Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 421 - 420: Questions and Answers

Regained Holy Light?

Amber’s statement was rather vague, and when Gawain asked further, she knew nothing else, only that Wright had just returned to the domain—now he was back in the church.

"Keep an eye on the construction here," Gawain quickly instructed Rebecca, then seized Amber, who was trying to sneak away, "You come with me to see Wright."

"Hey, hey, don’t pull me... You know I’m the Chosen of the Night... I’m the Chosen of the Night... I feel awkward entering the Church of the Holy Light..."

Amber’s feeble protest soon faded into the air; Gawain tucked this short person under his arm and strode towards the church—in no time, the two arrived at the small chapel that Wright had personally built.

At this moment, the church was not open, but the door was not locked, and a white Death Chrysanthemum was quietly placed in the gap of the door.

Gawain glanced at the Death Chrysanthemum, then stepped forward to gently push open the door.

A tall, burly figure stood in front of the pulpit, facing away from the door, wearing a battered Cecilian Arcane Armor. Sunlight streaming in from the side window fell upon his shoulders, creating a hazy glow.

In that layer of vaguely unreal glow, Gawain seemed to see something fleeting, but upon closer inspection, he saw only the dusty motes stirred up—in the sunlight.

Gawain walked toward Wright, his sudden footsteps echoing in the empty church hall. The figure at the pulpit shifted slightly, and Wright turned his head, bowed in greeting upon seeing Gawain: "Leader, I was just about to report to you..."

"It’s okay, I came to check on you too," Gawain waved his hand and then noticed a shocking scar on Wright’s face—the wound stretched from his left forehead all the way down to his cheek, almost taking out his eye if it had gone any deeper. The wound had healed but left a deep scar, "...Looks like you’ve been through a lot."

"I... have regained the Holy Light," Wright lowered his head and opened his palm. An almost tangible pure radiance instantly appeared, flowing from the air, gathering above his hand. This light seemed to draw upon the Sanctified Energy in the air, enveloping him in a halo, "I never felt... my connection with the Holy Light was so close; it has always been by my side, by everyone’s side, just like Magic Power in nature..."

Gawain silently watched the Holy Light flowing on Wright’s hand, slowly dissipating, then curiously asked, "How did you do it?"

"I... don’t know all the reasons behind it, but perhaps I’ve found the true path of the Holy Light," Wright’s voice initially hesitant, soon became firm and strong, "Leader, do you remember the question you once asked me?"

Gawain felt something stirring within: "About your faith?"

"Yes, you once asked me if my faith was in the Holy Light or the God of Holy Light," Wright spoke as he turned to look behind the pulpit—Gawain remembered the icon of the God of Holy Light once placed there, now empty, "I think I understand your point now..."

The missing icon, the regained Holy Light, and Wright’s quietly changed demeanor, Gawain had a glimpse of how this priest regained the Holy Light, but he didn’t know how such a remarkable transformation took place—how did a devout believer suddenly break through his faith, transcending what was almost like a mental Steel Stamp?

He couldn’t help but ask, and after a long silence, Wright finally responded softly, "Leader, do you know what those fugitives from the noble class and Holy Light priests did after their defeat?"

"I can roughly guess," Gawain said solemnly.

"We passed a village on the edge of the Konsko Area... it was completely destroyed," Wright said indifferently, his tone seemingly calm, yet Gawain could feel the subtle rise of Holy Light Power around him as he spoke, "There were a dozen survivors; we stayed the night there..."

From Wright’s narrative, Gawain and Amber learned about that night in the Konsko Domain, about the noble fugitive soldiers and church knights driven mad by hunger, about the little girl named Emily, and about Wright’s entire process of regaining the Holy Light.

After hearing Wright’s story, Amber, typically carefree and often smiling, couldn’t help but show a regretful expression; she furrowed her brows, glanced at the somber-faced Gawain, then at Wright, finally couldn’t help but mutter, "Those damned nobles... and those hypocrites..."

She quickly patted Gawain’s arm, "Gawain, I didn’t mean you—you’re different from them."

"I know, you don’t need to emphasize," Gawain said with a wry smile looking at Amber, then turned to Wright, "Though you’ve regained the Holy Light, you must still have doubts... otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here pondering for so long instead of reporting."

Wright indeed furrowed his brow, sighing slightly as he looked directly into Gawain’s eyes with a resolute tone, "Leader, I have a question."

"Go ahead and ask."

"Those aristocrats, along with those priests and knights, they claim to be the protectors of the people, but in the end they behave worse than robbers. They certainly deserve death. We can kill hundreds or even thousands of aristocrats and priests in this war, but... what exactly has caused the aristocrats and priests to become like this? Hundreds of years ago, or even just decades ago, they had not fallen to this extent... Today we have eradicated them, but in dozens or hundreds of years, could people after us follow the same path of degeneration?"

Amber looked at Wright in disbelief, as if she did not expect this question to come from him. In her impression, Wright was just a devoted priest who quietly spread the Holy Light and helped people throughout his domain, but she never thought he would suddenly raise such a question after returning — it was almost like questioning whether everything Gawain had done was meaningful.

And this question...

Amber couldn’t help but glance at Gawain. She remembered the plans Gawain had talked about, the schemes for dealing with the old nobility, the laws for the future territories, and she too couldn’t help but ask, "Yeah, you said before that there’s always greed in human nature, even now the orderly and honest Administrative Office, as the domain develops and gets richer, there will always be people corrupted by power, if that happens..."

Gawain looked at Amber and Wright, not too surprised by the latter’s question.

