45. Season of Solis

45. Results!

"Turn the stagecoach around!" Sir Dolorem ordered the two reinsmen.

Sylvester was annoyed, however. "Are we going to fight them now?"

"No, it will never come to that, Master Maximilian. You will know when you will see it. No kingdom can claim Goldstown at this moment."

So as ordered, their little procession turned around and headed to Goldstown, right behind the small military unit of 12 knights.

Since they were merely a few hundred meters away from the town, they reached the place fairly quickly and found Chief Marigold talking with the Riveria knights, appearing to be pleading for mercy.

"No army can touch this town!" Sir Dolorem boomed as he got out of the stagecoach.

Sylvester kept watching from inside, wondering if the man would again prove himself a fool or if he was in for a surprise?

'I hope it's not the former.'

The leading knight among the enemy unit walked to Sir Dolorem and spoke respectfully, as one should when addressing the Church. "Sir, this is not a matter related to faith. You can not meddle here legally."

Sir Dolorem nodded and took a parchment out of the edge of his chest plate. "Indeed, but this town is a matter of interest for the Church. Inquisitor High Lord was here merely three days ago to exorcise the evil in the gold mines that took the life of 3 Bishops, an Archbishop, and many more."

"B-But exorcising in private lands is the duty of the lord of the land." The Riveria Knight argued.

"True, but they were unable to defeat the Bloodling. So Duke Harold Gracia asked the Holy Land for help in return for giving away rights to this mine and the town for a month. By law, Goldstown is Church's property for this month." Sir Dolorem shoved the parchment.

The Riveria Knight read it carefully as slowly a frown appeared on his face. He glanced at the people and then looked back at his men. "Fall back. This town is out of bounds until the end of this month."

With that, the Riveria Knights got on their horses and swiftly left. The people of the town felt rejuvenated again. To them, the appearance of Sylvester was like the greatest good luck now.

"Chief Marigold, I shall send more forces from the Church here. The mine will extract gold for the faith this month. None are allowed to interfere. Keep this parchment and show it to any force that arrives here, be it from Riveria or Gracia faction. Tell them that disrespecting the Lord Inquisitor's seal is akin to calling the wrath of Solis on oneself."

After that, Sir Dolorem once again entered the stagecoach, and they were soon on their way back.

However, Sylvester had a cheeky smile, for he had sensed something when the man spoke earlier. "So, only half of it was the truth?"

Sir Dolorem sighed, knowing that Sylvester was extremely good at reading people. "The parchment only talks about the mines, not the town. But the people of the town are important for the post-extraction process."

"What if they had refused to go and called your bluff?" Sylvester asked him to see if the man had also thought about the worst-case scenario.

"Even in that case, they'd have to respect the Church and not attack the town. Master Maximillian, you must remember that the Church is the supreme entity in the world. We must spread and maintain the faith and its laws, including ensuring the faithful's safety. In the case of wars, by sacred laws, no army can harm civilians. If they do, they will be seen as heathens and be dealt with.

"This war too… I can see the decision-makers of the Church being unhappy about it. At best, this war will end in a week with no winners but many sinners." Sir Dolorem explained.

Sylvester took the man's word by heart, recognizing that Sir Dolorem had more experience with the laws and customs of this world. 'I guess I still have much to learn. But, while being careful, I should learn to use my status to the fullest. What's the point of being God's Favored otherwise?'

"The town has been through enough. I do hope they get some peace now." He muttered and relaxed in the seat once they reached the even, well-paved Holy Road.

The journey would take them a whole day, so there was not much to do but rest and silently play with Miraj's fur.

…

It had been eight days since Sylvester left the Holy Land before. He hoped that at least some Deacons would have returned since only five days remained. After all, not everyone had taken the task of exorcising. Some must have chosen to hunt wild animals or to help a poor village with their house reconstructions.

However, as the stagecoach was about to cross the tunnel to enter the Holy Land, Sylvester noticed a long line of people at the side, all wearing modest robes with the faith's insignia in hand as they prayed with closed eyes. There were all kinds of people, kids, old, young, men and women. Some even looked physically disabled.

The crowd was so big that Clergymen kept an eye and managed everything from horseback. They were also keeping the road traffic in order.

"What's going on here, Sir Dolorem?" He asked, as his experience outside the Holy Land was non-existent.

