Lord of Glory

Next, Paladin went to Chira's house and did the same thing. After that, he returned to the church, quietly waiting for dawn to come. He had no intention of killing Dorren. People would inevitably be suspicious if all three old men died. Only by letting one of them live and using the power of the false testament could Dorren die with dignity later.

Paladin wasn't in a hurry to kill, but he believed that any potential harm and instability should be completely eradicated. When these few merchants who led Nurba were all wiped out, their minions would be frightened. They lacked both feelings of righteousness and friendship. They only followed others and their goal was to make some money to settle down.

After all those who dared to oppose him were dead, the most rational and only option for other merchants was to attach themselves to him. By then, Nurba's iron ore industry would fall into his hands. Paladin would become Nurba's true master. However, will Nurba, a single town, be enough? Obviously not! Paladin desired the position of bishop of the diocese. The one who was in charge of the entire diocese.

The sacred hierarchy of the Holy See was divided into three ranks: clergy, priests, and bishops. The bishop was, without a doubt, the Holy See's leader .Among the bishops, the bishop of a diocese held the lowest rank. An archdiocese was composed of about five or six dioceses. Each diocese was under the jurisdiction of a bishop. All of the dioceses in the entire archdiocese were responsible to the archdiocesan bishop, commonly known as the archbishop.

The Duchy of Kasmi, for example, was a diocese. There were about ten archdioceses led by archbishops that would form an Episcopal Conference. Together, they managed the territory under their jurisdiction. One of the archbishops would be elected to be the head of the Episcopate.

Further up, there were the bishops from the Holy City of Cassily. They led many deputy clerks, registrars, head priests, priests, and a class of clergies. Their rank was the same as that of the bishop, but they had relatively greater power because they were working for the holy city. The thirteen bishops who led and managed all of the dioceses together were also known as the thirteen cardinals. The thirteen cardinals were led by the Pope, the Apostle of God.

The Inquisition had one cardinal in charge. Three other cardinals were in charge of the three major knight orders. Meanwhile, the remaining eight cardinals oversaw more than thirty dioceses that spanned the entire human kingdom. These were only the official ones. Additionally, there were also some local militarized branches of monasteries, cloistered orders, and knightly monastic orders that were unified under the orders of the pope. Plus, their number was huge.

The most intriguing aspect was the presence of three monastic orders whose power spreads throughout the Holy See: Dominican, Franciscan, and Carmelite. They had a very loose system, not a strict one. However, the number of members was huge. Almost all clergy belonged to one of these three monastic orders.

When holding meetings and Masses, the Dominicans wore black. They advocated the eradication of heresy, as well as the purification of poverty and chastity. This was why the majority of the Inquisition and the Knightly Orders were members of the Dominicans. The Franciscans wore gray. They advocated for poverty and peace. They didn’t like to fight and didn’t eat meat. Most priests and ministers were Franciscans. The Carmelites, on the other hand, wore white and advocated begging for food and rather than scavenging for wealth. The poor should be helped. They practiced asceticism on a daily basis to experience the mercy of God. So, the ascetics and preachers were developed from the Carmelites.

With this in mind, there were numerous forces at work within the Holy See. Let’s not even get started with the conflicts and factions among the various Cardinals of Calvary. The conflicts between the Holy See's three major religious orders were enough to make many people's hearts and minds tremble with fear.

However, none of this concerns Paladin at the moment. Right now, his goal and vision were still too narrow. Full of anticipation and joy, Paladin waited for the arrival of dawn. Strangely, Paladin slept less and less these days, but he didn’t feel exhausted. He was full of energy, without any drowsiness even when his original eight hours of sleep a day had been reduced to two hours a day.

As dawn approached, the dark sky of Nurba was gradually covered by a layer of an azure veil. The door to Paladin's room was being knocked on eagerly. Paladin calmly stood up and opened the door. There, he saw Kaleqi fully armored, together with a dozen anxious guards waiting for him.

Kaeqi said, "Something happened! Two merchants, Nari and Chira, hanged themselves last night!"

When Paladin heard that, he smiled briefly. That smile was soon replaced by an expression of shock and disbelief. He quickly wore his robes and walked out, while glancing at the guards around him.

With a face that showed doubt, Paladin said, "Why? What motivated them to do this?"

In response, Kaleqi sighed. He pulled Paladin's arm and rushed to Nari's mansion. Along the way, Kaleqi opened his mouth and gruffly said, "They all left a suicide note, in which states that they instructed Grundy to do all this. They committed suicide out of shame and fear of their crimes."

"What?! They are the culprits?!" Paladin showed a surprised expression and looked at Kaleqi in disbelief. It made Kaleqi turn his head away irritably. He really disliked the feeling of acting with this jerk.

The town wasn’t large. Soon, Paladin and his party arrived in front of Nari's villa. They could hear faint choking sounds coming from the house. The good thing was that this was early in the morning, so there were not many pedestrians on the road. However, some passers-by in twos and threes noticed that something was wrong, so they came over to see what happened. As soon as these passers-by saw Kaleqi and Paladin approaching, they approached them respectfully and inquired, "Father, Captain, what's going on here?"

Kaleqi didn’t want to garner people’s attention, so he simply answered, "I do not know." before instructing the guards surrounding him.

"Guard the entrance and don't let anyone else go up there. You, you, and you, go to Chira's house. Tell them that the priest and I will be arriving shortly," Kaleqi gave the order with his thunderous voice. His companions and subordinates, who had been with Kaleqi for more than ten years, promptly obeyed his command. One group of men guarded the entrance while the other group darted towards Chira's house.

Kaleqi simply ignored Paladin's envious expression, took him by the arm, and led him through the door and up the stairs. Seeing that no one was around, Kaleqi glared in annoyance and lowered his voice to question Paladin.

"Did you do this?"

"Mmhm." Paladin nodded heartlessly in response.

Kaleqi, in return, let out an irritated growl. "You idiot, why are you in such a hurry! Grundy was burned at the stake yesterday, and you're already doing something else today at dawn. If words get to the Count's ears, the two of us will be the ones at the stake!"

"Hmm?" Paladin suddenly stopped in his tracks. His eyes became icy. His right hand flew to grab Kaleqi's neck.

With displeasure, he said, "It is not your place to blame me, Kaleqi. You just need to do a good job to take care of the aftermath."

Kaleqi had been a mercenary for over two decades. He'd even slain monsters. Yet, he was astounded to find that his muscles and strength were powerless against Paladin's white hand. Based on the strength he felt from the white hand, if Paladin gave a little squeeze, his life would completely be over.

After realizing the huge gap in strength between them, Kaleqi turned red. He grabbed Paladin’s hand vigorously and said, "Got it… I got it! Let go!"

Paladin complied and let go.

"Later, when we’re up there, do not act on your own thoughts. Do everything according to my lead," Paladin said while glaring at Kaleqi. Ignoring Kaleqi, who was touching his neck, and the guilty expression on his face, Paladin climbed up the stairs to go to the second floor.