Chapter 10 – The Church's Blessing
Finally, it was the day that Indigo's clothes would be complete. The filolial was so excited about this that he cockle-doodle-dooed like a chicken, waking us all up from our slumber.
Like a small child, he cried, "Can we go yet? She's probably already done by now!"
"Wait a second, Indigo," I grumbled, "We gotta sleep, you know? We'll leave in half an hour."
"Hurry up! Hurry up!"
"I said, half an hour!"
Gosh, he was nagging me like a little brother. Even though he was 6 foot 1.5 inches tall.
"No! Let's go right now!"
"Arghhh! Fine! We'll go right now! Just me and you, though. Everyone else has to sleep."
Groaning in annoyance, I quickly slipped on some clothes and tip-toed out of bed. Then, I pedaled down the creaky steps and into the main lobby, where Indigo was anxiously tapping his fingers.
Upon seeing me, he shot up like a rocket and snatched my hand, dragging me out of the inn. Before I realized what was going on, we were already approaching the tailor's shop. That man really was telling the truth. Indigo was really fast. I could almost feel the wind blowing past my ears.
As we reached the shop's door, the tailor was already waiting outside, proudly waving her masterpiece around,
"Oh, you're here? See what I made!"
The garments that were in her hands were to the exact same specification that I had commissioned. The robe, the sleeves, the coat, and even the pants. Everything was up to my standards.
"This is exactly what we wanted! How much will it cost us?"
"This would normally cost over a hundred silver due to the sheer amount of fabric involved in its production. However, since your friend here is so damn handsome, I'll give you a 20 percent discount. How does 80 silver sound?"
"It sounds fantastic! Deal."
Putting my money pouch in my hands, I carefully counted out 80 silver and handed the money to her.
As she reached out her left hand to accept the payment, she shifted all of the clothes to her right hand. Seeing this, Indigo grabbed the garments and rushed into the store to change, hiding behind a counter to do his business. At least the guy had some manners. Not your typical few-day-old.
After a while, Indigo walked out of the store. The clothes were quite a handful, which must have taken a while to put on. Standing proud and tall, many passersby stood and gawked at him. He truly did look amazing in these robes. He looked like a beacon of fabulousness, as cringy as those words may sound.
"Indigo, thank the kind lady for her work."
"Thank you, Ms. Tailor!"
"My pleasure."
"Now, let's head to the smithy and get you a weapon."
"Wow! Can this day get any better!"
After waving the tailor goodbye, we headed to the smithery where Naofumi and I went on our first day out of the castle. From this far out, I could already smell the smoky scent of a forge. Slipping through the door, I came face to face with the blacksmith.
He greeted us first.
"Hey there! Are you Naofumi's friend, the bow hero? Oh, and who is the handsome fellow here in the flamboyant robes?"
"You got the right guy! I am Naofumi's friend Satoshi, and I am the bow hero! Anyways, I come here in search of a weapon. This here is my friend Indigo, and he's a filolial that can transform into a human. Got any recommendations for him?"
"Hmm… I may have some suggestions. Walk this way."
There were rows of weapons, big and small, light and heavy, but none of them piqued Indigo's interest. So many weapons lying everywhere didn't cause him to bat as much as an eye. However, he stood fixated at a pointy edge lying in a derelict edge of the smithy, hidden behind a great assortment of other weapons?"
"What's that over there?" Indigo asked.
"Well, there's a lot of weapons back there," the blacksmith replied, "Which one are you talking about?"
"This one."
Indigo ran over to the pile of weapons and dug through them, eventually picking out a halberd. He swung it from side to side, nearly wiping out a selection of daggers lying on the counter.
"Hey!" Erhard cried out in concern. "Watch out!"
"Indigo," I joined in, "Stop causing a mess!"
"Sorry," the filolial responded, "But I just love this halberd that much!"
