Translator: Yang_Wenli
After the post about the truth of the chapel’s basement appeared on the mage forum, many listeners of the Voice of Norland immediately flocked to it and started replying to the post.
‘The construction of that teleportation formation is quite low quality. Judging from photos, that teleportation formation will only be able to sustain roughly three people at once.’ Replied by: Ash-colored Owl
The first to reply was none other than the Ash-colored Owl renowned for his scientific approach. Ever since the Gray Mage Lursk started using the Mage Forum, he firmly stabilized his status as a ‘Sage’ of Norland.
His silhouette could be seen in every corner of the mage forum.
The posts he would reply to ranges from the Daily Discussions’ daily life topics such as ‘Norland’s Alchemy Market’s Flame Lizards had increased in price by a silver coin, does anyone know why that’s the case?’ to Magic Research’s highly specialized topics such as ‘The work to decipher the arcanotech devices unearthed from the underground civilization beneath the city of Norland...’
If Joshua was to introduce a ‘ranking system’ with experience earned based on the amount of replies one made on the forum, he was certain that Ash-colored Owl would be the number one ranker.
That said, Ash-colored Owl had an excellent popularity in the Mage Forum. With him making a reply, the number of replies to the post started increasing by two or three every couple tens of seconds.
“Would they believe in it this quickly?”
The dark elf was looking at the replies to the post. At this moment, the majority of the replies were from people voicing their suspicion.
“Just sit tight and wait. It is not only the photos that served as evidence, there are also bystander testimonies.”
Joshua watched as the amount of replies to the post gradually increased from twenty-three to one hundred and twelve.
There were currently over ten thousand people listening to the Voice of Norland. Joshua believed that there must be some people among them that knew about what happened last night.
Finally, the amount of replies questioning the validity of the news started to die down. In the meantime, some ‘bystanders’ that knew about what happened began to appear.
‘Are those photos real? I... don’t remember there being a basement in that chapel.’ Replied by: Belle Learner
‘I recognize those armored knights in the photos. They are Ecclesiastical Templars from the Nation of the Holy Church!’ Replied by: Lizard Grocery Store
‘I saw the law enforcers confronting the templars outside the chapel last night!’ Replied by: Old Erke
More and more bystanders that knew about a portion of what happened last night began to stand forward and make allegations. Joshua quietly watched the new replies that continued to appear on the forum. Suddenly, he quietly mentioned three words...
“It has begun...”
“Begun... what?”
The dark elf’s sharp hearing captured Joshua’s murmuring. She took a glance at the demon prince standing next to her and discovered that Joshua was completely focused on the magic network’s interface and was not paying any attention to her at all.
When Joshua pointed his finger toward something like he was casting magic, the dark elf caught his movements and immediately realized something. She turned her sight to the Mage Forum.
In a short five minutes, there were already a hundred and fifty-three replies. More and more ‘bystanders’ began to stand forward to testify what happened yesterday; testify that Norland’s Law Enforcers had gone to investigate the chapel.
But, apart from that, a different sort of post, something Joshua was looking forward to even more, began to appear.
‘Why did those missionaries set up a teleportation formation beneath the chapel? Is it to transport the sculptures of their god?’ Replied by: Megra Family’s Eldest Son
‘Likely, it’s so that they can stealthily send their templars or those executioners to this city. Likely, they’re planning to use that sort of despicable method to seize control of Norland.’ Replied by: Tower Mage
‘Regardless of which country it might be, constructing a teleportation formation without permission is a serious action that violates the security of said country. The Nation of the Holy Church must provide an explanation for this vile behavior.’ Replied by: Speaker Limmu
The amount of replies criticizing the conduct of the Nation of the Holy Church started to gradually increase. Affected by those replies, the amount of people ‘eating popcorn’ began to lessen. More people started to criticize the Nation of the Holy Church and question why they did such a thing.
“This is... the result you wanted?”
The dark elf watched as more and more replies criticizing the Nation of the Holy Church began to appear on the forum post.
If the Morning News didn’t report this matter to the masses, the Holy Church will definitely try their hardest to consult with Norland and settle this matter in private. To ordinary citizens of Norland, this incident would end up not affecting their daily lives at all.
After all, a question like ‘Why would the Holy Church build a teleportation formation under the chapel?’ was something that they would never think. The ordinary citizens of Norland would be more concerned with questions like ‘Why did the price for the medicines increase again?’
But, after the Voice of Norland publicized this matter, it became completely different.
All the listeners of the Voice of Norland learned about what the Holy Church did.
Perhaps these ‘bystanders’ would not seek out missionaries in the middle of the street and grab them by the neck to ask ‘What the hell are you trying to do in my lawn?!’
But, they were able to move their fingers to question and condemn the Nation of the Holy Church on the forum.
“That’s right. Although this is only a small flame, it was still sparked,” said Joshua.
The dark elf looked to the new replies under the post. She seemed to be able to see a pile of burning firewood. This... was not a misconception.
She had been a member of the Holy Church’s Heresy Tribunal before. Thus, she had witnessed first-hand the death of countless ‘heretics.’ Among them was a method of execution called ‘public condemnation.’
Even though a ‘public condemnation’ was much more merciful than being tortured in private, she was unable to forget about the scenes of every public condemnation she has witnessed.
Those public condemnations would always be in the city plaza with the greatest number of people. Those ‘heretics’ would be tied up to a wooden pole. Firewood covered with oil would be placed beneath them. The moment the torch was thrown toward the firewood, the heretic will be burned to death.
From the public condemnation, what left the deepest impression on the dark elf would be the masses. None of them showed any pity upon the heretics being burned to death. After all, the person being burned alive had nothing to do with them. Instead, they would shout phrases like ‘Burn him to death!’ excitement and enjoyment.
Those public condemnations were things that happened in tens of years past. Nowadays, the Heresy Tribunal has exercised much more restraint because public condemnations were seen as a boorish and barbarian method of execution by the various other countries.
But, seeing the replies on the mage forum, the dark elf felt like she was seeing a scene of public condemnation. The only difference was that it was the Nation of the Holy Church that was pushed onto a pile of firewoods this time around.
“I cannot imagine what would happen if you weren’t a demon.” Seeing the nonstop replies to the post, the dark elf suddenly felt a sense of terror all over her body. Even though those ‘bystanders’ were only voicing without doing, they would return to what they were doing before after posting replies and only a small portion of them were actually interested in the development of this matter, it was still the first time the dark elf saw this many people condemning the Nation of the Holy Church.
“This had nothing to do with my race. While I might be like this, I’m actually a devoted believer myself. The only difference is that what I believed in is very chaotic.”
“Chaotic?”
There were countless mages in this world that believed in many gods. But, the dark elf has never heard of someone describing their belief as ‘chaotic.’
“Blizzard, Ubisoft, Sony, Nintendo and so on... There’s a lot more that I believe in. Among them, I think the God of Order Lloyd is the only one you’ve heard of,” said Joshua.