Herald of Steel

842 New Found Faith

"You can do that?"

Hearing Anon's change in faith as a way to circumvent the oath, Lapitus could not help but blurt this out loudly in shock, producing an incredulous face that destroyed much of the imposing manner a man of his status ought to show before his subordinates.

*Nod*, *Nod*

But Anon paid no attention to such detail, instead only diligently nodding and informing,

"Yes. Captain, I swear. You can have your old oaths forgiven and also take new oaths if you change belief to the Goddess."

"After all, Thesalie is ruled by the goddess's chosen. The ancestor spirits have lost to Her and so they cannot object."

"Neither can they hurt those under Her protection, and those who serve the Pasha."

"Thus it is Her who I worship. And it is Her protection I seek."

Anon had a very pious radiance glow to his face as he placed his right arm across his chest.

While on the opposite side, hearing it, Lapitus was currently experiencing a fierce hurricane in his mind, one where everything he knew was being turned upside down, for the new revelation produced a road that seemed to have not existed before.

If it was true, he could indeed free himself of his previous burden, then…. What was he waiting for?

'I need to confirm this!' Thus Lapitus urgently thought this, as he hurriedly excused the new officer goodbye, and hired a nearby horse carriage to take him straight to the main temple.

Whilst as Anon watched Lapitus leave, the cheerful demeanor that had graced his face up until now suddenly faded, instead being replaced by a sharp, calculating glint.

He was among the newest batch of spies Camius had managed to recruit here in Thesalie and this was one of his very first missions.

Originally he had been tasked with only monitoring Lapitus, to see if he really sent the message.

But yesterday night, orders came down from the very top that if they found the target to be dithering, they were to try and nudge him toward the safer direction.

As for how that was up to them.

This was the real reason Anon had approached Lapitus.

However, that did not mean the man had lied for indeed the story he told Lapitus was true to the very last letter.

'Hope he makes the choice." Thus as Anon saw Lapitus disappear into the crowd, he genuinely wished so.

Lapitus reached the familiar large gates to the main temple soon, and paying the driver his due, he quickly shuffled inside.

Since it was still early morning, many of the priests were yet to awaken.

And even among those that did, Lapitus only recognized a very handful few, with most of them being unknowns, being from Zanzan as evidenced by their unique green robes patterned with red and blue roses as opposed to Thesalie's white ones, confirming their status as priests of Gaia.

This robe that been designed by Alexander with green as the base to represent the verdantness of nature and earth, which was the core identity of the goddess Gaia, the red roses represented the national flower of Adhania, while the blue roses were Alexander's house symbol.

Alexander had asked a small batch to move to Thesalie to preach, mostly consisting of the men whom Pasha Farzah had sent.

And as Lapitus went past these priests all busy with various tasks, he had to fight off the intense urge to grab them by the sleeves and inquire about all the burning questions that were smoldering inside his heart.

But he ultimately refrained, knowing the only ones to get up so early in the morning were the smallest fish in the pond, those who were tasked with doing all the menial tasks in the temple, like cleaning the halls, clearing the paved walkways of leaves, and ripping the weeds from the nearby gardens.

Thus Lapitus refrained, saving his breath as he beelined for the main hall, hoping to meet the head priest as soon as possible.

Entering the open premises, Lapitus found much of the interior of the great hall to be still the same old same old, with the only difference being that the huge ancestral bull statue was replaced by the silhouette of a gigantic lady, towering above all as she stood off a huge circular pedestal, a large brazier of fire burning brightly underneath her feet

It was the first time Lapitus had seen this statue and initially, he was caught a bit surprised.

It was not just the size of the sculpture that appeared amazing to him, but also how quickly this huge new figure had been constructed.

'Is it made using that material blessed of the goddess? Cement?' Lapitus muttered, recalling some of the things we had heard about the stuff.

He knew it was using that substance that that sturdy outer wall in front of the city was built.

Allegedly, Lapitus heard that each batch of this magical white powder needed Alexander's personal 'essence' to make.

While others said this cement was the work of the devils, made using black magic with the crushed skulls of babies as one of the ingredients.

Beyond these absurd claims, there was also the weird rumor that it was made from volcanic ash.

Lapitus personally did not know which to believe.

It was unknown how long Lapitus had waited sitting patiently on the pews as the priests slowly woke up.

But eventually, with his status, he was able to get an audience with the head priest here, Theocles.

Yes, Alexander had made this archpriest come to Thesalie, to make him personally oversee the establishment of all the new temples and set up the initial command structure.

"Captain Lapitus, so nice to see you! What brings you under the gaze of the Goddess?" Given Lapitus's role in the capture of the city, Theocles had of course met the man at the many parties Alexander held for various reasons, hence the warm greeting.

It was also because of it that Lapitus got to meet someone as high up as him so quickly.

"Ah! Your Eminence, greetings." Towards the tall, immaculately robed man, Lapitus first gave a low bow, before revealing his worries in a very roundabout, ritualistic, way.

"I came here because I just had a vivid dream. And I wanted to hear your thoughts on the matter."

"Dream?" Towards this unorthodox request, Theocles first produced a surprised face.

But it was not because people did not come to him with such worries.

In fact the kinds of things Theocles had to reassure these superstitious bunch were not only endless but also truly bizarre.

In a way even, dream divination was perhaps one of the more 'normal' things people asked him to do.

But such things were usually not paid much heed to by the upper echelons of any power.

So it was the fact that a man of Lapitus's status was asking for the service that caught Theocles off guard.

But it was only for a moment.

As the professional priest quickly regained his pious face and gestured, "Of course. Please reveal it. And I will try my best to help you."

Getting the signal, Lapitus nodded curtly, before recounting the 'dream' he had thought up while he was waiting for Theocles.

"It started with a pitch black sky tinged with the flames of fire. I heard people screaming and saw them dying."

"While I myself was drowning in a blood pool underneath that very sky. There were innumerable hollow screaming faces around me and their arms were trying to drag me down to hell with them."

"They screamed into my ears with unfettered fury and kept saying that they were the ancestors' spirits, here to judge for breaking my oath." As Lapitus said this, he visibly shuddered, for although the dream was made up, he really did feel like that in his heart.

While Theocles only silently nodded and gestured him to continue,

"But just as the spirits were going to take me, suddenly a bright, brilliant verdant light pierced the dark sky, driving away the darkness!"

"And I heard! I heard a voice! It was feminine. It was angelic."

"She said to be that as long as I take a new oath to Her, I will be granted salvation. And that all my nightmares will disappear." Lapitus finished his narration.

As he then turned to ask Theocles, "What are your thoughts on this, Your Eminence?"

"......"

'Sounds like you made it all up.' This was Theocles's real thoughts, but of course, outwardly he made no rash comment.

Instead, he quickly focused on the dream that was recited to him, and being an experienced man in this line of work, instantly understood the main point Lapitus wanted to highlight here.

'Is he feeling guilty over his act and trying to see if there is an alternate method?' Theocles correctly hypothesized.

And with this theory in hand, he grinned the reply in a very joyous tone, "Captian Lapitus! Blessings of glad tidings upon you! The goddess has chosen!"

"She has seen your great acts of valor in helping Her son obtain victory in battle and personally sent revelations of your salvation."

"Rejoice!" Theocles raised his octaves, hoisting his hands up as he said so, before claiming in a gleeful voice,

"You are free. Free from any burden. Absolved of all sin like a newborn child. And you will remain so as long as believe in the Mother and loyally serve Her son- The Pasha."

And a while later, the faith of Gaia gained a new, zealously devout member

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