Chapter LXXIII – Let your preaching shine before men. (Patreon)

54th of Summer, 5859
Azdavay, County of Casamonu

Another day had dawned in Azdavay. The effects of yesterday were still pretty apparent on the nervous faces of the populace. It wasn’t easy to forget the fact that a bunch of slaves had marched in unison on these streets, and that fact was quite the nerve-racking one for many. Nobody had any idea yet as to what their new occupiers wanted, most had though that they’d all have been slaughtered by a band of angry fugitives by now.

Despite their many worries however, the town was perfectly intact and most were alive except for a few upper-ups who had disappeared (though most people didn’t personally know their former overlords in the first place). The fugitive soldiers had mostly kept themselves to the mayor’s mansion and town hall only occasionally being seen bringing newly freed slaves in. Nobody really knew, outside of wild guesses, what this slave revolt was planning on doing.

And so, still being alive and needing some guidance of a spiritual nature, the temple was packed full by people. Not that it was empty by any measure on any other day, but today was another level of crammed. Not a particle oxygen was to be found in the temple, the air being filled by the smell of the common man (which was not a pleasant smell in any way, shape, or form). They were sat on the ground, waiting for the priest to arrive. He eventually did, along with a couple more flanking him; that was unusual as normally one priest was to attend noon prayer.

At the front of this congregation of priests was Vaiz, who had mostly been busy attending to the fugitives of Libertycave and going through records until now. Now was his time to finally shine. He cleared his throat, and allowed the temple to come to complete silence. And then he allowed the silence to continue on for a while longer. Vaiz was gauging his audience while piquing their curiosity as to what he was about to say with the delay. It was quite easy for him to see the mixture of fear and curiosity on people’s faces. He himself found it hard to hide how stressed he was. A man of the cloth like him could have easily led an easy life and not get himself into this mess. A slave uprising was the last thing he should be the public face of rationally speaking. However… “Ahem, dear Believers. If I may have your attention!”

Vaiz suddenly shouting caused some to jolt up. The silence was broken, and now was time to pay full attention to the man at the altar. “If I may have your attention! Attention to the fact that we are missing many from our congregation!” He paused to let murmurs pass among the flock. Who was missing? The whole town had practically packed themselves in. “Behold, your siblings!”

Minor chaos ensued when these siblings walked into the room, and somebody in the flock shouted out “Darkskins!”

Vaiz had finally found a suitable place for his congregation, and he wasn’t giving them up. He banged on the altar multiple times to calm people down. The members of the congregation already in the room instinctively retreated away from the newcomers as they entered. However, they couldn’t fully segregate themselves due to how full the room was. Despite objections, the free people of the town came shoulder-to-shoulder with the fugitives. Vaiz began speaking once his congregation had settled into an uncomfortable status-quo. “Behold your siblings whom you have done your best to ignore for so long! Behold them, they who are equal members of creation as you are! Behold them, they who are equally as blessed by the Divine! Behold them, they who have all the right to stand-” Vaiz crouched down as a shoe speeded towards him. He raised his head up, only to meet another volley of shoes. The congregation clearly weren’t satisfied with what he was preaching. He was besieged behind the altar until the angry congregation ran out of their limited supply of shoes.

Thankfully the altar had proved shoe-resistant. Vaiz popped his head up again, meeting eye-to-eye with his congregation. Their frustrations seemed to have been vented for now. He let out a very quiet, almost inaudible groan; it wasn’t going to be easy to lecture these people. “I get that you are upset at having to stand right next to the ones that you deem to be savages. However, I ask you: who right now is defiling such a hallow place and hour by throwing shoes at a priest?” Vaiz leaned on the altar and towards the congregation, suddenly heightening the volume of his voice. “If there was anyone who needs to leave, then it is those uncivilized savages who have thrown the shoes!” He saw heads turn away from him when he directly looked at members of the audience. “Now, the Divine instructs us to be kind and patient, especially to those who need education. I pray that you have learned your lesson.” He relaxed his posture and stopped leaning on the altar. Time had come for prayer, now that his lecture was finished.

