Chapter 21 Religious threats
Chapter 21 Religious Threats
A moment later, Butler Philip led the two clergymen into the parlor.
Father Anderson he had already met, Dean Leonard didn’t ring a bell in his memory, an old man with a Mediterranean hairstyle, giving off a rather curmudgeonly feeling.
Paul smiled and asked, “What brings you two to my place? “
“Lord Earl, you dared to fight against the pirates and were victorious in the battle, protecting the Lamb of the Lord, we have come to express our gratitude to you.”
“Haha, this is my duty, is this the only thing?”
The two clergymen looked at each other and seemed to hesitate a bit. In the end, it was the older Dean Leonard who spoke first: “Lord Earl, we are here to investigate a matter, can we have the butler recuse himself.”
“Alright, what matter requires two clergymen to come and investigate?” He waved his hand, allowing Philip to leave the parlor.
“From what we have learned, you used something suspected to be witchcraft in your battle with the pirates, can you explain it to us?”
“Witchcraft? What kind of sorcery? Never heard of it.” Paul’s head was full of questions.
“Lord Earl, it’s the kind of thing that causes explosions or fires projectiles that kill or injure people.”
“Oh, you mean the latest firearm equipped by our army.”
“Is this something able to show us?”
He balked, “No, this is a military secret, how can we just let others look at it?”
Seeing the other party’s refusal, Leonard’s face gradually became serious: “Earl, it is our clergy’s natural responsibility to monitor the signs of witchcraft activities in the parish under our jurisdiction, I advise you to cooperate with us, if it is just an ordinary weapon, we will naturally clear your name. If you refuse to cooperate, it would be bad if the matter is brought to the Heresy Inquisition of the Archdiocese, it would not be beneficial to anyone, I believe you are also well aware of the temperament of that group of people, if they come down to investigate, there is a high possibility that they will bring harm to the innocents.”
“Are you threatening a lord? Outrageous.” Paul was quite indignant, unexpectedly coming with me to do this.
Father Anderson said with a worried face, “I hope you’ll forgive us, although we are God’s servants, we are also your people under your rule, if we weren’t compelled by our duties, we wouldn’t want to get into such a stalemate. There is a precedent for a lord being seduced by an evil sorcerer and thus bringing disaster to the entire territory, when the time comes, not only will you harm yourself, but also the innocent people.”
He was very worried that this little earl would be stubborn to the end because of his juvenile temperament, and it would be a bad thing if he attracted the people from the Heretic Inquisition.
Paul bit the root of his pressure with hatred, and repeatedly struggled with it.
After a while of stalemate between the two sides, he finally compromised, the “Inquisition” in the other side’s mouth is not a good thing, the Inquisition of the northern diocese of Aldo Kingdom is not a problem, His Majesty the King, for the sake of his own prestige, is unlikely to allow them to investigate his own aristocrats with impunity, but if it is poked up to the headquarters of the Holy See, it would be difficult to say! But if it goes up the chain to the headquarters of the Holy See, it will not be easy to say.
“Well, in that case, then I will show you to prove my innocence. But I would like to ask, if it is proven that my new weapon has nothing to do with black sorcery, are you two willing to keep the specific details of the weapon a secret for me? This is, after all, a military secret, a sharp weapon that we use against pirates.”
“We swear in the name of the Heavenly Lord that we will never reveal it to anyone.”
“Even His Holiness the Pope?”
Father Anderson was silent as he listened, but it was Abbot Leonard who said after a slight hesitation, “Yes, even His Holiness the Pope. And if someone asks about it in the future, we can also testify for His Excellency the Count.”
Hearing his teacher’s promise, Father Anderson also nodded.
He then summoned Philip and asked him to go to his study to fetch the fire-rope pistol he used for self-defense as well as two bottles of gunpowder.
Once Philip had fetched them, Paul asked the two clergymen to follow him to the small garden outside the parlor, where he was going to give them a demonstration, and asked the steward to inform the officers who were still meeting in the hall that there was no need to be alarmed at the sound of gunfire.
He took his time loading the ammunition, aimed the gun with both hands at a tree, and pulled the trigger as the two clergymen watched.
The tree shook with the sound of a bang, and the birds on it flew off into the sky in panic.
Dean Leonard and Father Anderson clearly saw the bullet holes in the trunk of the tree, and they all sucked in a breath of cold air, such a hand crossbow-sized thing actually has such a great power. Anderson looked to his teacher, the old dean nodded, “Indeed, I didn’t feel any abnormal fluctuations.”
Anderson asked, “Can you give us a closer look at this ‘firearm’?”
“Alright, here. This thing is called a musket, and the other one that can explode and injure people is called a grenade, and both are based on this powder that can burn violently before they work.” Paul shook another flask of gunpowder, “The grenade is too dangerous to show you.”
Anderson took the pistol in both hands and took out a gray stone and touched it for a moment.
“There is no unusual reaction to the magic detecting stone, Lord Earl, please forgive us for our offense.” The two clergymen confirmed that the musket had nothing to do with sorcery.
Anderson, however, did not immediately return the musket to Paul, and he tsked as he tossed it around and observed this novelty. The structure of the musket was very simple, and combined with the Count Lord’s operation just now, it was easy to deduce how it worked, and the key lay in the kind of magical powder that could burn violently, but since it was said to be a military secret, it was not good for him to continue to pry.
This one-handed musket was specially made for Paul, the woodworker took great pains to carve a very exquisite pattern on the handle, overall very artistic ornamental value.
Leonard coughed, “Anderson, hurry up and return it to His Lordship.”
“Oh, sorry. Was this invented by His Lordship? It’s really subtle.” Anderson blushed and returned the pistol to the Earl while praising it.
“Hehehe, it’s exactly what I invented. However, let’s agree just now that the details of this kind of weapon must not be revealed to others. “The other party’s admiration counteracted part of the unhappiness in Paul’s heart.
“This is natural, since the situation is clear, we won’t continue to bother Lord Earl.” The two clergymen rose to take their leave.
However, they heard the lord suddenly say, “You two, don’t leave in a hurry.”
Leonard and Anderson heard a hint of ill will from the tone, “Is there anything else that Lord Earl commands?”
“How did the two of you know about this new weapon I invented? And how did you know that I used it in the battle with the pirates?”
“This …… this ……” Father Anderson squeaked up.
Paul’s tone grew cold, “Shouldn’t I be snitching to the Northern Diocese, like certain people who are openly under the banner of Servants of God while secretly working as spies.”
“Injustice, Lord Earl. This is your soldier in the confessional ……”
Dean Leonard immediately exited and droned, “Anderson!!!”
Fr. Anderson immediately covered his mouth and didn’t say a word anymore.
Dean Leonard said with slight embarrassment, “I’m sorry, Lord Earl, it is our duty to keep information about the penitent. Please do not pursue this any further.”
“Well, that’s as far as it goes (only weird).” Paul agreed with his mouth, but in his heart, he was a million times out of luck.
“Then we’ll take our leave.”
The two clergymen left in a hurry.
Thank you to Falling Leaves in the Windz and Hutugui for their recommendation votes!
(End of chapter)