"Well, I'd be happy to buy it for you, but I'm not sure if it's for sale. It was lying hidden away in that pile, after all. Excuse me, Mr. Blacksmith, what is your name?"
"Erhard."
"Erhard. Can we buy this halberd from you? If we don't, I think Indigo here might accidentally destroy your whole shop."
"Well, I can certainly tell. Sure, you can buy that if you want. I originally made this halberd as a project to see if I could make a good one, since I had never experimented with one before. However, since the armies and adventurers of this land do not like to use the weapon, I have not found a customer for it yet, and it has been lying in that pile over there for years. If you want to buy it, I'll sell it to you for 75 silver. It truly is a great weapon. It'd sure be a pity if it wasn't put to good use."
"How does that sound, Indigo?"
"Sounds good to me! I'm kinda surprised that this is cheaper than my clothes, though."
"Well, since he's fine with it, you've got yourself a deal. No haggling involved."
I placed the requested amount on Erhard's desk. Man, my wallet is feeling lighter than it was just this morning.
"Have a nice day! I hope you are fully satisfied with your purchase."
"You too, Erhard!"
Indigo sprinted out of the shop, and I decided to follow him.
Now that I had gotten Indigo some clothes and a weapon, it was probably time to deal with other things. One of them being acquiring foreign support for the Arcian Revolution, Arcian being a demonym that Jean-Pier had come up with for the people of Arcium. I don't think that I'd need foreign military aid or anything, but recognition of my cause would be great. To do that, having Aultcray's blessing, as well as the church's, would be useful. Even though what would become Arcium didn't really believe in the Church of the Three Heroes, instead believing in the Church of the Four Heroes and the Church of the Seven Star Heroes with a large proportion of the population surprisingly enough being atheist, having their backing would win me the support of much of Melromarc's population.
Time to head there, then.
"Indigo," I asked, "How about you go out to the fields to test out your shiny new halberd? I have some business to attend to, and pretty boring business at that."
"Well, I don't want to go to no boring business meeting, so I'll be taking my leave. See ya, Satoshi!"
"Oh," I stopped him, "And before you leave, here's some money, just in case you have to buy something. Now then, have a nice day and good luck out there!"
"You too!"
Indigo turned around and transformed into his filolial king form, as Welst called it. Even though he was that fat, he still burst down the road at an incredible speed, his strange shape confusing many onlookers.
After seeing the big bird disappear over the horizon, I headed down the road and towards the Church's cathedral.
The building was pretty spectacular, to say the least. There were two tall pillars in the front of the cathedral, one on each side. They were made of a bunch of seemingly randomly placed triangles stacking up as far as the eye could see. Most of the colossal structure was designed around triangles, with triangular roofs, walls with triangular tips, and a gate with a giant triangle on top of it. On the side of the triangle facing the street, there was an engraving of the church's rosary. Man, this church really had a thing for triangles.
As I was pulling up to the entrance, a few of the nuns immediately bowed in respect, opening the door and lowering their palms towards the direction of the door.
"Oh, holy saint of the bow! We are pleased to be in your presence!"
"The pleasure is all mine," I replied, "Excuse me, but where could I find the Pope of the Church? I need to meet him to discuss a matter of utmost importance."
"Holy saint, I believe that the Pope is in the main shrine. If you head straight down this hallway, you will find him."
"Thank you very much for your assistance, and best of wishes to you all."
Following the nuns' directions, I had reached the church's main shrine. It consisted of a stained-glass window in the back with triangular shapes forming the basis of the design, with a giant church rosary in the middle. Kneeling in front of this shrine was an old man clad in white robes, who immediately turned around to face me.
"Oh! It is a pleasure to host you here in my humble church, Saint of the Bow! Say, for what reason would you grace us with your presence here today?"
"I just need some holy water, that's all. Other than that, I only need a small favor…"
I walked up to the man and whispered in his ear.
"Are there any other people in this room?"
"Not that I know of."
