Ran Into Them

The battle for Dadir City had begun. At the Church headquarters eight thousand li away, the Alpha Kingdom's letter of protest had also arrived.

"Look at the mess you've made! You barely caused a ripple before the real owner came knocking!"

As he spoke, Pope Pius VII tossed the letter of protest directly to Blake, commander of the Order of Judgment Knights. The look in His Majesty the Pope's eyes made it clear that he was genuinely furious.

The struggle between Divine Authority and Royal Authority had not started yesterday. It did not matter how much they stabbed each other in the back in secret. But once it was brought into the open, it destroyed the tacit understanding between both sides.

Especially with a conspicuous evil artifact like the Blood Moon Horn. Everyone knew it was in the Papal State's possession, yet it had now appeared in the Alpha Kingdom. It was practically telling the world that the Skull Society's rebellion had been supported by the Church.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured! The Order of Judgment Knights will handle the matter of the Blood Moon Horn.

A single war proves nothing. Such methods have appeared on the Aslant Continent before.

As long as they have no concrete evidence, we can insist that they have mistaken it for something else and simply deny that the Blood Moon Horn was ever lost."

Commander Blake assured him.

Deep down, he could not help but curse. He had indeed hinted that his subordinates should secretly support heretical organizations in causing trouble. No leader would directly issue orders for something that required taking responsibility and might leave them carrying the blame at any moment.

Clearly, his underlings had not grasped his intentions well enough. They had gotten carried away and sent out the infamous Blood Moon Horn.

As an old-established power, the Church possessed more than one or two evil artifacts. Even if they wanted to stir up trouble, they should not have used the Blood Moon Horn, the most recognizable one.

Once such shady business was exposed, no one would look good. Times had changed, and the Church no longer had the confidence to openly fall out with the major kingdoms.

"Handle it? How exactly do you intend to handle it?

The Alpha Kingdom branch, controlled by those nobles, is using the reconstruction of churches across the Southeast Province that were burned by the Rebel Army as an excuse to reduce the taxes it sends to the Church.

Since this mess was caused by your Order of Judgment Knights, the loss will be deducted from your military budget. Your armaments cannot be cut back, so find a way to make up the shortfall yourselves."

Pope Pius VII said irritably.

When had the once fabulously wealthy Church ever lacked money?

Yet this scene had actually appeared during his reign.

To be precise, ever since the Church's rule over the continent had collapsed three hundred years ago, its finances had fallen into a state where expenditures exceeded income.

Relying on its vast accumulated reserves, the Church had stubbornly endured. By Pope Pius VII's era, the family fortune left behind by their ancestors had been almost completely drained.

They had to expand their military and restore the Church's former glory while also increasing revenue, cutting expenses, and resolving their financial deficit. Life was not easy for the Church either.

Ever since the Church began expanding its military, its relations with the continent's nations had grown tense. Apart from a group of small countries that remained under Church control, all the major kingdoms were doing everything possible to prevent it from regaining its strength.

The nations lacked the ability to directly interfere with the Church's decisions, so most of the time, they targeted its purse strings to delay its recovery.

Naturally, the Church was no pushover. Faced with the targeted strikes of the various nations, it launched fierce reprisals. Supporting heretical organizations was one such method.

Causing destruction was secondary. The more important goal was making money.

Under the nations' tacit suppression, the Church found it difficult to obtain sufficient funds through legitimate channels and had no choice but to take risky measures.

For example, the Courage Potion used by the Skull Society came from the Papal State. Nominally, the heretical organization was plundering everywhere, but in truth, most of its stolen wealth flowed into the Papal State through secret dealings.

As long as the price was high enough, magic potions, alchemical products, even evil artifacts and Demons could all be traded.

It could be said that the Church had become utterly unscrupulous in its pursuit of wealth. Even so, it could only barely sustain its enormous military expenditures.

Upon hearing that the budget would be cut, Commander Blake felt like crying without tears. Although the taxes sent by the Alpha Kingdom branch were not much, they could still support a cavalry regiment or five thousand-man infantry regiments.

On the surface, that was far less than the profits from backing the Skull Society. But taxes kept coming, while the proceeds of robbery were usually one-off gains.

According to past precedent, once the taxes sent to the Church by a national branch were reduced, they never recovered. That meant the budget the Order of Judgment Knights lost now would be difficult to regain in the future.

He had just wanted to argue, but the murderous looks in his colleagues' eyes forced Blake to calm down.

The problem now was not merely a small amount of tax revenue. The real trouble was the chain reaction it could trigger. If the other nations followed suit, the Church's financial pressure would become even greater.

The main reason was that, as the various nations had grown stronger, they had completely cast off their dependence on the Church. They had once needed the Church to suppress Devils, but now every nation had trained its own enforcers.

Simply put, the Church's work had been stolen away, leaving it to live off others. Yet this freeloader refused to behave itself and kept dreaming of becoming the boss. How could it not draw resentment?

"Rest assured, Your Majesty. I will immediately send people to retrieve the Blood Moon Horn and sever all ties with the Skull Society. We will leave behind no trace whatsoever."

A thought flashed through Blake's mind, and he immediately gave his assurance.

Under the blazing sun, the Fifth Army continued marching along the road instead of setting up camp to rest.

There were still several hours until nightfall, and only a dozen or so li remained before their destination. They had to make an effort to put on a good show.

With such a short distance left, even if they encountered a Rebel Army ambush, the allied main force could provide timely reinforcements. Their safety was sufficiently guaranteed, so there was no need to conserve their strength.

It was the soldiers who had to march hard. For the noble lords, a mere dozen or so li on horseback could be covered in the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

Hudson sat atop his warhorse, leisurely admiring the magnificent landscape as he prepared to carry his idling enterprise through to the end.

"To the southeast, a suspicious convoy has been spotted heading for Dadir City. It is suspected to be the Rebel Army..."

The scouts' report interrupted Hudson's idling and also stirred the enthusiasm of the looting party.

Although the earlier division of spoils had been extremely unpleasant, it had not affected anyone's enthusiasm for looting in the slightest, especially when meat was being delivered right to their mouths.

Without even bothering to discuss it, everyone unanimously decided to rob the bastards. At a time like this, anyone heading for Dadir City was Rebel Army, even if they were not.