Night of the Soulless Heathens – 399



#399. Loser of the South 3

After forming an alliance with Azadin Carnago IV left to deal with the monsters that were ravaging his territory.

With this there was virtually no one left standing in Azadin’s way of taking full control of the Banling Kingdom.

Azadin officially declared the heart of the Ban Lung kingdom the capital of the mountain as his domain and declared the road connecting Naisandhokar Sandhokar and the heart of Coxhall Mountain in the Chadra Plateau as the national highway.

Those passing through this area are now required to pay a protection tax to King Azadin of Banling who is obliged to mobilize his highway patrols to ensure order along the road.

He also implied that he would actually rule as a king so if you are confident come at me.

In response the lords of the various provinces of the Kingdom of Banling once again swore allegiance to Azadin.

In particular it was a very big deal that the Count of Bissen a province east of Banling swore allegiance to Azadin.

If you get your hands on Bisen you will be able to access the road that the past emperors laid down which leads all the way to Btuma.

Seeing Azadin’s power some people began to call him the Southern Emperor comparing him to the Northern Emperor Cohen Lionaire.

*********

The news that Azadin was called the Southern Emperor naturally reached the ears of the Northern Emperor Cohen Lionaire.

The Northern Qi Cohen Lioness was truly bewildered by the unfamiliar embarrassment.

Until now he had never experienced being left behind by others.

But Azadin caught up in a short period of time with what he had labored for a century.

Of course if we look at the strength of the internal structure it is obvious that it cannot keep up with the strength of Cohen Lionaire but in fact the alliance of the Northern Qi is not as strong as the Azadin forces.

Chitai Tarasar Karasar….

All three kingdoms allied with Cohen Lionaire’s Assander are only loose alliances and could turn their backs at any time.

It has the name of a grand loser but it is only a slight advantage that allows it to occupy that position. It is not surprising that it could be overturned at any time.

“This is my first time experiencing this. It’s a completely new feeling. I see. Do people call this an inferiority complex?”

Cohen asked his children.

It was a truly arrogant statement but Cohen’s son Sryyadhana could tell that he meant it.

Cohen is now struck by the strangeness of the feeling of inferiority.

“Father the clergy of the King’s Church are holding a meeting to discuss countermeasures.”

Sryyadhana was the bishop of the royal church diocese of Assander.

It is a great privilege to be the child of Cohen Lionaire and assigned to his parish but Cohen has long since infiltrated his children into the King’s Church the Order of the Salvation and the Order of Paladins.

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“Yes. What is the mood? Do you think that the entire royal church will condemn and resolve to punish that herald clan? Or will they delegate everything to me the King of Kings and ask me to punish him?”

“I don’t know for sure but it’s true that he’s very intimidated. Sir Astadair and Sir Jecht are both powerful figures in the Inquisition and now that they’ve been taken over the sect won’t have any intention of resolving this issue on their own. They’ll probably ask Father to subdue him or…”

“Or?”

“I think I might acknowledge him considering King Aranggi’s reputation.”

“You speak so well. Are you trying to save face for Carnago IV? Or do you just need an excuse? Have you read that New Testament Declaration? Are you all in your right mind to acknowledge him when he is attacking the corruption of the clergy?”

The scriptures of the King’s Church are largely divided into two types: the Great Law which was created by the Yaegas gods to subdue the continent of Hybris and to mediate and govern conflicts between people.

The other was a series of works that the priests later filled in with details as they taught the people.

Azadin was attacking this small ship.

It was a schismatic tactic to attack the current church system without challenging the authority of the Yaegasu clan.

“Well if you want to split it split it. All the priests are currently hoarding grains in the market. They are also forcibly buying food from merchants who do not want to sell by abusing their positions as priests and are building warehouses in various monasteries and waiting for the price difference. They have not yet realized their profits but they must feel the money in their wallets growing on its own. Do they really want to fight? If Count Azadin or King Azadin wants they can revise or recompile the Chronicles and reach a compromise.”

In a situation where you can make huge profits by buying grains in the market and safely crossing Fimbulbert you would not want to take the risk of fighting Azadin.

While Sryyadhana was speaking thus his attendants came to him.

“Bishop the mirror of conversation is ready.”

“Oh. It’s about time.”

“I will go with you too.”

“Yes? But…..”

The King’s Church and the Knights Templar maintained dioceses located throughout the continent by quickly exchanging information from a distance using a magical mirror called the Mirror of Conversation.

This is the core facility of the religious order and no one except bishop-level clergy should dare to touch it. But the Northern Emperor has stepped in.

“After all we can’t just admit defeat in the South.

*********

Two of the heresy inquisitors sent to stop the soulless blasphemers who are openly mocking the King’s Church and leading a heresy have defected.

That’s not all. The king of Arangi Kingdom Karnago IV who holds him in high esteem has acknowledged him and declared that he will be adopted as his son.

This was a terrible disgrace to the King’s Church.

