"For the selection criteria, we'll use our original set," Erwin said, hurriedly getting back to the main subject at hand. He then cast his gaze toward Sherry and Lanyon before asking, "You two should already know what our selection criteria are, right?"

"Of course. We're using the same selection criteria as the ones for the Four Winds mercenary legion, right? We'll just conduct the same examinations that we had to go through on the candidates," Lanyon said. "The problem is that Lomu can't even begin to compare with Sarus, so we might not end up with many people who fit the bill."

"Lanyon's right. There are clearly more people in Zans, so why don't we recruit people from here?" Sherry asked.

"If we recruit mercenaries from here, that would stir up too much of a fuss, and it would affect my future plans," Erwin explained as he glanced at the trio.

Sherry and the others nodded in response. They were curious about Erwin's plans, but at the same time, they knew that all they had to do was follow Erwin's instructions and leave the rest to him.

"By the way, that batch of armor plating from the Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries is still on the airship, right? Go and craft that stuff into armor," Erwin instructed.

"Master Erwin, the armor plating is constructed from an extremely hard and rigid material. If we want to make them into armor, the blacksmiths are most likely going to charge quite a high price," Lanyon said.

"Just go ask Christine for the Loonies," Erwin replied. "The same applies to the wages to be issued to the mercenaries. Oh, also, you have to make an accounts book, Lanyon. Make records of all of the expenditures that we make on the accounts book, and I'll be checking it periodically."

Erwin had gone with Lanyon to purchase resources for the mercenary legion in the past, so he knew that Lanyon had both the number skills and the bartering skills to succeed in this role. Erwin had joked that if he were to ever become emperor in the future, Lanyon would be made into his minister of finance, but in truth, it wasn't entirely a joke.

"You can count on me," Lanyon replied.

"Don't think that you can just slack off, I have other things that I need you to do," Erwin said as he turned to Georgina with a serious expression. "I'll be coming to see you in Lomu in the next couple of days."

Georgina was internally celebrating the fact that he didn't appear to have had any duties assigned to him, but Erwin was able to immediately see through him.

Sherry and Lanyon were both rather amused to hear this, and they turned to Georgina with a hint of schadenfreude in their eyes.

Georgina could only look back at them with a resigned expression.

"Also, I have to set a ground rule here: even though we're very short on people right now, make sure you don't recruit any bandits or thugs or anything like that," Erwin cautioned as he cast his gaze toward Sherry and Lanyon.

"Why not?" Sherry asked as his brows furrowed slightly. "Can't we get them to fill in even on an emergency basis?"

Erwin shook his head in response. "To tell you the truth, we're recruiting these people not just to replenish the ranks of our Four Winds mercenary legion. I'm also planning to arrange an army for the church. Hence, it's extremely important that we ensure positive culture, discipline, and reputation. If we were only recruiting for our own mercenary legion, then it doesn't matter if our reputation is a little lackluster. After all, no mercenary legions have very good reputations. However, a church army has to resemble a regular army. We can't just go around defiling the church's reputation."

"A church army?" Sherry and the others were even more perplexed upon hearing this.

Looking at the befuddled expressions on the trio's faces, Erwin knew that he had to give them a quick lesson on the state of the three churches, the Holy World Church, the New Light Church, and the Universal Church. At the same time, he also mentioned the doctrine of "all men are made equal" that was being promoted by the Universal Church.

Lanyon and the others didn't understand why Erwin had chosen the Universal Church, nor did they understand what the purpose of a church army was going to be, but once again, Erwin was the one doing the planning, and all they had to do was follow instructions.

"Also, stop calling me Master Erwin from now on. I know old habits die hard, but you have to start making the change now," Erwin said with a serious expression.

"Yes, Esteemed Commander!" Sherry and Lanyon replied in unison before bursting into raucous laughter.

"Why do I feel like the three of you are acting really insolent today? I was the one who was lucky to make it out of the Terarody Mountain Ranges alive, but you three seem to be the ones who've grown in courage," Erwin said as he put on an expression of faux chagrin.

"As the saying goes, those who survive catastrophes are bound to have good fortune in the future. That means you're destined to have good fortune, and if we're following you, your good fortune will be sure to rub off on us as well. When we think of that, we can't help but get a little cocky!" Lanyon had always been the most steadfast and mature of the group, but he was completely letting himself go here.

Erwin knew that Lanyon and the others had to have been very concerned for his safety during his disappearance, and as men, they felt it to be rather awkward to say anything too intimate, so they could only joke around to disguise the emotions they were feeling in the wake of their reunion. At the moment, Erwin was like an insignificant little raft drifting out at sea, prone to being knocked down by any large wave, but he was carrying the hopes and dreams of all of the remaining mercenaries under him.

The raft was very frail and delicate, yet it couldn't help but want to sail to faraway lands. If this raft were to sink, then all of the mercenaries under him would sink with it. He was the one who had brought them to the north, so he had to take responsibility for them. If he were to carelessly perish, then they would be left without any guidance in this place that was far from home.

Even though Erwin always appeared to be quite relaxed and carefree, he couldn't live solely for himself.

