Black Hearted Mage

Chapter 227 Chapel

The small church looked heavily guarded from the outside, but in reality, the internal management was quite lax. Caesars leisurely strolled through the church with his puppy, encountering several guards assigned to the church. Surprisingly, no one approached him to question him.

The puppy had an exceptionally keen sense of smell, and it followed the aroma of food that permeated the air all the way. Eventually, it successfully led Caesars to a large courtyard with a spacious banquet hall.

Caesars first calmly straightened his slightly wrinkled priest robe, then pulled out a dazzling golden shawl and draped it securely around his neck. Don't underestimate this seemingly ordinary scarf; it symbolizes unparalleled status and position within the entire Saint Laurent Church.

At this moment, the guards standing at the entrance of the banquet hall, upon seeing the glittering golden shawl around Caesar's neck, straightened their backs instantly, their expressions solemn and dignified. They all raised their right hands and vigorously struck their left chests to express their deep respect to Caesar.

Facing such respectful gestures from the crowd, Caesars only nodded slightly in response. Then, he strode proudly into the banquet hall.

The former Patriarch Depero had once told him personally: The people of the Hall of Discipline had been suppressed by the Hall of Judgment for many years. The newly appointed High Priest of the Hall of Discipline, Arudiba, was not only timid and cowardly, but also greedy for money and women. Arudiba would cramp in his legs if Floyd, the High Priest of Judgment, glared at him.

A middle-aged priest with a mustache and a golden shawl on his shoulders suddenly walked into the banquet hall. The priest's sudden arrival stunned everyone in the banquet hall.

On the golden sash, there are two red stripes, one inch wide on each side. This is the symbol of the Judgment Hall. The priests who can enter the Judgment Hall are all ruthless and powerful.

Behind the middle-aged pastor was a fat dog with its mouth open, revealing a row of sharp fangs.

"Don't be nervous, fellow believers. I just happened to be passing by here. I heard there was a party here, so I wanted to come in for a few drinks!"

There were only a dozen or so people in the banquet hall, sitting around a long table, with a dozen or so busy maids beside them.

The middle-aged pastor put away his staff, walked to a corner of the banquet hall and sat down. He picked up the crystal wine glass on the table and sniffed it gently, then shook it twice to check the wine, and then drank it all in one gulp.

Seeing the middle-aged priest frowning after drinking the wine, a fat white bishop asked in confusion, "Is this wine too bad and hard to drink?"

The middle-aged priest nodded, then shook his head, which made the others a little confused. You know, the wine the middle-aged priest just drank was the best wine in the Saint Laurent Empire.

"It's a little young, and it tastes a bit dry and hard to swallow!" said the middle-aged pastor with a frown.

"This is the best wine in the Saint Laurent Empire—rum that's been aged for ten years. It's certainly a notch or two behind the Roland Empire's rum. Trade between the two sides has been suspended for over a decade, and we haven't had a taste of this fine wine for over a decade!"

The middle-aged priest in a red robe spoke. The shawl on his shoulders was gold with blue stripes, the symbol of the Hall of Discipline.

"I drink my own wine!"

As the middle-aged pastor spoke, he reached into the storage ring around the puppy's neck and pulled out a crystal bottle. The golden wine was particularly eye-catching under the bright light, and the pure wine was as charming as flowing gold.

"Gold rum!"

The red-robed priest widened his eyes and exclaimed in surprise.

"It's golden rum that's been stored for a hundred years. I spent a lot of money to get three barrels from the Roland Empire!"

The middle-aged pastor said this with some pride. He uncorked the crystal wine bottle, asked the maid for a new glass, and poured himself half a glass of wine.

"Three barrels! Big barrels or small barrels? How did you get them from the Roland Empire?"

The fat bishop sitting in the chairman's seat quickly asked.

