Chapter 459

Time is fair to everyone.

Although there are exceptions from time to time, for most people, it flows fairly.

While Lacey and her group went to Nasiriya to annihilate the Grimnir Church Order and clean up the aftermath, others weren’t just sitting around either.

The evidence of that was unfolding here, in Arad.

“Stop the oppressive rule of the Astraea Church Order! Have you forgotten the mercy spoken by the gods?”

“Give me back my husband! Give him back!”

“Do you even have the right to call yourselves justice? You murderers obsessed with burning at the stake!”

Hundreds of citizens, holding torches and pitchforks, gathered in the plaza, shouting at the top of their lungs.

They demanded the resignation of the Astraea Church Order, which had maintained order in Arad through excessive punishment.

It was an unprecedented large-scale protest by ordinary believers in the history of the Holy Kingdom.

—-

This protest was triggered by a single manifesto.

A secret manifesto by Lacey, which blamed the corruption of the cardinals and church orders for the problems of the Holy Kingdom, urging people to serve the gods, not the priests.

This manifesto became the final blow that completely shattered the trust in the church, which had already been cracking due to the expansion of criminal organizations and priests who had grown distant from the people.

The people of the Holy Kingdom, who had been raised to believe that obedience to the church was the highest virtue, began to voice the dissatisfaction they had unknowingly accumulated in their hearts, now that they had removed the blindfold of blind faith.

If it had stopped there, it might have ended as a simple outcry urging the church to reform itself.

But someone who desired discord and chaos subtly altered the content of the manifesto and distributed it.

“Of course, they couldn’t put their names on a manifesto criticizing the cardinals… but this is practically begging to be used.”

Belcus, listening to the chants of the protesters holding torches, smirked.

All he had done was add a couple of lines to the original manifesto.

“Rise, people of the Holy Kingdom! For true faith, for reclaiming a humane life, raise your voices and shout against the corrupt church! What you will lose are the chains of oppression and control, and what you will gain is the land of true faith! …Huhu. Truly, the writing is excellent.”

Eljure laughed as she recited the altered manifesto, feeling utterly satisfied.

Her painted cheeks flushed with excitement.

Belcus, the Discord. Truly living up to his name.

By adding just two lines, he had created decisive discord between the church and the people of the Holy Kingdom.

Though it was just a protest by some of the Holy Kingdom’s people… her eyes, hazy with certainty, foresaw the tragedy to come.

“It’s not a lie, is it? The heavenly realm awaits them!”

Belcus also laughed, exhaling smoke from his magical cigarette.

It was all too obvious how the church, especially the Astraea Church Order, would react to the protesters, making it hard to contain his laughter.

—-

The growing threat of criminal organizations and the corruption of the church orders had sparked protests among the people of the Holy Kingdom.

Yet, paradoxically, the first city to erupt in protest was Arad, a city so pure that crime and corruption had no place.

In a way, it was inevitable.

There’s a saying that fish cannot live in water that’s too clear.

Arad was exactly like that.

People can tolerate the corruption of others, but they cannot bear the chains that oppress themselves.

The Astraea Church Order, which burned all criminals at the stake to create a crime-free city and strictly controlled its citizens for perfect order, was seen by the people of Arad as more tyrannical than the threat of criminal organizations.

Perhaps it was because they had only lived in Arad and had never directly experienced the threat of criminal organizations.

Regardless of the reason, they took to the streets to denounce the injustices they had endured and marched toward the Astraea Church Cathedral.

They believed that if they gathered and raised their voices together, even the high-ranking officials of the church would listen to their grievances.

But.

Unfortunately for them… Wilhelm, the iron-blooded Archbishop of the Astraea Church Order managing Arad, was not someone who would heed such laments.

With a calm demeanor, he gathered all the paladins inside the cathedral and then stepped forward to the protesters, urging them to disperse immediately.

Of course, the protesters refused. It was only natural.

If they had obeyed a single command to stop the disorderly riot and return to their livelihoods, they wouldn’t have come out to protest in the first place.