Reforming and building an ideology is not something that happens overnight. Even while continuously promoting new education and new ideas, even within the core circle around him, very few people could fully understand his thoughts. And naturally, Wright, having witnessed the battlefield and the corruption and degeneration of the old nobility and the old church, would have such doubts.

This has nothing to do with personal thinking or comprehension, it’s simply the limitation of the times.

He asked the priest before him, reborn under the Holy Light, "Wright, what do you think of the ’nobility’ as a group?"

"Nobility..." Wright furrowed his brow. "They... are the owners and rulers of the land and the people, at least nominally, and they’re supposed to be the protectors of all this... Their power is great, this kingdom essentially operates based on them."

"Then do you think ’nobility’ is good or bad?"

This time Amber, standing beside them, answered, "Bad—Wright has seen it himself."

"I am also nobility," Gawain looked at Amber with a smile that was not quite a smile, "and there’s the Viscountess Gran, who liberated the slaves eleven years ago, and Viscount Andrew Leslie, who is ready to swear allegiance under the Cecil laws. They are all nobility."

"Uh..." Amber was stunned for a moment, scratching her hair, "Then there are good ones and bad ones, I guess."

"Indeed, there are good ones among the nobility, but why does the whole group of nobility tend to become corrupt and degenerate like this?"

Amber and Wright were at a loss, seemingly unable to grasp what Gawain truly meant.

Fortunately, Gawain did not leave them puzzled for too long. There were things he had long wanted to say to those around him, and now was the right time. He took a slight breath and laid out his thoughts: "Nobility—or more strictly speaking, the Land Nobility under the current Anzu system—they are the absolute owners of land and populace, as well as the arbiters and executors of power. From the moment of their birth, the nature of this group determined their way of survival—they hold almost all resources and have absolute authority to use them. All commoners are merely borrowers of their resources, or even part of them. The nobility do not engage in production, nor do they need to produce anything. They simply parasitize on the land and people, drawing nourishment from the latter...

"So, of course, they do not truly cherish or care about the lives and rights of commoners. Moreover, since resources originate from the land, they sometimes care even less about the people than their own land itself. Even if they occasionally show concern for the people, it’s comparable to someone cherishing the coins in their pocket—they would protect their coins, but if the price is right, they could ’spend’ those coins at any moment.

"They claim to be protectors of the people, and indeed they were. During the wild pioneering era, humanity only had limited resources to support limited protectors. For survival, we had to concentrate large amounts of resources on a few powerful individuals to ensure overall safety, and these powerful individuals became the initial Land Nobility. At least during that time, their existence ensured the survival and development of civilization—but what happens after that period ends?

"No one could control the Land Nobility because they were both the owners and distributors and users of resources, both the lawmakers and executors and maintainers of laws. Hence, they were bound to become an out-of-control, corrupt, and degenerate group. Even leaving morals aside, their ’corruption’ should not even be considered corruption—it’s merely a natural change of a group expanding and growing in a nutrient-rich environment, much like a plant grows continuously in fertile soil.

"In such circumstances, Land Nobility will never—remember, never—willingly relinquish their resources and privileges, just like a plant will not willingly pull its roots out of the soil. Hence, even if there are occasionally one or two ’good’ Land Nobles, they cannot change the overall nature of Land Nobility, because the essence of this group has not changed, neither will their way of survival. As long as they continue to own land, enjoy privileges, and control resources, they are destined to follow the path of parasitizing on land and people, living off the nutrients drawn from them, resulting in their role as ’protectors of people’ vanishing once a relatively stable structure of domination forms, after all resources are allocated among Land Nobility. Consider those lofty ’Noble Wars,’ in such ’Noble Wars,’ are they picking up the sword to protect the people?

"And if that concept is expanded, the current Holy Light and Land Nobility are based on the same principle, only that Land Nobility occupy resources on land, and the Church holds faith and Divine Arts as their resources and privileges, and the Church’s privilege is the right of scriptural interpretation."

Gawain paused for a moment and looked at Wright and Amber, who were deep in thought, then continued, "Therefore we go back to the original question—why do noble beings become corrupt and degenerate in such a manner? The answer is—they are bound to become corrupt and degenerate in such a manner. This has nothing to do with having some enlightened leaders among Land Nobility or how glorious and great they once were. It purely stems from their inherent qualities. Thus—Wright, I can tell you with certainty, in this war, we can annihilate hundreds or even thousands of noble and knight bodies, but as long as the ’Land Nobility’ as a group remains, even if we wipe out this batch of Land Nobility, new Land Nobility will inevitably emerge, perhaps even from among our descendants.

"So from the beginning, this war was not just about destroying the bodies of those nobles, but eradicating their foundation. We did not embark on this war to exterminate over forty divisional leaders at the southern borders and seize their land and wealth, but to eliminate the whole of ’Land Nobility’ that these leaders belong to, to return land and freedom to the people, to ensure that no next village will be burned down by their own leaders, and to prevent another Emily from happening.

"Wright, if you are interested, you can check out my latest land distribution bill, as well as the ongoing promotion of land rights and people’s rights in schools, newspapers, and various notice boards. Perhaps then you will understand why Count Hosman listed eighteen accusations against me when he mobilized for war against the Cecil Clan, of which eleven were related to my laws and the promoted ideas within the territory. For those are the things truly threatening their existence—it’s clear to them that these could endanger even their descendants.

"But as long as these things are promoted, established, and form a stable social order, then we can proudly say, we have eradicated the ’Land Nobility’ as a whole, not by destroying their bodies, but by eliminating their foundation. From now on, even if the words ’nobility’ remain, no matter what remnants survive, their roots will have ceased to exist."