Chapter 229

Archbishop Lazarus sits on a couch in the penthouse to the east of brinor cathedral.

The bishop leaned against a young and beautiful female priest. A set of rare and gorgeous jewelry was placed on the tea table in front of them.

"These blue diamond earrings are so beautiful. They must be very expensive?" The priestess fell into the arms of the archbishop and became charming.

"My sweetheart, take it if you like. This set of jewelry is from count cagra. We don't need to spend a copper sol." Lazarus laughed, put his hand into the priest's robe and played with her delicate and round thighs.

"You help me put it on... With one hand." The female priest winked like silk, and her peach cheeks fainted. She gently twisted her body and clamped the Archbishop's hand between her two slender and powerful thighs.

"OK. OK." Lazarus smiled obscene. With only one hand, he hung the earrings on the female priest's earlobe. His movements were dexterous and completely unlike a fat old man over sixty.

"Benedict" "Benedict" "Benedict"

The long and short knock on the door disturbed the Bishop's interest. As soon as he wrinkled his bald eyebrows, a familiar voice came from the door.

"Lord Lazarus, viscount Randall asked to see you."

The Archbishop reluctantly took his hand from the woman priest's skirt, shook his head and sighed, "the last thing I want to see is Viscount Randall. Now I have to see him again."

"Sir, I'll serve you to change your clothes." The priestess stood up with a smile, opened the wardrobe in the room and took out the cardinal's uniform.

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

Reverend Reese took out a luxurious golden border spider silk robe again and asked in surprise, "is it this one?"

Seeing the Archbishop nodding to confirm, the female priest gently changed his clothes. Before going out, Lazarus stopped and said to the priestess, "Reese, come out and meet Viscount Randall later."

"I... do I wear a dress, too? Can I wear these jewelry?" Reese's eyes lit up and she was surprised to draw the jewelry on the tea table. This is the first time Lazarus has publicly introduced her identity to the nobility, which is of extraordinary significance. Of course, Reese would like to follow her husband and let everyone know that she is now the Archbishop's wife.

"No! You wear the priest's uniform." Lazarus went out of the room without looking at the priest's broken face.

Victor stood with his hands down in the main hall of brinor central cathedral. In front of him was a statue of an angel with a sword. The lifelike statue is 4.7 meters high and carved with white glaze rock. It is inlaid with 12 white crystals and 24 pure rubies. The value of these materials alone will not be less than 30000 gold sols. As for its artistic value, it is not as attractive to Victor as purple gold coins. Of course, in the eyes of the church attendants, Lord Randall is appreciating this exquisite angel with the eyes of an artist.

Everyone believes that the Elven blood aristocrats are born artists.

A slight sound of footsteps came into Victor's ears. He turned and saw an old man enter the prayer hall under the escort of two Paladins. After a little hesitation, Victor half knelt down and saluted, "good day, archbishop."

The semi kneeling ceremony of the human kingdom is an honor. Noble knights are qualified to kneel when they meet the Lord. Victor saluted the Archbishop representing the Lord of glory, not Lazarus himself, which symbolized the Lord of glory's care. Lazarus stepped forward, helped Victor up and said kindly, "Victor, you've grown up."

The cardinal gave Victor a strange feeling. Lazarus used to be the marriage leader of Victor and Sophia. In the little Baron's memory, the cardinal is a kind, holy, wise, dignified, self-discipline and respected priest. The old man in front of Victor was ugly, short and fat, half bald, wearing a luxurious silk robe. Instead of talking about the Lord of glory, he drew close to him like a rich merchant of Philistines.

Lazarus smiled at Victor at a loss and said to himself, "this angel looks like I carved it myself. What do you think?"

"It's amazing. I'm amazed at your skill."

No matter what impression the old man gave Victor, he was the most influential, highest and most powerful figure in Gambis. Victor will never forget the purpose of this trip. He has to flatter. Moreover, the sculptor of this angel really deserves such praise.

"Victor, you've been to me several times. Why on earth?" Lazarus asked kindly, taking a picture of the angel.

"For the people's hills parish."

Victor calmed down and said respectfully, "archbishop, the population of Renma Hill fully meets the standard of establishing a separate diocese. The governor of York has applied for many times, but there has been no following. This time, the Duke of York entrusted me to apply to you for the establishment of Renma Hill diocese. The people of Renma Hill need a bishop!" With that, Victor handed over a sheepskin stationery.

