Once more he decided to use the Grand Hall as the meeting place.
The High Priest Tylo seemed to be around 40 years old. He was dressed in the typical church-style with a with a white underrobe and a blue robe above it, giving him a very neat appearance and a behavior that was just like a courteous aristocracy. If he wasn’t a member of the royal family and allied with the witches, Roland believed that holding a conversation which such a person would have been a pleasure.
As the High Priest he had to be in possession of a high-quality God’s Stone of Retaliation, so in order to avoid any accidents, Roland specifically told Nightingale before the meeting, that she should stay away from him during it.
After Tylo gave him a salute, Roland invited him to sit at the table and ordered some tea.
No matter what he thought, he had to at least show a welcoming atmosphere on the surface.
“Your Royal Highness, I’m here as a representative of the New Holy City,” Tylo said with a smile, “You have become the veritable master of the Western territory, may God bless you.”
“Thank you,” Roland said in a relaxed tone. “You do not seem to care at all that I’ve gotten rid of Duke Ryan and taken over Longsong Stronghold.”
“We rarely intervene in secular disputes, as long as the people can live a good life, he has to be a good ruler. So in which family he was born, or if he belonged to the royal family, it is not important to the Church. In fact, I think the church is much more open minded in this respect, previously I was only a farmer’s son, and now I have became a High Priest,” he smiled. “Excuse me, my Lord, but I don’t believe that a mere farmer could become a Duke, right?”
If he launched an uprising to overthrow the royal family, he can even become the King. Roland thought, so he never spoke it out, instead, he went straight for the topic, “So why did you come today, was it only to deliver the blessing?”
“The blessing was only part of what I have come for, I also want to offer a cooperation between us.”
“Cooperation? What kind of cooperation?”
“We would help you with whatever you need to expand your territory or your forces.”
“Hold on…” Roland frowned. “You just said that the Church rarely intervenes in secular disputes.”
“Rarely intervention doesn’t mean no intervention,” said the High Priest, still casually. “I have said that as long as the people in this world have a smooth and peaceful life, we will not intervene. But the struggle between your brother Timothy and your third sister Garcia has resulted in widespread poverty throughout the south. In the beginning, we thought that Timothy deserved it and would become a respected King, but now we think he isn’t any longer worthy, you are such a man.”
Roland got a thoughtful look, it seems the Church has the desire to help me fight for the throne. He subconsciously asked. “Why?”
“You lead the people of Border Town to resist the demon beasts, and spend the whole Months of the Demons with them in Border Town, this all proves your courage and ability. And from the large amount of food you purchased from Willow Town everyone can see do not want your people to starve, which shows your kindness. With this you have the three grandeur characteristics a noble should have, furthermore, you are even of royal blood. All this are the reason why we chose you.
Roland didn’t believe one word the High Priest said, but at least it proved that, even if Border Town was at the edge of the country and was an independent island-state during the winter, they were still under the close watch of the church.
“How would you help? Would you dispatch an Army of Judges to fight for me?”
“Even though we want to quell the warring state in the south as soon as possible, but if we were to do something like you suggested we would arouse the resentment of most of the nobility. So we can only help you materially,” the High Priest took two pill out of his pocket, one was black the other was red, on both the sigil of the Holy City had been etched, “This is our equivalent to the drugs produced in your Alchemy Square. The red pills will temporarily make your men stronger, while the black pill reduces the feeling of pain and coldness and instead increases their endurance by several times. With these drugs, your army should become unstoppable, and the Church would only charge you the production cost,” for a moment Tylo paused, “One gold royal. These two pills, can be presented to you as a test product to prove that my statement is the truth.”
“What is the reward you are hoping for? Expanding the reach of the Church and building churches in every territory?”
“Of course this would make us happy, but our main intention is to end the war. As long as the people can have a peaceful life, they will naturally come into God’s arms.
Roland accepted the offered pills. “This sounds amazing, but for the time being, I have no intention of competing for the crown of the Kingdom of Graycastle, Both Timothy and Garcia are my close relatives and I do not want to hurt them.”
“I can understand your point,” the High Priest smiled reassuringly, “but sometimes the bonds of family cannot stop the temptation of power, especially when you become only a stumbling stone on the road to power for others. These pills will only be the beginning, there are still many other possibilities of how we could help you. If you decide to take that step, you can always come to the Church to find me.” Having said all of this, he stood up, bent down in salute, “With this I have already informed you of the Church’s intentions, may God be with you, Your Royal Highness.”
Chapter 124 Return to Border Town
“I have probably never seen you lie as much as you have today,” Nightingale said as she stepped out from her fog right after Tylo has left.
“How was it for the Church’s High Priest,” Roland asked, “could you tell if he was lying?
“No, my sight was blocked by his God’s Stone of Retaliation, at the place where he was standing, I could only see a mass of darkness.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t treat the High Priest the same way that he has all the other nobles, Roland thought full of regret. He then placed the two pills on the table, “Tell me, do these pills really have some kind of miraculous effects?”
Reducing the pain, the same could be done by morphine, as for increasing the strength, it sounds like it increases the rate at which the adrenal gland releases hormones, the problem is how did they manage to extract these substances and make it into these pills? If the Church had such a high technical level, they should have conquered the world long ago.
Wait a minute… Roland suddenly thought of a possibility, could they have done it with magic?
“You are able to see the flow of magic, right?” He looked at Nightingale, “Can you see any traces of magic in these two pills?
Nightingale took the pills in her hand and gave them a close observation, but when she gave them back she could only say. “There is no magic to see, but for me, they resemble the God’s Stone of Retaliation a bit.”
“God Stone of Retaliation?” Roland asked in confusion.
“Well,” she nodded. “You were with me in my world of fog. It’s only black and white, but the darkness of the normal black and the darkness of the God’s Stone of Retaliation are different. From the latter, I sense a feeling of emptiness as if it was trying to swallow the world around it. I do not know how to better describe that feeling…” Nightingale hesitated. “Rather than speaking of a black hole, it’s more like there is nothing there at all.”
“Nothingness?”
“That’s right, they give off a feeling of nothingness,” she nodded acknowledging, “The two pills give me also a feeling of nothingness, but only very subtly, and… also it’s not a round hole, but rather a section of flowing thin black threads. ”
“Can this ‘nothingness’ affect your ability?”