In the ashram to the east of Brinoll Cathedral, Archbishop Lazarus sits on a long sofa.

At the side of the bishop leaned a young and beautiful female priest. On the coffee table in front of the two of them was a set of rare and gorgeous jewelry.

"These blue diamond earrings are so beautiful, they must be expensive, right?" the priestess fell into the archbishop's arms.

"My little liver, if you like it, take it. This set of jewelry was given by the Count of Caguera, and we don't need to spend a copper sol. Lazarus laughed, and reached into the priestess's robe, playing with the delicate, round thighs.

"You put it on for me...... With one hand. The priestess, with her eyes as silky and her cheeks as dizzy, twisted her body slightly and clamped the archbishop's hand between her two slender and powerful thighs.

"Good. Good. Lazarus smiled lewdly, and with only one hand hung the earring on the earlobe of the priestess, and with no dexterity did not look like an old man in his sixties, and his body was fat.

"Tuk" "Du" "Du"

A long and short knock at the door disturbed the Bishop's interest, and as soon as he furrowed his bald brow, a familiar voice came from outside the door.

"Lord Lazarus, Viscount Randall asks to see you. ”

The archbishop reluctantly withdrew his hand from the priestess's robe, shook his head and sighed, "The last thing I want to see is Viscount Randall, and now I have to see it again." ”

"Master, I'll serve you to change your clothes. The priestess smiled and stood up, opened the closet in the room, and took out the cardinal's uniform from it.

"Wait......" Lazarus thought for a moment and said, "Renee, prepare me the best dress." ”

The priestess Reess took out a set of luxurious gold-rimmed spider silk robes and asked in surprise, "Is this the case?"

Seeing that the archbishop nodded in confirmation, the priestess gently and obediently changed his clothes for him. Before leaving the door, Lazarus stopped and said to the priestess, "Rise, you will also come out to see Viscount Randall in a moment." ”

"I ...... Do I wear a gown, can I wear these jewelry?" Rise's eyes lit up as she gestured in surprise at the jewelry on the coffee table. It was the first time Lazarus had publicly introduced her identity to a nobleman, and the significance was extraordinary. Of course, Rhys was willing to go with her husband and let everyone know that she was now the Archbishop's wife.

"No! you wear a priest's robe. Lazarus walked out of the room without looking at the priestess's collapsed face.

Victor stood in the main hall of the Cathedral in the center of Blinor, with a sword-wielding angel statue in front of him. The 4.7-metre-tall statue is carved entirely from white glazed rock and is set with 12 white crystals and 24 pure rubies, which alone are worth no less than 30,000 gold soles. As for its artistic value, it is not as attractive as the purple gold coin to Victor. Of course, it seemed to the church attendants that Lord Randall was admiring this beautiful angel statue with an artist's eye.

All believed that the elven blood nobles were born artists.

The sound of slight footsteps reached Victor's ears, and he turned his head to see an old man entering the prayer hall escorted by two paladins. After a slight hesitation, Victor knelt down and saluted, "Good day, Your Excellency, Archbishop." ”

The half-kneeling of the human kingdom is an honor, and the noble knights are only qualified to kneel when they meet the lord. Victor gave the Archbishop the Radiant Lord, not Lazarus himself, symbolizing the favor of the Radiant Lord. Lazarus stepped forward and helped Victor up, and said kindly, "Victor, you have grown up. ”

The cardinal gave Victor a strange feeling. Lazarus was the officiant of Victor and Sophia, and in the young baron's memory, the Cardinal was a kind, holy, wise, majestic, self-disciplined, and revered priest. And the old man in front of Victor's eyes, who was not good-looking, short and fat, half-bald on the top of his head, and wore a luxurious silk robe, did not talk about the Lord of Radiance, but pulled him close to him like a rich merchant of the philistine.

Lazarus smiled at the overwhelmed Victor and said to himself, "This angel seems to have been carved by me, what do you think?"

"I am amazed by your skill. ”

No matter what impression this old man gives Victor, he is the most influential, highest-status, and most powerful figure in Gambis. Victor will not forget the purpose of this trip, and the fart must be filmed, not to mention that the carver of this angel statue really deserves such praise.

"Victor, you've been looking for me several times, what the hell is going on?" Lazarus asked kindly, patting the angel statue.

"For the sake of the Centaur Hills Parish. ”

Victor froze and said respectfully: "Your Excellency, the population of the Centaur Hills has fully reached the standard of a single diocese, and the Governor of York has applied many times, but there has been no follow-up. This time, the Duke of York has entrusted me to make an application to you in person for the establishment of the Diocese of Centaur Hill. The people of the Centaur Hills need a bishop!" said Victor, handing over a parchment letterhead.

