Law of Space and Time - Chapter 80: Agenda

Chapter 80: Agenda

Erwin knew that even if the citizens of the city had great confidence in the new regime and were honest in their tax payments, there was still no guarantee that the tax received would be sufficient to support a huge army.

The huge sum of Loonies that he was holding was finally going to come in useful here. This was something that he had to discuss with Christine. When it came to the usage of Loonies, Christine was far more adept in both planning and execution.

“I think I’ll be able to handle the issues surrounding the freedom army with no problems,” Erwin said. “As long as you trust me sufficiently to take over the freedom army, that is.”

“We won’t get involved in that area. You’ll be made responsible for everything to do with the freedom army,” Lia said in a decisive manner, handing control of the freedom army over to Erwin without a second thought. He knew that aside from Erwin, no one in the room had any experience when it came to leading an army, so the role was best delegated to Erwin.

“However, you still have to do everything in the name of the Universal Church Freedom Army,” Lia reminded.

“Of course,” Erwin replied with a nod.

“Alright, so we have a name for our regime, and we also have a way to bolster our army. Those are the two most pressing matters at the moment, and they’ve both been addressed. However, we still have to establish a core agenda and a set of new laws,” Turan said as he scratched his own head.

“Both of those things sound like they’re part of your job,” Erwin said as he turned to Turan with an amused expression. Through his previous conversation with Lia, he had already roughly guessed what Turan’s role was.

“Indeed,” Turan sighed in a forlorn voice.

He wasn’t so stupid as to ask Erwin how he knew what his role was. Given Erwin’s observational abilities, it was no surprise to him that Erwin had managed to guess what his duties were.

“You have to participate as well in the establishment of our core agenda,” Lia said as he turned to Erwin.

“Huh? Why?” Erwin was very much taken aback to hear this.

Lia offered no explanation in response.

Turan couldn’t help but chuckle with amusement upon hearing this, then turned to Erwin as he said, “Looks like you’ll have to stay with me tonight.”

Erwin was still looking at Lia with a perplexed expression, but Lia was still offering no explanation.

Could it be that Lia wants me to have a heightened sense of participation when it comes to the establishment of this new regime? Erwin thought to himself.

With that, the meeting drew to a conclusion. From here onward, it was time for Erwin and Turan to think about what had to happen next. Of course, Lia had quite a heavy workload as well, having to ponder matters such as how household registries were going to be established, and how taxes were going to be implemented.

Even though Erwin was making it seem like he was quite reluctant to stay, he made no attempt to leave, either.

He had thought that he could be selfish enough so that he was only worried about himself, but that didn’t seem to be the case in reality.

Perhaps Lia had asked Erwin to stay behind precisely because he had identified this.

After some discussion, Erwin and Turan decided that the contents of the new regime’s core agenda were going to begin with the concept of human rights. After all, during the speech that Lia had given, he had mentioned the concept of universal equality on multiple occasions, and that everyone should have access to basic human rights.

Thus, a question had to be raised: just how much rights did a person have in the City of Freedom? That was something that the two of them were going to have to decide.

The main problem here was that this subject matter encompassed a massive scope, so they had to ponder many things, and it was truly a tall order to have to establish the core agenda in just a day or two.

…

Meanwhile, young pastor Joe and Archbishop Lia had both returned to Lia’s room. It was clear that Joe had something on his mind and wanted to ask Lia some questions.

As for Menpo, he was feeling very fortunate that he hadn’t been asked to stay behind, and he promptly returned to his room before falling into a deep sleep. After such a long day, he had no trouble falling asleep whatsoever.

“What do you want to ask me?” Lia asked after taking a seat.

“Teacher, when we went to Finklan, you said that Mr. Erwin was a genius that had been sent down by the Universal Lord to help us, and that our job is to help him fulfill his vision, isn’t that right?” Joe asked as he took a careful glance at his teacher.

“What are you trying to say?” Lia asked with a slightly wary expression.

“In that case, why do I feel like you’re rather wary of him?” Joe asked with a curious expression. At the same time, he was wondering whether his assessment of the situation was correct.

After a brief pause, Lia turned to Joe before confirming, “Your suspicions are correct, I have been rather wary of him.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he’s someone who’s going to be very difficult to control. I often find myself unable to predict what he’s thinking or what he’s going to do next. I don’t know if he’s thinking for the sake of the people, or for the sake of the Universal Church, or if he’s purely doing all of this for himself.”

An enlightened look appeared on Joe’s face upon hearing this. “Oh, so that’s why you asked him to stay behind to work on the core agenda with Elder Lia. Are you trying to test him?”

Lia hurriedly waved his hands in response. “I’m not capable of using such sly and crude tricks. I only asked him to stay behind because I genuinely think he could be of help to Turan.”

Joe nodded in response. “Then why are you so guarded against him, Teacher? Is it just because he’s an unpredictable person?”

“At this point, we’ve already burned all of our bridges, so there’s no going back. If we fail, there’s no way the Universal Church would allow us to survive. Seeing as we’ve been backed into a corner and can’t afford for anything to go wrong, I don’t want his personal ambitions to bring down all of us,” Lia explained as he turned to Joe.

