Chapter 217: Did You Like the Donation? (3)
As Biloah observed the two people exuding a cheerful atmosphere, he clicked his tongue inwardly.
“Tsk tsk… What in the world is happening? Why is Baron Penris making such a request of me…?”
The rumors had spread so quickly that they had already reached the royal family. Discussions were underway whether to recognize Bishop Porisco as a saint or to verify him.
However, that discussion was swiftly rejected by Marquis Branford.
“There’s no way a greedy bastard could be a saint. Wasn’t it Baron Penris’s merchant group that distributed food in Porisco’s name? Find out what that guy, Ghislaine, is up to.”
With that one line, all plans were dashed. What Biloah had said up to that point was merely what Ghislaine had asked him to act out.
Given the tough situation and having received a large amount of food, it was awkward to refuse.
Biloah shook his head slightly and said, “Well then, I’ll be on my way. The royal family will send someone back shortly for formal discussions.”
Porisco, suddenly snapped back to reality, offered a holy smile and nodded.
“Please do. I will be waiting.”
He deliberately emitted even a tiny bit of Divine Power to envelop himself. The Divine Power he rarely used was now in play.
A subtle light surrounded him. From the outside, one could easily mistake him for a saintly old man.
Once Biloah left, Porisco glanced around to see if anyone was listening and immediately whispered to Ghislaine.
“If you can keep the public opinion in our favor, I will grant whatever you wish. Since it hasn’t been officially discussed yet, the Archbishop will try to cover up the rumor. We need to keep distributing more food and take action.”
“As long as I establish my position and gain strength, I’ll make a decisive move. Until then, work for me.”
Choosing to prioritize overcoming the imminent crisis, Porisco spoke without hesitation.
His tone had completely changed because he perceived Ghislaine as merely a trading partner.
Ghislaine smirked at Porisco’s sudden change in attitude.
“Of course, I will definitely invest securely. But before that, you must give me what I want in return, right? I’ve already given you one thing first.”
“Hehe… That’s right, giving one for another is a fair deal, isn’t it? You need a priest in Penris?”
“Yes. I’ll set up a small temple, so please send Priest Piote first.”
“Oooh, we can’t possibly do that between us. I’ll send you a far more excellent and experienced priest than someone like Piote.”
Porisco decided to go all out while he was at it. Sending a decent priest would be no trouble at all.
For now, it was best to keep this fellow on his good side to keep him quiet.
“Shouldn’t your mouth just stay shut if you need to see?”
Ghislaine shook his head and laughed at Bishop Porisco’s overly cheerful comment.
“No, I think Priest Piote would be better. But I have another request.”
“Another request, you say?”
“We need something as a token between us, don’t we?”
“What? What more token could possibly be needed? I’m even offering to send you the priest you want!”
“Please gift me a sacred relic. Also, please write a certificate with your signature stating that the bishop personally gave it to me. I’ll go pick something suitable myself.”
‘This insane bastard really…’
What even is a sacred relic? They are sacred and holy items belonging to the saints from history.
The Sacred Relic Repository prohibits entry from outsiders. Unless you’re someone like the king or Marquis Branford, average nobles aren’t even allowed to take a peek.
But now, not only does he want to see them, he wants to go pick one out himself?
Sure, I could manage to let him see it through the bishop’s authority somehow. But if he’s caught smuggling a relic, it wouldn’t end with just excommunication.
He’d be vilified not only by Juana’s faction but also by other factions. He’d be buried socially and might even lose his life.
‘This bastard is really tightening the leash. Such a nasty piece of work.’
The guy is an aristocrat backed by the Crown Prince Faction. If he brings a personal signature, he could always claim he received the relic as a gift, making the guy who gave it to him the real fool.
Porisco, catching Ghislaine’s intentions, pretended to feel troubled.
“Sacred relics… even an archbishop cannot carelessly touch them. No matter how much I’m a bishop, that’s just…”
“Then let’s forget about it. I’ll just go see the Archbishop.”
