Chapter 705: Casually Digging a Pitfall

Bishop Habolo kept quite a low profile even though he was a high-ranking member of the Holy Church. He rarely appeared in public.

He was in charge of military affairs and the defense lines. This meant he was in charge of setting the knights’ daily patrols. He was quite a busy personage.

“Just sneak in and wait for him in his room. Aren’t all secret discussions supposed to be like this?”

Harloys viewed things quite simply, but I didn’t have such miraculous stealth techniques like the silly cat. It would be quite foolish for me to attempt being stealthy while wearing armor which weighed several hundred kilograms.

Even I would have a headache about all the angels and high-level Holy Knights who would come and try to kill me if I was discovered.

I thought about it for a moment. If I tried to sneak in, I might be mistaken for an assassin. Right after that, I had a sudden realization.

“I’m so silly. I can just send Bishop Habolo a direct invitation.”

Indeed, I had fallen for a blind spot in my thinking. Although the Holy Church and I were already secretly fighting and scheming against each other in many areas, on the surface, the Northlands and the Holy Church were still solid allies.

Would the Holy Church really attempt to kill me openly? That would be the equivalent of declaring war on the Mist Alliance before their northern alliance defense lines had been completed. That would obviously be quite foolish.

Secretly assassinate me? I felt that would be highly difficult. Maybe it would be a difficult for me to actually win a fight against all the forces here, but it would be super easy for me to let everyone in the entire city know that Roland Mist had arrived.

Also, if my inference was correct, there would be other benefits to my openly inviting Bishop Habolo to see me.

And so, I immediately wrote a letter and sealed it with the Mist Family crest and my personal magical seal. I then had the letter delivered to the local Holy Church headquarters.

In less than half an hour, the door to my hotel room opened as Bishop Habolo walked in with a steely expression.

Bishop Habolo appeared to be around 40 years old. However, in order to reach his position in the Holy Church, it was likely that his real age was closer to 60. This meant that he had aged well. He was also wearing nice equipment. His white robe shone with magical light rather than Holy Light or Divine Arts. The magical wavelength on the robe was decently powerful. It was likely that an archmage had crafted a priest’s robe for him. It seemed that Bishop Habolo believed in practicality over appearance.

He had a squarish face and a relatively muscular body. He seemed to have considerable talent for Holy Light. He had probably also been quite handsome when he was younger. However, he currently had quite an unpleasant expression.

“…Your Highness Roland, do you hate me for some reason? I don’t believe that I’ve antagonized you before.”

I chuckled to hear this. As expected, Bishop Habolo was no idiot.

“I have no grudge against you. In fact, I like you more than any of those idiot cardinals. I simply wanted to have a chat with you.”

What exactly did I do? I simply wrote “I’m currently in Room 302 at the Pig’s Tail Hotel. Have Bishop Habolo come meet me. I have something important to discuss. I refuse to talk to anyone else.”

I could guarantee that on this same night, the pope of the Holy Church would receive an emergency report saying: “Roland, the enemy of Holy Light, suddenly appeared in the Stanley Theocracy and requested a private meeting with Bishop Habolo.”

I could also guarantee that no matter what I talked about with Bishop Habolo, and no matter what he tried to tell others in the Holy Church, Pope Caloma wouldn’t believe him.

Did this count as framing Bishop Habolo? Of course I was framing him. It was so obvious that I was digging a pitfall for him. However, with my status, it wouldn’t make sense for me to personally dig a pitfall for someone who hadn’t even been promoted to a cardinal yet.

When considering how much of a bastard the main person in charge here was, it was highly unlikely for Cardinal Soento to let go of such a good chance to attack his political rival. He would probably send all sorts of slanderous reports about Bishop Habolo to the pope.

Despite the fact that this was clearly a huge pitfall, Bishop Habolo was still forced to come meet me. Otherwise, not only would it count as dereliction of duty, others would view him as feeling too guilty to meet me.

Bishop Habolo’s expression was plenty unpleasant already. Well, I decided to stop laughing because there was still serious business to discuss.

“Hey, brat, what do you think of the current situation?”

“Terrible. No matter what situation you’re asking about, it’s all terrible.”

It was quite fun to chat with someone so intelligent. If I had instead talked to someone who was a fervent supporter of the Holy Church, I would be far too bored listening to foolish words like “The God of Holy Light will never lose”.

Indeed, the current situation was quite terrible—for the Northlands, for the Holy Church, for the so-called Northern Divine Battlefront Alliance, and for Bishop Habolo personally. Everything was quite terrible.

