The people from those two churches had gone too far. Just look at what they wanted to do.
They wanted to form an army bearing the churches' names, with priests as its leaders, veterans drawn from the Defense Force as its backbone, and fanatical believers as its foundation!
And then there was this Holy Crusade Army?
In whose name would they crusade against the Snake-Men of Suvano?
The Earth Mother Goddess Gaia? The Goddess of Agriculture Demeter?
Or... Chris, Regent of the Kingdom of Bagnia?"
Entering foreign territory in Suvano to conduct military operations?
That amounted to an act of war!
And once they did that, the power to declare war would automatically fall into the churches' hands.
With military power, and the right to declare war backed by the legitimacy and authority of rulership, what else would they lack?
Those two faiths could simply raise their banners and summon their followers to establish a nation on the spot-or outright replace the Kingdom of Bagnia with a theocratic state!!!
It would have been strange if Chris had not been angry.
As the ancients had said, the instruments and titles of power must never be entrusted to others. Yet these two churches thought they could send a few people over, make some noise, and walk away with two-thirds of those instruments and titles. Either they were fools who understood nothing, or they thought Chris understood nothing and wanted to dupe him.
Chris suspected both were true. The people from the churches did not fully understand, and they also thought he did not understand.
Heh. Looks like they need to be taught a lesson.
The Intelligence Bureau under Connie's Military Affairs Department still lacked adequate external intelligence-gathering capabilities. It barely scraped a passing grade and had nothing to do with excellence,