Sword of Dawn

Page 174

"Nobles..." Wright frowned, "They...are the owners and rulers of the land and the people, and at least in name, they are also the protectors of all this...they have great power, and this kingdom basically It just depends on them to work.”

"So do you think 'aristocratic' is good or bad?"

This time it was Amber who answered: "It's bad - Wright has seen it with his own eyes."

"I'm also a nobleman," Gawain looked at Amber with a half-smile, "There is also Viscount Glenn who liberated the slaves 11 years ago, and now Viscount Glenn, who has accepted Cecil's law and is about to swear allegiance to Andrew... Viscount Leslie, they are nobles."

"Uh..." Hu Po was stunned for a moment, scratching her hair, "Then there are good and bad."

"Yes, there are good ones among the nobles, but why is the entire group of nobles still corrupted like this?"

Amber and Wright looked at each other, as if they didn't know what Gao Wen really wanted to say for a while.

Fortunately, Gao Wen didn't confuse them for too long. He wanted to say something to the people around him for a long time, and at the right moment, he took a slight breath and said what he was thinking: "Nobles—— Or more strictly speaking, it is the land nobles under Ansu’s current system. They are the absolute owners of land and population, as well as the makers and executors of power. From the day of birth, the nature of this group determines their status. Way of survival - they occupy almost all resources and have absolute authority to use them. All commoners are only renters of their resources, or even part of their resources. Nobles do not produce, and do not need to produce What, they only need to parasitize the land and the people, and draw nourishment from the latter...

"So, of course, they don't really care about the lives and rights of civilians, and because the resources come from the land, they don't even care about the people as much as they care about their own land, even if they occasionally show that they care about the people. Look, it is just equivalent to a person cherishing the coins in his pocket, they will protect their coins, but when the price is right, they can 'spend' those coins at any time.

"It is also true that they claim to be the protectors of the people. In the wild pioneering age, human beings had only limited resources to support limited protectors. In order to survive, we had to concentrate a lot of resources on a few powerful Individuals, let these individuals protect the safety of the whole, and these powerful individuals are the original landed nobles. At least in that era, their existence ensured the survival and development of civilization-but after this period is over?

"No one can control the landed aristocracy, because they are both owners of resources, allocators and users, and lawmakers, executors and defenders, so they must become a group that is out of control, corrupt and depraved, Even apart from morality, their "corruption" is not corruption-it is just a natural change in the continuous expansion and growth of a group in a nutrient-rich environment, just like a plant will continue to grow in fertile soil.

"In this case, the landed nobles will never—remember, never voluntarily give up their resources and privileges, just as a plant will not voluntarily pull its roots out of the soil. In this case, Even if one or two 'good' landed nobles appear occasionally, they will not change the overall attributes of the landed nobles, because the essence of this group has not changed, and their way of life will not change, as long as they still occupy land and enjoy Privileges and mastery of resources, their group will inevitably embark on the path of parasitizing on the land and the people, relying on the nutrients of the latter to survive, and their so-called 'protectors of the people' role will be completed along with all land nobles Resource allocation, after forming a relatively stable ruling structure, nothing remains. Think about those high-sounding "noble wars". In "noble wars", did they take up swords to protect the people?

"And when this concept is expanded, the current Church of the Holy Light and the land nobles are the same, except that the resources occupied by the land nobles are land, and the church possesses faith and magic. The privileges of the land nobles are laws, and the privileges of the church It’s just a classic interpretation.”

Gawain paused at this point, looked at Wright and Amber who were deep in thought, and continued: "So let's go back to the beginning—why did the nobles degenerate like this? The answer is—they must degenerate like this , this has nothing to do with the appearance of a few enlightened lords among the land nobles, and it has nothing to do with how glorious and great they used to be. Hundreds of thousands of nobles and knights can be eliminated in China, but as long as the group of "land nobles" still exists, then even if we kill all the land nobles, new land nobles will appear sooner or later, even from our appear in future generations.

