The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Father Tovia is the priest of the main church of Feinan Diocese in the Principality of Russ. He has served as a fire watcher for a long time, and it is not an important role in the parish church. There are ten priests, and what he needs to do every day is to put enough charcoal into the container of the purification fire, so that the purification fire will not be extinguished due to lack of fuel.

In fact, it is enough for one person to do something like a fire watcher, but now ten people are needed to do it. More than a dozen or even dozens of clergy hold positions in the church.

The main reason for this phenomenon is entirely the divine decree promulgated by the current pope. This papal decree allows all countries controlled by the Purifying Fire Church, those bastards, illegitimate children, etc. Letters of recommendation from the nobility, go to the church in their diocese for the assessment of the clergy, as long as they pass the assessment, they can be granted the lowest-level clergy status.

The reason why the contemporary Pope promulgates such absurd edicts is not only that he is a son of a nobleman, but also because he was able to become Pope because of the secret help of a large number of descendants of nobles. The power is very small, but when they unite, they can produce extraordinary influence, and even directly affect the Pope election of the Purifying Fire Church.

When such a decree was promulgated, there were naturally many people who opposed it, but these oppositions disappeared soon, because those who raised the voice of opposition had these or those accidents in the political, commercial and other aspects, and several of them It was because of accidental death, no matter how stupid people knew what happened, so they all chose to shut up after being warned.

As a result, this decree was quickly implemented. A large number of bastards and illegitimate sons of the nobles passed the church assessment with letters of introduction from the nobles, and became the lowest-level clergy of the church. Some of them even performed extremely well in the assessment. Became an official priest, for example, Tovia is such a priest who takes shortcuts.

The reason why the bastards and illegitimate sons of nobles place so much importance on this lowest priesthood status is mainly because after having such a status, they can greatly reduce or exempt the tax rate when paying the holy tax of the church. Many people with priesthood status The illegitimate sons and bastards of the nobles will make themselves affiliated with a certain chamber of commerce and caravan, and indirectly help the chamber of commerce and caravan reduce part of their taxes, so that they can also obtain a considerable amount of extra income.

It's just that, compared to those shortcut priests who take advantage of the convenience of priesthood and seek benefits, Tovia really wants to be a formal priest, so he does not hesitate to give up the good life at his fingertips and choose to go to this marginal church. The principality came to be a fire watcher.

Because of this, his working attitude towards the position of fire watcher is completely different from other fire watchers who dawdle. He is extremely serious and pious, and will stay on the top of the tower where the purification fire is located almost all day long , It was precisely because of his behavior that when the rat swarm broke out, he was protected by the purifying fire and did not suffer any harm.

It was not until the next morning that he discovered that almost all the people in the church and the town where he was located were dead, and only a few people escaped by hiding in the cellar, and he became the backbone of this group of survivors. It wasn't until he moved to the place of God in front of him that the number of survivors he was in charge of managed changed from a dozen to several thousand. What kind of high priest, but at this time, survivors need a hope of survival, religion can give such hope, and he is the only priest in the entire Rustic principality, and he can only bear this burden.

At the beginning, Tovia didn't know that he could survive the rat tide because he was next to the purifying fire. He just thought that the broken wooden door on the top of the tower blocked the rat tide, just like those who survived in the cellar same as people.

It wasn't until he got in touch with the priests of the church outside that he figured out that the fire of purification could resist the rat tide. This also made him glad that when he moved to the land of the gods, he deliberately kept the fire of purification in the diocesan church intact. The relocation had given him enough fire to light the bonfires on the town wall, establishing a protective circle of purifying fire.

Although Torvia is now one of the most important backbones of the town, many things do not need to be done personally, as long as he is ordered, someone will help him to do it, but adding firewood to the purification fire and taking care of the purification fire In fact, he is still personally responsible.

Just like the previous few days, he held a prayer meeting for the survivors after nightfall, and then went to the fence with a waiter to see how the purification fires were doing.

On the way, the survivors who met him all saluted him respectfully, and he returned the salute one by one, appearing very approachable, and now his reputation in the town is very high, which is something he could never have imagined before. The feeling of being respected is very good, so good that he has the urge to thank this rat wave, because without this rat wave, he will always be a fire watcher, and it is impossible to become the current fire holder .

The fire bearer is the superior priesthood of the fire watcher, which can already be counted as a high priesthood. There is only one requirement to become a fire bearer, and that is to be able to separate the purifying fire and create a new purifying fire bonfire.

Under normal circumstances, even if the clergy and non-clergy who are not the fire-bearer are to be lit in the purifying fire, the lit torch in his hand is not a purifying fire, but an ordinary flame, and only the fire-bearer ignites it. The torch is the real purifying fire.

Therefore, in the Purifying Fire Church, the fire bearer is very important. For any new parish or new church, the fire bearer needs to separate the purifying fire. Only by igniting the purifying fire of the church and parish can the establishment of the church be completed.

This is why the fire watcher is the lowest clergyman, while the fire bearer who is only one level behind is a powerful figure second only to the cardinals.

Tovia can think that once the blockade of the Principality of the Church is lifted, then he, the fire bearer born in the disaster, can better reflect the doctrine of the Purifying Fire doctrine, so he is a non-cultivated person who completely relies on the gift of the Purifying Fire The fire bearer must be able to be reused, especially when it involves the decree promulgated by the pope that caused complaints within the church.

Just like the end of the scene, when he came to the container containing the purification fire, Tovia carefully checked the status of the container, checked whether there was enough firewood in the container, threw some firewood in, added some firewood, Then he walked towards the next cleansing fire container.

