The Pathway Of Wisdom-Chapter 72: Maintaining the Agenda is the Top Priority! Part-3.
Church of Wisdom, Back Garden.
Alex sat under a gazebo with his back leaning against the chair and his legs resting on the table with a cup of warm tea in his hand.
The warm evening breeze hit his face, and the rays of the setting sun made the entire sky turn crimson, causing it to look quite beautiful.
Alex took a sip of the tea with a slight smile on his face as he spoke in his usual arrogant and teasing tone.
"You are finally back, little Jake? Have you completed your mission?"
Hearing Alex’s question, Jake who had just returned from the prison after delivering Alex’s message to Antonio nodded his head and replied,
"Yes, I did as you instructed Lord Saint; I have already made him aware of your instructions... He’s stuck in a difficult position; he has no other choice but to work for us..."
At Jake’s words, Alex smiled slightly and replied,
"It doesn’t matter if he agrees or not... and even if he tries to rebel, I have other means to make him honest and obedient... hehe~"
"I have already issued my orders to a member of the Revenant... soon Antonio will be completely obedient..."
"And if he doesn’t... hehehe~"
Hearing Alex’s sinister laugh, Jake couldn’t help but shiver in fright as a chill ran down his spine.
Originally, Jake was arrogant and stubborn; he underestimated Alex and blatantly challenged him to a duel, but after working under Alex for a while, Jake finally came to understand one thing clearly.
It was simply impossible to defeat or harm Alex!
Alex is the type of person who will immediately know that you have ill intentions against him before you yourself might start working against him.
Moreover, he’s so cunning that he can mislead and make even stronger people feel powerless against him!
By staying beside him, Jake got to see Alex’s weird but extremely clever methods of tricking people into doing his bidding over and over!
And all this made Jake more and more terrified of Alex!
Sometimes Jake even felt as if Alex could read people’s minds! It was as if he could see right through a person’s very soul!
Even Ethan, his father, who was never afraid of anyone personally, advised Jake to never offend Alex again, or even he might not be able to save him from Alex’s wrath!
"Uh... Lord Saint... will making people afraid like this really help us in winning more influence?"
Alex smirked at that question and replied,
"The direct counter to miasma and corruption is the power of a god and a holy purification..."
"In the city of Ilma, there is only one church, and that belongs to our benevolent god of wisdom... with no other option, where do you think the people would go in fear?"
First, the duel with Jake made Alex famous in the city and made people aware of the existence of the God of Wisdom Church; next, Alex tossed out the made-up existence of a ’Black Magician.’
This made people afraid and willing to visit the church of the god of wisdom more!
People are inherently lazy, and most of the working class barely have time to waste on anything but their work.
Just like how in modern society many people don’t go to doctors or hospitals until it is really urgent due to not having time or fearing the cost, people in the city of Ilma simply had no reason to often visit the church of the god of wisdom.
With nearly the entire population of the city focused on work and not caring about wisdom and knowledge, the relevance of the god of wisdom church was very low.
Many even seemed to think that learning and studying won’t help them in real life and it will be a waste of time to stay in schools!
The knights and soldiers even seemed to actively avoid general education and didn’t seem to be willing to invest time in it.
Since there was no solid ’reason’ to attract the people to the church of wisdom, Alex’s strategy was simple: give people a ’reason’ first and let them come to the church on their own.
Oftentimes the first step is the most difficult; after that, things start to snowball and become easier gradually.
The same was true for the popularity of the God of Wisdom church in the city of Ilma.
Once people start visiting for fear of the black magician, they will subconsciously develop a possibility in their heart that in times of need they can rely on the church.
In the future, when people wish for success, or for treatment of their loved ones, or for any other blessings, they will unconsciously or consciously want to visit the church.
Just creating this ’habit,’ this unconscious faith in the god of wisdom, was already a giant step ahead in Alex’s mind.
Moreover, this will not only increase the influence of the god of wisdom in the city of Ilma, but it will also make it easier for Alex to spread the thought among people that ’knowledge’ is important.
"Zeil really did quite a nice work this time though... his subordinate’s information on the migration of that monster to the old mill was really important for all this to happen..."
Monsters are living creatures, so of course they also have a proper life cycle and a biology of their own.
And most creatures in the world follow the same rule.
When resources become scarce in one place, they migrate to a resource-rich place for a better life.
This rule not only applies to humans but also to all kinds of animals and creatures.
The same is true for monsters.
They often migrate or try to reach places that are closer to larger populations!
The dog-like monster had recently migrated to the city of Ilma and had made the old abandoned mill near the outskirts its nest. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
It was first noticed by the patrolling soldiers above the concrete wall of the city when they noticed a dark shadow kidnapping homeless people from the slums!
The corpses that Antonio saw in the abandoned mill were all gathered in such a way, and those demonic circles and symbols were all actually crafted by Zeil’s people when the monster had left its nest for hunting.
And the reason why Antonio was the one sent there was simple, unlike the rest of the members of the organization, he was an outsider to the city of Ilma!
Moreover, he was already a criminal, and it was easy for people to misunderstand him.
That’s why he became the pawn that got entangled in the plans of cunning schemers like Alex and Zeil without even noticing it!
As both the count and the important leaders of the city were currently not present, Zeil was in command of all knights and soldiers of the city at the moment.
Using his authority, he made the knight squad parade Antonio in the city!
Even those knights were not aware of the entire plan, and they truly thought that they were actually escorting a real black magician!
All the people who collapsed and started splattering blood were members of the Revenant organization that had received the mission to do that kind of fake show!
Even the blood they splattered was fake!
And to prevent people from noticing that it was all a fake scenario, the knights were ordered to load all the people who died during the escort mission on the cart to erase all traces!
Even if the count and the important leaders returned later, they would not be able to find the truth, as they would end up thinking that the city was truly invaded by a black magician and people really died due to him.
This way, not only would the sudden surge in the popularity of the god of wisdom be justified, but the various rumors slandering the count would also be spread around everywhere.
It was a plan that killed many birds at the same time and laid the foundation for Alex’s increasing control over the city of Ilma!
Through the duel, Alex first took control of the church, and then through the black magician conspiracy, he established a stable stream of believers for the God of Wisdom church.
And now he was already working on the next steps one by one!
"If you want to spread the faith of our benevolent god, if you want the world to become educated and civilized, you need to stop thinking about rules and ethics Little Jake..."
"To stay ahead of every change in this constantly evolving world, you must always think and stay three steps ahead of everyone!"
Alex had no personal grudges with Antonio or any of the residents of the city of Ilma; he was just doing it all for his own sake and for his dreams!
It was his ’Path,’ and Alex was going to walk on this ’Path’ regardless of what anyone else thought of it!
’Even if the Count or others are innocent, we must still show them as evil...’
’Maintaining the agenda is the top priority! There’s no need to care about real facts in the face of agenda!’