Lazarus took the letterhead but did not open it, he said slowly: "I am from the Eastern Union, my grandfather was a stonemason, my father was also a stonemason, and they passed on the stonemason craft to me. As a sign of devotion to my Lord, I spent three years carving this angel with my own hands. Whenever I see this statue, I am proud of my piety. But now, carving angel statues has become something I regret. ”

"This angel statue is made of a single piece of white glazed rock and is set with expensive crystals and rubies, and at current prices, it should not be less than 20,000 gold soles. Lazarus tugged at the silk robe on his body and said, "Look at this garment, it is woven from the silk of the red-headed spiders in the Dusk Forest, it is very well made, and it is worth 600 gold soles. Isn't it extravagant?"

"I also think it's a luxury, how much food can I buy with so much money, how much leather armor can I make, how many orphans can I feed? When I carved the angel statue with my own hands, it was actually to save the church 20 gold soles. Without waiting for Victor to reply, the archbishop continued: "After I became a cardinal and took charge of the affairs of the kingdom of Gambis, I learned that white glazed rock is only stone, gems are only gems, spider silk is only spider silk, gold is gold, no matter how beautiful they are, no matter how valuable they are, they cannot be turned into grain, leather jackets, cattle and sheep, armor and weapons. I saved 20 gold soles for the church, but I took away the stonemason's wages. This wage is equivalent to a year's income for a family of stonemasons. ”

"Before, I could not understand the extravagant life of the aristocracy. Now, I myself have begun to wear the most expensive silk fabrics. For this robe fed the silk pickers, the weavers, the coachmen, the shopkeepers, and the tailors. Lazarus smiled and asked, "Son, do you know why?"

Victor was surprised and strange at the same time, he did not expect that Archbishop Lazarus would have such insight and communicate with himself in the tone of teaching his juniors. Victor didn't remember that he had such a deep friendship with the archbishop, but at this time he could only answer in his tone.

"Extravagance is not a sin, waste is!"

Now it was Lazarus's turn to be surprised, and Victor's succinct sentence accurately stated what he had only grasped for decades.

This intelligence has transcended the age limit, can he really become the second Ravin?

Thinking of this, Lazarus became more and more amiable: "Yes! I want everyone to have enough to eat, warm clothes to wear, and live in strong houses, but we don't have so much land to cultivate, and many people have to find other ways to make a living, and they make a living by logging, mining, hunting, building roads, and doing handicrafts...... Ultimately, it's because the orcs have encroached on our land. ”

Victor vaguely knew what the archbishop wanted to say, and he smiled elegantly: "The centaur hills can reclaim a lot of farmland. ”

"The Centaur Hill is almost 200,000 square kilometers in size, and we also attach great importance to the development of that land. Lazarus nodded, and then said, "How many people can be supported by the land of the Centaur hills? 300,000 or 400,000? Do you know how many people Gambis have? Let me tell you, the total number of displaced and registered people in Gambis is not less than 1.7 million! At its peak, it is more than 2 million. ”

"Can the land of the Centaur Hills be doubled enough to feed so many people?" the archbishop raised his hand to stop Victor's defense, and continued, "I know that Master Edwin has made great achievements in promoting the production method of deep cultivation and raising pigs and cattle in the Centaur Hills. However, the land in the south is congenitally insufficient, the crops are harvested once a year, and the wheat cultivation cycle is as long as 12 months. In times of scarcity, the registered people relied on gathering and hunting for their livelihoods. But what about the outcasts, will the lords let them gather and hunt?"

Victor shook his head. Destructive gathering can only bring everyone to the end together, in fact, without the presence of the lord, the lord will take drastic measures against the poaching and poaching of the outcasts.

"The Sasangan Empire is different, where the barley is harvested twice a year, and the yield is about 600 pounds per mu. The Sassan people did not only produce food to feed the displaced people of Gambis, but the other kingdoms also depended on the green barley of Sassan. ”

Lazarus laughed at himself: "To tell you the truth, I have levied the tithing tax in Gambis for 15 years, and I have never carried a grain of grain from the pilgrimage to the holy city. Instead, he asked the Holy See for help every year. ”

"Of course, the royal family and lords of Gambis also paid a great price to feed the surplus population. Lazarus did not forget that his ass was sitting on that side, but he still had to show Victor the difficulties of the Church: "The green wheat in the north is important to us, but the eastern part of the Sassan Empire is in danger of facing the threat of the beastmen. If the Sassan Empire is defeated by the Orcs, we will lose the largest grain producing area. ”

However, the Sassan Empire never accepted the exiles, and continued to wage wars to annex the Three Kingdoms. Victor said unceremoniously: "The orcs threaten the safety of the Sassan Empire, and the Centaur Hills are also at risk of being captured by the Ant-Man army. It turns out that Ant-Man's war capabilities far surpass those of orcs. ”

The lords of the Three Kingdoms often blamed the Church for favoritism in favor of the Sassangian Empire, but it was not the Sassanian who refused to accommodate the Wanderers, the fact was that the weak Wanderers simply had no way to cross the steppes between the Kingdom of Dordor and the Sassan Empire. The elusive gnolls are very fond of tasting the flesh and blood of travelers. As for the war between the two sides, it is not worth refuting at all, if the Sassanian people do not launch a war of annexation, will they wait for the three kingdoms to unify and grow, and then wave their army north to conquer the city?

