I Became A Black Merchant In Another World-Chapter 406: Burden of the Empire (2)

While Fabio was pondering how to take over the New World and pass down wealth and honor to his family for generations, Pastor Stefano was following the Elector of Wittenburg in the army.

As a priest, he wanted to help the soldiers under the Elector of Wittenburg find psychological stability through religion and pray together for their souls to be saved...

“Stop! Please stop! No matter how much they are the enemy, you must not kill or harm people indiscriminately!”

Stefano shouted as he ran, forgetting that he was out of breath.

He then blocked the soldiers who were trying to kill men and rape or sell women.

Stopping the soldiers who were not receiving proper wages for a long time and were surviving by plundering and deviating (rape, murder, etc.) to some extent was no different from asking for my death.

‘Even if I die, I must save at least one more person.’

Pastor Stefano had no qualms about giving up his life for others, whether he could die or not.

No, he was ready to jump into the fire if he could save many people by dying.

“Although they believe in the Deus religion, which is full of rotten priests who sell indulgences, they are also people who serve the same Deus as you. They have the same skin color, the same eye color, and they cry when they are sad and laugh when they are happy! How can you kill or sell them just to make a little more money?”

“But, Pastor... We also have to eat to live.”

“Did I stop you from taking the food and money that you won in the war? Take it. But before you take it, leave at least a little food for these poor people. They are just like you, so you can’t starve them to death just because you lost the war.”

Even in a world where the concept of human rights is alive, the principle that soldiers who won a war leave the citizens of the losing side a minimum of property and do not kill or harass them at will is not well observed.

The victors want to enjoy pleasure and a sense of conquest, and the law does not work at the time...

This is because human barbarism is revealed as it is.

Moreover, soldiers receive the compensation they receive while serving in the military as the right to commit indiscriminate atrocities after winning.

In a world where most of the deficits are covered by selling poor serfs into slavery,

Pastor Stefano's actions of taking care of the defeated were bizarre.

"Don't do something that will shame Deus."

As Stefano continued to persuade them, the soldiers who were about to sell the serfs into slavery sighed and left with only a little food and money.

The serf families in the occupied areas who had survived felt relieved that they were alive and wept bitterly.

That sight tore the heart of Pastor Stefano, who had a living conscience that Fabio acknowledged.

‘Deus, why on earth are you giving me this ordeal?’

However, we must save as many people as possible...

“Look, look! You don’t have time to feel relieved that you saved your lives thanks to me! Hurry up and pack as much food as you can and run away! If you don’t run away now, you will die!”

When Stefano urged them, the serf families began to run away in a hurry, forgetting to thank him.

It was understandable that they would be upset that they had saved their lives but were not thanked...

But to him, that didn’t matter even a grain of dust.

‘Please let me save at least one more person in this miserable war.’

And he went around the village, raiding the scenes of looting, rape, and murder, and urging them to stop the behavior immediately.

“Stop it! Deus said that whatever you did to the least of them, you did to Deus! Are you planning to rape Deus?”

He bowed his head to those who were holding his family as slaves and laughing, asking for his captive family to be released, and he protected the weak from the blades of those who were trying to kill people for fun.

While he was running around so busily that he didn’t even know how many people he had saved, he heard a woman screaming somewhere.

“No! Stop it!”

As soon as he heard it, he ran in an instant.

His body moved faster than his rational judgment.

When he arrived there, he saw several soldiers trying to rape the girls they had captured from the village.

“Stop it! Stop it now!”

As he stopped them, one of the crowd came out and pushed Pastor Stefano.

“Are you crazy, sir? Our platoon leader and company commander pretend not to see it even when they have fun, so what are you lecturing me about? I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll just let it go. Get out of here.”

That group must have had a lot of alcohol for the first time in a while, because their faces were as red as a boulder.

Their bodies were staggering here and there, and they could smell alcohol every time they breathed.

In a war zone, trying to stop a soldier like this would be like openly declaring that they want to kill me...

Stefano didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of Deus, even if he had to die.

“Don’t you have a mother, older sister, younger sister, and wife waiting for you back home? The same goes for those here. Deus doesn’t want you to commit a sin, so stop now.”

“Hey, sir, are you crazy?”

“Come to your senses and don’t do anything you’ll regret!”

Stefano tried to say that this war was for the right belief in ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) Deus, for the salvation of the soul.

But the words would not come out of his mouth.

The Protestants and Deusists were fighting each other, slaughtering, pillaging, and oppressing countless civilians.

The soldiers who were dragged here were forced to come because their mouths were hooked by the desires of the nobles.

‘What use is faith to these people...’

“Don’t cross the line that you shouldn’t cross as a human being for a moment of pleasure! The moment you cross that line, you will never be able to go back.”

There was nothing wrong with what Stefano said.

However, to those who had already lost one or two things that were precious to them as humans because of the war, those words sounded like nothing but a lie.

If they had been sober and not drunk, they might have come to their senses realizing that it was Pastor Stefano who was saying those words.

Those who were drunk and couldn't control their emotions immediately reached for their knives.

"You damn hypocrite!"

As soon as one of them reached for his knives, the others followed suit.

They were annoyed by Stefano's request to take care of others in this situation, when they had left their families because of the war and were suffering greatly.

"Does a pastor like you understand how low-level soldiers like us live?"

"But if you do something you'll regret..."

"Shut up and run, you damn hypocrite who's worse than a dog."

Stefano did his best to fulfill his duty as a religious person.

He threw away the wealth and honor that was within his reach like an old pair of shoes, and used his status, life, and everything else he could to save countless people.

Although he could not count them himself, the number of people he saved directly and indirectly exceeded ten thousand.

However, he also felt ashamed.

Because the thought occurred to him just before he died that there might have been people he could not save because he did not put in enough effort.

Even so, he wanted to save at least one more person before he died.

“Now, run away!”

At the words to run away, the women Stefano had wrapped around hurriedly left the place.

Stefano himself thought that even if he died here, he was fortunate that he could save at least one more person before he died, and that he would at least be a little less ashamed in front of Deus.

And before he died, he pitied those who were killing him even as he was being stabbed and trampled.

If only there had been no war, they would not have done such evil deeds...

He gave his last will in a voice so small that it was hard to hear unless you listened carefully, filled with regret, sorrow, and pity.

“Deus, these people are so hurt by war that they may not even know that they are committing a sin. Please have mercy on them. I will forgive them as you have forgiven me.”

With those words, Stefano died.

As if by chance or inevitably, lightning struck the standard near the Elector of Wittenberg.

“The pastor protected the poor and the weak until the end and passed away.”

There are very few people in this world who have a spirit of altruism and sacrifice that goes beyond common sense.

They change the world for the better.

The person who created the polio vaccine could have made hundreds of billions of dollars with the patent, but if he made money with it, he would have made children worse.

He gave up his patent, saying he would save lives.

As a result, billions of people were saved from polio.

A Catholic priest risked his life to provide medical services in African civil war zones and saved countless people. When he was diagnosed with colon cancer, he prayed that he could help them one more day, saying that he would rather die from cancer than die because he had to help them more.

His devotion opened up the possibility of saving countless people in the future by turning people who were born into a world divided into rebels and government forces and could have been killed and killed throughout their lives into doctors.

Pastor Stefano was such a person.

‘If only he had compromised a little, he would have enjoyed a life of wealth and honor.’

‘I feel complicated.’

I filled my pipe with tobacco leaves and lit it.

Inhaling the spicy smoke should have relieved my heart, but today, the cigarette didn’t taste good at all.

But as an individual, I have second thoughts.

Now, it seems that the Tuscan Empire must also start preparing to rise again.