Chapter 81: The Plan to Eat Alone

In this statement, George’s meaning was very clear. Such opportunities were very rare, and I already knew the true value of this matter very well. Now, as one party of the cooperation, our Bolerum Territory had shown the utmost sincerity. We hoped that the other party, the Church of the Just Lord, would not let us down.

The experienced High Priest Virginia, how could he not hear the other layer of meaning in George’s words just now? He did not respond immediately. Although his expression did not change, he was thinking about the pros and cons that might be involved in this all the time.

At the same time, George picked up his cup and drank some water, looking at High Priest Virginia with great interest. Even so, George’s heart was not necessarily calm. At this point, he actually seemed a bit anxious about the possible gains and losses. If the other party offered a price that was not actually very high but was hard for him to refuse, he would feel that he had lost out in some way. But if the other party offered a high price directly, George would suspect whether cooperating with such an organization led by such a leader was a good choice. In this state of anxiety about gains and losses, time passed second by second.

High Priest Virginia slightly moved the muscles of his face, let out a light sigh, and then spoke: “I would like to ask, do you have any requirements regarding the number of people and the list for participating in the law-making?”

‘It seems this old fox hasn’t thought of a suitable price yet. Asking this question is also to evaluate the specific value orientation. As expected, this fits the way of a person of his age to plan before acting.’ Knowing the other party’s purpose, George put down the cup in his hand and revealed the draft he had already prepared in his heart: “Regarding the number of people, we propose three candidates. As for the candidates, that is entirely an internal matter of your Church. As outsiders, we are not in a position to interfere in this.”

After knowing the conditions George had given, High Priest Virginia stroked his beard and thought for a moment. Although nothing could be seen from his facial expression, there was a subtle change in his eyes. This time was not long, and soon he sighed: “Three quotas? This is indeed a number of people who can do real work. I wonder how many of them our diocese’s strength can get.”

It seemed that this also involved competition and negotiation between different dioceses of the Church of the Just Lord. Originally, as an outsider, George was not very good at participating in this matter, but in this, George saw some opportunities to gain benefits for his own side. Of course, such a loophole was very obvious, and it was High Priest Virginia who exposed it to George himself. In a way, he dug a pit waiting for George to jump into it.

It could be said that such a pit would not cause any damage to George’s side in a certain sense. Perhaps it could also use this opportunity to make the Duchy of Nohan of the Church of the Just Lord bleed a little bit. Of course, it was not that there were no disadvantages at all. At least, Bolerum Territory would not be able to see the benefits that the other dioceses of the Church of the Just Lord might offer. At the same time, it would leave a mark of being close to the Nohan Diocese, which would have some impact on possible future cooperation in other aspects.

What to do specifically depended on George weighing the pros and cons himself. This could be said to be the most elementary open strategy. Although George knew High Priest Virginia’s plan, he was also a bit tempted. However, George would not make a decision without knowing the specific situation. He pretended not to know and asked: “Regarding the arrangement of these three quotas, are there any specific regulations in the Church? Is it not all selected from within the Nohan Diocese?”

“Of course, it is not just selecting personnel within our Nohan Diocese. Anyway, this is an opportunity that is hard to come out once in decades. It is simply impossible for our Nohan Diocese to swallow it all alone.” Finding an opportunity to grasp, High Priest Virginia immediately started to complain.

George, who had not gotten the news he wanted, continued to ask: “Oh! Are there any basic conditions or restrictions for the selected members?”

“Regarding the restrictions on selected members! Old guys like me who have already entered the Bronze Rank would not get too many benefits even if I participated again. And although the younger generation of the Red Iron Rank can gain a lot from it, the number of people in the Red Iron Rank within the Church is huge. Moreover, even if they gain benefits from this, whether they can advance to the Black Lead Rank is still uncertain. If the person who gets the opportunity fails to advance to the Black Lead Rank in the future, the loss would be huge. So, only the clergy of the Black Lead Rank can get such opportunities.” High Priest Virginia roughly explained the restrictions on personnel, and then immediately gave the candidates from the Nohan Diocese: “Do you remember Priest Gavin who received you before? Because he was the one who initiated this cooperation earliest, plus he also meets the basic requirement of the Black Lead Rank, he must take one of the quotas. If there are no unexpected accidents, one of the remaining two quotas has nothing to do with our Nohan Diocese. It is not that easy to eat alone.”

‘Is it really like this? No wonder Priest Gavin tried so hard to promote the Church’s participation in revising the legal provisions as soon as he heard about the cooperation. He even revealed the importance of this cooperation to the church members to me. It turns out he already knew he was one of those who could definitely benefit from this. However, having three Black Lead Rank clergy members enter Poitou at the same time is a troublesome matter!’ George, who understood the details, really frowned. Of course, the reason for this frown was not because of Priest Gavin, because he had done nothing wrong. First, what he revealed was not a secret matter of the Church, and this news also promoted George’s determination to cooperate with the Church of the Just Lord on this matter. It could be said that he made a small calculation beneficial to himself on the basis of helping the Church gain benefits. As the saying goes, if a man does not benefit himself, heaven will destroy him. Facing such temptation, only those of the Lawful Good alignment could put the organization’s interests first.

What really gave George a headache was what follow-up problems would be triggered by the sudden addition of three Black Lead strongmen in his territory. ‘If it were Red Iron Rank, although they could be considered the backbone of the Duchy of Nohan’s army, three of them would not attract much attention. And if it were Bronze Rank, no one would think that a mere Bolerum Territory could hire three of them. To outsiders, it would just be that the three stayed in Bolerum Territory temporarily due to their own reasons. But these three Black Lead Ranks were different. Their strength was enough to affect a war, and they were within the range that Bolerum Territory could bear. If it were usually, it would be fine, but now it is a time of trouble.’

