Chapter 297 part 2
Chapter 297 “The inflection point of history” (Part two)
After the encounter with Du Wei at the palace gate, this female court maiden called Lanlan returned to the inner grounds and headed for a reception hall. As soon as she entered the room, she was bombarded by a pair of kids, which was exactly the eight year old Prince Charlie and his cute little sister Karina.
With eyes full of excitement, Charlie voices his demand: “Lanlan, hurry and let me see what good stuff the Duke gave us.”
At that, he ripped the textbook from Lanlan’s hand. However, with only a glimpse at the title, Charlie’s expression turned into a face full of disappointment and annoyance. Throwing it back: “That Duke Tulip is so stingy! Why would he give me a secondhand history textbook about the continent? Humph, does he think I won’t have something like this in my study room? As if I would need him to give me something so worthless…. Ughh, so disappointing!”
Not waiting, Charlie promptly stomps away without looking back, leaving Lanlan and his sister behind in the hall.
Lanlan may be feeling helpless inside at the prince’s reaction, but she didn’t have the courage to say anything in front of the princess. Instead, she thought of a plan: “My dear Princess Karina, this book here is the enlightenment gift your father tasked me to get from the Duke, can you help me pass it onto his highness Prince Charlie?”
Since Lanlan has taken care of her since she’s a baby, plus this maid’s demeanor have always been soft and gentle, Princess Karina was very affectionate towards her. Hugging Lanlan on the leg, Karina asks with her childish voice: “Sister Lanlan, is this book given by that Duke Tulip? Does brother not like it? If he doesn’t then give it to me, I want to read about the stories of the Duke defeating the natives and the miraculous castle he built.”
Smiling wryly, Lanlan didn’t know what to do right now as the princess robs the book right out of her hands. Hurrying, she pleads: “Princess, this… This is the enlightenment gift for Prince Charlie.”
“Then that means it’s also for me.” From her naïve face, little Princess Karina reveals the unique naughtiness only found in a child: “Brother’s teacher will also be teaching me, so giving me is the same as giving him.”
At that, she began bouncing away happily with the book in hand.
Once this little princess took Du Wei’s “General history of the mainland” textbook away, she promptly returned to her room to read it. As a princess and a very clever child like her father, Karina had learned to read from a very young age.
Before today, she had heard of the legendary tales pertaining to the great Duke of Tulip so her curiosity has long been piqued. Happily coming back to her quarters, her high hopes were quickly replaced with disappointment upon skimming through the pages because the contents weren’t what she expected.
This “general history of the mainland” was the official issue released by the authorities. Although these sort of historical texts tends to be somewhat gloried and bias, the views does remain relatively objective and to the point.
The history length of the Roland Empire spans over a thousand years, how can a single book be enough to record all the events? So, of this series, there are over a dozen books. As to Du Wei’s volume, his was the first in the series which contains a general introduction such as the continent’s geography, customs, imperial system, religious power, and so on and so on.
Originally these things would be a bit deep for a child of six. Likely after a short read the kid would find it a bore and toss it to the side. It’s just that Karina truly was an abnormality. Like her old man Prince Son, Karina was exceptionally smart for her age. Though she could barely understand the content of the book, but among the lines are a lot of densely packed notes and comments written by Du Wei himself. These comments can’t be called a great insight, merely just random thoughts and ideas he wrote down during his lessons as a child when he was bored.
After a few pages of quick read through, Karina’s interest became hooked.
On a part where the book talks about the separation between imperial power and religious power, the following crooked lines went like this:
“What have the gods given mankind? Why should mankind worship the gods? While ordinary people contribute their hard earn labor to the gods, what does the gods do when the people starve and go hungry? Will one fill their belly by chanting a few sentences to the goddess?”
As the book introduces the Temple of Light and the clergies behind it, Du Wei then comments down below:
“The so-called clergies, aka religious frauds, can only reap in the rewards of others without working. That’s clearly a deadbeat worm! If everyone on the continent can only sit in the temple and mouth off long live the goddess! Then everyone in this world will starve!”
The book says clergies aren’t allowed to marry and have children. Du Wei comments: “Bullshit! If no one has sex and reproduce, then humanity will go extinct! What thriving temple, more like extinction Temple!”
Originally there are some vulgar words in there unsuitable for a child, but since she didn’t know what those meant, Karina only took it as some sort of interesting phrase. As she read more and more, Karina could no longer put the book down….
In truth, Du Wei did write quite a few blasphemous insults in there and would technically warrant him the crime of treason and heresy. It’s not like Du Wei was being reckless today in giving this book away, but those comments were written years ago. After writing it down in the heat of the moment, Du Wei himself had forgotten about it not long after. It didn’t matter all that much anyways. Since the royal family didn’t take kind to the Temple either, it won’t do any harm if the little highnesses learn of what he thought.
Problem though was little Karina here. Still at the pure and innocent stage of her life, she’s very susceptible to outside influences. A plain white sheet if you will. Being exposed to all these views made by Du Wei without any forethought, it’s unavoidable that she will be affected!
It didn’t take long for evening to arrive that day. As little Karina continues to lose herself in her reading, dinner became unimportant and was quickly disposed of. Finally, as she came to the last blank page of the book, Du Wei left behind something lethal: Any religion in this world is only holding onto the title of god to fool others. Whether deities exist is their own business. Yet these religions like to make it so that once a man dons the robe of god, they are given the right to oppress other human beings! In essence that’s just “human” oppressing other humans, what does that have to do with the deities?
A robber taking a knife to rob someone of their money is a criminal offense, but if the robber changes his knife to a robe and say to the victim, “this is all in the name of the gods”, then he’s not committing a crime, he’s doing a noble task!
The following last sentences weren’t thought up by Du Wei; rather they are phrases from a famous online novel he saw in his previous life:
I want this sky to never conceal my eyes!
I want this land to never bury my heart!
All sentient beings will know my will!
All gods and demons will perish!
These few sentences that had shocked who knows how many people in Du Wei’s past life instantly blew Karina away! Though Karina’s still limited by her age and can’t fully comprehend the meaning, but the boldness and courage in those words will unavoidably make one boil with excitement.
The more she looked, the more turbulently excited she became. As she focused more and more, her mind eventually fell into a trance….
Du Wei never would’ve have expected this. The book he so carelessly handed out would inadvertently become a small interlude in the history of the Roland Continent, a changing point!
Although Karina still can’t understand all these meanings right now, that doesn’t mean she won’t when she grows older. As she ages, Karina would always keep this book close to her side and would sometimes revisit the notes left by Du Wei. With the passage of time, these thought patterns would eventually shape her personality and even her character! Du Wei’s impacting influence was so big that none could have expected this!
What’s more, because of this insignificant book as an enlightenment gift, Du Wei has inadvertently created an important figure in the canals of history that has yet to come!!!
“In my life, I do not have a god that I believe in. If I must truly believe in something, then my faith lies in man’s heart! We can have the spirit of faith, but we mustn’t blindly believe in an idol god!”
“For me, I can be suspicious of anyone but him. He not only created what I am, he also taught me everything that I know!”
Years later in the Roland Empire, these quotes were left behind by a figure known to the public as the “Bloody Thorn Flower Empress”.