Chapter 356: Secret Letter

To the respected brothers of the Order and the Grand Master of the Knights, greetings and prayers are offered...

【Roughly underlined】

To my friend, the one who claims to be devout:

I am glad to hear you have arrived at the place entrusted by the Heavenly Father. Once, we marched to the battlefield together; now, we tread slightly different paths, separated in different places, with letters traveling with difficulty. The joys and sorrows, partings and reunions of the mortal world inevitably evoke countless sighs.

Though our philosophies differ, as Saint Simon said, "Not every temple builder lays the same foundation, yet no matter where the stones come from, the pillars ultimately jointly support the Heavenly Father's dwelling on earth."

Now that you occupy this position, you inevitably bear the corresponding responsibilities. I hope that while you are immersed in your medical career, you do not forget to sweep the altar and the holy symbol.

Ordinary people cannot distinguish between faith and the symbols of faith. If the leader does not pray, the masses will think the gods have departed and begin to fear. When the gospel no longer echoes before the monastery hall, the assistance brought by faith will instead become the heaviest burden.

You walk past the altar without making the holy sign, and your words speak of mechanisms rather than the Holy Spirit. This is no small matter.

An order that has lost its soul, a monastery no longer favored by the faithful—what difference is there from a castle occupied by a band of mercenaries?

I write these words not to demand your sincere conversion to the Lord—that is a private matter between you and the Supreme Will—but the impact of your every move will be amplified by your status and ultimately feedback to yourself, like an echo in an empty valley following your shadow.

No fool can obtain a professorship; naturally, you should know how to choose. If operated properly, the conveniences brought by your status will far exceed imagination; I believe you have already experienced this.

Brother Lei Mengde is a reliable assistant; you should listen to his opinions more often.

That is all regarding official matters; too much preaching becomes tiresome. I placed it at the beginning of the letter specifically so you would not skip it after reading what you wanted, wasting ink in vain.

Beyond faith, there is the matter you mentioned in your letter.

Although it was troublesome and the process was tortuous, with the help and guidance of a helpful professional, I accessed some disjointed data.

Recently, due to a job transfer, I managed to organize the materials I had delayed for many days amidst my busyness; I hope it is not too late.

Following custom, we consulted the parish archives kept in Dunling. Thanks to this job transfer, otherwise borrowing these items beyond our authority would have required considerable effort.

I must admit, even from the perspective of a non-clerical staff member, the preservation of documents related to the Priory of Prier and even the entire northern mountainous diocese of Westmin is quite poor.

The sources of the documents are complex and fragmented, appearing unorganized; no single record can fully display their past for us.

Especially after hearing that this impoverished diocese once produced outstanding figures in scriptural studies and skilled in textual research, it is hard not to feel a sense of dissonance regarding its impression.

And this sense of dissonance became even more severe after a deeper investigation.

Some documents submitted to Dunling have pages of different ages and materials, suggesting large portions were rewritten. Due to the seal and personal signature of the monastery abbot at the time, no doubts were raised.

However, on the volumes submitted by individuals from local churches on behalf of the monastery, there are many traces of scraping and modification. If only one or two books were like this, one could explain it as carelessness by the original owner, but looking at them together, the proportion is somewhat high.

You know, after those experiences, people are naturally wary of vague pasts. Precisely because of this, we compared the documents more carefully and found the gaps far exceeded expectations.

Even records of important diocesan decisions and high-level personnel appointments contain gaps. By the time the monastery was abandoned over twenty years ago, there was no trace; personnel, including the abbot, neither returned to Dunling to report nor were transferred to other posts.

It can be confirmed that Dunling never issued orders for them to leave or expressed any hints of similar meaning.

There is reason to suspect someone deliberately erased the records; the purpose is imaginable.

If I must offer a suggestion, I think we should start investigating this group. Such a number of people could not have vanished into thin air without a trace, evading all eyes and ears along the way; they might even have used their status to stay at churches along the route or request other conveniences.

Twenty-plus years is indeed a long time, but you might as well try. After all, wherever they are, they will be as conspicuous as a brown bear foraging in the snow.

Regarding the monastery, this is all I could find. However, besides that, there are some contents attached whose relevance is uncertain.

This is all thanks to the "professional" I found, a monk specializing in heraldry.

During the investigation, he enriched his own research along the way, which is one of the rewards I promised. Of course, he also fulfilled his promise and shared all his conjectures.

None of us are experts in this field, so we will only outline the conclusions roughly here.

In short, after attempting to clarify the heraldic relationships among the various families in the diocese, one finds that the evolution of their patterns is quite slow, highly conservative, and monotonous.

This is usually caused by geographical isolation; difficult transportation makes long-distance travel quite hard, so intermarriage generally occurs within a small range. The situation of many mountains and little land makes arable land very limited, and families are unwilling to divide their territories among younger sons.

Therefore, combinations and extended variants of heraldry are extremely rare, often maintained among a few nearby, closely connected families.

Logically, this should also lead to extremely strong local characteristics in heraldic styles, with huge differences between different areas divided by terrain.

However, the actual situation is exactly the opposite. There are many common elements in the family crests of different regions; even areas separated by great distances that have never intermarried share similar characteristics, including a color scheme dominated by gold and red, family mottos from the same source, undivided or simply divided compositions, and some similar patterns.

This phenomenon obviously cannot be attributed to accidental coincidence or stylistic imitation. From a historian's perspective, they would regard it as important evidence: suggesting that a powerful family once existed there, possessing branches and collateral lines scattered everywhere and numerous vassals continuing their patterns.

According to the professional, this is a huge discovery that can support his pursuit of a higher degree; he had never heard of a fallen great family existing here before.

While he was still flipping through more and deeper materials, striving for his degree, I took up my pen to write this letter, wishing it arrives in your hands in time to offer warning or inspiration.

As for the specific meaning of these messages, only you can think and decide.

At the Cathedral of the Holy Mother, at the waning of the year's end.

Second Inquisitor Priest Green sends you greetings.

"Just this? Green wouldn't have just grabbed some poor soul to check documents to deal with me, would he?" Kraft finished reading the content, lit the letter, and let go just before the flames curled onto his fingers, letting the ashes be swept away by the night wind from the window.

"It's better to see what Kup brought back as local specialties."

?? The author was attacked by a strange virus; the update is delayed.

? (*/ω＼*)

? ps: By the way, recommending a book by a group member: "Hidden Transcendence Begins from the Void Spirit Realm"

? (End of this chapter)