Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 460 - 459: The New Doctrine

In the evening, the sunset has already leaned against the western horizon, the giant sun has cast a golden-red edge over the western part of the forest, and the glow that spreads along the clouds stretches across the sky like a curtain, dyeing the entire city with the same golden-red as the forest.

Gawain walked with Amber on the way to the Church of the Holy Light, and the bells signaling the end of the workday sounded from several main bell towers in the city, echoing between the streets and markets.

"Hey—it’s time to get off work!" Amber’s ears perked up, listening to the bells in the air, showing a happy expression on her face, "Then I’m not going to accompany..."

Gawain casually grabbed the half-elf lady by the collar and pulled her back to his side: "Don’t cause trouble—you don’t even follow this work schedule to clock in and out. Speaking of which, is it really so hard for you to go to the church? Didn’t you say that the church managed by Wright doesn’t have that kind of atmosphere that makes you uncomfortable?"

As Gawain lifted Amber by the collar, she twisted vigorously while muttering, "But Wright is so annoying, he always seizes the opportunity to nag me about being honest, being steady, not sneaking around, not being lazy, can’t do this, can’t do that... I’m not a believer of the Holy Light, why should I listen to his nagging..."

Gawain glanced at this girl: "The way you say it... I’m tempted to tie you up in the Church of the Holy Light for some proper education."

Amber: "...Oh my bad temper, look at my lip movement, look at my lip movement—don’t hit me after you see it..."

Gawain suddenly started to doubt whether bringing Amber along was a mistake—he regretted having brought this annoying presence.

But when going out alone, without Amber around to banter... he felt terribly bored.

This is truly a troublesome contradiction.

The church door was ajar, faint sounds could be heard from inside as if a sermon was underway. Gawain looked down at Amber, signaling with his eyes not to cause trouble once inside, then gently pushed open the church door.

A peaceful and harmonious atmosphere lingered in the church. Gawain saw Priest Wright standing at the pulpit in a very simple robe, narrating the story of the birth of the Holy Light, while about a dozen residents sat on benches along the aisle. A small figure emitting a faint glow and appearing semi-transparent was also sitting with the crowd, looking up in an earnest listening posture, though every few sentences, she would start to squirm and glance around, obviously not focused.

Gawain quietly led Amber to find a seat in the back row. Wright noticed them and paused slightly; Gawain nodded subtly, indicating to continue the sermon without concern.

Wright’s steady and gentle voice echoed in the church: "...when the ’Endless Night’ continued to the seventh day, the first Holy Light was born at the darkest hour, a horse keeper, filled with hope for light, prayed for light to descend, and thus the Holy Light responded to him, bringing illumination in the dark mist..."

This is the story of the birth of the Holy Light, known to every believer of the Holy Light, but when Wright told this story, he omitted all empty and unwarranted praise for the God of the Holy Light, instead using the simplest and straightforward words to interpret the most down-to-earth story—the first person to pray to the Holy Light transformed from the ’Holy Light Envoy’ chosen by the heavens into an ordinary horse keeper, and the motive for praying to the Holy Light shifted from "praising the God of Holy Light, combatting dark heterodoxies" to "hoping to find herbs outside the endless night mist to treat his family."

This change might be viewed as a significant provocation from professional priests of the Holy Light, but to the common believers, who are not greatly knowledgeable of history and have never read any book of Holy Light Scriptures, they don’t think about it much; they just find the completely new story more interesting, hence listening attentively.

But one special young listener wasn’t as engaged. On one of the front seats, a small glowing figure suddenly floated up, looked curiously around, then floated to Gawain’s face with a bright smile, swaying around to greet him.

"Hello, Emily," Gawain said in a small voice.

"Hehe..." Emily let out a pleasant light laugh, then floated down onto the seat beside Gawain.

Gawain noticed the little girl’s body merging slightly with the seat.

Clearly, as a spiritual body, Emily couldn’t sit calmly in one place like a physical entity; she was just pretending to sit at the seat, floating at the chair’s position, squatting mid-air...

But she seemed to enjoy it quite much.

On the pulpit, Wright continued his sermon: "...people’s yearning for the light aligns perfectly with the way of the Holy Light, hence those who seek light receive the favor of the Holy Light. In front of the Holy Light, horse keepers and the Pope are equal because the morality of the Holy Light surpasses judgments based on wealth and status, just as before the mountains, flowers, trees, birds, and beasts of the plains show no discernible hierarchy... if one pursues that higher morality, status becomes irrelevant."

"This big guy is saying something quite interesting," Amber, despite the grumbling she did earlier, earnestly listened to Wright’s sermon for a couple of sentences, bobbing her head in evaluation, "Although I don’t like that sort of stern, pretentious demeanor, what he says is much better than those pretentious priests elsewhere."

Gawain nodded slightly: "There’s still some limitation... but overall it’s not bad."

Emily looked up, in a brief trance, suddenly uttering a word: "...boring."

Amber suddenly froze, staring, stunned at Emily who was pretending to sit in the chair: "You can talk?!"

