shu.
"So... Natsuki must have gotten this information from some special channel. I guess I can ask them about it later."
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy thought about something in her mind, and then she shifted her attention to Xia Shu's side, preparing to proceed with the next action.
…
At this time, the main island of Xia Shu was still in darkness. After Vanya successfully persuaded Amman, Amman decided to gather the elders of each island early tomorrow morning to discuss false conversion. He promised Vanya that after the discussion, he would send a letter to the church and open Xia Shu's documents to Vanya for her to send to the priests of her own tribe, so that they could refer to it and formulate a false conversion plan suitable for Xia Shu.
But Dorothy didn't want to wait that long. She immediately signaled Vanya to tell Amman that if she wanted to convince the elders during the discussion, she must immediately come up with some feasible methods for them to see. Otherwise, she might be stuck in a long-term argument due to disagreements and miss the best opportunity to express her conversion.
If we wait until the church's rescue team has forcibly rescued some of the hostages, or wait until the fleet arrives at Xia Shu's gate before choosing to convert, then our sincerity will be greatly reduced, and it will be a question whether others will accept us.
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