Rose Empire

Chapter 17 The Bishop's Business and the Southern Alliance

While preaching for the Lord, the archbishops of the church also enjoy selling goods.

This is a well-known fact.

For example, the archbishop of the Isis diocese likes to sell holy emblems, small pendants worn around the neck; the archbishop of the Byron diocese enjoys selling palm-sized statues of deities, reportedly carved by his own hands before bed each night; and the archbishop of the Lune diocese, Metlan Contao, sells tattered copies of the "Canon"...

It is said that every "Canon" sold by Metlan Contao was a gift from an old priest when the archbishop was still an apprentice. Each "Canon" has accompanied the archbishop through decades of life, each annotated by the archbishop himself, and each worn out by his own hands. Perhaps even the stains on the pages are from the archbishop's own nose-picking during late-night readings...

Damn!

Every time Charlotte thinks about how much money she spent on such a piece of junk, she feels upset.

But could she have not bought it?

No, at least not for Charlotte.

Don't be fooled by Pastor Fado's nervousness around Charlotte; it's just because he hasn't seen much of the world. In reality, as the chief pastor within the viscountcy, Fado holds a status nearly equal to Charlotte's. If there's anyone in Lanwan Viscounty that the Viscount cannot control, it would undoubtedly be Fado.

Because the royal family of the Orlan Empire is very devout, the conflict between ecclesiastical and secular powers within the empire is not too intense. However, looking abroad, the situation is not so harmonious, such as in the Kingdom of Lesare to the west of Lanwan Viscounty.

The Kingdom of Lesare was once an empire. The grandfather of the current king, Fosse Tenhag, Kumer Tenhag, once held the crown. Kumer Tenhag himself detested the church. During his reign, he enacted laws prohibiting knights from praying during war, forbidding priests from discussing state affairs, and banning church intervention in marriages, among other measures, which ignited the conflict between secular and ecclesiastical powers in the Lesare Empire.

The Pope at the time, Hunlin I, was already very old and had long been inactive. However, faced with the emperor's provocation, he still demonstrated extremely tough measures. He announced seventeen crimes of Kumer Tenhag, including incest with his mother, dealings with demons, and cannibalism, declaring Kumer Tenhag an unclean one, forsaken by the gods.

Just a single papal decree of condemnation caused Kumer Tenhag to lose all support overnight. Under pressure from growing opposition both domestically and abroad, Kumer Tenhag had no choice but to submit. He walked barefoot in the depths of winter to the holy city of Moyes and underwent a ritual of purification presided over by Pope Hunlin I in the Cathedral of Saint Moyes, the cold water of purification nearly freezing the emperor to death.

After the purification ritual, the Pope publicly removed Kumer Tenhag's crown. From then on, the Lesare Empire became the Kingdom of Lesare.

This is the power of the church.

If the chief pastor of Lanwan Viscounty were not someone of humble origins like Fado, but someone else, they might not take Charlotte seriously. Even Fado, without Metlan Contao's tattered "Canon," Charlotte would likely only be able to request his assistance in the future, not command him to do anything.

With this "Canon," the situation is different.

Are the wise archbishops merely selling goods?

No, they are selling social connections.

With Contao's "Canon" in hand, Charlotte essentially has Metlan Contao saying, "This is my person, everyone, do me a favor and take care of her."

In the entire Lune diocese, is there any priest who dares not give Contao face?

Countryman Fado thinks, no!

While Charlotte and Fado are having a pleasant conversation, the teams sent out by Jack Moore to invite knights to the banquet are also on their way back.

"Brother, why do you think the emperor suddenly ennobled a new Viscount of Lanwan? We don't even know when the previous Viscount of Lanwan died," a young man riding a war horse and dressed in a deep blue velvet suit asked his companion.

"Why do you care when he died? It's always someone from the Mellefield family becoming the Viscount of Lanwan, it makes no difference to us," the companion replied indifferently.

These two are Costa Scamario and Eric Scamario, they are cousins, Costa is the younger brother, and Eric is the older brother.