"Excellent. Well, I should get to the matter at hand, for time is of the essence. You see, you may know of this, but there is a country north of Melromarc that is currently undergoing a revolution."
"Yes, I see," the Pope replied, "I have received word that King Strauss has been marginalizing and abusing our faith's minority in that country. Other than Melromarc and the Principality of Taured, which is a tiny mountain nation with a population no more than 10,000; Strauss' kingdom has the highest percentage of adherents to our faith due to the proximity of our nations and his kingdom's position along the trade route between Melromarc and Faubrey."
There were many followers of the Three Heroes Church in Arcium? That's amazing! That would make the Pope's blessing much more effective!
"Excuse me," I asked, "But approximately what percent of the population of Strauss' kingdom adhere to the Faith of the Three Heroes?"
"Originally, the faith was spread by Melromarc traders that did good for the locals as they were heading to Faubrey," the Pope recounted, "If my assumptions are correct, about a fifth of the population there adhere to the Faith of the Three Heroes due to the lack of the Shield's presence in that country. The bishop Antonius is currently our church's representative in that country."
"Great! So, here is my request. Would you please give your blessing to the cause of the revolutionaries? They have suffered so much at the hands of the despot, and they need your Holiness' support to overcome this adversity."
"I would be happy to grant my support, and the Church's as well," the Pope agreed, "However, before I issue an official edict commanding all of my followers in that country to join the revolutionary cause, I will need His Majesty King Aultcray's approval. Afterwards, I am free to denounce the king as illegitimate and him as a demon, and the people of this realm will overwhelmingly back your cause. However, I do have one request, and that is for the revolutionary government to fully respect the Church of the Three Heroes after they take power and give our religious minority the same rights as everyone else."
"That should not be an issue," I responded, "I will respect the beliefs of all followers of your religion in the post-revolutionary state. There is a clause in the constitution that I have written which guarantees religious freedom."
"That is indeed good to hear. Now, if you would excuse me, I will have an audience with the king myself to discuss this important matter. If you are still seeking some holy water, there is some near the dragon hourglass inside this church."
"Thank you for your support," I thanked, "I will head to the dragon hourglass at once to collect some holy water."
The smiling old man slowly strolled out of the room, and I followed suit. Taking a few turns, I arrived at the dragon hourglass. I could only assume this was it.
Boy, was it massive! The thing was at least the height of many men stacked on top of each other, and it was so wide a few men could lie head to toe and still not reach the end. There were a few nuns and priests tending to the colossus.
"Oh, Saint of the Bow! How could we assist you today!"
All the people in the room exclaimed those words in unison.
"I am in search of holy water."
"Quick!" A priest cried. "Fetch the Saint the holy water he requests!"
A nun came running towards me, her arms chalk full of holy water.
"How much will this cost me?" I asked.
"You don't have to pay us at all," the nun replied, "It is our pleasure to serve the holy heroes!"
"Please, I insist."
"It would be against our faith to charge the holy heroes for something so trivial!"
"What if this payment is counted as a donation to the church?"
"Well…" she pondered, "That should be alright, then. That would not be violating our faith."
"As the bow hero," I dictated, "I hereby donate this sum of silver to contribute to the church and its services."
The nun kneeled down, accepting the pouch with grace. She treated the money like a holy relic, taking better care of it than a mother would treat her own child.
"If I may ask, can I observe this dragon hourglass? I'm curious to see how it works."
"We do not know ourselves how the hourglass truly operates, but you are free to observe it for as long as you like. Also, would you be interested in some hourglass sand?"
"I do not know why I would need hourglass sand, but I would be happy to absorb it. You never know what uses materials have in this world."
The priest extracted some hourglass sand and placed it on a piece of cloth. I placed my bow on top of this cloth, and the bow quickly absorbed all of the sand.
Then, something popped up in my help menu. I checked it, and it said that after I had reached level 50, I would be able to set up three save points around the world and teleport to them after an hour of cooldown each. Sick!
