Ergons Tevalin returned to his main castle, still reeling from shock. After ordering everyone out to prepare the celebratory banquet, he was left alone, shaking with anger and cold.
Looking back over the records, he had no choice but to face the system's utterly incomprehensible wording from earlier.
"Energy source detected. Recovery mode activated. Initiating recovery... Failed!
Evaluating...
Insufficient energy-source recovery capacity. Please keep trying!"
"Speak human!"
The system explained that the Cheat System had been crushed by the barriers between different dimensions during his transmigration. If he wanted to restore it, he would need energy.
The free energy in this world was limited, so the recovery process was extremely slow. It had now found an exceptionally high-quality source of energy: faith.
"In a village of just over fifty people, calculating the total faith generated by these fifty people each year as 0.5 energy, fully restoring the system would require roughly ten trillion energy."
Ergons actually did the math. Fifty people for one year was 0.5; one hundred people for one hundred years was 100; one hundred thousand people for one hundred thousand years was one hundred thousand; ten trillion was one billion people... for ten thousand years?
"Fuck, are you trying to kill me? You need that much faith? How many people are there in all of Tevalinburg? In all of Newbury Province? In the entire duchy?
How many people are on this planet?
At this rate, if I unified the entire planet and made everyone worship me, a million years might not even be enough to restore your damn system.
Come to think of it, what do I get out of restoring you?"
The system seemed to realize that the number it had given was far too huge. "As incomplete recovery is achieved, the system will gradually unlock its functions.
"Once it reaches a certain level, it may even send the host to other worlds to seize energy and further accelerate the system's repair.
"With the system's assistance, Your Excellency can gradually grow stronger and perhaps even become a true god. The host may even be sent back to the world he came from.
"Furthermore, replenished energy can be converted into the number of times permissions may be used. The permissions may even be fully unlocked, removing the restrictions on using the Cheat Command."
That did sound pretty good. Ergons barely suppressed his dissatisfaction, but then he thought of something and immediately broke out in a cold sweat again.
"Damn system, you said that life, souls, and faith all count as energy. You rely on this energy to recover, but once you use that energy for recovery, will anyone notice that it's missing from wherever it was originally supposed to go?"
"They will! For example, if the host impersonates a believer of the Holy Light and makes people who originally believed in the Holy Light convert to worshipping you, the Holy Light should be able to detect it.
"However, the number is too small. Normally, it will be concealed by the natural fluctuations of birth, aging, illness, death, and so on."
"Fuck, you damn system! You're trying to get me killed!"
Ergons Tevalin might have spent several days as a powerful "player," but in reality, he was just an ordinary man with a face comparable to Yan Zu and Takeshi Kaneshiro. He had certainly read plenty of novels and manga and played plenty of games.
He had only stolen the faith of fifty people so far. The god behind the Holy Light Church might not notice, but as the system stole more and more, he would be discovered sooner or later.
The excitement he had felt after gaining a full twenty-five subordinates instantly vanished.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. It was Elisa Adena, the woman who radiated that damnable charm at every moment.
The minimap was always active, and that was the one bad thing about it—there were no surprises at all. Every living thing around him was marked with its name, occupation, number, and purpose.
"I'll attend the luncheon at noon. The long journey has exhausted me, so I'd like to rest for a while. You may leave first!"
Elisa Adena had not said a single word, and he had not even seen her face, yet everything she wanted to do was already displayed in her status?
But Elisa Adena was now completely infatuated with Ergons. It was like using cheats to max out one's reputation and honor, or instantly maxing out one's intimacy with any young lady or married woman one casually flirted with. Her love for him was impossible to restrain.
"There are still two hours before the luncheon. I'd like to ask Sir Ergons Tevalin to help me decide what kind of formal dress I should wear to the banquet."
As she spoke, she pushed the door open and entered.
After casually closing the door, she reached both hands up from her collar and pulled. She "swam" out of the dress that had looked so complicated.
The visual impact was overwhelming. Ergons could not hold himself back. His mood had been miserable anyway, so taking the edge off would be good for his physical and mental health.
At noon, naturally, everyone held a banquet and drank to their hearts' content. This meal was essentially lunch and dinner combined.
There was more than enough malt wine, while every table had cheese and honey. Grapes, apples, olives, dates, and other foods piled up before every table. Chicken, beef, and dried meat went without saying; even the smoked fish, uncommon in this near-desert region and taller than half a person, was supplied without limit.
All of it had been loaded into the inventory before he burned the provisions in Tevalinburg.
A group of farmers, no matter how comfortably they lived, could never eat like this even once in a year. This was practically an early New Year celebration.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Ergons left William Adena and Adamson to entertain the crowd and continue the feast while he and Old Adam secretly slipped away.
He still trusted this old servant, whose loyalty had been maxed out from the start. After all, an old man's wisdom was invaluable. Even if his limited horizons restricted the heights from which he could view a problem, his long experience could make up for those shortcomings as much as possible.
Ergons Tevalin freely admitted that he had been a parasite before this. He did not believe he could be like the protagonists in novels, who considered every aspect of every matter.
He told Old Adam everything that had happened during the day and night since arriving in Tevalinburg.
Aside from the system, which he could not tell anyone about, he shared everything he could normally explain.
Old Adam did not disappoint him. Stroking his head of mottled white beard, he pondered for a long while before speaking. "Three matters: the Church's attitude, the Swedes' invasion, and how we take control of Tevalinburg."
"The Church's attitude. We don't know what the upper levels are planning, but someone did use the opportunity of you stealing the supplies to assassinate Baron Tervain. For all we know, the baron may already be dead.
"Moreover, the Church still believes you are a young knight loyal to the Church, brainwashed by a pastor since childhood. They should support you in taking the baron's position. The timing will depend on when they decide it is appropriate to push you forward.
"The baron's death may not have been announced because they intend to leave a scapegoat behind for the local devastation caused by the County of Tervain's invasion.
"You killed Bein Spencer. Pastor Alphons must have seen through it—or rather, Bein Spencer was given to you by him, allowing you to remove that troublesome useless fool with your own hands.
"After all, Pastor Spencer has died, and his incompetent son could clearly still disrupt the Church's plans."
Ergons listened and nodded repeatedly. The old man's analysis was indeed meticulous.
"The Swedes' invasion.
"Calling off the invasion is nothing more than nurturing bandits for importance. But aren't the people of the County of Tervain also playing with fire? Their invasion will inevitably cause severe destruction throughout Newbury Province, especially in our Tevalinburg.
"How to preserve our interests as much as possible during their invasion, and how to use it to draw in the refugees from the villages that are destroyed—those are the most important things we must do next."
"Third, how do we take control of Tevalinburg?
"Whether it was the design or execution of this invasion, the Church must have had a purpose. If they push you into the position of baron, too early, and you'll be the scapegoat; too late, and once you take office, you'll be a puppet with all your power stripped away.
"So how we can fully take control of Tevalinburg and all the interests attached to it without attracting the Church's attention is another matter we must focus on after the war ends."
Before you continue