amaotonovel Chapter 224 Summit (5)
Chapter 224 Summit (5)
"Hell and the cross, what do they really represent? I think they represent more than just the literal meaning—Your Excellency Saint."
Alice stretched out her hand, palms outstretched. It was a very interesting expression. Alice thought that hell might not only refer to the realm of demons, but also to the world of the exploited, and the cross might not only refer to the church, but also to the church's constraints.
Two worlds, two paths. Alice smiled and said, “Saint, the so-called cross probably has nothing to do with the goddess. For example, the word ‘hell’ in the church represents the land of demons. From the current point of view, the hell that flows with blood and lava and is full of corpses and skeletons does not exist. But hell does exist, doesn’t it? For the people, hell truly exists.”
Alice continued, “The people who have been robbed of the fruits of their labor, of their land and their savings, who have been slaughtered by one another out of inexplicable hatred, who have been murdered and humiliated, are in hell in their hearts.”
The saint suddenly understood what Alice meant: Hell was an illusory concept, but suffering truly dominated the world.
"So believing in the Goddess and praying for her... is the only way to escape hell and reach paradise. But why does the prophecy say that I will destroy the cross?"
“Is the land under the Church not truly a part of hell? Under the guise of tithes, priests can arbitrarily confiscate the farmers’ savings; under the guise of heresy, judges can arbitrarily arrest people, perhaps simply because someone has slighted them.”
"Imagine if you were a farmer whose savings were taken away, or if you were a person who was falsely accused and arrested, kneeling on the ground, desperately begging for that meager yet incredibly heavy amount of grain to feed your family, or if you were an ordinary person, being led to the stake by the Inquisition for refusing to sell your children, wouldn't that moment be hell?"
The saint looked at Alice, whose words were heavy and serious. The saint tried to refute her, but Alice interrupted him: "If you have any conscience left, go and wander alone in the countryside, see for yourself the people of the peninsula, see their lives, see their thousand-year-old hell."
"What makes you... dare to say that the land under the Church's rule is hell? Vampire, you have no idea what the land under the Goddess's rule is like..."
"Do you really think I don't know? Your Excellency Saint? Or perhaps Your Excellency Cardinal of the Sardinian Papacy?"
Alice looked at the saint. She had known this so-called saint before. When she was still him, when she was still the so-called hero, he had walked across the peninsula and personally promoted this young man, one of the very few people with a conscience.
How did you know...?
"Of course you don't remember me, Fidel Castellin, but you should at least remember that name."
Field Castellin was the name Alice once used to be a hero, and it was also a name familiar to the young man before her. The saint himself had erased his name, but before that, the saint had told Alice his real name.
"The hero's name... vampire, how dare you utter his name?"
Field Castellin not only promoted the saint, but also saved the saint's family, including his sister.
"The church claims he was tempted by the devil and died, but is that really the case, Pero Garibaldi?"
The saint's eyes widened. Though the name had been erased, it remained etched in his mind. It represented a horrifying truth that he couldn't believe. He stared intently at Alice de la Leah, initially seeing nothing amiss, but the longer he looked, the more he disbelieved it became.
No matter how things change, one's temperament will never change.
"You...who are you...No, Lord Field is the embodiment of justice, piety, fairness, and kindness..."
"Of course, I have always been consistent in my beliefs in justice, fairness, and kindness. I have always believed in the fine qualities of humanity, but these do not come from nowhere, do they, Mr. Perrault Garibaldi?"
The saint felt a dizzying sensation, and he still couldn't believe it, or even dare to confirm the guess, even though subconsciously he knew that no one else could feel this way.
The tone and the thoughts matched perfectly. Ever since obtaining the key to Field Castleling's secret basement, the saint had been studying his legacy. He had always suspected that he had "died under the influence of the devil," and the church could not even produce a body to prove that he was dead.
In that secret basement, he saw a bright future. From the few words he heard, he saw true virtue. Field firmly believed that all living beings on the continent would eventually be united, that people would eventually be equal, and that conflicts could be resolved through communication.
He didn't want to think about it anymore; he didn't know how he had left Alice's presence.
Alice let out a long breath. The saint was one of the first people to follow her, but she wasn't sure if he had remained the same all these years. However, his words today showed that he hadn't changed.
Alice sent him to travel through the villages and towns of the peninsula, just as she had done in the past. How could he understand the suffering of the world if he did not measure the earth with his own feet and see it with his own eyes?
Prayer solves nothing, a belief Alice deeply holds. Magic exists in this world, but she has never verified whether gods exist. Even if they do, why don't they alleviate the suffering of the people?
If it doesn't change suffering, then what's the use of faith?
Alice firmly believed that only labor could change suffering, and only through struggle and smashing the shackles could one finally reach paradise. The pursuit of an afterlife was a lie; people only exist in this world.
On the church side, the deeply entrenched clergy and noble class would not allow him to change anything, and the peace on the border would not allow him to seize military power. On the demon side, chaos and war did indeed lead her to take the first step—to blow up the knight class with gunpowder!
Today, industrialization is changing all of this, and the explosive growth in human productivity is enabling humanity to take control of its own destiny.
Alice looked to the side, where people formed a wall in front of the glass curtain wall, with people from all over the world vying to look through the glass at the earth and at the industrialized future.
As the young crown prince, a confident and ambitious young man, looks at and touches the transparent glass, gazing at the orderly city, the beauty of this day will be forever etched in his mind.