Chapter 167: 167

**

It was late at night . I had an audience with the Holy Emperor and he told me all about the Church of Caiolium .

Not only did this religious order desire to be fully independent of the imperial court, it was also the hidden backer of Third Imperial Prince Ruppel as well .

After giving custody of the Second Imperial Prince to the emperor, he informed me about the fate regarding Ruppel and White . While the latter was placed under ‘house arrest’, the former was currently locked away in the underground prison .

This discussion of ours took place three days ago .

And now, I was currently walking along the imperial palace’s corridors .

Whenever servants and maids ran into me, they jumped up in surprise before hurriedly bowing their heads . It seemed that all of them were frightened of me .

‘Isn’t that obvious, though?’

The Seventh Imperial Prince tried to force himself on the archbishop’s granddaughter . He then blasphemed against Gaia, and after getting banished, he even made a deal with the devil out of despair .

He used despicable Necromancy to summon evil spirits and even got intimate with the princess of the enemy kingdom, Aslan .

The war against Aslan was nothing more than a ploy to install that princess as the ruler of that kingdom, and he was planning to snatch up the accomplishment of ending the war and using it to become the next Holy Emperor .

Many rumours saying similar things as the above were busy doing its rounds within the Theocratic Empire . And I have to say, all those crap did sound rather reasonable . Since several points were lining up way too conveniently, those claims should sound that much more convincing to a layman .

-Holy undead? Can something like that even be possible?

The portion of the clergy said that . At least when it came to the matters of the holy undead, they sneered in contempt at the notion itself .

But testimonies and evidence began emerging one after the other, and that led to increasingly more members of the clergy harbouring distrust towards the Imperial Family .

“Hah-ah . This was why I wanted to hide the fact that I know Necromancy…”

The empire wouldn’t punish you no matter how many Necromancers you’ve killed . That’s how bad the sentiment towards Necromancy was in this nation .

Yet here I was, not some low-ranked Priest, but an actual Prince of the Imperial Family using Necromancy . No wonder the whole empire was turned on its head .

If it weren’t for my status as an Imperial Prince, I’d have become the subject of the Crimson Cross’s ‘inquiry process’ a long time ago .

The milk had spilt already, sure . But the thing was, matters had escalated so much even before the Imperial Family had a chance to do something about them .

I stood on the imperial palace’s balcony and stared outside .

“Wow, there are so many protesters outside today, too!”

In front of the imperial palace were about three hundred or so members of the clergy and a thousand-plus citizens in a gathering . They were all on their knees with their heads bowed, still trying to get their ardent pleas across .

“We need clarification on the Seventh Imperial Prince!”

“Your majesty, please lend your ear to the voices of the faithful!”

“Please punish the Seventh Imperial Prince responsible for causing the war with Aslan!”

Well, how nice it was to see them all so lively like that . No matter what, this was still way more preferable to the subdued, depressed atmosphere in Aslan .

I smacked my lips and paid no more heed to their calls .

I continued walking down the corridor and somehow ended up reaching the imperial audience chamber . I sneaked a glance inside .

Various voices belonging to nobles were coming out from there .

“If it’s all true, then the Seventh Imperial Prince has committed a truly unforgivable sin, your majesty!”

“A contract with the devil?! It’s true that we must punish the Church of Caiolium, but at least in this instance, their assertion is correct, your majesty!”

These people knew full well how terrifying the Holy Emperor could be, yet they didn’t hesitate to raise their voices .

Apparently, these nobles and clergy had no relations to the Church itself . According to Harman, they were the true loyal retainers that wholeheartedly served the Imperial Family .

I also confirmed their attribute of ‘deep loyalty’ through Mind’s Eye . But it seemed like that these folks, who would absolutely obey the Holy Emperor’s decree without any question, couldn’t overlook the accusation of me using ‘Necromancy’, and dared to bare their fangs .

“So… This is what the Church of Caiolium was banking on, is it?”

Rather fitting for a religious order that managed to survive for the past several thousand years, they possessed an unbelievable financial muscle and enjoyed political and social influence rooted deep in tradition over the masses .

The Theocratic Empire was currently mired in an unending chain of crises right now . There was the appearance of a Vampire Count in the northern region, then more Vampires had been found hiding within the imperial court; next up was the lycanthropes, and finally, the war with Aslan .

Naturally, all the chaos would shake up the public sentiment of the empire’s subjects, slowly eroding away their trust in the Imperial Family .

The Church of Caiolium took advantage of the situation and generously spread around their wealth in order to make themselves look good . They performed various charity work such as distributing food to the poor and healing the sick for free .

And that’s when they spread around the false rumours about me, it seemed . It was easy to incite the masses since the Church had been acting all benevolent and the like with the people .

Was it because I stood in a daze while staring into the audience chamber? Charlotte silently approached me from behind and covered my ears with both of her hands .

“Those are merely words of foolish and disloyal retainers, your highness . Please do not mind them . ”

I could only smile wryly while feeling her hands’ warmth .

