Sylvester was speechless, to say the least. He expected to be made a Bishop, but this was way higher than he had hoped for. He wasn’t complaining, but it sure did come as a surprise.

‘What happened? Is double promotion even a thing? Did the Pope pull some strings this time?’ Sylvester wondered in silence and digested the great news. He tried to keep himself as calm as possible, though, as that was expected from him.

“This is a surprise to me, respected Holy Father and the Cardinals.” He saluted all of the Supreme Council members. “But if you believe I’m worthy of this position, then I shall continue to give my all to the continued hegemony of the church, so the Light of Solis may keep drenching the world in the holy warmth, and leave the sinful as nothing but swarth.”

“As we expect from you, Archbishop.” The Pope voiced. “But before your official promotion ceremony, you must attend a month-long course that is compulsory for all clergymen rising above the rank of Archpriest.” 𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝒎

‘Fair deal, I guess. A small price to pay for the long-awaited promotion. And the wait was worth every second.’

“Are there any strings attached? Do I get the authority of an Archbishop too, your holiness?” He asked, just to be sure.

“No hidden strings. You have been promoted to a fully-fledged Archbishop rank. You may move your residence to a bigger place in the Higher Clergy housing district.” The Pope offered him.

Sylvester silently thought about the meaning behind his new rank. Being an Archbishop was huge, as the rank meant he was as high in nobility as a Count now, perhaps even higher. On top of that, now he could command any unit of Inquisitors or Holy Army in case of emergency without needing permission from the Holy Land.

His words will carry a lot more weight now, and his decisions hold power over entire towns and counties. Moreover, he was just one rank below the Cardinal and two before the Pope. So becoming an Archbishop at the age of eighteen was a great boon to his plan, and he couldn’t be happier.

The Pope looked around at the other Cardinals. “If there is nothing more you wish to ask, let’s dismiss the Supreme Council. We shall convene again at the previously set schedule.”

All the Cardinals who didn’t like Sylvester stood up and walked away begrudgingly. But on their faces were nothing but smiles, hiding their vileness inside. Thankfully, Sylvester and the Pope knew their true nature, so none were fooled.

“Congratulations, Lord Bard.” Cardinal Cornelius came over to thank him.

“Thank you, Cardinal. This wouldn’t have been possible without your support. I’m quite shocked at this, but I welcome it.”

The Pope bobbed his head in agreement. “Your name has spread far and wide as you solved the barbarian issue. This is the least you should be getting, if not Sainthood. I hope you continue showing us miracles, working hard, and spreading your name further as the Bard.”

When the Pope said that, a question arose in Sylvester’s mind. ‘If I wish to become the Pope at twenty-five, then what of him? Where will the current Pope go? The position is meant for life, so he can’t retire.’

He nodded at the Pope’s words with some conflict in his heart. He had seen so much from the Pope that he didn’t even know what to think about the man. The man was the personification of chaotic neutral when it came to him. But then again, Sylvester knew that he was also chaotic neutral. He kills people for his own needs and plots to kill more for his goal.

‘But if there is only one way to make the seat empty, then I’m afraid he will need to go.’

“Go and tell your family and friends the great news, son. I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear it.” The Pope patted his shoulder.

Sylvester saluted all the Cardinals in the room and silently left the Administrative building. Outside, he found Miraj, as he avoided taking the magical cat inside in fear of being sensed by the Pope or some other powerful being or security rune.

“Maxy, what happened in there? Why is your heart going boom boom?” Miraj asked as he sat in Sylvester’s arms, looking at his face.

“I got promoted, Chonky… twice! I’m now an Archbishop.” Sylvester replied, knowing very well that Miraj had no understanding of the church hierarchy, nor did he care about it. All humans were just humans to him. The only difference was are they bad or good.

“Yay! Maxy will be a big man now!” Miraj wrapped his paws around Sylvester’s head as he shifted on his back.

Sylvester chuckled, “You don’t even know what my rank means.”

“But if it’s enough to make your heart go boom boom, then it’s a big thing, isn’t it?” Miraj asked smartly.