The red sun in the sky was at its zenith, frying the congregation as they headed out the temple. Those who had failed to recover, or were too embarrassed to recover, their shoes amongst the pile were even unluckier; their bare feet burnt in contact with the scorching road below. It was as if they were receiving a small taste of hell. However, the scorching ground was about to be the least of their concerns when they saw the next attraction that Brown and co. had planned for today.

“Ayomide, be a bit gentle, won’t you? We’re supposed to keep these prisoners alive for only a moment longer.” Shinasi was standing guard next to a tall oak tree which stood in a garden next to the temple along with everyone else from Libertycave. He and their noble prisoners were surrounded by men of the League of Gileadites supported by newly-hired adventurers to plug gaps. The irony of adventurers protecting them and standing in formation with former slaves wasn’t lost to the freemen or the adventurers, but the adventurers were paid enough not to complain. Having prisoners scream for dear life toward their backs did make this job quite annoying however.

John Brown too was with Shinasi, though he was more occupied with dragging in a box towards the middle of this barricade. Not that he was going to give a speech himself, no. He wasn’t suitable for what they were planning, for Brown didn’t look too far from the common man of Gemeinplatz despite being an otherworlder. They needed an otherworlder who was sufficiently foreign-looking to them, and an otherworlder who had gathered experience in acting after having worked an office job for several years. As Brown put the box in a suitable place for the people of Azdavay to see him, that person took his stage on top of the box.

“Ahem, err… Konnichiwa, people of Azdavay!” The one who took on the challenge of climbing the box was the errant otherworlder Brown had chanced upon in a dungeon. “I am Watanabe Haruhi, yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”

The sounds of a language from the mythical lands of Örf immediately caught the attention of people of Azdavay. This mixing of languages was deliberate, otherwise Watanabe knew well enough that the Japanese language made no sense to the people in Gemeinplatz. He had been extensively trained by Vaiz beforehand, who had gotten the idea to have Watanabe on stage in the first place. The young man was decked out with a suitably impressive outfit scrounged together from the possessions of various noblemen: a golden tiara, an impressive set of steel armor and a deep blue tabard trimmed in gold.

“Nanika nantoka kantoka, I have come here to warn Azdavay and the rest of Gemeinplatz of a great threat!” Watanabe had to keep himself from breaking down in laughter after seeing people be so willing to listen to his gibberish. He had to stop himself at releasing a few snickers that went unnoticed amongst the chaos of the crowd.

“On Örf I was a techno-wizard, and through my devices I saw that one world in particular was in danger, that being Gemeinplatz. The elders of Nehoun then elected me to be sent as a Hero to assist you!” The crowd was dead silent upon being warned once more. “This realm, Gemeinplatz, has been beset upon by the agents of the Demon King! You have just witnessed one of his machinations when he made you attack men of the cloth through his dark influence. Yes, his influence is so great that he’ll make you go fight against the word of the Divine!”

Meanwhile, in the background, the captured slaveowners were having nooses tied around their necks by former slaves. Brown had ideally wanted to conduct a trial for them and whatnot, but he wasn’t going to wait around even for a show trial. These slaveowners had committed many crimes. They had stolen the freedom of men, they had stolen the labor of peasants… Theft, of such a large scale, was a capital offense in most of Gemeinplatz; Brown was only making sure that the law applied to everyone, using a language that was understandable to the people of Gemeinplatz.

“So, from today onwards, we shall fight against the legions of the Demon King! Those behind me, they have served him by separating you from your siblings; we must unite as one to stand against the Empire controlled by the Demon King! If you think of your siblings here as demons, and as lowly slaves, then that is nothing but lies told by the servants of the Demon King looking to weaken us!” By now, Watanabe had gotten into his role. He was making grand gestures with his hands, he was shouting, he had gotten into the role of a hero as he had practiced. “Join me, the Hero, and fight against the demons who have oppressed you for so long!” The crowd was in an uproar. Whether they agreed or disagreed, they had been agitated.

As the crowd shouted, the slaveowners, those “servants of the demons”, were brought closer to the tree. Soon they’d no longer live in Gemeinplatz.