New Gods of North America.

Chapter 710 Conference
To be fair, for the members of the cathedral and the detective agency who have been busy in the dock area lately,

Adding one or two more extraordinary targets to the list and requiring our attention is somewhat like the saying, "The more debts you have, the less you worry; the more lice you have, the less they itch."

Anyway, there's some unknown high-level extraordinary individual ahead of us, and Jason, who's also currently missing, behind us.

Since everyone has to search and set up checkpoints everywhere regardless of whether these two new "tourists" are here or not, adding these two newcomers won't actually increase the amount of work they have to do. Instead, it will indirectly increase the probability of everyone "catching fish".

Inessa, whose personality has always been gentle, is a typical example of this.
After arriving at the scene and understanding the situation, she simply had the agents record the physical appearance and ability characteristics of the extraordinary outsider provided by the members of the guard team, and she didn't even seem to have any emotional fluctuations.

But Wayne was different; he felt this tendency was very bad.
After all, the detective agency is a self-financing non-governmental organization with its own affairs to attend to. It's fine to cooperate in training in the short term, but if a large number of people are invested in this in the long term, then the detectives will really become free volunteer police under the cathedral.

Some things can be done together, but ultimately, meals should be eaten separately.

The cathedral, in particular, seems to have little interest in providing meals.

This kind of ulterior motive can't be openly stated, but fortunately, it's not entirely without ways to improve the situation.
So after leaving the docks managed by the Erland gang, Wayne turned around and went to find Brother Merlin, intending to first offer his advice and then have this "insider" of the church sound out the cathedral's opinion.

“Brother Merlin, I just had a sudden idea. I'm planning to organize a gangland convention in our current temporary base. What do you think of this idea?”

"A gang meeting?" Brother Merlin looked puzzled, seemingly wondering, "What does this have to do with me?"

“Recently, our people have been searching the dock area all day long while also maintaining order. It’s obviously not very efficient in finding extraordinary outsiders. If we could mobilize all the bars and pubs, temporary accommodations, and relatively permanent food vendors in the dock area, and have them report any suspicious outsiders they find, our workload would be greatly reduced.”

"You want to unify the businesses of the dock area gangs? From my personal perspective, that seems a bit difficult. The Cathedral also needs to consider the attitudes of all parties and is unlikely to directly intervene in secular matters, especially since you are an extraordinary organization."

“No, no, no, you misunderstand.” Wayne carefully chose his words. “I know how many interests are involved in the dock area, and our detective agency also has its own business. We won’t overstep our bounds in this regard.”

"So what do you mean?" Brother Merlin asked, puzzled.

“Legally speaking, residents in all places have an obligation to cooperate with local law enforcement to maintain public order. Although most of the people in the dock area do not have legal status, they are still ‘residents’ in a broad sense—so they also have an obligation to contribute to the local community.”

Wayne pondered how to phrase his message so that Brother Merlin would deliver the crucial information. "Guiding people towards positivity and goodness is precisely what the Church should and can do. The Cathedral can't directly interfere in secular affairs, but our detective agency can. With the Cathedral watching over us, the gentlemen of Richmond can probably rest assured that our detective agency will abide by the rules. Our agency has no intention of becoming a new gang, nor will we interfere excessively in the normal operation of the docklands or the competition between gangs, nor will we directly profit from it. This aligns perfectly with the Cathedral's current policy. Therefore, I hope Brother Merlin can convey my suggestion to His Holiness the Bishop and seek his opinion."

In addition to maintaining order and investigating the assets of gangsters, the detective agency has recently been focusing on changes in their "territory."

The gang wars now seem to have subsided, and they no longer seem to have the confidence to openly resist tax collection. The city hall has also managed to collect a certain amount of gang assets. Therefore, in order to save manpower, the detective agency's "vision" needs to become more refined.

Even extraordinary individuals are still human (and the detective agency can't afford to mess with those who aren't "human"...). Having arrived in a strange place, they naturally need food, clothing, and shelter. The dock area has many "businesses" that primarily profit from sailors and boatmen, scattered across the territories of various gangs.
The management of these businesses is, in a sense, the "internal affairs" of the gang. Direct intervention by the detective agency could easily backfire, but the cathedral has enough influence to persuade the men behind the gang and help the detective agency avoid this negative impact.

Try analyzing it from the perspective of the cathedral.
From a moral standpoint, several extraordinary individuals from outside the city have recently emerged in the dock area, indicating a clear increase in risk. The cathedral needs to take measures to prevent potential threats from the Old World.

If some of the people operating businesses related to food, clothing, housing, and transportation in the dock area could be turned into unofficial informants, then the cathedral's early warning capabilities in this regard could be improved, which is a rather "correct" thing to do.

From a purely self-interested perspective, with a new bishop, the current Bishop of Tyrell might well want to intervene in secular affairs. Now that the cathedral has a suitable pretext, and with the detective agency as a shield, even if he doesn't intend to change the dock district's layout for the time being, he can use this opportunity to gain leverage over those involved—including the detective agency itself.

If "proactively reporting clues about suspicious outsiders" could be made an obligation for relevant personnel and gangs, then the cathedral would have a reason to hold them accountable if something goes wrong. The same goes for the detective agency; if the detective agency crosses the line of its promise, it will either have to accept punishment or be thrown out as a sacrifice, or it will have to rely more on the cathedral's support.

Therefore, both publicly and privately, Wayne felt that the cathedral was very likely to support him in holding this "gangster conference".
Since Jason and the two new Extraordinary Ones haven't been dealt with yet, Brother Merlin and the others probably won't leave anytime soon. Since they can't be driven away in the short term, let's officially bring in the Cathedral after the City Hall to endorse the Detective Agency.

In this way, the detective agency can not only take the opportunity to shed some of its workload, but the intelligence team can also be effectively "officially promoted" and take the opportunity to infiltrate and expand its ranks, which can be considered a win-win situation.

This was inspired by Mr. Paul from the Rabbit Gang.
When there is only one backer, the backer is like an "emperor emeritus," but if there are enough backers, then the backers will become a "shareholding system."

Relying on them to save your life in a critical moment could lead to a very unpleasant death.

However, there is still a chance to get them to put in a little more effort on small things and avoid creating unnecessary trouble for themselves in daily life.

After all, Wayne doesn't really want much from those "powerful and influential figures" right now.
It's enough if they stop aiding and abetting evil.

(End of this chapter)