Early the next morning!
At the summit of Holy Radiance Mountain in Berely City, on the square before the Dawn Temple.
Alda, dressed in an exquisite count's outfit beneath an oversized scarlet cardinal archbishop's robe and crown, had a long cigar clenched between his teeth. With a carefree, roguish air, he was giving instructions to several Dawn Temple cardinals before him.
"Well, everyone, we are all servants of the great, glorious, wise, supreme Dawn God!"
"So, we must all work together to spread our lord's radiance across the entire continent."
"Of course, spreading the god's glory cannot do without the support of glittering gold coins. Without gold coins, we cannot establish a powerful temple legion; without a powerful temple legion, we cannot make those emperors and kings obey; if we cannot make those emperors and kings obey, we cannot gather more believers; and without more believers, how are we supposed to proclaim the god's glory?"
"So, when all is said and done, gold coins are the most important thing!"
The muscles on the faces of the Dawn Temple cardinals twitched. Faced with the crooked logic and heretical nonsense of this "Dragon Mountain Count," they had the urge to send him straight to the stake. But he was a cardinal archbishop—though that archbishop title was merely an honorary position outside the regular establishment, it had been personally bestowed upon him by Lord Laite Chenxi!
Anyone or anything connected to a divine descendant like Laite Chenxi was not someone ordinary cardinals like them dared provoke.
Besides, tucked into each of their sleeves was a weighty, charming, lovely gold note. The sum written on it was enough for these cardinals to spend three lifetimes drowning in wine and women! And these gold notes had been forcibly stuffed into their hands by the "Dragon