Lazarus took the letter but did not unfold it. He said slowly: "I was born in the Eastern League. My grandfather was a stonemason, and my father was also a stonemason. They passed on the stonemason craft to me. In order to express my piety to my Lord, I spent three years carving this angel statue myself. Whenever I saw this statue, I was proud of my piety. But now, carving an angel statue has become something I regret. ”

"The angel statue is made of a whole piece of white glaze rock, inlaid with expensive crystals and rubies. According to the current price, it should not be less than 20000 gold sols." Lazarus pulled his spider silk robe and said, "look at this dress. It is woven from the silk of the red headed spider in the evening forest. It is well made and worth 600 gold sol. Is it very luxurious?"

"I also feel very luxurious. 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 myself, I was actually trying to save the church 20 kinsol wages." Without waiting for Victor's answer, the Archbishop continued: "When I became a cardinal and took charge of the academic affairs of the kingdom of Gambis, I realized that white glaze rock was just stone, gem was just gem, spider silk was just spider silk, and gold was gold. No matter how beautiful and valuable they were, they could not be turned into food, fur coats, cattle, sheep, armor and weapons. I saved 20 golden sols for the church, but took the stonemason's wages. This money Equivalent to a year's income for the stonemason family. "

"Before, I couldn't understand the extravagant life of aristocrats. Now, I began to wear the most expensive silk fabrics myself, because this robe fed silk pickers, weavers, Coachmans, shop assistants and tailors." Lazarus smiled and asked, "child, do you know why?"

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

"Luxury is not a sin, waste is a sin!"

It was Lazarus's turn to be surprised. Victor's simple and shocking sentence accurately expressed the truth he had only understood for decades.

This intelligence has exceeded the age limit. Can he really become the second delavin?

Lazarus became more amiable at the thought of this: "That's right! I want everyone to have enough to eat, wear warm clothes and live in strong houses, but we don't have so much land to cultivate. Many people have to find another way to live. They live by logging, mining, hunting, building roads and doing handicrafts. In order to have a job, they often run around and suffer from displacement... In the final analysis, this is because Because the orcs invaded our land. "

Victor vaguely knew what the Archbishop wanted to say. He smiled gracefully: "man horse hills can cultivate a lot of farmland."

"The man horse hill is almost 200000 square kilometers in size. We also attach great importance to developing that land." Lazarus nodded and said, "how many people can the land of the horse hill feed? 300000? 400000? Do you know how many people there are in Gambis? I tell you, the total number of refugees and registered people in Gambis is no less than 1.7 million! At most, it is more than 2 million."

"Can the land of the man horse hills be doubled to feed so many people?" The Archbishop raised his hand to stop Victor's argument and continued: "I know that master Edwin has made great achievements in promoting the production mode of deep ploughing, pig raising and cattle herding in the human horse hills. However, the land in the south is congenitally insufficient. The crops are ripe once a year, and the wheat planting cycle is as long as 12 months. When there is no time to catch up, the registered people rely on gathering and hunting for a living. But what about the refugees? Will the Lord let them collect and hunt? ”

Victor shook his head. Destructive gathering can only end everyone together. In fact, without the Lord, the leaders will take fierce measures against the refugees who poach and steal.

"The Sassanian empire is different. The green wheat there is twice a year and produces about 600 pounds per mu. The grain produced by the Sassanians not only feeds the refugees in Gambis, but also other kingdoms rely on the green wheat of Sassanian."

Lazarus mocked himself: "to tell you the truth, I have collected 11 taxes in Gambis for 15 years. I have never transported a grain to the holy city. Instead, I ask the holy see for assistance every year."

"Of course, the royal families and lords of Gambis also paid a great price in order to support the redundant population." Lazarus didn't forget to sit on that side, but he still had to show victor the difficulties of the church: "the green wheat in the north is very important to us, but the eastern part of the Sassanian Empire has no danger to defend and faces the threat of the wild orcs. If the Sassanian empire is broken by the orcs, we will lose the largest food producing area."

"But the Sassanian Empire never received refugees and continued to launch the war to annex the Three Kingdoms." Victor said impolitely, "the orcs threaten the security of the Sassanian Empire, and the man horse hills are also at risk of being captured by the ant army. Facts have proved that the ant's war ability is far better than the orcs."

