Archbishop Maxim Cafeo.
For her, the past week had undoubtedly been the longest seven days of her life since birth.
Every moment was filled with anticipation and a thick thrill of excitement.
With each passing day, her excitement grew stronger, even to the point of tossing and turning in bed sleeplessly.
“Tomorrow is the day… finally, Santana’s property will be mine… that fertile and vast land… and all those beautiful buildings will be in my hands!”
When converted to value, it amounted to an astounding sum of thousands of talents.
For a sum that she could hardly earn even after ten years of hard work embezzling funds and selling indulgences and sacred items, she spent the night restless in her bed, unable to sleep.
And then…
The loud crowing of a rooster finally began to ring out.
At that moment, the archbishop jumped out of bed without having slept a wink, quickly got dressed, and headed straight for the mailbox.
However…
Contrary to her expectations, the mailbox was still empty.
Even though the rooster had crowed, it seemed the Holy See’s letter would take a little more time to arrive.
This automatically made the archbishop’s brows furrow.
“…No… why hasn’t the letter come yet? Lazy fools, I never expected those who serve the Holy Lord to be this negligent. I’ll have to summon them later for a proper talk…”
As she paced back and forth in the chilly morning air in front of the mailbox, voicing her complaints,
At that moment, she spotted a courier approaching, riding a horse.
“Hmm? Archbishop? What brings you here at this hour…”
“That’s… Ahh… never mind. There’s no time to talk, hand over the letter immediately! There’s a matter of the Lord that must be dealt with right now.”
“Ah… yes, please wait a moment…”
With those words, the courier began searching among the letters he brought for one that was directed to the archbishop.
Watching him, the archbishop felt a strong desire to deal with this ‘lazy’ fellow, but at that moment, dealing with the interest was more urgent, so she decided to let it go for now.
With more urgent matters at hand than punishment, the Archbishop decided to let it slide for now.
And shortly after,
What felt like 30 years in less than 30 seconds passed, and the errand boy finally pulled out a letter in front of her.
“Here it is, Archbishop. From the Holy See…?”
Before he could even finish, the Archbishop snatched it and headed straight back to the Cathedral.
Seeing her like this left the errand boy feeling puzzled…
Ignoring his confusion completely, the Archbishop’s eyes sparkled with desire as she gazed at the letter in her hands…
Specifically, it was the certificate officially confirming Santana’s excommunication.
“Perfect… It’s all over now. I just need to gather the Paladins and head off to collect that guy’s property!”
Given the confirmation of the excommunication, it was highly likely that Santana was no longer in the city.
Recently, the instances had decreased somewhat, but in the past, people confirmed to be excommunicated were dragged to the city center, stripped of all their valuables, including cash and clothing, and sometimes even lynched to death.
Nevertheless, unlike in the past, the pope’s authority had significantly weakened, and with the rise of heretics opposing the church, excommunication no longer held that kind of power. Still, the danger associated with it always lingered.
Thus, if she were in Santana’s position, the Archbishop could easily guess that he would have disposed of whatever he could and left the place by last night at the latest.
“Well, whatever happens to that guy is none of my concern; the important thing is to figure out how to use his vast property now.”
Imagining the rosy future ahead, the Archbishop immediately began summoning the Paladins.
*
Accompanied by the Paladins, the Archbishop set off to seize the real estate owned by Santana.
Just as they were moving with a swagger, the Archbishop heard something unexpected.
“What? Cazerose?”
“Yes, she left two days ago, abandoning her Paladin seal.”
“It seems she probably followed that heretic, Santana. What should we do?”
“Hmmm…”
Caught off guard by the unexpected turn of events, the Archbishop felt a twinge of embarrassment.
The Archbishop felt a bit bewildered by the situation.
Although she was aware that The Woman had helped Santana, as a separate matter, Cazerose’s faithfulness was something even the Archbishop herself acknowledged, so she didn’t intend to scold too harshly.
However, contrary to the Archbishop’s thoughts, Cazerose had left.
Perhaps she was swayed by Santana’s cunning words of flattery, or maybe it was due to her genuine fear of the punishment she would face.
‘Whatever the case, a departed person is a departed person… I have no time to concern myself with such a guy. This is a crucial time when thousands of talents are coming into my hands…’
Just then, she decided to no longer think about Cazerose.
At last, the Archbishop’s eyes were drawn to one of the buildings owned by Santana, her first target.
Now all that remained was to enter that place, read the declaration of excommunication, and draft a new deed for the property.
As the excited Archbishop stepped into the building, it happened.
“..Huh?”
“? What are you doing here?”
In the next moment, she began to see the familiar insignia of the merchant guild and numerous workers.
Thus, the Archbishop felt a bit of perplexity but spoke to them with a commanding tone.
“What are you all doing here? This place has now become the property of our Church, formerly owned by the excommunicated Santana. Therefore, I, Archbishop Maxim, command you to cease your ruckus and scram!”
The Archbishop commanded while displaying Santana’s excommunication documents.
But…
Instead of shrinking back at her presence, the workers burst into laughter.
“Ha, isn’t it a bit late for the Archbishop to show up?”
“Unfortunately, this building now belongs to our Veden Merchant Guild. It’s become completely unrelated to Santana, so your excommunication means nothing now.”
“! Wh… what? That’s… unbelievable…”
The workers brought up an unexpected twist, causing a deep confusion to spread across the Archbishop’s face.
A thick sense of bewilderment began to settle in the cave.
Soon, a few possible facts started to surface in her mind.
“Uh… Hmm… Well, when I think about it, it’s not entirely impossible. If it’s an organization as large as the Beden Merchant Guild, they might have the power to make deals without worrying about our reactions. But even they shouldn’t be able to take all of Santana’s property in such a short time. At most, they could only have gotten a part of this building and some land.”
So, although she had lost a bit of the coveted meat chunk, Archbishop Maxim comforted herself with the thought that she still had a lot left for her.
Then, she left and headed with the Paladins to where Santana had other properties.
However…
“That… That’s ridiculous! That can’t possibly be true! No matter how you look at it, even the Beden Merchant Guild couldn’t raise this much money…”
“Then are you saying this certificate is fake? Look here, there’s clearly a transaction contract dated four days ago. Since it has the Lord’s seal as authentication, you know there are no legal issues!”
“Ugh…”
As he said, the transaction contract was stamped securely with the Lord’s seal…
It indicated that there were no legal issues at all.
According to the document, Santana had secured a loan against her property based on its legal value, and if she failed to repay it within four days, the property would be seized.
In other words, this building had already passed into the hands of the Beden Merchant Guild, just like the others.
And this phenomenon was not limited to just the building but applied to all land owned by Santana. Ultimately, that day…
Despite searching high and low with the Paladins for all the real estate that Santana owned, the Archbishop couldn’t lay her hands on even a single room or piece of land.
“Dammit!!!!!”
It was only by the time the sun set that Archbishop Maxim finally realized everything had already fallen apart.
In this bizarre situation, where she couldn’t even get a duck’s meat piece much less a golden egg, she let out a desperate scream filled with deep frustration and chaos.
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