Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 176: Boardroom Crusade

While the hostile takeover of the Midlands raged on, the Caliphate was not the only power watching the events with keen interest.

The Catholic Church and the new Pope were watching the events with a mixture of horror and calculating greed.

The successor to Pope Leo was a pragmatic and fiscally conservative man who now went by the name Pope Urban, who completely disagreed with his predecessors’ approach when dealing with the so-called "Steam Heresy."

However, the Directorate had already declared its fiscal independence from the Church (and its tithes), and there was not much more he could do now other than an attempt to regulate it through... aggressive negotiation.

Excommunication would have been a significant first step, but the time for spiritual censure was already too far gone... Ragnar had simply stopped paying the subscription fee.

With the Swiss Guard busy with its contract in the Italian States, and the Templars fighting in the Holy Land, he was left with no option other than to create new "Consultancy Firms" and recruit from the ranks of the European nobility to put down the rising influence of the Iron Empire.

Though he had yet to outright call for a new crusade to deal with this issue, he was currently in the process of establishing new Papal Legions to combat the threat of Ragnar the Ruthless and his industrial revolution.

At the moment, a large group of Frankish Knights was standing in front of the new Pope.

Their surcoats were blue with a gold fleur-de-lis upon them, but beneath, they wore innovative reinforced mail.

They were being christened as the first members of the Order of the Divine Gear.

The King of the Franks was an avid supporter of the Catholic Church and its ongoing efforts to curb the Directorate’s monopoly.

Many knights from Francia were particularly attracted to the idea of taking up a new crusade against the English heathens and driving the Steam Heresy into bankruptcy.

Thus at the moment, five hundred different Knights from across Francia were gathered in the Vatican kneeling before the Pope. Pope Urban spoke a chant in Latin before announcing to the Knights gathered before him.

"Rise, Knights of the Divine Gear!"

After saying such a thing, the Knights rose from their kneeling position and stood firmly in front of the Pope as his newest asset.

They waited silently for the Pope to give his keynote speech.

"As a Militant Order, your goal will be to recruit as many shareholders as you can in the coming years from the continent; we will need your capital in the market correction that is to come!

The Steam Heresy cannot be allowed to monopolize innovation!

Go forth, and raise your liquidity; when the time is necessary, I shall call upon you for a leveraged buyout!"

The Knights saluted the Pope before shouting the Latin phrase:

"Deus Vult!"

After doing so, they left the Vatican. They began their extended return home to Francia, where they would spend the next few years gathering their strength to march on England and the other regions which the Steam Heresy had afflicted.

As the Crusaders left the building, Pope Urban collapsed back into his papal throne and sighed heavily; he was completely and utterly exhausted.

However, there was more on his agenda to prepare for, and when his cardinal secretary approached him, he merely asked the question on his mind.

"How many startups is that now?"

The cardinal held up a pair of primitive eyeglasses to his face before peering into the ledger; after doing so, he proudly declared.

"That would be the fifth Militant Order you have chartered since assuming your position, Your Holiness."

Pope Urban began to rub his temples to ease his growing headache before voicing his unfiltered opinion aloud.

"That idiot Leo has left me with an enormous deficit to clean up. That moron must have terrible timing to pick a fight with a Director while all of our liquid assets are tied up in the Levant!"

The cardinal immediately began to correct the Pope as he pushed the spectacles further upon his nose.

"To be fair, Your Holiness, Ragnar was just a raider with a LLC when we excommunicated him."

Urban immediately began to roll his eyes at his assistant when he voiced his complaints.

"Oh yes, silly me, how could I possibly forget the fact that we sent auditors to eliminate Ragnar, the rightful CEO of the Directorate, because we were afraid that he might resist the Church’s tax code!

It is almost as if sending those damned inquisitors provoked him into taking such drastic measures. Am I the only sane economist left in the Vatican?"

The cardinal did not know how to respond; he was aware that Urban blamed his predecessors for the problems at hand, but what he just said was borderline heresy.

