The Emperor’s Angel of Death

#2223 - The righteous will be established on earth

"Mom, we're home now."

Hayes said softly, then turned around to carry her on his back. Mrs. Lass obediently leaned on his back and began to mutter about the things that had happened during the days after "he" left.

Hayes steadily retraced his steps, noticing along the way that the metal stick the scavenger was using had an eagle emblem at the top. He hadn't paid close attention before, and because the emblem was so rough and ugly, he had assumed it was just a piece of scrap metal. Generally, those who carry a staff with an eagle emblem have only one identity.

"I forgot to ask, what's your name?"

"Just call me Campanile."

"Do you live here too?"

The scavenger, burdened with a heavy pack, panted as he tried to answer Hayes's question.

"Ah, yes, I came to this place ten years ago, huff, and I've been here ever since."

Hayes looked at the man's neck, where he could vaguely see a pendant, but couldn't make out what it was.

"You must be very devout."

"Ah? Ha, yes, because I am a priest. By the way, you're here to deliver Peak's belongings, right? Would you mind coming back to the church with me? I'd like to perform one last requiem mass for his soul."

Hayes was very surprised when the man revealed himself to be a priest, as it was so different from the image he had of the Ecclesiarchy's clerics.

"Ah, of course."

"Then this way."

The four of them followed Campanile down a side road. As they passed through several small scavenger settlements, Hayes saw many people greeting Campanile.

Clearly, he was well-loved by the residents who had been abandoned in this desolate place.

Before long, Hayes saw a building standing in the ruins. It could hardly be called a church, although it tried hard to create a church-like atmosphere. But the spire propped up by tattered canvas, and the walls pieced together with scrap metal and stone slabs, made it not fundamentally different from the surrounding debris. As he approached, Hayes could even see inside through fist-sized cracks in the walls, and the church door, half wood and half scrap metal, also seemed to have been cobbled together.

Beside the door hung a copper bell, or rather, half of one, as a significant portion of it was missing.

Pushing open the creaking door, Campanile put down the garbage bag on his back. Only then did Hayes realize that the man was actually taller than him when he stood up straight, but years of labor had inevitably caused the priest's spine to curve.

Looking around, the church's main hall only contained dilapidated benches and chairs. At the end was the pulpit, also piled up with scrap wood. The candlesticks were old black iron, and like everything else in the Undercity, it was incomparably miserable compared to the magnificent church in Lakefront Town.

Behind the pulpit, there should normally be an image of the Emperor, and here it was the same. But he had to say, although it was a bit impious, Hayes thought it was really a bit ridiculous.

The head and body of this Emperor's image clearly came from two different statues, obviously a bit top-heavy, like a bobblehead. Moreover, there were obvious defects in the body, which could only be filled with various scraps. In addition, according to veteran handlers, this statue should have been holding a sword, but the sword was nowhere to be found, so it could only be replaced with a metal crossbeam.

The resulting statue, rather than the Emperor, looked more like a beggar, a scavenger, without majesty or holiness, but for some reason, in Hayes's eyes, it was more like a "person" than those gilded statues adorned with gold and jewelry.

"Sorry, just a moment. After all, it's a sacred matter, I need to clean up a bit first."

As Campanile turned and walked towards the back room, Hayes also placed Mrs. Lass on a chair, glancing at her scarred feet. He tore open his windproof scarf and wrapped it around her feet.

Before long, Campanile came out. He had changed into a simple gray clerical robe. In fact, it was a bit of an overstatement to describe this faded piece of cloth as "simple", but it was much better than what he had been wearing before. At the same time, he had wiped away the dirt from his face and hands, revealing a face full of wind and frost and wrinkles, but not actually old. And his hands were rough and large, his knuckles swollen, and full of calluses. Hayes knew that these were the hands of someone who did hard labor.

He had never imagined that such hands would appear on a priest of the Ecclesiarchy.

And then he noticed that after removing the burden and the tattered robe, the priest had a noticeable limp. His left leg was not quite right.

After Campanile came out, he also brought clean water for Hayes and the others. But Hayes did not drink it, instead using the water to dampen the remaining scarf and wipe the dirt off Mrs. Lass's face and hands.

His two wives also opened the meal box that Campanile had prepared for Mrs. Lass, and found that although it contained very low-grade and cheap synthetic protein starch and a tiny bit of unknown animal meat, it could already be considered rich in this Undercity. So the two of them took spoons and carefully fed Mrs. Lass little by little with water.

As the priest began to use matches to light the almost burnt-out candles on the candlesticks, Hayes walked up to him.

"Priest Campanile, why did you come here?"

Campanile just smiled and said as he lit the candles:

"Why not come?"

"Uh, I mean"

"I understand what you mean. In this place that has been abandoned by everyone, it seems that no one 'with status' should appear again. But what about the people here? Everyone has a reason to abandon this place, to abandon these desperate people, but we alone cannot. We are hope, we are redemption. No one should be abandoned by the God-Emperor."

Saying that, the priest straightened his back and looked at Hayes.

"That's the first lesson I learned in seminary."

"Seminary"

Hayes didn't know much about the Ecclesiarchy, but judging by the name, he thought it was a very noble place.

Then, the priest twisted his left leg and walked to the other side, taking out a half-burned incense stick from a small box. It could be seen that he was usually a very frugal person.

"In the eyes of my teachers, I was always a rebellious student, but my grades were always good. If nothing unexpected happened, after graduation I might have been able to start as an acolyte in a magnificent cathedral in the Mid-Hive or Upper-Hive, which receive countless donations every year, performing the same daily tasks, eating grain bread sent from distant worlds, drinking pure water, tasting rose sugar, and occasionally drinking a little wine during festivals, looking forward to some old geezer above me suddenly dying and then taking his place. Wouldn't that kind of life be very comfortable?"

After thinking for a while, Hayes silently nodded.