The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1120

Chapter 1119
Eivass: This land…
Iris Flower, Lessar Gnaire. Ram Champagne Chapel.
By the time Eivass and his entourage arrived, it was already late at night.
“This name… is so strange,” Isabel murmured. “It sounds like some kind of alcohol.”
This was, after all, Isabel’s first time abroad, other than her wedding. And her first trip abroad was to the Kingdom of Love and Beauty. Although Lessar Gnaire wasn’t the art capital of the Iris Kingdom, the various novel and magnificent buildings couldn’t help but make her eyes widen.
Eivass smiled and reached out to caress Isabel’s hair, pulling the girl whose eyes seemed to hold stars into his embrace.
“—Ah, it’s because it actually IS an alcohol name.” Arsen replied to Isabel. Speaking of which, he smacked his lips. “Honestly, this alcohol is mediocre. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come to GG.”
Arsen didn’t consider this something to be proud of, but rather something embarrassing.
“Because the Iris Kingdom and the Church have a poor relationship… or rather, a poor relationship with the elves, the Church doesn’t station elf bishops in Iris Kingdom either,” Eivass answered softly. “Of course… I think one of the important reasons is that Iris Kingdom is one of the few human nations that accepts dwarves. And elves have always been cold to dwarves.”
At this point, Eivass couldn’t help but chuckle. He remembered a meme—part of the culture of Iris Kingdom was similar to his previous life’s France. And France had a famous joke: Only women, short people, and foreigners could save France.
The existence of dwarves indeed allowed Iris Kingdom, which worshiped The Path of Beauty, to develop technology normally. Iris Kingdom’s worship of art was like the worship of science and engineering in his previous life’s country… to the extent of “no matter your talent, if you study well or are smart enough, you should study art.”
Under these circumstances, technological stagnation and backward industrialization were perfectly normal. If not for the dwarves, their technology would have been far behind their neighbors. It was precisely thanks to the dwarf-optimized armaments that even the fully armed Star Antinomy dared not invade Iris Kingdom at will; with these weapons, Avalon, surrounded by the sea and supposed to have the First Navy, shattered at the first naval battle.
In this regard, the dwarves had indeed done their best. Without them, Iris Kingdom might have been swallowed by Star Antinomy fifty years ago.
“Even without sponsorship from the Church, churches are a necessary existence. Even with a large number of witches providing potions, the high-ranking officials of Iris Kingdom don’t need priests’ healing that much… but without the protection of the church, there would be too many undead.
“Although only a First Tier priest can officiate a funeral, that’s still the population of a country—Iris Kingdom has a much larger population than Avalon. Even if only to purify the undead and allow the dead to rest in peace, a certain proportion of Path of Devotion Extraordinary individuals are needed.”
Eivass said softly, “And Devotion… requires money.”
This was something Eivass found quite ironic. Just as Alchemy on the Path of Balance required burning money, the Path of Devotion also actually required money—although individual Path of Devotion Extraordinary individuals might not spend much, on the Church’s level, it was a significant amount. Uniforms, sacred statues, churches, consecration and ritual materials, salaries for ordinary clergy, plus the expenses of maintaining nursing homes, orphanages, or church schools… this was a large sum of money, and it was ongoing.
With witches competing for the business of treating nobles and the Child of the Moon generally unwilling to accept treatment from priests, priests whose levels were generally lower than those in other countries found it difficult to earn enough money.
—Under these circumstances, priests could only rely on “sponsorship.”
“Ram Champagne Chapel is sponsored by ‘Ram Brand Champagne’. They built the church, and the affiliated church school, welfare facilities, and alms houses are also maintained with their money.”
Arsen sneered, “Willingness to fund the construction of shrines is a good way to maintain a company’s reputation… but the problem lies here. There aren’t many great philanthropists among capitalists. Most of them who need to fund the construction of shrines are often those who are too immoral and want to balance their reputation.
“Take Ram Champagne, for example—they had a ‘recipe theft’ scandal about thirty years ago. Another century-old champagne brand, ‘Saint Lelo Champagne,’ publicly accused them of stealing and plagiarizing their recipe. And anyone who has tasted both champagnes can tell the similarity and difference between them—Ram Champagne’s quality has decreased by a third, and the various materials used are obviously inferior… Now their quality is getting worse and worse, and they add synthetic flavorings to enhance the aroma. I even suspect their alcohol might be synthetic. Of course, their price is also only one-third of the classic ‘Saint Lelo Champagne’, and it hasn’t increased in thirty years.
“It was precisely because they were accused nationwide that they funded the construction of shrines and welfare centers to try to divert attention. This trick was quite effective, as some people do need cheap alcohol. They also have supporters, and this kind of ‘sacred sponsorship’ has a selling point for whitewashing. Now, thirty years later, ‘Saint Lelo Champagne’ has gone out of business, and young people no longer know about this scandal.”
“…It sounds quite interesting,” Sherlock, who was reading a book nearby, looked up upon hearing the topic. He glanced at Eivass and said briefly, “This is essentially letting the church endorse themselves… In return, they are indirectly channeling a portion of their ill-gotten gains back to society.”
“Yes,” Eivass nodded. “After all, low-level devotees have an invincible reputation among the common people. Most people don’t know how insane the Path of Devotion becomes at higher levels, because Ordinary People can rarely reach Fourth Tier or above.
“Especially with so many poor people in Iris Kingdom… the alms houses that can stably provide porridge every day can offset all their ill repute. So many people depend on them for survival. If the company goes bankrupt, how many people will starve? And aren’t all these starving people their voting bloc?