"So from the very beginning, this war was not just to destroy the bodies of those nobles, but to destroy their foundations. We are not fighting this war to destroy more than 40 enfeoffment lords in the southern border and plunder their land and wealth , is to destroy the whole of the "land nobles" to which these lords belong, and to return the land and freedom to the people. This war is to prevent the next village burned by their lords, and to prevent the next Amy Li and carry on this war.

"Wright, if you are interested, you can go and see my latest land distribution bill, as well as the explanations of land rights and people's rights that are constantly promoted in schools, newspapers, and bulletin boards. Perhaps You will understand why Earl Hossman charged me with [-] charges when he called for troops to declare war on Cecil, and [-] of them were related to the laws I made and the things I advertised in the territory Yes, because those are the things that will really kill them-even kill their descendants, and they see it quite clearly on this point.

"But as long as these things are promoted and established to form a stable social order, then we can proudly say that we have eliminated the whole of the 'land aristocrats', not their bodies, but their foundations. From now on, even if there is still the word 'nobility', even if they have something left, their roots will no longer exist."

Chapter 0421 The Unleashed Beast

In Amber's eyes, Gawain seldom used such a lengthy speech to explain a concept—the man who emerged from the coffin was always full of ideas, but those ideas seemed to be too beyond the comprehension of all living beings in the world, so he even More is to do one thing silently, lead everyone to do one thing together, and then let everyone understand what is going on in the business they are engaged in in the process. In the process, he will Explains, guides, but rarely preaches, and all his "teachings"—if those count as preaching—are largely concentrated in the academy's textbooks.

In the textbooks of social knowledge class and history class, Gao Wen wrote a lot of things in this area by himself, because he once said a word: the world view of adults changes very slowly, and only children can shape it from an early age.

Subtle influence on adults and reform through labor, school-age education and worldview shaping on children, this seems to be the method that Gao Wen has always adopted, but it is a pity that Amber is not interested in school, and always avoids meetings by being lazy...

But she is not stupid. On the contrary, she is extremely smart. She quickly heard a lot of deep meaning from Gao Wen's words, and after thinking about it carefully, she realized a fact that shocked her: "You want to destroy Among the landed nobles, including..."

"Yes, including myself, including the Cecil family," Gao Wen looked into Amber's eyes calmly, "Haven't you paid attention to the way the government affairs department operates?"

Amber blinked and couldn't help scratching her hair: "I don't think so much... This is not my major..."

On the side, Wright thought about it silently, and finally raised his head and exhaled: "Lord, I think I understand... Please forgive my question just now."

"Don't worry, it's good for you to think more about this," Gao Wen said. He looked at Wright, who seemed to have gotten through some kind of knot, and began to guide the other party consciously, "You can also expand this idea, go to Think about the changes in the Church of the Holy Light, and think about the belief in the Holy Light."

The expression on Wright's face became solemn, and in the solemnity, there was still a trace of imperceptible thinking and confusion hidden.

"Abandoning that hypocritical god and embracing the real Holy Light, you have regained the power of the Holy Light, but will you stop there?" Gawain continued, "Are you going to be satisfied with regaining your power, or keep moving forward? , continue to go deeper, to explore the secrets behind this, to understand the truth of the Holy Light? Do you want to be satisfied with your own epiphany, or do you want to spread this epiphany to more people, so that more people can realize the truth of the Holy Light? The true meaning of light and virtue?"

Wright fell into brief thought and silence, but soon raised his head: "I won't stop here—I already know the true meaning of Holy Light, which belongs to everyone. The Church of the Light is the real blasphemer."

"It's good if you can think like this," Gao Wen had known for a long time that this would be the answer, he nodded slightly, and then said, "As for the changes in your body, I will find Pittman, and we will study it together, you may He is the first person in history who voluntarily gave up the belief in the God of Holy Light, and then controlled the Holy Light through his own power. The only person who is in a similar situation to you is the one who converted natural magic into Druid spells about 3000 years ago Druids, Pittman is more professional in this area, and he may be able to give you some reference suggestions for your future path."

