Chapter 155 — The Missionary

By the time Gao Yang arrived with Amber and Heidi, following a soldier's directions to a construction site near the brick kilns, the strange priest who had appeared out of nowhere in the territory had already been hard at work for some time.

He was a hulking, unkempt, travel-worn giant of a man, and he was hauling baskets of heavy bricks alongside the workers to the spot where a wall was going up. Though it was already the late part of Frostmoon and bitterly cold, he had sweated through his clothes just like the laborers, so much so that he had stripped off his threadbare priest's robe and tied it around his waist like a work apron, baring a powerful torso and bronze skin.

Those arms looked ready at any moment to drag a heretic down to hell with him.

The workers kept their heads down and labored alongside this man who had appeared from nowhere, but every so often they stole glances up at him, plainly having realized long ago that this was a peculiar stranger. The site supervisor (who doubled as record-keeper) stood nearby looking helpless, and when he spotted the lord's arrival he immediately trotted over: "My lord! Thank goodness you're here, this is really—"

"What's the situation with this man?" Gao Yang stared at the muscular fellow bent over hauling bricks, utterly baffled. "A priest of the Church of the Daystar? Dressed like that? Why would he suddenly turn up on my territory and start working?"

"We've no idea where he came from either!" The supervisor looked frazzled. "He just said he'd been sent south to preach, then asked the workers if any of them were interested in the Holy Light. Who knows where the man's from? Naturally nobody paid him any mind. I even told him everyone was busy and nobody had time to listen to him—and then the man just up and started hauling bricks without a word. We couldn't stop him. His strength is terrifying!"

"...With a build like that, of course his strength isn't small," Amber said, eyeing the giant in astonishment. When she'd first heard that a suspected priest of the Daystar sect had shown up here, she'd tensed up, ready to fight him for three hundred rounds (or take a beating) and then wring some medical compensation out of Gao Yang—but even her peculiar mind hadn't imagined that this was the sort of character who'd arrive. For a moment she couldn't quite process it. "Are you sure this isn't a paladin who grabbed the wrong clothes and walked out in a robe?"

The supervisor spread his hands. "I asked. He says he's a missionary who's been traveling from the central regions."

Gao Yang frowned and waved a hand at the soldiers who had come with him and at the supervisor before him. "Don't be nervous, all of you. I'll go and make contact."

With that, he led Amber and Heidi forward.

The working laborers soon noticed Gao Yang approaching, and one by one they stopped their tasks, tense and awed, preparing to bow—but Gao Yang stopped them with a look and a wave of his hand. "Don't mind me. Carry on with what you're doing."

At last the brawny giant also noticed the shift in atmosphere. He unloaded a basket of bricks from his shoulder, looked up at his surroundings, then turned his head toward Gao Yang. "The man in charge is here? Are you the one in charge?"

That manner of speaking... really wasn't like the priests one usually saw in the Church of the Daystar.

Gao Yang happened to be in plain clothes for once; though he carried the Pioneer's Sword, it was hidden by its scabbard. Apart from his towering height, an outsider would be hard-pressed to connect this big man, traveling with no decent guard in sight (Amber counted as an indecent one), with Duke Cecil. Realizing that the giant before him hadn't recognized his identity, Gao Yang played along. "That's right, I'm in charge of this area. What is it you do?"

"Wonderful, finally someone who actually has a say!" The big man looked delighted. He wiped his sweat casually, then rummaged for a long while in the robe tied at his waist before finally producing a crumpled document and handing it over. "Could you pass this to your lord for me? I stood on high ground looking around for ages and still couldn't find his castle."

Gao Yang took the document, casually found a brick stack nearby to sit on, and gestured for the other man to sit as well. Then he glanced down and saw that this document, written on fine parchment, contained only one crude sentence: Be it known that the loyal servant of the Lord, Light the Priest of the Holy Light, is hereby dispatched to the southern border to spread the teachings of the Lord and proclaim the way of the Holy Light.

Below it were the emblem of the Church of the Daystar and the seal of some bishop.

So he really was a missionary?

Gao Yang blinked, tucked the document away, and said, "Fine, I'll pass it along. But first I need to ask you a few questions."

"Sure—ah, wait a moment." The big man had nodded halfway when he suddenly stood up and stopped a serf who was just walking past him. "Hold on, there's something wrong with your arm."

The serf stopped, bewildered, and a flicker of nervousness crossed his face when he saw Gao Yang sitting right there—but the latter merely gave a slight nod to show it didn't matter. Gao Yang was curious himself what this inexplicable missionary intended to do.

Then he saw the missionary called "Light" place one hand on the serf's shoulder, trace the emblem of the God of Holy Light in the air with the other, and recite a blessing. As he prayed, a faint white glow surfaced on both his hands, and a calm, peaceful air filled the surrounding space. In that holy light, the bare-chested, unkempt giant actually seemed faintly sacred.

The healing was soon over. The missionary Light withdrew his hands and nodded to the serf. "There. Just an old ache—it won't flare up on rainy days anymore. May the Lord protect you."

The serf moved his shoulder incredulously. He had evidently felt a distinct relief, and unable to contain himself, he nodded his thanks to Light again and again with an excited expression, then returned to his post while still working his shoulder.

The missionary Light, meanwhile, clapped his hands as though he had done some trivial little thing and turned back to Gao Yang. "I'm done. Go ahead and ask."

Gao Yang had watched the whole process calmly, only mildly surprised at the very end that this "missionary" had said nothing more than "May the Lord protect you" instead of seizing the chance to hold the man there and lecture him on the way of the Holy Light for half an hour. Then he came back to himself and nodded at Light. "You've come here to preach?"

"The document says it all—the central diocese sent me," the man nodded. "It's signed by Bishop Megauer. I set out from the Plains of the Holy Spirit and walked all the way here. A little of the time was spent traveling; most of it was spent preaching. I went along stopping and starting, and it's been over a year now."

Then he added, "I only recently learned that the Cecil family had established a new settlement here. Originally my last stop was to be Tamsin Town, but now my last stop is here. I intend to settle down in this place for good, and if I can get permission from that Duke of Resurrection, to establish a church here."

Amber poked Gao Yang's arm and muttered under her breath, "Hey, hey, he's talking about you, you know~~"

Gao Yang flexed the muscle in his arm without batting an eye, so that Amber's finger, as though jabbing at a steel plate, was hurt and withdrawn. Then he frowned at Light. "So why did you suddenly come over to help with the work?"

"The supervisor just said it—everyone's working, so nobody has time to hear me preach," Light shrugged. "So if I help them finish the work quickly, then I can preach, right?"

"That's the only reason?"

Light looked as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Yes. That's the only reason."