Chapter 74 [The Death of the Pope]
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Mela had already informed Mrs. Jones of their decision to leave early, so a carriage was waiting at the manor gate early in the morning to take her and Yuriel away.
Yuriel boarded the carriage first, while Meera lingered in front of it for a moment, taking a thin piece of paper from Mrs. Jones, which bore an unalterable family crest.
“Although I don’t know where you plan to go next, this is essentially a pass guaranteed by the Furhorst family. With it, you can travel to other territories openly,” Mrs. Jones explained, seeing Mela’s puzzled expression.
Not everyone who wants to leave the territory is willing to become a merchant, since the identity of a merchant is even less respectable than that of a farmer. Therefore, these people naturally have to find other ways to circumvent the kingdom's laws.
One way is the certificate with the family crest that Mela has.
These days, the reputation of an aristocrat carries an absolute guarantee. Having it is like openly telling others that Mela has the powerful Furhorst family backing her up.
Of course, the fact that Mrs. Jones dared to present such a document to Mela meant that she was not worried that Mela might get into trouble later and implicate them.
Ultimately, quite a few nobles did this, and it even became a means for some minor nobles to amass wealth. As for whether the person holding this certificate was related to their family, everyone knew the truth.
If you let my people off the hook today, I'll let yours off the hook tomorrow. Everyone turns a blind eye, and that's how things end.
"Thank you, this voucher will be very useful to me." Mela carefully put the paper away, turned and got into the carriage, her purple skirt billowing in the air in a beautiful arc.
This scene was witnessed by Lex, who was standing at the second-floor window.
“Since you’re already standing here, why doesn’t Your Highness just see Miss Mela off?” Cherge walked to Lex’s side and watched with him as the carriage carrying Mela and Yuriel drove away.
Lex turned around calmly. "There's nothing to give you. This is just a temporary separation. We'll meet again someday."
Sensing Lex's certainty and determination, Cherk shrugged, then glanced one last time at the carriage that had turned into a small black dot in the distance. Suddenly, he saw another small black dot approaching the manor.
As the black dot gradually enlarged, Cherk finally saw that it was a person riding a horse.
Soon, Lex and Cherk were invited to Fernaki's room and learned a piece of news that had just come from the capital.
*
Meanwhile, after bidding farewell to the carriage, Mela and Yuriel left Furhorst territory without incident.
With the pass given by Mrs. Jones, they no longer needed to take a detour and could directly follow Erica's trail.
They just didn't know why, but they still couldn't catch up with Erika.
"I...I can't fly anymore, let's rest for a bit." Silas landed on the ground, panting heavily, almost collapsing onto his bottom.
Mela and Yuriel also found a tree stump to sit on; they were both exhausted.
Mela rubbed her aching calves, only to find that her shoulders were also painfully stiff.
"I have a feeling that if we keep going like this, we'll have traveled through half the kingdom."
After a while, Silas regained some strength and said weakly.
In fact, Mela had the same feeling. The Dark Forest was located in the south-central part of the kingdom. Although they had taken many detours, if they had drawn their route on a map, they would have found that they were getting closer and closer to the royal city located in the very center of the kingdom.
This forced Mela to be more cautious.
Why does Erica want to go to the royal city?
Does she know someone there?
Or perhaps... she's gotten caught up in a conflict that Mela didn't want to see.
Thinking this, Mela looked at Yuriel, who returned her a puzzled look.
“Let’s go. Let’s try to find a place to rest for the night before sunset.” Mela didn’t voice her suspicions. After all, even if Yuriel knew, it wouldn’t help. Instead, she would worry that Erica might be put in even greater danger.
Unfortunately, Mela and her friends weren't very lucky today. Silas had circled around in the sky beforehand but hadn't found a village near the foot of the mountain, so they had to turn back and find a narrow cave to spend the night.
The gathered branches burst into flames, illuminating the cave where Mela and Yuriel could only sit against one side of the stone wall.
Silas didn't even have a place to stand, so he could only huddle on Mela's lap.
Mela slept sitting up all night, but she didn't get a good night's sleep at all, and kept yawning the next morning.
"Here, have some fruit." Yuriel handed over a bright green fruit from the side.
Mela took it, put it to her lips and took a bite, and immediately her whole face scrunched up from the sourness.
But the sour fruit also had its advantages, namely that Mela became completely awake and stopped yawning.