"This is the best," Wright nodded immediately, "I happen to have a lot of confusion."

"Before that, you should take a break," Gao Wen said, "Take care of your thoughts."

Gawain took Amber and left, leaving only Wright in the small church.

He stood in front of the wooden pulpit, staring at the empty place where the holy image was once placed for a long time, the sunlight coming in from the window shone there, a little dust floated in the sunlight, reflecting the light of stars .

"Break the monopoly of the Holy Light, and return what people deserve..."

Wright grunted softly, then lowered his head, slowly closed his eyes, and prayed silently.

There are no icons here, and he no longer needs icons. He is praying to the holy light in his heart, and his prayers are the virtues and beliefs he has firmly believed in for decades.

There was silence in the church, only the radiance gradually emerged from the air. A hazy and clear halo enveloped the armored priest, just like sunlight condensed into water flowing in the air, and in this clear In the radiance of the sky, tiny particles of light floated, gathered, and slowly gathered into a small figure.

This small figure fell lightly on Wright's shoulders in the light, as light as a weightless leaf. She raised her head and looked around, and found that no one saw her, so she lay quietly on Wright's shoulders. On his shoulders, he fell asleep silently.

……

On the way to the Lord's Mansion, Amber has been wandering restlessly beside Gawain, circling around like a restless hamster, and from time to time looked at Gawain with a strange expression. He didn't want to talk to her, but this guy's annoying and wanting to make trouble finally made him unable to bear it anymore. He stopped and pressed the short winter melon on the spot: "What the hell are you trying to say?"

"It's okay, I'm just curious about how your brain grows," Amber clasped her hands on her chest confidently and plausibly—doing this action while being held down by someone's head really doesn't have any momentum at all, "It's just the two of us now Damn, tell the truth—what you said in church is true?"

"You really don't read newspapers?" Gao Wen was a little bit dumbfounded, "You should know that I am serious when you read what is said in the newspapers."

"I see, I'll throw it to Betty after reading the anecdotes," Amber continued to be confident, then shook her head, knocked Gawain's hand off her head, and showed a puzzled expression, "But why did you To do this... Throw away your own privileges, and even the privileges of future generations, just to bury the group you belong to... Well, it sounds grand, but why would you do it ?”

Gawain saw a rare seriousness from Amber's always unreliable expression, he couldn't help smiling, raised his hand and pointed at the city under rapid construction: "You said, this city and the castle of the old-style land nobles , which one do you prefer?"

"Of course it's here," Amber replied without hesitation. "I know the castle, so it looks magnificent. The workers' dormitory living in it is not as good as here-it doesn't even have running water and heating. Outside the castle is Not to mention, it's dirty and smelly, and people will freeze to death in the house."

"This is the first reason, I hope I can live in a better world, only a stronger, more advanced, more enlightened society can build a city like this, and a city more advanced than this , In this regard, the old aristocratic order has reached its limit, and they cannot create the strong, advanced and enlightened world I want, so I will create one myself."

Amber blinked: "Is there a second reason?"

"The second reason is that this world is not safe. The Typhons are already ahead of us. There is still a wasteland threat to our south. Now we have to face the civil war in Ansu. Facing these challenges, make ourselves stronger Standing up is the only way to survive," Gao Wen said for the first time the first and most important reason why he forged the new order. He didn't expect that the first person to listen would be Amber, but seeing this girl's rare seriousness He continued, "We must become strong in the fastest and most effective way, and become at least able to protect ourselves in this world. Every road that mankind has traveled in history cannot achieve this. , then I can only open up a new path, when there is no reason to stick to the old order when you will die if you don’t change? And in fact... this new path seems to be the right one.”

"Even if you're right..." Amber curled her lips, "But you haven't answered my question before—even if you don't have the old land nobles, you can ensure that the government affairs office you create will not Will there be corruption one day? If they also form a new...group, then..."

"So from the very beginning, I have been working on making extraordinary powers like magic accessible to ordinary people," Gawain interrupted Amber before she could finish speaking, "Guess why I have been emphasizing that the entire magic industry has never been Every link from research and development to manufacturing to use, in the end, it must be possible to not rely on extraordinary people?"