After inspecting several cleansing fire containers, Torvia came to the place where the last cleansing fire container was placed, but he saw that standing beside the container was not the survivor he had arranged, but a man in foreign clothes. Strangers in safari suits.

He immediately recognized who this stranger was. This was mainly because there were only two foreigners in this small town, and of course it was also because the lady among the two foreigners had the aura of a queen, making him feel like a queen. People can leave a deep impression at a glance. He still remembers when the survivors tried to drive them away as foreigners. The extremely beautiful lady just glanced at them, and everyone was like It was as if his throat was choked and he dared not speak.

As the earl's concubine, Tovia has seen many high-ranking nobles, including many grand dukes who rule a country, but he can say with certainty that none of these grand dukes and nobles can compare with that foreign country in terms of temperament and power. The lady was comparable, not even one-tenth of it, so many people speculated that this foreign lady might be a foreign princess or a grand duchess.

Compared with the high-profile foreign noble lady, the foreign man who should be the lady's husband has not been noticed. Some people even speculate that the foreign man is not the lady's husband, but just the lady's guard. of.

It's just that, unlike other people in the town, Torvia paid more attention to the foreign male, because the purifying fire told him that the two foreigners were very dangerous, and the male was more dangerous than the female. .

Ever since he became a fire bearer, he has been endowed by the purifying fire with some magical abilities that were previously thought to be just legends, for example, he is no longer afraid of the cold, for example, he can see many things at night, for example, he can see living things The heat that emanates.

It is precisely because of this ability that before he moved to the Land of the Gods, he used his ability to avoid the attacks of the rat swarm several times, so that the survivors did not suffer any losses.

After this disaster is over, he can go to the main cathedral of the Holy Lord, where he can learn some divine arts that can only be mastered by senior priests, and become a true fire bearer.

Now even if he can't perform some divine spells, he can still use the purification fire to perform some divine spell-like abilities, which is the main reason why he can gain such a great reputation and status here, which also makes him very interested in the purification. He is very dependent on fire, and he attaches great importance to the reminder of the purifying fire.

So he has been secretly observing these two foreigners for the past two days, but what he saw made him feel puzzled. These two foreigners would leave the town with the local girl named Penistan every day and go outside the town. In the forest, they will return to the small town before nightfall, not knowing what they are doing.

He also thought about following them to see what they were doing, but when he thought that he would lose the protection of the purification fire after entering the forest, he became afraid again and gave up the idea of ​​following them.

He also asked others about when the two foreigners came to the town, only to learn that the two foreigners had been living with the local girl before anyone else discovered the magic of this town. In the town, I heard from the girl that the two foreigners killed her among the rats, and then sent her home. They found that everyone in the house was dead, so they stayed to take care of her temporarily when they saw that she was helpless.

Tovia also confirmed this to the girl. Although he got an affirmative answer, he always felt that the girl was hiding something, but he didn't ask too much.

He originally planned to find an opportunity to talk to those two foreigners in detail, to see why the two foreigners came to Russ to teach the Principality, and to see if there was anything unusual about them, but he didn't expect to wait for him to find the two foreigners. People, one of them had already appeared in front of him.

Tovia originally thought that this foreign man was just curious about the purification fire. After all, he could not see the purification fire at such a close distance in other places like now, but he soon felt that something was wrong, because he was from there. I felt the emotion of fear in the fire of purification.

This feeling really made him a little confused, although after this period of constant exposure to the fire of purification, he can feel that the fire of purification is more like a special kind of divine life, not just a kind of fire, because he He was able to feel the emotions of intelligent creatures in the flames, but he had never experienced such a strong emotion of fear like now. He never thought that the divine life bestowed by the gods, such as the purifying fire, would affect a mortal. feeling scared.

"What are you doing?" Although Torvia was also afraid and worried, his devotion to the Purifying Fire made him bolder to step forward and question the foreign male.

The other party turned his head, looked at the priest calmly, and asked back: "Father Tovia, didn't you say in the square that anyone can touch this sacred fire at close range?"

"Uh..." Tovia didn't know how to answer for a while.

As Leo said, when he used the ability of the fire holder to separate a purifying fire from the source fire he brought for the first time, and lit the bonfire on the city wall, he was extremely excited and said Some things that should not have been said, this sacred fire that anyone can get close to is what he hopes to take back, if he said this in other places under the jurisdiction of the Purifying Fire Church, he would definitely be very seriously triggered, Fortunately, it is now a church vacuum.

So now Leo used this sentence to ask him back, but he didn't think about how to answer it.

However, he quickly thought of how to argue, and said, "Is your Excellency a believer in the Purifying Fire? What I said was only for believers."

"So that's the case, it seems that I misunderstood." The other party smiled, turned and walked under the wall.

"Wait!" Tovia suddenly stopped the other party, and quickly asked: "May I ask what is your purpose of living here?"

"Purpose?" The other party stopped, turned his head and looked at Tovia with a strange look, and said, "Is there any other safe place in the territory of the Principality of Russ and the surrounding Principalities besides here?" ?”

Tovia hesitated for a moment, but did not answer.

The other party asked again: "And what identity do you use to ask me this question? You must know that I came here before you, and you are the latecomers. If it is legality, as the only survivor of this town, Pei Only Nistan has the legitimacy, she can decide who should stay and who should leave, you are not qualified enough, think about what you are asking next time, so as not to humiliate yourself like now."

After finishing speaking, he didn't look at Tovia's ugly face anymore, turned around and walked towards the place where he lived.