The Lords of the Three Kingdoms often accuse the Church of favoritism towards the Sassanian empire. However, it is not that the Sassanians refuse to accommodate the refugees. The fact is that the weak refugees simply can't cross the prairie between the Dodo Kingdom and the Sassanian Empire safely. The haunted jackals like to taste the blood and flesh of tourists very much. As for the war between the two sides, it's not worth refuting, the Sassanians If we don't launch a war of annexation, can we wait for the Three Kingdoms to unify and grow, and then wave our troops north to attack cities and territories?

Lazarus was not prepared to refute such a fallacy. He was particularly patient with Victor: "but ant people don't take the initiative to kill, do they?"

"Orcs, monsters and rigid ant people are different. They are savage and intelligent. They can form a powerful Centaur Khanate or ogre kingdom. There are also tenacious jackals and bandits. They can't kill them all. The most important thing is that orcs are almost destroyed by crazy wizards. They regard our human beings as enemies of life and death. These fierce animals are much more dangerous than ant people!"

"Victor, the church has limited manpower. The construction of the man horse hill parish can only be slow first, at least for now." Lazarus sighed and said reluctantly, "I'm old. I'll go back to the holy city soon and teach the new priests in the monastery. The four bishops of Gambis are staring at my position. Do you think they will preside over the church at this juncture?"

Victor was silent. No one except himself knew how terrible the endless stream of ant people were. However, Victor didn't want the church to set up a new parish in the horse hills, but the York family was very keen to promote it.

The church needs to harvest faith. The stationed priests certainly hope that the more people in the area, the better. They spare no effort to help the Lord, stabilize the people, provide medical assistance, apply for relief supplies, and lead the paladins to resist the invasion of monsters when necessary. Of course, the priest will also levy 11 taxes to prevent the Lord from expelling redundant refugees. However, Renma hill is not rich. The villagers have heavy labor and poor income. On the contrary, the York family is worried about population outflow. Although the church has exempted the York family from the 11 tax for three years, wouldn't it be better if the church could increase its support, send more materials and feed more villagers?

Although the vassal families of York family have stationed priests, how can the energy of ordinary priests be compared with that of bishops? Anyway, the Church always wants to open a new parish in the people's hills. It's better to take the initiative to apply and use the new bishop's contacts to get more benefits.

The church obviously didn't intend to let the York family take too much advantage, which was what Sylvia expected, and Victor was just playing hard to get.

"Archbishop, I understand the difficulties of the church. However, three giant fortresses should be built in the man horse hill to resist the attack of ant people. The lack of young labor is the main reason hindering the progress of the project. We plan to introduce refugees from other territories to make up for the manpower gap." Victor secretly observed Lazarus's expression and continued: "we can solve the food problem ourselves, but Mrs. Sylvia hopes you can come forward and persuade the priests stationed in other territories to give some convenience."

In the same way, priests everywhere are reluctant to let the population flow out of their jurisdiction. Victor and Sylvia made the strategy of introducing refugees, which the local lords would definitely agree with, but it also touched the interests of the stationed priests. The influence of the Lord on the refugees is far less than that of the priests. As long as the priests crook their mouths, it will seriously hinder the population migration plan.

Sylvia's solution was to ask Archbishop Lazarus to promote it, which was why Victor asked to see the archbishop.

Victor's request surprised Lazarus. He talked for a long time, not just to complain. In fact, Lazarus had expected Victor to come for the establishment of the Centaur Hill Parish, and he was not ready to agree to the request of the York family. Yesterday's news changed Lazarus's original intention. It is impossible to establish a man horse hill diocese. His four bishops will not give up the opportunity to be promoted to Archbishop at all. Lazarus is ready to give more help to people, not for Sylvia, but to sell Victor a favor and get in touch with him.

Don't help, settle the refugees independently?! It's selling human kindness here and there. It's obviously owe human kindness!

When the archbishop was distressed, the female priest Reese came out. Lazarus saw Victor's surprised look and made a decision in his heart.

Since I owe you, I owe you more!

The Archbishop waved to Reese and said with a smile, "Victor, let me introduce you. This is my wife, Reverend Reese."

The female priest is in her twenties. She is tall and slender, with apricot eyes and peach cheeks. She looks holy and beautiful in her priest's clothes. When she leaned against the Archbishop like a bird, the Archbishop patted her hand gently and warmly. This strong contrast between youth, beauty and short, fat and old made Victor think of the simple bishop Perot, and his eyes couldn't help showing a trace of disapproval.

