Cthulhu Gonfalon - Chapter 682

Bab 682: Vol V Bab 42

Tekanan membawa motivasi. Di hadapan tekanan berat yang sudah dalam jangkauan mereka, orang-orang dari keluarga Dahl tidak mau menunda untuk satu malam lagi. Mereka makan sedikit makanan, kemudian dengan perlindungan bawahan mereka yang paling dapat diandalkan, mereka diam-diam tiba di kuil Void Mask.

Prajurit Suci, yang adalah penjaga malam, menemukan mereka. Awalnya, mereka mengira para penyusup ingin menyerang tetapi terkejut. Setelah Baron Dahl melangkah maju untuk mengklarifikasi alasan kunjungan mereka, Prajurit Suci yang kekar dan seperti beruang itu mengerti apa yang sedang terjadi dan membawa mereka untuk menemui Uskup Kabbalah.

Uskup Kabbalah tertidur di sebelah ruang doa. Itu adalah ruangan kecil dan kosong dengan hanya empat dinding. Dalam sifatnya itulah dia tidak suka kemewahan. Ruangan itu pada dasarnya tanpa perabotan, dan bahkan meja dan kursi pun tidak bisa ditemukan. Tanah ditutupi dengan papan kayu tebal yang ditumpuk dengan tempat tidur dan buku. Papan-papan ini digunakan sebagai tempat tidur dan meja belajarnya.

Dia sangat kuat. Bahkan ketika dia tertidur, dia bisa merasakan orang-orang mendekat, dan tentu saja, itu akan membangunkannya. Dia tidak bisa menahan perasaan sedikit terkejut ketika dia mengetahui bahwa Baron Dahl telah membawa keluarga dan orang-orangnya di tengah malam untuk kunjungan untuk berbicara tentang mengubah kepercayaan dan memihak.

Saya di sini hanya untuk mengembangkan gereja; bagaimana hal-hal berkembang sampai pada titik di mana bahkan seorang bangsawan ingin bertobat dan percaya pada Yang Mulia? Bukankah langkah ini agak terlalu besar?

Ada pepatah di Bumi yang berbunyi, “Langkah terlalu besar akan menarik testis seseorang.” Sebagai tabib dewa, Uskup Kabbalah tidak khawatir tentang bagian tubuh mana yang akan ditarik. Tetapi pada saat itu, dia benar-benar merasa sangat tidak nyaman.

Setelah dia dan Baron Dahl berbicara secara mendetail dan dia mengetahui tentang seluruh kejadian, rasa sakit itu bahkan lebih nyata.

Apa ini! Mengapa pertarungan antara partai aristokratik dan partai pedagang di bawah Persemakmuran Koin Emas mengakibatkan seorang bangsawan mendatangi kita? Apa hubungannya ini dengan kita? Tidakkah seharusnya Anda secara alami menjadi anggota partai aristokrat jika Anda adalah seorang bangsawan? Oh … Sepertinya dia tidak bisa secara alami menjadi milik pihak aristokrat karena penghasilan utamanya berasal dari transaksi bisnis … Maka untuk saat ini, cukup hentikan bisnis penyelundupan Anda! Bagaimanapun, jika mereka ingin mengubah keyakinan mereka kepada Yang Mulia, mereka masih diharuskan untuk memilah semua bisnis yang mereka miliki saat ini …

Dia memiliki begitu banyak pikiran sehingga mereka berantakan. Dia berpikir sangat keras sehingga ada spiral, seperti gulungan dupa nyamuk, berputar-putar di matanya. Tapi tetap saja, dia tidak tahu apa-apa.

Sambil menghela nafas panjang, dia berkata kepada Baron Dahl, “Tuan Baron, aku memahami situasimu. Tapi ini bukan masalah kecil; Saya lebih baik berkonsultasi dengan Yang Mulia … ”

“Tentu saja, tentu saja!” kata Baron Dahl. Dia semua tersenyum ketika dia mengangguk, seolah-olah dia adalah ayam gemuk yang memakan biji-bijian.

Uskup Kabbalah pergi ke ruang ganti untuk mandi dan mengganti pakaian. Ketika semua persiapan selesai, dia menuju ke ruang doa dan menyalakan beberapa serutan dupa yang mengeluarkan aroma yang meyakinkan. Kemudian di tengah-tengah asap ringan yang datang dari serutan yang perlahan menyala, Uskup Kabbalah berlutut di depan altar dalam doa yang hening.

Beberapa saat kemudian, Sui Xiong menanggapi doanya.

“Jadi, ini masalah yang memprihatinkan … Ya, jika mereka mau memperbaiki cara mereka dan berhenti melakukan kejahatan, aku bisa melindungi mereka,” kata Sui Xiong. Setelah beberapa saat mempertimbangkan, dia setuju. “Tapi perlindunganku untuk mereka hanya sebatas mencegah pihak aristokrat dan pedagang mengirim pembunuh bayaran untuk menyerang mereka. Saya tidak akan menawarkan perlindungan apa pun jika konflik mereka terkait dengan bisnis atau karena dendam sebelumnya. ”

Uskup Kabbalah menyampaikan balasan Sui Xiong kepada Baron Dahl. Baron Dahl terdiam sesaat, lalu menunjukkan bahwa dia perlu berdiskusi dengan orang-orangnya lagi.

