Chapter 20： religious threat

After a while, Butler Philip led the two clergymen into the reception room.

He had already met Father Anderson, but Dean Leonard did not have an impression in his memory. This is an old man with a Mediterranean hairstyle, giving off a rather old-fashioned look.

Paul smiled and asked, "Why did you two come to me?"

"Lord Earl, you dared to fight against the pirates and won the battle, protecting the Lamb of the Lord. We are here to express our gratitude to you."

"Haha, this is my duty, is that all?"

The two clergymen looked at each other, seemingly hesitant. In the end, it was the older Dean Leonard who spoke first: "Master Earl, we are here to investigate a matter, can we ask the butler to avoid it for a while."

"Okay, what needs two priests to come to investigate?" He waved his hand and let Philip leave the living room.

"As far as we know, you used some suspected witchcraft in the battle with the pirates, can you explain it to us?"

"Witchcraft? What kind of witchcraft? I've never heard of it." Paul was full of question marks.

"My lord, it is the kind of thing that can explode or launch projectiles to cause death or injury."

"Oh, you mean the latest firearms equipped by our army."

"Can you show us this thing?"

He refused straight away: "No, this is a military secret, how can you let others see it casually?"

Seeing the other party's refusal, Leonard's face gradually became serious: "Count, it is the natural responsibility of our clergy to monitor signs of witchcraft activities in the parish under our jurisdiction. I advise you to cooperate with us. If it is just an ordinary weapon , we will return your innocence. If you refuse to cooperate, it will be bad for the matter to be brought to the Inquisition of the Archdiocese. It will not benefit anyone. You must know the temper of those people. If they Come down to investigate, it is very likely that innocent people will be harmed."

"Are you threatening a lord? That's unreasonable." Paul was quite annoyed, and even came up with me.

Father Anderson said with a worried face: "I hope you will forgive me. Although we are servants of God, we are also people under your rule. If we are not forced by duty, we don't want to make it so stiff. The lord was killed by an evil wizard. There are precedents for temptation to bring disaster to the entire territory, and it will not only harm yourself, but also innocent people.”

He was very worried that the little earl would fight them to the end because of his youthful temper, and it would be a bad thing to attract people from the Inquisition.

Paul bit the root bitterly, struggling repeatedly.

After a stalemate between the two sides for a while, he finally compromised. The "inquisition" that the other party said was not a good thing. It is good to say that the court in the northern diocese of the Aldo Kingdom came. For his own prestige, it is unlikely that His Majesty will allow them to act unscrupulously. Investigate the nobles under him, but it will be hard to say if you go up to the Holy See headquarters.

"Well, if that's the case, then I'll show you guys to prove my innocence. But I want to ask, if it proves that my new weapon has nothing to do with black witchcraft, will you two be willing to keep the details of the weapon secret for me? After all, this is a military secret and a sharp weapon we use to deal with pirates."

"We swear in the name of God that we will never reveal it to anyone."

"Even His Majesty the Pope?"

Father Anderson was silent after hearing this, but Dean Leonard said after a little hesitation: "Yes, even His Majesty the Pope. And if someone asks about this in the future, we can still prove it for the Earl."

After hearing the teacher's promise, Father Anderson also nodded.

So he called Philip and asked him to go to his study to get his matchlock pistol for self-defense and two bottles of gunpowder.

After Philip got it, Paul asked the two clergymen to accompany him to the small garden outside the reception room, to show them, and asked the butler to inform the officers who were still meeting in the hall not to panic when they heard the gunshots.

He slowly reloaded, aimed the gun with both hands at a tree, and pulled the trigger while the two clergymen watched.

There was only a "bang", and the targeted tree shook for a while, and the birds on it flew into the sky in panic.

Dean Leonard and Father Anderson clearly saw the bullet holes on the tree trunk, and they both gasped. Such a thing the size of a hand crossbow actually had such great power.

Anderson looked at his teacher, and the old dean nodded: "I really didn't feel any abnormal fluctuations."

Anderson asked: "Can you give us this 'firearm' for a closer look?"

"Okay, here you are. This thing is called a musket, and the other one that can explode and hurt people is called a grenade. Both of them work based on this kind of powder that can burn rapidly." Paul shook another gunpowder bottle: "The grenade is too dangerous, so I won't demonstrate it to you."

Anderson took the pistol with both hands, took out a pale stone and touched it for a while.

"There is no abnormal reaction from the magic-seeking stone, my lord, please forgive our offense." The two priests confirmed that muskets had nothing to do with witchcraft.

Anderson didn't return the musket to Paul right away, he was amazed while observing this novelty over and over again. The structure of the musket is very simple. Combined with the Earl's operation just now, it is easy to deduce its working principle. The key lies in the magical powder that can burn violently. However, since it is said to be a military secret, it is not easy for him to continue to inquire. .

This one-handed musket was specially made for Paul. The carpenter spent a lot of time engraving very exquisite patterns on the handle of the gun. Overall, it has artistic appreciation value Leonard coughed: "Anderson, hurry up and return it to the lord."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was this invented by the lord? It's really ingenious." Anderson blushed and returned the pistol to the count while admiring.

"Hey, I invented it. However, we just agreed that the details of this weapon should not be disclosed to others." The other party's admiration offset some of Paul's unhappiness.

"Of course, now that the situation is clear, let's not disturb the Earl any longer." The two priests stood up and said goodbye.

But the lord suddenly said: "You two, don't rush away."

Leonard and Anderson could hear something bad from their tone, "Is there anything else you can order, Lord Earl?"

"How did you two know about this new weapon I invented? And how did you know that I used it to fight pirates?"

"This... this..." Father Anderson whimpered.

Paul's tone became colder: "Should I make a small report to the northern diocese, for example, some people are pretending to be servants of God on the surface, but they are secretly working as spies."

"You are wronged, my lord. Here are your soldiers in the confessional..."

Dean Leonard immediately shouted: "Anderson!!"

Father Anderson immediately covered his mouth and remained silent.

Dean Leonard said with a little embarrassment: "I'm sorry, my lord, it is our duty to keep the confessor's information. Please don't ask any further questions."

"Okay, let's just forget it like that (it's weird)." Paul agreed with his lips, but in his heart he had no way.

"Then let's take our leave."

The two priests hurried away.