Weakness Found
「Work with you? What do you mean?」
「I mean it literally. We’ll work together to bring down Cardinal Georgis. How about it? Not gaining traction like what you’re planning. We’ll do things more directly.」
He looked surprised.
「Are you saying we’re going to kill Cardinal Georgis?」
「That’s an option. If possible, I’d like to kill him. But doing that right away won’t be easy, will it?」
Cardinal Georgis has the Garden of Despair backing him up. I don’t think they’ll let him get assassinated that easily.
「I agree. I’d like to kill the guy even if it means I’ll die in the process. But if that were possible, one of my comrades would’ve done that a long time ago.」
「Yeah…」
「Knowing that, you still think you can take him down?」
Meigis looked at me quizzically. I can understand him being doubtful. After all, these words are coming from a mere adventurer. But this is also my chance to earn his trust.
「I can’t do it alone, but I can offer assistance. We’ll just have to target his weakness.」
「Weakness…? Are you saying you know his weak spot?」
「No, I don’t. I’m going to find out what it is.」
Count Meigis looked clearly disappointed after hearing my words.
「Don’t be ridiculous. If his weakness can be found that easily, we would’ve known about it a long time ago.」he said, as if admonishing me.
Is it really that difficult? I think they just hadn’t noticed the weakness right before their eyes.
「Well, I’ll try. Can I ask you a few questions?」
「…Of course. If it helps you find his weakness.」
「Thanks. My first question is about Cardinal Georgis. He’s a noble with considerable power. Was that always the case?」
If Georgis was an ordinary noble, he wouldn’t be able to work with the guild to persecute those with inferior job classes. Considering his influence on the guild, he’s definitely quite the important noble within the kingdom. The question is: how’d he become such a big shot?
「No. Cardinal Georgis suddenly grew in power the last ten years.」
「How did he do it?」
「Probably by working with the Garden of Despair.」
I see. The Garden of Despair, huh…
「The Garden of Despair wouldn’t interfere with politics on the surface. What kind of a noble is the Cardinal publicly?」
If the Garden of Despair tryto use its vast resources directly to support Georgis, their atrocities will come to light right away. Handing their assets to the Cardinal would be difficult as well. If an ordinary noble suddenly obtained money from an unknown source, people would get suspicious. So officially he expanded his power through a proper method. What did he do then?
「Cardinal Georgis has a hold on healing medicines which makes him overwhelmingly powerful among the church-related nobles.」
「Healing medicine?」
「Medicine to heal the injured. Unlike normal medicine, they demonstrate tremendous results in an instant.」
I see. Potions.
「Are those valuable?」
In BBO, potions weren’t really that valuable. I’d usually drink about a hundred of them in high-level hunting grounds. But…
「They’re extremely valuable. A potion costs at least three million gils. Only a few high-rank adventurers, and nobles can afford one.」
That valuable, huh? If the Cardinal has a hold on a potion which has a low production output, then it’s understandable how he has such power. There are probably many patients who could only be healed by potions, so controlling production also meant holding their lives hostage.
There’s one thing that bothers me though.
「If Cardinal Georgis has pretty much control of healing medicines, does that mean he has a monopoly over them?」
Potions are quite easy to make. As long as you have the ingredients and recipe, the whole process is pretty much just like cooking. How would one noble be able to control the market then?
「No, he does not have a monopoly. Even we make some. We can’t produce a lot because we don’t have belladonna. The church has control of the places where they grow en masse so we can’t get any.」
Belladonna… a plant that’s one of the most basic ingredients of a potion. There’s not a lot of potion that can be brewed without it. If the church has control of them, then there’s nothing people can do. They simply can’t produce potions.
「But Cardina Georgis can still make the potion, correct?」
「Yes. Apparently he developed a method to make healing medicines even without belladonnas. They say he produces almost a thousand in a year.」
「So those thousand healing medicines in a year is the source of his power.」
「Exactly.」
I see.
…I now have Cardinal Georgis’s weakness.