Lazarus wasn't prepared to refute such a fallacy, and he was extra patient with Victor: "But Ant-Man doesn't kill on his own initiative, does he?"

"Orcs and monsters are different from the dull Ant-Men, they are savage and intelligent, and they can form powerful centaur khanates or ogre kingdoms, and they also have tenacious gnolls and bandits that can be killed no matter how they are. On top of that, the orcs were nearly wiped out by the mad wizards, who saw us humans as enemies of life and death. These ferocious beasts are far more dangerous than Ant-Man!"

"Victor, the church has a limited number of people. The construction of the Centaur Hill Diocese can only be done slowly, at least for now. Lazarus sighed and said helplessly, "I am already old, and I will soon return to the Holy City to report and then teach the new priests in the monastery." The four bishops of Gambis are staring at my position, do you think they will go up to the Centaur Hills to preside over the affairs of the church at this juncture?"

Victor was silent, no one but himself knew how terrible the endless stream of Ant-Man was. However, Victor did not want the church to establish a new diocese in the Centaur Hills, and the Yorks were extremely keen to facilitate this.

The church needs to harvest the faith, and the priests stationed in the jurisdiction of course want the population to be as large as possible, and they will spare no effort to assist the lord, stabilize the people's hearts, provide medical assistance, apply for relief supplies, and if necessary, lead the paladins against the invasion of monsters. Of course, the priest would also levy a tithe-tax to prevent the lord from expelling the surplus homeless, but the hills were not rich, and the villagers were burdened with labor and low income, and the Yorkists were worried about the exodus. Although the church has exempted the Yorkist family from the titheflower tax for three years, wouldn't it be better if the church could increase its support and send more supplies to feed more villagers?

Although each of the vassal families of the York family has a resident priest, how can the energy of an ordinary priest be compared to that of a bishop? Anyway, the church always wants to open a new diocese in the hills, so it is better to take the initiative to apply and use the connections of the new bishop to reap more benefits.

The church clearly didn't intend to let the Yorks take advantage of them too much, which was expected by Sylvia, and Victor was just playing a trick.

"Your Excellency, I understand the difficulties of the Church. However, Centaur Hills has to build three giant fortresses to defend against Ant-Man's attack. The lack of young and strong labor is the main reason hindering the progress of the project. We intend to bring in displaced people from other territories to make up for the shortfall in manpower. Victor secretly observed Lazarus's expression and continued: "We can solve the food problem on our own, but Madame Sylvia hopes that you will come forward to persuade the priests stationed in other territories to give some convenience. ”

In the same way, priests everywhere do not want the exodus of the population from their jurisdictions. Victor and Sylvia devise a strategy to bring in the outcasts, and the lords will definitely raise their hands in agreement, but this also touches the interests of the priests stationed there. The lords had far less influence on the displaced people than the priests, and the crooked lips of the priests would seriously hinder the migration plans.

Silvia's solution was to ask Archbishop Lazarus to intervene to facilitate the matter, which was why Victor asked to see the Archbishop.

Lazarus's request was a surprise to Lazarus, and he babbled for a long time not just to complain. In fact, Lazarus had long expected that Victor had come to establish the Centaur Hill Diocese, and he was not prepared to accede to the Yorkist family's request. Yesterday's news made Lazarus change his mind, the establishment of the Centaur Hill Diocese is impossible, and the four bishops under his command will not give up the opportunity to be promoted to archbishop. Lazarus was going to give Centaur Hills more aid, not for Sylvia, but to sell Victor a favor and get in touch with him.

Don't help and resettle the displaced people on your own?! This is a betrayal of favors, and it is clearly a debt of favors!

While the archbishop was distressed, the priestess Rose stepped out. Lazarus saw Victor's surprised look and made up his mind.

Since I owe you a favor, I owe a little more!

