It was already ten-thirty in the morning when Xia De returned home from the Black Raven Library. After confirming the effects of his new Miracle, Xia De didn't cook at home. Instead, he took Mia, who had become interested in cards, and left the house, taking a carriage to the Dawn Church.
While looking for a carriage in Saint Delan Square, he had already felt the festive atmosphere due to the young Priests in robes distributing promotional materials. As he approached Dawn Square, the pleasant atmosphere created by the religious festival in the City grew even stronger.
After the Thursday two weeks prior, the City Hall also intended to help the City recover from its grief through large-scale citizen activities, thus providing significant assistance for the Holy Prayer Festival in the Summer of 1853.
Centered around the Dawn Church, all the nearby streets were adorned with banners and ribbons. It was unclear whether the City Hall had provided the pounds or the Dawn Church had taken out the money, but the outer walls of shops on several streets directly connected to Dawn Square were all hung with the holy emblem of the righteous god, Mr. Dawn.
Pigeons flew under the misty sky, and bustling crowds gathered at the Church and the surrounding streets. The lively festival also attracted more street vendors to set up stalls by the roadside, which the City Hall overlooked.
The carriage couldn't enter the celebration area at all and could only drop Xia De off at the intersection on the edge of the Square.
People were almost everywhere, and the sounds of hawkers could be heard from all around the Square. The lively atmosphere made the cat, held by Xia De, shrink tightly into his arms, frightened. Xia De knew Mia was timid, but he hadn't expected her to be timid to such an extent.
Therefore, he didn't bother to wander around the Square, which was dotted with tents, but walked directly into the Church.
Although the preparations for the Holy Prayer Festival were very busy, Priest Augustus became idle once the festival truly began.
When Xia De saw him, the Old Priest was listening to a sermon by a middle-aged Priest in the last row of seats in the Church's side hall.
Normally, even on Sundays, such a Church side hall would at most be half-filled, but today it was not only completely filled with believers, but some people also stood in the aisles against the walls.
Knowing that Mia was well-behaved and wouldn't make noise, Xia De held her and stood next to the Priest. The Priest nodded to Xia De, signaling him to listen patiently.
So Xia De stood there for twenty minutes, listening to a sermon he wasn't very interested in. After that, he and the Priest walked out with the dispersing crowd.
It was lunchtime, and Priest Augustus invited Xia De to dine at the Church. During the Holy Prayer Festival, the Church's restaurant was open to some invited believers, and the meals were very rich, which was why Xia De had brought Mia out, wanting her to also eat some good food.
During the meal, Xia De didn't forget to mention that he had recently obtained a potion known as the “elixir of immortality” and wanted Priest Augustus to help identify it. The Priest was very interested and took the potion Xia De handed him at the dining table, but he did not identify it in the Church:
"I'll need a few days. I'll let you know as soon as I have any news."
After lunch, everything proceeded as planned. Outside the Church was a lively celebration, while inside the Church were rather solemn religious activities.
Xia De was arranged to participate in a small prayer meeting. In a room with thick curtained windows, lit candles, and incense, he prayed to Mr. Dawn along with the believers. If this weren't a Church, then this scene would be a standard cult ritual.
Afterward, he and Priest Augustus, along with other visitors, observed the baptism of three three-year-old children chosen from families of senior believers. Xia De had already experienced a baptism in the Steam Age, but this one was even more solemn. Besides high-power gas lamps, steam pipes were also brought in to spray steam mist, making the entire venue misty.
This scene was not ridiculous. The Church's solemn and majestic architecture, colored glass, and religious murals on the ceiling perfectly combined with the haziness of the steam mist. This excited the reporters who were taking photos nearby, and also made everyone present feel damp.
Mia was an exception; she was hidden in Xia De's clothes.
Xia De only needed to follow Priest Augustus around the Church. The Old Priest was in a very good mood today. During breaks in the activities, he even took Xia De to see a new oil painting hanging in the Church corridor.
The oil painting was quite large, framed in a gilded frame, and located in the corridor leading from the main hall to the east side hall. The colors of the painting were rather dark, with no blank spaces in the entire painting. People in various formal dresses were arranged in a circle around the painting, while the center of the painting outlined stone bricks on the ground with light brushstrokes. A carriage was parked on the left side of the center of the painting, with the pretty and elegant face of a woman visible through its window, and two people stood on the right side of the painting.
One person held a pistol, and the other spread his arms to block in front of him.
The person with outstretched arms was almost at the center of the painting and was painted by the artist with the most exquisite brushstrokes. Using ink and colors, a beam of light seemed to shine down on the head of this person in the oil painting, making him appear as if bathed in holy light. And those who viewed the oil painting could tell at a glance that this was the protagonist of the painting.
"This is..."
Priest Augustus laughed, his facial wrinkles deepening. He was indeed in a very good mood.
Xia De also couldn't help but smile, bending down to examine the oil painting's plaque. There were two lines of text on the plaque. The top line recorded the date the oil painting was hung there, and the bottom line read:
【Blessed Worldly People - 1853 Holy Prayer Festival Commemoration】
"How is it? It was just finished the day before yesterday, specially hung here before the Holy Prayer Festival. When you weren't here this morning, there were even reporters taking photos, so this painting might appear in tomorrow's newspaper."
Priest Augustus said.
Xia De had no complaints; it was a good thing for his experiences to be remembered by others.
He only asked curiously:
"Will this painting be hung here forever?"
Xia De only remembered that the scene at the time was very noisy, completely lacking the sacred solemnity of the oil painting, nor the feeling that he was about to sacrifice himself for some noble reason.
"It might be hung for several decades. You don't need to worry; I know you don't want more people to know your appearance, so the face in this painting isn't very similar to yours. Also, Queen Diana has seen this painting and given guidance on her appearance in the painting, and she is also very satisfied with this painting."
The Priest nodded as he spoke, then smiled and asked:
"Xia De, how do you feel?"
The Outsider certainly hadn't expected to leave a decades-long mark in a Church in Tobesk in this way:
"Does the Church always find people to paint such oil paintings?"
People came and went behind them, the festive atmosphere infecting everyone. Yet no one could recognize that the protagonist on the wall was standing right there, looking up at it.
"Of course, such oil paintings are only made for memorable occasions. You just happened to save the Queen, were seen by many people, and it was close to the Holy Prayer Festival. If it were an ordinary day, and you only saved an ordinary person, I'm afraid you'd have to be shot eighteen times in the street before..."
The Old Priest shrugged and didn't continue, though it sounded cruel, that was reality.
Xia De's speech was also in the side hall. The Church had already prepared the speech, and asked him to preferably deliver it without notes. Although the Outsider was busy with exams last week and didn't have time to memorize the script, with “her” there, Xia De only read it twice, and she could roughly recount it.
Therefore, for the half-hour speech, Xia De merely followed the voice in his mind, translating the ancient language she used into modern delarion common language.
The content of the speech wasn't new, its theme being “God loves the world, God blesses the world.” Although the core doctrines of the Five Gods Church differed, they were all religious organizations that encouraged people to do good, and the methods they used to promote their Church were similar.
The content of the speech wasn't very new, but the Church's scriptwriter wrote it with exceptional skill, making the content fresh. It even incorporated Xia De's experience on the day he was shot, making the somewhat preachy speech very attention-grabbing.
Such a person who could write speeches, whether in this world or in the Outsider's hometown, could be considered a rare talent. Therefore, after the speech, Xia De wanted to ask Priest Augustus to take him to meet that scriptwriter.