Sylvester had friends, a lot of them, and they were all talented kids. From the day he entered the School of Dawn, he had decided to start his cult. That included even the kids who were at the bottom of the class of God's Favoured.
The reason was simple. If a kid was talented or intelligent enough to enter God's Favoured class, then he was already among the top talents of the Church. So, Sylvester evaluated every single kid and made a character profile on them.
He looked into their past, their motivations, and their future aspirations. The common theme among most was that they came from poor financial backgrounds. So, from the start, he began giving them money to send home to help their family. In addition, he used Sir Dolorem's contacts in the Inquisitors to help many kids by providing aid to their parents.
And when it came to the kids of nobles, the game was somewhat different. He didn't try to win them over money but rather a dream. Brainwashing kids of nobles took a lot of time and subjugation. He had to show those kids that they were far inferior to him, and one day, he will be reaching the seat of someone near the Pope, if not the Pope himself.
Slowly, over eight years, he developed a few friends he could trust to some degree, and he wished to use them to take over the many regions around the Sol Continent.
But he ensured never to reveal his secret spy network of Bright Mothers, as the women were supposed to be his insurance who'd tell him if any of his friends were backstabbing.
"I can't believe he's dead. He was such a good man. May the Holy Light enlighten his blessed soul." Henry Rockwell prayed beside the dead body of Augustus.
By now, it was neatly kept inside a rectangular box inside the small temple in the castle. Sylvester had planned to take the coffin along and give a fitting farewell to Augustus.
"Life is very unpredictable, Henry. One moment you're looking forward to good times, and the next, you're taking your last breath." Sylvester muttered.
"It's sad, but who can fight what fate has already planned? Anyway, what's the order, boss? You called me here to be the regent of the Barony. But I've never done something like this before. Heck, I haven't even left the Holy Land in years. So how do you expect me to run an area with thousands of people?" Henry asked him, sounding a bit scared.
Sylvester put one arm on the latter's shoulder and dragged him along. "You were one of the best when it came to mathematics. I was hoping you could use that talent. I have a plan for this Barony that can turn this little place into one of the richest regions of the entire Gracia Kingdom."
Henry became alert as he knew about Sylvester's planning skills. "I'm listening."
Sylvester brought him to the underground treasury of the castle. "You see all this gold and silver neatly stacked? I spent the past few days calculating all this. Baroness Rosewood was famous for being cruel and extracting as much as eighty per cent tax from her people. Sadly, she and her husband had no idea what to do with all that money and only seemed interested in hoarding it.
"So, now we have this huge stash of treasure—a total of five hundred thousand gold and two million silver. Let's not even talk about the other forms of monetary items here. We have all this to turn the Barony of Rosewood into the Barony of Goldwood."
"How? As far as what I studied before arriving, the Barony of Rosewood has no natural resources to exploit. It has an average fishing industry—That's it." Henry smartly asked.
Sylvester chuckled. "So you did your research. I knew you were the right man for this job. Well, the plan is simple. With this much gold, we shall turn the Barony into an institutionalised money lender whose army will also work as recovery agents.
"You will give out small and big loans. Someone needs money to build a factory? Go ahead! Some nobleman wishes to expand their castle? Go ahead! Someone wants to open a shop? Go ahead! Your job will be to keep a ledger about all the money given, the time period, the interest and the collateral. If the borrower cannot return the money with interest at the designated time, then you shall have the right to keep the collateral, and if that's not enough, take more property from the borrower.
"However, you must keep a team of small agents who shall travel and do things for you. For example, you must know if the borrower is genuine and not a man who'd run away. Is his plan viable? We don't want bad debt, after all. Though when it comes to nobles, just give them all the money they want. If they fail to return—We shall have a lot of fun."
By the end, Sylvester had a scheming smile on his face. But that didn't scare Henry as he was used to it.
"Sylvester, that's all good and nice. But what if the borrower is someone too big? A Viscount or a Count? Or a violent mercenary leader? This small Barony had already lost a thousand soldiers. We don't have much left, and restoring things to normal will take years." Henry stated his well-thought-out doubts.
