Once the sun illuminated the whole of East Sol, the mysterious door under the Pope’s Palace opened up. Sylvester finally walked out after spending ten months inside the void he had begun to call hell. Dragging himself with the help of a strange sword that wasn’t from this world, his body was bloodied all over.

But it was dried blood since all his wounds had been healed by the Elder God. However, the soreness in his body couldn’t be removed with a snap. His body needed proper rest to regain its peak condition.

“Maxy… My jaw hurts.” Miraj complained while hanging behind Sylvester’s back. The furry boy had also done his best, attempting to fight like a living weapon. He shot bullets through his mouth like a hailstorm. Even explosives were thrown, but after a point, such weapons stopped being effective.

“You can relax after this. But I still have work to do as the Pope,” Sylvester mumbled and went upstairs. He momentarily forgot that he was still covered with a lot of blood.

“Your Holiness!”

“Oh, Solis!”

Panic spread through everyone, seeing his bloodied form. The alarms immediately rang, and the whole Palace went into lockdown as healers rushed to his side to check on him. However, by then, Sylvester had already reached his office and taken a seat.

“What happened?!” Gabriel rushed in, his face filled with panic.

Felix came running with his dark saber sword drawn, “Who dared harm my br—”

“Your Holiness, where does it hurt?” Healer Hendrix was also quick on his feet.

In an instant, his modest, small office was filled with his closest allies. From Sanctum Council members to Guardians and healers. They all talked at once like no tomorrow, and nobody made any sense.

Bam!

Sylvester slammed his fist on the table. “Silence! I was training in the underground arena. I’m not injured; in fact, I feel stronger than ever. This blood is dry, and my wounds are healed. Now, let me catch my breath. Why don’t you all head back to work?”

“But let me check you just to be sure,” Healer Hendrix insisted.

Sylvester shot them all a stern glare and shut them up. Without another word, everyone left the office in a rush. However, Felix and Gabriel remained behind because they were now in friend mode, not subordinate mode.

“What happened? Maybe this time, the truth?” said Felix, crossing his arms and staring at Sylvester.

Gabriel did the same, “Don’t scare us like this, Sylvester. All of Sol is held together by a fragile thread, and it’s all tied to you. If something happens to you, everything will crumble.”

Sylvester sighed and rubbed his forehead, “I know… I can’t tell you the details, but I really was training to become stronger. I’ll be going to face the Chief of Anti-Light soon, and I can’t afford to lose.”

“Wait… You look older than you did yesterday,” Felix suddenly exclaimed. “I can see it—Your face looks different.”

‘Of course, nine months have passed.’

“I’m just tired. You two should be on your way now and focus on work. I have a meeting with Darius as well. And Gabriel, keep an eye on the anti-light situation.” Sylvester dismissed them by changing the topic and relaxing in his chair.

‘Mum will see the change in my face in a heartbeat.’ Sylvester thought, but there was nothing he could do about it. It was going to be a usual occurrence for the next few nights anyway.

Knock! Knock!

“Come in, Darius.” Sylvester hadn’t even changed his clothes or taken a bath. He dove right into work, as he wished to save as much time as possible for training. “You have the report?”

Darius, a former slave turned noble, and now Sylvester’s Saint Keymaster, entered and saluted. With his impeccable memory that never forgets, he presented a folder with stacks of documents. “I have, Your Holiness. The Highland Productivity Experiment was a success. The productivity of the commoners in the three towns has increased by eighty percent on average.”

Sylvester beamed with joy hearing the news, and opened the folder to read each paper individually. “This is brilliant, Darius. How much did it cost us, and what’s the profit?”

“It is hard to equate the productivity of the masses with the money spent on welfare, but I do have numbers. In the region where goods worth a hundred thousand gold graces were previously produced, they now generate goods worth nearly double that amount. Hence, the region has grown in wealth as well.” Darius presented a page with a pie chart that Sylvester had taught him how to make. It showed the activities in various sectors in the three towns from before and after.

Sylvester was in simple awe of those statistics. Even more so, since this was from a poor region, and if it was a success there, it was bound to thrive in other places.

The Highland Productivity Experiment was nothing but a food distribution and education program. Basically, the idea was to increase the workforce and reduce the burden on families.

Since each town, village, and city had its own monastery. The monasteries were allocated funds to start schools for children with a curriculum designed by Sylvester and a few others. At the same time, the children were provided with morning meals, lunch, and light snacks in the evening before they returned home. That effectively allowed families to work more freely without worrying about their children’s meals. All the while preparing for Sol’s future with well-educated minds.

Another part of the experiment was its role as an employment exchange. If there was any shortage of workers in a nearby place, the monasteries utilized the jobless masses in their region.

In the end, all that generated more productivity. At the same time, the taxes from regions increased, as well as donations toward the faith. Of course, the whole plan also required nobles to pitch in money, but from three experiments, it was clear the taxes made the nobles pleased too.

“Darius, I want you to use this model and results as examples and implement the experiment in the entire Highland and Blackhart Kingdom. They’re the poorest regions of Sol and need all the help they can get. I’ll write a letter to Queen Zylena. As for King Highland, he’s currently here.” Sylvester gave the orders right away and wrote an authorization letter, ending it with his personal stamp and signature. “Good luck, Darius. What you are doing today will shape our tomorrow.”