"First, of course, you have to be willing to spend gold coins. Golden rum that's been cellared for over a hundred years is hard to come by, even in the Roland Empire. Second, and even more important, it requires a well-trained swift eagle capable of flying quickly!"

Swift Eagles are mid-level flying monsters. Their nests are usually built on cliffs hundreds of meters above the ground, making them extremely difficult to capture. Wild Swift Eagles are difficult to tame, and can only be domesticated if they have been raised from a young age.

The people in the banquet hall were stunned and envious, with no other options. The Saint Laurent Empire had very few Swift Eagles, with only two remaining in the Judgment Hall. The Saint Laurent Imperial Family's Swift Eagles had vanished years earlier.

"Can you sell me a barrel of wine?"

The middle-aged priest asked somewhat stiffly.

"One barrel of golden rum is for Archpriest Floyd, and the other barrel is for His Holiness the Pope. I don't have any extra barrels to sell you. However, I still have over fifty bottles of century-old dark rum. I can sell them to you, but the price is not low. One bottle will cost three hundred gold coins!"

The middle-aged priest's asking price was definitely a steal. A large barrel of wine could hold 200 bottles, which meant the asking price for a barrel was 60,000 gold coins. Caesars bought wine from Duke Solomon, and even a century-old bottle cost only 5,000 gold coins a barrel, and that was for the highest quality rum.

"A bottle is only three hundred gold coins, I want them all!"

The middle-aged priest slammed the table hard and shouted excitedly.

The others had been eager to try and get a piece of the dark rum, but when the red-robed priest shouted at the top of his lungs, their hearts instantly sank, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar. However, the middle-aged priest wasn't about to let the red-robed priest reap all the benefits. After all, this batch of dark rum was anything but ordinary; each bottle contained special seasonings.

"As a human being, you must not be too greedy! Everyone here has a bottle, and the remaining ones will all belong to you!" said the middle-aged pastor with a smile.

Hearing this, the priest was stunned for a moment, then smiled with satisfaction: "Well, that's not bad!"

You know, there are over fifty bottles of dark rum here. Even if he gave one bottle to everyone present, he could still easily buy over thirty bottles. So, it was a pretty good harvest.

Although the others were eager to buy more bottles, rather than just being satisfied with just one, they knew they couldn't afford to offend this seemingly ordinary middle-aged priest with a deep background, so they had to abide by the rules.

The middle-aged pastor smiled faintly, extended his hand, and with a gentle wave, over fifty bottles of dark rum appeared neatly before everyone's eyes. Seeing this, the people in the banquet hall stared with their eyes wide as bells, and they eagerly pulled out their glittering gold coins, fearing that if they were a little slow, their desired wine would be snapped up by others. For a moment, the entire banquet hall was packed with people, and the bustle was extraordinary!

"Don't hide the wine, drink it now!"

The middle-aged priest shouted as he saw someone putting the wine away. Putting the wine away was a small matter, but if someone wanted to give it to the higher-ups of the Saint Laurent Church and it was revealed that he had over thirty bottles of wine, that would not be a good thing.

Caesar was still in shock. He didn't know how to persuade these people to drink the spiked wine. The middle-aged priest gave him the most powerful assist.

"Drink it. Although it's hard to buy wine that's over a hundred years old, there will be a few barrels delivered next month. I'll sell you a few more bottles then!"

Kaisas said with a smile. He was now a little excited, and the plan to slap the Saint Laurent Church in the face began.

Under pressure from the red-robed priest, everyone present reluctantly uncorked the corks and poured the rich, aromatic liquor into the crystal glasses. The aroma of the dark rum was even stronger, perfectly masking the scent of the hallucinogenic drug.

"This wine is really delicious. It's obviously a strong liquor, but it feels like drinking fragrant honey!" The red-robed bishop exclaimed after taking a sip of the wine.

"This is a wine that is over a hundred years old. It tastes good and is not intoxicating!" Caesars agreed.

