Chapter 531 Chapter 494 Tit for Tat (Part 1)

In fact, among the three major annual festivals on the Roland Continent: Summer Festival, New Year, and Qingfeng Festival, the church rarely participates in them, and the only festival that the church participates in is "New Year" According to tradition, when celebrating the New Year, there will be a prayer ceremony hosted by the Pope himself. As for summer festivals and harvest festivals, generally speaking, the church would not participate.There is a traditional reason for this: According to the church, especially the religiously fanatical Yeni faction, the two festivals, Summer Festival and Qingfeng Festival, have always been regarded as "illegal" in terms of religion!

For fanatical believers, they believe that since the world was created by the goddess, as festivals such as celebrating the harvest or summer festivals, the object of people's gratitude should be the goddess!Instead of being grateful for something. Especially for the Qingfeng Festival. Historically, the Yeni faction has launched several proposals to ban this festival. Although they all failed, there is no doubt that this also represents the attitude of the church towards this festival. For example, the traditional items in the Harvest Festival: In order to thank the harvest of the year, people will sing and dance around a burning fire pillar-this tradition has been strongly opposed by the Yenis, because this celebration habit is from It was handed down before the establishment of the Roland Empire.This kind of behavior of dancing against the burning fire pillar is believed to have spread in a certain branch of religion that worshiped fire in the era of various sects before the unification of the mainland.

Since after the reunification of the mainland, the Church of the Goddess of Light has been designated as the state religion and the only legal religion, any other form of worship should be strictly banned! However, the Qingfeng Festival has been preserved.Because, for the vast majority of farmers, perhaps they are also willing to believe in the goddess, but the annual harvest of crops is a matter of life and death - if you can't even take care of a full stomach, who will pay for it? Have the mind to take care of other things? Moreover, as for the Yeni sect's belief that the ritual of "dancing around the fire pillar" in the Qingfeng Festival was inherited from a certain Zoroastrianism that has disappeared...but they could not provide strong evidence!Is it Zoroastrianism if I like to dance around a pillar of fire?Then there are people who like to sing and drink when they go out to campfires in the wild!Are they all Zoroastrians?

The majority of the people attach great importance to the harvest of crops, and as a result, the banning of the celebration of the harvest has been met with great resistance, and finally it was dropped. However, at this kind of festival celebration, the church will never show up—it uses this method to silently express its dissatisfaction. Therefore, when His Majesty Pope Paul XVI of the temple suddenly came to the feast of the Harvest Festival today, this event that had never happened in hundreds of years immediately shocked many people. Of course, there were also some people with a keen sense of smell. Guess what might have happened...

During the ceremony, the door of the main hall opened. Pope Paul XVI, wearing a white robe trimmed with gold, holding a scepter in his hand, and wearing a papal crown with a circle on the outside and a square on the inside, walked slowly. walked in.And behind him, there were two holy knights in silver light armor. Looking at the badges on their chests, they were all eighth-level powerhouses. When the spiritual leader of the Roland Continent walked in, the originally cheerful music stopped abruptly, and then the dancing guests also stopped dancing, stepped back to the two sides, and gave way to the middle passage, followed by the pope Walking in step by step, people on both sides bowed and saluted one after another, paying high respect to the spiritual leader of the mainland.

Prince Chen and Du Wei quickly exchanged glances, both of them showed a trace of worry, but Prince Chen quickly stood up, walked down the steps quickly, and then faced Paul XVI with a slight smile , said lightly: "Godfather, today is the Qingfeng Festival. On such a day, I really didn't expect you to attend." Hearing Prince Chen calling himself "Godfather", a vague smile appeared on the old face of Paul XVI. He deliberately raised his voice and responded: "My child, because the clergy also want to For dinner." The title "my child" caused a gloomy look in Prince Chen's eyes, but he covered it up in an instant, the smile on his face was flawless, and he reached out to support the Pope, and walked up with the Pope. up the steps.

And "His Majesty Augustine VI" also stood up—it has to be said that the tailor who had been performing perfectly before tonight finally looked a little cramped. After all, this kind of scene was not expected to happen in advance! The old emperor's complexion was obviously not very good-looking, but under Du Wei's eyes, he quickly calmed down, coughed, and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "Welcome, Your Majesty." "That is my honor, Your Majesty." The Pope smiled faintly. Soon, the court servants moved a new seat, and placed it next to the throne of His Majesty the Emperor, a little lower—this is also a tradition, and in public, the seats of the emperor and the pope are usually side by side of.The only difference is whose "home court" it is. Today it is in the imperial palace, and the Pope is a guest, so his seat can only be slightly lower than that of the emperor.

The status of the two holy knights brought by the Pope is also very high - in fact, the seats of the two are placed under Du Wei, because the identities of these two people are the current great knights of the Holy Knights long! After all, after the Hussein rebellion, the Holy Knights no longer had ninth-level knights, and they only relied on eighth-level knights for appearance, which seemed a little shabby. Prince Chen was sitting beside the Pope, he raised his hand and clapped, the music started again, and the guests below continued to dance. Afterwards, Prince Chen exchanged a few words with the Pope in a low voice—these were all insipid words, the only function of which was to attract the Pope's attention and prevent him from having a chance to talk to the old emperor.

