Chapter 118 Beginning
"I don't see where my student is wrong," Nova said coldly.
The bell of the Church of Light just happened to ring. As everyone looked at him as a madman, he simply took a step forward and jumped directly onto the prayer table, focusing everyone's attention on him.
"As everyone knows, Zephir, the God of Light and Glory, has fallen into a deep sleep since the last century." The black-haired young man casually rolled up the flyer into a loudspeaker and raised the volume. The bells stopped ringing, and the onlookers in White Tower Town gradually quieted down. "With the exception of the respected Pope, everyone in the Church of Radiant Light now claims to be the agent of God's will. Why don't you cleanse the filth and corruption within the Church? Instead, you use the name of God to engage in evil deeds, causing believers to doubt the justice and generosity of light. Let me ask you, who is the true blasphemer?"
"War, famine, plague, death, poverty, corruption, theft, adultery, torture - it is clear that the light hates such disasters. But priests, priests before me, do you dare to ask yourselves, have you ever truly exercised the will of the light?" Every word he said was extremely clear and powerful, and more people gathered around him.
"—Have the number of people dying of hunger and poverty in White Tower Town decreased? Have the rampant corruption and theft in the Silver Iris Empire curbed? Has all the sorrow and pain in the world dissipated?!"
As the crowd grew larger and larger, the leading priest's expression grew increasingly grim. "Mr. Nova! As a theologian, how could you violate the Evangelical Covenant and openly blaspheme God in the Church of Light?"
He winked at the other priests, signaling them to pull the man off the table first - but the man dropped the leaflet and, with the agility of a cat, dodged all the hands that tried to grab him until he stood in front of the group of arrested students.
"Yes, I swore to the Okansele River that I would uphold the highest justice and conscience of a scholar. I would declare to the world all the facts and truths I know, and I would not discuss the gods themselves in non-academic settings out of selfish desires—"
The theologian stood high up, arms outstretched, chest bare, as if all the sin and innocence of the world stretched between his hands. The skylight filtered through the church's stained windows, and those bright and solemn colors made his shadow particularly tall and awe-inspiring, appearing inviolable.
"I dare to swear once again on the Okansele River. I can swear right here and now—everything I say at this moment is out of anger towards the criminals who betrayed their country, just like the anger that every person with a conscience should have." He looked sternly at the people of White Tower who were watching, his voice gradually becoming deeper. "My compatriots, look at this winter that's too long. The poor are freezing and starving to death. We have no bread, we have no fire, and yet a group of swindlers are gnawing at the wealth that belongs to our country and every one of us in Silver Iris like maggots!"
The crowd began to stir slightly, and more and more people looked at the priests with increasingly unfriendly eyes - the royal family's recent instigation was not ineffective, and everyone had witnessed what happened in Black County.
The theologian turned to look at the priests, whose faces were livid. "But do you dare to swear by the Okunsele River? My attempt to denounce evil and uphold the nobility of light in front of everyone is driven by filthy selfish desires, while you arrested a group of students who dared to speak the truth and were heartbroken by the depravity of the despicable, just to maintain the dignity of light? Don't you have eyes to discern the truth, and don't you have a sense of shame?!"
Some people began to shout under the cover of the crowd.
"Let them go!"
"Release those students!"
"The light shows mercy to all equally and will not allow any innocent person to suffer injustice. Everything will be judged by the Heretic Inquisition." The veins on the leader's forehead throbbed. If it weren't for the large crowd of onlookers, they would have already pinned the damned fellow to the ground and stuffed sackcloth in his mouth. "Yet you are here, talking nonsense and misleading the believers. What on earth are you trying to do? Are you rebelling against the entire Church?!"
But the bastard didn't follow his ideas at all.
"Ha, light has mercy on the world, but you have mercy on gold coins." The black-haired young man standing on the table sneered and shrugged, "You just want to find a home for the poor gold coins, such as the warm donation box at the church door."
The crowd watching couldn't help but want to laugh, but they didn't dare to laugh out loud because of the face of the Holy See - the priest heard a low groan and almost died of anger.
At this moment, he suddenly realized how ridiculous and useless it was to debate with a theology professor who made a living by writing and eloquence.
As long as they can delay time, the priest thought with gritted teeth, now they can only wait until the Inquisition comes, and then they can directly disperse the onlookers on the grounds of arresting heretics. By then, won't they be able to manipulate a mere ordinary person at their will?
But they did not wait for the Inquisition, but a ferocious and protective bird of prey appeared first.
Adrian and the other three students suddenly found their light chains snapping. They were pushed forward by an invisible force, stumbling away from the guards. Vice Principal Wyatt immediately stepped forward and pulled the young men who had caused such trouble behind him. Rabelais took the opportunity to pull his own student, who was still standing on the table, down from his position.
"You damn kid!" He lowered his voice and cursed, "You're really capable of doing this. You're really going to die!"
