"I beg your forgiveness, Caesar!"
The priests in the confessional confessed their sins to God.
Norton chose an excellent time, coinciding with the Church's evening confessional time.
The confessional was not open to just anyone; only missionaries were qualified to confess, while priests could only use it for daily tasks.
The Church explains this by saying that priests cannot go out into the world and are therefore in a state of non-worldliness, so they cannot do anything wrong to the world. Only missionaries who have left the world need to repent for their sins committed outside the world.
The confessional was sparsely populated, mainly because two hundred missionaries were wiped out by Werewolf in the Holy Lord City. This drastically reduced the number of people in the confessional, leaving only a few missionaries remaining.
"Splash, splash, splash..." The heavy rain practically soaked Norton to the bone.
However, the sound of such heavy rain would obviously better conceal the noise he was making.
"Clatter." A faint sound of bricks and stones echoed from the roof of the confessional. To make the attack seem more plausible, Norton had deliberately removed a large tile from the edge of the confessional's eaves so that he could kill the person with his own weight.
What, you're asking if Norton felt any remorse when he killed someone for the first time?
Norton was absolutely certain that if he were placed before these Church members, they would not hesitate to kill him, this heretic, and might even deliberately use disgusting methods to torture him, Hajinuo. Therefore, it was only natural for Norton to kill them!
Norton's biggest regret now is that he doesn't have the means to convert servants like traditional Vampire. Otherwise, wouldn't it be wonderful if he could convert the entire Church into his blood servants?
Norton lay quietly on the roof of the confessional hall, minimizing his presence.
The torrential rain ravaged the land, and it's almost certain that this year's harvest will be completely wiped out.
However, the impending disaster was far less important to these missionaries than their repentance that day; after all, if they ran out of food, they could always resort to cannibalism.
Norton lay lurking silently in the rain, waiting for the end of his confession.
finally.
"Dong, dong, dong..." Three gong sounds echoed inside the church, signifying the sound of someone sleeping.
As the sound ended, scattered noises began to come from the confessional.
Norton's fingers pressed against the loose tile. He pried off a large piece, about twice the size of a human head. The tile, along with the bricks underneath, must have weighed several kilograms. Church buildings are known for their height, and although the Church in Lino City wasn't as grand as the Holy Lord City, the confessional hall was still a good six or seven meters high.
I don't know why these people built the first floor so high, but it undoubtedly makes it easier for Norton to smash people.
Such heavy broken tiles from such a height would definitely kill someone if they hit them on the head.
Norton did not reveal himself to the naked eye, but instead used his hearing and smell to locate the missionaries inside.
There weren't many missionaries in the room. To make it more believable that a missionary would be killed by stones, Norton listened to the sounds and specifically chose the footsteps of the missionary who was leaving the room in the middle. In a predictive manner, he gently pushed his finger.
"Please forgive my mistake, Kuba... Hehehe..."
"Crash... thud!" A slight scraping sound of stones rang out, followed by a dull thud as if someone had hit someone on the head.
Immediately following was the sound of a person falling to the ground.
Screams of alarm came from below, and the air was already thick with the stench of blood.
"That sounds like a good idea!" Norton silently crawled backward on all fours, keeping close to the roof to minimize exposure.
He could tell from the sound that he had hit the target!
Good, good, good! Norton really knows how to use his skills!
Norton was overjoyed. He carefully retreated to the wall and, taking advantage of the time before people could gather, quickly moved towards the city wall from the top of the building. Then, using the superb martial arts skills of the dragon on the wall, he quickly climbed up the Church's high wall and jumped down!
It's hard to imagine that a human could do this.
Staying up all night in the pouring rain, braving the elements, just to smash a brick over someone's head— Norton's method of revenge is truly...
There isn't a single normal person who comes out of the Church!
The heavy rain gradually subsided, but famine was already a foregone conclusion.
In such times, even the old popes of previous years would issue decrees of salvation, ordering the Church to open granaries and distribute alms so that people could overcome their difficulties.
Although the food used was mostly from the corpses of the dead disaster victims, and they had to give their own children to the Church, it could still be called an act of kindness.