Sir Dolorem made a small prayer in the direction of the Magna Sanctum and explained. "It seems your sense of time is still affected by the long unconsciousness? It's the Season of Solis. The two holy months when the light of Solis falls the most on these lands. All these people are pilgrims, here to see the Magna Sanctum from afar, while some lucky ones get to enter the temple and get blessings from the Pope."

But Sylvester was shocked by something he noticed in the long crowd. He protruded his head out the stagecoach's window to look carefully. "Wait… was that a humanoid wolf? And a humanoid gorilla?"

Sir Dolorem chuckled and responded. "Indeed, they are Beastkins, half-human and half animal. These ones are also faithful believers of Solis. They all come from the large island between the Sol Continent and the land of the heathens, the Beastaria Continent. It's called Libertia, the land of the free. It was where Pope Axel Tar Kree and various Kings and Chiefs of heathens signed the peace accord.

"The land is under the jurisdiction of none and has its own government. Humans and Sub-Humans live there harmoniously, engage in business, and exchange culture. It might disgust you to know, but many humans, even faithfuls, have married sub-humans and now live there."

'T-Then… does it not make it the best place to live? But… in case of another war, I reckon it will be the first place to get destroyed.' He quickly dismissed the mere thought of buying a piece of land there.

"And we allow this to happen?" He inquired.

"That's the beauty of the faith. In fact, we promote inter-marriage between Faithfuls and Sub-humans, but only in Libertia. Slowly, this way, we are turning many heathens into faithfuls." Sir Dolorem answered while looking outside.

"Why don't we promote it here?" Sylvester asked. Instantly, he felt a faint smell of rotten eggs, signifying disgust.

"Sol Continent is not ready for it yet. The Church only dislikes Sub-humans because they are heathens. But the people, and by large, the clergy, hate them for being different. They are nothing but prospective slaves to most here. If you look outside, you will only find Beastkins because they are a divided community in various small clans. For this, they are easy to accept Solis.

"While Elves, Dwarves, Centaurs, Goblins and such have their own gods they strongly believe in… perhaps more strongly than many followers of Solis here." Sir Dolorem explained in detail while internally accepting that he held the same negative viewpoint towards sub-humans.

Sylvester sighed silently. 'So it's basically racism between species, or should I call it 'Speciesism'? Anyway, at least the Church's top ranks don't hate them for being different.'

Slowly, the stagecoach went deeper into the Pope's Peninsula. No pilgrim was allowed to enter there, so it was as empty as ever. He soon arrived at the Bright Mother's complex and went home. At the same time, Sir Dolorem left to report to his superiors about the invading armies from Riveria.

Sylvester found the house empty, as Xavia was still at work. So he decided to bake himself some nice bread and eat them with honey. For Miraj, he boiled some meat.

"Here you go, Chonky. Eat this banana while the meat cooks."

He sat back on the wooden chair and relaxed. His nerves finally calmed down, Holy Land being the safest palace for him.

"Maxy, give me more banana."

He handed his half. "What do you think, Chonky? How long will it take me to get as strong as Inquisitor High Lord?"

Miraj stopped eating and looked at Sylvester's face intently, appearing to contemplate and estimate with the help of his vast centuries of wisdom. Then a moment later, he showed a big smile. "I don't know."

"..."

"What was all that dramatic pause for then? Anyway, vomit all the gold out. I want to see how much I have saved."

Miraj quickly ate the banana and then showed one paw. "Chonky Bank needs taxes first. One more banana?"

Sylvester sighed and got up to get one. He never argued with Miraj for such little things, knowing the boy was merely having fun, and if he were to ask seriously, Miraj would even vomit his guts out.

"Here you go, Lord Chonky."

With that, the furry boy started to induce vomit. Unfortunately, this was the worst part of his ability, as he couldn't just open his mouth and let everything out.

"Waaaa…!"

A minute later, Miraj vomited everything, now covered in slimy liquid. But Sylvester couldn't care less. His eyes were just shocked at the large pile of gold.

"This is brilliant. I didn't know we had gathered this much. This is amazing." Sylvester picked the bricks of gold and tried to guess the weight. There were a few other things, jewelry mostly.

"All this… I reckon there are more than fifty thousand gold graces here… wait… what is this?"

While sorting the items, he found something strange, akin to a shining white marble, but it was too small and had a black spot on it.

"What is this, Chonky?"

Miraj stopped the dramatic banana eating and looked up curiously. "Oh, that's Archbi-bitch Lucy's eye. It was very shiny. I like it–I take it!"

"..."

"You mean Archbishop Lucas?"