Chapter 250 The Shadow of Valedo (Part 1)
The captain of the Flying Tallan is waiting on the helipad to greet Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pamphili who is boarding the spaceship.
The journey from the sea in Valedo is very difficult, it is the storm season in the northern hemisphere of this religious world.
Valledo is located in the Storm Star Territory and is a religious world with fourth-level special tax exemption rights.
What is the religious world?
To put it simply, the religious world is the private territory of the state religion. All taxes, personnel appointments, resource allocation, including self-defense on the planet are responsible for the state religion. The state religion’s priests can do whatever they like in this world.
Generally speaking, the religious world is a huge temple. Tall churches rise from the ground into the sky. Statues of emperors and other saints stand majestically in the streets and alleys, watching the prosperous empire and being pious. The believers prostrate themselves in the sacred light and never leave, praising the majesty and kindness of the emperor
Sometimes sacred relics and dangerous and corrupt heretical instruments are also transported to the religious world and used in different ways. Keep the method strictly.
In a sense, the religious world is the product of the long-term game between the state religion and the Terran Parliament. A large number of pilgrims can bring huge income and influence to the state religion, but at the same time, the state religion must also Concessions on the authority of private armed forces and the management of local churches.
On the other hand, most battle nuns are stationed in the religious world. After all, protecting holy places and saints is actually the job of these emperors' daughters.
Pamphili is the archbishop of Valedo, and in a sense the governor of this world, and he is only sixty years old this year. He has undergone life-extending surgery, and he still has a lot of good prospects in the future, and even enters the core of the cardinals of Terra. It's not impossible.
Now the archbishop is admiring the storm.
Agriculturally speaking, the abundant rain keeps the land fertile, so that Valledo’s food does not need to be imported at all. Farmers hand over about 80% of their income to the state church every year to compensate for their use of the land. Of the remaining 20% of the value, about one-third will become their offering to the God-Emperor and be "voluntarily" handed over to the local church.
After all, the more pious you are, the more qualified you are to be closer to the Golden Throne after death.
In the eyes of the Archbishop, however, such storms were more valuable on a spiritual level - even the least imaginative members of the faithful saw them as symbols of the Emperor's wrath, especially if they were priests when their sermons lead their thoughts in that direction.
Storms are beautiful, necessary, and sacred.
But now the storm has bitten the spacecraft hard, causing it to jolt violently.
But Pamphilly was not panicked, because his ending should be to sacrifice his life for the will of the great emperor, rather than panicking during a flight.
In the end, the spacecraft passed through the storm without any danger. When Pangphili walked down the stairs from the passenger cabin, his official robes didn't look wrinkled at all.
“Your Majesty the Bishop.”
The captain stooped to his knees.
"Your presence is the best blessing to this ship."
"Please stand up, Captain."
The Archbishop stretched out his hand, and the Captain stood up before Kissed his ring.
The captain was very tall and looked like a giant - although not as tall as Pamphili.
In the world of Valedo, no one known to the archbishop was as tall as him, and this man named Bilak was almost at the same level as his chin, which was very rare.
The captain is an experienced trader. Because he has undergone life-extending surgery, decades of ups and downs have not affected his appearance.
He has silver-gray hair, braided and scattered under his hat.
There was a firm piety in his demeanor which pleased the Bishop, whose first impression of the captain was in keeping with the reputation of the ship.
He felt that he would achieve his request.
Then Captain Billak led him out of the loading area.
The corridor in the distance is wide, with gorgeous tapestries hanging on the high vaults, depicting the spread of the Emperor's glory across the galaxy, and the aliens and heretics fleeing under the onslaught of Imperial truth. Faith, in the form of fire, burned the unclean things in the furnace, and the pagans raised their hands in begging for forgiveness, their faces elongated with howls of despair, because they knew they had no salvation.
The Emperor's armies march in the light of truth.
The Ecclesiarchy, the Astra Militarum, the Space Marines, and even the humblest slaves - they form the unstoppable pace of the Imperium of Man.
The captain followed the bishop slowly, slowing down his pace so that the bishop could examine the tapestries.
“They are all magnificent and well preserved. Are these all replicas?”
“Some are.”
The captain replied humbly:< br>
“But ordinary people can’t tell the difference at all. Can you see the difference?”
"I can't."
Pamphilly admitted frankly that years of ups and downs have made him not like those low-level priests who can't tolerate a little failure.
“How did you get those authentic ones?”
“I inherited them. These tapestries have been sleeping in my house for centuries.”
"You also inherited this deal?"
"Yes, and the same goes for this ship."
Pangfili became more and more satisfied with this.
He looked at the tapestry carefully, stopping to look at the wear marks on the fabric. This picture depicts the living saint Saint Celestine leading people to fight against an uncertain darkness. .
The tapestry was faded at the edges and gave off a musty, old smell.
“This is not a replica, right?”
"It's a copy, but this one is very old, one of the first ones to be copied, I think about seven hundred years ago."
"Then it must have had its own by now value.”
“Although it is a replica, it certainly has spiritual value.”
The captain stared at the concentrated face of the living saint.
“The main function of all these tapestries is to inspire and guide. If they play such a role, whether they are authentic or not is not so important.”
The Archbishop nodded.
“I completely agree with you, Captain, it’s a great blessing for you to come to my world.”
The captain nodded, but he didn’t think he had completely won the other person’s favor. Approval, because he understands what his profession entails and knows how to conduct business with the Established Church.
There are too many speculators who choose fraud and too many corrupt explorers in his line of business. The Archbishop has already dealt with those he encountered before - quite a few of them were executed.
The Flying Tallarn is a pilgrim ship, but she was once a cargo ship, but was repurposed and transformed by Be'lak's family in the 40th millennium.
After getting permission from the top leaders of the state church at the time, they began the business that they had maintained for more than ten generations—on the surface, it was an exhibition of holy relics, but in fact, it was a trade in cultural relics.
(End of this chapter)