On the first day of Lucesien, Art and Ate had a good sleep in the hotel. After getting up and having a simple breakfast, Art ordered Ron to go to Serenkov Monastery in the west of the city to inquire about a monk named Olof Hannis. Art himself traveled lightly and wandered around the city.
Back at the hotel, Ron had brought back the news he had learned from the monastery.
Olov Hannis is no longer a monk. He has already been promoted to the rank of bishop and served as the abbot of Serenkov Monastery. It is said that he will soon be promoted to the bishop of the Archdiocese of Lucesien. During this time, Dean Olof Hannis was supervising the church reconstruction project in the Hver Cathedral in the north of the city.
At noon, the two of them had a sumptuous meal of honey-coated roast goose and salt-and-pepper roasted meat at the hotel. This was the first time Art had eaten such delicious food in person. Although his stomach had adapted to the bland bread and wheat paste, he still missed the meal with rich condiments.
After dinner, Art changed into a fine brown woolen robe purchased from a tailor shop for one hundred pfennigs, and Ron changed into a gray linen quilted jacket worth fifty pfennigs. The two of them transformed into city merchants and followers. Art and the two left the hotel with three gold cakes and walked into the city bank guild. They spent thirty pfennigs to exchange the three gold cakes for twenty-four large silver marks and one hundred and forty-four small silver shillings. They put the small silver coins into a white cotton purse with a rusty Holy Cross, and took out six small silver coins from the deerskin purse to make up the whole. One hundred and fifty small silver coins, this is what an ordinary city laborer earns without food or water for nearly three years.
Out of the guild gate, Art put two heavy money bags into his arms, patted them, and called Ron who was waiting outside the door to get on his horse and go straight to Hewulf Cathedral in the north of the city.
The two walked through the lively market, crossed the wide and flat square, and came to a church in the north of the city that was very busy due to construction and renovation. Laborers and builders came in and out of the church. In their hands, they were either pushing wheelbarrows loaded with bluestone bricks, or carrying a large section of wood, or holding up parchment drawings and pointing.
"Excuse me, where is Dean Olof Hannes?" Art walked up to a builder who was drawing a drawing on a black wooden board and asked politely.
The builder stopped the painting brush in his hand, turned around and looked at the strange-looking guy in a long gown with a sword behind him, and then turned back to continue painting. After a while, he said: "Dean Olof is in the chapel next to him, but you are obviously late. There is no more work to be contracted on the entire construction site."
Art didn't say much, thanked the builder and took Ron to the side chapel.
Two sword-wielding guards at the door of the chapel stopped them. Art smiled and said to one of the guards: "Your Excellency, I am an old friend of Dean Olof, named Arthur Wells. Please inform me." The two guards looked at each other, and one of the guards turned around and entered the church. The other guard relaxed his guard when he heard that he was an old friend of the dean.
After a while the guard came out and said to Art, "Mr. Arthur Wells, the dean please come in."
"Please wait outside with your sword and entourage." Another guard said politely to Art. Art took off his sword and gave it to Ron, and ordered Ron to wait outside, and then followed the guard who sent the message into the church.
The interior of the church adopts a dome structure, with dozens of stone pillars supporting the top of the church. A cross-shaped cavity is carved at the location of the altar, through which sunlight penetrates to form a cross beam. Dean Olof Hannis knelt in front of the statue in the chapel, placed his hands on the prayer table, and bowed his head in silence to pray. The guard gently stepped forward and leaned over to whisper in the dean's ear. With the help of the guard, dean Olof Hannes stood up and turned to Att. He squinted at Att for a while, and his expression slowly changed.
"You are not Arthur Wells, who are you? Why are you pretending to be him?" Dean Olof said in a bad tone, and the guard beside him also put his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
Ate knelt on one knee in front of Dean Orlov and whispered: "Dear Bishop, I am indeed not Arthur Wells, I am his son."
"Are you the son of Arthur Wells?" Dean Orlov still had some doubts.
"Seven years ago, you were still a priest in the army. In a small church northeast of Irbid, the holy land, you saved a boy who was chopped by a pagan. The boy's father later became your guard." Art said and took off his shirt, revealing a shocking scar on his shoulder.
“Oh, God, you are little Art!” Dean Olof was stunned for a moment, then stepped forward to help Art up and gave him a hug.
"God bless you, why did you come to Burgundy? Is your father okay?" Dean Olof took Art to a bench aside and sat down.
"Dear Bishop, thank you for remembering us. After returning from the Holy Land, we encountered many accidents..." Art relied on the memory of the original owner to tell the story of how the original owner's territory was invaded by a conspiracy after returning from the Eastern Expedition. The father and son resisted until they were chased by the enemy and fled north to the uninhabited valley in the southern part of Burgundy to survive.
Dean Olof kept sighing.