Charlotte, it’s too bad, but those so-called disloyal retainers are more loyal than anyone to the Imperial Family, you know? The Holy Emperor also knows that and that’s why he’s still listening to them like this .

I was pretty sure that the emperor wouldn’t take these punches lying down, though . The preparation for the subjugation was already in full swing at the moment .

The old man was getting enough troops ready to completely upend and root out the entirety of the Church of Caiolium .

In fact, he had even issued the sword king a new decree earlier . The army dispatched to Aslan would be re-deployed again after they took a brief period of rest and finished the maintenance of their equipment .

‘The problem here is that this event will plunge the Theocratic Empire into a major chaos . ’

The whole thing might end up spiralling out of control if we haphazardly hit the Church of Caiolium .

Countless citizens might see the current Holy Emperor not as a ‘benevolent and wise ruler’ but as a ‘tyrant’ that relied on brute force and fear to rule . The nobles and the clergy would start distrusting the emperor as well .

Heck, there might even be some kind of civil unrest, too .

Someone on the level of Holy Emperor Kelt Olfolse’s wouldn’t have much trouble eliminating the Church of Caiolium all by himself, but the aftershock would definitely spread out to the rest of the empire .

Since we needed to prepare for the Vampire invasion in the near future, it’d be for the best if the empire remained as stable as possible .

‘In a way, this is close to a civil war, isn’t it?’

A civil war against the Church of Caiolium that was using the empire’s subjects as its shield .

The longer things dragged on, the more advantageous it would get for them . And they would not stop demanding their complete independence from the imperial court .

‘However, their tantrum shouldn’t last for long . ’

While thinking that to myself, I headed to the palace’s library . I figured that things should be quieter in there .

I found Raphael’s granddaughter, Alice, sitting in the library as usual . But she seemed to be out of it, utterly dazed . Her distant gaze was aimlessly staring at her front, while her hands were mechanically flipping through a book’s pages .

She came here to study out of habit, but even I could tell that nothing was registering in her mind at the moment . Which was understandable, considering her grandfather’s fate was unknown at this stage .

She too was stewing in her worries and anxieties of the future .

I pondered what to do for a while before taking a bottle of wine out from the item window .

While holding the bottle, I stood before her . She finally regained her wits with a noticeable flinch and stood right up from the chair .

I lightly shook the bottle around and asked her .

“Hey, it’s been a while . Want to share this with me?”

**

(TL: In 3rd person POV . )

Alice managed to regain her wits while staring at the Seventh Imperial Prince .

She snapped out of her daze and hurriedly got up from the chair . Though, her urgent actions caused the chair to tumble back and fall .

She quickly bowed her head and offered her greeting, “The granddaughter of his eminence Archbishop Raphael, Alice Astoria, offers her greeting to…”

“It’s fine . I’m sure you have a lot on your mind, so no need for formalities . ”

The Seventh Imperial Prince chuckled lightly and placed a couple of cups and a bottle of wine on the table . She couldn’t tell where he took them out from .

Alice quietly stared at him . This boy, he… was carrying a considerably relaxed smile on his face .

How could he be so carefree when all sorts of unsavoury rumours about him were doing its rounds outside?

Such a reaction was unimaginable to her when remembering back to how he was so full of tears and snots during the time he got banished to the frontiers .

Could it be that he was pretending to be fine? With his position being what it was, he could very well be keeping up a pretence in order to maintain a princely dignity .

“…Your highness . You must ignore all the current rumours about you . ”

The Seventh Imperial Prince stared at her .

She bowed her head again and continued on, “This is merely nothing more than the Church of Caiolium’s last desperate struggle . Because they can’t retreat anymore, it’s likely they wish to resist with all their strength . They must think that they have a chance at victory by doing this . ”

Alice spoke of her own opinion .

She wished to put the prince’s mind at ease, at least by a little .

He responded to her . “You’re right about that . Those folks do know that too, yet they’re still fighting back like this . Whatever happens, this problem will be sorted out as long as his majesty steps up . However, the real issue will be with what happens afterwards . ”

“…”

“It’s the public sentiment . ”

Alice clamped her mouth shut .

The Seventh Imperial Prince’s observation was right . After all, he really did use Necromancy . Every miracle he had achieved so far could be twisted into the devil’s tricks instead of Goddess Gaia’s work .

And to protect the Seventh Imperial Prince, the Holy Emperor would have to burn through a considerable amount of his influence .

Alice asked him, “I heard that an inquisition will commence soon . By any chance, are you planning to attend it, your highness?”

“I am . It ain’t my style to run away . ”

“Just in case…” Alice, wondering what if, cautiously asked something else, “…Can you really summon holy undead, your highness?”

She was still curious about that topic . Back during Luan’s revival incident, she unfortunately failed to get a good look .

As Raphael’s granddaughter, she possessed a considerable level of knowledge on magic . She thought that such magic should be impossible to pull off . Yet this very impossible magic was…

“Yup, I sure can . ”

…Eminently possible with just a snap of the prince’s fingers .

Alice’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when a glowing rune letter suddenly engraved itself on the library’s floor, and a pure-white skeleton was summoned instantly .

“You can really summon it?!”