Chapter 75: Thy Priest, Thy Scapegoat

She wore a white robe that reaches up to the floor. She sat in a chair, looking at the grained glass near the ceiling. The walls were clean and spotless. There is light coming from the grained circular glass and it made the walls around the room glistened.

One could tell that spring was here. She thought of her former home. Are they okay? Are they doing fine? Are there travels going well? Are they able to defend themselves? Such were circling her head. She worried about her death first when she came into this place. It was days ago when she was brought by a steeled armor knight. The knight was kinder than she thought. He was courteous and despite being a knight he made no effort to hide that he was a former levy. She thought of him nicely for he didn’t spite her. That steeled armor knight already left, he left his armor behind since it was lent to him. He was after all a poor knight, and she remembered him walking away with just his leather jerkin and his trusty sword and that tall steed of his

Then a priest walked up inside the room. She saw the priest’s bold stride that seems to be filled with confidence. He wore a black robe that has the sun’s crown embedded on his chest. He had a bowl cut, he was clean shaven and there was a perpetual smile on his face. That smile would have fooled her if it wasn’t for the fact that she was taken here by force.

The chamber was round. The black-clad priest walked around the room first before standing in the middle. He looked flatly at her before starting his speech.

“How’s your day here blue-hair? It is it fine? Is there any discrimination? No? Then’ that is good, for the God of Light will punish those who begot evil. For you have the blood of a vile, therefore there is no evil that can save you. Yes, normally a tainted blood would be purge rightly, yet the God of Light smiled upon you the moment that you entered the covenant of the Sun’s Crown.”

“That means there is salvation for you. The High Priest has looked upon your soul; they say that that you are good, you protected and serve without being higher or lesser than them. The family you love, they love you back while keeping facades of evil. Yet you cared, yet you loved them. The High Priest was so touched, The High Priest has let you live for a purpose. What purpose may you ask? One cannot tell but it is your blood that will keep the spirit that is humanity alive!”

“Your blood, yes your blood will be the foundation of all that is good. You have chosen humanity despite having the blood of the long-ears, you possess their long-ears and their mystical hair. You do not possess their glow tint, and thus you casted it for humanity. You dreamt of glory, you dreamt of humanity!”

He roared. She looked at him aloofly.

“Thus you have chosen to be part of humanity. Vile blood, the elves are blessed by Gaia and the mother tree, us humans once tried to cooperate with them yet their arrogance made them unable to hold their tongue to spit us! Those vile, oh God of Light forgive me for speaking, those ruthless elves are darn no good! They spite humanity’s dream, they spite peace for they are arrogant. One of them said “Humanity will never get along with us! They are evil, the destructor of the earth. While humanity wounds and scars the soil, the earth gives!” lies! We are merely sowing the fruits, we are planting them, growing them, but the fact that they have no knowledge of farming, and how they spite us for not being so blessed is evil itself!”

“How dare they tell us not to cultivate the ground? Do they want the poor to starve? Do they not understand irrigation? Do they not understand the basic concept of advancing? We know that they live in those hollowed trees with food growing on them! They are loved by the earth, spoiled and arrogant! While the God of Light that shines upon us, that makes us sweat under his light made us work and cultivate using our bare hands! They never work for their life and the only thing they have learned is to live and suckling on the mother earth! They say us are destroyers, but we merely thrive to survive! They get through their forest, yet they do not think of the day when their forest stops existing!”

“I shudder, and every diplomat that came with to their kingdoms got spite! Now after all the years, that overlord who has taken their support now invades us, treating us like rats for the constant goal to strive harder! We cultivate and shape the land while they barely care for it. Are we not given life by the Gods above for such purpose? Why are we here in their hand created lands if we do not play with it? True the Gods made a wonderful world, and they see us like children! But indeed, they also see the cruelties, and they embrace us back or damn us to an eternity of void. We are merely doing what they created us, and now those who live in the north are spitting us, treating us like we destroy the world when they are the worst of us all! They are arrogant, spiteful, and even words and reasons could not enter their heads. The elves are one thing, blue-haired child, but those humanoids, those nonhumans are now cooperating to destroy us for we are many! They have the power of many beasts and species at their side yet here we are still standing against them bravely and gloriously like the suns above us! They attack for years, yet they haven’t won and passed the middle lines of the continent!”

He spoke loudly. His voice echoed around the chamber. It was fanatical and full of zealousness. She kept silent.

“They bully us for we thrive, they hate us and yet they call us evil. Indeed, to the eyes of God, there is good or evil. We are pawns and sons for the good lords above us. The God of Light that guides humanity and what it believes is looking after us. We are surrounded by an evil that wanted to quell us. You have half the blood of humanity, but you throw away your ‘vile’ blood. You know that humanity is good. We might not agree, we might spite, we might hate, and we might kill. But overall we are human in every sense. Maybe we do not understand the elves, we do understand the other nonhumans but it is their fault that they refuse us, they spite us, they judge us first! So tell me who is the evilest of them all?”

She didn’t answer.

