“You can take a few bags of Gold Coins with you, these ‘Blue Shell Crabs’ might co in handy.”
Listening to Paddy’s introduction beside him, Xia Nan nodded slightly, his face showing little change in expression.
Coming from modern society, with ordinary and normal views, he certainly couldn’t stand the brutal behavior of these enforcers in Suo Yu Bay.
If he were the governor sent by the Kingdom to Suo Yu Bay, he might be able to take so action, but for now, he was just an ordinary adventurer who had just arrived, not even fully familiar with the roads here.
He himself was not the extrely fierce type who couldn’t tolerate the slightest injustice.
Unable to change the environnt with his own strength, he could only try to adapt.
Retracting his gaze from the patrol team disappearing at the end of the street, he glanced at Colin, whose expression seed a bit strange, standing beside him. Xia Nan didn’t say much, turning his attention to Paddy:
“Continue.”
…
After taking two more turns, they arrived at the end of Ropeway Street, which was a small square surrounded by dense buildings.
It was still crowded, but the area near the center of the square was noticeably quieter compared to the surrounding noise.
In the center of the crowd, several priests dressed in fitted blue robes stood on a makeshift wooden platform, distributing black bread and thin soup with floating vegetable leaves to the queued crowd.
The Holy Emblem hanging on their chests depicted a curling wave spreading out to the left and right.
——”Ambory”.
The [Deep Sea Queen], who holds divine authority over the “Ocean,” “Waves,” “Sea Breeze,” and “Currents.”
With just one look, Xia Nan discerned the identity of the deities these priests served.
He couldn’t help but feel a sense of subtlety.
Although on the Aifala Continent, there truly existed deities, any disrespectful acts towards them could potentially be detected by these great beings in the Divine Country, resulting in divine punishnt.
Causing the vast majority of people to refrain from provoking or offending religious sects and deities they did not favor.
But on the other hand, it was precisely because of the diverse personalities of the deities that many stories and anecdotes, true or false, have been passed down over countless years.
Conflicts arising from overlapping domains, tales of incarnation descending to the mortal world, or miracles following the devout prayers of priests like the Orange Garden Priest…
It must be admitted that the most intriguing to mortals are the complicated and court-like secrets between the great beings.
These deities, who stand above the mortal world in power and status, are not as aloof as described by their followers.
For faith, divine duty, or even just out of jealousy or disdain for others’ ways of acting, there exist many intrigues quite interesting to observe.
Strangely enough, these deity stories of exaggerated complexity, suspected by so to be fabrications by Pagans, are not banned from being circulated on the Aifala Continent.
Instead, they are concealed in a relatively obscure manner in places one can discover if they consider it worth searching for.
Perhaps on the last shelf of a bookstore, or in a few pages of waste paper tucked within battle skills for sale by weight in a Grocery Store…
When Xia Nan was catching up on divine knowledge in River Valley Town, he had flipped through a few miscellaneous books for relaxation to pep up his learning experience, thus gaining so understanding of certain deities’ personalities and “glorious” deeds.
As for the [Sea Goddess] “Ambory” worshiped by these priests before him…
It could only be said that, in human terms, she had another nickna:
——[The Shrewish Queen].
In so ways, it quite aptly matched her symbolic ocean characteristic of being “capricious.”
At the square, a lot of ragged vagabonds and impoverished commoners could be seen gathering, queuing up to receive food distributed by the priests.
But what was visible on their faces was not much piety but more fear and caution.
And the followers of the [Deep Sea Queen] did not have the benevolent expressions usually associated with priests.
Instead, they used the opportunity of handing out bread and soup to indoctrinate the commoners with their doctrine, preaching the greatness of the goddess and her worthiness of reverence.
“Servants of the Sea Goddess.” Beside him, Paddy tily introduced the present priests to Xia Nan, “But these bread and hot soup are not for free.”
“You eat their food, and naturally, you owe them a debt, so when sothing happens at the dock and the Church cos out to ‘diate’…”
Given the divine nature, this not-so-successful small businessman dared not speak too clearly, his words a bit ambiguous.
But Xia Nan already understood what the other wanted to express.
“In Suo Yu Bay, you can disbelieve in gods, but you must never ignore the Church.”
“Oh, of course, Suo Yu Bay is so big, it can’t possibly be under the sole control of the goddess Ambory,” Paddy added.
“In the Cormorant District, White Cliff District, and other streets in the Saltwater District, there are churches of various sizes, such as the [Wealth Goddess] Wujin, the [Storm Lord] Taros…”
“If Mr. Xia Nan is interested in this aspect, I can take you around in the next few days.”
Upon hearing this, Xia Nan, after a little contemplation, politely declined the offer.
Since crossing over until now, although not very powerful, he had already been involved with many religious sects.
While there were so intriguing followers like the Half orc Alton, who brought him a [Destiny Coin], the experiences in Kalanfor and Sheep Horn Town existed as well.
Unless necessary, he wished to avoid getting unnecessarily entangled with these superstitious people.
…
Continuing forward, they had not left the square for long when a building standing out conspicuously amongst the surrounding ones ca into view.
It was a massive stone and wood shop five stories high, its walls coated with special red-brown tar for moisture-proofing and insect prevention. The door fras and window edges were painted with striking gold patterns, and the spacious display windows were polished to a shine.
Standing at the door were two hulking attendants wearing clean short clothes, arms crossed, scimitars hanging from their waists, eyes alert.
The goods inside were naturally not fragnted and bizarre as in Paddy’s “Salmon Roe” Grocery Store but rather heaps of bright and smooth high-end fabrics, exquisite porcelain, short knives inlaid with gemstones…
The heavy oak sign at the entrance was carved with a Gold Coin lifted by ocean currents.
“The Gulf Chamber of Comrce, the largest comrcial organization in Suo Yu Bay, with influence distributed across three districts.”
Paddy gazed at the dazzling interior of the store, envy almost overflowing from his face’s surface.
“They purchase every copper coin and every gemstone salvaged from the sea; they lend money to adventurers and rchants outside the organization.”
“See those biggest ships at the dock? Six out of ten masts have the Chamber’s flag.”
“In the Gulf, you can offend an official or skip going to church, but if you fall onto the blacklist of the Gulf Chamber… you’ll find even buying a ticket to leave by sea becos an uphill task.”
Xia Nan’s face revealed a thoughtful expression.
From the look of it, this so-called “Gulf Chamber of Comrce” should be a comrcial alliance akin to the “Golden Wheat Comrce” which Horak belonged to, but with a distinguished division of territory.
No wonder Paddy seed so envious, the greatest goal for small traders like him in Suo Yu Bay might be to beco a mber of this Chamber one day.
“But in the Saltwater District, are there really people who can afford the stuff in the store?”
Faced with Xia Nan’s query, Paddy rely chuckled softly.
“Though the Saltwater District might lag behind the Cormorant District and White Cliff District above, it’s not a slum, being close to the port and docks, there’s no shortage of wealthy passersby.”
“Moreover…”
At this point, the slender middle-aged man’s gaze couldn’t help but drift from the store back to Xia Nan beside him.
“An adventurer like you, especially when a task has just been completed, wouldn’t be stingy with your Gold Coins.”
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