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On the fourth day, Roland summoned all the nobles of the fortress and the vicinity of the fortress to the castle hall.
Although most people knew the news, he still felt that he needed to emphasize in person that the West had a new owner.
When he stated that he would return to the border town and hand over the fortress to the eldest son of the Honeysuckle family, everyone immediately talked about it. Of course, no one was willing to take the lead in expressing objections at this time. The Duke's head was still hanging high at the city gate, and the news of Timothy's defeat made it impossible for speculators to seek help from outside forces.
Except for the knights of the Honeysuckle Family who were redeemed, no other captured knights would accept ransom. Together with the mercenaries, they would be escorted back to Border Town. In Roland's plan, all mercenaries were sent to mine for labor reform, and knights were hired at their discretion after examining their repentance attitude. After all, most knights were literate and could be used as enlightenment teachers for universal education. Of course, they were not allowed to use weapons again in their lives.
In this way, the power of the Honeysuckle Family would be stronger than that of the four families, and the force in their hands would be basically enough to defend the Longsong Fortress and their own earldom. Roland thought that as for the undercurrents surging under the water, that was something that Pero should worry about.
In the past few days, he also took the time to send his personal guards to capture a group of officials who caused the residents of Border Town to starve to death and freeze to death two years ago, including the Minister of Finance Ferenor. They will be tried by the people in Border Town. The only regret is that the culprit who attempted to burn the food and killed the greyhound, Count Hiltemed, died on the battlefield without being tried.
Now, the traffic between Longsong Fortress and Border Town has been fully restored. In the next week, more than ten sailboats will transport supplies to Border Town every day. Roland guessed that Barov would be very busy next, receiving the coins looted from the Duke and settling a large number of immigrants. He didn't know if the temporary wooden shed he asked Karl to build was ready. Thinking of
this, he couldn't help but want to return to Border Town as soon as possible to preside over the farming project that was about to start.
After entertaining the nobles for lunch, Roland was about to take a nap when a special guest arrived in the castle.
Archpriest Tyro of the Longsong Fortress Church.
Roland suddenly lost all sleepiness.
Unlike Border Town, the church has been rooted here for a long time. Not only has it built a church, but it has also sent a archpriest to stay here. This was also the main reason why the prince decided to return to the border town to develop peacefully. Under the long-term indoctrination and influence of the church, any civilian could become their spy. His plan to involve the public would be restricted everywhere, and the risk of witches being discovered would also increase exponentially. Unless the church was uprooted, his reform would be difficult to implement.
It was normal for the church to pay close attention to the replacement of the fortress lord. Roland was surprised that they could wait until today to send a representative to deal with him. However, the identity of the visitor was not simple. The believer who served as the high priest was already a high-ranking figure in the church, responsible for supervising one side, and the territory under his jurisdiction was similar to that of a secular duke.
He met the other party in the hall as usual.
High Priest Tyro was a middle-aged man, wearing a white-bottomed blue-edged robe in the church style. He was about forty years old, with neat clothes and appearance, and his speech and behavior were like a polite nobleman. If it weren't for the fact that he was sitting on the side of the witches and the royal family, I'm afraid anyone would be happy to talk to such a person.
The high priest must be carrying a high-quality God's Stone of Punishment. In order to avoid accidents, Roland specifically told Nightingale to stay away from the other party before the meeting.
After Taylor bowed, Roland invited him to take a seat and ordered the servants to serve tea.
No matter what you think in your heart, you still have to do your surface work.
"Your Highness, I send you blessings on behalf of the Holy City," Taro said with a smile, "You have become the true lord of the West. May God bless you."
"Thank you," Roland replied in a relaxed tone, "It seems that you don't care at all that I kill Duke Ryan and seize Longsong Fortress."
"We rarely interfere in secular disputes. As long as we can make people live better, he is a wise king. As for which family he was born into or whether he is from the royal family, it is not the focus of the church. In fact, promotion in the church has never looked at identity. I used to be just a farmer's son, but now I can serve as a high priest in the church," he smiled, "Excuse me, Your Highness, I'm afraid no farmer's son can become a duke."
If he launched an uprising to overthrow the royal family, he could even become king. Roland thought so in his heart, but he did not refute it. He changed the subject directly, "So you came here today just to send blessings?"
"Blessings are only part of it. I also bring cooperation."
"Cooperation about what?"
"In expanding your territory and power, we can provide you with all the help we can."
"Wait," Roland frowned, "you just said that the church rarely interferes in secular disputes."
"Rarely interfered does not mean no interference," the high priest said calmly, "Now the fight between your brother Timothy and the third princess Garcia has made the people in the southern border live in misery. I said that as long as the world can live a stable and peaceful life, the church will recognize him as a king worthy of respect. And you are such a person."
Roland was stunned. The other party was expressing that he wanted to help him fight for the throne. He subconsciously asked, "Why?"
"You led the people of Border Town to fight against the evil beasts and safely passed the Demonic Month, which proves your courage and ability. From the large amount of food purchased by Willow Town, it can be seen that you don't want your people to starve or freeze, which is a manifestation of kindness. You have three noble qualities and are of royal blood, which is why we chose you."
