Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 81: Chapter 73 On Haifa’s Last Day

Hill landed in a secluded spot just outside the southernmost border city of Haifasardo.

Seeing the consumption of Crystal Stones, he felt a bit distressed. The elemental concentration here in Haifa was still extremely high, and the airship required a significant amount of energy to fly. Such a short distance had consumed enough Crystal Stones for Hill to circle around Saral.

No wonder Fran never liked to use his beloved ship, even though it had been abandoned and sold to William.

During those years, Hill could count on one hand the times he had touched it.

After Fran had handed over that huge airship, Prince William started using that small sailboat for his daily travels.

Wealthy enough to be envied by others.

The God of Time and Space must still be digging Crystal Stones for him from The River of Time and Space.

Nevertheless, Hill’s impression of the God of Time and Space had improved.

The deity had set up a Sub Temple in his own Main Temple.

Inside was a statue of a beautiful and gentle lady embracing a boy of about ten years old.

The God of Time and Space had divided the Arts Priesthood among Queen Spencer for education, and among the real William for arts and entertainment.

In the Space-Time Cathedral of Saral, all the literacy class classrooms were also carved with reliefs of the Goddess of Art and Education.

Around the classrooms and the small square were those of the God of Arts and Entertainment.

Hill thought that the savvy move to divide up the Arts Priesthood between two auxiliary deities must have been William’s idea.

The God of Time and Space is serious... right?

Hill felt that the Goddess of Art and Love was probably going mad. She could either try hard to compete with the two divinities managing the art priesthood for followers or barge into the Space-Time God Country to take down the leader of that god system or eventually give up on the priesthood of art.

For many years, her focus had been solely on love, using her little talent in arts entirely to please men.

No wonder it was so easy for the God of Time and Space to take over.

But this was not something a deity could claim by mere words; it had to be acknowledged and rewarded by the consciousness of the world.

The priesthood of arts could not be maintained simply through the Goddess’s pale and powerlessly poetic lines, her seductive dances, or her dry and uninteresting music.

It was just that before, she had backing; no one contested her for it.

At least the God of Knowledge had once entertained the idea of competing for it, but unfortunately, it was noticed and reported by the Noble Temple from the start.

After being spoken to by the Nobles and the God of Monarchy, the God of Knowledge had no choice but to give up.

But now, the Saral People all knew who those two deities were.

They went happily to the Space-Time Cathedral to request statues of these two deities to be brought home to bless their children with intelligence and health and to advance in their studies.

William even had the Junior Mage School and the Knight and Swordsman School all set up. If you performed well, you could enroll; he couldn’t be bothered with the nobles’ tedious reasons for obstruction, using the name of the God of Time and Space for all of it.

The nobles dared not prevent the light bestowed by the deities on the commoners, although they knew what was going on.

But the commoners didn’t care about these things. They knew who they should be grateful to.

And for them, as long as there were enough channels for those from the lower class to rise, that was enough. For the commoners, as long as hard work led to good outcomes, it was the greatest happiness in the mortal world.

They were grateful to Queen Spencer and Prince William for inviting the deities; thus, their worship was truly devout.

Hill felt that the Goddess of Art and Love would probably lose the word ”art” from her title within a few years.

Well, that would be a good thing, worthy of celebration.

Hill rode in a carriage into Kaplan, the only southern border city of Haifasardo.

He came with a sincere hope of finding more prodigals selling off their inheritances.

After all, Cortez charged such high fees; they exploited these prodigals!

Fortunately, Haifasardo was a nouveau-riche nation with very few Temples of Knowledge.

The books collected by the Mage Association, other than the Magic Books, were unlikely to be of good quality; they had all been picked over by them first.

The noble’s heritage books were merely for stocking libraries and resale.

If the Temple of Knowledge got hold of them, many books would be kept because the more books in the temple, the more favor from the God of Knowledge.

It was said that Haifasardo’s capital’s Temple of Knowledge wasn’t even as large as the Temples of Knowledge in the cities of Saral, so it was normal for no one to compete with Hill for books.

Hill entered the city gleefully, heading straight for the Mage Association.

This border city had suffered greatly over the past year.

Hill didn’t even see any guards.

Or maybe having been bullied so badly, they had all run off to the checkpoint above, where it was possible to make money and endure fewer beatings.

On the streets of Kaplan, you could hardly see any commoners; nearly everyone walking about was at least a Knight Squire.

As Hill walked along, he was met by people who bowed and stepped back to make way for him.

It seemed that Haifasardo indeed had many mages, at least enough that even the Knight Squires could recognize a High-level Mage.

In Saral, such a scarcity of mages left many nobles completely ignorant of what a mage as a profession really was.

The Mage Association was always the most eye-catching building in a city, at least for Professionals.

The Magic Aura would always shine on the structure, visible from afar.

Looking at the crowd gathering outside the Mage Association, Hill hesitated.

What was going on?

Hill raised a Thorn Barrier around the carriage and pushed through the pressure to move ahead.

The thorns, waving their spiky vines, drove away those who dared to come near.

As the crowd parted, someone shouted, ”Please, Mage, take us into Cortez. The reward will be handsome!”

Had these people gone mad?

Or had Cortez come up with some new ploy?