CHAPTER 129: CHAPTER 45 DUST IN THE BEAM

The light inside the room was dim, for all the doors and windows had been shut.

Moreover, Trinidad was after all just a knight, and his mansion was not particularly large. With several hundred people crowding in, it quickly became so packed that not a drop of water could trickle through.

Adelle’s gaze met nothing but silhouettes, she was short and stood at the very back. Even on tiptoes, she could only see the backs of the people in front of her.

But soon a sturdy lizard person noticed her predicament and took the initiative to stoop down, signalling the female priest to climb up.

The female priest gestured no repeatedly, however, the lizard person did not give her the opportunity to refuse. Seeing her reluctance to come forward, he simply picked her up and placed her onto his shoulders.

Adelle let out a cry of surprise and then found that her view had suddenly become much clearer.

It was then she noticed that although the lizard people looked disorderly, they were actually standing quite orderly. In front, there were relatively shorter women and children, and the taller ones had voluntarily stayed in the back.

She had just arrived too late, otherwise, she might have been pushed to the front by the lizard people as well.

At the very front of the crowd was a stone wall with a white cloth hanging on it.

The female priest looked on with confusion, wondering if that was all there was. The Double Rest Sect’s meeting place seemed rather shabbily decorated.

There was no altar, no intricate statues of gods, no fresh flowers or beautiful glass ornaments, and not even the white cloth bore the emblem of the Church.

And with so many people crammed into such a small space, even breathing became somewhat stuffy.

Adelle was already regretting her decision to come here. She was contemplating how to leave politely when suddenly a soul-stirring and rousing piece of music began to fill her ears.

The female priest’s eyes swiftly scanned the crowd, but she could not find where the music was coming from.

A baffled expression spread across Adelle’s face.

At that moment, a broad and corpulent lizard person suddenly began to sing.

And this time he used the Universal Language of the Bratis Continent, so Adelle could understand his lyrics.

He sang,

Oh, friends! Are you still gasping under heavy labor? / Join us, join us in the sea of happiness and joy! / Saturday!

The lizard people sang together.

Saturday!!!

The corpulent lizard person continued to sing.

Saturday is generous and kind / Its brilliant light shines upon the earth! / Our hearts full of passion / We come to your temple / Your power unites people / Eliminating all discord! / Beneath your glow / The whole world becomes brothers!

Chorus: Your power unites people / Eliminating all discord! / Beneath your glow / The whole world becomes brothers!

Soprano and tenor quartet:

It comes from the distant Divine Country! / Spanning thousands of miles / Sowing the seeds of civilization and happiness! / Those who believe in it / Shall live wonderful days! / Those who don’t / Can only weep in the winter days!

Chorus: Those who believe in it / Shall live wonderful days! / Those who don’t / Can only weep in the winter days!

......

This hymn to Saturday was adapted by Li Yu from the "Ode to Joy".

The original comes from the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Beethoven had always greatly admired Schiller, and when he was young, he had wanted to set Schiller’s "Ode to Joy" to music. His Ninth Symphony was brewed over twenty years, experiencing the splendor and disillusionment of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era.

The original composition itself was meant to convey the ideal of building a free and joyful new world, perfectly aligning with the teachings of the Double Rest Sect, so it could be used directly with only slight modifications.

Moreover, the Ninth Symphony was the crowning masterpiece of Beethoven, a giant in the world of music, and its artistry was beyond question.

Adelle, coming from a noble background, had also been influenced by a certain level of artistic cultivation, so she was able to appreciate the extraordinary nature of this music more than the lizard people.

By comparison, the Silver Moon Church had many hymns praising Pisya, and in fact, every year the Church invested a significant amount of money to those outstanding minstrels, demanding they sing the goddess’s glorious deeds far and wide.

Yet even if all those praises written by the minstrels were added together, they couldn’t compare to what she was hearing now.

Especially when the lizard people sang in chorus, the high-spirited and powerful morale nearly lifted the roof, and even Adelle, an outsider, could feel the power contained within.

And the grand and stirring movement was clearly played by more than one type of instrument, but the female priest, craning her neck, couldn’t find those instruments and their players.

How strange, could it be that these sounds were truly coming from the Divine Country?

At this thought, Adelle’s body shuddered again.

With the piece concluded, Hera followed Li Yu’s instructions and activated the projector in front of her.

A beam of white light struck the screen.

In that beam of light, drifting dust could be seen.

The female priest, not yet fully recovered from the shock of the symphony chorus, was startled once again.

Is this... light?

Speaking of which, she had also heard some rumors before, saying that Prophet Merlin could manipulate thunder and light.

But the Adelle of the past didn’t believe much in these rumors. How could a mortal possess the power of a god?

However, what was happening right before her eyes was once again shattering her understanding.

What was even more unbelievable to her came moments later, when the upper body of a man dressed in black appeared on the white screen.

The female priest let out a sharp scream! She hurriedly covered her eyes with her hands.

Too horrifying! In Adelle’s view, if a person only had half a body left, they were certainly dead, let alone the fact that the man’s body was hanging on a wall.

Everyone said that the lizard people were fierce and bloodthirsty, and it seems they were right.

No matter how warm and hospitable these people seemed, there was always a violent streak hidden within them.

However, the female priest then felt a hand gently patting her back, as if to comfort her.

Adelle cautiously peeked out through the gaps between her fingers, noting that many lizard people nearby were looking in this direction, searching for the source of the scream.

When they saw the female priest, many of them couldn’t help but let out a spontaneous chuckle.

The female priest could tell that there was no malice in their laughter, they simply found it amusing, and some pointed toward the direction of the white cloth again.

Gathering her courage, the female priest took another glance there and saw that the half-figure was actually alive, and rather than showing any signs of pain on his face, he was talking at length.

He spoke a sentence, and beside him, a lizard person who also had only half a body translated, but Adelle couldn’t understand what they were saying. However, she could already roughly guess who the figure in the black clothes was.

— Prophet Merlin, he was preaching using that white cloth.