Wizards: Starting as a Potions Master!

Chapter 148: The Combination of Religion and Secularism, and the Journey to the Petrified Witches' Gathering

Due to the ongoing political turmoil, the Church of Storms in the Achaia parish used a provisional election system for bishops, spending two weeks discussing and selecting, and finally confirming Borgia Frederick as the local bishop.

On the same day, Borgia Frederick was particularly grateful for Sunan Peter's help and immediately wrote to Archbishop Mosilini, the current Patriarch of the Orthodox Church and the capital Stormhold in the northeast, recommending that he elevate the Peter family to the rank of Earl and Maple Leaf Town to the central commercial city of the Storm Kingdom.

Thus, Borgia Frederick is no longer the same person he used to be; even the archbishop has to give him face.

Generally speaking, as long as a bishop nominates a secular nobleman for a promotion, the promotion is almost always successful.

After all, the Storm Kingdom currently has 21 military districts, but only 7 pastoral districts.

Borgia is the bishop of one of the seven parishes and is an absolute high-ranking member of the Church of Storms.

The military districts were part of the feudal system, while the pastoral districts were part of the church system.

In this era, when the church and the nobility held power simultaneously, there were always two systems for regional division.

One was the territory of the feudal lord, and the other was the territory of the church.

The Church of Storms is also a member of the Church of Order.

The Eastern Orthodox Church originally considered itself the orthodox church of the East, and considered itself equal to the Grand Order Church, which was dominated by the Papacy.

Some even believe that only the orthodox Eastern church can represent the celestial order gods' responsibility to command all the order gods' churches.

However, with the Eastern Human Empire being usurped and replaced by the Storm Kingdom, the current Archbishop of the Storm Church also serves as the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church and formally submits to the Papal States on behalf of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Archbishop of the Church of Storms and the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church are both subject to the Pope of the Papal States.

Pope Innocent III also wants to use this method to mend the great schism in the Order of the Gods Church caused by historical reasons and to reunite the Order of the Gods Church.

This was to strengthen his authority as pope and suppress kings and emperors of various countries.

Soon, the Archbishop's approval letter reached both Borgia and Peter's territories. Similarly, the Archbishop and the Storm Kingdom simultaneously approved the elevation of Maple Leaf Town's status.

Of course, this decision will certainly harm the interests of some people.

For example, harming the interests of the Southern Thrace Military District, the only Storm Earl's Territory, and the Samori family.

But Borgia didn't care, because he knew that it was the Sunan and Peter families who had helped him during his most difficult time.

Borgia also knew that after becoming a bishop, he would need the protection of secular allies even more.

Only now has he belatedly realized how deep the waters hidden in Peter's territory are.

He must be incredibly lucky to have such a powerful ally who took the initiative to approach him.

At the Lion Port on the Achaean Peninsula, Borgia, accompanied by a hundred church soldiers and five knights, boarded a ship belonging to the Achaean pastoral region, preparing to head to Peter's territory.

But unlike the first time, when his father went to Peter's territory to show off his power.

Borgia's trip to Peter's territory served two purposes: first, to express his gratitude to Sunan, and second, to strengthen relations with Sunan.

He only just realized that the Peter family probably had some unknown secrets, but he didn't care. Right now, his most important thing was his own position as bishop, or even... a step further.

Therefore, the stronger his allies are, the better it is for him.

On the ship, Borgia and Blom chatted and laughed, but it was mostly Borgia who was talking and Blom who was listening.

It wasn't that Blom didn't want to talk, but as an old soldier with severely limited education, how could he possibly compete in eloquence with Borgia, who was a key figure in the Frederick family's education and now a bishop's man?

At most, he could have a sword fight with Borgia, but who knows who would win or lose.

On the deck, Borgia said to Blom with great interest, "Mr. Blom, I originally thought you were just a solid and reliable bodyguard who has saved me from countless assassination attempts along the way."

"But I never expected that you would be such an orator. The last time you defended me before the Benedictine elders, you were just like the orators in the city-states of this land thousands of years ago."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Blom."

Blom opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say, so he could only say, "Oh."

Borgia continued rambling on. "Now that I've become a bishop, I'm going to the territory of Baron Peter, no... I mean the territory of Count Peter, to bring glory to the Peter family."

"I suggested to the archbishop that all the baronies near the Peter family legally pledge allegiance to Count Peter."

"Anyway, the Peter family already has a very deep control over them, and I don't think anyone will object."

"As for the troublesome... Count Samori family, I don't care whether they live or die, not to mention they are currently in the midst of a serious riot and famine."

Borgia now considers himself a staunch ally of the Peter family and dreams of gaining their full support.

Therefore, he considered things entirely from the perspective of Su Nan's interests, completely disregarding how much damage his somewhat willful actions would cause to the Earl of Samori's family.

Just as Borgia was about to continue speaking to Blom, the laborers on the ship's deck who were helping the church move goods suddenly contorted their expressions, pulled a dagger from inside their trousers, and stabbed Borgia Frederick.

The church soldiers and knights stood in the middle of the ship's deck, while Borgia and Blom stood on the bow deck, so the soldiers and knights' expressions changed drastically for a moment.

"There's an assassin!"

"Your Excellency, be careful..."

Borgia belatedly turned around and looked at the assassin who was ferociously stabbing at him, his eyes filled with malice. "I've become a bishop, and there are still damned guys trying to kill me to make room for someone else."

