Nobody's Fool

While Mona helped William clean his room briefly, William ordered a nice takeout meal to share with her.

After dinner, Mona repeated her instructions to William to remember to call her if there was a situation, and then left his apartment.

William, on the other hand, picked his favorite spot, repositioned his dreamcatcher, and sank into the dream world to continue his journey in 'Thrones'. By now almost a day had passed in the game, so the system defaulted to placing William's character in his new stay at the riverside cabin.

By now the sun had set over the multi-colored hills on the horizon, illuminating their colorful mountains in a magnificent orange-red due to the different metallic minerals they contained.

William stopped and watched in silence for a moment, then went out and found a carriage to head into the city of Phoenix.

Unluckily, when he arrived at Malthus's house, Malthus's old butler told him that the Reverend Malthus had gone to a dinner party.

"That was Earl Eugene's dinner, he is a famous mine owner in the Phoenix area, he is very enthusiastic about the cause of the church and donates generously, so the priests respect him."

William, hearing that Malthus was not at home, did not alight from the carriage, and, nodding to the old butler through the window, asked, "Shall I have an opportunity of making the acquaintance of this pious earl?"

"This," the butler explained with a somewhat embarrassed look, "this Earl's feast has always been very tolerant of Majesty Polynesius' shepherds, but there is no tradition yet of inviting a friar to the feast."

William nodded and did not dwell on the subject, but simply laughed, "I'm sure Earl Eugene will soon have a new tradition."

After that he instructed the coachman to hurry to the mages' union, where he was going to visit Dmitri again.

After not seeing him for a few days, Dmitri, who had earned a large sum of money, greatly relieved the pressure of his debt, and regained the friendship of the coronal church, had not lost any of his enthusiasm for William.

He was just obsessed with research and not a fool, of course he knew that although William had impersonated the name of the church this time, but at this time the church would not only not pursue William's responsibility, but instead would also commend him for the contribution he had made. Dmitri, who had already dealt with the coronal church for decades, believed that William would soon become a priest or even a bishop.

Therefore, when he saw William appear at the door of his office, he immediately and happily got up to greet his 'old friend': ''Oh, honorable William, you finally thought of visiting dear Dmitri. I've had quite a few priests come to my place these past few days, but you're definitely the one I'm most eager to see."

William placed a random, beautifully wrapped gift that he had bought on the way onto Dmitri's desk and then gave him a warm hug, joking, "Oh, old Dmitri, you really should lose some weight, I feel like I'm hugging a Slime."

After the two men exchanged pleasantries, Dmitri took out a pot of cold-brewed lemon black tea from somewhere and poured separate teas for William and himself.

As they sipped the refreshing black tea, they talked about business.

"I think Uncle Malthus has already come to see you, yes?"

Hearing William's name for Malthus, Dmitri's eyelids fluttered slightly, but he didn't say anything about it, instead, he honestly gave an account, "In the past few days, besides Reverend Malthus, there are a few other ministers who have come here, they are Bloomer Diff, Fox Ellis, and Kathryn Taber."

William wrote down these names, and then talked to him about the next increase in production, "The epidemic in the mining area is still spreading, and the dreaded 'Great Gout' will bring about a very large demand for medicines, so just go ahead and produce them. We can all profit handsomely from it for the next few months."

Dmitri nodded with approval, because of William's relationship, his place became one of the first choices for the church to purchase potions, and the lucrative profits allowed him to see the light of day to pay off his debts.

"I know, besides my apprentices, I've also commissioned some orders from a few trusted potions workshops in the city, and they're all producing at full speed now."

William took a sip of tea to moisten his throat and reminded Dmitri, "That's the way it is when dealing with the church, the priests don't care if your prices are a bit more expensive, as long as the supply is adequate and the quality is up to par, they won't change suppliers easily."

Dmitri also knew the mystery and recognized William's statement, only he still had some uneasiness, "Is the problem in the mines serious? Will the city be affected?"

William thought about it and didn't say anything, he just dipped his finger in a bit of tea and drew an odd sun pattern on his desk.

Demetri saw this horrifying mark symbolizing 'Judge the heretical cults in the name of the gods', and immediately shut his mouth tight and stopped pursuing the question. Problems related to these people, that must not be solved in a few weeks, the eyes of the bishop and even the entire coronal church had already coalesced on this matter.

"You don't know anything, and you shouldn't, you're just the apothecary who supplies the potions, right?"

Demetri gulped and accepted William's offer, adding, "Yes, I'm just the apothecary, and it's the apothecary sent by the apothecary union for this matter, even if I'm killed, it won't affect the supply of potions."

Seeing that he understood his point, William said with a gentle expression of relief, "As you said, it's not very likely that the heretics will come to attack you, since killing you won't solve anything."

Demetri then remembered that he usually either worked in the depths of the mages' union or lived in the safer urban areas within Phoenix City, and also rose his courage, saying to himself, "And I'm also a senior apothecary and magician, I'm not easy to provoke either."

William didn't talk much about this topic either, now that he was considered a part of the church for the time being, it was inconvenient to discuss about it, he just asked another question, "Is there any reliable team of mercenaries in the city? I want to hire some defenders, you know, I live a little bit far away from Phenix City."

Dmitri looked at him and gave a playful smile. Would someone attack someone important to the coronal church in the city of Phoenix? He didn't know the answer to that, but he knew that what William needed wasn't some kind of defender, so he cautioned, "It seems to me that any money-driven security personnel has its limits, and it's unrealistic to expect them to lay down their lives to protect you, but if you're willing to spend the money, I think there are some reliable fellows out there who would be willing to do the job for you."

William didn't expect the slightly dull-looking Dmitri to think so fast, and smiled, saying, "That's what I need those reliable fellows for, you know, I've got a lot of money now, and I'll have more in the future."