When he said that the stock that they seized had to be "shared among everyone", he was also including Sherry, Lanyon, Georgina, and the Four Winds mercenary legion, which was still going through a rebuild.

As soon as he said this, two or three others immediately chimed in to support him. As for the rest, they felt it to be rather foolish to be offering to share their spoils, and to reject such a large monetary reward. Hence, they were expressing their disagreement by remaining silent.

Shiba was rather displeased to see this, and he was just about to turn around and scold his dissenting subordinates, but Erwin stopped him from doing so by giving him a subtle look.

A faint smile then appeared on his face as he made his way over to the man who had just spoken. "I noticed you last time I visited the pub. You're quite an interesting character. What's your name?"

"B... Bracken." The man had been full of courage and vehemence just a moment ago, but he immediately wilted slightly in the face of Erwin's sharp gaze.

Everyone had witnessed Erwin's terrifying power in the pub a few days ago, and the image of the intracranial fluids spilling all over the ground was still fresh in everyone's mind, so they couldn't help but feel a sense of fear toward Erwin.

"You're right," Erwin said as he patted Bracken on the shoulder with a smile. "All of you are brothers who have pledged to follow me, so I shouldn't be discriminating and separating you into different groups. I was wrong to have raised my earlier proposal."

The last thing that Bracken expected was for Erwin to concede his own mistake in front of so many people, and his eyes immediately widened with shock. At the same time, he realized that Erwin was not just a merciless killing machine, but was also a shrewd leader, and a hint of respect immediately welled up in his heart.

Shiba also heaved an internal sigh of relief upon seeing this. He had been terrified that Erwin would decide to kill Bracken on a whim.

Erwin then turned to Shiba before giving a thumbs-up while pointing at Bracken. "You've got quite a nice subordinate here."

Shiba nodded sheepishly in response.

"Having said that, it's always been my belief that contributions should be rewarded, while transgressions must be punished," Erwin said as he swept his gaze over everyone gathered before him. "Hence, the monetary reward still stands. All you need to do is carry out the mission as instructed."

"Yes, Master Erwin!" Shiba and his subordinates replied in unison.

After that, Erwin dragged Georgina to the side, then said, "You are the only martial artist on our side that specializes in assassination techniques, so you have a different job compared with Sherry and Lanyon."

Georgina nodded in response, but he didn't quite understand what Erwin was referring to.

"Remember this: your job is to maximize your efficiency when it comes to gathering intel on the battlefield. This will be an extremely important skill in the future," Erwin said as he looked into Georgina's eyes. "Also, make sure to keep yourself safe."

Right as Erwin was setting his plan into motion, something was also happening in the south.

...

Recently, aside from visiting her teacher, Lana had spent most of her time at the former Count Friar's manor.

She was the princess of the Atlas Empire, but she was extremely averse to interacting with nobles and was actively avoiding all such social interactions. In contrast, she much preferred spending her time at the former Count Friar's manor, going through Erwin's belongings and reminiscing about the experiences they had shared.

In the wake of a new empire's establishment, Lazaar was naturally extremely busy, so he failed to notice his daughter's recent pattern of activity.

Following that conversation with Mistress Faye the other day, Lana had actually already made up her mind, but she didn't know how she was going to reveal her decision to her father, so she was procrastinating day after day.

Seeing as no progress was being made, Lana could only resign herself to her fate for now and confine herself in Erwin's room, wandering around within its walls and reading through all of the strange books that he had collected. Of course, she was making sure to avoid all of the more lecherous works.

During the past couple of days, she had been reading through a rather interesting book that she had found on Erwin's bookshelf. The core concept proposed in the book was that all matter in this world could be split up into five different types of attributes: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. This was quite an innovative idea, but it was far too basic an interpretation of elemental matter, so in the eyes of a grand magic mentor like Lana, she felt as if the book had been written for complete novices in magic.

With that in mind, she closed the book and leaned against the windowsill to look outside. In doing so, she just so happened to catch a glimpse of Brad Shett standing on York Street several streets away, instructing a few priests from the True Light Church to transport some things.

There were around 10 large metal chests with the symbol of the True Light Church emblazoned upon them, and they were being unloaded from a horse-drawn carriage.

Looking at Brad's distinctive appearance, Lana couldn't help but recall the amusement that Erwin had displayed toward Brad during their first encounter in that restaurant, and just like on that occasion, an amused smile appeared on her face as well.

Even though Erwin hadn't said anything to Lana at the time, his eyes were extremely expressive, and he had made no effort to conceal the way he felt upon seeing Brad's appearance.

However, Lana sometimes found herself attracted to that more uncouth and uncultured side to him. One could refer to it as wilful, or one could denounce it as brazen. In any case, Lana had seen more than her fair share of well-mannered gentlemen who tried to restrain every single emotion, and it had been quite refreshing for her to meet someone like Erwin.