Just now, when he saw the other party moving freely among the countless hands stretched out to him, he was almost so nervous that he couldn't breathe.
"Don't worry, teacher. Who would be so foolish as to argue with them about who's right and who's wrong?" Nova lowered his voice. "Since you two have already informed Mr. Owl, I just need to attract everyone's attention and make them hesitate so that they don't dare to attack the students in public."
As a powerful person whose strength is close to that of a saint, the other party's existence is the biggest deterrent.
As expected, when the man wearing an owl mask and holding a cane appeared in the Church of Light, the powerful pressure that suddenly swept over the entire place caused the expressions of the priests present to change drastically. No one expected that the mysterious president of the Oakensele Society would show up here.
"...Mr. Owl." The leading priest swallowed his saliva, his bones already creaking under the anger of the powerful man. "Please don't make things difficult for us. We are also..."
"Let the Inquisition come to White Tower University to arrest people." Owl's hoarse and sharp voice interrupted him: "I want to see who dares to set foot in White Tower University!"
"……professor."
Over there, Owl was still in a standoff, when Nova suddenly heard someone calling him in a hoarse voice. Adrian, the president of the White Tower Youth Association, quietly approached. This normally high-spirited, cheerful and lively young man was now pale and looked terrified, yet he was the calmest of the students.
"I'm sorry." The young man uttered a single word with a pale face. Nova paused, suppressing his almost instinctive tension. He stared at the other man's expression for a moment, analyzing it—guilt, self-blame, pain, bewilderment...
Adrian froze under those smoky gray eyes, his heartbeat quickening and cold sweats breaking out. He was as nervous as when he was arrested. He almost expected to be scolded on the spot, or worse, to be met with cold indifference. But in the end, all he heard was an emotionless "Let's talk about it when we get back."
Adrian stared at him in amazement. This stern and cold teacher, whom he even privately criticized as arrogant, had taken all the danger upon himself.
The young man couldn't help but recall again the other person's appearance of standing on a high place with his arms spread out.
Can't take your eyes away. No one can take their eyes away.
The bells are his crown, and the soul of an unconquerable man will be immortalized behind him, with no room for meanness or cowardice - his name must be silver, the color of a burning and roaring star.
The Inquisition arrived, and Nova could clearly sense the sticky malice of their letters, like a venomous snake licking his cheek. But in the end, the Radiant Church didn't take anyone away—at least not yet. They successfully returned to the president's office at White Tower University.
Several students from the White Tower Youth Club had been scolded by the dean of the seminary along the way, and the old man was furious. His sharp and wonderful sarcasm and scolding made people sigh that it turned out that the big devil also had a master. When Rabelais began to breathe while holding the teacup handed to him by his equally troubled disciple, Wyatt hurriedly gave a few instructions and took the opportunity to let those relieved young people slip out of the office.
The owl looked at them with the help of his cane, his eyes focused on Nova, who remained silent on the way back.
"You expected this," he muttered in a strangely raspy voice.
"It's only a matter of time." The black-haired young man glanced at him expressionlessly. "The Holy See, oppressed by the royal family, has been on edge lately and will absolutely not tolerate the decline of its authority. The royal court is eager to provoke a fight between the Academy and the Holy See. If it doesn't happen this time, there will be another time."
——And he just accelerated this process intentionally or unintentionally.
"How can you involve students in this kind of thing?!" Wyatt suddenly realized the owl's unspoken meaning and turned his head sharply, looking at the black-haired young man in shock: "They are just some ignorant children who have no idea of the true meaning of what they are doing..."
He swallowed his unfinished words, and pain and sorrow suddenly appeared in his eyes - he had no right to say these things, and the other party's actual age was not even much older than those students.
Wyatt seemed to have aged a lot in an instant. He closed his eyes and turned to look in the direction of his old friend: "What should we do? Go talk to those old guys in the Vatican?"
Before Owl could speak, Nova interrupted him, "It's useless. Whether this was an accident or deliberate, the moment they arrested the White Tower University students, it already meant that the Glowing Church had decided to break off relations."
He looked at everyone coldly and seriously: "No matter how you delay, you can't stop the butcher's knife from falling. This is the beginning of a war. You have to learn to retreat."
This statement was nothing short of alarmist. Who could foresee the bloody storm that would come from a dispute that was currently a happy ending? But Owl didn't refute him, as if he had already accepted this statement.
Wyatt's expression gradually became serious: "How can it be so serious?"
——Because of divine history.
Nova calmly looked into the lower part of the pair of yellow gemstone eyes on the owl mask, while the others looked at them blankly.
"Learn not to take the initiative. Blindly tolerating and giving in will only lead to losing more." The young man did not answer directly. His voice was very soft, but it sounded particularly cold and decisive.
"——And what we have to do is make it bigger."
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