Roland didn't believe the other party's reasons at all, but these words at least proved that even when Border Town was on an isolated island with heavy snow and mountains blocked, the church was still watching this remote place.
"How can you help? Send the Judgment Army to fight for me?"
"We also want to quell the war as soon as possible, but doing so will arouse the resentment of most nobles, so we can only provide material assistance," the high priest took out two pills from his arms, one red and one black, "This is the medicine made in the Holy City's Prayer Room, which is equivalent to your alchemy workshop. The red pill can make your subordinates temporarily have powerful strength, and the black pill can increase their tolerance to pain, cold, and heat several times. With this medicine, your army will be unstoppable. The church only charges the most basic production fee," he paused, "one for five gold dragons. As for these two pills, they can be given to you as test subjects to prove that what I said is true."
"What do you ask for in return? Expand the scope of the believers and build churches in every territory"
"Of course, that's good, but our real intention is to quell the war. As long as the people are stable, they will naturally fall into the arms of God."
Roland accepted the pill. "It sounds magical, but I have no intention of competing for the crown of Graycastle for the time being. Both Timothy and Garcia are my closest relatives, and I don't want to hurt them."
"I understand," the high priest smiled, "but sometimes family affection can't stop the temptation of power, especially when you become a stumbling block on their way to power. The pill is just the beginning, and we can provide a lot of help. If you decide to take that step, you can come to the church to find me at any time." At this point, he stood up and bowed, "I have brought the church's resolution. May the gods be with you, Your Highness." To be continued.
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"This is probably the day I have seen you lie the most," Nightingale said after Taylor left.
"Who made the visitor the high priest of the church?" Roland spread his hands, "How about it, can you tell the other party's lies?"
"No, the scene around him was swallowed up by the God's Stone of Punishment, and I can only see a ball of darkness."
It's a pity that the high priest can't be treated like a noble, Roland thought regretfully. He put the two pills on the table. "You said, this thing is really as magical as they say."
As for relieving pain, morphine can do it. As for making soldiers stronger, it sounds like the effect of adrenaline. The problem is that if the church had the technology to extract these two substances into pills, it should have conquered the world long ago.
Wait, Roland suddenly thought of a possibility. Could it be related to magic
? "You can see the flow of magic, right?" He looked at Nightingale. "Is there magic on these two pills?"
Nightingale observed carefully for a while. "I can't see magic, but it looks a bit like the God's Stone of Punishment."
"God's Stone of Punishment" Roland was stunned.
"Well," she nodded, "you have also seen the world under the fog, there are only two colors, black and white, but that black is different from the darkness formed by the God's Stone of Punishment. The latter is more like a hole that swallows the surrounding world. I don't know how to describe that feeling." Nightingale hesitated, "Rather than saying that the hole is pitch black, it's better to say that there is nothing inside."
"Nothingness"
"Yes, it is nothingness," she nodded, "These two balls also have traces of nothingness, but they are extremely subtle, and they are not round holes, but more like sections of flowing black filaments."
"Can these nothingness affect your abilities?"
Nightingale grabbed the balls, spread the fog, and quickly retreated, "It seems to have no effect."
"It seems necessary to find a death row prisoner to try these two pills to see the effect," Roland carefully wrapped the balls with paper and put them in his arms.
"I didn't expect the church to think so highly of you," Nightingale sat back next to the prince, a little depressed.
"If the high priest didn't wear the Stone of Retribution, I bet nine out of ten of his statements would be lies." Roland curled his lips. "The most important point is that what they do and what they ask for don't match at all."
"Why?"
"Look at what they want: more churches, more believers, a prince or king supported by themselves, so that the propaganda of the divine right of kings can be confirmed. A stable country will be more conducive to their development of believers and power. Otherwise, with years of war, churches and monasteries will become targets of robbery by refugees and nobles."
"But aren't they attracted by your ability to bring a stable life to the people?"
"Not really," Roland shook his head. "Stability comes from unity or balance. Even if the king eats, drinks and has fun every day, the people of a unified country live better than refugees in the war. So it's not surprising that they support the second prince, it's not surprising that they support the third princess, but it's too strange that they come to support me, especially when Garcia won a great victory."
If the church fully supports Garcia at this time, I'm afraid that the capital and the eastern front will be swallowed up by her in less than half a year. By then, 70% of the land in the Kingdom of Graycastle will belong to the Queen of Blue Water. Roland thought that the pressure he would face would also increase greatly. Instead of helping the strong, they chose themselves who seemed to be the weakest at the moment. It seemed that the church's decision was in their favor. But if he accepted their support, the situation of the dispute between the two kings of Graycastle would become more chaotic. The direct consequence of staging a version of the Three Kingdoms in another world would be a sharp decline in population, a rapid loss of wealth, the spread of war to the whole country, and the delay of the date of unification.
What good would this do to the church? Not to mention expanding the number of believers, I'm afraid that all the churches built in various places would be demolished.