“I shouldn’t have come here to the north,” Bishop Habolo stated.

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“Yet, you were forced to come.”

Bishop Habolo’s voice had a rather forceful tone that also sounded as if he was giving up on himself. He didn’t even try to hide his dissatisfaction with the Holy Church’s policy regarding the Northlands.

“Could you tell me what genius came up with the incredibly ‘genius’ idea of the Northern Divine Battlefront Alliance to seal in the Northlands?” I asked.

“What do you intend to do?”

Alright, he wasn’t even addressing me respectfully by my royal title anymore. Yet, he sounded rather expectant.

“Of course, I intend to properly thank him.”

I especially emphasized the word “thank”, making it sounded like I meant something else.

“It was that idiot Cardinal Soento. He also came here personally, and dragged me along with him.”

Bishop Habolo had a delighted expression. It seemed that he really wanted for me to do something to his comrade.

“Yep, after I’m done with my work here, remember to tell Cardinal Soento for me how thankful I am to him.”

Bishop Habolo’s hopeful expression instantly collapsed. Although it didn’t matter that I said such a thing, it would likely mean an instant fight if he really said that to Cardinal Soento.

“Right, if you could, also tell him that I’ll do business with him after the Northern Divine Battlefront Alliance is completed.”

“Go tell him yourself.”

Bishop Habolo’s face was completely red in anger. Even his neck had become red. Since he was currently Cardinal Soento’s subordinate, it seemed likely that he already knew of Cardinal Soento’s true nature.

But, even if he told others about Cardinal Soento’s true nature, nobody would believe him. Bishop Habolo wouldn’t even have any way to report Cardinal Soento.

Even if Bishop Habolo felt that I was intentionally trying to worsen his relationship with Cardinal Soento, it wouldn’t be good for him to be seen doing anything after talking with me. In the end, Bishop Habolo would only be able to keep everything to himself and stew in his frustrations.

I kept feeling like this was really funny when I saw how aggrieved he was. Perhaps this was the fate of someone who was so loyal in a chaotic era. His comrades were still living in a dream. It would be far more comfortable to pretend to be asleep with them rather than being the only one awake and with a clear mind.

Bishop Habolo was a highly devout believer in the Holy Light. He was also highly loyal to the Holy Church. I had no intention of trying to recruit him to my side, because I hated hearing refusals and wasting my time… But hey, if this incident became the catalyst for Bishop Habolo being forced to change sides due to internal factional struggles within the Holy Church, it wouldn’t be my fault, right?

“I regret coming here to meet you.”

Bishop Habolo became more and more frustrated. He was probably so angry that he wanted to cry.

“It’s too late.”

I chuckled as I brought out a pile of books and documents. I really did have some serious business that I wanted to discuss with him.

“Words from Estrada? What’s this book? Did Teacher Estrada really say these things?”

Oh my, I really didn’t expect that Bishop Habolo was also my junior under the same teacher… This made me feel even more accomplished for having dug such a pitfall for him.

“Now, let us have a good discussion about the teachings of pure Holy Light and the pillar of Holy Light in Hell…”

Some time later, I whistled to myself as I left the hotel, while Bishop Habolo still had an unpleasant expression as he hurriedly left.

This was just a casual chess move by me. I didn’t necessarily need to see any results from this move.

Regardless, it would only be a good thing for me for the two leaders of the Holy Church in the Stanley Theocracy to have a conflict against each other. If Pope Caloma decided to move Bishop Habolo elsewhere due to distrust, that would be even better for me as I didn’t want someone so skilled in charge here at the Northern Divine Battlefront Alliance.

And now, it was time for me to run away. Otherwise, the dark side of the Holy Church would start gathering strong individuals to deal with me. The Holy Church still had a very solid foundation as of now. Even Estrada would have a headache dealing with some of the oldest ancient artifacts among the highest ranks of the Holy Church. Perhaps Bishop Habolo had even been sent here in order to deal with me to begin with.

There were also bounty hunters and assassins after my head who would be everywhere. Even if they weren’t too difficult for me to deal with, I didn’t want to deal with the extra trouble they would cause me. The reward on my head would already be more than enough to construct a private city.

“Tsk, it’s still quite safe in the city, but I’ll be unfortunate the moment that I go out?”

And so, the moment that I left the city, I unhesitatingly brought out Yongye City, my floating mage tower castle…