Chapter 819 How did the Empire become like this!
"Lynn, how's the thing I asked you to do going?"
The girl in the black nun's robes took a step back, looking down and not daring to look at the priest in front of her.
“They all diligently perform their duties, cleaning the church every morning, reciting doctrinal texts, distributing food to believers, and maintaining the wetlands.”
"Who asked you that? I'm asking about the progress of the sacred object's creation!" The girl's words were suddenly interrupted, and she was startled, looking up.
Opposite her stood an elderly priest, wearing a white robe with gold patterns on the cuffs.
This is the symbol of a high-ranking priest; white symbolizes a bright candle, and gold symbolizes candlelight, subtly reflecting the doctrines of the Candlelight Order.
The Candlelight Vigil is very particular about these rituals, and no one, from top to bottom, may overstep them in the slightest, except for that somewhat eccentric pope.
The fact that the priest before him could embroider gold patterns on his cuffs indicated that he was already a bishop who could manage all the affairs of an entire church. Even smaller churches might not have a bishop. The fact that the man before him could have this title was thanks to a workshop here that manufactured sacred objects.
And this is what the old priest cares about most.
"Lynn, I'll say it again, don't waste any more time on those believers. What the Vatican needs now are holy relics. Without sacred machinery, how can we deal with the Candlelight Enemy?"
"But now there's already a famine outside."
"Famines come every few years, but have they ever shaken the great candlelight? The sanctity of the candlelight needs to be maintained by us believers. What use is it to save more starving people outside? Can they withstand Castel's bullets? Now go and thoroughly search the workshop to see if any of the unclean ones are slacking off!"
Lynn's lips trembled slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she pursed them and lowered her head: "I'll go right away, High Priest Meleageros."
Lynn walked out of the church, accompanied and guarded by several Crusader knights. It was very chaotic outside, and even near the church, soldiers were needed to accompany her.
"Sister, when will the relief supplies be distributed?"
"My lord, please save my mother!"
"Lady Lynn, please give me something to eat! My child really can't hold on any longer!"
Almost as soon as Lynn stepped out of the church, she was surrounded. Before she could react, several church knights kicked and punched the people around her away.
"Get out of here!"
"Don't block my way!"
"You lazybones, go to work when you're hungry, what are you doing begging for food here?"
Lynn, feeling a pang of pity, stopped them: "Don't hit them anymore. These people just want to eat."
"Then you should go to the city hall. Blocking the church entrance is just to see if Miss Lynn is kind!"
Lynn clutched the hem of her nun's habit, momentarily at a loss for words.
Providing disaster relief is not really the church's responsibility.
The empire has always maintained a tradition that the secular is secular and the supernatural is supernatural, and the church only collects tithes and has no obligation to provide relief to the people.
This is the work of the lords.
But now.
Lynn looked around and saw that the city was deserted and desolate. Some houses nearby were even overgrown with weeds, and there were many starving people begging for food on the streets and alleys.
This is in the city; it wasn't like this before.
Lynn from "City Hall" shook her head.
The lord here is probably still holding banquets every day and doesn't care about these disaster victims at all.
Since the assassination of that empress, the empire has gradually fallen into chaos.
Beatrice became the nominal empress, but the Papacy merely kept her in the palace.
The lords in the four regions ruled independently, the four dukes in the North declared independence, the Papacy and the Mechanicus merged, and for the first time, the power of the Church surpassed that of the Emperor.
However, the Papacy seemed to have little interest in secular matters. Apart from taking complete control of the Rhine, it only occasionally made simple demands on the lords, and as long as they hinted at paying tithes, it didn't care about anything else.
Of course, any lord who attempted to seize imperial power would be immediately suppressed, and soon these lords, large and small, discovered that as long as they nominally supported the church, there were almost no restrictions.
Previously, they had some reservations due to Isabella's constraints, but after the Papacy took control of the empire, the noble lords almost immediately abolished the empire's civil service system and instead supported their own blood relatives.
With the turbulent times and no one knowing what the future held, and with the Church hanging like a sword of Damocles overhead, most lords were no longer very concerned with governing their territories.
With the church keeping things under control, and other lords not coming to annex the land if things went wrong, more and more lords began to indulge in pleasure.
Take this lord, for example. Lynn has heard many outrageous things about him. It is said that he holds banquets and drinks day and night. When the people protested, he even ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows at the starving people. It was only after Lynn couldn't stand it anymore and secretly warned him that he restrained himself a little.
"How did the empire become like this?"
Lynn felt a bitter taste in her mouth.
She was a native of this city, having grown up here since childhood. Although she had joined the Candlelight Society, she still had a deep affection for this land.
She wanted to help these people, but the Vatican didn't care about them at all.
Lynn remembered the bishop's words; she had to go to the workshop.
It is said that the war at the front is going badly recently, and more relics are urgently needed to support the effort. The bishop has sent almost all of his personnel there.
“Castel. Is he that powerful? So many holy relics couldn’t defeat them,” Lynn murmured.
"It's said that Lord Hughes is a demon, wielding blasphemous power and even cooperating with evil gods, which is why the battle is so difficult," a soldier beside him replied, then quickly added, realizing his mistake:
"Of course, there are no shadows under the holy candlelight, and justice will ultimately prevail over evil!"
Is it evil?
Lynn bit her lip.
She didn't understand all that; Castel was just a distant concept to her, but the disaster victims and famine were right before her eyes.
Perhaps the bishop is right; only by defeating the enemy can we have the time to treat these disaster victims. Lynn thought to herself.
She had a vague feeling that this was not the case. Even when the situation wasn't so bad, the task the Vatican assigned her was always just collecting tithes. As for the believers...
The Vatican has never mentioned them.
Lynn felt something was wrong, but she was just a nun. She didn't know what was right or what she could do, so she could only blindly carry out the bishop's orders while secretly suffering.
"Ms. Lynn, we've arrived."
The voice of the guard beside her brought her back to reality. Unconsciously, she had already walked to the front of the workshop. She looked up.
The building in front of us was even taller than the church we had just seen, and a fully assembled steam tank was parked in front of it.
(End of this chapter)
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