Extra's Perfect Ending-Chapter 252: Holy question

"How’s your trip Plutus?"

The pope at on the church chair, the moonlight comes from the window revealing his rather aged look. In front of him was Plutus, the young priest who had just gotten remote into High Preist.

Among the people who had become priests, reaching this far required a lot of faith in their own belief however, The pope didn’t feel that the boy in front of him had what it takes to reach this rank.

"It was insightful, you holiness"

Plutus tries to make as much eye contact with the pope as to read his face. He didn’t have a clue what the pope wanted from him.

The Pope squeezes his eyes, looking up and down Plutus’s body. This end chills down the boy’s pine since it feels like his whole being is being watched.

After a minute passed, the pope’s left eyebrow raised, clearly surprised by what he was seeing.

"I’ve read your report and aw that you did quite well. Theodore was a little bit rash with his decision, so we will need to replace him. I will send one of our spare fourth mystics later. What are your opinions of Tumidus church?"

Plutus’s sweat tickles down his face. In front of the pope he didn’t dare to lie, it would have been a massive insult to the church. However his opinion was quite controversial, it was a direct insult to the church!

This was a dead end for him. So he gave up and said his feelings.

"The Tumidus church was very effective in dealing with their adversary, be it tracking, capturing, or killing heretics. However, their way was a bit too brutal, not only using the goodwill of its people but also trying to use heretic ways to gain power."

Looking into the pope’s eyes, Plutus couldn’t be more nervous. The people gently nod.

"Good, I half expected you to lie to me. That was indeed a wrong way to operate the church, however, do you know why I let it happen?"

Plutus’s eyes widened after hearing the pope’s words, he almost couldn’t believe it. Did the pope allow heretic activities? Why would the head of an organization that kills heretics daily do such a thing?

"You know about this and did nothing? Do you know the condition of prisoners there? It’s worse than what we treat dogs!"

He thought back to the time he visited the place, The starving prisoner, and the not-so-great place to stay even for a priest. He couldn’t feel anything other than anger for how poorly run that place was. Plustus always chalked it all up to the pope not knowing these things but that wasn’t the case.

His fist balled up and was ready to strike. I this was not the pope, the man he truly respects then he would have hit them already. The reason he was this mad was because of a pent-up feeling from his inaction in Tumidus.

"The divine light of God, in its boundless glory, could not encompass the entire world at once." The Pope said solemnly

"....." Plutus remembered that verse, ti was from the Rise of the Sun, a book that was handed to every priest and devoted people. Contains teachings of the sun god, translated and inscribed by generations of priests, apostles, and the pope. Detailing a word of goad and rules of priests.

"But you already know, couldn’t you do anything about it?" Plutus knew that word but couldn’t see why such teaching was relevant.

"Do you know how long was the first Rise of the Sun?"

The book now had 784 pages of pure teaching and wisdom from Preist and all the church people. They had added over the years so it’s properly lower than today’s book by a lot.

"A hundred pages?" He took a guessed

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The pope smiles and reaches back, ruffling his big robe to find a piece of paper. Then he hands Plutus 2 papers with 4 pages of content.

"This was the first edition that I copied."

"!?"

Plutus’s hands shake uncontrollably. He didn’t think that the original Rise of the Run would be this short. He took a look at the content inside, the first page was how to act as the follower of the sun god, and the second was how to pray to the sun god. The third was a warning of the threat that the priest had to watch out for and the last was how to advance as the priest of the sun god.

After speed-reading all the content here, Reeva realized something crucial.

"There is no mention of heretics...."

"That’s right, the Sun church didn’t have any decree against heretics, can you guess why?"

The boy scratched his head, he had been with the church for a long time so he couldn’t imagine why such a big part of the church wasn’t in the first Rise of the Sun.

"I had no idea, your holiness"

"When the church was small, we were nothing but heretics ourselves"

"!?"

"We hide and spread our belief like any heretics you’ve caught so far. But after we get bigger and bigger, our value changes. Instead of hiding in the shadows, we began changing the people, and after some time became the religion that it is today. What I’m trying to say is that Heretic was not all bad, the only thing bad was the Star Foundation. If we label everything as bad then we are no better than any savage out there."

"The sun god didn’t want us to punish heretics? then why did we do it?"

"Order and faith," The people said casually "By demonizing heretics we unite the people together, priest, noble, merchant, and normal citizen. And we could spread the teaching of our lord faster."

"...." Plutus couldn’t help but freeze. He felt that the pope was telling him this to get something out of him. The pope paused the conversation for a bit and said.

"That’s why you could tell me if you’ve been in a hard position with a heretic"