Chapter 437 - 2: Selection of the Holy Daughter of Light
Chapter 437: Chapter 2: Selection of the Holy Daughter of Light
Feiyan City, Light Church.
“Knock, knock, knock!” The door to the room was knocked on.
“Come in.”
Lynch, who was browsing a book at his desk, said without looking up.
The door opened, and Saul walked in.
“Teacher, I’ve come to discuss the successor for the position of the Holy Maiden with you,” Saul said.
Lynch asked, “Is there something wrong?”
Saul explained, “After discussing with several bishops, we decided to conduct the selection process for the successor of the Holy Maiden internally within the Church Court, limiting the selection to the body of the Light Priestesses. Here are the preliminary selection criteria we’ve compiled for your review.”
As he spoke, Saul handed over a sheepskin scroll.
Lynch closed his book, took the sheepskin scroll from Saul, leaned back in his chair, and began to examine it.
With just a quick glance, he quickly noticed some issues: “Age 16 to 24?”
Saul nodded: “This is according to your requirement to select the younger ones.”
“Uh…”
Lynch opened his mouth. He had indeed asked Saul to pay attention to this point, but he didn’t mean it in terms of age.
He straightened up and explained, “You misunderstood me. What I meant by ’younger ones’ was not their age, but that they should simply look young. Outwardly youthful, do you understand my meaning?”
All Light Priestesses are Transcendents, and from the moment they begin to pray (meditate), their body cells get stimulated by elements and spiritual power, making their appearance levels different from those of mortals.
As long as they maintain normal life force enhancement, many hundreds of years old witches would look no different from young girls.
Take Lynch for example; he’s been on the Wizard’s Road for about a hundred years, but his real appearance has not significantly changed since his teenage years.
Saul’s voice seemed a bit regretful: “Oh… I see… alright…”
Actually, he wasn’t truly misunderstanding Lynch’s meaning; he was just pretending not to understand, hoping to muddle through.
The Light Church has been developing for several decades now and is no longer the unremarkable organization Lynch initially founded, vulnerable to turmoil.
As the ideological nucleus of Lynch’s Witch Domain, the Church’s development has been almost synchronous with his entire domain’s growth.
Although there are far more transcendental organizations in Lynch’s domain beyond just the Church, it is undoubtedly the Church that has benefited the most from following the domain’s development.
Today, the Light Church has grown from an obscure small organization into a colossal behemoth.
And at such a scale, it can no longer remain as pure as it once was, with many different factions emerging internally based on varied power demands.
The Council, Wizard Tower, Alchemy Workshop, Magic Farm, Moon Tower, Adventurer Guild… even the Old Noble Influence, Royal Family, and even other Witch Domains.
Different factions have different interest demands on the Church.
To give a simple example, the Church has a transcendental ritual called ’Holy Baptism,’ which is a transcendent spell related to Life Science, requiring a Transcendent specialized in Life Science along with a lot of related high-level materials to perform.
This spell can significantly enhance the life power of ordinary beings, with differing life force increases depending on the individual.
Simply put, it could increase lifespan.
Whether be it Transcendents or humans, the pursuit of survival could be said to be a fundamental instinct, and the ability to increase one’s life and live longer makes this ritual immensely attractive as one might expect.
From ordinary believers to church clergy, and even princes, nobles, and Transcendent wizards, there is no one who isn’t eager for this.
However, the materials required for this ritual are quite expensive, and the Church can only perform a few Holy Baptisms each year.
So, the problem comes: Who should receive the baptism?
Currently, Lynch has delegated this authority to the Church, letting them decide, and within the Church, the Holy Daughter of Light undoubtedly has absolute decision-making power in this regard.
This is just one of the matters at hand.
The Church’s other resources, the promotion of various clergy, the evaluation and appointment of priests, and even the selection of the archbishop… behind every item lies enormous interests, and as the principal allocator of these vast interests, the choice of the Holy Maiden naturally determines countless interest distributions.
In short, since Alya resigned from the position of Holy Maiden, various factions have been eager, each trying to push forth a candidate beneficial to their interests.
Saul’s move to restrict the age to 16 to 24 years old was simply an attempt to eliminate most other candidates to further maneuver his preferred candidate, only for it to be thwarted by Lynch.
Lynch glanced at Saul, quickly capturing the trace of disappointment in his eyes.
He is not some novice naive about everything, and with a little thought, he understood what Saul was disappointed about.
Although he appeared indifferent, he was well aware of the overt and covert struggles of his subordinates for the position of the Holy Maiden; even Erwin had casually mentioned the topic recently in his presence.
Lynch chose not to interfere in this.
After all, no matter which faction he chose, there would always be others unsatisfied, so it was better to let them compete and struggle on their own, with him as a rubber stamp to confirm their choice in the end.
Lynch was fully aware of his role as a referee, and it was most taboo for the referee to step onto the field in a game, something that must not be done.
As for who they eventually selected, it wasn’t important to Lynch.
His concern was that his Witch Domain operated in a normal mode, and that adventurers continued to explore underground cities; how they fought and distributed interests in private was insignificant to Lynch.
Lynch continued, “Also, add one more criterion to this document.”
“The appearance level of the Holy Daughter of Light must be high, preferably naturally so. If the candidate’s appearance quality is insufficient, she should go to the Wizard Tower to have the wizards enhance her. In any case, she must be beautiful.”
The Holy Maiden serves as the image representative of the Church, facing ordinary believers and representing the first impression ordinary people have of the Church.
Ordinary yet simple-minded people find it hard to dig deeply into the rights and wrongs of an individual or organization, and they typically judge through first impressions.
Simply put—
To be beautiful is to be right, to be ugly is to be wrong; beauty is justice.
Though it is regrettable,
this is often how the world works.