‘Hey! You little bastard!’
The conversation was going nowhere. He threatens with death if he doesn’t get a handshake, and threatens again if he doesn’t give him what he wants.
I’ve never seen anyone like this in my life. This is what the demon lord must look like.
If Hubert, the master of the Tower of the Bloody Flame, saw Porisco like this, he would probably be rolling on the floor laughing, saying, “So, you got a taste of your own medicine too, huh?”
Porisco bit his lip, sweating bullets.
“If you smuggle out a sacred relic, you’ll eventually get caught. Do you want me to commit suicide?”
“Aren’t there plenty of relics? I’ll just take a small one that doesn’t attract attention as a token between us.”
“Hmm…”
Porisco couldn’t bring himself to deny it since it was a valid point.
The Sacred Relic Repository, with its long history, holds many relics.
Among them, there are quite a few that don’t serve any real purpose and just take up space. Unless you check the records, you wouldn’t even know whether they exist or not.
“Fine, but you must take something really small and useless that won’t draw attention.”
“Worrying for nothing.”
Ghislaine chuckled as he moved along, following the increasingly disgruntled Porisco.
The repository was hidden deep within the temple.
The Temple Knights guarding the entrance greeted Porisco with deep bows as he approached, behaving differently than usual.
With news spreading that Porisco was a saint, they could no longer treat him with disdain or indifference as they had in the past.
‘Look at their eyes! They should’ve been like this all the time!’
Seeing the awestruck gazes of the Temple Knights made Porisco feel a bit better, and he smiled. As his influence grew, the archbishop’s position would only shrink.
As Porisco was leading Ghislaine into the repository, one of the Temple Knights cautiously blocked their way and spoke.
He blocked the way and said,
“Bishop, entry to the repository is strictly prohibited for outsiders. To enter, one must obtain permission from the Archbishop…”
“Hey! Who dares to block my way now!”
At Porisco’s loud shout, the Temple Knights flinched and took a step back.
“Don’t you know this person is currently performing a ‘revelation’ with me? Is the Archbishop greater than Goddess Juana? Do you really want to incur divine punishment and fall into hellfire!”
When the words ‘goddess’ and ‘revelation’ were mentioned, the Temple Knights had no way to resist. And with divine punishment thrown in, they had no justification as fellow believers.
“Ah, I understand. Please feel free to look around.”
“Hmph, let’s go, Baron Penris.”
As Porisco strutted along with an arrogant expression, Ghislaine also wore a look of admiration.
‘This guy… Too brazen for my liking.’
Even I, who pushed for this situation to happen, felt embarrassed to be seen alongside someone so brazen. If someone like this holds power, they would surely become a real tyrant.
For a place that was difficult to get into, the Sacred Relic Repository was not much different from the treasure vaults of other territories. Treasures related to the Church were stacked and sorted by rank.
Of course, not all of Goddess Juana’s sacred relics were here. Juana’s church existed not just in the Church Kingdom but in several kingdoms as well.
This place only housed treasures related to the Ruthania Kingdom.
Ghislaine nodded while glancing around.
‘Still, being an old kingdom, they sure have quite a few. Now to find the right one.’
Porisco tightly closed the door of the repository and spoke urgently.
“Quickly choose something. Grade 1 relics are absolutely off-limits. We’ll get caught right away. Go for a Grade 3 relic.”
“Hmm, just a moment.”
Ghislaine busily looked around and pointed at a robe hanging in the central glass case.
“What is that?”
“That’s the robe used by Saint Marteus 300 years ago, classified as a Grade 1 relic… No, no! That’s off-limits! It’s on display out in the open!”
“Ah, I see.”
Ghislaine smirked and immediately strode toward a corner.
In a long glass display case covering an entire wall, a variety of items were placed.
Just because they were sacred relics, it didn’t mean they had special abilities. Most were treated as relics due to their religious significance or historical value.
The kind of sacred relics that ordinary people imagine, possessing tremendous abilities through “Divine Power” are extremely rare across the world.
