Emma's group remained thoughtful for a few seconds, until Emma herself raised her head and, saying: "My lord, it is a beautiful temple, certainly it is not the most magnificent of all, nor is it made with the best materials, but it is something good to start with."
The others quickly nod and say: "Yes, great lord, it is elegant in its style, especially the statues at the entrance look almost like those of the Temple of Vienna."
Feicui Long nods with a smile and says: "I am glad that you like it."
Raising his hand with one finger he says: "But that is not all, I believe it is necessary to distribute the responsibilities…"
Feicui Long looks at the five and says when he stops to look at Mila: "You… Mila Schmidt, minor priestess of the order of the emerald dragon, you will be the leader and ruler over this temple, I will leave it under your care."
Mila startles with a small jump and nervously says: "Great lord… great lord, I… I cannot… what about Emma? She is essentially better than me at everything, braver, more extroverted and more intelligent, I believe she is a better option."
Feicui Long frowns and says to her: "Oh, do you dare to disobey your god? To question him?"
Mila shrinks even more and Feicui Long lets out a sigh, saying: "Do you not realize that this requires more courage than you think? Mila, I do not know you, certainly not, but I feel a fervent faith and a great strength of will within you, you are more capable than you believe."
He finally looks at Emma and says: "Besides, precisely because of what you say, Emma is not a good leader for a temple, she is not only a paladin, belonging to the military branch, but she is also more impulsive, for this new temple of mine, I will need someone who thinks with a cool head, but who has the courage to make the decisions that are needed and can organize everything, I believe you are the ideal one, in addition to being the only one from the clerical branch in the group."
Mila freezes and looks somewhat embarrassed at Emma, just like the others, they know he is not wrong, Emma is too impulsive at times and somewhat conflictive.
After a moment Feicui Long speaks again and says: "But even so… I have another role for Emma…"
They all look at him with some intrigue and he finally says: "Emma… you will be one of the new military leaders of the new temple and I do not mean only this temple… but the entire temple of the emerald-golden dragon god."
The women fall silent as if processing the information were very difficult, until Haru speaks asking: "What does that mean great lord? New temple? Are you going to abandon the temple of the emerald dragon god? Is there something that displeased you, great lord?"
This group of women suddenly appears restless and worried, Emma finally speaks and says: "My lord this is a great honor for me… but I believe the temple of the emerald dragon god deserves an opportunity, for all our loyalty, our faith that we have in you, please reconsider it."
Feicui Long smiles ironically and says: "No, I do not intend to abandon it… but… you are right about something Haru Hayashima, in the current temple there are many things I do not like, things that irritate me and bother me."
Turning around, giving them his back for a moment, he walks while saying: "Have you not noticed what is wrong? It is supposed to be a single temple, but it is divided into four main branches, the branch that worships my dragon aspect, the branch that worships the aspect of space, the branch that worships the aspect of time and the branch that worships the three aspects."
Feicui Long continues walking while everyone follows him, when they reach the temple and precisely that statue he liked so much, he looks at it and says: "They almost do not seem to worship the same god, they do not treat each other as companions, but operate separately…"
Lily, the girl from the economic branch, says: "But my lord, were you not the one who made the decision to keep them separated to avoid conflicts?"
Feicui Long nods and says: "That is correct… that is why I can see it more clearly than anyone, I was wrong and I was very wrong, the current temple is not only far from being of help to me, it is far from even being able to endure any longer, if it were not because the union by force keeps it afloat, my temple would no longer exist in this world."
Feicui Long looked very melancholic while thinking about everything… it is hard to accept a mistake, no matter how many excuses one makes, no matter how many reasons one tries to disguise it with, the mistake was his and his alone, in his eagerness to balance the three clans, the only thing he achieved was to divide them even more, perhaps at the time it worked… but without his support, the core of the temple finally showed signs that it was going to fall.
Isabella quickly approaches and hugs him to comfort him and says: "It is alright dear… you did the best you could, and besides…"
Feicui Long interrupts her and says: "I know, it is just that thinking that I have only been failing again and again without stopping is harder, only now do I realize that I am far from the image I once had of myself."
Feicui Long turns, leaning on Isabella while holding her beautiful and slender waist.
Before he can speak, Carla with her energetic voice says: "The great lord has no reason to feel bad, in the end you were only thinking about what was best for the temple and its situation at that time, it is normal that you did not take your own decline into account, so as your believers we also share part of the blame and have failed you as our god…"
Feicui Long responds saying: "No, gods are not beings incapable of feeling or thinking, we are not perfect beings without errors, we also make mistakes and fail, the mistake was mine for not foreseeing this scenario."