"Thank you very much for your kindness today," I spoke, "And I wish the best of fortunes to you all!"
"Thank you very much, holy Saint of the Bow!" All the people in the room replied.
After giving them all a hearty goodbye, and putting all the holy water in a bag, I took the same route that I had taken to get into the church and exited the majestic building. After looking at the position of the sun, I could deduce that it was probably late in the afternoon. It was probably time to go back to the inn.
Upon my arrival, I could see that Jean-Pier was hard at work, trying to write the constitution that I had dictated to him.
"Oi, Satoshi! Do you want to see what I have written so far? I'm almost halfway done!"
"Sure thing! Thanks for all your hard work, Jean-Pier!"
"No problem! Also, I have received notice from the Church of the Four Heroes and the Church of the Seven Star Heroes, both located in Faubrey. Their pigeons sent me a message that gave us their blessing for our revolutionary cause! The only religious organization that hasn't replied yet is the Church of the Shield, but since we have barely any demi-humans in our country, most of them being traders, that shouldn't be an issue."
"That's great to hear! I also got the Church of the Three Heroes' support for our cause, and possibly Melromarc's as well!"
"Amazing! There's a decent amount of their followers in Arcium, so that is a massive boost to our cause! Anyways, I'll read you the first verse of this constitution, written fully in our language."
The Arcian language was apparently the simplest language in the world. It is a weird hodgepodge of many of the world's languages, it being a mix of the Melromarc and Faubrey languages, with sprinkles of other neighboring languages as well, and also a bit of the Siltvelt language thrown in as well. A few decades ago, King Strauss VII reformed the writing system to make the language easier, as well as removing all grammatical irregularities in the language. This increased the national literacy rate, though this fell to single digits as the civil war dragged on. Also, something that I found interesting was that the writing system was very similar to the Latin alphabet. Maybe a previous hero had introduced that.
"Alright," Jean-Pier began, "Here I go. We the people of the Republic of Arcium, in Order to form a more perfect nation, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Republic of Arcium."
"Sounds good!" I said, "Please, continue."
Well, the actual constitution is way too long to actually list out. Here are some key points of the constitution.
Parliament cannot delegate its legislative function to the Prime Minister, and civil rights cannot be suspended without continuous parliamentary surveillance. The president is a ceremonial role with far reaching obligations, including command of the military. Parliament cannot overthrow a Prime Minister and his cabinet unless it first elects a successor with the vote of a majority of its members. Negative majorities cannot paralyze government unless they can agree on alternative policies and personnel. Parliament is elected every five years, and it is a unicameral system, with both men and women being able to run for office and vote in all elections. Also, slavery was banned, which should be a given in a true democracy. Overall, I think this is a pretty good constitution, with barely any flaws.
By the time Jean-Pier finally finished writing and instituting all the corrections that I had told him, my other party members had already returned. Indigo had also returned as well, with a… carriage?
It was a nice carriage parked in one of the small alleyways. It was ridiculously luxurious, with plush seating, steel rims, and even a nice lacquer table and a separate storing area. The harnesses were made from some sort of leather, and the canopy was made of an unfamiliar wood.
More concerning was the fact that Indigo had purchased a carriage. But with what money?
Ahh… The wallet. I had given him 50 silver, after all. But a carriage must have costed more than that?
"Indigo…" I asked. "Why did you buy a carriage?"
"I don't know either, but I just felt a strange connection to it, like we were meant to be together. Some old lady owned it, so I, well, convinced her, and I got a really good deal on it!"
"Well, I don't know what to say about that. I did tell you to spend the money as you needed. So, fine. You can keep the carriage. Park it next to the stable."
"Alrighty! Thanks, Satoshi!"
"You say that a lot. Well, get that sorted with, and then head straight to sleep. The wave is probably hitting in a few weeks, so we have to use every day to the fullest."
Thus, another lengthy and eventful day ended. There were plenty more to come.