Iron Powder and Spellcaster

"The vast majority of people in Tiefeng County regard you as one of mine. Regardless of whether this is the case or not, am I right?"

"So your behavior not only represents you, but also represents my attitude. Can you understand it?"

"We have just gone through a very difficult battle. The last thing Tiefeng County needs now is internal strife. I cannot go to war with the Catholic Church, and you should also know that."

Winters didn't do anything extreme except for the head start when he entered.

He calmly laid out the facts and reasoned with Kaman, without any reproach in his tone.

"Father Edmond just gave me an ultimatum." Winters sighed heavily: "You should come and discuss things like this with me first. Otherwise, it will end up like this - putting me in a very difficult situation. Passive situation.”

Kaman's cheeks were so red that they turned purple. He stood up stiffly, bent down reluctantly, and said in a voice as small as a butterfly flapping its wings: "I'm sorry."

Winters actually had the intention of teasing Kaman. After all, Kaman usually ignored him.

But seeing Kaman bow and apologize out of guilt, Winters didn't feel any pride, but felt very uncomfortable.

"Humph, I'm really not used to such a good attitude!" Winters quickly pushed Kaman back into his seat and joked: "You really didn't cause any big trouble, did you?"

When Kaman heard this, he stood up again.

Winters smelled a hint of danger.

"Mr. Carman." Winters held Carman's shoulders and asked, "Are we friends?"

Kaman was startled for a moment, then glared at Winters angrily.

"We have experienced so many things together. Even if we are not friends, we are still very close. I will never betray you, and I believe you will not betray me." Winters said seriously: "But I don't know yet that I am being involved. What's going on, I think you should give me some explanation."

Kaman hesitated to speak. He struggled for a long time and finally gave up: "I once swore an oath to keep secrets in front of the true Holy Emblem..."

It's a good thing that Kaman didn't mention it. When he mentioned the "Oath of Secrecy", Winters' interest was aroused - because the last time Kaman mentioned the Oath of Secrecy, it was when he was talking about divine magic.

Winters immediately walked out of the room and ordered Charles to guard the door and not allow anyone to approach.

After closing the door, Winters poured a glass of water for Carman: "Oath of secrecy? Can you tell me the oath? Is it rigorous? I can find loopholes."

Kaman sneered disdainfully and did not answer.

"How about this? I'll ask the questions and you just answer 'yes' and 'no'."

Kaman shook his head: "No."

Winters proposed several more ideas, all of which were rejected by Kaman.

"Well, I understand. As long as you give any response, you will violate your oath." Winters became more and more interested: "It's quite rigorous."

"This matter won't involve you for too long." Kaman said with difficulty: "I just need to buy some time."

"Suppose there is another country in the east, suppose there is another pagan church in that country, suppose that pagan church in that country also has another oath of secrecy..." Winters interrupted Carman, who was pacing the room. : "We are discussing fictitious things, can we bypass the oath?"

"You can fool other people, but you can't fool yourself." Kaman shook his head: "Even if you can fool yourself, you can't fool the Lord."

Winters didn't seem to hear Kaman's words. He stopped and came up with the final plan: "There is no other way, so that's it - I will state it, you don't have to answer or express your position, you just listen to me. Just say it.”

Kaman was a little annoyed: "Why don't you understand? Just because I tolerate you talking about this topic, I may have violated my oath."

"Possibly?" Winters caught the loophole in Kaman's words: "You said 'possibly', right? Since there is a possibility, it means there is still room for flexibility in the oath."

Kaman shut his mouth angrily.

"I'm a little curious, how do you people who have sworn an oath to keep secrecy communicate? Is it possible that the oath restricts you to 'can only talk to another person who has sworn an oath to keep secrecy'?" Winters seemed to be in a sword duel. Catching the opponent's omissions, he continued to attack: "Then I will also make a vow, can you tell me?"

Kaman's shoulders and hands were shaking.

"Forget it, let's not talk about that today." Winters rationally decided not to continue irritating Kaman. He poured himself a glass of water and said to himself, regardless of whether Kaman was willing to listen or not: "Ronald The major once mentioned in his letter that he rescued an old slave from the Hud people. The slave claimed to be Father Saul, and other information is unknown..."

Kaman sat expressionless.

Winters paid careful attention to Carman's expression. For him, Kaman not getting up and walking away means victory.

oath? No matter how rigorous the oath is, it is people who carry out the oath after all - people are the biggest loophole.

"...After the old slave who called himself Father Saul came to Zhongtiefeng County, you were the first to see him..." Winters paused for a moment and said word by word: "And you hid him."

Kaman stared at the water glass without any response, but his emotions betrayed him.

Winters' tone was calm, as if he was chatting: "You want to operate secretly, but there is no airtight wall. When the monks of Gevaudan Abbey learned about this, their reaction was more intense than you expected. In desperation, you borrowed You want to use my name to scare them and buy you time..."

