Free Web NovelChapter 372: Chapter 81: Explosion
「Holy City. Old Document Lane.」
Bellardi squatted at the entrance of his squat little shop, using the last of the daylight to painstakingly repair a Prayer Book whose cover had all but fallen apart.
His fingers were no longer as nimble as they had been thirty-seven years ago. They even trembled slightly—a mark left by long-term alcoholism.
The fine linen shirt that once fit him perfectly now hung loose, its cuffs frayed and worn.
From deep within the alley drifted a foul stench—a mixture of various kinds of filth.
He spat out the saliva he’d been using to moisten the parchment thread and cursed under his breath. It was hard to say whether he was cursing the foul smell or the thread in his hands that he just couldn’t seem to straighten.
Thirty-seven years ago, he hadn’t been this sorry sight.
Back then, he had just turned twenty and was one of the shrewdest clerks in the eighteenth team of the Sacred Affairs Bureau’s Special Asset Disposal Committee.
The new Pope, Noe VII, had just taken power. He raised the banner of "righting past wrongs and rooting out corruption," vowing to deal with the Church Court assets from Fuer II’s era that were plagued by "unclear ownership and chaotic management."
Thanks to his family’s considerable connections, Bellardi was transferred to this coveted new department.
In the beginning, it was truly a feast.
Countless manors, shops, mines, and creditor’s rights flooded in like a tide, all awaiting "assessment," "clarification," and "disposal."
Bellardi’s job was to assist with the "assessment."
He learned how to cleverly obscure the annual yield records of a vineyard, how to slash the "reasonable valuation" of a street-front shop by half, and how to set inconspicuous yet crucial barriers in auction documents.
The rewards were handsome.
Gold Coins, silverware, even a small, well-located parcel of land... all flowed into his pockets through various secret channels.
He moved out of the cheap Priest’s dormitory, rented a large villa in a respectable district, and began frequenting certain establishments that were less than holy but far more enjoyable.
He remembered once raising a silver-inlaid wine glass and saying smugly to his friends at the table, "Thank the Holy Throne for righting past wrongs and purging the ’toxic legacy’ of the previous Pope, allowing our wealth to ’flourish.’"
He thought the good times would last forever.
When did things start to change?
Bellardi squinted his weary, clouded eyes, trying to remember.
’Was it around the seventeenth or eighteenth year of the Pope’s reign?’
The atmosphere within the Sacred Affairs Bureau began to grow delicate.
Rumors began to circulate that the Pope’s Throne was inquiring about some of the assets they had previously "cleaned out"—assets that had been acquired at low prices by the powerful. The questions were about "whether subsequent operations were compliant" and "whether the rights of the original employees were protected."
At first, everyone just assumed it was the Holy Throne’s way of amassing more wealth for itself.
That is, until a problem arose with a large Monastery-affiliated farm in Tuscany, one that Bellardi had been involved in disposing of.
The farm had been "assessed" as "poorly managed and heavily indebted," and was transferred at an extremely low price to a merchant related to a certain Cardinal.
Shortly after, the Pope’s Secretariat sent an inquiry. It demanded to inspect the changes in the roster of tenant farmers before and after the transfer, the specific proof of debt repayment, and whether the new owner’s promise to "improve farming conditions" had been implemented.
Bellardi’s superior, the committee’s usually composed Priest, smashed a cup in front of Bellardi for the first time.
"What does he think he’s doing? Auditing us? Without the money we ’cleaned out’ all those years ago, where would the funds for his ’almshouse expansions’ and ’parish school subsidies’ come from!"
It was only then that Bellardi realized with a shudder.
Of the enormous wealth they had "cleaned out" over the years in the name of "righting past wrongs," a portion had certainly flowed into the pockets of Executors like them and the powerful figures behind them. But it seemed a considerable part had been intercepted, collected, and funneled into another system by the Pope’s Throne.
A system that was far less pleasant, one focused on patching up the "holes" that Fuer II had once tried to fix.
’The Pope’s Throne is using the money we raked in to do the very things Fuer II wanted to do but never fully accomplished!’
The Pope promoted several pragmatic Cultivators who had been marginalized during Fuer II’s era for "ideological differences," putting them in charge of newly established poverty relief and medical projects.
The Pope pushed for revisions to the tax relief regulations for impoverished dioceses, but the authority for review was taken from the local Bishops and consolidated into a special committee controlled by the Pope’s own confidants.
The Holy Throne even began to demand "retrospective benefit assessments" for certain major assets that had been "cleaned out" in the early years.
The resistance grew stronger and stronger.
Arguments during the College of Cardinals’ meetings became increasingly public.
Bellardi had personally seen a Cardinal roaring at his supporters in a hallway: "He’s insane! He’s using the money we hauled in with our own hands to fashion a noose for our necks!"
But the Pope’s authority had already been consolidated by the success of the "righting past wrongs" campaign over the first eighteen years. These new, seemingly "pro-people" measures won him the support of lower and middle-ranking Cultivators and a portion of the populace, allowing him to promote his own loyalists.
On top of that, the Pope possessed the most powerful military force.
Overt confrontation proved ineffective.
Bellardi’s good days were over.
The "assessment" documents he handled now required increasingly detailed attachments, and the buyers he "liaised" with began to complain that the risks were too high.
Doors that had once been wide open to him were gradually closing.
He felt an invisible pair of eyes scrutinizing him from behind, and the chill grew deeper with each passing day.
Thirteen years ago, after a minor inquiry regarding "procedural flaws" in the transfer of some mining rights, Bellardi "voluntarily" requested a transfer from the Special Asset Disposal Committee, citing "poor health and an inability to handle the heavy workload."
