Glorious Cathedral, prayer room.
Inside a stained glass connecting dome, Margaret knelt barefoot in a white dress, held her hands together and murmured a prayer.
The girl’s body was pressed very low, with her white hair wound to the ground, like a small flower placed on the altar, pitiful and innocent.
Footsteps echoed behind her, and someone placed their hand on top of her head.
“Death, raise your head.”
Margaret raised her head obediently, her light gray pupils carrying a confused look as a lost lamb.
The first thing that would catch the eye was the huge crystal sculpture symbolizing the Crystal Nest standing deep in the prayer room. The sculpture itself was transparent and shining with colorful lights under the four stained windows, which was both evil and divine in nature.
Margaret turned her gaze behind her, and a figure took over the position of the Crystal Nest statue.
A man in long white clothes stood behind her at some point, looking down at the girl gently. “You have done well.”
Margaret raised her jade-like flawless forearm, tugged at the man’s hem and whispered, “Death has worked hard, but is still a bit nervous.”
At this moment, she was no longer the elegant and holy bishop who preached, but a girl who stumbled even when speaking.
“You will soon bring real death to many people.”
The archbishop said softly, “Please tell me, are you afraid?”
Margaret——Death shook her head quickly and slightly. “With His Excellency the Archbishop by Death’s side, Death is not afraid.”
The archbishop smiled and rubbed Death’s long white hair as if teasing a small animal.
“Then pray, good girl.”
He lowered his body, knelt down side by side beside Death, held his hands together towards the statue of the Crystal Nest, and closed his eyes piously.
The archbishop’s tone was peaceful, “…until the sun rises.”
There was a faint sound of people outside the prayer room of the church, it was the influx of residents of the star city making trouble.
In the spacious prayer room, there were only two people under the stained glass on all sides. Death looked at the archbishop, then closed her eyes as well with both hands held together.
****
Outside the Glorious Cathedral.
The flow of people was constantly squeezing inside the church, and ordinary patrol officers were no longer sufficient to cope with the current situation. Nearly a hundred Golden Sun Wheel soldiers gathered on the street outside the church, equipped with tranquilizer guns and other weapons around their waists.
There were also vehicles and air vehicles gathered at the same time. The hard snow on the roadside reflected the flashing lights, and low voices of conversations rose from all directions.
Lieutenant General Luther, who came over and finished listening to the report, asked with a calm face, “A few days ago, while searching for the real crystal ores, was the inside of the church also searched?”
A Golden Sun Wheel soldier saluted. “Reporting to Lieutenant General, it has been searched. The church is a key investigation location and has been searched several times.”
Due to the unique and dangerous nature of the real crystal ore, the Empire had always prohibited private possession of it. Only the Crystal Religion, this exception that was not an exception.
This religion had a long history, and Crystal Particles have been worshiped as a religious belief since two or three hundred years ago. The Crystal Nest was the embodiment of god in their mind in this world, and the real crystal ore was a god-like thing.
For this reason, the Empire allowed the Crystal Religion churches to possess a limited amount of low-purity real crystal ores, but this must be rigorously screened to ensure that its purity was low enough to not cause harm.
“Hm.” Lieutenant General Luther nodded and turned his gaze once again towards the church entrance.
The old general let out a dull sigh again, then said, “As it may, the people must be evacuated before dawn. Go in and appease the negotiators first, if that doesn’t work, we can only suppress them by force.”
A young general who was stationed next to the lieutenant general hesitated for a moment and with a look of embarrassment on his face. “Lieutenant General, the public are now emotionally excited, and their faces change when they see the Golden Sun Wheel emblem. If the army rushes forward and drives them away, there may be bloodshed.”
This statement immediately caused him to be glared at by others. “Then what do you think we should do! Are we going to let this mob rush in front of the imperial carriage?”
“There are so many people ah, and it’s not dawn yet. If there are unlawful individuals mixed in among them, the consequences will be disastrous!”
“Lieutenant General Luther, please wait!”
Suddenly there was a shout, and Zheng Yue hurried from the street, panting heavily, his military boots making a crisp sound on the snow.
Lieutenant General Luther turned back and raised his hand to signal for silence.
“Lieutenant General!” Zheng Yue gasped with sweat on his forehead, “Little Excellency said he would come over and request that the Golden Sun Wheel soldiers not to conflict with the petitioners yet.”
