In short, the young boy was the youngest son of a wealthy family in the inner city, and a very favored one at that. After a moment of deep thought, he impulsively asked the blind saintess, Thiel, to come home with him and settle in his courtyard, so as to escape the church's improper demands.
"Judging from the tone of his words, it seems that the big families in the inner city are also dissatisfied with the church's actions in recent years, and there are even occasional minor frictions between them."
Those who knew the inside story shook their heads slightly, having anticipated this.
However, the blind saintess did not choose to accept the invitation directly.
"We were just strangers who met by chance, how could I possibly accept such a great favor?" she chuckled. "Besides, I have no intention of doing anything dangerous."
"You already know the truth about the secrets behind the Holy Advent Day, don't you have any thoughts on that?"
Alice tilted her head in confusion, a fact clearly noticeable from the shift in weight on her head and the snow-white strands of hair gently scratching her ear.
In response to the question, Thiel smiled gently again: "I do not approve of such behavior and events. However, if this is true, and if someone really has to make a sacrifice, then let it start with me."
For no apparent reason, my intuition told me that she was serious when she said those words, and there was absolutely no lie in them.
She straightened her back, brought her knees together, and placed her hands folded in front of her lower abdomen. There was no fear or trembling in her shoulders and neck. Only her eyelashes trembled slightly as she lowered her eyelids, and it was unclear what she was looking at.
The Frozen Snow City is a city within a mountain shell, devoid of sunlight and even encased in ice and snow. Only a giant polyhedron floats in mid-air, serving as the city's daytime light source.
And at this moment, perhaps by mere coincidence, a soft ray of light fell perfectly upon Til, as if draping her in a thin veil, or casting a sacred curtain over her ordinary, gentle face.
She has a heart that is dedicated to selfless service. Perhaps she was born that way, or perhaps after witnessing the hellish scenes for many years, she genuinely longed to do something to help others.
"I sincerely hope that this world can become a paradise of happiness and peace, an Eden for everyone."
She made her declaration in complete silence.
It wasn't just the help she provided that made people support her, but perhaps it was also her kind heart that hoped everything could become better that led people to spontaneously embrace her and bestow upon her the title of saint.
In the slightly crowded room, some people sighed and some shook their heads, but in the end, Stanley took the initiative to break the silence.
“…Till, I want you to know that your life doesn’t belong to you alone. We have more important things to do, bigger crises to stop, and we can’t just waste our time here.”
He seemed to have been unaware of the saintess's feelings before this. I even caught a glimpse of him being so panicked that he was speechless. Now, he anxiously got up and tried to dissuade me.
"If it can truly help others, I don't think it's something that isn't worth doing."
"but……"
"Instead of trying to dissuade me, why not try other approaches and find other reasons to deny my views?" Till interrupted, his expression calm. "For example, the possibility of the ritual succeeding, or perhaps you are all quite dissatisfied with the church that occupies the top of this city, right?"
Just as she said.
To prevent the blind saint from becoming a sacrifice for the Church's display of mercy, instead of refuting Thiel's already determined decision, it would be simpler and more effective to start from other avenues, such as disproving the possibility of the ritual's success or exposing the Church's long-standing atrocities.
While disproving the existence of deities is just as difficult as proving their existence—after all, no one has ever truly seen one, and it's impossible to completely refute another's viewpoint—it's even possible that those brainwashed into becoming believers, whether by themselves or others, spontaneously and strongly desire to believe that everything is true, that a great deity truly exists above, protecting their daily lives. In such cases, even presenting various doctrines and emphasizing the invaluable nature of human life will not be able to win them all over; instead, it may incite even more intense hostility.
However, if we start with the ritual itself that is about to take place on Advent, even the slightest mistake could lead to a situation that collapses at the slightest touch.
Spells are essentially the crystallization of wisdom, formed by shaping and altering magical energy to achieve specific forms and structures. This is why graduation exams in academies often involve modifying a particular spell. However, introducing errors or impurities can lead to failure or even backlash.
To break the spell that is about to be released, one needs to understand and be familiar with its principles and the flow of magic. This is especially true for ritual studies, which is a more advanced field of knowledge than ordinary spells.
Of course, if all else fails, there's the option of directly destroying the ceremony site. But it's said that the square would be filled with the vast majority of the city's residents watching, and a single misstep could easily cause a large number of casualties. This is not only something Saint Thiel didn't want to "see," but it was also not in my plans.
The other path requires the combined efforts of everyone.
The church, which occupies the top of the power structure of this hollow city that is only superficially glamorous but is actually completely broken inside, has committed not only the illegal kidnapping, use of human sacrifice, unequal discrimination, unfair transactions, and condoning of violence that we already know about, but also many other evils that have not yet been noticed by us.
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