Jadi mereka meminjam salah satu kamar di bait suci tempat mereka mengadakan diskusi.

Kali ini, mereka tidak menghabiskan banyak waktu untuk berdiskusi. Sekitar 10 menit kemudian, Baron Dahl membayar Uskup Kabbalah untuk kunjungan kedua. Dia menyatakan penerimaannya atas kondisi Yang Mulia.

Although they were unable to get full protection, which made them a little uneasy, the attitude of His Majesty, the Void Mask, had proven his reliability in another way—as people of rich experience, be it Baron Dahl or his people, they would rather trust those who carefully negotiated their conditions before doing things, rather than those who readily agreed to take care of everything.

Because the more carefully one considered, the more detailed their conditions would be. This would in turn, represent a more serious attitude. And those fellows who readily agreed to take on anything as though they could run carriages in their mouth—their words simply could not be trusted!

Since they had come to an agreement on the conditions, the matter was settled. The Dahl family returned back to their castle with minds at ease—though it was almost daybreak, that did not prevent them from sleeping soundly now.

And on the other side, the clergymen of the Church of the Void Mask were getting busy.

Initially, the Dahl family was a hodgepodge of beliefs. There were some who believed in the God of Aristocracy and some who believed in the Goddess of Wealth. Now they wanted to collectively convert their beliefs to follow the Void Mask. And naturally, they would need a formal and grand ceremony.

Not only that, most people from the Dahl family were bad guys. To accept them as followers, the church would have to arrange redemption for them.

“Atonement” was not something that could be completed simply by buying a certificate of redemption. This was only possible in the mid-century period on Earth. It was also not like those with great power could go straight to heaven so long as they killed a few followers of another belief, regardless of any bad things they had done. In this world, redemption was something very solemn and serious. It involved quite a difficult process and a high price to pay.

First, the person who decided to redeem himself had to proceed with a period of fasting and ablution to allow his body and mind to enter a state of quiet and peace. Then, in this state, he would have to personally narrate his entire list of crimes and received punishment according to the crime committed. The punishments included, but were not limited to, beatings, burnings, as well as various pain inflicted either physically or by spells.

This agonizing and difficult process would, at times, last as long as a month. When the entire ritual had ended, they still had to accept a mission. Only when they had accomplished this mission with a good and solemn attitude could the entire redemption process truly be completed.

So long as they could complete the entire redemption process, they would not be considered bad guys who were unpardonably wicked and guilty of the most heinous crimes. They could also convert their camps from evil to neutral. Then, so long as they conscientiously did good, sooner or later, they could progress into becoming good people.

However… in this world, there were very few bad guys who could truly complete the entire redemption process.

On one hand, this process was indeed accompanied by acutely intense pain. The more severe the crime, the more severe the pain would be. Most of the bad guys were extremely stern towards others but went easy on themselves. There was no way they could bear such pain.

On the other hand, even if they were willing to bear such pain, there were very few churches willing to carry out the redemption rituals for bad guys. This was because after the ritual, the bad guys would become members of the church, so their actions would be closely associated to the church’s honor.

Even if they were willing to redeem themselves of their crimes, the clergymen were seldom willing to believe in these villains.

The only people keen on holding redemption rituals were from the Church of the God of Redemption. This group of people advocated that “no matter how bad a man could be, so long as he was willing to mend his ways, there would always be a day where he could repay his sins.” They were also eager to persuade the bad guys to atone for their sins and accept redemption—even if it was penitence at one’s deathbed.

But the bad guys were reluctant to do so because if they chose to accept “redemption” on their deathbed, it would mean that their souls would belong to the God of Redemption after death. They would then need to do all sorts of good things under his arrangement to redeem themselves for their sins.

This was something exceptionally difficult.

In the end, only a handful of the higher-ups of the Dahl family were willing to accept the redemption ritual and become core followers of the Church of the Void Mask. The rest simply bowed to salute and pay homage to the statue of His Majesty, the Void Mask, and accepted baptism by Bishop Kabbalah before leaving.

“It’s good this way too,” said Bishop Kabbalah as he watched them leave. He could not help feeling relieved, albeit his disappointment.

Dia bertanggung jawab atas penebusan orang-orang ini. Tidak peduli apa, asalkan jumlahnya lebih kecil, kesulitan atau masalah yang mungkin terlibat di masa depan akan jauh lebih kecil.

Adapun orang-orang yang pergi … mereka akan menjadi orang-orang yang menginjak jalan mereka. Pilihan akan menjadi milik mereka, jadi terlepas dari apa pun yang mungkin terjadi, tanggung jawab adalah milik mereka.

Jika Anda menemukan kesalahan (tautan rusak, konten non-standar, dll.), Harap beri tahu kami sehingga kami dapat memperbaikinya sesegera mungkin.