After a day of visits, Isha returned to the makeshift encampment.
In addition to taking over the territories of these nobles, Graywhite Territory now also needed to take control of the churches in these lands.
Although temporarily overseen by Isha and Flora, the religious figures, Flora’s radical ideas were forcefully suppressed by Lind, leaving the nuns of the Saint Church of Rescue to assist Isha for now.
This made Isha very confused; why had the sisters who once collaborated on salvaging the people’s plight turned into what they were now?
But Isha had not experienced their pain, so she didn’t say much.
Flora’s idea was to directly disband all churches, allowing all followers to directly worship the goddess, eliminating the role of priests and nuns as former guides and stripping the church of all its power.
Furthermore, all prayers and masses would have to be organized and held by the Lord and his subordinate officials.
The true faith would be returned to the people.
Such a radical approach naturally provoked strong opposition from churches everywhere, and even Flora’s former reputation could not suppress these dissenting voices.
This was just the most normal suggestion from Flora’s proposed reform.
The remaining proposals were even more radical, to the point where Isha did not dare to disclose them.
When Lind reviewed these proposals, he also found them somewhat difficult to gauge.
To be honest, the proposals Flora put forward were incredibly tempting; if implemented, the church would be completely under the lord’s rule in at least the western part of the Northern Border, and the lord’s authority might even exceed that of the goddess.
In Flora’s reform plan, the goddess was completely reduced to a clay idol, while the lord became the spokesperson of faith, the one ordained by heaven as the embodiment of the goddess.
Indeed, the literal embodiment of the goddess; Lind suspected that those nuns truly viewed themselves as the goddess’s illegitimate children, which was a bit too explosive, so they were directly shut down by Isha.
Due to the radical nature, it was impossible to implement them as they were, so Lind did not adopt Flora’s proposals, though they were not without merit.
For example, the cancellation of some unnecessary privileges of the church absolutely had to proceed.
Lind was not interested in negotiating with those nuns and priests about sacrificial activities, but church schools had to either establish new schools locally or change textbooks and teachers.
All clergy, like the nobles, would retain their titles, but their privileges would be eliminated.
However, clergy still had somewhat more authority than nobles, as they at least retained the right to participate in religious activities.
After being exposed to Flora’s radical reform proposals, many local churches chose to follow Isha’s subsequently organized, less radical suggestions.
This was also because the Church of the Light Goddess was continuously weakening and, due to previous actions, its control in the Northern Border was diminishing, which led some churches to choose to surrender directly.
Of course, the main reason was the current contraction strategy of the Central Church, which focused on reforms within the church itself, making it difficult to find time to address issues in the Northern Border.
The western part of the Northern Border was vast and sparsely populated, and there were no major regional churches that needed to be purged like those targeting the nobles.
Moreover, Lind did not limit church personnel to examinations; he only stipulated that those who passed could not preach in the church meeting, so many church figures began to take their students to pass examinations, competing with those nobles in their own domains.
Isha sat down exhausted in the temporary encampment but noticed Flora discussing something with the other nuns.
Although Isha’s relationship with these nuns had become somewhat strained due to religious reform issues, it was still a matter of concern, and Flora quickly pulled Isha into their discussion upon seeing her return.
It turned out to be about Lantern Dream, which Lind had inquired about earlier.
“Is there really a cult claiming to be the goddess’s true sect?”
Due to not becoming a saintess, Isha was not very familiar with this brief history mentioned by the church.
“Indeed, they did split from the church.”
Flora, based on her understanding and the reports from Lucanus, began to introduce Isha to the situation regarding Lantern Dream.
“They are the saints who sparked the faith war two hundred years ago, claiming that the goddess is the only true deity, while the other gods are merely false idols.”
“Because this contradicts the goddess’s ideas of inclusiveness and compassion, the church at the time severed ties with these saints, and due to their extremely radical doctrine, these saints were deemed a form of cult by all other religions.”
Isha listened in astonishment but, for some reason, found herself somewhat accepting this distorted doctrine.