But here, there was one.
A ‘real’ relic hidden away that no one knew about.
‘I found it.’
Ghislaine smiled as he discovered a small ring rolling in the corner of the glass case. It was a simple ring with a single white gemstone embedded in it.
Now, no one knew about it, but it was a relic containing great power.
‘The blessing of Goddess Juana.’
While also aiming to grab Porisco’s weakness and obtain a handwritten certificate, Ghislaine’s true goal was this ring.
‘Who would have thought it would be stored like this?’
The ring showed no reaction whether divine power or mana was infused into it. That’s why it had been considered just an ordinary ring and carelessly stored away.
But the true power of this ring was to absorb a priest’s divine power in a crisis and provide a strong protective barrier.
In short, as long as divine power was permitted, it would provide ‘automatic defense’ without needing conscious thought.
The revelation of this ability in a past life was pure coincidence. A priest had discovered it while hastily gathering relics to flee from calamity when an accident occurred.
It was a discovery made by a priest who was fleeing with relics to escape calamity when he had an accident.
‘Throwing him among the monsters, just squatting alone, that’s a provocation like no other.’
Using that, people often used the priest as bait. Unfortunately, that priest, who was somewhat lacking in divine power, was not rescued in time and ended up dying in vain.
‘That would be quite useful for Piote.’
Others could teach Ghislaine the Mana Circulation Method and techniques to elevate his realm.
But Piote had to elevate his own realm himself. No one had ever deciphered the structure of divine power even in his previous life.
‘Then I should just deck him out in good equipment.’
Originally, there were no immediate plans to acquire this. Civil war would break out one day, and by then, I could just sweep up these low-grade sacred relics.
But seeing Piote’s divine power grow rapidly made me think it might be better to acquire it sooner.
It was partly for Piote’s safety, but there was also another use.
‘I should put him right in front during a crisis. That would be really reassuring.’
I had no intention of letting someone who could become a powerful defensive totem stay just as rear support.
The defensive power of the ring is immensely stronger than mere protection with divine power. If there’s enough divine power, it could withstand even a dragon stepping on it.
He would gain survival prowess that could put cockroaches to shame.
If I give him the ring and throw him right in the middle of enemy lines, it would create a massive provocation. Just thinking about it was thrilling.
‘Hmm, I might as well teach him some combat skills when I have time. He’d be perfect as a vanguard! Healing and fighting. Huh, is there such a thing as a holy knight? This is what a true holy knight would be!’
Ghislaine was casually thinking thoughts that would make Piote scream in terror.
While Ghislaine was staring at the relics in the corner for a while, Porisco came over and asked.
“Have you chosen? Anything here would do. They’re all at least Grade 3 relics.”
“That small ring seems suitable since it doesn’t stand out. What’s that one?”
“Where? Ah, had I missed that? What was that?”
Porisco grabbed a book listing the relics, flipped through it a few times, and clicked his tongue.
“It’s a relic left by a nun a long time ago. No one would know about such things, so you’ve made a great choice here.”
Porisco felt relieved inwardly.
‘At least it’s less of a burden. I don’t know why that thing is designated as a sacred relic… But it seems it was just put away because it was old.’
No one paid attention to such a ring. He himself didn’t even know there was something like that, so it wouldn’t come up unless someone compared it to the inventory and investigated.
And since the temple’s establishment, no one had specifically checked each and every relic in the repository.
Even if they did investigate, it was such a small and insignificant item that they could easily say it was lost long ago.
As long as the rookie in front of me keeps his mouth shut, nothing would happen.
As Porisco nodded happily, Ghislaine wore a satisfied smile.
‘Instead of this precious item rolling around in a corner, it’s much better to find its real owner.’
Even if it was later discovered that it had been taken out, it wouldn’t matter. No one knew the true value of this ring, so just making a replica and returning it would suffice.
“Got it. Let’s go with that one. Thank you.”
The two carefully opened the glass case and slipped out with the ring.
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