Amber's eyes widened, and she suddenly lost her words.

Gao Wen smiled slightly, and did not make any further explanations on this topic.

From the very beginning, he knew that the "new order" he created was destined to have hidden dangers, and he also knew that his changes to the world were doomed to be incomplete.

Not only because tradition and inertia will hinder change, but also because the level of awareness of the people and the actual law of productivity development are restricting change. It is impossible for him to forcibly create a perfect social order when the social foundation is completely substandard— —Even if it is built, it can only be a short-lived utopia, and this kind of utopia that ultimately compromises productivity cannot resist the tide of magic.

He can only advance this society as far as possible on the basis of the existing productive forces, and advance as far as possible in a limit way, and in this process, he has to allow the existence of hidden dangers and defects ——In fact, one of the biggest flaws in this new order even comes from himself: In order to ensure that the new order will not get out of control, and to ensure that social development is at the highest efficiency, and to ensure that Cecil can be indestructible when fighting against the evil tide in the future, He must ensure the greatest concentration of power. He wants to concentrate the greatest power in his own hands, or in the hands of the government affairs department under his control, and this is a hidden danger.

This hidden danger will not erupt during his lifetime, and it may not erupt within a generation or two after his death (if his strange life state really has a lifespan), but it will erupt sooner or later.

Therefore, Gawain has arranged a "corrective path" for his "New Order" from the very beginning, which is the "magic power" that can be completely controlled by mortals.

He remembered a sentence he heard in his previous life: society develops in a spiral. He doesn't know whether this sentence is absolutely correct, but at least there is some truth in this sentence. Less than—Once the extraordinary power is formed, it will almost permanently solidify the social structure, and the people of the lower class will not even have one ten-thousandth ability to resist, so that even if the upper class of society is deformed and corrupted to the limit, it will still sink and be dark The "Magic Technology" is a ferocious beast tamed by Gawain in order to break this situation.

He may not be able to establish the most advanced social order in one step, because it is a castle in the air, but he can enable ordinary people in future generations to have the ability to overturn the table.

"The New Order of Cecil" wasn't his greatest effort from the start, "Supernatural power to mortals" was.

The former allowed him to build the Cecil Empire, and the latter allowed ordinary people to overthrow the Cecil Empire.

However, the things in it were too complicated and sensational, and it seemed that even the most heartless Amber would be frightened, so he couldn't continue to explain.

So, he just patted the dazed half-elf lady: "Let's go, talk to Pittman first."

……

Saint-Sunil City, Silver Fort.

The study where Francis II used to work at his desk has been cleaned up.

Veronica Moen walked into this place that was once burned by flames. The burned things have been cleaned out, but there are still large areas of smoky traces on the bare stone walls and ground around .

The holy light floating in the air dispersed the dust and remaining ashes. Veronica, who was wearing a white priestess robe, came to the place where the desk had been placed. She lowered her head, as if she could still see the old king standing there. Looking up from behind the desk, he smiled to himself.

"It's a pity..." The saint princess said in a voice that only she could hear, "You have done enough..."

The sound of footsteps came from behind, and Veronica turned her head, and saw Wales Moen, her brother who was almost 20 years older than her, was standing at the door, casting a puzzled look at herself: "Aren't you in church today?"

"Today is the day to return to the castle," Veronica lowered her head slightly, "Usually, my father always sees me here."

There was a hint of sadness in Wales Moen's expression. He glanced at his sister standing in the middle of the study, and shook his head slightly: "Everything was burned or moved out."

"I know," Veronica said softly, walking slowly towards the door of the study, and when she passed by Wales, she asked, "You have already started a war with Edmund, haven't you?"

"It's the royal family and the eastern border rebels who are at war."

"You represent the royal family now, my brother."

"...Yes, I have launched a war against Edmund," Wales Moen looked at his extremely intelligent younger sister, he was always confused about what the other party was thinking, it was like this when she was young, and now Even more so, "Is this related to the Holy Light Church?"