Joe nodded in response, but it was clear that he didn’t fully understand what Lia was saying.

“You’ll understand all of this when you get a little older,” Lia said with a smile appeared on his face. “Ultimately, the future of the Universal Church will rest in the hands of young people like you.”

“Don’t say that, Teacher. You’re still plenty young,” Joe complained.

Lia shook his head with a smile. “Perhaps I can still live for a few more years, but I no longer have the youthful exuberance and vigor that you possess.”

A concerned look appeared on Joe’s face upon hearing this.

…

After a long night of planning and discussion, Erwin and Turan were finally able to finalize the rough framework for the core agenda.

Concepts like human rights, freedom, and private property had all been redefined in the core agenda.

Erwin cast his gaze toward the light of the rising sun, which was filtering into the room, and he didn’t feel very tired anymore as he had already stayed up past the peak of his exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Turan was still huddled over his desk, working tirelessly to finalize the agenda, and Erwin couldn’t help but be impressed by his energy and dedication.

Turan was carefully going through every single clause of the agenda while flipping through the records of the conversation that had taken place between him and Erwin, checking to see if there were any contradictions or points that had been missed. The stack of paper that recorded their conversation had been recorded by Erwin and Turan. Turan had recorded their conversation for the first half of the night, while Erwin had recorded the conversation for the second half of the night. Both of them were worried that they would miss or forget certain things, so they could only resort to this rather crude and labor-intensive method.

Erwin stood up before stretching lazily, and he was suddenly feeling a lot more relaxed.

“I still have some things to do, so I’m going to leave now,” he said as he turned to Turan.

“Go ahead,” Turan replied as he raised his head to look at Erwin, paying no heed to his glasses, which had slid down to a rather precarious position on the bridge of his nose. “You still have to take care of those nobles, right?”

Erwin offered no reply, but he was rather amused by Turan’s current posture. In particular, the film of grease and grime that had accumulated on the lenses of his glasses was rather amusing to behold.

“You’ve gone the entire night without wiping your glasses, haven’t you?” Erwin chuckled.

“Don’t laugh at me, you’re looking just as disheveled,” Turan countered with an amused smile.

Erwin nodded in response with a wry smile, and he suddenly realized that he hadn’t slept since the battle on the Canston Plain.

“Alright, off you go now,” Turan said before turning back to his work.

“I’ll be taking my leave then,” Erwin replied as he departed from the room.

Turan raised his head once again to look at Erwin’s departing figure, and a hint of complex emotion flashed through his eyes. He seemed to be unable to decide whether he was wary of Erwin or in admiration of the young man.

After emerging from the Holy Jade Cathedral, Erwin went straight to his hotel room on Flying Deer Street.

Onean and Christine both got up quite early, and by the time Erwin returned, the two of them were already having breakfast.

“Wow, you two sure are up early,” Erwin remarked with a surprised expression before going to his room to do some washing up.

“I had to get up early to see what you were going to do with those nobles,” Onean said with a faint smile while spreading some honey onto the piece of bread that she was holding.

“Why do I feel like what you’re actually thinking about is that Everlife Chinaberry Staff,” Erwin chuckled while wiping his own face, poking his head out of the doorway to look at Onean as he did so.

“Onen and the others have all been released back to their manors, but they’re all under the supervision of your subordinates. If you ask me, their so-called banishment isn’t going to be as simple as it seems on the surface, right?” Onean asked as she cast her gaze toward Erwin. “You sent out people overnight to surround their manors, I’m sure you’ve thought about this more than I have.”

“Looks like I really can’t keep any secrets from you,” Erwin chuckled as he emerged from his room, then picked up a piece of bread from the table before stuffing it into his own mouth.

Christine had been listening to the conversation between Erwin and Onean in silence this entire time, and she finally asked, “Are you going to Count Onen’s manor later, Brother Erwin?”

“Are you not going to come with us?” Erwin asked as he turned to Christine.

Christine shook her head in response, indicating that she wasn’t going to be accompanying them.

Erwin faltered slightly upon seeing this, then asked, “Have you heard any news from the Lodais Organization?”

Christine raised her head to look up at Erwin before shaking her head once again.

Erwin’s expression fell ever so slightly upon seeing this.

Ever since that bizarre vision he had experienced on the airship, Erwin had been very concerned for Lana.

Hence, Christine hadn’t even participated in the battle on the Canston Plain. Instead, she had remained in Zans this entire time, enquiring the Lodais Organization in Erwin’s stead for any news on Lana.

Of course, Erwin was doing this behind Onean’s back. Technically, this wasn’t true. Onean had never asked him about this, so he wasn’t actively keeping it a secret from her.

However, given Onean’s intelligence, she was able to roughly guess what the exchange between the two of the entailed, but she chose not to say anything.

She knew Erwin’s personality extremely well, and she knew that if she were to act overly petty in this situation, then that would only make him displeased. Thus, she pretended not to have heard anything and continued to enjoy her breakfast.