“What the hell are those rescue knights doing? Those bastards! We should excommunicate them immediately…”

“Now will those opportunists excommunicate him?”

Other clergy also felt stung by the remark that he was an opportunist.

It was a word said to criticize the Rescue Knights but it was also applied to them in the same way.

“But if things turn out this way it’s not like even the entire Inquisition can stop it.”

“How about leaving it to the King of Kings Cohen Lionaire?”

“But what on earth did you Archbishop Arangi do? You should have prevented the king from doing such a thing!”

Everyone’s sharp criticism now turned to Archbishop Arangi.

Then Archbishop Arangi responded calmly.

“In the first place is Carnago IV the kind of person who would listen to what I say? He’d just turn a deaf ear to it. That’s it.”

“but….”

“And don’t you all have more important things to do than a soulless blasphemer? Ogres are forming warbands and invading from all over the place Bree and Goblins are rampant and the south coast is plagued by naga. I understand that there are real cults in the city Kurt’s Mezzeh and other nether religions that are even worse. And why are we only interested in a soulless blasphemer?”

“Ugh…..”

“What do you mean by that now?”

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“Of course we are constantly paying attention to the movements of monsters such as goblins and ogres. We are talking about new threats that have arisen…”

“A new threat has arisen. Isn’t the real threat the food shortage? Of course we were able to farm this year so there shouldn’t be a shortage in terms of numbers but I’ve heard rumors that the bishops have built a lot of storehouses in their monasteries and are hoarding a lot of grain there?”

“Ahem.”

“What are you talking about? It’s a false accusation! It’s a false accusation!”

“Yes I hope this is a false accusation. Otherwise we might have to stop the mobs from storming the monastery later.”

Archbishop Arangi was nonchalant in his criticism of the hypocrisy of other clergy. Thanks to this he no longer had to hear people say that he should have controlled King Arangi or that he had allowed Azadin to grow up in his diocese.

“But shouldn’t we take action against that heretic? We can’t just let him mock our teachings. Do you know what the scripture he created is called? He calls it the New Testament.”

“Then what are we going to do? Even if we send the entire Inquisition will it be able to stop them? Even if we hand him over to the Northern Qi it will take several months to move troops from Asander to Banling.”

“Then how about we acknowledge him?”

Archbishop Arangi asked.

“What?”

“This guy is out of his mind.”

“Are you serious?”

While the other clergy were surprised Archbishop Arangi laughed and said:

“Anyway if you look at the New Testament declaration he put forth what he is attacking is the content of the Acts. If you accept that he is slightly reorganizing the Acts then you will be able to fully accept the New Testament as well.”

“But those items are for our clergy. If we change them it will be difficult to move the people as we wish.”

“What if they think freely and defy our authority and challenge us?”

Most of the clergy knew well what the passages in the Acts they had composed meant.

Archbishop Arangi could not have been unaware of this. But he spoke as if he were being tempted by the devil.

“But don’t we already have property?”

“what….”

“Anyway even if we revise the Acts our authority will not be undermined immediately. If we acknowledge and accept the New Testament there will come a day when the people will look down on the clergy but that will be a long time later. Surely you clergymen did not have illegitimate children who broke the rules.”

“….”

“Hmm. But now that I think about it it’s not entirely wrong.”

If we reject the New Testament and quarrel with King Azadin they will be tired now but if we accept the New Testament and the authority of the church is weakened it will be a suffering for future generations.

Am I suffering now? Are future generations suffering?

Wouldn’t the latter be better without question?

Of course conservative clergy still opposed it.

“Are you saying that we should change the laws that our ancestors have consistently kept? This is the end of the world!”

“It is indeed the end of the world. Then why don’t you release all your hoarded wealth and fight a war? The price of Cellswords has skyrocketed these days. Can you afford it?”

“Uhm…..”

Even conservative clergy who had been calling for the end of the world were startled by the words “Open your wallet.”

No matter how much he embezzled he didn’t have enough money to fight a war and he didn’t want to take the blame alone.

Eventually the opinion became widespread among the clergy that it was okay to acknowledge the New Testament as it was.

‘It’s really scary. I expected this to happen but the saying ‘a king who loses his battles’ really fits. No one dares to confront him after only winning a few times.’

Archbishop Sryadana was perplexed by the growing acceptance of the New Testament by the clergy. Then Cohen Lionaire stepped in.

“Can I say something for a moment?”

“hmm?”

“Oh my god. Northern Qi?!”

“What the heck is going on?! Why are you in the Episcopal Conference….”

The bishops were embarrassed and angry that the Northern Emperor had overheard their conversation without their masks on.

“I know this is rude but there is something important you should know. After you know that you can decide whether or not to accept his new testament.”

And the subsequent revelations from the Northern Qi Dynasty shocked them.

*********

And after a while the King’s Church decided to declare a holy war against Azadin a monstrous impiety that must be abolished.