CHAPTER 316: 0314 ONE OF THE WAYS OF SAINTESS’S BIRTH

Music with religious content is often soothing. Such music can relax people’s tense emotions, and some religions even incorporate psychological suggestions into the music, making faith unbreakable without people realizing it.

The music of the local religion in Nagariel is also soothing, though today it contained more joy.

As the flower floats began to move, Lynch was surprised to notice more families with children by the roadside. These girls were very young, fifteen or sixteen years old, and according to Nagariel’s local laws, girls are considered adults at sixteen.

Their parents dressed them up beautifully, wearing flower crowns. Their tender faces showed some bewilderment, and the confusion in their eyes suggested that they themselves didn’t know what they were supposed to do or face.

The people on the floats were intrigued and started discussing the girls dancing gracefully by the roadside, judging them.

The tone and attitude in their discussion were not like they were talking about a living person, but more like critiquing a product.

"This one is no good; did you see her hair? I don’t like how dry and yellow it is, not smooth enough..." One of the family representatives stroked the railing by the float, as if reminiscing.

"This girl is nice; her figure is good. I like this kind..." A family representative threw a gold-painted flower crown prepared on the float.

The girl’s family looked in surprise at the flying flower crown and forced the girl to kneel with them to express gratitude.

The girl had no idea what she would face next or what kind of fate she might encounter. Perhaps her whole life would veer toward an unknown end because of this day’s coincidental destiny.

This scene kept playing out. Families who received a flower crown expressed their gratitude by kneeling, while those who didn’t sighed and grumbled, some even blaming their daughter, or the parents blaming each other.

People sang and danced, celebrating the festival, surrounded by lively scenes, with smiles on everyone’s faces.

The Flower Festival.

The parade route for the floats was not long. In this city, strictly speaking, only two roads are suitable for flower floats parades; other roads are either rugged or narrow, making it impossible for the floats and many people to pass through.

From the start of the morning activities, with a short break at noon, the entire festival ended around two in the afternoon.

The floats finally returned to the largest Temple in Magulana Province, located on a hill outside the city.

Calling it a hill is more like saying it’s a blemish on Mother Earth’s face, with significant marks of artificial carving. It’s evident that to emphasize the "majesty" and "nobility" of this Temple, they must have spent substantial labor to create a hill in the plains.

The Temple’s gold-painted exterior wall on the hilltop shone with dazzling golden light under the noon sun, looking up from the foot of the hill as if seeing the mythical abode of divine beings.

"Boss..."

Asir was already waiting for Lynch at the foot of the hill. He did not qualify to get on the Flower Festival floats because he was neither a noble, a wealthy businessman, nor a foreigner.

The reasoning seemed ridiculous yet was very real. Fortunately, Asir didn’t mind, and over these days, he had started to get used to all the absurdities here.

Asir handed a towel soaked in ice water to Lynch, who wiped his face with it. The refreshing sensation instantly cooled down the heat he suffered all day from the sun.

With the ice-soaked towel covering his face, he took a deep breath. The refreshing air entered his body with his breath, calming some of the internal irritation.

The experience of being in sunlight for hours in 27-28 degree weather was not pleasant.

After a moment, he removed the towel and wiped the skin exposed to the air. The city’s dust was abundant, and the white towel quickly turned black.

He returned the used towel to Asir and began walking towards the steps to the summit, casually asking, "What’s next on our agenda?"

Asir handed the towel and the basin of ice water to another person, who seemed to be one of his family’s servants. During their arrival, Asir had shared some family concerns with Lynch, feeling troubled.

Fortunately, Lynch had timely advised him, and he seemed to have accepted the changes that occurred while he was away, with a more peaceful mindset.

Asir walked closely behind Lynch, progressing step by step up the stairs. "Next, the High Priest will pray, then the divine being will bless everyone, and finally the closing activity will mark the festival’s end."

His words weren’t very specific or detailed, and Lynch did not probe further. The two chatted about some other upcoming matters as they continued upwards.

"The goods we need to take back are already in the port. We can board the ship the day after tomorrow, and in about three to four days, we will return to the Federation..."

They took a week to arrive, mainly because they were originally traveling by cruise ship, which doesn’t travel directly from point to point. There are several ports where it stops briefly to exchange some mail, cargo, and passengers, so the speed is slower.