Wilhelm, looking at the protesters with emotionless eyes, closed his eyes for a moment, made the sign of the holy cross, and then sternly rebuked them.

“Have we, like the corrupt lords of other nations, stolen your wealth and left you starving? No. We have provided church resources so that you could live well and eat your fill.”

The paladins of Astraea, clad in armor and helmets, began to march out of the cathedral.

“Have we, like the nobles drunk on authority, taken your lives for unjust reasons? No. We have healed the injured and sick, and protected you from the threats of violence and monsters.”

The protesters, startled, began to murmur and look around.

“Have we ever falsely accused the innocent? I swear by Astraea, those we punished were all guilty.”

The paladins, enveloped in golden divine light, surrounded the entire plaza where the protesters had gathered.

“Yet, you come before us, demanding the freedom for the guilty to go unpunished, the right to deny order and indulge in chaos. And you do this before the temple of Astraea herself.”

As Archbishop Wilhelm raised his right hand, the paladins drew their swords and spears in unison.

“This is the utmost blasphemy. An unforgivable sin. I give you one last warning. Leave the ringleaders and disperse.”

At that moment, someone hurled a torch at Wilhelm.

Dodging the torch, Wilhelm pointed at the protesters with his right hand and gave the paladins their final command.

“Suppress them. They are no longer citizens of this city, but rioters disrupting order.”

It was the moment when the blade of the impartial scale, devoid of any mercy, came down.

**That day, 90% of the protesters were slaughtered.**

And that was not the end, but only the beginning.

The deaths of hundreds ignited the anger of thousands, and what had been a simple protest escalated into a large-scale riot that swept through the entire city.

Of course, if it had been a simple civilian uprising, it would have eventually been suppressed by the Astraea Church Order, and the incident would have ended there.

But…

The Kranuus Church Order, which remained in Arad, joined the civilian uprising, and the situation began to spiral out of control.

The Archbishop of the Kranuus Church Order still remembered the true intentions of the cardinal who had ended his life by suicide.

The belief of Cardinal Erich, who had sought to restore the purity of the Holy Kingdom through turmoil.

Thus, without hesitation, they joined the civilian army and began to fight against the paladins of the Astraea Church Order.

The civilian army wasn’t entirely pleased with the inclusion of the Kranuus Church Order, one of the 11 Main Deity Religions, but without their strength, they couldn’t stand against the paladins of Astraea, so they formed a united front with the Kranuus believers.

This was no longer just a riot, but a war.

=======[ Ha-shar-leur ]=======

“What… is this…?”

Lacey, having received the news from Arad, set down the report from the Sacred Order member with a blank expression.

The report, delayed by a week due to heavy snow, was filled with details Lacey could never have anticipated.

—-

Lacey had created and gathered those demanding the church’s reform, infiltrating them with Special Operations Unit members to ensure they didn’t act recklessly.

Her plan was to eventually have them all rise up simultaneously to reform the current system of the Holy Kingdom.

Though the events in the Holy City and the collapse of the Grimnir Church Order had muddled things, her plan was theoretically flawless.

The only problem she hadn’t anticipated…

Was the possibility of the manifesto being altered and the fact that the people of the Holy Kingdom were more proactive than she had thought.

According to the Sacred Order member’s letter, the scale of the anti-church gatherings in Arad had grown beyond the control of a single infiltrator in just a few days.

Someone had altered Lacey’s manifesto to incite more aggressive actions.

To make matters worse, the gatherings, having grown in size, began to radicalize, with the mainstream advocating armed struggle to cut out the corrupt church and priests.

The Sacred Order member had tried to control them but was nearly eliminated as a gray element.

The Sacred Order members believed there was a mastermind behind all this and were tracking their traces, but they hadn’t yet uncovered their identity.

– The extremists within the organization argued that even violent protests were necessary to reform Arad, and the majority of the members agreed. A clash with the Astraea Church Order is imminent.

His report ended there.

—-

I bit off the cigarette I was smoking and let out a deep sigh.

Considering the letter was delayed by a week… the clash has probably already happened.

It was too late to stop it.

What a damn world.

I’ve never missed communication devices more than today.