But the smile didn't fade away from Sylvester's face, and he just patted Henry's shoulder. "My friend, you underestimate me. Since you're a man of faith, and we will register the business under my name, I get to dictate a few things. So don't worry, if need be, I will ask the Inquisitors to help, and you know…"
Henry completed it. "Everybody fears the Holy Inquisition!"
"Indeed! I will spend the next two days here and teach you the details—especially things about reading people. I will also ask the Church to send some Holy Army soldiers here to protect you and the Barony under you. But first, I will show you how to prepare the ledger for efficiency."
Sylvester guided him out of the treasury. He closed the door, placed the magical protection runes again, and brought Henry to the office of the Baroness and taught him how to maintain the ledger and protect it from water and fire. Henry may have had medium wizard and knight talent, but the man was good enough to have already reached his peak strength of Master Wizard and Silver Knight.
"What about the young heir?" Henry asked in the middle.
Sylvester shook his head with a long sigh. "I'm afraid he won't last long. He's a spoiled, entitled and untrained brat. His mother pampered him a bit too much—To the point he's now a monster in human skin. Tasty food is all he desires, and I'm sure he'll ask for women once he's an adult. So cut off all his expenses and tell one of the Holy Knights to train him and send him to the Holy Land for further education—He shall be taking the vows."
"What about the Barony then?"
Sylvester smiled. "Don't you want to become a Bishop or perhaps a Cardinal someday? Henry, use this opportunity to prove your money-managing skills to the Holy Land. Maybe, if I become the Pope one day, I'll hire your old ass to be my economist."
Henry breathed tiredly and looked at the office. "I guess—If I don't die from overwork."
"Hah, I won't let you. Now, focus here and learn everything. I only got two days."
…
Two days was all he could afford to give Henry as he needed to take Augustus' body back to the Holy Land. He kept it frozen through magic, but nature's effects were still overpowering.
He hoped Henry would do a good job, though he gave him a direct way to contact him whenever needed. So, after two days, he took a ship from Broken Bay as the land journey would have taken too long on a carriage with a dead body.
The journey back was fast and smooth. Since it was the open ocean, and the winds were strong near the coast, they arrived at the Holy Land by the evening of the same day.
But Sylvester didn't go home straight away.
"Let's go, Sir Dolorem."
Sylvester at the front and Sir Dolorem at the back. They picked Augustus's long and tall coffin on their shoulders and walked towards the Pope's Palace. They could've taken the carriage, but they didn't.
"Are you sure about this?" Sir Dolorem asked on the way.
"There is nothing to think about. We're just doing our duty." Sylvester replied and silently walked.
In half an hour, they arrived at the Pope's Palace. There, Sir Dolorem wasn't allowed entry, so Sylvester had to lift the coffin on his head and take it inside.
Of course, the guards asked questions. But Sylvester had become so familiar to them that saying 'gift for pope' was enough. They still used their magic, though, and found nothing magical inside the box without opening it.
So Sylvester reached the Pope's personal office. As always, the assistant of the Pope, Gunthar, greeted him. "May the Holy Light enlighten us, Lord Bard. The Pope is free at the moment. You can enter."
Sylvester didn't speak and walked inside with a sombre face. He didn't greet him and went ahead to put the huge box on an even bigger table of the Pope.
"Welcome back, son. I hope the assignment was a success. Is this a gift for me?" The Pope was enthusiastic, as always.
Sylvester nodded and started opening it slowly. As he pulled the nails out, he talked. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction—Sadly, sometimes the reaction takes a lot of time to surface. Often, it's devastating."
The Pope didn't laugh or smile. He knew how to read a room and was too old to be a fool. "Speak clearly, Young Bard."
Sylvester did. "I called him brother without knowing how much in common we had. We suffered the same fate, but I was lucky, and he was not. Over the years, sleepless nights and tears—His mind continued to rot."
The Pope didn't have the power of Sylvester. He came closer and helped open the box hurriedly. "What's in this?"
"The reaction!"
As soon as Sylvester took off the last nail holding the top, the coffin's side walls fell apart, revealing the pale body of Augustus—The sword still intact—plunged into the chest.
The Pope instinctively took a step back, but soon he erupted in anger. "Who dared? Who killed him?"
Sylvester looked directly into Pope's eyes as if reading the soul of the man.
"You… I… all of us did, your holiness."
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