For the people of Lyria, swearing on the ancestors was the same as the unbreakable vow in Harry Potter.
The only difference was that the Unbreakable Vow would literally kill you should you break the Vow, while the Lyrians believed very firmly that they would be tortured in their afterlife by the ancestors should they break this promise now.
As for will it really happen, no one knows.
John continued what he was saying after that momentary pause.
"I have gained enlightenment because of a messenger of the ancestors themselves. I've gained knowledge unknown to humanity about farming on a whole. As long as we have the support of this messenger and the knowledge we have gained, I can assure you that we can make our lands lush again!"
All the farmers looked at their leader dumfoundedly for a few seconds. They began thinking about it.
Their leader had sworn on the name of the holy ancestors, so what he said must be true. Or, he must have gone crazy and started having hallucinations.
The latter seemed more likely though.
Maybe they should take him to the local healer? She could heal him. But her treatment is brutal. Would he survive it?
Just when such thoughts were flashing through many farmer's heads, one woman stood up and said slowly, "Leader, I'll believe you that there really is a messenger of god and that he has enlightened you. But just who is he?"
John suddenly had reverence in his eyes as he said, "The young king, Harry Andestein."
When the woman saw the eyes filled with reverence of her leader, she became more inclined to believe that the ancestors had felt pity on them and had really sent a messenger to help them, but as soon as she heard the name, all her previous thoughts all changed into one single thought.
"Nah, the leader must have gone crazy. Maybe I should send him to the local healer and ask her to go a bit soft on him. Don't want him dying after all."
All the farmers too were convinced that their leader either must be joking or must have gone crazy. But, he couldn't have been joking as he swore upon the ancestors that he would talk all truth for the next few minutes.
The time here too has similarities to Earth, except only in naming.
Second was called Secion here, and one minute was equal to ninety Secions.
One horion was equal to 60 minutes, and a day had 26 horions.
A week had eight days, and a month had five weeks.
They had thirteen month in a year.
The farmers were utterly convinced that John had gone crazy, and John too understood that they didn't believe him one bit when he saw their expressions of immense sympathy and sadness.
John knew that he had to convince them somehow, or he would be sent to the healer.
That old woman was a nightmare! She didn't know how to heal mentally ill people at all!
All she did was beat them up, and that wouldn't cure them at all!
Anyway, why was he thinking about her treatment!?
He was perfectly fine, he was in tip top condition!
The people of this world thought that people who were mentally ill were cursed. They thought that beating them would cure them.
The people of Lyria were a bit more accepting, and didn't send anyone to the so called 'healer' unless they started becoming violent and trying to beat and kill people up, or talked about some 'unacceptable' stuff.
They were only thinking about sending John there because of his extremity of his belief.
He swore on the ancestors about something that was most probably fake, and the problem is, they didn't feel that he was lying! But the stuff he said was unbelievable.
Author's Note : This chapter has been rewritten and all the comments were for the previous version of it.