And Prince Chen's mind was spinning quickly: at this time, the pope suddenly appeared, what is the intention? ! Sure enough, after exchanging a few pleasantries, Paul XVI quickly turned the topic to Augustine VI. He looked at the old emperor and smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I heard that you felt a little unwell a few days ago?" The old emperor hesitated for a moment, nodded slowly, and said vaguely: "There is nothing left." "Oh, that's good." Paul XVI smiled lightly: "However, you are the monarch of the empire, and your health is related to the fate of the empire. There are some priests with powerful magic in our church, and the healing arts of the light department , it should be of some help to your body...do you want me to send two senior priests to the palace tomorrow to give you..."

"No need." Prince Chen suddenly interrupted with a smile: "Father's body has recovered, so there is no need to bother the priests in the temple. And..." At this time, Prince Chen intentionally glanced behind him—behind him sat an old court mage wearing a red mage robe. This old guy probably became the head of the court mages after the coup d'état, and he was naturally Prince Chen's confidant. He looked about sixty years old, and said indifferently: "Your Majesty, among our court mages, there are naturally There are people who are good at healing magic. Your Majesty's health problems have always been taken care of by us and the court physician, and I am afraid that the Church does not have to worry about it."

This was said bluntly and without hesitation. But the Pope didn't care, he just smiled—whether it was a magician from the Magic Union or a court magician, they always had a somewhat disdainful attitude towards the church.Because the magician thinks: In this world, only the magician is the profession closest to God!As for the church... well, that's just a bunch of magic sticks! "I'm just expressing my concern." The Pope replied in a good temper, and then suddenly began to exchange pleasantries with the old emperor. Amidst the melodious music, the two supreme leaders of the empire just talked in such a low voice, talking some irrelevant "nonsense", nothing more than the weather today is good, and this year's harvest is good!You look good, wait, wait... After a few more words between the two, Prince Chen and Du Wei next to him were obviously a little nervous.Because the tailor Groom could barely answer a few words at the beginning, but at the end, his forehead was already sweating. It was clear that the tailor was a little too nervous when facing the spiritual leader of the mainland. In the middle, Prince Chen interjected a few words symbolically, but unfortunately the old pope seemed to want to talk to the emperor on purpose, and deliberately shifted the topic back to the old emperor after a few sentences. At this time, there is another very difficult problem: Originally, according to the plan, the old emperor could announce his exit at the third dance. But now, with the sudden arrival of the Pope, it is difficult for "His Majesty the Emperor" to leave! After all, as the head of the Temple of Light, the spiritual leader of the mainland, His Majesty the Pope is here, and such a heavyweight guest is sitting in front of you. As the master, how dare you get out of the way first?Due to emotion and reason, Augustine VI cannot leave!I can only sit here and accompany me! Finally, Du Wei spoke. Lord Tulip suddenly stood up from his seat, took two steps, looked at Paul XVI, and said with a smile, "Your Majesty, speaking of it, I haven't seen you for a long time." Paul XVI narrowed his eyes, looked at Du Wei's eyes, and said with a smile: "Duke Tulip...ah, I was wrong, it should be my Lord Archbishop of the Northwest Diocese. I heard that under your leadership, the Northwest The parish is thriving now." Du Wei's heart trembled, and he secretly cursed the old fox.These words are clearly meant to remind Du Wei: You still have the status of a bishop of the Northwest Diocese, counting, you are my subordinate! Although Du Wei didn't care about the status of a bullshit subordinate, he had to admit that throwing such words would easily weaken his aura. He had a smile on his face, but he cursed several times in his heart before continuing: "Thanks to you, the development of the Northwest Diocese is not bad. However, something happened a while ago, and I still blame myself After all, in my jurisdiction, some people pretended to be the Holy Knights to bluff and deceive... Alas, fortunately, I captured and executed them all, but after all, it was my poor management of the Northwest Diocese, so I feel really ashamed." As he said that, Du Wei looked up at Paul XVI with infinitely sincere eyes and a pure forty-five-degree angle: "Your Majesty! I decided that after returning to the imperial capital this time, I must go to the temple and face the goddess of light. It’s like a good confession, and I pray that the goddess will forgive my sins... and please agree to my request!” When Paul XVI heard this, the muscles in the corners of his eyes trembled imperceptibly, and he gritted his teeth secretly... Hundreds of people!Those are hundreds of reserve members of the most elite Angel Legion!He was slaughtered by the guy in front of him chopping melons and vegetables! ! However, Jiang is old and spicy after all. The Pope took a deep breath, and his voice became more and more kind: "Du Wei, my Lord Bishop Rudolf, please don't take it to heart! Such things are often impossible. Avoid it. Moreover, I think you have no merit in this matter, and I have ordered a reward for your behavior. I think, if the bishops of various dioceses in the mainland can devote themselves to the teaching affairs like you, then our church It will definitely be more prosperous.” After a pause, the Pope suddenly changed the topic: "I heard that the northwest region is not very stable, because of its remote location, there are often some 'wanted criminals' and the like who flee there. Sigh...you not only You are the bishop of the church, you are also the duke of the empire, and the lord of the northwest, and you are also responsible for maintaining the peace of the place, so thank you for your hard work." Du Wei laughed dryly, looking at the old fox in front of him, he couldn't help thinking: What are you pulling!If I hadn't saved your life back then, you would be sleeping in a coffin now!Is there still a chance to sit on this throne and cause trouble for me!snort! At this time, Paul XVI had already turned his head away. Probably after speaking a few words with Du Wei, his heart was filled with anger. He didn't dare to say anything to Du Wei, for fear that if he continued speaking, he would lose control of his heart. I'm angry. He looked at His Majesty Augustine VI and said with a smile, "Your Majesty, in fact, I came here suddenly today because I have something to ask you."