“You want me to be Roseburg’s bishop?”
When Annan heard this, his eyes widened in surprise, “Bishop?”
Although Annan did think about it, Bishop Daryl should give himself some benefits.
But he didn’t expect that this fat and bald guy would offer his position away.
Soon, Annan realized something. He slowed down and asked softly, “What about you?”
“Naturally, I want to return to the capital. I’m not originally from the North Sea. The climate here is too humid and cold for me as an elderly person.”
Daryl shrugged and took out his pocket watch to check the time. Then, he raised his head again, looking at Annan eagerly, “What do you think, feudal lord?
“I’m just putting my name out there without the need to change my beliefs, right? Silver Sire does not insist on such pleasantries. It matters more for the development of the church. The beliefs of Silver Sire and Cold-Blooded Lady have no conflict.”
“Uhm…” Annan groaned.
Annan thought for a moment, stretched a bit, and got up. He put on his clothes and his coat.
He opened the room’s window, and the cold air rushed into the bedroom. It helped him to be more awake.
Annan squinted and took a few deep breaths of the cold wind.
He turned his head and looked back at Bishop Daryl, who was waiting for a reply.
There was no drowsiness in Annan’s eyes. Instead, he became calm and indifferent again.
Annan pointed to the stool next to the tea table in the bedroom and motioned for Bishop Daryl to have a seat.
“Please have a seat, Master Bishop.”
He said respectfully and then walked to the door, “I’ll make you a cup of tea.”
At this time, Annan did not choose a more intimate address but adopted a professional attitude for business affairs.
After that, Annan temporarily left his bedroom. While he was strolling, he was thinking it through.
Annan had quite a clear picture.
The main reasons for this invitation were because he got the Silver Sire’s holy light engravings.
—But in Bishop Daryl’s words, there was indeed a hint of probing.
His invitation was divided into two parts.
One was to “put his name in the church of Silver Sire,” and the other was to “serve as diocese bishops in the North Sea Territory.”
It was acceptable for the first condition.
But “Annan·Austere-Winter” would not accept the latter condition altogether.
He was the sole heir of Austere-Winter’s Grand Duke, the future Grand Duke.
It was not suitable for him to hold such a high office in the church of a neighboring country. Worse still, an enemy country.
This would make Austerian doubt Annan’s decision. It would also become an excuse for others to attack Annan. Worse still, it could become the motivation for the Austere-Winter Dukedom and the old grandmother’s priests to leave the Grand Duke’s side. Hence, this decision would weaken the Grand Duke’s authority.
Of course, there were also benefits.
The most significant advantage was that Annan could get strong support from Silver Sire and the asylum from the entire Silver Sire church.
No one dared to attack an upright deity’s bishop, let alone a diocese bishop with seniority half a level higher than typical bishops.
After all, it was different from the nobles.
If one of the nobles was assassinated, it was possible that other nobles would make up for the victim’s family via the joint release of a wanted notice. But that was it. After all, interests far outweigh responsibilities in the noble’s perspective.
The church would be different.
All the priests of upright deities had the common responsibility of purifying nightmares.
Any priest who died outside the nightmare was a considerable waste of resources.
After all, not everyone had the talent to be a priest.
If someone killed a priest, it was equivalent to other priests being notified to work overtime: to complete the work of your dead colleague, and you cannot leave work if you don’t finish it.
Undoubtedly, every priest’s death would harness the hatred of all priests.
—We are already quite busy. Stop disrupting us.
Therefore, even if the priests did not know each other and they were not even the priests who believed in the same upright deity, they would do something about it once they heard that someone in their diocese had killed an upright deity’s priest. The bishops would seek a way to find the murderer, kill the criminal directly or transfer the criminal to the diocese of the incident.
The bishop’s responsibility was even heavier than the priests’.
Their mission was to regularly clean up nightmares above Silver Rank in their diocese, to prevent ordinary people and innocent Transcended from entering nightmares by mistake.
In other words, they were all players playing at a higher difficulty.
Freezing Water Port was a special case.
According to Salvatore, this nightmare was attempted forty-five years ago but failed.
In the end, the bishop had no choice but to lock the “key.” Therefore, only an ordinary priest like Louis was needed to guard it.
It was a pleasant surprise if Priest Louis could purify the nightmare, but it didn’t matter if he failed. Anyway, there was no expectation for him to resolve it.
After all, it was a nightmare of distortion difficulty.
A nightmare of this level was prone to life-threatening. The victim would either be eroded by the curse and become a monster or get afflicted by a harsh curse and be cursed to death.
All in all, bishops were genuine high-risk professions.
Naturally, they were respected by people.
Annan learned from Salvatore that nobles hired assassins to murder a bishop in the Noah Kingdom twelve years ago. The bishop had ruined the king’s plan to hoard goods and sell them at a higher price resulting in the king suffering a loss.
In the end, the assassin was wanted all over the country and was arrested on the fifth day later. Even the nobles involved in the murder case had their lands confiscated, deprived of their titles, and exiled from the country.
Even if the bishop had flawed character and committed a heinous crime, they would usually be arrested after the trial and sent into a nightmare of “distortion” level or higher. Then, they had to purify the nightmare non-stop.
That was to squeeze out the final value of their existence and kill them before they became monsters.
All in all, it was a serious crime to murder a sensible and mentally sound bishop.
It was because it would be a “waste.”
Because not all the “keys” of nightmares were materialized.
For the nightmare of distortion level and above, the key was usually something strange.
For example, “say the word ‘the Venerated Skeleton,’” or “hold a frozen fish that exceeds seven pounds and open the door,” or “say twenty different names in a day” were the standard of weirdness in the keys.
The job of bishops was to handle the nightmares.
If the key to the nightmare were announced, ordinary people would try to become Transcended, break into a difficult nightmare and die tragically; or simply use these nightmare conditions to commit silent and deliberate murder.
Yes, the nightmare would be dispelled at sunrise.
But not everyone who entered a nightmare for the first time could survive until sunrise.
Moreover, ordinary people were almost unaware of nightmares. It was like being in a dream.
For them, this was just a real “death” in a nightmare.
In the case where ordinary people became Transcended, they would Lose Control, be cursed, or die by accident. Thus, a new nightmare would be born.
In this way, the number of nightmares would increase!
Therefore, controlling the number of nightmares and continuing to reduce them became meaningful and long work.
As Salvatore said.
If you want to embark on the Transcended path, you must possess the corresponding talent and determination.
The North Sea Territory was sparsely populated because of the cold weather. Nightmares were not frequent here, so bishops were not too busy.
Bishop Daryl was enough to suppress all high-level nightmares in the diocese without the assistance of other bishops.
On the other hand…
If the bishop died suddenly, the entire North Sea Territory might turn into a mess.
So, as long as Annan becomes North Sea Territory diocese bishop.
Whether it was enemies from the Noah Kingdom or hostility from Austere-Winter Dukedom, it would end here. The premise was that as long as Annan did not step down.
Then the conclusion was clear.
If Annan accepted this condition, it would be equivalent to revealing that Austere-Winter Dukedom did not send him.
—But Annan was under Austere-Winter Dukedom’s pursue.
