The Great Collapse

The several strikes that broke out one after another in Koester quickly spread across the country.

"Indulgences... have you heard? The Church has been lying to everyone. They just found a bunch of illiterate workers and had them print the indulgences. Now that it's been exposed, all those workshops have gone on strike!"

"H-how could that be? Then the one I bought was..."

In just a few days, everyone in the Hori Kingdom—from wealthy merchants and nobles to paupers and beggars—was talking about it. They could not even be bothered to avoid the subject anymore.

—The news had spread so quickly partly because a chain of events occurred in Koester on the very day the strikes began.

That afternoon, a huge crowd gathered outside the church, holding up large placards covered in slogans. They demonstrated all afternoon before the guards drove them away. The signs bore phrases such as "The Indulgence Scam," "The Church's Secret Workshops Exploit Laborers," and "Five Gold Coins for Hell."

Such a spectacle naturally drew considerable attention. Once passersby asked what was going on, the news spread from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, until the entire city was in an uproar within an hour.

Koester was practically set alight by the news that day.

Quite a few people ran to the disclosed workshop locations, kicked open their tightly shut doors, and immediately found large numbers of half-finished indulgences. After that, no one doubted the authenticity of the protests any longer. Those who had spent money on indulgences rushed furiously to the church as well, swelling the demonstrators' ranks even further.

"I can't believe it... Those priests are all liars! This is utterly despicable!"

"God, is this true? So my grandfather could go to heaven, our family scraped together money for who knew