Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World

Chapter 392: Thrown Out of the Window

TL: Etude

The two watched with bated breath as the noisy stream of people bustled by outside the window.

“Phew!” Liszt patted his chest. “They’re not coming for us.”

“I’m going to go down and take a look!” Seviya took down the cloak hanging on the wall, and was about to head downstairs.

“Are you crazy? Why join in the chaos?”

Liszt grabbed her, truly, did this woman not know her own status?

Seviya turned back to him, intending to mock the man for being too cowardly, but upon seeing the worried expression on his face, she softened and reassured, “Don’t worry! No one can recognize me in this disguise.”

She shrugged off Liszt’s hand, donned the cloak, “I’m very interested in any news about the Church.”

Having said that, she turned and went downstairs.

“Ah!” Annoyed, Liszt stamped his foot and followed suit.

...

“Angelo!”

“Angelo!”

The streets were abuzz with voices, the name of the new bishop repeated time and again. Some were visibly agitated, while others were just mingling for the fun of it.

Seviya and Liszt followed the crowd and realized that it was moving toward the cathedral.

“Hey! Sir, what’s happening?”

Liszt gently tugged at the clothes of a passerby and asked cautiously.

“Damn it! Those bloodsuckers from Collins, always keen to skin us!” the man cursed vehemently.

In his somewhat chaotic explanation, peppered with various Horn Bay civilization terms, Liszt pieced together the cause of it all.

After Seviya stirred up a sensation, the Church’s armed forces had applied high-pressure policies towards Fort Ness for a while. Later, under the advocacy of the new bishop Angelo, the blockade was lifted, which greatly displeased the Archbisop of Collins in Horn Bay, leading him to send an envoy to Fort Ness. There, in front of numerous high-ranking clergy, he vehemently scolded the bishop of Fort Ness, which riled up Angelo’s supporters.

However, the worst was yet to come. The envoy brought a tax increase order from Collins – to meet the growing expenses of the so-called “Purification Squads,” archbishop Elvis, prompted by some, had imposed a special religious tax. On top of that, the Church had always collected another religious tax from the faithful – the tithe, which meant a person had to ‘donate’ one-tenth of their income to the Church. But don’t assume that the tax was paid proportionally to actual earnings. The amount was preset based on estimated income, and with the current level of technology, the Church had no way to accurately calculate each person’s exact income.

The new religious tax was a per capita tax, which meant that everyone had to pay, regardless of income, including the elderly or children, who did not have the capacity to work.

What further incensed the people of Fort Ness was that ninety percent of the new tax would be remitted to Collins, for the Horn Bay central church to manage, and the local church of Fort Ness could only retain a paltry ten percent.

Once the news broke, it immediately caused a huge uproar, with various undercurrents stirring within Fort Ness. The Horn Bay Alliance, which had cooperated with the Church to impose the lockdown, was now unable to sit still. ɽâꞐŏbƐS

Although maritime trade thrived in the lands of Horn Bay, almost half of the countries there were landlocked. The coastal nations controlled sea transport and made a vast fortune, which the landlocked countries coveted. These landlocked nations were especially devout in their faith and blindly obeyed Church directives. As a result, the Archbisop of the Horn Bay resided in the strongest landlocked nation, Collins, rather than the economically most developed Horn Bay Alliance.

People from the coastal nations always suspected the Church of covertly supporting the landlocked countries with the tax money collected from them to secure their loyalty to the Church.

Someone yelled, “Charge in! Beat those scumbags!”

As if the cry were a signal, the crowd hammered at the cathedral doors, staying strong against the blockade by church knights.

Enraged, the envoy from Collins questioned if these were the Father’s obedient lambs or just a mob of rioters!

He sharply ordered, “Those who dare to assault the cathedral shall be executed without mercy.”

However, the church knights forming the blockade did not draw their weapons. On one hand, they were facing ordinary civilians they interacted with daily, and on the other, they faced merely physical jostling. Should real casualties occur, the knights wouldn’t be able to hold back the raging populace.

Moreover, many of the church knights were supporters of Angelo...

The thin defensive line was immediately breached!

“This is outrageous!” The envoy’s expression morphed from anger to fear.

“Retreat inside!” A group rushed Angelo and the others back into the cathedral, then closed the door.

But the door was soon smashed open again, and the furious people poured in.

“It seems the archbishop’s envoy is in for a rough time!”

Quietly observing from an alley entrance, Liszt and Seviya watched the situation at the cathedral.

“Hmph! They got what they deserved.” The witch commented disdainfully.

Suddenly, a window on the second floor of the cathedral burst open.

“Throw them out! Throw them out!”

Wave after wave of voices reached them.

“What’s happening now?”

Liszt focused his attention, looking up at the second floor.

He saw shoving at the window, and then someone was lifted up.

With a thud, the person was harshly thrown out of the window!

They had barely hit the ground, not yet having time to cry out in pain, before the crowd below began to beat them fiercely.

Thud!

Thud!

The sound of bodies hitting the ground continued.

The archbishop’s envoy and his entourage were being thrown out of the window, one by one.