The little box Akil had set down was hardly impressive, so when Lansiat suddenly noticed it on the table beside his hand, he was momentarily taken aback. He thought to himself that even if those boys had rendered some service, it was useless if they did not know how to offer benefits. Their future careers would probably be rough going.
Still, he casually picked it up. But the moment he opened it, he could not help drawing in a sharp breath. It was nothing else but an emblem of the Ankhseram Church. The Ankhseram Church's emblem was a massive sun, hollowed out at its center and ringed with symbolic flames to represent Ankhseram's blazing heat.
The emblem had been forged entirely from gold. Like the other church emblems, its middle was hollow, but the flame patterns around it seemed to dance. Lansiat understood that this was the result of magic being applied to it. Most mages could not apply magic to gold, so the only possibility was that mithril had been mixed into the gold—and mithril of high purity at that.
Wearing this out would certainly be impressive, and since it was a church emblem, no one would have the nerve to criticize it no matter how extravagant it was. If he wanted to sell it, the mithril content alone would fetch a satisfying price.
Of course, that was only a minor interlude. Before long, everyone received satisfactory investitures, and Bishop Lansiat seemed quite pleased as well, since he had gained no small benefit from this affair.
It was a result that left everyone happy.
After seeing Lansiat off, everyone went back to whatever they needed to do. Li stayed alone in his bedroom and, without realizing it, fell asleep. In truth, Li had not genuinely slept for a long