He told himself: When all it would take was the slightest helping hand to change everything with ease, the only person who could stop me was myself.
And I was willing.
"Was it because of the churches' slander?" Lin Chuan asked Mr. Z, almost as though answering his own question. "Or because of the ignorance of the world?"
He slowly turned around. Golden sunlight from the window fell upon his back, gilding him with a dazzling halo that made him look sacred and remote.
"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'"
"They are corrupt, they have done abominable deeds; there is none who does good."
Lin Chuan gazed at Mr. Z's handsome, delicate face, yet Mr. Z felt that His Excellency the Blessed was not looking at him.
Instead, his gaze passed through him, through the city of Tingen, toward somewhere farther away, somewhere more deeply mired in depravity.
Mr. Z heard His Excellency the Blessed sigh, then address him in a voice laden with complicated emotions:
"The people of this land were ignorant to begin with. They worship the false gods' lies as truth and regard the Lord's salvation as a calamity."
"Not only that, those lambs can hardly even be called kind or simple. Most are cunning instead."
"Many of them cry of hunger and cold when demanding their wages, yet make every excuse when asked to give. All day, they think of nothing but worldly comforts and a precarious peace. Even every gap between the washroom tiles conceals their selfishness and schemes against one another."
Lin Chuan's tone seemed mocking, but he abruptly changed tack, stripping all ridicule from his words and speaking evenly instead.
"The lambs are so foolish and deceitful that they do not know what salvation is. They may even