Objections immediately sounded. “It won’t do, the more people there are, the harder it is to handle. It will be daybreak in less than two hours. Now it’s a race against time…”
Zheng Yue refused to agree, and the two parties immediately quarreled.
The corners of Lieutenant General Luther’s mouth twitched, and cold sweat rolled down the wrinkles on his face.
After a few seconds, he made up his mind and seriously said, “We’ll wait.”
Jiang Jianming did not keep the Golden Sun Wheel waiting for long.
He came over in less than twenty minutes, and the first words he said shocked everyone.
He said– I will go in alone.
“Inspector Excellency.” The young general accompanying Lieutenant General Luther spoke anxiously again.
He first saluted then spoke carefully and meticulously, “In special circumstances, please forgive me for being presumptuous. Recently we have heard some rumors that you are……a non crystal race.”
Under the reflection of streetlights and headlights, the figure of the black-haired young officer was blurred by the light spots, with only the golden military emblem shining brightly.
Jiang Jianming straightened his collar, raised his eyes and looked back. “What is the relationship between racial issues and the current situation?”
“Oh no, this subordinate has no other meaning, don’t get me wrong.”
The young general waved his hand and hurriedly added, “It’s just that many of the civilians inside are new humans. If you go in alone to negotiate, in case something goes wrong…”
Even Lieutenant General Luther stirred and said, “Your Excellency, this is indeed too dangerous.”
“…….”
Jiang Jianming stared helplessly at the veteran for a while, then reached out and patted Luther on the shoulder, and calmly said, “Use your head, Lieutenant General.”
He quickly took off his gun holster. “Old Zheng, hold it for me.”
Zheng Yue took it, and he didn’t speak against it. He just glanced at Jiang Jianming’s platinum military uniform with concern.
“Little Excellency, it’s just that the Golden Sun Wheel already had some friction with the people just now,” he whispered, “If you really go in, would you like to change your clothes…”
“No need.” Jiang Jianming then took off his gloves and casually placed them into Zheng Yue’s arms, covering the Wings of Venus. “I’ll be troubling you with this also.”
As the gloves were taken off in public, there was a startled gasp from the surrounding Golden Sun Wheel officers.
Lieutenant General Luther’s old face also stiffened. This young man, His Excellency the Inspector, is actually…
“If there is no accident, wait until I come out before taking action. If it is confirmed that I died inside, then use force to drive them out, don’t hesitate.”
Time was running out. Jiang Jianming only left these words before turning around and stepping forward.
Through the night and street lights, he walked into the church entrance.
****
Inside the church, under deliberate provocation, excessive emotions had reached their peak.
The murals and relief sculptures sunk into the night, and the dark golden inner wall was filled with people who were overly tense.
A dozen adult strong grown men were holding bricks and sticks in their hands, like guarded beasts, staring at the door with red eyes.
Hearing footsteps at the door, a middle-aged man in dirty and tattered clothes shouted first.
“Someone’s coming in—!!”
“It’s the Golden Sun Wheel!!”
The middle-aged man who roared first took the lead in throwing the brick in his hand, and immediately got ready for a fight.
But surprisingly, the figure who came in did not hide, or did not react at all. A muffled “thud” sound was only heard on the person, and the brick hit the visitor’s forehead, causing a few drops of blood to splatter.
The thin and weak body tilted due to the force, staggered a step and fell to the ground, like a white thatch being blown by the strong wind.
The dozen or so adult strong men with weapons in their hands, who were about to rush up and beat someone up, looked at each other in consternation and were unable to react.
The group of big men were immediately agitated and whispered, “This….what’s going on, Old Arthur?”
“Didn’t you say it was a Golden Sun Wheel?”
“Why does he look so young? Not even a few years older than my child…is it a new recruit?”
The characteristics of ordinary people were vividly reflected at this time. They were the ones who were easily stirred up by a few words, and were the ones who were easily interrupted by unexpected twists and turns.
Only the middle-aged man named Arthur in the center was still calm. When he saw the figure not far away struggling to get up, he took two steps forward and shouted, “Get out of here, kid! Go back and tell your commanding officer, we won’t…”
Before he could finish speaking, he saw the intruder raise his head, revealing a pale and handsome face.
He was injured, and bright red blood was flowing down from his forehead along the straight bridge of his nose, over his pale cheeks, and finally falling down from his chin onto the floor of the church.
Jiang Jianming did not wipe the blood from his forehead.
He slowly…raised his hands.