After all, the words Urban spoke made it seem like it was entirely the Church’s fault that Ragnar caused such a massive market disruption.

As such, the cardinal chose to ignore the Pope’s comments and instead focus on the next issue at hand.

"Your Holiness, the Envoy of the Caliphate, has just arrived and is waiting for you outside. Should I bring him in?"

Pope Urban looked at the cardinal as if he were an absolute dullard before asking him a rhetorical question.

"Do we need their gold?"

"Yes, Your Holiness."

"Then bring him in!"

Seeing the displeased look in the Pope’s eyes, the cardinal quickly hurried off to bring the Envoy into the chambers.

After a few moments, he returned with a lavishly dressed diplomat who was a representative of the Abbasid trade guild.

The man did not bow before the Pope and instead spoke formally to Urban.

"Congratulations on the promotion, Urban. It has been a while since we last negotiated tariffs."

Urban stood up and approached the Envoy with a friendly gesture before speaking to the man on friendly terms.

"It is good to see you, Rashid; I must say these are volatile times we find ourselves in."

However, as Urban approached the man named Rashid, the Envoy backed away and snubbed Urban’s good gesture while adding insult to injury with his harsh words.

"These are volatile times you find yourself in. Though I may disagree with the Directorate’s business practices, and frankly, I find them to be ruthless competitors, Director Ragnar has provided great value to the Caliphate, and for that, we will not hedge our bets against him."

Urban had a worried expression on his face as he asked the Envoy about his concerns.

"You mean to tell me you will not divest? After all the west has done to support the trade routes? Our merchants still pay your tolls in the Mediterranean!"

However, Rashid merely chuckled at the Pope’s response.

"Funny, the last time I checked, one of your precious militant orders went about looting their way through Jerusalem, which was filled with our trading partners.

Yet, the Pope did nothing to stop them. I will be frank with you, Urban, we do not have ’Holy Orders’ as you do, so the Caliphate cannot provide you military assistance.

You would have to request it from the Caliph directly, and he is keen on establishing a joint venture with Director Ragnar, so your chances are slim."

Urban immediately felt his headache grow three times larger as he heard this news; he thought to himself for a few minutes as he once more rubbed his temples before coming up with an idea.

"Well, can you at least release a fatwa referring to the Steam Engine as haram? Or possibly help us fund new R&D?"

Rashid was blunt with his rejection which further infuriated the new Pope.

"Can I? Yes. Will I? No. Such acts would only antagonize Ragnar, who is at the head of the Industrial Revolution, and I don’t know about you but, frankly, I do not want such a man as my competitor, nor do I wish to incur the Caliph’s wrath by souring relations between the two of them. You are on your own, Urban. At most, I can offer you a high-interest loan."

Urban could hardly believe his ears. He was hoping for some kind of subsidy from the East, yet they had so blatantly rejected him. Loans? What good were loans without collateral?

He needed steel and patents if he wanted to get rid of these industrialists who had begun to infest the market. Since when had debt won wars?

After hearing Rashid’s response, Urban’s expression soured, and he began to shift the topic to other concerns.

"I see; well, I hope you enjoy your stay in the Vatican for the time being. Make sure to bring my invoice to the Caliph the next time you see him."

Rashid nodded before responding.

"I will file it."

After these words were stated, the Envoy of the Caliphate left the building and proceeded onto some leisurely business.

As for Pope Urban, he had returned to his papal throne, where he slumped into its comfort and placed his head into his hands before screaming intensely into them.

Just why was it that nothing seemed to be going his way? Did the Invisible Hand genuinely favor the Directorate? These were the thoughts he considered as his mind slowly drifted into space.

The Caliphate’s rejection to aid the Catholic Church in any way as they attempted to deal with Ragnar and his Directorate would be a great point of contention between the West and East.

It would also unwittingly foster a merger between Ragnar and the Abbasid Caliphate... one that would rewrite the bylaws of the known world.