“You are absolutely correct, Chonky. Let’s go home now and tell this great news to everyone. Actually, let’s invite everyone to dinner at my home first. I will reveal it to all at the same time.”

With the plan ready, Sylvester first went to the Guild Peninsula to order a few things. He bought a lot of fruit juice, meat, vegetables, and eggs of Dragon Bird, an extremely expensive item from an animal said to be related to dragons, but Sylvester had seen it, and it only seemed like an ostrich with some dragon-like scales.

He bought a lot of butter, honey and bananas, along with all sorts of spices, and at last, he bought a man — not as a slave, but just for the evening to be a cook at his home, as Sylvester didn’t want to bother Xavia and wanted her to enjoy the evening too. Heck, he was throwing the party for the whole Bright Mother’s housing on the building’s terrace.

“Alright, let’s hire a decoration shop to prepare the building roof for the evening, and then we’re done.” So Sylvester finally entered the last shop on his list.

After finishing everything up, he saw something as he was heading toward the docks to return to the Pope’s peninsula. There was a poster, handmade, on a wall nearby. The poster had a face and some words written on it.

The face belonged to the Pope, and the words were. “I want you — Join us in the battle against Bloodlings. Open Recruitment for the Holy Army.”

Sylvester sighed as he remembered something similar from his past life, where similar posters were used to recruit cannon fodder for the war.

‘It seems the church is really desperate.’

But today was the day to celebrate. So he let everything go and returned home. He did not say anything to Xavia or Isabella as he awaited for the evening. There were still many hours until the party, so he decided to head to work in the Bard’s.

He still had to finish his book, after all. He also needed to work on a few other things to make a name for himself and earn a lot of money for his future adventures. For now, Count Raftel’s workshops were doing tremendous work in churning out the medical equipment he had shown the man. Beyond that, Riveria Kingdom had decided to adopt Sylvester’s spring suspension in all their carriage designs, thanks to King Conrad’s preference.

Sylvester had a lot of ideas. He knew he could make things that could change the whole world, but he refused to make those anytime soon for one reason only.

Enemies! He had too many of those and had no idea what the future held for himself. For example, if he tried to create canned food now, wouldn’t that only help his enemy’s armies fight against him?

If he gave the world better steel processing methods without a way to monopolise them, wouldn’t his enemies use them to make weapons against him? If he were to introduce the steam engine, wouldn’t the world use it against him too? If he revealed the printing press, wouldn’t his enemies use it to spread propaganda against him?

Sylvester never believed that he was the smartest man in the world. He knew that if he gave the people a clue, there would always be someone smart enough to innovate on it and implement it in something way better than him.

So, he had to force himself to push all his innovative ideas back until he sat on the highest throne.

But, at the same time, he tried to use smaller innovations to make his allies rich and gain their strong support and loyalty so they may support him in the future.

“Let’s get to work now.” He reached the hidden basement and got Miraj to release the printing press from his belly.

Soon, the steam engine started to make noise, and the machine moved efficiently, printing the last few batches of pages and, at last, the cover.

‘With these, I should be able to raise awareness among the masses. I have to start the public brainwashing from now if I wish to have good results in a few years.’

“Maxy, I’m hungry.” Miraj voiced while lazily sitting on a table at the side, playing with something.

Splash!

“Oh, nyo!” Miraj jumped up in fright.

Sylvester stopped the machine quickly and rushed to Miraj. “Argh! Why were you playing with the ink bottle? You spoiled so many pages.”

Miraj’s lowered his head, ears and tail. “Sorry, Maxy… I was just bored.”

Sylvester wasn’t even angry at him, however. Instead, he just rubbed his face in frustration. “That’s it! I’m going to make it now! I’ve grown tired of this backward way of writing.”

Miraj looked up expectantly. “Make something?”

“Yes! It’s time I make a ballpoint pen!”

________________________

1000 GT = 1 Bonus chapter.

1 Super Gift = 1 Bonus chapter.

Ape Together Strong