Money Cushion (4)
In this world, the Pope often becomes the sort of figure who sits at the head of the church with absolute power in his grasp, wielding it however he likes. When trouble brews, it’s frequently a relief if he isn’t the shadowy hand behind it. Even for a religious man—or rather, precisely because he is religious—the shock hits harder when the black curtain is pulled back. Looking at it that way, His Holiness the Pope of this world was…
“The investigation into Cardinal Rondel’s actions is complete. I apologize for forcibly dragging you into this body in our world.”
“No, no, it’s quite all right. I’ve learned a great deal while helping the church and its people here.”
“Ah, you truly possess a faithful heart. As the one who leads the church, I give my full support to your every step. Even if your actions appear to harm the church at first glance, I know they will ultimately serve it.”
His Holiness Teo III, the current Pope, had fortunately not fallen into the same delusion as Cardinal Rondel. Instead of viewing me as some low-ranking deity-touched saintess forced upon the church, he accepted me for what I was. As long as he himself did not fall to corruption, or I didn’t carelessly blurt out truths only I knew, he would remain a staunch ally. Even if someone eventually stabbed me in the back, the odds of it being this kindly old Pope were rather low.
Thank goodness.
“Then, may I ask one favor?”
“Of course. Speak freely.”
“I would like the church to fully enter the world of commerce. Not by acting like common merchants, but by establishing ourselves as market regulators—or perhaps as buffers.”
“Please explain a little further.”
We already possessed standardized currency—high-value, widely accepted coinage. On top of that, I held majority shares in the Iron Alliance, an organization with excellent distribution networks and commercial connections spanning multiple nations. What I wanted to build on that foundation was market stability. Rather than relying solely on gold coins as both currency and cash cow, we would primarily deal in daily necessities and basic goods for living. When prices fluctuated wildly for whatever reason, the church would step in as a stabilizing force.
That way, even if we earned a decent profit while acting as that buffer, we could sell at prices lower than other merchants and earn praise that the church was truly different. A virtuous image at a reasonable cost.
“Hmm, it is clearly a secular matter, yet…”
“It will be effective, won’t it? We already have both the resources and the distribution network to make it work.”
After listening this far, His Holiness fell silent for a moment, seemingly deep in thought, then began staring directly at me. It was obvious he had something to say, so I waited quietly.
“There are issues with calling it the church’s share.”
“Exactly. The shares are scattered across several kingdoms. Even Brien, which holds the largest portion, only maintains friendly terms on paper. If things go wrong, they’ll invent any excuse to withdraw. They joined hands with us to suppress divine authority and gain relative advantage over other kingdoms, but they certainly don’t want our ecclesiastical power to grow too strong.”
“Correct. Since you understand so well, I must ask—how do you intend to handle that?”
“The solution is surprisingly simple. We simply make sure the range of profits they pursue and the range our church pursues overlap as little as possible. We focus on serving the poor as our primary customers.”
“Hmm, in that case…”
“We can minimize encroachment on existing distribution and sales networks. As Your Holiness well knows, those who target the poor as customers are rarely formidable operators.”
The situation was fundamentally like that. No matter how much people claimed that small profits from high volume could still make money, established merchants and trading companies simply didn’t operate that way. Therefore, the “merchants” occupying that space were, in name only, nothing more than exploiters preying on those with no other options. They were less merchants and more like street thugs.
The reason we left such thugs alone was that the costs and effort of digging into those dark corners far outweighed the benefits. The church had never had the leisure to extend its hand that far.
“It offers good justification while still providing profit. Very well. For the first saintess to appear in half a century to approach matters with such a unique and fresh perspective—and to have already produced results—I, as Pope, have no choice but to support your future actions.”
Seeing him smile benevolently while clearly grasping the true intent behind my words, I realized he hadn’t simply been placed in the papal seat by chance. Had the church’s authority been more equal to royal and divine power in the past, he would have accomplished great things. At the very least, he had been one of the forces slowing the church’s decline before my arrival. Though his inability to prevent the schism revealed clear limits.
“Then, what position and rank will you grant Yulia?”
I didn’t care what had been done before. What mattered now was what this Pope would do going forward. The crucial question was exactly how far the Orthodox Church would recognize Yulia’s clerical status.
“Confirming the status of an imperial princess here would not be a simple matter.”
“I know. Since Yulia is a legitimate daughter of the imperial family, if the Orthodox Church grants her clerical rank it will create considerable burden.”
“You understand well. Yet from the way you speak, I sense your next words will be ‘however,’ ‘even so,’ or ‘nevertheless.’”
“Correct, Your Holiness. Even so, Yulia is a cleric who awakened her Divine Power through me. Isn’t it only natural for the Orthodox Church to recognize someone who became a cleric thanks to its own saintess? The friction with the imperial church already occurred at the academy, did it not?”
“Did that not cause the imperial family to take an aggressive stance against the imperial church?”
“Is that not enough? Now it is our Orthodox Church’s turn to act aggressively toward the imperial church. As Your Holiness surely knows, if one suffers a political attack, one must retaliate. Otherwise, we will be devoured.”
