Chapter 157 — The Arms of a New Era and the Unorthodox Missionary
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 3
Heidi had done her best with magic to tidy her hair and face, but having rushed over in such a hurry, she clearly had not had time to clean up all the traces. Hearing Gao Song's words, the corner of her mouth twitched involuntarily. "When Rebecca barged into the laboratory, I was in the middle of an experiment..."
Gao Yang: "..."
It wasn't quite what he had imagined, but it didn't seem all that different either.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Gao Yang cautiously asked, "Did you hit her back?"
"I did. I'll hit her again once I get back."
"...Go easy on her. She's a grown girl now."
"I'll try."
Gao Yang cleared his throat twice. "Ahem, ahem—let's get down to business first."
"Yes." Heidi took two deep breaths and calmed herself, then began reporting on the missionary. "That priest named Wright hasn't left the territory these past few days, nor has he done anything suspicious. He gets up a little earlier than everyone else every day, mainly to pray and do physical training, then eats breakfast like everyone else and goes to the construction site. We didn't assign him any work, but he went to find the foreman on his own. Right now he's hauling bricks in the newly planned 'Market Street' district—he's practically a regular worker there by now."
Gao Yang found it interesting. "...He volunteered for work like that?"
"Yes. I had soldiers strike up a conversation with him, and the missionary said he does it because of the 'guidance of the Way of Holy Light'—because the Way of Holy Light teaches people to earn their food through hard work. He hasn't yet received permission to build a church, hold sacraments, or bless the territory, so he must exchange his labor for food."
"Is that really what he said?" Gao Yang found it hard to believe.
Heidi nodded. "That's exactly what he said, and it's exactly what he's doing."
"...That does match what the Daylight Church preaches day to day, but there probably aren't many clerics who actually believe it and put it into practice—most of them just use such talk to con common folk into unpaid labor or donations for the church," Gao Yang shook his head. "So has he been preaching?"
"I don't know if you'd call it preaching," Heidi said, her expression turning a little odd here. "He... does indeed keep the Way of Holy Light on his lips, and now and then when he uses divine arts to heal people he'll say something like 'may the Holy Light shelter you,' but the way he goes about it doesn't look like proper preaching at all. Only when he meets someone who truly believes in the Holy Light does he earnestly expound the doctrine; when he meets someone who doesn't believe, he just laughs it off."
Gao Qi raised his eyebrows. "Has word come back from the people sent to Tamsin Town?"
"They're already back. Our people questioned the pastor at the Obscuration Church in Tanza Town and confirmed that a missionary by the name of Wright Iveken did come from the Holy Spirit Plains and has been traveling through the Southern Frontier, and the description matches. But from what I suspect..."
Heidi paused there and shook her head. "That fellow named Wright wasn't so much sent out to preach as he was kicked out by the central church. Otherwise he wouldn't be in such a state."
"Honestly, I suspect the same," Gao Yang said, shaking his head with a wry, helpless smile. "Even in the rigid, austere Obscuration Church, the occasional oddball is bound to turn up."
"Ancestor, how do you plan to arrange things for this missionary?" Heidi asked curiously. "We can't just leave him hanging like this forever, can we?"
"Give it two or three more days. If nothing's wrong by then, I'll see him," Gao Rong said as he rose to his feet. "Our territory... could use a church too."