Chapter 145: Armor Donning Ceremony
“An anomaly that believes in the Lord…”
“It seems this bishop holds strong influence over the Church, and is deliberately controlling the Church’s development.” High Priest Everton turned his head thoughtfully.
“Moreover, the knights also deeply revere that bishop.”
George replied, “The bishop is a true saint, someone who can communicate with the Lord and listen to His teachings. This Holy Scripture was written down based on the bishop's reception of the Lord’s guidance.”
“I see…” High Priest Everton nodded slightly.
Then, as if pondering something, he silently led George to a camp behind the castle.
There were over forty individuals, all clad in exceptionally fine full-body armor—some engaged in swordsmanship training, others on warhorses practicing lance techniques.
George felt that each of these individuals could become knights, and these trainings appeared to be knightly drills.
High Priest Everton came to a halt and pointed into the camp.
“These are the Church Nation’s Order of Knights.”
“Each of them has been officially conferred as a knight.”
“After the establishment of the Church Nation, there was no nobility system; instead, positions such as Patriarch and High Priest replaced the nobles.”
“Although the titles have changed, they carry certain noble privileges, so after using some means, we were also able to confer knighthood.”
“However, since this is a special conferment, it's still somewhat inferior to true noble knights.”
“But it’s sufficient. No matter how inferior a knight may be, a knight is still a knight.”
More than forty knights—yet even a marquis could only confer thirty-six knights. This number already exceeded that of a marquis.
“Is the formation of this Order of Knights a preparation for war?” George asked.
Knights themselves were born for battle, and an Order of Knights was the pinnacle war machine.
“No, no, no, it’s merely for an experiment.” High Priest Everton shook his head.
“No matter how many knights we gather, they can’t pose a threat to the enemies we currently face.”
“Enemies? Are they the nobles hostile to the Church Nation? Or the werewolves?” George asked.
“Neither of them.” High Priest Everton, looking weary, led George to sit beside him on a log laid down as a bench.
“In the face of the Patriarch’s power, none of them can threaten the Church Nation.”
“The Patriarch’s power is immense. Without the Holy Scripture, I would’ve believed the Patriarch to be the very Lord the Church Nation worships.”
As he spoke, he looked at George.
“Knight, from what you’ve seen along the way, you should’ve sensed the strangeness of this land, right?” he asked.
George nodded. “Yes, yesterday I was in a village where someone told me this land had lost its vitality.”
“Hmm, it seems the knight encountered someone capable of thinking.” High Priest Everton offered a light praise.
“But it’s not that it lost its vitality—it would be more accurate to say its vitality was plundered.”
“Or rather, devoured.”
“Devoured? The land’s vitality was plundered and devoured?” George was slightly shocked.
“Yes.” High Priest Everton nodded and then picked up a branch to draw on the ground.
He first drew two triangular symbols, then below them a large circle. On top of the circle, he drew a square, and to the right, a smaller circle.
“These represent the Patriarch and Saint Zecel.” He pointed to the two triangles.
“This is the land of the Church Nation.” He pointed to the large circle below the triangles.
“This is the Church Nation’s proclamation.” He pointed to the small circle on the right.
“In our scholars’ studies, a nation, a territory—can all be referred to as a ritual.”
“And it’s the highest form of ritual,” he said.
“This world is composed of magic power. If we see this world as a human body, then the leylines are the blood vessels transporting that magic power.”
“And a territory is akin to an organ, supplied with vitality by the leylines.”
“To help the knight understand, I’ll liken this organ to a stomach.”
“That is to say, a territory functions like a stomach—digesting everything within it, transforming it into pure nourishment to be provided to the body that protects the stomach.”
“This body, is the lord.”
“That’s the relationship between a lord and their territory.”
“The lord possesses the territory, and the territory nourishes the lord.”
“And the way an ordinary person becomes a lord can be called a ritual.”
“To put it in the simplest and most direct terms, it means gaining the recognition of the land.”
“But since land is physiologically inanimate, how does one obtain its recognition?”
“Naturally, it’s through the recognition of those who live on this land.”
“Thus, after the Church Nation seized the initial barony, a proclamation was issued.”
“This proclamation was to inform all the inhabitants of the territory that the previous lord had died and a new lord had taken over.”
“And once the majority of the population within the territory acknowledged it, the land too, naturally recognized the new lord.”
At this point, High Priest Everton paused and took a breath.
“After the Patriarch led the followers to the baron’s territory, he told them that this was the location of Heaven on Earth. So the followers sincerely believed they had arrived at their long-awaited home.”
“How many people could a barony have? After the Patriarch’s sacred relic destroyed the core town of the barony, there were only about two thousand people left.”
“Since they had already brought over a thousand followers, after the priests entered the villages with the proclamation and the Holy Scripture, in less than three days, the Patriarch had gained the recognition of the initial barony.”
“Thus, the Patriarch obtained the permissions of this land.” High Priest Everton pointed with the branch to the small circle on the left of the triangle.
“This kind of permission is essentially a form of mystical magic. Normally, it’s not something a lord can manipulate.”
“Because very few lords are also capable of being magicians or scholars.”
“Even though I myself am a scholar, I must admit—scholars and magicians are absolute fools.” He chuckled at himself.
“So to an ordinary lord, the land’s permission merely grants some power enhancements, a bit of magical affinity, or minor resistance to the mystical.”
“The Patriarch is the same—the Patriarch is merely a warrior, not a magician or scholar who can tap into this mystical permission.”
“Thus, the land’s permission is useless to the Patriarch.”
“But after the Patriarch appointed us scholars as High Priests, it was equivalent to opening the permissions of his territory to us, allowing us to share in them.”
“Of course, by that point the Church Nation already encompassed territory equivalent to a County. We High Priests were akin to Counts, appointed as nobles of the County.”
“Though High Priests belong to the noble structure of a County, we are ultimately not nobles by bloodline inheritance.”
“So we used the permissions of the land we could access to construct a grand ritual, borrowing the power of the ritual to disguise ourselves as nobles.”
“Thus, we too could confer knighthood like true nobles.”
“This, we call—the Armor Donning Ceremony.”