Unbeknownst to Erwin, this sense of responsibility was a very common source of charisma for men. The fact that someone as proud as Onean had fallen for him meant that there had to have been some unique qualities to him, except Erwin wasn't aware of this himself.

"Alright, that's all for today. It's getting quite late, and you three have to get back to Lomu," Erwin said as he clapped his hands together. I'll be paying you guys a visit either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and I have to give you a detailed lesson on the major powers in the Boll Dukedom.

"Are you kicking us out already, esteemed commander?" Sherry jibed.

"Can't you see that we're getting in his way? Our esteemed commander has other important matters to attend to," Lanyon said as he cast a glance toward Onean's room.

Georgina had to clap a hand over his own mouth to stop himself from laughing, and his face was red from his suppressed mirth.

"I think you three really do need to be taught a lesson!" Erwin said as he put on a menacing expression and rolled up his sleeves.

Prior to the departure of Lanyon's trio, Erwin embraced them one by one. There were many corny things that they wanted to say to one another, but they were too embarrassed to say them.

Erwin watched as the three of them faded into the distance on horseback, and he felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

...

After returning to the hotel room, Erwin closed the door before making his way over to Onean's room. He knocked on the door, but was met by silence, and after waiting for a short while, he invited himself into the room. He was already used to barging into Onean's room anyway.

"Did they leave?" Onean asked without even raising her head as her attention was focused on a magic book that she was reading.

"Enhancement of Dispersion Magic?" Erwin strode over to her before rudely flipping the book over to check the front cover. "Why are you reading this?"

Onean glared at him with a displeased expression, clearly very unhappy at being disrupted.

"I heard an interesting piece of news from Christine earlier today."

"What is it?"

"It turns out that Lia is actually one of the Universal Church's five elders. The five elders are basically the ones calling the shots in the Universal Church," Erwin said as he took a glance at Onean.

"Is that why you're back so late?" Onean asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"That's right. I went to discuss some things with Lia," Erwin replied.

"If he's such an important figure in the Universal Church, then I'm sure he's not an idiot," Onean remarked in an indifferent voice.

"Of course. He's certainly not easy to fool," Erwin replied with an amused smile. "But I offered him a massive prize, one that he definitely won't be able to turn down."

"Oh?" Onean was rather amused to hear this. "What could you possibly have to offer him? At the very most, you only have the Loonies that Christine earned for you, but if you ask me, Lia doesn't look like the type of person that'll be swayed by just a few chests of Loonies."

"No matter how intelligent you are, there's no way you'll be able to guess what I offered to Lia." Despite what Erwin was saying, he was still very impressed by how perceptive Onean was. She hadn't been present during the conversation between Erwin and Christine earlier, yet she could still tell that Christine had earned a large sum of Loonies for him.

"Is that right?" Onean asked with an intrigued expression. "Well, you certainly have my attention now."

"I told Lia that if they continue in this fashion, there's no way the Universal Church will be able to amount to anything during his lifetime. If he really wants to dethrone the Holy World Church, then he has to instigate a religious war. The core idea behind this war will be to promote their doctrine of universal equality, splitting all the land that they conquer during the war among the general public and completely abolishing the rule of the nobles."

A hint of astonishment flashed through Onean's eyes after hearing what Erwin had to say. "So your idea is to establish a nation with no nobility system?" 

"That's right. I want to completely overthrow the nobility system."

After a long period of deep thought, Onean turned to Erwin with a serious expression as she said, "This idea of yours is extremely bold and dangerous, and there will be countless perils to come if it's implemented. If Lia is also a madman, then perhaps he'd go along with it."

"Establishing a new regime has never been an easy task to begin with," Erwin said in a solemn voice. "What I told Lia was that this was going to be a revolution, one that's completely unprecedented. It all depends on whether he has the courage to pursue such a vision."

In reality, Erwin was very confident that Lia would do everything in his power to support this plan, but at the same time, he was concerned that the other elders of the Universal Church would try to stop him.

"Why are you suddenly looking at me like that?" Erwin asked with a curious smile. He suddenly felt like the expression on Onean's face was quite interesting.

"It's nothing," Onean said before looking away. "I was just wondering what's going on in that head of yours all day."

"Speaking of that, I had another new idea today that I haven't told you about yet." After that, Erwin gave Onean a recount of Christine's story with the 800,000 Loonies, then shared with her his vision regarding paper money.

Onean was stunned into silence for a long while after hearing this story, and finally, she said, "I feel like there's a missing occupation in this world."

"What is it?" Erwin asked, and he was clearly very smug at the sight of Onean's stunned expression.

"Dreamers," Onean said to Erwin, and even though she seemed to be very serious as she spoke, there was clearly a hint of mockery in what she was saying.

"What a terrible name! You should be calling me a visionary," Erwin protested in an indignant manner.

"I don't know whether your visions will bring fortune or misfortune, so I'm calling them dreams for now," Onean said.

"Once some things are set into motion, no one will be able to stop them, including you and me. In the face of an inevitable revolution, no single person is powerful enough to sway the tide," Erwin said as she looked at Onean with a calm expression.

"So you're saying you're the one setting things into motion?" Onean asked as she glanced at Erwin.