Kaman stared at the water in the cup, as if there was an apparition of the Virgin in the water.

Winters sat back in his chair, with a hint of reproach in his tone: "Why are you so naive?"

Kaman raised his head sharply and glared at Winters.

"Since you borrowed my name, you can't hide it from me! Look, didn't Edmond just come to me directly?"

Turning a blind eye to Kaman's angry look, Winters took his time and commented:

"I thought you enjoyed a special status in the church. But what happened? Even a few country priests couldn't hold you down! Is this how the church prefers magical users? I'm really surprised. How does the church balance power and divine arts? Don't you think that you have a special status in the church? rebel?"

"That's enough! Do you think we are you?" Kaman was simply furious: "The status of the priests is equal, and there is no distinction between high and low because of God's gift!"

"Equality? What is the Holy Order?" Winters asked, "Why are some people bishops, some priests, and some so poor that they starve to death?"

"Holy Orders are a sacrament, a mission and a responsibility! When reaching out to knock on the door of the Kingdom of Heaven, everyone is equal!"

"Mission? Responsibility? Do you believe this?" Winters raised his chin.

Kaman rolled up his sleeves: "[Vulgar words that are very violent but have weak lethality]!"

"Okay, okay." Seeing that he was about to experience the fatal magic in person, Winters quickly stopped: "I'm not here to debate the Bible with you. Didn't the great debate end thirty years ago?"

"I only want to ask you one thing." In an instant, Winters's expression turned grim, and the rapid change of emotions caught Kaman off guard.

Winters asked coldly: "Where is the prisoner?"

…

A quarter of an hour later, the officer's apartment in Gévaudan.

After going around in a circle, Winters actually returned to his residence.

Winters finally figured it out - why was Father Emond ashamed to bribe him? Why didn't the Abbey of Gévaudan simply kill first and report later?

Kaman hides people in the blood wolf's lair. Who dares to reach out?

"You're hiding people here?" Winters asked Carman in surprise.

Kaman was a little embarrassed, but still said with a cold face: "Stay here temporarily."

"What I mean is." Winters pointed to the kitchen door, a little unbelievable: "Anyway, he is also a clergyman, so you put him in the kitchen."

Kaman was even more ashamed: "This is what Brother Saul asked for himself."

Opening the door, it was warm in the kitchen. The fire was burning brightly, and something was cooking in the pot.

An old man with gray beard was hunched over the stove, peeling beets.

Winters could never have imagined that the "heretic" that Tiefeng County Church must liquidate no matter what, was actually such an old man in his dying years.

The old man was not surprised by the arrival of Winters and Carman, as if he had expected such a moment.

He squinted his eyes to see the person clearly, nodded as a greeting, and then continued to peel the beetroot in his hand.

Winters walked over to the pot and looked at the thick soup that was simmering.

"It turns out that the soup this morning was made by you." Winters smiled helplessly: "No wonder it has some prairie flavor - I thought I was overthinking it."

"It's just random cooking."

Winters couldn't help but laugh: "Don't the Hurds just make soup randomly?"

The old man also showed a knowing smile, but Kaman stood awkwardly.

"Old man, I have something to ask. But he won't tell me." Winters pointed at Kaman: "Then I can only ask you."

"Excuse me." The old man picked up another beetroot and continued peeling it: "If you are willing to listen."

Winters sat on the floor. Because he was taller than the old man, their eyes were at eye level: "Didn't you take any oath to keep secrets?"

"I passed."

"You can say that even if you took an oath of secrecy?"

"Can."

"Brother Saul!" Carman said anxiously.

"Brother Carman." The old man known as Saul slowly peeled the beets: "I have been excommunicated."

Kaman was speechless, he opened the door angrily and left.

"He didn't want to listen and left." Winters stood up, poured two cups of hot soup and sat back down: "Okay, we can talk slowly."

The old man was noncommittal.

The interrogation usually started with names, ages, origins, but Winters didn't care about that. So he got straight to the point at the beginning: "Why does the Church of Gévaudin have to kill you?"

The old man was silent for a moment: "Because I belong to the [Renovation Order]."

Once you find the thread, the next step is simple.

"Renovation Order." Winters followed the key words and continued to ask: "What is it again?"

"The Reformation Order is..." The old man's hand stopped, and complex emotions that Winters couldn't understand appeared in his dry pool-like eyes, but only for a moment.

The old man continued peeling beets: "A group of people who have perished."

"It doesn't matter." Winters took a sip of hot soup and said, "I have time."

…

…

What is human nature?

The pursuit of reason? Or is it an uncontrollable blind movement?

The dualistic form is obviously not a valid statement, but even the most pessimistic philosopher about human nature has to admit that there are times when the pursuit of reason will prevail.

Because it is human instinct to explore the laws of all things, even when facing "gods", humans will want an explanation.

So we can see the following spectacle: the basis of orthodox scholastic theology is rigorous logic, and if the given premises are accepted, scholastic theology can be logically self-consistent.

