Chapter Twenty-Six: In the Name of God
A squad of fifteen dragon riders and twelve brass hats charged into the dormitory building with an intimidating air, making their way unerringly to Lin Qi’s single-room door. One brass hat adjusted the yellow brass helmet atop his head, shaped much like half an olive, and rapped on the door with commanding authority.
“In the name of the Imperial Royal Family, please open your door!”
Barely a breath had passed before the brown door remained shut, and the brass hat who had knocked stepped back two paces. Two dragon riders seized a leaden battering ram, shouted, and brought it down heavily upon the door. As they struck, a faint red aura glimmered around both dragon riders, and the battering ram itself flashed briefly red.
The oak door shattered, fragments swept violently into the room, and seven or eight dragon riders drew their swords and rushed inside. One of them kicked a small square table in the center of the room to pieces. The table had held a jar of frozen water and a piece of black bread; the jar smashed, and the bread rolled to the floor.
The single dorm room was already small, and with the broad-shouldered dragon riders crowding in, the space seemed utterly packed.
A gaunt, pallid-faced brass hat walked in with affected dignity, calling out in an ostentatious tone, “Is Lin Qi, third-year student of the accounting department, class one at Brailey Fifth University, residing here?”
Lin Qi, dressed in a thin white shirt and sitting upright at his desk, swiftly writing, turned in surprise but nodded with perfect composure. “Yes, sir, I am Lin Qi. Did your parents not teach you to knock before entering someone’s room?”
The brass hat raised his nearly invisible eyebrows and sneered, “In the name of the Imperial Royal Family, you are under arrest. We have ample evidence linking you to last night’s assault and arson. If the charges are confirmed, you will serve twenty years in prison, poor child!”
He glared at Lin Qi, grinding his teeth, and slowly drew a solid steel baton, poised to teach Lin Qi a lesson.
“In the name of the Imperial Royal Family”?
Lin Qi rose calmly, carefully set down the oriental rabbit-hair brush he’d been using on its stand, then turned to face the dragon riders and brass hats, speaking deliberately: “In the name of the Divine, I demand you leave my room. Otherwise, your actions are blasphemy against the Divine! If you are found guilty, you will be punished by the Church Tribunal and sent to the pyre!”
“In the name of the Divine”?
The previously aggressive dragon riders and brass hats fell silent, and the steel baton in the gaunt brass hat’s hand vanished as if by magic. They exchanged glances, then looked at the desk before Lin Qi—a strangely shaped brush stand, an iron cross bound with chains, holding a winged man, the rabbit-hair brush resting on the man’s shoulder.
Beside it stood a small cup of golden ink; the specially made liquid gleamed under the lamplight, swirling as though alive, its radiance sacred and filled with spiritual power.
The dragon riders knew little of this, but the lead brass hat drew a sharp breath.
A “Pen Stand of Judgment,” “Holy Water of Cleansing”—these were essential tools for the clergy when transcribing scripture. Lin Qi wasn’t even using the favored goose quill of Western nobles, but a rabbit-hair brush from the East. In church tradition, only at the year’s end, as the old gives way to the new, during the New Year’s prayer ceremony, are prayers transcribed with rabbit-hair brushes to be burned as offerings to the Divine.
Goose quills produce delicate script, somewhat petty in air, convenient but lacking the grandeur of the eastern brush. Clergy prided themselves on mastering brushwork; those who couldn’t would pay others to transcribe prayers for them.
Recalling the jar of water and black bread that had been smashed, all the dragon riders and brass hats felt their hearts sink.
When transcribing prayers, to show respect for the Divine, one must abstain from meat and alcohol, drinking only water and eating black bread. Lin Qi’s table had both, along with the Pen Stand of Judgment and Holy Water of Cleansing—anyone with sense could see what he was doing!
He was transcribing prayer scrolls for a cleric, as offerings to the Divine!
“Damn!” All the dragon riders and brass hats frowned. “In the name of the Imperial Royal Family” versus “in the name of the Divine”—in most cases, “in the name of the Imperial Royal Family” would lose out!
“O Divine, curse these heretics who defile your glory! They should all burn at the stake—their families, their neighbors, even the midwife who delivered them should burn! Why must there be such sinners to desecrate your honor?”
While the dragon riders and brass hats nervously weighed their options, the portly Father Barin burst in, gasping and gesticulating furiously as he cursed them. As assistant priest of the Fifth University, Father Barin oversaw all students’ religious guidance, holding a highly special position in the Brailey Diocese. Though an assistant priest’s real power was limited, Father Barin was, in fact, a mid-ranking priest.
A mid-ranking priest outranks a deputy chief of the Security Bureau or a captain of the dragon riders. Faced with Father Barin’s wrath, all the dragon riders and brass hats bowed their heads, their hearts tangled with regret—they had brought serious trouble upon themselves.
“In the name of the Divine!” Father Barin stamped his feet and roared, “Anyone who disrupts my transcription of New Year’s prayer scrolls deserves death—you all belong at the stake. No, the stake is too merciful! Fire cannot cleanse your vile souls. You should be sentenced to boiling oil, have searing fat poured over your bodies, molten lead forced down your throats, and only then sent to the stake for the Divine’s judgment!”
The faces of all the dragon riders and brass hats turned ghastly pale. Suddenly, they regretted everything—they should never have gotten involved just to curry favor with the family behind Black Horse House.
Damn it, the Church was not to be trifled with, and now they had enraged an assistant priest.