"Yes," Emily blinked her eyes, then suddenly focused on the area behind Amber’s head for two seconds before speaking, "Sister, there’s a black light above your head..."

"Oh, don’t worry, I’m the Chosen of the Night, that’s a blessing from the goddess," Amber waved it off nonchalantly, then curiously watched Emily, "Last time we met, you just floated around and giggled, I thought you couldn’t speak..."

Emily looked up again, with a daydreaming expression, and after a long while she suddenly giggled and floated lightly up to the roof.

Wright’s sermon was also nearing its end: "...We all have the right to pursue the Holy Light, just as everyone can long for the light. The Holy Light will shine upon every person, and not just on the heads of priests and clergymen—people’s contributions to the church are for the sake of justice, and shouldn’t be about paying the church to ’buy’ the Holy Light, as the light is inherently within each person...

"As long as we follow virtues, act with justice, kindness, tolerance, and integrity, everyone shall be blessed..."

A small figure leaped down from the roof, fluttering like a falling leaf and "landing" on Wright’s shoulder. Emily looked happy, waving her translucent arms as she greeted everyone in the church: "Whew—ah, today’s sermon is over!"

Wright looked a bit embarrassed, trying hard to get Emily off his shoulder while nodding to the people in the church: "That’s all for today."

The congregation couldn’t help but start laughing. They laughed and responded to Emily’s greetings, standing up to leave. Some of them only then noticed the leader sitting in the last row, and quickly saluted Gawain.

Gawain responded to each of them, and after the last believer left the church, he came to the pulpit and nodded slightly to Wright: "Looks like everyone is getting used to Emily?"

"At first, she really startled the churchgoers—she always hid on the roof and then suddenly jumped down," Wright said with a helpless smile, "I put in a lot of effort to explain Emily’s origins, and now people aren’t afraid of her anymore."

Emily peeked out from behind Wright’s shoulder, curiously looking around.

Gawain reached out, trying to pat Emily’s head—it was a peculiar sensation. His hand could pass through Emily’s body, but there was still some resistance. When touching the little girl’s hair, he could feel a distinct warmth radiating, the kind that came from the gentle Holy Light.

Wright said proactively: "Her condition seems to have stabilized—both physically and mentally."

Gawain nodded: "Has Kamel said anything?"

"Master Kamel said she’s doing well, just requires observation. Besides that, recently I’ve mainly been avoiding letting her be exposed to too much sunlight..."

Gawain was a bit surprised: "Can’t be exposed to sunlight? Isn’t she a Spiritual Body of the Holy Light? Why would she fear sunlight like the undead?"

Wright immediately understood Gawain’s misunderstanding and quickly explained: "Oh, it’s not that she fears sunlight. If she gets too much sun, she becomes extremely bright and can’t dim at night, which makes it impossible for me to sleep..."

Amber suddenly exclaimed: "You sleep with Emily?!"

Wright instantly became overwhelmingly embarrassed, explaining with a helpless smile: "We have separate rooms, but once she falls asleep, she unconsciously floats around the entire church..."

Gawain thought for a moment and seriously patted Wright on the shoulder: "You’ve really got it tough."

"It’s okay—she floats around much less now, and I can cover my eyes with a cloth."

"I came to talk to you today about the doctrine of the New Church and the issue of spreading its teachings," Gawain said, bringing the conversation back on track before it could drift further. As he led Wright and Amber to a nearby bench, he casually said, "I heard your sermon just now—you seem to be attempting to convey the doctrines we discussed last time to the believers."

"Yes, I’ve organized what we talked about last time," Wright nodded, "Returning the ’authority to interpret the scriptures’ to the followers, emphasizing that religious leaders do not equate to absolute authority; downplaying the image of the God of Holy Light while gradually replacing the original strict doctrines with a set of more universal and easily accepted morals; stressing tolerance, inclusiveness, progressiveness, and self-restraint, and eliminating any extreme, stubborn or exclusionary content from the original doctrines, aiming to expand the potential followers that the new doctrines can cover. The current new doctrines focus on these three points."

"Are the followers accepting it?"

"Initially, many were confused but could still accept it. Only a small number of devout believers showed resistance, but I believe their resistance can be softened," Wright said, with a touch of complexity on his face, "The vast majority of ordinary followers are commoners. Before coming to the Cecil Clan, they couldn’t even read, let alone read any scriptures. They essentially believed whatever the local priest said, and those priests didn’t care about these people’s level of piety; as long as the Divine Arts were in the church’s hands, those ordinary followers would obediently pay for them, satisfying those priests... In this situation, promoting the new doctrines became relatively easy for us."

"The real obstacle isn’t the masses, but those vested interests. The priests in Lu An City will resist the new doctrines most fiercely," Gawain said, "So we must move to the next step of our plan."

"Just give your orders."

Gawain paused briefly, looking into Wright’s eyes seriously: "You know about the newly built printing factory in the city, right?"

"Of course, I even went to visit it—that was indeed an incredible sight."

"Guess what those priests in Lu An City would do if ten thousand copies of pamphlets and leaflets detailing the new doctrines were distributed in the city?"