Ximengsi Continent’s southern region, Adrian Empire’s capital Samuel City, palace area
Clyde and Light Church’s two saintesses, “Punishment Saintess” Tiffany and “Light Saintess” Maria, participated in this grand upper-class banquet held by Adrian Empire’s heir, Prince Joseph, to celebrate him obtaining the rights of succession to the throne.
Because of the many necessary social engagements he had to see to, Prince Joseph naturally ignored the anomaly around Clyde and quickly went to entertain other guests. Regarding the very intimate actions of the two saintesses of Light Church toward Clyde, he automatically ignored it. After all, it was Light Church’s internal affair, so it was not good to intervene and speak out.
Although he envied Clyde’s luck with women, Joseph didn’t care too much. In his impression, Light Church’s saintesses didn’t usually marry internal members. They married out to the big empire’s princes. Even if Clyde was more handsome than himself and belonged to Light Church, he was doomed to not get together with Maria and Tiffany, these two saintesses.
However, Joseph didn’t know that Clyde’s identity was forged. Had he known, it would have been a different story. Nevertheless, Maria and Tiffany hadn’t lied because Clyde and Bishop Nichols could truly be regarded as bosom friends in a few aspects.
Clyde didn’t raise any objections to the false excuse provided by the two saintesses. Now, he was spending Light Church’s public funds. If he didn’t claim he was one of Light Church’s personnel, he would have had to spend his own money, a waste. Although Clyde didn’t lack money, the construction of Steinbeck Fief needed a large amount of capital. The construction costs of the two saintesses’ cathedrals, plus the expenses of accepting several tens of thousands of refugees also needed money. Because these refugees had just arrived, it was impossible to collect taxes from them, so he had to economize his expenses,
With the identity of one of Light Church’s high-level personnel, Clyde wasn’t disturbed as he followed Maria and Tiffany to the Light Church’s seats. He worried that he would be recognized there, but he suddenly discovered that there was an acquaintance sitting in one of the Light Church’s special seats. It was none other than Bishop Nichols whom the two saintesses had just claimed to be his “bosom friend”.
Bishop Nichols sipped wine. When he saw Clyde, a hint of surprise flashed through his eyes, and the wine cup in his hand almost fell. However, he was a crafty, cunning person and quickly calmed down before nodding at Clyde. This move made the other high-level personnel of Light Church think that Clyde was a person from Bishop Nichols’s faction and not question the two saintesses about Clyde’s identity.
The statuses and positions of saintesses were just symbolic. They didn’t have much real authority. In Light Church, they could be regarded as higher-ups only in name, nothing more. The ones who held real authority were the Pope, Red-Robe Archbishops, and White-Robe Bishops. Light Church’s believers had a secret warning circulating among them: “rather offend a saintess but don’t provoke a bishop.” Saintesses didn’t have much deterrence, but once a bishop was offended, no one could guess when they would be regarded as heretics by the Inquisition.
In the reserved seats of Light Church, the attractiveness indexes of the men and women were very high. Although the attractiveness indexes of those beautiful priestesses were no match for Maria and Tiffany, they were still definitely first-class beauties. Even in this banquet where a lot of beauties and Misses of various illustrious aristocratic families were gathered, the attractiveness indexes of these priestesses held the front position. They were much more beautiful than most aristocratic families’ golden daughters.
The male priests wore the same style platinum formal attire as Clyde. Similarly, the priestesses were all dressed in formal evening wear. Snowy white skin could be seen as far as the eye could see. While Clyde wanted to observe more, two sharp pinches came from his arms. He was pinched by the girls beside him. Jerking in surprise, he saw that Maria and Tiffany had innocent expressions. It seemed that the warning of just a moment ago had had nothing to do with them.
Upon realizing that these two saintesses might be somewhat jealous, Clyde could only give up. He couldn’t understand whether they were truly jealous or were just having fun; however, he played the part of Maria and Tiffany’s male companion according to their agreement. At this moment, if he looked at other girls, that would indeed be somewhat contrary to his professional ethics. After all, when acting in a play, he should thoroughly play the part.
After taking a seat, Clyde’s attention was quickly attracted to the wonderful-smelling delicacies on the table. Looking at those rare, cooked dishes, there was cuisine of the highest quality: golden and crispy roasted pig, turkey with exotic fragrances, aromatic steak, and rare red wines. Compared to these, the food served in his palace was simply not meant for humans to eat. Those dishes had no way to compare to the dishes here. Every plate and every bottle could only be valued in silver coins, an unreachable luxury to poor people.
What made Clyde even more speechless was, that the high-level personnel of Light Church casually took a few bites, symbolically eating a few mouthfuls, nothing more. Even the Saintess Maria and Saintess Tiffany beside him just tasted a few mouthfuls and stopped eating. While drinking fruit juice, they chatted with the other priestesses.
“Maria, Tiffany, why aren’t you two eating?”
“Clyde, you can eat if you are hungry. Normally, we don’t eat such cheap dishes.”
“Eh… fine!”
After Clyde heard them, the table knife in his hand almost fell. This was too much! Why did they have to tell him this? Maria and Tiffany looked sincere and didn’t seem to be deceiving him. Now, he confirmed that the usual food and drink of the higher-ups of Light Church were calculated in gold coins, several grades higher than the dishes here. Thus, there was no problem in saying the dishes here were cheap.
Thinking about how these two saintesses wanted to be stationed in his fief for the long-term, Clyde sweated profusely. He deeply feared that these two foodies would eat his fief poor. The saintesses participating in this banquet were only Maria and Tiffany. The other members of Light Church’s seven saintesses didn’t come because they were too far away. If not for the distance being close, Maria and Tiffany would have also given an excuse. Despite the strength and status of the Adrian Empire, it was still far from the level where Light Church had to send a saintess out of respect.
When Maria and Tiffany left their seats to chat with the other priestesses, Bishop Nichols moved over without anybody knowing and sat beside Clyde. Afterward, he arranged a small-sized sound insulation barrier around them. The other Light Church’s members on the scene didn’t find this scene unusual because they believed that Bishop Nichols wanted to discuss secret matters with Clyde, so they pretended to see nothing.
“Your Excellency Clyde, are you interested in any priestesses? As long as you have enough money, you can bring them back… heh heh!”
“Bishop Nichols, you must be joking, They are your Light Church’s saintesses…”
“Nom no, everything has its price. As long as you pay enough, my teacher, Archbishop Edmund, can help you get whichever priestess you want, even saintesses.”
Clyde endured the surprise in his heart and tried to behave naturally. Bishop Nichols beside him didn’t resemble a devout bishop of Light Church, but rather a veteran pimp by directly having such a discussion with Clyde. As long as he paid a sufficient price, he could even purchase a saintess!
