“This incident has nothing to do with me. I believe you would not believe me even if I said that after what transpired. However, I swear to god that I did all that I could to appease everyone. Unfortunately, I could not appease everyone’s anger or stop what they were doing. I am sincerely sorry about what happened, but the old church will not do anything.”
The child pope was on his knees in front of me. Tone sincere, yet soft, he continued, “Violence cannot solve anything. Violence only begets more violence. The new church was trying to lead us to our own destruction with our own anger this time. Your Majesty, I would never do anything that would oppose your wishes, and we would never do anything irrational at Hilles City. I have done my utmost to appease everyone and stop all revenge and schemes; unfortunately, we could not stop these people. With that said, they are already unaffiliated with the old church.”
Elizabeth crossed one leg over the other. She calmly asked, “Son, what do you think? Who do you think is responsible for this, the new church or the old church?”
I pinched my chin and replied, “Mm… Regardless of who it was, I don’t have proof, so I can only make an inference. If it was the new church’s plot, then the root of this holy hoary night was the new church’s assassination of the old church’s member. This may be something the new church plotted from the very beginning. Their goal may have been to provoke the old church. The new church’s people understand that they would clash with the old church, which was why they wanted to put the blame on the old church.”
Mom nodded and then snickered: “Which means that the old church didn’t take action to save itself. That must’ve been the new church’s plan. The proof is evident; the proof is the letter with your seal on it. There are only four seals in this world. Two of them are here with me, and the other two are with you. The new church stole one from Troy City. They’ve already crossed the line this time. A nation only needs one religion; hence, the new church can be outlawed. “
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“Your Excellency, what exactly do we need to do…? The old church is now the state religion; our plan appears to have failed. Empress Elizabeth and Prince Troy are not fighting and have figured out our plan. The two of them are on their way to Troy City now. What do we do? We, personally, spread out our power at Troy City!”
The new church’s pope thundered, “Be quiet!”
The pope tensely looked at the table in front of him and contemplated his next step. He never expected the outcome. He never expected the old church’s pope to not be the brains behind the rampage, and it was proven that the old church’s pope wasn’t responsible for it. There was only a specific group in the old church that wanted to start trouble. As a matter of fact, the old church’s pope did everything he could to appease them. That confirmed the new church scripted and directed the entire plan. Plus, they had been exposed for pinching the seal. It was time to face the consequences.
The pope analysed, “Right now, there are three armies encroaching upon Troy City. The people in this city may now obey us, but that doesn’t change the fact that this city is named after Troy. What would the citizens of this city choose in the face of three armies? What would the people do? Will they choose to side with Troy?
My only hope now is to get all of the people of Troy City to fight for me. Would Troy kill all of his citizens? Will he choose to kill everyone? If he spares the people of Troy City, I still have hope. I’ll still have hope of talking to him.
My bet is the entirety of Troy City. So, how can I convince the people of Troy City to pick me? I may be in control of everything, including the underground world of Troy City, but that’s all meaningless in the face of military might. It’s easy to drive off the citizens; all they have to do is instil fear.If they fear Troy, they’ll definitely side with me. If they’re afraid of me, they’ll welcome Troy.
While I don’t care for the news around me, I have heard of the oppression Troy City’s citizens suffered. Now, if I were to mention that Troy was back, the people would welcome him back.
I must convince the people to fear Troy. Is it hard to get them to fear him? Troy may not know what happened here. I know about Troy’s massacres in the North. He’s no less violent than Elizabeth is. Okay, so, isn’t my objective obvious?”
“Your Excellency, Troy’s wife and child are currently at Troy City. I think we can use them as hostages. If possible, we could use them as hostages to talk to him. At least, we could exchange them for our lives.”
The pope wiped away the dangerous thought the individual had: “Have you lost your mind?! Have you forgotten what consequence the old church met with after what they did to Nier? If we did that, Troy would not forgive us. As a matter of fact, he won’t even bother to negotiate with us. That’s only going to get us killed faster!
If we want Troy to help us, we can’t hurt those two. We should protect them if anything. We’ll only be forgiven if his wife speaks up for us. That’s the only way. Before that, though, we need to get Troy City to speak up for us. I’ve come up with an idea and that is to persuade our Troy City to oppose Troy. We need to control all of Troy City, I repeat, all of Troy City. Do that; go and do that. Oh, and one more thing. Put the seal back. Take good care of his wife and child. Do not make any mistakes, understood?”
“Yes, Your Excellency!”
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