kingdom of nations

Chapter 294 Broken Wings (12)

Blessed are those on the road to Arrassa and Bethlehem, especially the pilgrims. Whether their journey is smooth or not, they have traveled thousands of miles from their homelands—Franklin, Germany, or the Apennines—to the Holy Land, which is already a blessing from God and a sign of the saints' favor.

They had kissed the ground where Jesus Christ suffered, touched the place where the Son was buried and resurrected, walked the path of suffering he had traversed, and visited the place where he was born. They were already quite satisfied, but they never expected that they would witness a real miracle being born there.

Patriarch Heraclius has declared that what happened at the St. Jerome Monastery is indeed a holy site, and people inside and outside the monastery cheered upon hearing this, while even more people flocked to the site.

However, the farsighted abbot had already summoned craftsmen to rebuild a low wall outside the monastery to block the flow of people. He would certainly open this sacred site for people to admire, but the main hall would need to be renovated—changing the lamp oil, cleaning the sacred objects, dressing the icons, placing more candles, replacing the white linen on the altar, and preparing better incense, etc., all of which would take time.

Only a select few, such as the King of Arrassa, the Patriarch, Bishop Andrew, the recently popular Knight of Bethlehem, and illustrious figures like the Grand Duke of Antioch, were allowed to enter the Great Hall before everyone else to pray to St. Jerome.

Grand Duke Bohemond of Antioch even offered a purple satin robe embroidered with gold thread to drape over Saint Jerome, replacing the robe Saint Jerome had worn earlier, the one worn during the miracle, and handing it to him.

This behavior is seen by some cynical people as buying and selling sacred objects.

But in the words of the priests, they were merely comforting a poor old father whose only son had suddenly suffered a great misfortune. Did they give him St. Jerome's robe simply because of the money he had donated?

They would never have done this, or at least not for this price, if it weren't for his pitiful state.

After the prayer of ascension, Cesar and the twelve knights who had also attained enlightenment under Saint Jerome changed into the simple robes of monks—grey-white, round-necked, linen to the ankles, with wooden crosses hanging from them, a leather rope tied around their waists, and no longer wearing iron boots, but a pair of ordinary wide-mouthed flat shoes.

Next, they will appear as the main characters in the entire procession, first circling the city, then the outside of the city, then the monastery, and finally returning to the main hall.

Bethlehem is a small town, but it was also built on hills. The paths they walked were either narrow lanes or steep steps, with very few flat areas, not to mention the crowds of people coming to pay their respects that lined both sides of the streets.

When Cesar entered the city, he was slightly surprised. From what he saw, the population of the city was probably only a few thousand more than Bishop Andrei's deputy had said. If the crowds they saw along the way were still as large as they were now, even ten thousand people would not be enough to stop them.

But he hesitated only for a moment, and then Patriarch Heraclius, who was walking ahead, turned around. Cesar immediately lowered his head and held his breath, putting the matter to himself for the time being. Heraclius had always been lenient with them, and even when Cesar said something outrageous, he didn't take it to heart at all, and would even discuss it with them with great interest.

Heraclius may have been full of doubt and dissatisfaction with the Church at that time, especially the Roman Church, but he was still a devout monk. In such an important ceremony, whether Baldwin or Cesar made a mistake, they would inevitably be scolded and beaten.

Haredi's workshop was in a good location, facing the street and with a small alley behind it. He and Le climbed up a tree, hiding themselves in the dense foliage, and carefully observed the surging crowd.

The procession was moving through the crowd, with priests and monks leading the way. Two young priests at the front carried a pair of gilded incense boats, the rich aroma of myrrh and frankincense blending into the evening mist. Behind them, some priests carried scriptures, others held reliquary boxes, and still others carried rosaries—because it was a procession celebrating the transfiguration of St. Jerome, there were also some relics related to St. Jerome, such as a pen, a tattered piece of parchment, or a tuft of mane said to have been plucked from the lion that St. Jerome saved.

Next came Patriarch Heraclius, wearing a tall crown, robes, and carrying a pastor's staff. Behind him was Bishop Andrew, a solemn-faced man familiar to the people of Bethlehem. On the other side was the King of Arazarus—he was said to be a leper. People curiously examined his face, but in the dappled shadows cast by the torchlight, they were unsure whether the markings were caused by the light or by the disease.

The king of Arrassal was dressed as simply as ever today, but once he became king, no matter how simple he was, the brilliance of his silks and jewels was hard to conceal. But people were soon captivated by another kind of radiance.

