Chapter 494

Chapter 376: Derivation

In the southwest outskirts of Tivyán, north of Shield Hill, was Barret’s villa.

In the basement of the villa, Dorothy was controlling a zombie puppet to search Barret’s secret room. On the wall of the study, she discovered a rather ancient cloth painting.

To enhance her understanding of this world, Dorothy had read many mundane books in the Crown University library, including those on mundane history and art appreciation. Therefore, she recognized that the shield emblem on the cloth painting was a typical artifact from the feudal era of the Main Continent. Such emblems generally signified a family or a faction, and those feudal lords would have this emblem emblazoned on their shields, armor, and banners when fighting on the battlefield.

Dorothy had once gone through a book called “An Examination of the Noble Shields of Prit,” which discussed numerous family and organizational shields. However, she had never seen the shield emblem of the Four Knights depicted on this cloth painting.

“The Four Knights… Could this be the so-called Shadow Moon Four Knights from the statue of Arthur? Arthur is the Wind Knight, and there are three others?”

“bl**d Knight… Wind Knight… Dream Knight… Spirit Knight… This corresponds exactly to the four branches of the ‘Shadow’ Path, suggesting a similar structure to the Goddess of Abundance Church.”

Several kilometers away in the carriage, Dorothy was pondering the ancient cloth painting while using the zombie puppet’s viewpoint. She had seen similar scrolls in the An Yin Bureau’s evidence department; in Davik’s research materials, she had come across a parchment hanging painting that seemingly depicted the faith objects of the Goddess of Abundance.

“If the crescent moon behind the shield emblem is considered to represent the Mirror Moon Goddess, then the structure of Davik’s hanging painting and this shield painting is remarkably similar. Both feature a pure-color main deity and four mixed-color sub-deities. These four knights are likely the four mixed-color deities from the ‘Shadow’ Path, the mixed-color deities from the peak period of the Mirror Moon Goddess church.”

“The Wind Knight is undoubtedly Arthur, the great hero of Prit, now the bloodline source of the Prit royal family. It appears the Despenser family is descended from the gods. Their Storm Path also originated from Arthur. Based on the legends I’ve read, this Arthur has likely fallen now, and perhaps there is currently no one in the divine position of the Storm Path.”

“As for the Dream Knight and Spirit Knight… other than seeing that they are both female from the shield emblem, there is no other useful information. Unlike Arthur, the connections of the other three knights to the land of Prit seem rather shallow, so the intelligence I can gather is limited. I only know that the Dream Path of the Little Fox in my dreams may have some relation to the Dream Knight.”

“Finally, there’s that bl**d Knight… Strictly speaking, this should be the deity under the Mirror Moon Goddess associated with the bl**d Darkness Path, but its gender is male, meaning this bl**d Knight is likely not the same entity as the female Spider Queen. Currently, the deity of the bl**d Darkness Path should be the Spider Queen, so the bl**d Knight may have fallen as the previous deity of the bl**d Darkness Path. Of course, all of this may just be conjecture; the bl**d Darkness Path could easily change its form, and for a deity, even changing gender wouldn’t likely pose a challenge.”

Sitting in the carriage, wrapped in a blanket, Dorothy seriously analyzed the contents of the cloth painting. Finally, she shifted her focus to the labels from Barret on the painting. This labeling clearly indicated the source of the cloth painting, and within that brief note, there were numerous pieces of information.

“According to Barret’s label, this shield was drawn during the Wind King’s Rebellion, crafted by the so-called ‘Ancient Respect School,’ which was during the Prit Civil War over five hundred years ago. It was a flag used by one of the warring factions, a flag that does not exist in mundane historical records.”

“Based on the content of Barret’s earlier research titled ‘The Influence of the Radiant Church on Prit’s Traditional Culture,’ the conflict of the Wind King’s Rebellion was not simply about various parties vying for the throne as recorded in mundane history. Instead, it was a resistance by some local forces of Prit against the cultural and faith invasion of the Radiant Church. This so-called Ancient Respect School likely consisted of some nobles dissatisfied with the Radiant Church’s influence who banded together.”

“These Ancient Respect members might have followed ancient customs, essentially the traditional culture of Prit centered around the worship of the Mirror Moon Goddess and the legend of the Wind King Arthur. Therefore, they created this Four Knights shield as their symbol. In their era, the faith in the Mirror Moon Goddess must still have had some remnants, and they extracted elements from this residual culture they sought to protect, which ultimately led to the creation of this shield.”

“The era of the Wind King’s Rebellion is several hundred years separated from the time the Mirror Moon Goddess Church retreated from Prit. They may not fully grasp the meaning of this shield, but it was sufficient to unify people’s hearts. However, judging by the current outcome, this group of Ancient Respect does seem to have lost. Present-day Prit’s faith and culture have been profoundly influenced by the Radiant Church, and Arthur’s legend has been altered beyond recognition. Only in remote villages can one occasionally hear tales of the Lake Fairy.”

Looking at Barret’s note on the cloth painting, Dorothy mentally analyzed and suddenly recalled the messages etched on the wall in the ruins beneath the Crown University, which seemed to hint at the comments of clergy from the Mirror Moon Goddess Church.

“Prit erupted into the Wind King’s Rebellion in resistance to the faith and cultural invasion of the Radiant Church. Although the local nobles of Prit raised the banner of the Mirror Moon Goddess to resist the Radiant Church, these actions seemed to be spontaneous and bear little connection to the Mirror Moon Goddess Church itself.”

“In the messages from the ruins, the Mirror Moon Goddess Church voluntarily withdrew from Prit due to some ‘agreement’ and moved eastward. The church’s exit occurred long before the Wind King’s Rebellion, and there seemingly was no conflict at that time. I wonder what the content of this agreement is? And who was the agreement with? The Radiant Church?”

Recalling the messages found on the wall in the ruins under the school, Dorothy pondered this. Based on the current information, she could barely outline the general decline of the Mirror Moon Goddess faith in Prit.

The messages on the ruins under the school were in the Imperial Language, indicating that the departure of the Mirror Moon Goddess faith from Prit must have occurred around the time of the founding of the Radiant Calendar, at the beginning of the Fourth Era. At that time, the influence of the King of Time’s Third Empire was still quite strong. The timing of the Mirror Moon Goddess Church’s departure was not far removed from when the Radiant Church was introduced to Prit, suggesting that the agreement was likely with the Radiant Church. It was uncertain what kind of agreement the Radiant Church and the Mirror Moon Goddess Church came to, allowing the latter to abandon the entirety of Prit.

In the following long centuries, the Radiant Church began to propagate extensively in Prit, fervently eradicating the influence of the Mirror Moon Goddess Church. The image of the Mirror Moon Goddess transformed from a deity into a tale of the Lake Fairy in folk legends. Eventually, the Radiant Church even sought to deny the Mirror Moon Goddess any standing in those folk stories. Under further suppression, even the tales of the Lake Fairy were progressively altered and replaced by the three saints of the Radiant Church. This cultural extermination-like modification activity by the Radiant Church provoked resistance from the conservative forces within the Prit people. Led by some nobles and the royal family, they instigated the Wind King’s Rebellion, and the ultimate outcome was the rise of the current royal family supported by the Radiant Church, resulting in the present situation.

“In terms of the spread of faith, the Radiant Church is indeed incredibly domineering. This current Fourth Era can be described as an age dominated by the Radiant Church. Luckily, I do not have a large-scale evangelization need; otherwise, being targeted by the Holy War Knights would not be a pleasant experience.”