Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

"Hiss... you've brought the job to me."

After several days of pigeon messaging, the order from the French Royal Hall reached Archbishop Midland in Windham Cathedral.

At this time, Archbishop Miteran was facing pressure from three sides: the French Royal Palace, King Miteran, and John. If he offended one of them, there would definitely be a chain reaction, and he would definitely be the first to be punished.

But now he has no good candidates to appoint. Everyone knows that the Earldom of Franche-Comté is a border territory. Who doesn't want to find a stable territory to collect some tithes steadily? Moreover, a cult rebellion once broke out there. What if a bunch of cultists suddenly appear while he is walking and he kills them, all his previous efforts will be wasted.

Therefore, Archbishop Midland had to find a rookie who had professional skills and had not yet entered or had just entered the religious circle, and coax him over, but the level of this rookie could not be too low.

So the next morning, Archbishop Midland immediately set off for the Windham Theological Seminary. This kind of rookie can usually only be recruited from schools. After all, they have never experienced the hardship of work and are easy to deceive.

Windham Theological Seminary is a college with a long history. As early as the early days of Midland's founding, a living area for clergy centered on Windham Cathedral was formed here. With the approval of the third archbishop and the King's Office, the Midland Church began to set up a college here. At the beginning, it was just a school for teaching children to recite the Bible and sing hymns. Later, it was initially expanded. After purchasing nearby land, it was built into Windham Theological Seminary and gradually improved. Now there are about 500 faculty and staff and about 5000 students here. There is no limit on gender or academic qualifications. You can go to school if you have money. After graduation, you will be assigned a job according to your ranking. Those with high rankings will be arranged near the capital area, and those with poor rankings will go to a small church in a village on the border.

Upon hearing that the archbishop was coming, the dean and a group of school leaders hurried over to greet him, and took the archbishop to inspect the campus while reporting.

"Our school has enrolled more and more students in recent years, so we built a lot of new dormitories. We chose the best materials and asked top students who graduated from the neighboring Wyndham University of Architecture to design the engineering drawings. The sculptures above are also from the Academy of Fine Arts..."

Because it is worship time now, all teachers and students have to go to the cathedral in each district to worship, so there is no one in the school at the moment, only the archbishop and a group of school leaders.

"Well... the architectural scenery of the entire school is still so pleasing to the eye, almost the same as it was twenty years ago." The archbishop recalled the past.

At that time, he was the second son of a noble family and was sent here to study. In addition to studying, he also caused trouble for his teachers. Fortunately, he achieved excellent results and ranked high in the end. He was awarded the position of bishop of a city near Wendam, and finally moved up step by step to become the Archbishop of Midland. Whenever he thought of his time at school, he couldn't help but sigh that it was so good to be young.

"Hmm? Something's wrong. Why does it smell like smoke?"

When he walked to the toilet, the archbishop smelled cigarette smoke. The school rules clearly stated that smoking was not allowed in the school, but when the archbishop was in school, people often went to the toilet to smoke, and this continued despite repeated bans. It was unimaginable that it would still be like this after so many years.

"The good things haven't changed, and the bad things haven't changed." Thinking of this, the archbishop felt a little helpless.

The dean also smelled the smoke and saw the archbishop's expression. He quickly led his men into the men's restroom following the smell of smoke and banged on the doors of each toilet cubicle.

"Come out! Who's smoking in there?"

Then there was a clang, and four figures pushed the door open, knocked down the dean, and rushed out.

The archbishop was still waiting at the door, when suddenly four big black rats came out, startling the archbishop. The guards next to him saw it and hurried forward to stop them.

Faced with the threat of force, the four men had no choice but to surrender and lie on the ground to show that they posed no threat.

At this time, the dean saw the faces of these four people and said angrily: "Pros, Tam, Fantachi, Mengpro, it's you four again. What do you want to do this time? Smoking in school!"

One of them, a blond with blue eyes, said: "Dean, you are wrong this time. We don't smoke. This cigarette is made by a fireworks shop. They say it will produce sparks, so we want to see if it can work..."

When the dean heard this, he thought, "Oh my god, playing with fireworks in the toilet, you are looking for death, right?" He said angrily, "Oh my god, playing with fireworks in the toilet, you think you want to kill yourself because you waste your family's money every day! Especially you, Pros, can you save some time for your family? Your family was poor to begin with, and your father saved and borrowed money to send you here in the hope that you could make a name for yourself. Now that someone in your family has finally become the governor, you are rising again."

At first, the archbishop thought that this was just an education for the student. Suddenly, when he heard that someone in the student's family was a governor, he immediately thought of something and hurriedly asked the dean secretly: "Whose child is that Pros?"

The dean thought the archbishop wanted to find the parents, so he quickly said, "This child is from the Hohenzollern family, the relative of the new Governor John. Just educate him well."

"Here it comes." The Archbishop thought. First of all, this person is John's relative, so John certainly doesn't mind. Secondly, this person is from the family of the Governor of Midland, so the King of Midland will certainly agree. As for the French King's Office, as long as Pros doesn't make any big mistakes, the French King's Office will definitely accept it.

"Cough cough..."

The archbishop coughed, then said, "Pros, what grade are you in now?"

Pros was being reprimanded by the dean. When he heard the archbishop's words, he thought the archbishop was going to punish him, so he quickly said, "Archbishop, I am in the fourth grade now and I will graduate soon. Please don't chase me away."

"Don't worry, there's no such thing." The archbishop waved his hand and asked in a kind tone: "I have a job here that can not only get you a job early, but also make you a bishop. Do you want to do it?"

When Pros heard about this good thing, he immediately made up his mind and quickly replied: "Sure, I'm willing to take any position you give me."

"Good!" The Archbishop nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "Then I will appoint you as the Bishop of Franche-Comté, responsible for collecting local tithes."

"Archbishop, I'm afraid this doesn't comply with regulations. All student appointments are made based on graduation rankings. What's more, this is the bishop. If this is done, wouldn't it be unfair to other students?" The dean was dumbfounded. What the hell was this? How did he suddenly go from criticizing students to appointing a bishop? If this was the case, he would be criticized by the outside world.

"The County of Franche-Comté is a very complicated territory and special matters need to be handled specially. He is my candidate," the archbishop said slowly.

Fair? Many things in this world are unfair. Think about it slowly.

"Then it's settled. Go to the gate of the academy tomorrow morning. A carriage and an escort will take you to Franche-Comté." Archbishop Midrand said and was about to leave.

At this time, Pros asked: "Um...how much is the tithe tax?"

Archbishop Midland was also stunned.

"Yes, should we collect tithes from that place? The French King's Office didn't say whether John is one of them, but the tone of the letter makes me cautious. It is very likely that he is one of them. So how much should we collect from him?"

After thinking it over, Archbishop Midland still couldn't figure out how much to charge, so he said calmly: "It's up to you." Then he left the academy without looking back.

So the next day, with the farewell of a group of school leaders, Pross was sent to a carriage and set off for Franche-Comté. After half a month of bumpy ride, he finally arrived at the border of Franche-Comté.

The border officers quickly sent a pigeon to convey the news of the bishop's arrival to John.

"You're here so soon? Let's get ready." John stood up, put on his armor, and prepared to go to greet the bishop with hundreds of knights.

When John saw the carriage and was about to greet it, he saw a head pop out of the carriage and said:

"Cousin John?"