In this day and age, sending a child to Church means the child can grow up normally, something that the poor at the bottom of society can't even dream of. Of course, most of the children might end up as food, since the priests are selective; they don't want the ugly ones.
However, it seems that the newly appointed Pope Adam has no such intention.
Not only did he not intend to do so, he even planned to issue decrees to continue keeping the people ignorant, thereby shutting down their minds and extinguishing their humanity!
" Your Adam, your behavior is a disgrace to the glory of our Holy Church."
God's holiness is known throughout the world. In times of calamity, we should open our doors wide and give generously to proclaim Caesar's mercy and the greatness of our Holy Church, instead of being petty and deceiving people!
Although the Holy See has made no statement regarding the destruction of the Holy Judgment Order, and His Holiness the Pope has remained silent as if unaware of the matter, undercurrents are already stirring within the Church.
The most striking point is that the current cardinal dares to publicly contradict His Holiness the Pope, claiming that his decrees are problematic.
Such a scene of insubordination would never have occurred in the past, because His Holiness the Pope, who controlled the Holy Judgment Order, possessed an invincible power in the world, and no one dared to show any disrespect.
Now that the Holy Judgment Order has just been completely wiped out, a cardinal has dared to question His Holiness the Pope's decision. This is a great insult, and a direct insult at that!
Although what he said was correct, it was still a provocation against the authority of the Pope.
However, the other cardinals remained silent in the face of this provocation, seemingly observing from the sidelines.
But isn't observing and waiting a form of tacit agreement?
His Holiness Adam sat high on the papal throne, slightly raising his eyebrows and giving a cold glance at the cardinal who had jumped out, seemingly unconcerned about his words.
"The world knows that my Holy Church is sacred, but the human heart is unpredictable. There are countless people like you who harbor other thoughts. If we do not forcefully suppress people's hearts and fool their minds, how can we maintain the rule of my Holy Church and uphold the glory of God!"
As he finished speaking, a golden figure silently appeared behind the cardinal who had spoken.
"Thud!" The sound of a blade piercing flesh rang out as the golden greatsword pierced through the cardinal's chest without any resistance.
"Giggle..." Feeling the pain in his chest and seeing the sword blade protruding from his chest, the cardinal's eyes widened, and he coughed up blood.
" Adam, you... you will drag the Church into... eternal... destruction..."
Blood flowed on the golden floor. The Red Archbishop's body was dragged away by the Holy Knight. The other Cardinals remained silent, but their heads, which had been raised earlier, drooped again.
"Hmph! Utter ruin? If we truly let people's hearts run wild and let things develop unchecked, that's when the Church will truly be doomed!"
Archbishop Adam thought of the 'great' divine body on the hill behind the Holy See and felt he wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight.
Human hearts are unpredictable. How could Archbishop Adam, who rose through the ranks step by step, not know this? If there were no divine corpse, the Church could do whatever it wanted, society could develop however it wanted, and even the Church could be destroyed.
Is His Majesty Adam such a spineless person? How could he not know that this approach is undermining the very foundation of social development?
However, due to the presence of the divine corpse, he had no choice but to cut it down with a single stroke.
The more prosperous a society becomes, the more cunning and scheming people there will be. Only when everyone is starving and their fate is not in their own hands will they think less, because they will only be thinking about survival and will not have the mind to think about anything else.
Otherwise, there will always be some self-proclaimed smart fools who are insatiable and rack their brains to try to obtain the essence of the Holy Knight. If they discover the corpse of the god, then Adam doesn't even need to think about it. These people will definitely try to use the corpse of the god to do something and drag humanity into an abyss of no return!
By deceiving people's minds and forcibly suppressing development, the lower classes can only eke out a living, the upper classes can only live in fear, society can only stagnate, and people have no energy to think about other things. Only in this way can there be fewer people with ulterior motives, can the Pope rule forever, and can the corpse of the god be sealed in the back mountain.
Human nature is unpredictable; Adam dared not gamble on what others thought!
In short, His Majesty Adam has been driven to extremism by the corpse of the god in the back mountain of the Holy See.
There are no normal people in the Church!