"The church only practices the will of the Lord and will not interfere with the royal power," Veronica shook her head. "I just want to remind you as a relative that some bad news has been coming from the south recently."

"...The Rock Fortress has sent some information, but Duke Baldwin believes that the threat from the eastern border rebels is greater."

"...Maybe it is true," Veronica looked into Welsh's eyes, and suddenly shook her head slightly, "I just want to remind you. The founding father is not as safe as you think. He released A beast, you better not wait until that beast grows up."

Veronica walked away, and the reassuring warm glow in the air gradually dissipated. In the empty study room again, Wales Moen was still watching the direction Veronica left.

After a long time, he shook his head: "What's the use of my talking?"

Chapter 0422 Breaking a Lock

Cecil leads, inside the Holy Light Church, Gawain found Wright with Amber and Pittman who had just come out of the alchemy laboratory.

At this time, Wright had replaced his badly damaged armor and put on a priest robe made of coarse cloth. Compared with the tired and gloomy appearance when he just returned to the territory, his mental state is obviously much better now. When Gawain led the people into the church, he was cleaning the shelf for classics in front of the pulpit, looking calm and indifferent.

But Gao Wen knew that the true peace and indifference had gone away from this pastor, and at this moment, he was just waiting to take over the cause of the Holy Light again.

Undoubtedly, accepting inspections and cooperating with research to help everyone understand the mystery of mortals bypassing gods to obtain the power of the Holy Light is also part of the Holy Light's cause.

"It seems that you have had a good rest these days," Gawain nodded and said, looking at Wright who had regained his energy, "How do you feel now? Are there any other changes in your body?"

"No, everything is fine, Holy Light is as usual," Wright showed a gentle smile, even though there was a shocking scar on his face, his smile still had a feeling of reassurance and trust, but then he wrinkled again Frowning, "But I don't know if it's an illusion. Recently, I always feel that something in the church...is different from before."

"The church is different from before?" Gao Wen asked curiously, "What's different?"

"It always feels like someone has entered the church," Wright confessed frankly, "but there is no one there."

As soon as these words came out, Gao Wen and Pittman subconsciously glanced at Amber who was standing next to him, wandering away.

The half-elf lady suddenly woke up from the distracted state, and then yelled: "Hey, what are you looking at me for?! I seem to be the kind who casually slipped into other people... casually slipped into the Holy Light Church Is it someone? I am the Shadow God! I have principles..."

Before Amber finished yelling at Gao Wen, she shook her head: "I also don't think this matter has anything to do with you - the most valuable things in this church are a few pieces of crystal glass, how can it attract your attention."

Amber nodded deeply, with a look of pride instead of shame, while Pittman next to him looked up and down Wright with an expression of interest: "Perhaps it is a little perceptual dislocation after breaking through the spiritual limit. It's...interesting, a little interesting..."

Before Wright could speak, the little old man asked, "I heard that you have completely given up your belief in the God of Holy Light?"

Up to now, Wright has been able to face and talk about this topic naturally, and he nodded frankly: "I chose the path that I think is correct - an empty idol cannot uphold the justice of the Holy Light, and compared with the holy God of Light, I now believe even more in the morality I firmly believe in."

Pittman nodded: "Let me see your holy light."

Wright didn't hesitate, and opened his hands when he heard the words, and a hazy layer of clear light appeared beside him.

Looking at the radiance floating in the air, Gao Wen always felt that there was something flashing in the radiance, but when he looked carefully, it was just dust particles floating in the air.

Pittman didn't seem to notice this, he just carefully observed Wright's easy way of summoning the Holy Light, and asked in more detail: "You don't need to pray when you summon the Holy Light? Then there is a substitute Is it the casting process?"

"You don't need to cast spells just to call out the holy light to respond like this. It's similar to talent casting, but to use a relatively powerful holy light power, you still need the assistance of the spell-casting ceremony-it's just that you have to perform a divine attack when you release the divine spell." The prayer step is omitted, and you need to use your own mental power to guide the holy light when casting a spell. At first I didn’t quite adapt to it, but now I’m used to it.”