“No words? I understand that you have the blood of the vile. The half blood circulates your veins and it will continue to do so until your death. The elves are a beautiful race; even we humans could say that truthfully. We adored them naively first, thinking that such beautiful slim people could understand us. We thought that greatly and now we are enemies to them. Have you heard? The first diplomat we sent to the elves was a young but eager young man. That man was good in all sense, strong too. He believes in peace, in a world where people of different races could cooperate with each other. He held that belief with a strong sense that the man could barely sleep at the thought of visiting the beautiful lands in the north. He went there, and there he was greeted kindly, and then it happened. He saw the contempt, the arrogance, and the accusations of the non-humans. He visited every tribe there is in the north and the more he visited them, the more he got disillusioned. The dream of his shattered, his beliefs almost crumbled. He went back as a depressed man.”

“Yet one day, when the overlord of the North declared war upon us. The man who was the first diplomat was the first to march his army into the front lines. He dreamt of cooperating with the others, was also the first one to slaughter them in the name of humanity. He reasoned: “They are not human,” he said. Do you understand why he said that?”

She shook her head curtly.

“They are not human. That was all to it. They are of different race. They are of different God. It was easy, like how we humans could tell the difference between a dog and a human. They only see as merely for what they see us. We are to them, a race of destroyers and they, the nonhumans and especially the elves think of us evil. The dwarves, the Orc’s, and the other nonhuman and demi-human species looked down upon us. Only through having one God, and being coaxed by the overlord that they ganged up on us. We have fought them for years, many died and yet we still stand to their vile bias of oppression. You blue-hair should know that we humans do not like those who slaughter and murder us. You choose humanity, therefore you are human. You have vile blood, but we are merciful, the God of Light has watched over us and told us that you are of use. That blood of yours, that long horrid ears of yours.”

“It can be used. Blue-hair, what do you think of the war? Isn't bad it? I understand. Many died in that front-lines for years and even the amount of death can only be lessened with the presence of Knights and Paladins. Heroes are born there, and many soldiers are feed there. Yet, who feeds these soldiers, paladins, and knights, blue hair?”

“Yes, the Farmers, Peasant and the common-born folks. It is a well known that armies could never march with an empty stomach. To deliver the food there, there is cost and every year we take grain and cattle from them to feed those poor sods in the front-lines. Those poor men fight for them, and the poor farmers and peasants callous their hands to feed them. It is a cycle, and let me ask you blue-hair. How do we keep the cycle?”

She thought for a second before answering.

“Indeed, those are valid points. Without them, they wouldn’t be farming in the first place. Without them protecting then those monsters in the north will surely invade us. Those brutal orcs will keep maidens as playthings and the elves will surely work the humans to death in order to repair the earth that is sullied. Indeed, fear is mostly the one thing that keeps them. But as you can see blue-hair, there are talks of that the battles in the front-lines are merely talks of the nobles and the rich to keep them poor. Blue-hair, do you know that the Sun’s Crown and the Religion of the God of Light is the one thing that keeps them from revolting? True that the faith that they believe in us, thinking that it is the will of God. Indeed, it is the will of the God of Light to keep its people safe. But blue-hair, do you know how many little birds and whisperers of the kingdom are there now planning yet another peasant revolt?”

“Well you wouldn’t know, but the winter was especially harsh. The crow lands didn’t yield any crops and even the winter turnips and radishes failed to bloom. In this year there were about forty-seven plans to have a revolt against the kingdom. Every time we quelled the revolt. There are factions now that are trying to make a successful revolt. If they succeed, do you know what will happen to the front-lines? Do you know what will happen to those brave warriors who would have nothing to eat?”

“Yes, they will starve. With weak stomachs, they won’t be able to defend the front-lines and we will suffer. It almost happens years ago and now we are on the brink of it again. Those poor naïve farmers don’t know what they are asking. They know the danger yet they will revolt. We keep them at bay through faith and fanaticism. But with how those fools in the background are, those evil telling them lies is now telling them to go and revolt. We are in danger.”

“How do we solve this blue hair?”

He asks. She didn’t reply. She touches the sleeves of her white robe.

“We need evil. We need something that would allow them to believe in the fear that is the evil beyond the walls. Now blue-hair, imagine if someone with long-ears started slaughtering with her band of black knights? This long-eared Witch will bring down evil upon those who are evil. Think of it as a lesser evil, the long-eared Witch will kill them while they believe that they are righteous. It would be simple to say that when they are telling themselves that they need to revolt against the injustice of the kingdom. A long-eared blue-haired Witch will appear to kill them. This blue-haired devil will kill them and do you know what will happen once they realize that the lies they were given were wrong?”

She shakes her head.

“They will be disillusioned. They will realize the foolishness of theirs. And they will simply and naturally believe the trust that warns them. That is the Church of the God of Light, the Sun’s Crown that did not lie to them. So tell me blue-hair, do you know what your role will be and why are you keep alive despite that vile blood of yours?”

“I do.”

She spoke.

“Then rejoice. For you will be the savior. Your life will not be forfeited. Only through the lesser evil that many will be saved, and what is the best way to make use of that evil blood other than that?”

The Priest said impassively. His tone was cold and flat and mechanical. She knew what they are keeping her alive for. And knowing all of this, she can only do so.