"Are they those idiots from the Platinum Republic?!"

The next moment, a noble sword lay across Borgia's face, while the assassin disguised as a dockworker's dagger could only remain embedded in the back of this famous sword of the Storm Kingdom, unable to advance an inch.

The assassin's pupils suddenly contracted. He was a knight carefully trained by the Platinum Republic, a knight of the sea, and his path was assassination, so his sword speed was extremely fast.

He finally found an opportunity to get close to Borgia, even using the ocean's prayer: the waves, which increased his explosive speed and the speed of his hand reflexes, so that he could unleash a fatal blow in this hard-won chance.

However, an unremarkable old soldier standing next to Borgia, whose martial arts skills were not particularly high, whose clothes were sloppy, and whose expression was always lazy, anticipated his position and blocked the attack.

Blom's pupils distorted into golden rings, resembling those of a werewolf, and he had a blade of grass dangling from his mouth. "Wow, you assassin are as patient as a monster. You've been lying in wait on the ship for three days, and only now are you making your move."

The assassin's pupils dilated. "What?"

So, was the person truly responsible for the safety of the Bishop of Borgia the veteran of the Peter family who was always by his side?

This is why the Bishop of Borgia dared to distance himself from the protection of the Church's army!

Blom swung his sword and beheaded him. At the same time, the corner of Blom's eye deformed into the pupil of a bloodthirsty mutated werewolf, but it disappeared in a flash.

Werewolves possess superhuman hearing, allowing them to easily hear the heartbeat of another person and discern their identity from it.

Even if the werewolf warrior's hearing isn't as abnormal as the werewolf butler's, how could this little novice official ocean knight assassin, a mutated werewolf warrior who has undergone three ascensions and is equivalent to a first-class wizard apprentice, not notice his abnormality?

Even without transforming into a werewolf, Blom in his partially transformed state could still easily crush and kill this Ocean Knight.

Moreover, following Sunan's orders, Blom deliberately and unintentionally tested Borgia's attitude, for example, by not hiding the fleeting pupils of the mutated werewolf in front of him.

The result pleased Su Nan, who had been observing from the shadows. Borgia completely ignored these anomalies, pretending not to have noticed anything at all.

Borgia examined the corpse on the ground, then glanced disapprovingly at the belated church soldiers and knights before saying to Blom in an admiring tone, "This was actually a formal sea knight."

"Mr. Bloom, the Sword of Nobility truly suits you. You killed a sea knight with a single strike. It's so reassuring to have you by my side, protecting me."

At this moment, Sunan, thousands of miles away, directly controlled Blom's body and said to Borgia with a smile, "Of course."

"Your Excellency only needs to focus on your work of praying for the Peter family."

"Militarily, your safety will be guaranteed by the Peter family."

Borgia, who was only interested in climbing to the top of the church, smiled with satisfaction; this was exactly what he wanted.

He had absolutely no interest in power in the secular world.

He only wanted to be the most honored priest among a group of priests, to be a spiritual mentor to the world.

……

Meanwhile, in Peter's territory, Sunan, along with Wolf One and Wolf Two, rode in a carriage driven by Vasilien and pulled by two white horses, heading towards the territory of Count Samori.

The territory was transformed from seventy-two hounds into werewolves, including Pella and the old butler Warwick, as well as Mario Stonecaster, Gargoy Gargoyle, and Alexander Stonecaster, and the Jinx swarm from the underworld.

Even if they are not in their territory, if a warlock group dares to attack, they will suffer a great loss.

Similarly, those fools in the underworld seem to be up to something big, gathering a large number of slaves in an underground tunnel.

Su Nan didn't interfere much and simply let the swarm of insects attack.

I need to limit the number of insects to prevent the experiment from getting out of control.

Moreover, only by continuously conducting their own scarab swarm experiments through warfare can they cultivate even more powerful scarab swarms.

Unlike the group in the Insect Curse Valley, who only liked to work behind closed doors, using a bunch of magic at home to selectively cultivate scarabs in the direction they wanted, I was different.

The idea behind cultivating your own swarm is to use its powerful reproductive capacity to continuously generate new swarms, and then, through high-intensity warfare with a large number of swarms, find a suitable mutation direction for the scarab.

Sunan said to Vasilyan, who was driving the carriage, "Vasilyan, you can go a little faster. Don't worry about me being uncomfortable."

"I want to get there as soon as possible, to the Petrifying Witches' Gathering."

"After all, we don't know their specific attitude, so arriving there in advance allows us to make more preparations."

Vasilyan replied, "Yes."

So the carriage sped up.

Meanwhile, underground in Peter's territory, on Mount Drow Warrior, he and his lover, the fire dragon lizardwoman Molly Wood, had already led an army of superior races to ambush on the other side of the underground passage, and deliberately gathered a large number of slaves, including dwarves, lizardmen, and cavemen.

The drow warriors on the mountain watched expectantly as a tremendous sound came from the other side of the underground. "It doesn't sound like an army marching. What could it be?"

"But at least we've finally found them."

"Fire Dragon Lizardmen, you are a semi-arc race capable of using dragonfire vomit, and you are one of the superior races of the dungeon."

"Now is the time for us, the creatures of the underworld, to fight back!"

(End of this chapter)