Strong liquor, combined with hallucinogenic drugs, made these people's eyes cloudy after just a few minutes.

"I have a top-secret photo here, which records a great secret of the Church of Saint Laurent, a secret about His Holiness the Pope!"

Kaisas threw out the bait directly, and the hallucinogenic potion took effect.

"Take it out and let us see!"

The middle-aged priest said anxiously that the Pope's secret was a shocking secret, and only a handful of people here had seen the Pope.

"Have the maids leave, and have the guards at the door step back!"

Caesars looked at the anxious priests, bishops, and fathers, then spoke seriously.

The obese bishop stood up and immediately gave an order, and the maid and the guards outside the door left the pavilion. Seeing the two priests close the door of the banquet hall, Caesars took out a crystal from his space ring.

"Doesn't this look like a photo stone?"

The middle-aged priest looked at the crystal with a puzzled expression. By then, Caesar's magic had already activated the crystal, and it instantly burst into a dreamlike color. Those who stared at the crystal were captivated by the dazzling light, their pupils continuously dilating until their entire eyeballs turned pitch black.

"That's right. This is a very precious alchemical artifact—the Mind Control Crystal. Now, hand over all your wealth to me!"

Caesar's words seemed imbued with a mysterious and powerful magic, like a demonic voice piercing their ears, causing the dozen or so people gathered around the crystal to nod in agreement. Immediately afterwards, some people unhesitatingly removed their storage rings, their movements skillful and swift; others hurried out of the banquet hall, as if they had something important to attend to. However, a closer look revealed that while their actions appeared hurried, aside from a slight peculiarity in their dark eyes, there was nothing noticeably unusual about their appearance.

At this moment, Caesars shouted, "Enjoy your meal, you idiot! All the delicacies here are yours to choose from. Eat as much as you want, and take as much as you like!" He then slowly stood up and carefully gathered all the spiked dark rum together, storing it safely for later use. He then pulled out a delicate photo stone from his bosom and tiptoed to a high spot in the banquet hall, where he placed it securely.

At that moment, the gluttonous pup leaped onto the spacious banquet table. With its mouth wide open, it devoured the dazzling array of delicacies. Furthermore, this clever, fat dog occasionally placed some food into its storage ring. In a short while, the neatly arranged silver candlesticks, exquisite silver plates, and a variety of cutlery were all in its possession.

"Don't take those tables and chairs, you idiot! They're not made of precious flame maple wood. No one would want such junk!"

Caesars hadn't noticed, and several of the chairs originally placed in the banquet hall had disappeared in the blink of an eye. The clever puppy seemed to understand what he said, and immediately stopped moving, scanning the surroundings with its smart eyes, as if trying to find more valuable and precious items.

A few minutes later, those who had left returned to the banquet hall. Strangely, their eyes remained a deep, dark color, unchanged. Yet, each wore a smile, and without hesitation, they handed over their treasured possessions, treasured for years, to Caesars.

"Okay, everyone, let's take a look at this photo. This is a photo of the Pope!"

After collecting the gifts from everyone, Caesars pulled out a photo stone from his space ring. As his magic power activated, he could clearly see the image on the screen—the scene where the last Pope of the Vatican, Perros, was brutally murdered.

Caesars wanted to use this mind control crystal to forcefully instill into these people's minds some important information that could shake the foundation of the entire Saint Laurent Church.

Late at night, Caesars quietly left the chapel and walked through the fields with the pup. Their next destination was another town, but there was no need to sow seeds there. What was needed now was to wreak havoc and ash, bring some chaos to the Saint Laurent Empire, and give the Saint Laurent Church a good slap in the face.

Caesars, tired from walking, sat down by the roadside to rest. He took out a priest's storage ring and examined it. There were two small boxes of gold coins, several high-grade magic crystals, a dozen magic gems, and dozens of gold ornaments. Under normal circumstances, the priest could never earn enough to buy these things in his lifetime.