Perhaps she was too exhausted from a day of visits, as Isha immediately shook her head, driving these outrageous thoughts from her mind.
However, Flora continued, “We think it’s not impossible; after all, we’ve only seen the goddess’s divine son, and there are no actual records of other gods having divine offspring descending.”
Isha almost spat out the water she had just taken a sip of, suddenly realizing why Flora’s reform thoughts were so radical.
“The lord wants to connect with them, but it seems that the members planted by some local churches disappeared overnight for some reason.”
As Flora spoke, she caressed the ray gun in her hand.
Even through her mask, Isha could sense Flora’s disappointment, and she sighed, knowing her gentle and kind sister Flora could never return.
At this moment, in a solemn church that did not exist in reality, several silhouettes, only visible as outlines, formed a circle.
“Let’s begin; play the dream experienced by Sister Bernice of the Illuminating Nuns.”
After the leading nun’s outline finished speaking, the surrounding scene immediately underwent a transformation, with several outlines starting from the airport, experiencing Lind’s dream from Bernice’s first-person perspective.
When they saw that massive space station, all the illusions became somewhat unstable.
After freezing the dream at that gigantic space station, the leading nun’s outline asked, “Can we switch to free perspective?”
The voice in the void replied, “It’s possible to try, but since we can’t see the places, we can only restore them through computation, which may consume a significant amount of brain power.”
“This is all a necessary sacrifice to get closer to the goddess.”
“Understood, switching to free perspective now.”
As the voice in the void fell silent, the surrounding scene began to change constantly, with the leading nun’s outline pulling the progression back to before the space elevator took off, observing the complete ascent from a free perspective, then further pulling back to carefully observe the city and workers surrounding the elevator.
“Humans cannot imagine things they have never seen.”
The leading nun’s outline muttered to herself.
“It turns out they are really descendants of the Golden Age.”
The other silhouettes continued to gaze at the grand city in the distance, but unfortunately, in the edges of this dream, no matter how much brain power was sacrificed, they could not fully restore it.
“So, should we continue with the assassination plan for Lind Ror?”
The silhouette shook its head as if finding the question foolish.
“Since they have already given a warning, we cannot linger anymore, especially since they are descendants of the Golden Age; we need their technology and knowledge.”
Another silhouette added, “Proceed with caution, attempt cooperation. If they are descendants of the Golden Age, perhaps…”
The silhouette paused.
“Truly encountered the goddess.”
The dream fell into a brief and strange silence.
“If they are descendants of the Golden Age, why don’t they stand up and denounce those false gods?” one silhouette stood up indignantly to question.
The leading nun’s outline explained, “In the Golden Age, the title of goddess may not be the same as it is now; in fact, the concept of gods may not even have existed back then. For them, viewing the goddess may be similar to how we see elves today.”
“That’s too exaggerated…”
The silhouettes could not help but take a step back, but looking at the magnificent city and the towering Tower of Babel beneath their feet, they felt it was not entirely impossible.
“When all of this is speculation, the Golden Age is too distant. Even during the last Empire, the Golden Age has already become an untraceable ancient legend.”
“I will show our sincerity to Lind Ror; if the other party agrees to cooperate, that would be best. Even if they refuse, we absolutely must not provoke them, and this matter must not be spread. Private contact with Lind Ror is prohibited, so let’s adjourn for now.”
After the nun’s outline spoke, she waved her lantern, and all the other silhouettes dissolved into black fog, leaving only one nun’s outline remaining in the dream of the Golden Age.
The scene shifted, and the nun’s outline rewound the time to the beginning, focusing on the girl who referred to Lind Ror as ‘older brother.’
According to the information, a girl like her had never appeared around Lind Ror, which meant she was likely a relative of Lind Ror from the Golden Age.
However, how did this girl resemble the current saintess, Lilith Dawlin?
The nun’s outline shook her head to herself as the dream began to gradually collapse and dissipate.
It was just somewhat similar; in terms of temperament, it was quite far from Lilith Dawlin.