Just how far would he go? He had certainly promised active support on the commercial side. That alone was already tremendous. But if he lacked even the courage to declare Yulia a proper cleric of the Orthodox Church, then I could only view him as a supplementary card at best—an ambiguous supporter who might prove indecisive at the critical moment.
In the end, the answer was—
“By our own voluntary will, we declare Yulia Paula Regenbochem Patriarch of the Southern Diocese of the Imperial Church. Her ability and qualifications shall be guaranteed by the authority entrusted to us by the Most High.”
The Pope was not merely a hesitant supporter. He was a true, reliable backer—far more than that, a powerful force behind me. This was solid enough to satisfy me completely. I had only asked him to declare and guarantee a status appropriate to her Divine Power, something like an honorary patriarch at most. Yet the man I had met with yesterday—Teo III—had thrown a massive boulder by naming her Patriarch of the entire Southern Diocese.
“Won’t the empire get really angry about that?”
“They will, Ziegfried. But they don’t even recognize you as the hero, so what does a little anger matter?”
“You’re not wrong, but…”
“Actually, I like it even more for that reason. It shows they’ve made up their minds and are pushing forward. For someone who’s been powerless until now, their information gathering is fast and their decisiveness is impressive.”
At my words, Ziegfried tilted his head in confusion. Well, that was normal. Although he had stayed close to me, he had mostly just followed along and rarely intervened in the things I was advancing.
“I know you have a lot of money, but I don’t really understand the rest.”
“In Brien Kingdom, I am already a living god. It will take another three to five years to see the finished product, but the slums in the royal capital are being completely cleared and redeveloped using funds I designated.”
“That much… I see. It feels a bit like sacrilege, though…”
“And anyone with eyes can tell that my future moves will follow similar patterns several more times. I also spoke with His Holiness about other matters.”
“Other matters?”
Hmm. Should I tell him? He wouldn’t go around blabbing, but it wouldn’t particularly help him either. Still, he ought to know the full story. Even though we hadn’t even reached a full year together, we had grown somewhat attached. Plus he was rather cute. Wait, that’s not what I meant. Goodness.
“The church has decided to directly operate trading companies. We’ll mainly handle goods for the poor. Normally we’ll sell at reasonable profit margins, but when famine or other crises cause prices to skyrocket, we’ll step in as a buffer.”
“The church is stepping into that den of thugs? It’s dirty work, and honestly, if you’re not squeezing people like those thugs do, it won’t make much money. Most lords won’t like it either.”
Look at that. After traveling with me for nearly a year, he had learned something about how the world works after all. Perhaps the title of hero and his efforts to live up to it had helped.
“First of all, the lords won’t be able to do much about it. In fact, they’ll probably have to cooperate. We have weapons of our own, don’t we?”
Before he could ask what those weapons were, I turned the back of my hand toward him and deftly slipped a single gold coin between my index and middle fingers, just like before. I had wanted to show off that dramatic presentation again. I tried to roll it between my fingers—
“Huh?”
Clink!
The gold coin slipped, fell to the floor, spun in circles, and came to rest.
“I get what you were trying to do, but maybe you should train a bit. Want help?”
“I’m fine!”
Irritated, I reached for the fallen gold coin, but Ziegfried had the same idea. His hand covered mine as we both grabbed for it. Of course his physical abilities were incomparably superior to mine. Honestly, the biggest problem was how pathetically weak this body was. I could accept that being female meant less strength—nothing to be done about that. But I didn’t have the time or technical knowledge to start muscle training right now. Still, was it really possible to be this slow even in basic speed or what people called agility? My motor skills were simply terrible.
The time I had overpowered that bishop was only because his body was equally frail, he had let his guard down, and the adrenaline after being stabbed had helped. But still…
“Um, how long are we going to stay like…”
I had been so unable to process the situation in front of me that I’d reflexively thought, Why is this guy’s hand so firm and reliable? Only after Ziegfried spoke did I realize I had been frozen in that hand-covering posture for several seconds.
“Hic! N-no, I-I was just…”
I yanked my hand away in shock and stood up. He seemed quite flustered too, hesitating as he picked up the gold coin and tried to hand it to me.
“Lucia? Here, this…”
I reflexively reached to take it, but even though our hands hadn’t touched, the mere proximity sent a strange tingling sensation through me. Or rather, the premonition of one made me freeze. I tried to step back, then stopped again.
Why is my body acting like this? Isn’t the mind supposed to rule the body? Why is the body ruling the mind? Are humans ultimately slaves to hormones or something?
I nearly froze in that awkward pose for several more seconds.
“You keep it! Use it as emergency funds! Emergency funds! Or, uh, th-that…”
Ding! Dong! Waaaaah!
At the exact moment I shouted, the Pope finished his speech. From the bell tower of Romano Cathedral, a pair of massive bells rang out in turn. Doves took flight, flower petals scattered through the air, and the atmosphere became utterly impossible to salvage.