Lynch disliked their slow speed, so this time, he hired a cargo ship without any intermediate stops, and the fuel could be refilled in one go. If the sea conditions were favorable, it would take about three days to reach the easternmost port of Bail Federal from Nagariel.

Lynch nodded, while Asir continued to say, "Reporters from the Federation side have also been arranged, including heavyweight print media like the Federation Daily and Federal Times, as well as new media such as Federation Television Station, Eastern Television Station, and Northern United Television Station, which have accepted our invitation."

Lynch paused on the steps, pondered for a moment, "Give each of them a five hundred dollar check. We don’t ask them to promote us, but they must report truthfully."

This sentence is actually quite intriguing. It sounds like Lynch is ensuring his reports won’t be distorted by some people with hidden agendas. These people do exist, after all.

Lynch, as a rising star among the more radical crowd in the current tide of the Federation, will always have some people who take opposing stances against him, distorting reports, reporting inaccurately, which are the tactics commonly used by politicians.

Propaganda remains an essential battlefield. The public cannot, like Lynch or other politicians and tycoons, access the real face of society, the situation abroad. They obtain this crucial information through media channels, which are their only channels.

The closure of channels will make people treat what they know as the real facts, as they have no other options for comparison or questioning, turning them quite "naive".

Therefore, ensuring that reports are not modified or distorted is crucial. This is why many political groups, even individual politicians, have their own newspapers or even television stations—they must ensure their ideas reach the public without being altered.

But in fact, Lynch’s purpose is not about avoiding malicious distortions of his reports; it’s about letting news media report "truthfully".

News media have never been to Nagariel, at least not recently. They have no idea about the situation here, but someone does—Lynch.

What Lynch means by truthful reporting is actually letting these reporters not refer to other information, directly releasing the content he wants to express to the society, and that’s what he calls "truthful".

Asir nodded vigorously, looking at Lynch who was climbing the summit again with some admiration. The sunlight and the splendid Temple at this moment became part of Lynch’s backdrop, making him shine with brilliance.

He’s only twenty-one, yet he gave Asir an indescribable sense of awe.

Watching Lynch walk away, Asir only then regained his senses, chased a few steps to catch up.

Just like mentioned earlier, this is merely a blemish on Mother Earth’s face. The physically strong Lynch soon climbed to the front of the Temple.

There were already some people in the Temple, unexpectedly, they were all girls, standing on the sides of the streets during the parade demonstrating their dancing.

In the Temple, something made from special incense was burning, emitting a somewhat sweet scent, the girls’ faces showing slight abnormalities, kneeling uneasily in the courtyard, some looking like they were drunk.

Beside them were the girls’ parents, with broad smiles they couldn’t hide, bending over, heads lowered, lined up humbly to receive a wooden Divine Plate, contrasting sharply with the girls’ innocent bewilderment.

People always say life is precious, invaluable, because they live in affluent environments. Once they leave their comfort zones, they realize all their previous lamentations were useless.

Life is not only not noble, but very cheap, so cheap that it only takes a piece of broken wood to dictate these girls’ futures!

Wooden Divine Plates are the lowest-grade Divine Plates in the religious system of Nagariel, completely outclassed by the bone-inlaid gold-threaded Divine Plate on Lynch.

Nonetheless, eighty percent of the populace finds it difficult to obtain such a Divine Plate and enjoy the benefits brought by even the lowest Divine Authority, such as being able to enter the Temple for worship, and access some public facilities—it’s a joke that’s not a joke.

The construction of public facilities partly serves to impress foreigners and international human rights organizations, and partly to highlight class differences.

Only those with wooden Divine Plates can freely use these "public facilities".

They can also ride trains and purchase seats at relatively low prices, visit hospitals without the ordinary queue, and even their children can wear Divine Plates to read in the library!

This is enough to lure every family wanting to elevate their social status, and their only method is to offer their daughters.

These girls, after receiving favor from the divine (the divine would descend in some way on certain priests and guests attending activities, and they would become divine representatives for some time), would become Saintesses in the city—this is the most likely way for ordinary families to advance.

It may be cruel, may be harsh, but it has long become a folk custom, a twisted backward culture.