Nowadays, it's hard to describe César as handsome; that's more for a child or a woman. But when people see him, they are still captivated, as if caught in a trap, even though he is not dressed in fine clothes, but only in a linen robe like a monk's, and without any jewels, only a crimson crown woven from torches and the setting sun.

He held up the icon of St. Jerome, his expression solemn, his features dignified, exuding an indescribable majesty. People's eyes and steps involuntarily followed him until they were blocked by others—there were simply too many people on the street, and no space for them to move.

Behind Cesar were twelve knights who had also seen St. Jerome and had made it to Bethlehem to participate in the procession, but they had been completely ignored—the knights exchanged amused glances, not really caring that this was not a tournament or a dance hall. However, the richly dressed nobles following behind them were likely to be disappointed, as they would be greeted with sighs and complaints.

However, this unpleasant sound quickly dissipated, just as the final music that always plays in every procession is played, with monks and attendants throwing coins at the people at the very end of the procession.

“He’s still the same as ever,” Lego said sourly. Haredi glanced at him, surprisingly finding little hatred or disgust in his words. “Don’t you hate him?”

Lego scratched his hair.

Although for the Isaacs, it could be considered a fault for a victim to refuse to obediently walk into their trap, he had to admit that among the lords, bishops, or officials he passed by, Cesar had been lenient enough to them, and he had not even pursued their sin of intentionally bestowing favors upon him with gold coins of poor weight and purity.

He only acted rashly when they intended to use his name to benefit the common people in Bethlehem (a rather dangerous move).

Even so, he did not hang them on the wooden frame, but simply expelled them from Bethlehem.

As Lego traveled to Nalazar, he worried that his past actions in Bethlehem would cause him further trouble, but this did not happen.

It could be said that the harm he suffered at the hands of Cesar was less than the harm he suffered at the hands of his own people.

This realization caused the cunning Isaac merchant to unusually lose interest in continuing the discussion. He listlessly climbed down the ladder and sat in the courtyard, lost in thought. Haredi watched for a while longer, until the entire procession had passed, before returning to the workshop to begin organizing the things he had created over the past few days.

Without needing to continue making syringes, it would be much faster to make those thin, hollow tubes—called needles. After all, they are not very complex structures. Apart from the threads being a bit troublesome to work with, Harry could make them even with his eyes closed after repeating the process a few times.

He put all these precious little things into a wooden box lined with black velvet, locked it, and took it into his bedroom, placing it in that secret place.

César had told him that he would not send any messengers or servants to take these things away; he would come to collect them himself. It was just unknown whether he would wait until the entire ceremony was completed before taking them or come immediately.

Cesar would, of course, wait until he was about to leave Bethlehem before taking these things away.

After all, in the monastery, the monks slept in a large, brightly lit room. Each monk had only a small wooden chest—the kind that wasn't locked—to store some personal belongings. And everyone could see these various items: a pen, paper, a small knife, a bar of soap, and that was about it; he was no exception.

As the procession was about to leave the gates of Bethlehem, Cesar felt a gaze upon him. He reacted quickly and looked in that direction, only to see houses shrouded in darkness—this was near the city walls, in the fortified area inhabited only by the poorest of the poor.

It wouldn't be surprising if there were children or women there. Even in Bethlehem, many sins still occurred. Piety doesn't mean the absence of desires. They might even have believed that just visiting the Holy Land once would cleanse them of all sins—just by praying and repenting… To later generations, this completely contradictory statement is utterly untenable, but at that time, even the Church accepted it. Otherwise, who would pay taxes, who would celebrate Mass, who would give offerings, and who would buy indulgences?
Thinking they might just be two curious children, Cesar stopped pursuing the matter and followed the priests.

------

"That person is really beautiful," the young cultivator said innocently, even though they were far apart and only had torches for lighting.

But as Cesar looked back, he still felt an overwhelming sense of shock—mortals always have a strong desire for and extreme tolerance for beautiful things—even though someone had previously said that the young knight was the culprit behind this disaster.

“That’s what a devil is,” the ascetic beside him said calmly.

"Oh, aren't all devils supposed to be ugly?"

“Of course not,” the ascetic’s peaceful attitude, compared to the harsh words of the other priests, made people listen to his words more carefully. “If a devil wants to incite people to fall, he must first convince them.”

If he had a face as filthy and twisted as his heart, how could anyone believe him? He must disguise himself, and he will disguise himself as virtuous as those blessed by God, so that people, upon seeing him, cannot help but trust him, love him, and be willing to obey his words, just as he is doing now.

"What did he do?"

