Over a thousand years.
Adeline put down her cup, her expression turning serious.
In her past life, she had only been a struggling writer, but she had read plenty of history books and encyclopedia entries.
As far as she knew, no religious organization could maintain absolute rule for over a thousand years.
Even during the medieval period at the height of monotheism, the Pope’s power had never been exaggerated to the point of overriding every king and emperor—secular monarchy had always been vying with the church for power, ebbing and flowing, never a complete one-sided affair.
But the Church of Holy Tribulation was different.
The book made it clear: during the Long Night Era, the church burned vast numbers of books and forbade the spread of any unauthorized knowledge.
Anyone who dared to secretly possess forbidden books would at best be locked in the Penance House, and at worst be tied to a burning stake.
On this point, even nobles were no exception.
The book mentioned several times that certain viscounts or counts were suspected of being connected to heresy, and their entire families were uprooted—men, women, old, and young, none spared.
This went beyond the scope of witch hunts.
Witch hunts, after all, were limited to certain regions and time periods, and mostly targeted marginalized groups.
What the Church of Holy Tribulation did was grind the entire civilization’s knowledge system underfoot for over a thousand years.
What gave a religious organization the power to achieve such a feat?
What sustained them in doing so, with no one daring to resist?
Unfortunately, the book offered no explanation on this point.
This popular history book titled A General History of the Kingdom of New Claire merely sketched a few light strokes here, leaving a sentence:
“The end of the Long Night Era marked the beginning of a new chapter in human civilization.”
Then it hurriedly jumped to the Great Expansion Era and the New Calendar Era, as if that thousand years of darkness were just a page flipped from an old calendar.
But in Adeline’s heart, a strange feeling and anticipation had already risen.
Fanatic faith, restriction of thought, pathological rule—could such things and powers sustain an organization standing for a thousand years without falling?
Adeline didn’t know.
She only vaguely and subconsciously hoped that behind all these appearances lay some extraordinary power or possibility.
She closed the book and turned to look at Lina, who was tidying the tray.
“Lina.”
She spoke in as natural a tone as possible.
“Miss, what are your orders?”
Lina immediately put down her work and turned around.
“I’m reading this book,” Adeline said, lifting A General History of the Kingdom of New Claire. “It mentions the Long Night Era and says there was a church called the Church of Holy Tribulation… have you heard of this church?”
Lina blinked, a hint of confusion in her expression.
“Church of Holy Tribulation? I think… I’ve heard that name somewhere. But I don’t really know what it is. You know, Miss, I wasn’t very good at history in school.”
She smiled sheepishly.
“And those things seem like they were from a long time ago. When the teacher talked about them, I was pretty fuzzy myself.”
Adeline looked at Lina’s guileless face and made a rough judgment in her mind: she truly knew nothing about these matters.
It wasn’t surprising.
Though Lina had received a basic education, it was limited to practical knowledge like literacy, arithmetic, and etiquette.
Topics like church rule and religious persecution from over a thousand years ago were probably as distant and irrelevant to a 16-year-old maid as clouds in the sky.
Moreover, according to the book, the Church of Holy Tribulation had been overthrown for several centuries.
People in this era probably only knew about it as,
“Oh, I guess there was something like that in history.”
“Nothing, just asking casually.”
Adeline placed the book back on the bedside table, her tone as flat as if she were discussing the weather.
“The things in this book are quite interesting.”
Hearing this, Lina’s face lit up with genuine delight.
“It’s wonderful that you’re reading, Miss. These past two days you were so drowsy, I was worried you’d get bored. There are plenty of nice books on the shelf. Should I bring you a few more?”
“Not for now. I haven’t finished this one yet.”
“Alright.”
Lina nodded, picked up the cleaned tray, and said,
“Then you go ahead and read. I’ll be out in the hallway. Call me anytime if you need anything.”
“Mm.”
Lina tiptoed out of the room, the oak door gently closing behind her.
The room fell silent again, leaving only the occasional crackle from the remaining embers in the fireplace.
Adeline leaned back into the pillow and let out a long breath.
Three days.
From struggling awake in that boundless darkness to now barely able to sit up, hold a cup to drink, and turn pages, she had basically gained a foothold in this broken body.
No slip-ups.
No suspicion from anyone.
Lina was a simple girl, fully trusting and caring toward the miss she looked after.
So far, she hadn’t sensed that the person inside Adeline had changed.
As for her father Herman, who was away on business for long periods—according to Lina, the earliest he could return from the southern trade port was early next month.
Until then, Adeline had enough time to get familiar with this world and adapt to this identity.
She picked up A General History of the Kingdom of New Claire again and flipped to the page with the bookmark.
Although this book was written roughly, it was still the only source of information she could access at the moment.
The bookshelf in the room was stacked with books, but most were literary works and poetry collections.
There were very few history and general knowledge books that could provide useful information, and A General History of the Kingdom of New Claire was the most valuable among them.
She continued reading.
The next part of the book moved to the Great Expansion Era.
According to the book, near the end of the Long Night Era, a large-scale anti-religion, anti-faith movement erupted, as if the things that had been persecuted by religious faith for over a thousand years had finally awakened.
Commoners took up pitchforks and scythes, and led by kings and nobles, they stormed the stronghold of the Church of Holy Tribulation and overthrew the rule of the then-Pope.
Just as the book offered no explanation for the Church of Holy Tribulation’s thousand-year rule, it also gave no detailed account of how these people overthrew such a behemoth—it glossed over it hastily.
After that, humanity began to venture into unknown continents and seas, discovering new routes, new lands, new resources, and products.
The steam engine was invented in this era.
The book mentioned an organization of intellectuals and workers called the “Brotherhood of Gears,” using tedious, even verbose descriptions to detail how they gradually discovered the principles, built, and improved the steam engine step by step.
Then came the upheavals brought by the Industrial Revolution: factories sprang up, railroads spanned the land, cities expanded rapidly, and the old social structure was shattered.
Noble power began to be challenged by the rising bourgeoisie, while the lives of the lower-class workers hardly improved despite industrial progress.
These contents were nothing new to Adeline.
In her past life, she had read too many similar plots in history books.
The Industrial Revolution changes the world, the bourgeoisie rises, the working class awakens, liberalism and conservatism tug-of-war… the patterns were much the same, just with different times and names.
She closed the book and raised a hand to rub her temples.
Still too little information.
Relying only on this rough general history, the picture she could piece together was far from clear.
But this couldn’t be rushed.
Her current identity was a frail, housebound young lady.
Abruptly poking into things she shouldn’t would only bring unnecessary trouble.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the strange mix of medicine and incense in the room.
‘No rush. She still has time.’
Her body was slowly recovering, information was accumulating bit by bit, and the full shelf of books in this room was her greatest asset.
The original had a habit of reading, which saved her a lot of trouble now.
She only needed to quietly play the part of a “patient immersed in books” to avoid arousing any suspicion.
Outside the window, the sky was still gray.
In the distance, the faint sound of factory whistles echoed, low and prolonged, reverberating through the morning mist.
This world, resembling the Victorian era with steam power, had a historical trajectory completely different from her past life.
Why had the church ruled for a thousand years?
How was it destroyed?
Why had she transmigrated into this body?
What awaited her?
Each question was like a fog, wrapping around her, obscuring the path ahead.
But Adeline Castia never accepted defeat passively.
She reopened the book, her gaze falling on the text of the next page.
Answers would come eventually.