at the same time.
Thousands of miles away from Regina, the Kingdom of Hori has its capital, Havenright.
A gentle breeze blew through the corridors of St. Peter's Basilica, sending flowers and plants swaying in the wind. The warm sunlight passes through the dome and shines on the stained glass windows. It is refracted into a warm beam of light and falls into a small church hall deep in the church. It outlines various light spots on the floor of the church hall.
There were three people standing in this dimly lit church hall.
The bishop stood on the podium wearing spotless crimson robes. Beside him, a priest in black was whispering something to him. As for the corner of the church hall, there was a young man in white standing, leaning against the wall, lost in thought.
Not long after, the priest seemed to have finished reporting the information to the bishop, nodded, saluted the boy, and then turned and left the church.
The sound of the door being closed was particularly clear in this quiet church hall.
"Benjamin." Suddenly, the bishop spoke and called to the young man in the corner.
The boy seemed to be in a trance and did not respond to the bishop.
"Benjamin, what are you thinking about?" When the bishop saw this, he didn't show any impatience. Instead, he said calmly, "It's been so long, you should get used to this name."
The young man came back to his senses, looked at the bishop, thought for a moment, and said, "When can I go back to my old name?"
The bishop showed a programmed smile and replied: "This is all your mother's painstaking efforts, in order to allow you to grow up without interference. In the future, when you have strong enough power and are no longer afraid of the cold arrows of the nobles, you can use any The name you want to use."
The young man looked a little dissatisfied: "I already have powerful power. I can use magic to destroy all the nobles in the capital, so why should I care about their thoughts?"
"Because you can't kill everyone." The bishop's voice was as calm as ever, "You need them and their support to spread your good name among the people; you need them to command the tenant farmers and pay tribute to you; you need them even more. Money, huge expenses to maintain the army and paladins. Great power does not lie in how many people you can kill, but in how many people you can make serve you."
Hearing this, the young man's eyes flickered, and he opened his mouth as if he was about to argue something, but he swallowed the words back.
"...Teacher, you have said this to me many times." It took him a long time to hold back such a sentence. It seemed that he could not think of any way to refute, but he was a little angry and refused to show his humility. attitude.
The bishop stared at him quietly, holding a thick Bible in his hands, as if he was watching him for someone else.
Seeing this, the young man looked away angrily and said nothing.
There was silence for a while.
"Grant." Suddenly, the bishop spoke, his voice like a slowly playing cello, "Do you want to know what news he came to me just now to tell me?"
Hearing this, Grant hesitated for a while, but chose to nod.
But in his heart, he suddenly felt a little confused.
He had never been called "Grant" again since Benjamin had taken his place at the stake. The bishop insisted that this was to get him used to it and prevent other nobles from discovering that something was wrong.
He didn't know why the bishop changed his tune at this moment.
"He came to report on the situation at the Crusad Gate." The bishop explained, "The Queen of Icol has secretly withdrawn her troops, so we reoccupied the gate and there will be no more accidents of the gate being lost."
Upon hearing this, Grant nodded expressionlessly and said, "The country is safe, which is good news."
"Is that all?" There seemed to be a hint of disappointment in the bishop's calm tone, "Why did the enemy retreat and why could we easily retake the gate? What do you think?"
here we go again…
Grant suddenly felt bored.
"They withdrew because we triggered a coup in the capital of Ikol, and they had to withdraw." However, he took a deep breath and replied calmly.
"This is just a story on the surface." The bishop shook his head and said, "I have taught you for so long, and you still can only see these things?"
Grant lowered his head, like a stubborn child still in the rebellious stage, and said nothing.
As a result, the entire church hall fell into dead silence.
There was another silence for a while, and finally, the bishop gave up the silent stalemate and spoke again.
"Icol will withdraw its troops because they did not come for the gate in the first place." He said slowly like a very patient teacher, "For fifty years, we have been secretly infiltrating the empire and laying chess pieces. , to prepare for future subversion, especially after the establishment of Icol. The queen of Icol realized this, so she deliberately led her troops in person, left the capital, and pretended to attack the Crusad gate. But in fact, from From the beginning, she just wanted to lure our chess pieces out so that she could clean up the house and calm down internal worries."
After hearing this, Grant finally raised his head.
After thinking for a moment, he asked: "If that's the case, why are we still staging a coup in Ikol?"
"Because we have to take back the Crusad Gate." The bishop continued to explain, "This is a deal that has been settled a long time ago. If we want to take back the gate, we have to make sacrifices. Accordingly, Ikol can Clearing our pieces but missing the opportunity to capture the gate.”
After hearing this, Grant was silent for a while, and suddenly said: "It sounds like our losses are relatively large."
The bishop also nodded.
"Because the accident happened to us, all these are just measures to stop losses." He looked at Grant with some expectation in his eyes, "But we don't need to use all the power to launch a coup. As long as we handle it properly , after Icor cleans up, we will only lose part of the chess pieces, and they may not even be able to find half of the undercover agents."
After a pause, he continued: "The key to the matter is not the coup or the attack on the gate, but how to obtain more subtle benefits in the details in this transaction. It is very difficult to achieve success in one step , only by accumulating advantages through exchanges again and again can we ensure that we become stronger and stronger."
Although the bishop's tone and expression were as calm as ever when he spoke, but for some reason, Grant felt an inexplicable sense of oppression in his heart when he was stared at by such calm eyes.
At a certain moment, he even felt that his breathing was not smooth.
"Teacher... why are you telling me this?" Therefore, under the influence of oppression and escape psychology, he felt that he had asked a stupid question.
"Because, before you become a chess player, you must first understand the rules of the game." The bishop did not pay attention, but turned around and looked up at the mural about the Holy Spirit on the sky. "One day, you will become the new pope. . But it’s a pity that you are still running away from the talent God gave you. Your magical ability is already more powerful than mine, but you haven’t learned how to use it yet.”
Hearing this, Grant also fell into a long silence. Like the bishop, he raised his head and looked up at the complicated murals, with a confused and complicated look on his face.
It was as if there was a sacred meaning descending on the shadowy church hall, shrouding the two of them together, causing them to fall into a prayer-like silence.
for a long time…
At a certain moment, Grant seemed to have water droplets dripping on his forehead, and his eyes suddenly became clear. He looked at the bishop again and spoke quietly: "So, is this the reason why Bishop White, who was stationed at the gate, died of serious injuries after escaping from the mage's siege and died suddenly of 'regret'?"
For some reason, his tone became particularly firm at this time, even with a hint of provocation, as if... the bishop had lost the original sense of oppression in his eyes.
However, the bishop turned around, not angry, but showed a somewhat relieved smile.
"You learn quickly." He said calmly, "Bishop White is a good man, but he is too paranoid about some things. He has begun to doubt the news about the Pope's retreat. Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the church, I can only take the opportunity to He gets rid of it.”
Hearing this, an imperceptible smile appeared on Grant's lips.
The two eyes passed through the beams of light refracted by the glass windows and met in the center of the church hall, just like the first eye-to-eye contact between a son and his father after becoming independent from home.
A long while.
Grant seemed to have thought of something, looked away, and suddenly asked: "Then... if an out-of-control chess piece wants to join the game, what will he do?"
Hearing this, the bishop narrowed his eyes slightly, and his peaceful eyes seemed to become sharp at a certain moment.
"He will continue to cause accidents, and then be shattered into pieces in the accidents he creates." He replied coldly, "Or... in a certain accident, he will hit a 100% chance of reaching the sky in one step."