Chapter 28: Deeper Sin

The Indulgence Scroll, this magical thing, was invented after the Continent-Island War by a certain wise man in the Church because the Church’s financial income sharply decreased. It was a palm-sized piece of paper, too rough even to use for wiping one’s bottom, printed with a few words of divine teaching and some patterns and symbols whose meanings were unknown, and it became the Church’s most powerful tool for amassing wealth in the past thirty years.

The cost of an Indulgence Scroll was very low; one Copper Coin could print more than ten of them. But the lowest-grade Indulgence Scroll was sold for ten Copper Coins. The profit of over a hundred times drove the entire Church crazy. The wise and virtuous man who invented the Indulgence Scroll had now become one of the Church’s famous Scepter Bishops, and he was in charge of the entire Church’s financial operations, holding a high position and great power, unrivaled and overbearing.

One Indulgence Scroll could remove a certain amount of your sins. If you could buy enough Indulgence Scrolls, then all your sins could be completely washed away, so that after death you would not fall into Hell but ascend to the Divine Kingdom, living happily forever under the protection of the great Deity’s light.

And Humans bred new sins every day, so according to the Church’s propaganda, it was best for every common person to buy one or two, or three to five, Indulgence Scrolls every day to wash away the sins they newly committed that day—just like that day when Lin Qi sold six Rapiers, the last twenty Copper Coins he had were used to go to Father Barin and buy two Indulgence Scrolls.

Lin Qi did not believe in the effectiveness of the Indulgence Scrolls; he just sought peace of mind.

But how would ordinary common people know this? They devoutly used their hard-earned Copper Coins to buy various Indulgence Scrolls. A continuous flow of wealth poured into the Church’s money bag, and after the war, the Church quickly became the Continent’s richest and most powerful force.

Father Barin took out a thick stack of Indulgence Scrolls in front of these Dragoons and Copper Helmets. Under the combined pressure of secular power and supreme Divine Authority, the Dragoons and Copper Helmets’ minds went blank, completely losing their normal thinking ability. They obediently took out all the money they had, and each of them bought a large stack of Indulgence Scrolls.

Father Barin nodded with satisfaction. He patted the few remaining Indulgence Scrolls in his hand and said proudly, “Well then, your sins for today are washed away. But remember, do not commit the same sins next time. You interrupted my scripture copying and wasted the holy water for washing sins. I will send a bill to the Garrison Office and the Dragoon headquarters of the Military Department.”

Mr. Gron puffed out his chest. He glanced at Lin Qi’s broken wooden door, then looked at those Dragoons and Copper Helmets whose faces were ashen, not wanting to go too far. After all, unlike Father Barin, who represented Divine Authority and had an extremely strong backing that allowed him to ignore the powerful backgrounds behind the Dragoons and Copper Helmets, Mr. Gron was unwilling to go too far because he was, after all, just a secular man.

Clearing his throat lightly, Mr. Gron was about to say a few words to smooth things over when Lin Qi quietly approached him and gently brushed against the wide outer robe of Mr. Gron with his arm. Mr. Gron immediately keenly noticed that the right pocket of his outer robe was slightly heavier; this feeling was exactly the same as when certain subordinates secretly slipped Gold Coins into his pocket, asking him to do certain things.

Clearing his throat again, Mr. Gron reached into his pocket and felt a crystal medicine bottle with an exceptionally familiar texture. Mr. Gron’s heart beat violently—it was that miraculous potion, the kind that could make an old tree sprout. Mr. Gron coughed twice, quietly took out a white handkerchief to wipe his nose, then put the handkerchief back into his pocket and said unhurriedly, “Well then, there is only one problem now!”

Staring sternly at these Dragoons and Copper Helmets whose faces had turned pale, Mr. Gron said coldly, “The door you broke must be replaced with a new one, and you must pay a fine three times the cost as punishment. You rushed into the campus and disrupted the normal teaching order; each of you is fined one Gold Coin as a penalty. You frightened the students on campus; you must give every student in this dormitory building whom you disturbed ten Silver Coins each as compensation for mental distress.”

Counting on his fingers for a while, Mr. Gron nodded thoughtfully and said, “Considering that you were also acting under orders, let’s just make it this: you, hand over fifty Gold Coins, and this matter will be settled!”

Mr. Gron felt that since he had spent thirty Gold Coins early yesterday morning to buy a bottle of that miraculous potion, he needed to recover a bit of that money. Thirty of the fifty Gold Coins would belong to him, the remaining twenty Gold Coins would cover the negligible cost of repairing Lin Qi’s door, and the leftover money would serve as his fee for standing up for Lin Qi this time.

As an esteemed noble of the Empire, the Dean of Academic Affairs of Fifth University, and a prominent figure who might one day take over as headmaster, it was only right that he receive some compensation for standing up for a student against the Dragoons and Copper Helmets; otherwise, it would be an insult to his status.

Lin Qi stood obediently beside Mr. Gron with a humble smile, just like any clean and law-abiding good student should. He opened his eyes wide innocently, looking at those Dragoons and Copper Helmets with a mix of fear and confusion, as if wondering why these big men representing state power had come for him.

The Dragoons and Copper Helmets’ faces turned as pale as a dead person’s. A fine of fifty Gold Coins?

They had worked hard early in the morning to come here and arrest Lin Qi, and all the benefits they had received totaled only ten Gold Coins. Just now, they had spent all their belongings to buy a pile of worthless paper that would get them accused of blasphemy even if used to wipe their bottoms, and now they had to pay a fine of fifty Gold Coins?

Pushed to the brink, the thin Copper Helmet angrily widened his eyes, mustering the courage to shout angrily, “Sir, we were only following orders!”

Mr. Gron also flew into a rage. These sinners who had violated the last clause of the Empire’s education law and blasphemed by interrupting the scripture copying dared to speak to him like that? He was about to wave his cane angrily to vent his authority when Lin Qi suddenly said lightly from the side, “Since you were following orders, then the main responsibility for the sin is not on you!”

With a touch of compassion for the world and a nearly saintly smile, Lin Qi gently said to the thin Copper Helmet, “Well then, respected officer, please tell me, who ordered you to arrest me? Who swore to you that there was sufficient evidence to accuse me?”

Lin Qi said profoundly, “You were only following orders; even if you broke the Empire’s laws, you have already washed away your sins. But the one who ordered you to arrest me is the true sinner! The deeper sin lies with him; he must be punished!”

The Dragoons and Copper Helmets all closed their mouths at the same time. Their eyes flickered, as if they were hesitating about something.

A deep and powerful voice suddenly rang out.

“Yes, I admit my fault.”