In the blink of an eye, an entire week had passed...
While Minos was out of Dry City, the negotiations with the representatives of the Brown family were finally reaching an untenable moment.
But before the blood of the invaders flowed through the lands of the Black Plain, an unexpected group had arrived on the outskirts of Dry City this morning.
Well, they weren't entirely unexpected since the soldiers around the Black Plain had already notified headquarters about such a group approaching Dry City. But it was undeniable that the soldiers of the Black Plain Army did not expect that such an organization would show up here just at this moment.
Hence, upon finding out that members of the Spiritual Church were coming here, the administrative soldiers couldn't help but feel surprised by the interest of such an organization.
Not because Dry City had nothing for this organization, but because only a few influential people in the Brown Kingdom should know about such a thing.
So, these administrative soldiers couldn't help but feel surprised and realize that the Spiritual Church probably had secret agents in some of the largest regional organizations!
...
Outside the dome of Dry City, more precisely 10 kilometers away from the eastern exit of this place, the church group was already in that joint camp of the local forces and the Brown family.
This group was composed of some low-level members of the church's branch in this kingdom, as this organization did not yet see this place as something so relevant as to send one of its few Bishops here.
After all, as much as the local potential was attractive, this place still had a lot of work ahead of it until one Bishop had to commit in talks with the local sovereign.
Such individuals were very few and had many responsibilities. So, their time was too short to be spent in this place!
But in any case, the church branch in this state had sent a group of 10 Deacons and 3 Priests to this place to negotiate the opening of a parish in this city.
The Spiritual Church needed to be close to the population to impose its worldviews, propagate its cultures and ideas, and finally attract more and more people to its organization. As a result, in order to gain more followers and future subordinates, the church could not help but try to establish a presence in the most important cities, where there would undoubtedly be more people and crystals.
So, because of this city's potential, if they wanted to nurture themselves in this place, the first step was to open a small parish here.
Then, when this place developed further, perhaps they could build a more significant branch. But for the moment, this was just in their plans, and having a small parish in this town would be enough.
Once they had their foot planted in this place, they would never leave!
Anyway, with that in mind, those 13 individuals from the capital of the Brown Kingdom were already in that camp, together with the envoys from the local royal family.
"Marlon, it's unexpected to see you guys in this place, hahaha. So, what are you guys doing? Are you by any chance still negotiating with the local sovereign?" One of those Priests said this to one of the three nobles leading the negotiations in this place.
"Haha, this is our chance to shorten our path to the Flaming Empire branch!" One of them said, just before the soldiers stopped their group in that place.
"Gentlemen, identify yourselves and state your purpose for coming to Dry City!" One of the Sergeants at that place said aloud, looking at the two carriages that had individuals dressed in white cloaks on the outside and some people inside each of them.
This soldier had not identified these people at first.
Not because he didn't know about the unique feature of the clothes of the members of the Spiritual Church.
He did.
But as a native of Dry City, this man had never seen church members in his life!
So, it was not easy for him to readily identify where these people came from, even though he knew things about this organization.
"Oh? They can't identify us?" One of those three Priests commented among themselves, laughing inside one of the two carriages. "Looks like the folks in Marlon's group weren't wrong."
"This truly is a bumpkin place!"
"Haha."
"Hehe, you two, stop talking that sort of thing, or we'll have trouble negotiating with the local sovereign."
"Yes, Brother Norman." The two replied before finally stopping laughing and leaving that carriage along with that leader of theirs.
After all those 13 individuals got down from those carriages, the group leader finally answered that soldier's question. "Friends of Dry City, we have come from the branch of the Spiritual Church in the Brown Kingdom. We are here to talk with your sovereign!"
"Spiritual Church?"
"You are here to talk to the young master?"
Several soldiers repeated those words in low voices while intently looking at those 13 people.
After that, someone dispatched the message about those people forward, and after a few seconds, a person came from inside that wall to deal with those people.
"Members of the Spiritual Church, at the moment our city is in negotiations with the Brown family. Hence, our sovereign, Minos Stuart, reluctantly refused to enter into any relationship with your organization at this time."
....