“He committed every sin imaginable,” the ascetic said. “As St. Gregory I said, the first sin is pride.”

When he was your age, he claimed it was the Lord's will to clean the entire Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but how did he do it?
Unlike the hardworking brothers you see who crawl on their knees, heads bowed, knees bent, wiping the dust from the ground, he stands tall, holding a wooden pole and a dirty strip of cloth, moving like knights dragging their lances in the most sacred place, and declares that he has completed the most arduous work.

When people were deceived by him and mistakenly called him a little saint, did he deny it? No, on the contrary, he readily accepted this honorary title, without feeling at all that it was not a title a young man should bear.

He was jealous. When he first arrived at Holy Cross Castle, he was just a slave of a merchant of Isaac. At that time, Prince Baldwin already had the most loyal servants by his side, but in order to gain Baldwin's trust, he deliberately plotted to kill them, killing two of them and framing one of them as the sinner who wanted to kill him.

By God’s grace, the servant saw the saint just as he was about to be harmed, and was thus able to escape from the devil’s clutches.

"Yes," he continued, looking down at the young monk, his face filled with fear, "you think this is the end?"
The escape of a good man only fueled the devil's wrath, which he unleashed upon other innocent people. Prince Baldwin, at his urging, banished all servants except himself and refused to let anyone near him, not even Abigail, son of the Duke of Antioch, and David, son of the Count of Tripoli—two noble and pure young men—whom Baldwin, blinded by his influence, refused to listen to their explanations.

"really?"

"Of course it's true. If you ask anyone in Holy Cross Castle, they will tell you that from the age of nine to sixteen, Baldwin only had Cesar by his side. Not only that, he was also very lazy."

"Is he unwilling to do his job?"

"Doing things? If you judge the actions of a devil with such a superficial view, you are making a big mistake. To see if a person is lazy, you should not only look at how many things he has done, but also whether he has diligently performed the sacraments like a devout believer."

He didn't pray often, and rarely went to the chapel or church. He needed to be reminded to offer a Mass, and large donations were never seen.

"But I heard that he once distributed his reward to the poor of the whole Arrassa Road."

"Do you think this is generosity and selflessness? Just like laziness, which I mentioned before, you can't interpret the word literally. What the devil wants is not just gold. In fact, you could say that gold is not that important to the devil."

Otherwise, how could we see in various accounts that the devil used gold to tempt mortals and exchange it for their souls?

He was greedy, but his greed lay in the souls of mortals, in trust and love.

He greedily plundered everyone's appreciation and affection, claiming it for himself, without considering that these things originally belonged to God, and that a mortal had no right to possess them.

Didn't the king notice?

"Mortals are easily deceived, even knights and kings who have been favored by saints. Amalric I and his son Baldwin were already far from God, and now they have been led astray by the devil. They are sure to go to hell, but there is nothing that can be done about it."

After all, the devil was right beside them, and he was so cunning,” the ascetic recalled the strange rumors he had heard from those people. They had talked about Cesare’s peculiar dietary requirements—but they only assumed it was because of his lowly birth or because he had spent too much time with those lowly people. However, the ascetic still keenly sensed that eating fruit raw and cooking vegetables into soup might have been a subtle way for the devil to display his evil nature, but no one had noticed it.

Moreover, this young knight was blatantly unashamed in his lust—when he became Gerald's knight of Damara, Damara was still very young, and Princess Hibil, who was in the Castle of the Holy Cross, had also been tempted by him. If Amalric I had not arranged a marriage for him, she might have already committed sinful acts under the devil's temptation.

Even so, this devil still managed to win a good marriage with his faked and embellished handsome face. This marriage brought him the whole of Cyprus, turning him from a landless count into a true prince with a vast territory.

He first married Anna, a princess of Byzantium, which was essentially an affair with a heretical woman, and later married a Venetian woman.

The Venetians did not receive much preferential treatment from the church. They had only recently converted to Christianity, and as cunning merchants, they either outwardly complied with the demands of the Roman Catholic Church or ignored them completely. They were a group of shameful merchants who could even mortgage and sell their own faith at will.

They even joined forces to refuse the Roman Catholic Church entry into Cyprus.

The ascetics were initially hesitant about Alexander III's orders.

But when he arrived at the road to Arazars and Bethlehem, he immediately noticed the strangeness of the Holy Land—a truly terrifying thing. In the place where Jesus Christ was born, lived, and was martyred, a devil had climbed to an extremely important position: some innocent and good people were willing to remove their sins and restore their light.

Otherwise, in another ten or twenty years, this place might become a true hell on earth.

(End of this chapter)