“Eating alone is indeed not an easy thing. In this regard, I am afraid I cannot help you much.” After thinking it over again and again, George decisively rejected the possibility of trading in this aspect. At the same time, his heart was slightly bitter. ‘Originally, the sudden addition of three Black Lead was already troublesome enough. If the three came from different regions, it would be easy to make others believe in the explanation or other reasons. But if two of them came from the Nohan Diocese, it would be even more suspicious that there was some secret behind it. Plus, the enemy Kingdom of Lucia might have the enemies of the Church of the Just Lord interfering. I don’t know if the decision to cooperate this time is right or wrong.’

For this cooperation, George had already made preliminary preparations for two or three years, but so many things happened at the moment of the cooperation negotiation. This also let George learn a lot of news that he was not clear about in the past. But because of these unexpected events that were not considered, it obviously affected the safety of Bolerum Territory after the cooperation. Although it was not completely without impact if not done, the risk would rise sharply if the cooperation was made at this time. However, now that the negotiation about the cooperation had reached this point, stopping it would be too much loss for too little gain.

Hearing George’s obvious refusal, High Priest Virginia did not show much disappointment. It seemed that he had already had such a psychological preparation before George spoke. But he did not give up his efforts: “Is that so? Actually, our Church respects the will of the cooperating party very much. And I think any diocese will definitely pay a suitable price for this quota.”

This was clearly starting to bribe with benefits. First, he told George that as the cooperating party receiving the personnel, he had a significant influence on the personnel arrangement this time. It was almost clear that he could point fingers at one of the quotas himself. Then he revealed that any diocese was willing to pay a certain price for this, so of course, the Nohan Diocese was definitely included in this.

Unfortunately, George was not moved by this, so he had to reveal a little of his own difficulties to High Priest Virginia: “If there are no other problems, we will naturally try our best to help the Nohan Diocese. Anyway, the personnel ultimately responsible for cooperating with us are from the Nohan Diocese. But you should also know what impact it would have if multiple church members above the Black Lead Rank suddenly gathered in Bolerum Territory. If most of them came from the same diocese, it would be even harder to explain clearly. Even if we announced the true purpose widely, they would still wonder if we were doing something else behind the scenes while doing this openly. I think the reason why other lords refused to carry out this cooperation in the past was not without this factor in it. Think about it, when you arrange personnel to serve in a territory, you also need to make long-term preparations. For us, the problem of these three people is also a lot of trouble, so we have the heart but not the strength.”

After hearing George’s words, High Priest Virginia hurriedly explained: “In this regard, I forgot to consider for you. I also saw the opportunity to strengthen the Nohan Diocese and was a bit too excited for a moment.”

George said a bit embarrassedly: “This is only human nature! But I didn’t expect that participating in the construction of laws and regulations would also be effective for strongmen above the Black Lead Rank.”

“Of course! As long as it can be closer to the concept of God, it is the same for us regardless of strength. It is just a matter of good or bad effects. The lower the strength, the more obvious it is, but overall, it is most helpful to the Black Lead Rank. You also know that it is not the same as your Knights who rely entirely on themselves. A large part of our ability comes from Divine Grace, and only by following the path closer to God can we better accept Divine Grace.” High Priest Virginia patiently explained this to George.

Although George could not give the Nohan Diocese an extra quota, it was still possible to give them a chance to do a favor: “Although we cannot directly help the Nohan Diocese on the quota of candidates, we have no connection with members of other dioceses. Whether it is suitable or not, please let High Priest Virginia spend a little more time on this.”

“This is easy to say. I will definitely help you choose the most suitable candidate. You must have your own requirements in this regard, right.” For High Priest Virginia, this was a not-so-small pie. Most importantly, he felt the goodwill sent by George from this.

George was straightforward and stated his requirements: “There are no other special requirements. The most important thing is that he cannot have a hot temper. Anyway, in the process of formulating legal provisions, it is inevitable that some differences will appear. Even if there are parts that do not agree with the Dogma of the Lord of Justice, our officials may also propose them. In this situation, the first thing to do is to eliminate differences and seek common ground while reserving differences. If the temper is bad, not to mention, it would not be as simple as just quitting. At that time, it might even lead to direct fighting.”

High Priest Virginia thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: “That is indeed correct. We need to find some calmer people. And if there is a possibility of serious conflict with the Dogma, it is best not to have members of the Paladin side participate. Although it is unlikely to be a momentary heat of the brain, the possibility of conflict due to other problems is still very high.”

George unconsciously gave High Priest Virginia a high hat: “In short, I entrust this matter to you. I think with your identity and experience, you will definitely do a good job.”

“Entrusting this to us will not be wrong.” High Priest Virginia did not mind the compliments that came to him.

George stroked his hair and said a bit embarrassedly: “I think the time is already late now. In the specific details, our family will arrange special personnel to introduce later. Please do not mind this aspect.”

“Oh! Will you not participate in the subsequent negotiations, Lord?” Although this news came very suddenly, High Priest Virginia only showed a little confusion.

“This is the order of my father. It seems he does not hope that I will spend too much time on this aspect. But even if I cannot come personally, I will keep an eye on the progress of this aspect at any time.” George said the reason with a helpless expression. “The time is already late now. I will send someone to contact you for the time of the next negotiation.”

“Then, happy cooperation.”

“Happy cooperation.”