To Four Thousand Years Later

v3 Chapter 37: Archbishop Leo

After taking a bath and changing clothes, Bishop Leo went to the hall under the guidance of the waiter.

Before he even entered the door, he could already hear the noise of violins, flutes, and trumpets. It seems that a band has been waiting here for a long time, and the sincerity of the Marquis of Povato is very high. Bishop Leo raised his eyebrows, and a simple and honest smile appeared on his chubby face.

Although he could easily pick out several wrong pronunciations, he didn't say anything, just walked into the hall with a smile, and greeted the colleagues who came in first. Archbishops from and to his division. To the slightly inferior bishop and chief inspector, to the cavaliers as guards. As well as ordinary priests and intellectuals as servants, he greeted everyone seriously.

His speaking voice is slow, which matches his appearance.

Although Leo was fat, he wasn't the kind of big chunk of flesh that threatened people like a bear, but the kind that was plump and beautiful, always showing a kind and harmless smile. For what he has to do, although he will procrastinate, he will eventually finish it. He never fights against anyone. Don't speak ill of others. Do not entrap the interests of others. But he did not take the initiative to do anything, which means that he decided to remain neutral, not to take sides and not to take sides.

So Leo had no enemies in the Holy See, but he had few friends either. Everyone's relationship with him is friendly but not intimate, and everyone's impression of him is "a harmless good guy".

He can become an archbishop. One of the reasons, on the contrary, is because of the fierce internal fighting in the Holy See. He can completely maintain neutrality and will not use power, so the pope's compromise with the opposition chose him as the thirteenth archbishop. There are a total of thirteen archbishops in the Solomon Church, and the leader is the Pope Candidate, who is now the leader of the Inspector, Archbishop Tupin. He supported Pope Adrian's inauguration, so he was also regarded as the pope by default. Including Tupin, six of the thirteen archbishops were supporters of the Pope, and six were supporters of the Pope. Those who did not choose to support the Pope when the Pope changed his term. The qualifications of the six archbishops belong to the older group. They have a mature and complete network of contacts in Gothic, so they are unwilling to take the risk of moving out of Gothic, but would rather accept Protestantism and Zoroastrianism to take root in Gothic E country, They enjoy equal status. Adrian I believed that even if they made concessions here, King Stone would not have a good impression of Solomonism. On the contrary, in order to maintain the balance of the sects, he will deliberately suppress the Solomonism that has taken root in Gothic for more than two hundred years. Therefore he strongly suggested leaving Gothic and moving to the Frankish kingdom. The other six archbishops believed that their power in Gothic could not be reduced by King Stone. Gothic ordinary people and low-level officials have a high degree of piety and trust in Solomonism. They can use the people to suppress the king in turn and seek benefits for themselves. But Adrian Shi moved away from Goth almost forcibly, and because of this, he almost broke with King Stone—no one knew what he was thinking at that time.

Even Adrian Shi once wanted to give Pepin III a holy name, but in the end he was forcibly stopped by other archbishops with a vote of one vote, ten votes against, and two abstentions. What does Adrian Shi want? There was an invisible sneer on Leo's mouth. Our lord Pope, besides wanting to seize the throne, what else would he want? What else could he want to steal?

What Goth couldn't give him, but what he could fight for in Frank, was the only thing he liked.

Leo believed that in addition to himself, Pepin III should also know what Adrian was counting on when he moved to Falke. Maybe some of his clever subordinates will know too. Looking back, those archbishops who couldn't get enough of such simple things fought with each other for a little bit of power and nobility in a birdcage. They are basically a group of sober Tupin with elm heads and wine and rice bags, and they must have been disappointed in the Holy See for a long time. Leo could almost foresee what kind of unimaginable filth such a Holy See would become after Adrian's death—but these had nothing to do with him. Leo looked around.

The hall of Dujuanhou Castle is very large. The people brought by the Pope sat scattered and gathered into different small groups. Among them, there are seven or eight people in the larger group, and three or four in the smaller group. Leo smiled and sat down in the middle of the last row. Although everyone had a good relationship with Leo, no one left their position and ran to him, so Leo became the only one sitting alone. A person of high moral character has friends of high character, and a person of bad behavior naturally has friends of bad behavior. Like him who deliberately maintains the golden mean. On the contrary, it is the second choice of Yongyuan, the person with the lowest sense of existence, which means that no one will go to him immediately. He's well aware of his talents and he's just a mortal.

Compared with the Pope's ability, he is far behind. Only in food, music, history and geography did he have any confidence in himself. Leo believes that it is better to act freely within the scope of one's ability than to do everything that one can't do. He just needs to be a mortal. A few more years as archbishop. He can then retire to be an intellectual. He can specialize in teaching history, or he can be a happy cook. Or he has saved money, playing musical instruments at home is also a good way to retire.

When the number of people in the hall gradually increased, no one took the initiative to sit beside Leo in Yiri.

At this time, Du Juanhou sent someone to serve them some snacks. It's just after noon, and they haven't eaten yet, so they can fill their stomachs a little and wait for the evening banquet. What was presented to Leo was a roasted squab, a small plate of salt, a glass of wine and two slices of black bread. In his capacity, this is just average food. He could see the three archbishops ahead, who had swans and grilled fish and steaks to eat. And by Leo's standards, that's just about him sitting in the corner. So the maid also regarded him as an ordinary bishop, but Leo didn't make money, nor did he find someone to replace his food. He just rubbed his hands happily, picked up the fat pigeon and started to nibble, enjoying the carefree eating. But he didn't take a few bites before he felt something slightly wrong. Leo's complexion changed slightly. He looked up and scanned the hall, chewing his food slowly and looking at other people. After looking at it for a long time and making sure there was no problem, he slowly pulled out a scroll the size of his index finger from the pigeon.

He pretended to wipe his hands, hid his right hand under the napkin and unfolded the scroll as if nothing had happened, then pressed the note under the napkin with his elbow, and continued to eat the pigeon with his head bowed.

At the same time as he took the bread, he opened the napkin while looking up. Scanning the flattened note with peripheral vision.

It was a very strange handwriting. There are only two words written on it.

"Before dinner, go to the bathroom and go out to the third room to the right.

"You can bring everyone who you think is trustworthy and intelligent except Adrian."

Isn't this just letting me go to the meeting alone?

Archbishop Leo complained silently, pressed the special note on the bread as if nothing had happened, and ate it all at once.