He and Arthur Wells had a close relationship many years ago, because Art's father, Arthur Wells, voluntarily acted as his religious guard as a baron. This was once a good story at the time, and the years he spent with the army in the Holy Land were also the most unforgettable legendary time for Olof Hannes. It was precisely because of the experience of preaching with the army in the Holy Land that he returned to Serenkov Monastery and soon became the vice-president and the dean from a monk...
"Hey, I have heard about Walder Burley's greed and shamelessness, but I can't imagine that he actually let a saint who shed blood for God return home and shed another tear." Dean Olof sighed.
"Child, what are your plans now?"
"Art, I sympathize with what happened to you and your father, but I can't restore your identity, let alone regain the territory for you." Olof Hannes felt resentful for them, but the Wells family's territory was far away in a foreign country, and there was also the power of the local church behind the Wells family's deprivation of honors and land, which he was absolutely unable to touch.
"Your Majesty, the title of the Wells family was taken away from our father and son. We dare not ask God to compensate for our incompetence. I will rely on my own strength to regain the honor and dignity!" Art said firmly, looking into Dean Olof's eyes.
"Very good, kid, can I help with something?" Dean Olof breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you for your kindness and generosity.”
Matt stood up from the bench, bowed deeply to Dean Olof, and then said: "You must know that since last summer, Lombardy and Provence in the south have been fighting for more than a year. Now that the south is in chaos, it may be a good opportunity for me. But you know "I am a foreign wanderer who has had my fiefdom and title taken away from me. I have been hiding in the forest to survive. If I don't have a title, I will be restricted everywhere in Burgundy. And the southern border area where I am now is ravaged by bandits..." Art spoke out his thoughts.
"Border security patrol officer? You mean the southern border of Tyniec?" Art wanted to find a job as a security patrol officer on the southern border of Tyniec. Dean Olof thought he had heard wrong.
“But Tyniec County is the direct fiefdom of the Margrave, and Viscount Pierre manages it there. They have their own constable, right?” Olof Hannis reminded Art.
"Yes, I just passed through Tyniec a few days ago, and it is now crowded with refugees fleeing from the south. Viscount Pierre and his magistrates cannot even control the security of the castle and suburbs. Now the entire south of Tyniec They are all refugees crossing the border and bandits who are burning, killing and looting. Lords everywhere are too busy to take care of themselves. Just a few months ago, a group of bandits invaded Alsburg in the south and killed the local lords..." Art said about the chaos in the southern border of Burgundy.
"So you want to be a border security patrol officer? You have nothing now, and Viscount Pierre is unlikely to give you any support. How can you maintain border security? Son, listen to me, now I am in charge of renovating the Hverv Cathedral. I can let you make some money as a contractor, or you can come to me as a guard." Olof Hannis expressed concern about the young man's impulsiveness.
"My Lord Bishop, being able to take shelter under your wings will be the greatest honor of my life. But I have the important task of clearing up the shame of the Snow family, and I dare not slack off at all times. You are right, Viscount Pierre and Tinets will not give me much support, but they will also give me the maximum freedom, so that I can hide in the deserted valley and develop quietly without restriction..."
"You mean, you want to develop in that uninhabited valley? But as far as I know, that area has been uninhabited for hundreds of years, and you can get nothing but beasts and devils." Dean Olof still thinks that the young man is whimsical, but if he thinks about it carefully, the young man in front of him is very similar to himself who desperately followed the army to the Holy Land...
"Child, do you insist on your idea?"
"Yes, unswervingly!"
Dean Olof lowered his head and thought for a long time, then raised his hand and patted Art on the shoulder and stood up, saying: "Okay, child, I will help you. Find me in Serankov Monastery in ten days."
At heard the dean’s words and felt relieved. Then he carefully took out a white money bag embroidered with the Holy Cross from his arms, knelt on one knee in front of Dean Orlov, held the money bag with both hands, and said: "Your Majesty, this is a tribute to Serenkov Monastery and Hverov Cathedral. Please accept it."
In the end, Dean Olof accepted Art's "tribute", partly because he was raising a large amount of money needed to rebuild the cathedral, and secondly because Art, a foreigner with "black spots", needed money to obtain the status of a border security patrol officer in the County of Burgundy, even if this position was just a worthless civilian officer.
Early on the next morning, Dean Olof took a carriage with two guards to Besançon, the seat of the palace.
The development of the matter was somewhat different from Art's initial plan. Art originally planned to use his identity as the original owner to ask Dean Olof to give him the status of a labor contractor in the monastery, so that he could openly return to the south to recruit refugees, bring them back to the unknown valley to reclaim wasteland, and then slowly gather strength to develop. But when Art learned that Olof Hannes had been promoted to bishop, abbot of a monastery, and might be promoted to archdiocesan bishop, he decided to make a quick and risky move...