“So no matter how bad their reputation is, how strong the brand and quality of Saint Lelo Champagne is, or how conclusive the evidence they present, the parliament of Iris Kingdom cannot—and dares not—act against Ram Champagne.
“I know you hate these unscrupulous merchants, Arsen. But you don’t necessarily need to care too much about this aspect… although the initial intention was bad, the result is good, isn’t it?”
“…But, Eivass, do you think this is right?” Isabel frowned slightly, feeling a bit lost. As a person from Avalon, she found the public relations method of Iris Kingdom people—to first commit illegal acts and then use money to buy reputation and protection—outrageous. If this were in Avalon, they would have been apprehended by the Arbitration Hall on the spot.
But she couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Because these people had indeed saved tens of thousands… or even hundreds of thousands of people through this method.
Using illegal ill-gotten gains to bestow favors, and letting the benefited poor protect themselves—
Stealing and plagiarizing recipes was clearly wrong, and causing a century-old brand with excellent quality to go out of business was a sin. But they used a considerable portion of the money they earned to maintain social welfare programs…
On her way to Vendome’s mansion a few days ago, Isabel had seen the Ram Champagne Welfare House and the Ram Champagne Alms House. She didn’t see anyone in the welfare house, but there were hundreds of people lining up to receive porridge at the entrance of the alms house.
It was a salty porridge with added onions and a small amount of fish, along with plenty of rice. It couldn’t be considered nutritious, but at least one could survive by just drinking porridge. She even saw a poorly dressed child receive a single portion of porridge, and after finishing it, he returned to the end of the line to queue up again—intuitively, this was clearly against the rules, but no one else reacted to it, obviously it had become a norm.
It was precisely because they had ample funds that they didn’t care about such minor matters. And their ample funds came from the fact that Ram Champagne’s quality was getting worse and worse, and its cost was decreasing. While profits increased, there was also a need for whitewashing… but this was also a clear mistake.
Saint Lelo Champagne was squeezed out due to its similar taste and consequently went out of business—if they were willing to donate a portion of their money to sponsor shrines, they would surely be able to bridge this gap. But they hadn’t done anything wrong, and didn’t need to do so at all… Moreover, their quality was excellent, so they didn’t have much profit to compete with Ram Champagne.
Those who did wrong were supported by people; while those who did nothing wrong were left with nothing.
This caused Isabel’s brain to glitch, entering a vicious cycle.
“There aren’t so many ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ in this world, Isabel. Although you don’t have the ambition of authority, you’ve still been influenced…” Eivass said calmly, “Because if you’re going to talk about it, this is the problem of the Iris Kingdom government. They let so many people be homeless, without clothes or food, wandering the streets. These unscrupulous merchants can whitewash themselves in this manner precisely because they are bearing a part of what the Iris Kingdom government should be responsible for.
“This is like the street gangs in Avalon. Isn’t it because the Inspection Bureau can’t maintain order in the Lloyd District that a new order belonging to the local people has emerged? Since the local populace chooses them, it means at least they are irreplaceable.
“If these unscrupulous companies were to disappear, then the Iris Kingdom parliament would have to take responsibility—find ways to solve the widespread slums. Collect taxes and fines from companies, and use the money to support public welfare and sponsor churches. After all, eliminating undead in the city benefits everyone… this should have been paid for by the state.
“Since they don’t want to pay, don’t want to manage, and don’t want to save people—if someone else does it, don’t blame them for getting support they shouldn’t have. This support should have been for the Iris Kingdom parliament, shouldn’t it?”
“…Is this also a form of Devotion?” Arsen, hearing Eivass’s words, seemed to realize something. “Using the interests of others to help others… is that why the church remains silent?”
“Yes. Righteousness does not belong to Devotion; righteousness belongs to authority. Although this is a form of hypocrisy, hypocrisy is better than pure evil.” Eivass nodded slightly. “But ultimately, it’s because this land itself is sick. The Child of the Moon, Eagle Eye… they are not the choice of the people. Nobles, parliaments, merchants, witches, artists… they have never cared about these lower-class people. When everyone is preying on others, there is no right or wrong. Because from the very beginning, one cannot choose ‘correctness.’
“People naturally do evil, naturally kill, naturally die. And if you want to cure a disease, you must remove the lesion. But this lesion is on them… removing the lesion also requires killing.”
Eivass looked at the empty Ram Champagne Chapel, where only candles were burning. According to the information, the Blood Heavenly Envoy was beneath this sinful land. When he arrived here, the Blood Heavenly Envoy must have sensed his presence. And the Blood Heavenly Envoy had not reacted at all… Perhaps he was ambushing Eivass, or perhaps he wanted to talk with Eivass.
Eivass decided to trust the Blood Heavenly Envoy for once—with Don Quixote’s protection, he had the confidence to choose to trust. His gaze was deep. “That’s why I said Yulia has chosen an incredibly difficult path.
“She wants to give these people a way to live… that is essentially equivalent to trying to fight the entire era with one person’s strength, fighting the vice, greed, and void in the hearts of tens of millions. She has to kill to save people, and yet bear the hostility of those she saves… This is much more difficult than killing by saving people and then bearing people’s praise.
“If she succeeds, it will be a feat that will be sung for thousands of years—achieving Heavenly Envoy, or even Candidate Pillar God, would be more than enough.”
This was probably why the Hourglass chose Yulia.
(End of this chapter)