The same goes for magic.

From the earliest days of the Catholic faith - not the Church - theurgy has been seen as miracles, as the grace of the Lord, as the gospel spread by the Lord through the hands of the priests.

The ancient empire originally respected polytheistic religions and extremely rejected "heretics" who believed in the Catholic religion. Massacres and persecutions were common.

The original Catholic Church was a religion for the poor. "It is harder for a rich person to get to heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle." Therefore, it had no ability to resist the butcher's knife from the ruling class.

If the Catholic Church wants to continue to survive, there is only one way to go: to eliminate its opponents and replace them.

As a result, Catholicism, which was originally spread among the poor, began to take the initiative to get closer to the powerful, and even transformed itself to cater to the ruling class.

The Catholic Church - a strict, centralized organizational group - also gradually took shape during this stage.

Eventually, Catholicism was officially accepted as the sole state religion by Emperor Constantine.

From then on, the Catholic Church used the power of the political power to systematically eliminate the old religious system and scorned it as "paganism".

In the battle between the Catholic Church and the Old Church for the upper echelons of society, the unique divine magic is the most powerful.

As the position of the Catholic Church became more and more stable, and when it became too solid to be shaken, the clergy of the Catholic Church finally had time to think about a question:

What is magic?

Divine magic is of course the grace of God, but how is it realized? Is it logically provable?

Is magic a complete miracle? Or is the caster also involved to some extent?

If it is the former, it means that the magic can be stripped away; if it is the latter, what is the ratio between the two?

Once the fire of doubt is ignited, it will spread out of control.

Discussions became more and more frequent, and tit-for-tat views began to emerge. The Eastern Church and the Western Church of the Empire even became seriously opposed to each other. This was known as the "First Controversy" in history.

For the church, this is a debate about truth. But for the ruling group, this was an internal hemorrhage of the empire.

The emperor at that time was Dalek II. Dalek II had no interest in theology and had no desire to watch theological debates.

What the emperor wants is peace and quiet.

Therefore, Dalek II finally issued the [Mia Edict], forcibly quelling the first debate by saying, "What you said is correct, but no further discussion is allowed."

If the apostles, who fought hard against paganism and laid the foundation of Catholicism a hundred years ago, heard the content of the first debate, they would probably scold them on the spot: "I see you are all full!"

But there is no way. Once people get rid of existential crisis, they will start to think about the meaning of existence.

The Edict of Mia temporarily settled the debate, but did not resolve the underlying issue.

The clergy who were forced to shut up turned around and began to search the classics, hoping to find arguments to support their side from the historical archives.

However, the original record of divine magic cannot be found in the manuscript - it is completely blank.

Instead, someone found something else—a description of pagan magic.

Although most of the writings about pagan beliefs have been erased by the victors, there are still a few words that prove that paganism also has the ability to "achieve things beyond common sense", but its value to the powerful is far less than that of Catholic theology.

This discovery caused an uproar. If paganism also has "divine magic", then...it means that the Catholic faith has become a castle in the air.

The Catholic Church immediately divided into two factions.

One group yelled at the top of their lungs, "Stop exploring! Magic is God's grace and a miracle. Pagan magic is the devil's black magic and unclean power."

The other group firmly believes that "it must be investigated clearly, otherwise the Catholic doctrine will always have logical loopholes and will never be perfect."

In the end it was the emperor who intervened to quell the controversy.

This time, Dalek II did not fight with each other anymore. He fully supported the "Miracle Sect" and launched a brutal purge of the "Exploration Sect".

The Inquiry sect was labeled as a heretic, and most of the Inquiry clergy were arrested, tried, and burned at the stake.

The living clergy went underground, fleeing to the edges of the world—to wild lands beyond the reach of the emperor and the church.

Known in history as "the first great rupture".

The exploration of divine magic has since become a taboo in the Catholic Church, and relevant content is not allowed to be consulted, discussed or even mentioned.

…

"The Daleks II and the priests of that era may have thought that this was the end of the matter." Old Saul turned his back to Winters and stretched his hand close to the hearth to warm himself: "But you know what is the most terrifying thing? ? The echoes of the first great rupture still linger.”

Winters was fascinated by what he heard. He kept sipping the hot soup, unaware that the cup was empty.

"Just as Dalek II had predicted, the controversy died down, and it stayed that way for a long, long time. The old empire was destroyed, and new ones were built on his corpse. The Catholic Church sometimes declined and sometimes flourished , Generally speaking, it is still booming. All the warm lands have been converted, so the Catholic Church began to send missionaries to the north in a planned way." Old Saul thought for a moment: "That was about five centuries ago."

Winters was in a daze for a moment.

"Then, the monks who went to the north to preach the gospel discovered." Saul's shadow fluctuated under the fire: "The 'demigods' of the barbarians in the north mastered the unique magic of the Catholic Church... and even More amazing miracles can be achieved.”

[orZ]

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