Thinking about how he did not see a single man in his temple he says: "It is my fault that the temple has reached this state, where cooperation between the branches is more anecdotal than anything else, where, although I do not say that the high command deliberately performs its duties poorly, it is evident that they care so little about fostering belief among men that they have directly turned the temple into practically a female sisterhood."
The five women look at each other without knowing what to say, because what he is saying is the truth. Even when the temple in Vienna went out to preach to obtain new believers, they rarely attended or sought places where there were men. On the contrary, they ignored them and went directly to where women usually gather.
Feicui Long then tells them: "That is why I want a new temple. For that, I want… the branches to disappear, not in a literal way, but to unite to form a new temple."
Feicui Long points at the statue: "One where each aspect of me is not worshiped as a different god… one where all those who worship me see each other as brothers and sisters, as a family that worships the same god, because in the end, each of those aspects you see in the statue is me. Power and dragons, space and finally time, all of that is me."
Emma looks at him and asks: "But my lord, would that not cause difficulties?"
Feicui Long nods and says: "That is why I have to start slowly. The truth is I would like to do it in a more progressive way, but, although it sounds ironic as the supreme god of time, we truly do not have time. The enemy is at our backs and wants to destroy us with great force. We must use a more abrupt method."
Finishing, Feicui Long approaches Mila and says: "With that said, Mila tell me, as the new leader of the temple, how do you believe this temple you will manage should be distributed? Is there capacity for a maximum of 300 people or do you prefer another number?"
Mila remains silent, looking at her god. Since childhood she grew up together with Emma in her village worshiping him as their protective figure, the one who allowed them to face the difficulties of daily life… now he was here asking for her opinion after giving her a position she never dreamed of.
Mila thinks about it, analyzes the memories of her training in the Temple of Vienna and says: "Great lord, I believe the best option is to go with the number proposed by Miss Evelyn. 175 people seems sufficient to me, besides that it would reduce the maintenance costs of the temple and on top of that it would put less burden on you."
Feicui Long nods, touches her shoulder and says: "Good, that is fine. What would be the ideal distribution of personnel for you within these 175 people?"
Mila thinks for one or two minutes and quickly says: "Considering the situation the temple is in, I think the ideal arrangement is that 100 people are all troops, from the military branch. 30 in support and logistics personnel, divided into groups of 10 for refinement and smithing, alchemy and inscription mastery."
Mila then, wiping the sweat from her palms on her tunic, continues: "10 priestesses, 10 from the economic branch and 10 from the administrative branch. Of the remaining 15, 10 in auxiliary tasks such as cooking, cleaning, crops and livestock, the last 5 for the orphanage."
As if a good idea had occurred to her, she says: "We could even start bringing people from the four main branches to fill those positions, beginning to integrate them into the new temple. For example, the troops could be 40 from the dragon branch, 25 and 25 from the spatial branch and the time branch, and the last 10 from the triple-aspect branch."
Feicui Long smiles, finding it a good idea, and says: "Excellent, I like that you propose solutions."
Then he takes out a bag of coins and hands it to them: "In this bag there are 5 platinum coins, 50 gold, 250 silver and 750 copper. This will be your initial budget, take good care of it. You can buy food at the market, whatever you want, although I will provide you with the basics such as grain, meat and vegetables."
Then, somewhat embarrassed, he says: "I would like to give you an emblem like the one my troops use, but in artifact form, but I am always very busy and I do not have much capacity to dedicate myself to refining it."
Carla, smiling, says to him: "If you want, you can teach me how to do it, great lord, and I will do it. Although it may not seem like it, in this team Haru, Lily and I, in addition to knowing how to fight like all members of the temple as required, have other abilities."
Carla takes out an identification… the identification of the guilds union of alchemists, refiners-smiths and inscription masters, and on it it states: "Beginner refiner-smith."
Carla nods as she sees Feicui Long's surprise and says: "I am a refiner-smith. Haru is a true inscription master and Lily is an alchemist."
Feicui Long praises them, saying: "That truly is a pleasant surprise, excellent. You could help me greatly. But that is all for today, make yourselves comfortable. As direct subordinates, you will have access to the troop points system. I will send someone to explain how it works to you."
Feicui Long turns around to prepare to leave and says: "Oh yes, remember to expand my religion in the village. For each converted person I will give you extra points, and even if I recover part of my access to my will, I will grant blessings. And please, for the moment refrain from recruiting new members from among the villagers."
He finishes by saying: "There are few inhabitants and all their roles are necessary. You can do it with merchants or people who come from outside. I am planning to finally open the village to external trade, so you can take advantage of that if you wish to recruit for the temple from among them, as well as buy from them with the budget I gave you."
Soon, the backs of Feicui Long, Isabella and the others walk away, leaving Emma's group immersed in thought about this new turn their lives had taken…