Within the Dragon Mountain Empire's imperial palace, whether gathered in gardens and flower halls large and small, or waiting in the side palaces and pavilions, the guests all held their winecups with feigned composure, wore stiff smiles, and spoke incoherent, flavorless nonsense. All their attention was fixed upon the magnificent, majestic golden hall at the center.
The Crown Pontiff, Francis Dawn, had just been kicked out of the hall—and yet Francis had climbed to his feet with a smile all over his face, without the slightest anger at having been humiliated. This shocked every guest! Only a few years ago, the Church had still stood high above all else on the Western Continent, its word carrying absolute weight. The Crown Pontiff, said to be closest to the gods, was the most powerful and influential cleric among the three pontiffs.
If even a grand duke of a duchy spoke one slightly disrespectful word to the Crown Pontiff, his duchy might be utterly destroyed.
And now, war had swept across the Western Continent. The Church's Temple Knights poured forth in an endless stream, rushing to fight across the continent. The people of the Western Continent had suddenly discovered in terror that the Church possessed strength far beyond anything they could comprehend—the power the Church now displayed was enough to effortlessly level every empire, kingdom, and smaller nation that had once existed on the Western Continent.
Thus, the Church now held an even more pivotal position on the Western Continent than it had years ago. The slightest stir from the Church was enough to make every noble and commoner on the Western Continent tremble with fear. Yet Francis Dawn, foremost among the three pontiffs and the newly enthroned pontiff, had actually been kicked out of the hall!
That enormous footprint was still stamped