Darius nodded and saluted before stepping back, “May the Holy Light enlighten us, Your Holiness. I will report again soon.”

Sylvester kept his back straight till the door was open. Once it thudded shut, he fell back like a spineless cat and closed his eyes. Fatigue gradually took over his mind, and he fell into a slumber right on his chair.

When his eyes opened again, the sun was setting outside the window, “Time to get back to the grind.”

He lifted Miraj’s limp body and threw his body over his shoulder. The furry cat didn’t even respond beyond a few purrs and kept sleeping. It certainly was a point of envy for Sylvester.

But he still dragged himself home to take a bath and prepare for another night in hell. But this time, he didn’t have to worry about cooking, as Xavia was already home, and the aroma of delicious food filled the air. The scent of tasty spices, honey, meat, and various sauces. His stomach rumbled like no tomorrow. He missed such good food in the past nine months.

Thud!

“I’ll eat everything!” Sylvester immediately sat by the table. Even Miraj woke up and scurried to his secret place under the table to eat.

Giggling, Xavia came over to give him some food. But as expected, she gasped, “W-What happened? And why do you look older? Even your body seems different—More… muscular? What did you do in just one night?”

“Meow mow?!”

“Last night?”

Sylvester and Miraj exclaimed simultaneously, and their eyes looked at each other. The flashbacks of their genocidal rage resurfaced as vivid memories before them. The countless corpses of the four armed humanoid creatures, their guts out, heads chopped, limbs lost, and pure gore scattered everywhere. Their entire civilization was in ruins because of him and Miraj.

Their dark blue blood had stained most of the landmass in their world. There were rising hills of dead bodies and waves upon waves of enemies to slay with Wrath of Heavens and other light magic moves. All the crying and pleading voices from the last night echoed in his ears—he didn’t understand their language, but he could smell their emotions—he knew there was fear and misery, and yet he showed no mercy.

Snap!

Xavia snapped her fingers in front of Sylvester, “What happened?”

Sylvester jolted and came back to reality, “Nothing, Mum… I just got lost in my thoughts. I was training last night, Mum. So I can be stronger, and no one can defeat me—or harm our little peace.”

She sighed and gently stroked his head before placing more food on his plate. “Then I will pray to Solis that you grow stronger quickly.”

‘I think he already heard you.’

For the next hour, he ate his food, took a long hot bath, and relaxed his body. He rested on his bed for a few minutes as well, contemplating life and thinking about his general direction. On his chest, Miraj laid the same way, thinking about god knows what.

“Chonky, what do you think? Why did we meet?” He asked. “Considering my origins, it’s impossible to calculate the odds.” 𝘦𝘯.𝘰𝘳𝘨

Miran raised his head up so he could look at Sylvester upside down with his eyes, “Maxy… Why think why we met? Isn’t it the best that we met in the first place?”

“Wise,” Sylvester mumbled and heaved a long sigh. “We should go to The Bard’s on our way and pick up our food order. They should have it ready by now.”

Miraj licked his tongue, “We already ate. Why order more, Maxy?”

Sylvester got up and headed out after bidding Xavia goodnight. He got on his bicycle while explaining why he ordered the food, “I ordered in bulk because we’ll be spending nine months in that void again. So, I’ve ordered two hundred pizzas, three hundred fried chicken buckets, two hundred liters(52 gallons) of banana milkshakes, fifty kilos(110lb) of french fries, fifty kilos of potato chips, and one hundred kilos of grilled and smoked meat.”

“…”

Miraj’s jaw dropped, shocked and excited already, “C-Can I swim in the shake?”

“Haha, we can’t drink it if you do that. But we will store it in your Chonky Bank and eat it all slowly over the period,” Sylvester revealed his plan. “No matter how tough it gets, at least we won’t have to eat that tasteless food Nehilius makes.”

“Yuck!” Miraj almost vomited. “Why can’t he make good food, Maxy? He’s a god,”

“He can’t make it because he’s a god, Chonky. I don’t think he remembers the last time he ate something, and thus, he can’t make something he doesn’t understand.”

Ting! Ting!

Sylvester entered The Bard’s shop right away, ringing the bell He stopped mid-sentence as there was utter chaos in the shop. Every corner of it was cluttered with boxes, and the places without attached to the door, “I thank you for all your hard wor—”

He stopped mid-sentence as there was utter chaos in the shop. Every corner of it was cluttered with boxes, and the places without boxes had staff members unconscious on the floor.

“Maxy… Let’s pray for their sacrifice,” Miraj stood up on Sylvester’s shoulder and clapped his paws together. “Thank you for feeding my belly, humans—You’re the best… after Maxy, Dol-Dol, Big Mum, Zekee, Fe-Fe, Gab, Conehat, Aurawra…”

Sylvester sighed, knowing he had probably broken the staff member’s back. ‘A great sacrifice indeed—But I’ve paid them for the same orders for four more days… Perhaps a bonus of gold could cheer them up.’

Taking out a pouch of money, Sylvester moved closer to a staff member and placed it beside their head.

Bam!

The staffer woke up and grabbed Sylvester’s hand. “C-Chicken… Chips… Fish… K-Kill me!”

“…”

Sylvester placed his palm on the poor man’s head and made him fall asleep, “Rest well, my child.”

_________________

A

/N: Training ends tomorrow. Serious stuff begins again.

Thank you for reading. Gifts and GT votes are highly appreciated.