Of course, there was no way that Lana would fall in love with an out-and-out thug. That was only one facet of Erwin's persona, and at his core, he still had the manners of a noble. In addition to that, he was also quite talented in the arts, displaying fine skills in both poetry and painting. He was like a bundle of paradoxes, and that was what attracted Lana and Onean to him the most.

If Lana were to hear that Erwin had likened Brad to a baguette, she would be rolling on the floor from laughter.

However, at this moment, her brows were tightly furrowed as she wondered to herself, What are those priests of the True Light Church carrying? If it's just a simple manual labor task like carrying chests, surely they wouldn't have to trouble the priests to do this. Also, Brad is an extremely trusted subordinate under Pope Sirius, and he's been rising rapidly up the ranks in the True Light Church recently. What kind of job would require his personal supervision?

Lana knew that the newly constructed Holy Spectacle Cathedral of the True Light Church was on York Street, and that its construction had been approved by her father. After all, the True Light Church had made significant contributions during the battle on the Marrod Plain, so this was certainly just reward for their efforts. The fact that the new cathedral had been constructed in an area filled with nobles was also a sign that the True Light Church was widely accepted among the nobility.

However, Lana couldn't help but wonder exactly what those heavy chests were carrying.

With that in mind, she decided to go and take a look.

However, by the time she arrived at the entrance of the cathedral, Brad and the others were already nowhere to be seen.

There was still some work left to be completed on the cathedral, so it wasn't open to the general public. The sets of scaffolding at the entrance still hadn't been taken away, and they were surrounded by pieces of thick white drapery.

Lana pulled Erwin's Shaved Purple Gem staff out of her sleeve, then used it to gently lift the drapery before silently making her way into the building.

As soon as she entered the cathedral, she was immediately greeted by the strong scent of paint. Construction had only just been completed on the building, so the smell of paint inside was still quite strong.

Lana hid herself behind a column that was situated closest to the entrance, then snuck a few glances into the cathedral to find that the spacious hall was completely empty, and she was left feeling rather bemused upon seeing this.

Where are the people from just now? she thought to herself. And those chests looked quite heavy as well. How did they suddenly disappear?

As a powerful magician, Lana naturally had a very clear sense of her surroundings, and she could tell that there really was no one in the cathedral at this moment.

Thus, she emerged from behind the column, then made her way down the walkway at the center of the hall before drawing to a halt at the foot of the True Light Holy Lord statue.

The grand and majestic statue was almost as tall as the building's ceiling, and after carefully looking up at it for a while, Lana felt a chill run down her spine. For some reason, she couldn't help but feel as if there were some type of sinister element to the statue's facial features, and that was rather unsettling to her.

Lana didn't believe in the religion of the True Light Church, and she had always been of the opinion that her father's collaboration with the True Light Church was merely one that was politically motivated and mutually beneficial. Hence, she didn't feel any sense of reverence as she looked up at the statue in the cathedral.

The statue of the True Light Holy Lord had its palms joined together and its fingers intertwined with one another, and for some reason, she felt that to be quite a harrowing sight, even though she knew that this was how all of the followers of the True Light Church prayed.

However, she didn't have the time to think about this right now. In contrast, she was more interested to find out where those people from before had gone.

However, after making an entire lap around the building and looking around the giant statue, she was unable to find any mechanisms for hidden doors.

Having entered Sarus through a secret underground passageway, she had a feeling that there had to be a similar secret passageway beneath these buildings.

However, that didn't appear to be the case, but at the same time, it didn't make sense that those people and those chests could simply disappear into thin air.

From Erwin's bedroom, she had clearly seen that these priests were carrying those chests toward the cathedral, so she was certain that those priests had to be in this building. Even if they had left, that couldn't explain where the chests had gone.

There must be a secret door, I just haven't been able to find it, Lana thought to herself as she made her way back to the foot of the giant True Light Holy Lord statue.

Standing directly in front of the giant statue, she couldn't help but imitate the statue's posture in prayer. However, that didn't accomplish anything. There was no hidden mechanism in this world that could be triggered by the power of prayer.

Looking at the space between the statue's palms and interlaced fingers, a devious thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

She raised a palm before drawing up her magic power, and bursts of green magic energy began to flash over her fingers. Immediately thereafter, the magic energy was released in the form of a spell, hurtling directly toward the gap between the giant statue's hands.

Under normal circumstances, given the power of Lana's spell, the giant statue would be sure to either break or collapse. Even if the material used were very sturdy, at the very least, the spot that was struck by the spell would be reduced to an unrecognizable state.

There was no one around to see what she was doing, which was why she dared to be so bold and brazen.

However, much to her surprise, the giant statue remained completely unharmed, and her spell vanished into the gap between the two palms without a trace.

Right as she was reeling from such an unexpected turn of events, the two flat tiles in front of the tips of the True Light Holy Lord statue's feet rose up before sliding away, one to the left and one to the right.

As a result, a dark underground passageway that was illuminated by flickering candlelight appeared before her.