Chapter 336 Need a army

Chapter 336 Need a army

"What's on your mind?" Alver asked.

"Hm, nothing. Just... just thinking about what we are to do going forward. I—" I felt a lump in my throat.

'You fine, princess?' Blaze questioned.

Yeah... I'm fine. It's just I feel a bit uneasy for some reason.

"Yeah, there's that too. I was going to ask you why you wanted Viceburg cut off from the empire. Was there any specific reason, or did you just want to expand the business?" Alver looked at me, seeming like he was asking a simple question, but deep down I knew he was testing my thought process.

"You'll understand soon, but for now, going forward, I want you to tell me how deep you are in the Royal Palace."

I knew for a fact that this guy had his people in there and had been using them for a long time. Keeping things like these from the eyes of the Royal Family or the Tribes of Reva was not an easy task.

"Quite a few, actually," Alver replied, surprisingly candid. "I mostly want them to keep my business with the churches of Ellora a secret. I pay a lot for them to keep their mouths shut and hands out of these matters," he explained.

Oh, churches. I almost forgot that last time he was in Solstice, he was buying a church here.

"How many churches?" I asked, watching Alver get up and stand beside the map.

He parted his lips slightly and said, "Ren, you're trying to avoid the topic on your mind by asking me these questions, right?"

I felt a bit caught there.

Picking up the quill, he dragged the top of the map of Hestia Empire and drew a zigzag line. "Ninety-eight churches, from east to west till the border of No Man's Land. I only left the twenty-five churches near the capital of the Empire. Everything else is bought," he informed me, but I saw a bit of light gone from his eyes as he kept on going. Rread latest chapters at novelhall.com

"Religion... how cheap is it to buy faith?" he asked. "All I had to do was throw some gold, and all these self-claimed messengers of the goddess began salivating like roadside mongrels. These people... how can they pledge their hearts to their emperor and their Goddess with such weak morals?" He seemed angry, disappointed, and happy at the same time.

Alver frowned, crossing his arms. "So what do you propose? Walk away from everything we've built? Let someone else take over and ruin it all?"

When did I say that?

"No," I said firmly. "But there are ways to use that influence for something more... sustainable. Something that won't come crashing down."

"And what would that be?" Alver asked, skepticism evident in his voice.

"Army. Build an army." I put it in the easiest way I thought was possible.

S I L E N C E

Alver froze. I saw his face change from surprise to disgust, ending on one that screamed happiness. "Haha! I knew it!"

Knew what? I looked at him as he kept hollering, laughing like crazy.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Haha," he calmed down after laughing for a straight minute, "I knew that this wasn't the end of your tactics. I knew there was more to it than I could think of." He was excited.

He actually seems on board with this plan.

'And why do you need an army, princess? To guard you?' Blaze asked.

Guard me... kind of, I guess, but more for something else. We'd need a place that is not under the control of anyone but us.

"How do you plan on doing that, though? Building an army, I mean." Alver asked.

"Well, it's time to make use of those guilds and orphanages that you have." I said silently as I saw Alver's smile twist into something I would call sinister.

Who is this guy?