The door of the church was dark, but the raised hands were illuminated by the moonlight leaking from the window, the skin was white with a slender frame.
Those were a pair of hands belonging to a disabled human being.
At this moment, many people inside were also startled by the sound and ran to the door one after another. However, the expressions on everyone’s faces who saw this scene changed, in the naked eye, it visibly shifted from fear to astonishment.
It was not known how long it had been.
Someone trembling said, “Dis…disabled human being…”
Drip drip…drip drip. The disabled human stood up unsteadily, but the blood was still falling down.
No words could be more powerful than this scene. Jiang Jianming’s eyes were as bright as cold stars. He stepped on his own blood and walked calmly in front of the crowd.
At this moment, everyone could see his appearance. Under the nervous gaze of countless pairs of eyes, Jiang Jianming slowly unbuttoned his coat, clang…the bloody military coat fell from his shoulders to the ground.
No guns, no weapons.
He was a non-aggressive, thin, fragile, and even an injured young disabled human being.
“——Jiang!!”
With an unexpected call, Kevin pushed aside the crowd in front and rushed over in panic.
“Hey, kid!” Old Arthur stretched out his hand and shouted.
“Kid, go back! It’s still unknown if this guy is…”
Kevin ignored the shouts from behind and ran all the way to Jiang Jianming’s side.
The young man’s expression was almost broken, and he grabbed Jiang Jianming’s arm and said in sorrow, “What are you doing, didn’t you just get hit in the head!? Oh my god, why…why are you bleeding so much?”
Jiang Jianming gave him a hug and said hoarsely, “Don’t worry, Kevin, it’s just a skin injury…it’s okay.”
However, Kevin trembled violently, and his gaze fell on the brick with blood stained corners in horror…
Judging from its size, one could tell that the weight of that thing being wheeled out by an adult man was definitely not to the degree of only causing skin injury.
For disabled humans who did not have crystal bone protection and had fragile and sensitive physiques, if one hit them in the wrong place, they may suffer a concussion or even die on the spot.
Kevin suddenly turned his head. After being frightened for several hours, it seemed as if the tense string connecting the nerves had broken at this moment.
Anger instantly overwhelmed fear. Kevin clenched his fists and roared at the crowd with red eyes,”——What did you do!!”
“Aren’t you going to speak out for the non crystal race, aren’t you going to oppose oppression!?”
The young man’s scream echoed endlessly inside the church, “What kind of resentment or grudge does he have with you, you all didn’t even say a word, and just laid your poisonous hands on a non crystal human being!!”
“I……”
The crowd fell silent, and the young man’s indignant accusation unconsciously reminded them that the initial goal of gathering tonight was indeed to seek better treatment for the non crystal race.
However, at this moment, the first person to be injured by this struggle was an unarmed non crystal human being.
It was Jiang Jianming who only frowned and glanced at Kevin. He first thought that this kid was too clever, actually knowing how to cooperate with him in such a bitter meat play. He couldn’t tell it before.
(t/n: bitter meat play-a play of feigned suffering, this term can also be used more broadly to describe any situation where someone feigns hardship or suffering for ulterior motives or as a tactic in a larger plan.)
But he soon realized that Kevin’s emotional intelligence did not seem to be of a level that could complete such a difficult task.
As for the gamble, where he had asked Seth Henry to calculate in advance the possible trajectories of the murder weapon, and finally succeeded in making the brick only scratch his forehead…this little guy’s eyesight should also not be able to see through it.
Thus there is only one conclusion.
Tears fell from Kevin’s eyes. He sobbed and tried to use his sleeves to cover the bleeding wound on Jiang Jianming’s forehead. “Are you trying to kill him?!”
Jiang Jianming thought to himself with an expressionless face: ...It turns out that this silly kid really scared himself.
A flurry of footsteps sounded, and several of Kevin’s friends also ran over, surrounding Kevin and Jiang Jianming in the middle.
“Brother Kevin!”
“Senior Jiang…”
Emotions could be contagious. They had never seen Kevin, who was always strong, cry like a mess. In addition, Jiang Jianming’s face was really bloody, causing the several children to start panicking and chatter noisily.
“It’s okay, Kevin, don’t cry anymore.”
Jiang Jianming comforted these young teenagers for a while and said, “You guys too.”
Then he looked up and looked around, and his tone was as natural as chatting with a neighbor, “Can…you let me go inside first?”