"Good day, madam." Victor quickly restrained his emotions in his eyes and saluted the female priest.

"Viscount Randall, may the glory of the Lord of glory visit you." Said Reese happily.

Mrs. Reese was overjoyed by her title. She held the Archbishop's arm tightly and didn't see the disdain in Victor's eyes at all, but Lazarus saw it clearly. He said with a smile: "when you are old, there must be someone around you. Fortunately, Reese is willing to follow me, an old man."

"Unfortunately, my time is running out. I only have a salary of 300 kinsol a year. I don't know what I can leave for Reese in the future?" Said Archbishop Lazarus with a sad face.

Public bribery?!

Victor twitched at the corners of his eyes, took out his money bag from his waist, squeezed out a smile and handed it up: "how can you worry about such a small thing? This is a little of my mind."

Lazarus took the money bag, smiled and said affectionately, "child, I'll take your heart. I know your things, don't worry! I'll make arrangements."

"Thank you, sir. Then I'll leave."

Victor saluted with a wry smile and planned to leave, which was stopped by Lazarus.

"Victor, Sophia is in a bit of trouble. I can't disclose the details, but the problem is not very big."

Victor nodded silently, bowed and turned away. After all, he didn't continue to ask Sophia for news.

When Victor walked out of the central Cathedral, Reese opened her wallet, which contained 10 purple gold coins. She frowned and said, "Sir, this is not very good?"

Lazarus has a prominent status, a high position and weight, and has always been well-off in food and clothing. He has always been an active gift from the aristocracy. Reese had been with Lazarus for two years. This was the first time she saw the Archbishop asking for bribes from others, and it was only 1000 kingsol. The set of jewelry in the room was far more than that price. Lazarus didn't even lift his eyelids when count cagra sent it.

"You don't understand. Viscount Randall is different from ordinary knights and nobles!" Lazarus said faintly.

"What's the difference?"

Reese gently shook Lazarus's arm and refused to obey. Lazarus glanced at her coldly. Reese seemed to be splashed by a basin of cold water. She suddenly remembered that the old man around her was a cardinal, a level 5 priest, with 4 bishops, 8 ruling warriors, more than 200 priests and 3000 paladins. Even if the king saw him, he should be polite. Reese immediately released Lazarus's arm and stepped aside tremblingly.

Reese was so frightened that the flowers turned pale. Her slender hands twisted uneasily and shrank there like quails. She rustled and trembled and looked very pitiful. Lazarus's heart softened when he thought of his dead wife and the eldest son of the paladin.

The clergy are also flesh and blood people. The Church never advocates abstinence. Those clergy who can't see through the essence of the doctrine can't cross the natural barrier of level 5. When Lazarus was promoted to a high priest, he knew that as long as the high priest did not lose money, he could enjoy the beauty of beautiful clothes like an aristocrat. This is the power given to high-ranking clergy by the early Pope.

Since his wife's death, Lazarus has several young and beautiful clerical lovers. They have more or less received his help, but they have not become the Archbishop's wife. Lazarus did not intend to make Reese his wife if it was not for Victor to understand the essence of the church.

Now Lazarus did not mind pointing out his little wife.

"Reese, you should understand. Knights and nobles have no pious faith, and those great lords don't want to deal with serious priests. The Lords need us, we need the people, and the people need not only us, but also knights. Therefore, we don't show saints' faces in front of the great lords, which will only push them farther and farther."

Lazarus's gentle tone relaxed Reese. She asked, "is Viscount Randall also a great lord?"

"He... Not yet." Lazarus shook his head in silence and sighed, "but he will understand one day."

"You value him very much?" Asked Reese cautiously.

"Value?! I can only say that I value his potential." Lazarus shook his head, nodded and said, "if he grew up to the legendary level that day, he might misunderstand the church when he remembered that I had pretended in front of him. In that way, it would be better for him to understand earlier that we are not only one with the people, but also with the nobility. Anyway, it's no big deal."

Lazarus looked into Reese's eyes and admonished, "Reese, it's not necessarily a good thing for you to be my wife. You have to work harder than ordinary people to improve your Divine skill level. You can't get close to our Lord by drilling alone!"

"By the way, write a letter to Perot and tell him that I want to see Miller's report the first time!"