So Mela handed the remaining fruit to Silas, who was also yawning frequently. Before the unsuspecting Silas could even be happy about Mela's feeding, he was so sour that he spat the fruit directly onto the ground.
"Ptooey, ptooey, what kind of fruit is this? Why is it so sour?"
"This is a fruit I picked from the tree. Don't worry, it's not poisonous." Yuriel simply thought that if Mela and Silas continued to be so listless, they wouldn't be able to travel much today, so she specially gave them a sour fruit to cheer them up.
As she spoke, Yuriel told Mela and Silas not to be shy with her, as she had picked several more of these sour fruits. They could ask her for another one whenever they felt sleepy.
The thought of their still-sour tongues instantly dispelled their sleepiness, and they were even full of energy, arriving at a small town just before the afternoon sun reached its scorching peak.
What struck Mela as odd was that even when the people in the town were laughing and joking, there was a faint trace of melancholy on their faces.
So Mela told Yuriel to go find a place to rest while she pretended to buy something and stood in front of a stall listening for a while, but unfortunately she didn't hear anyone talking about anything useful.
That evening, while Mela and Yuriel were dining in the hostel lobby, the owner suddenly emerged from behind the counter and said to everyone with a sorrowful expression, "Let us put down our knives and forks for a moment and observe three minutes of silence for the passing of the great Pope Alonso."
Then Mela saw that everyone else in the hall actually put down their cutlery, put their hands together, closed their eyes, and joined the shop owner in a moment of silence.
Three minutes later, the shop owner announced, "It's done," and they opened their eyes and continued their meal as if nothing had happened.
This was the first time Yuriel had encountered such a scene. She knew that everyone on this land was nominally a believer in the Church, but she had never imagined that anyone would genuinely be devoted to the Church, or even that the Pope, who was artificially elevated by the Church and looked down upon the world from a high position, would be filled with a silent fanaticism.
Yuriel subconsciously touched her arm and found that she had developed goosebumps.
Once back in her room, she couldn't help but ask Mela, "What was going on with all those people just now?"
“Didn’t you hear what the shopkeeper said? The Pope is dead, and they are mourning him,” Mela replied.
“But they look more like they’re being controlled.” Yuriel’s expression was as if she had swallowed a fly.
"Perhaps they are controlled by their so-called faith?"
Mela reminisces about the years she spent growing up in Whitepine.
"You can try to imagine that as soon as you are born, you are taken to church for baptism; when you grow up and want to be with the person you love, you have to make a vow in front of the priest in the church; and when you get old and stop breathing, you have to lie in a coffin and have a funeral under the supervision of a priest."
"There are only so many important things in a person's life, and the church is involved in all of them, so you'll believe whatever it says at that point."
For example, the church says that everyone should love the great Pope as they would their own father.
For example, the Church says that the Pope's passing is a huge blow to us, and everyone should be saddened by it.
Therefore, even though most people have never met the Pope in their lives, they still feel as if the sky has fallen when they hear the news of his death.
It wouldn't be surprising if they did something at that point.
This includes the moment of silence that the hostel owner initiated in the lobby just now.
“…I still find it too terrifying,” Yuriel said, sending a chill down her spine. “Everyone should have their own voice in their head, instead of letting other people’s voices dictate how we live.”
Mela remembered the church saying that people cannot lie, otherwise they will be despised by others.
But she thought that if Yuriel heard this, Yuriel would probably start to refute it.
If it's a white lie, why can't it be told? Is it right to bluntly hurt someone? Besides, who can guarantee they'll never lie in their entire life?
“However, perhaps this is why the church cannot tolerate the existence of witches,” Mela said, as if joking.
Only those who can think critically will not be led by the nose by the so-called doctrines of the church.
Didn't you see how those educated nobles were all so good at putting on airs, pretending to accept the church's faith, but actually not taking the church's rhetoric of suffering to achieve happiness seriously at all?
If people have to suffer in order to achieve happiness, then why are these nobles born with a silver spoon in their mouths, enjoying endless gourmet food and countless sets of gorgeous clothes adorned with countless jewels?
Unless they fall into dire straits, such as being stripped of their noble titles by the king, they will never experience hardship in their lives.
It is even less likely that they will genuinely believe in the church.
Furthermore, since there are only so many ordinary people, if the nobles exploit them, the church will not be able to squeeze out a significant amount of profit from them. Therefore, there is considerable conflict between the nobles and the church.
For some reason, Mela thought of Viscount Fister and Bishop George once again after a long time.
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