"This shows that you have a good magical talent—druids believe in one thing, that is, what the priests call 'spiritual talent' is actually a kind of magical talent," Pittman rubbed his beard, "In addition, Although you can now summon quite high-strength and pure holy light, the holy light skills you can release should actually be very few?"

"Yes," Wright didn't wonder why Pittman knew such details, but just answered all the little old man's questions very cooperatively, "Praying to the gods is the most important part in the process of performing most of the magic spells." , after omitting it, the remaining spellcasting prayers or spell models can hardly support a divine spell to work, so now I can only cast a very limited number of divine spells—although their power seems to have become stronger, but the types It's really gone down."

"This is because you are not a mage, and you still don't know how to use the method of a mage to deduce the spell model, so you have a powerful holy light, but you can't make good use of it... But this is not a problem. A lot of results have been researched in the field of magic conversion, and Kamel is an expert in this field. He should be able to help you improve those spellcasting skills... As for now, let us study how you can control the holy light by yourself of……"

Gawain couldn't help asking beside him, "Is there anything in Wright's process of controlling the Holy Light in common with the druids back then?"

"To be honest, it's not the same..." Pittman frowned, "You should know that the end of the druids' faith was due to the 'fall of the white star' incident, which can be said to be the ironclad evidence of the fall of the god of nature. Yidu witnessed the fall of the God of Nature with his own eyes. Whether he wanted it or not, the druids lost their faith at that time, or lost the goal of their faith, and after that, the natural magic also directly failed. What masters natural magic under the pressure and restrictions of the gods - Wright is different."

Speaking of this, Pittman glanced at Wright: "Even if you don't plan to believe in the God of Holy Light, you probably didn't see it die in front of you at that time, did you?"

Gao Wen couldn't help but sigh with emotion at this little old man's sharp and unique language art - if it wasn't for Wright in front of him, any random believer in the Holy Light would be bloody at this time. He can still live to such an old age. Maybe his original intention of learning Druid spells back then was to prevent him from being beaten to death on the spot after talking cheaply?

And even though Wright had already broken free from the shackles of the God of Holy Light's belief, he was really awkward after hearing Pittman's simple and straightforward words, and then shook his head dumbfoundingly: "Of course I didn't see it... I was thinking about it at the time." There are only emotions that belong to you.”

"This is the difference. When the Druids gained the ability to cast spells freely, the God of Nature was dead, and the magic of nature had already expired, and these are all certain facts, but is the God of Holy Light dead now? Holy Light Magic Did it fail? Apparently not."

In fact, Gao Wen really wanted to say that the God of Holy Light is really dead, not to mention the God of Holy Light, the God of War is also dead, the three gods of abundance are also dead, and even the God of Death is dead—I don’t know what happened in the end operational...

But it's a pity that he can only mutter in his heart. It's the same thing if others believe these facts, not to mention that he is not completely sure whether the seat of the God of Holy Light is empty now-after all, Holy Light Believers' prayers are answered.

And he heard what the little old man meant from Pittman's words:

The reason why druids have the ability to cast spells freely is because the god of nature is really gone. Without the restraint of gods, druids can cast spells freely.

And Wright... He forcibly obtained the power of the Holy Light while the God of Holy Light was alive.

"There are also many druids who specialize in the history of the fall of the white star. We have always believed that the premise that mortals can transform the power of divine arts into magic and use it freely is that the corresponding gods fall and their binding power disappears," Peter said. Man looked at Wright, and the expression on his face gradually became serious, "But after seeing you, I came up with an idea—maybe the real breakthrough is not in the gods, but in the mortals themselves."

"Is there another possibility?" Gawain decided to remind at this time, in order to prevent Pittman's deduction from going into a misunderstanding, "If the God of Holy Light has actually fallen like the God of Nature, It's just that no one knows this, so every believer in the Holy Light is restraining himself..."