At the same time, both brothers are knights of Lanwan Viscounty, with their knight's fief located more than twenty kilometers southeast of the lord's castle, the standard "southern knights" as Fado described.

"How can there be no difference? Lanwan Viscounty is so poor, the viscount doesn't even have any land left, what if the new viscount wants to take over our business?" Costa reminded his brother.

"Then we'll just return the viscount's land to the new viscount."

It turns out that Charlotte had a slight misunderstanding about Basilic Mellefield, or rather, underestimated the extent of Basilic's incompetence.

The former Viscount of Lanwan did not actually sell off all the viscount's land; a large portion of it had been encroached upon by his knights. Viscount Basilic rarely managed the affairs of his fief from a young age, and after moving to Platinum City, he completely forgot about his territory, so he never knew that his subordinates had "stolen" a lot of land from him.

Eric still looks completely unconcerned: "Don't overthink it, the Mellefield family is a great noble house, they've seen everything, how could they covet our little business."

"Didn't Basilic also have the surname Mellefield? Didn't he try to take over our business before?"

Costa became anxious, he couldn't understand why his usually astute brother had suddenly become so naive. What does it matter if they're a great noble house? Don't great nobles also desire wealth? Men die for wealth, and birds die for food, who can be exempt from this? "Brother, do you still want to go back to farming?"

Eric continued to reassure his brother not to worry, seeing his brother so carefree only made Costa more frustrated.

Until they reached a T-junction, Costa suddenly saw a dozen horses, several carriages, about twenty well-dressed, even splendid men, and their servants and attendants resting at the junction.

"Uncle Christopher, Uncle Richards, Brother Adams..." Costa greeted them in surprise, "Why are you all here?"

These were all knights from the southern part of Lanwan Viscounty, they often interacted with each other and were even related by blood. Costa, being the youngest knight in the south, considered all these men his uncles and elder brothers.

"Of course, we're waiting for you," the man Costa called Uncle Christopher stood up and responded, "Costa, Eric, you've finally arrived."

"Waiting for us?" Costa was somewhat confused.

"Haha..." Eric laughed and described Costa's behavior along the way.

After hearing this, all the uncles and elder brothers burst into laughter.

The knight named Adams patted Costa on the shoulder and said, "Your brother is right, you really don't need to worry, Costa."

"Ah?"

Costa was even more puzzled by everyone's laughter, and finally, the kind and elderly Knight Christopher explained it to him.

It turned out that when Basilic first left Lanwan Viscounty, Eric Scamario had already foreseen the current situation. As long as the title of Viscount of Lanwan existed, the emperor or the Mellefield family might replace him with a new viscount. So he had secretly organized all the southern knights into a "Southern Alliance" to protect the interests of the southerners in the event of a new lord's arrival.

"There are more than fifty knights in the south, as long as we stand united, even the viscount will not dare to ignore our wishes! The south will always be ours!" Eric said with confidence.

Costa was thrilled to hear this, he couldn't help but complain: "Brother, you had such a good plan all along, why didn't you tell me? I'm not a child anymore, I'm also a southern knight!"

"Haha, right, right, Costa is not a child anymore, Eric you should have told him," Christopher patted Costa on the shoulder, then suddenly laughed and said, "Costa, the new viscount is the daughter of the Duke of Greenfield, she must be a rare beauty in the countryside of Lanwan. Costa, you're young and handsome, you should definitely try to win the lady's heart. If you can capture her, our south will be completely safe."

"This..."

Young Costa's face immediately turned red.

"Costa, if you don't want her, then the viscountess is mine," Adams also joined in the fun, "I heard the lady inherited a lot from her mother, marrying her would probably set me up for life."

"Who, who says I don't want her, the lady is definitely mine!" Costa, with a red face, waved his fist and loudly declared to Adams.

"Hahaha..."

The surrounding southern knights, watching the young men's antics, all burst into joyful laughter, as if there was truly nothing that could worry them.

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