The archbishop beckoned to Rose and smiled, "Victor, let me introduce you, this is my wife, Pastor Rise. ”

The female pastor looks like she is in her twenties, tall and slender, with almond eyes and peach cheeks, and looks holy and beautiful in her priest's regular clothes. As she leaned down to the archbishop's side, the archbishop patted her hand warmly. This strong contrast between youth and decrepit decrepit old age reminded Victor of the simple Bishop Perro, and his eyes couldn't help but show a hint of disapproval.

"Good day, ma'am. Victor quickly collected the emotion in his eyes and saluted the priestess.

"Your Excellency Viscount Randall, may the glory of the Lord of Light bless you. Rose said happily.

Ress couldn't help but be overjoyed by the title of Madame, and she grabbed the archbishop's arm tightly, not seeing the disdain in Victor's eyes at all, but Lazarus saw it clearly, and he smiled and said, "When you are old, there must always be someone by your side." Luckily, Rose was willing to follow me, the old man. ”

"Unfortunately, my time is short, and I only have 300 gold soles a year, and I don't know what I can leave for Ress in the future?" said Archbishop Lazarus, with a sad face.

Open bribery?!

The corners of Victor's eyes twitched, he took out the money bag from his waist, squeezed out a smile and handed it over: "How can I let you worry about this little thing, this is my little heart." ”

Lazarus took the money bag, smiled, and said affectionately: "Child, I will accept your wishes." I know your affairs too, don't worry! I'll take care of it. ”

"Thank you, Your Excellency, then I will retire. ”

Victor smiled wryly and saluted, intending to leave, but Lazarus stopped him.

"Victor, Sophia is in a bit of trouble. I can't give you the specifics, but it's not a big problem. ”

Victor nodded silently, bowed, and turned away, not continuing to ask for news from Sophia.

When Victor walked out of the central cathedral, Rose opened her wallet, which contained 10 purple gold coins. She frowned and said, "Master, isn't this very good?"

Lazarus has a prominent status, a high position, and has always had a good degree of food and clothing, and has always been the nobles who take the initiative to give gifts. Rhys had been with Lazarus for two years, and this was the first time she had seen the archbishop ask for a bribe, and it was a mere 1,000 gold soles, and the jewels in the room were far more than that, and Lazarus didn't even lift his eyelids when Count Cagera sent them.

"You don't understand, Viscount Randall is different from ordinary knight nobles!" Lazarus said lightly.

"What's the difference?"

Rose shook Lazarus's arm slightly, sneering. Lazarus glanced at her coldly, and Reese seemed to be splashed with a basin of cold water, and suddenly remembered that the old man next to him was a cardinal archbishop, a level 5 priest, and there were 4 bishops, 8 ruling warriors, more than 200 priests, and 3,000 holy warriors, even if the king saw him, he would be polite. Rhys immediately let go of Lazarus' arm and stepped aside tremblingly.

Rose was so frightened that her hands were twisted together uneasily, and she shrunk there like a quail, and looked very pitiful. Lazarus's heart softened when he thought of his dead wife and the eldest son of the paladin who had died in battle.

The clergy are also flesh-and-blood people, the church never advocates abstinence, and those clergy who cannot see through the essence of the doctrine cannot cross the 5-level moat. When Lazarus was promoted to a high-ranking priest, he already had an insight that as long as the festival did not lose money, the high-ranking clergy could enjoy the beauty of fine clothes like nobles. This is the authority given to the high clergy by the first popes.

Since the death of his wife, Lazarus has had several young and beautiful priest lovers, all of whom have been helped by him to a greater or lesser extent, but none of them have become archbishops' wives. If it weren't for the fact that Victor would understand the nature of the church, Lazarus wouldn't have planned to make Rose his wife.

Now, Lazarus doesn't mind pointing out his little wife.

"Rise, you see. The knightly nobles had no religious beliefs, and the great lords did not want to deal with a serious priest. The lords need us, we need the populace, and the populace needs not only us, but also knights. Therefore, let's not put on a saintly face in front of the great lords, which will only push them further and further. ”

Lazarus's gentle tone made Rhys relax, and she asked, "Is Viscount Randall also a high lord?"

He ...... Not yet. Lazarus shook his head with a groan, and sighed, "But he will understand one day." ”

"Do you value him?" asked Ress cautiously.

"Important?! It can only be said that he values his potential. Lazarus shook his head and nodded, and said, "If he grows to the level of legend that day, and remembers that I have pretended to be in front of him, he may misunderstand the church." In that way, it is better to let him understand early that we are not only one with the people, but also with the nobility. Anyway, it's not a big deal. ”

Lazarus looked into Ress's eyes and admonished, "Ress, it's not necessarily a good thing for you to be my wife. You'll have to put in more effort than normal people to move up to your magic level. There is no way to get close to my lord by drilling camp alone!"

"By the way, write a letter to Perrot and tell him that I will see Miller's report as soon as possible!"