Chapter 641: The Torch Church Reunites
Rand soon received Luca's report.
When he saw the news, he wanted to roll his eyes.
This group of nobles wanted Luca to help them solve the plague problem as a hero, but they also did inexplicable things in secret, which led to hostility towards Luca.
Looks a bit schizophrenic.
Moreover, as a super adventurer with a full set of magic equipment, Luca might also have some luck or something, so how could he be defeated in that situation?
The one who tried to win over Luca was the Duke of a southern kingdom. To be honest, such a position of power was quite impressive. A Duke could have one to three top professionals serving him.
But unfortunately, Luca's Moonlight Greatsword seems to be really powerful, and his teammates are by no means incompetent who will hold them back.
With such a team of adventurers well prepared, even with the burden of a few children, they could easily break through the encirclement of the Duke of the South.
They were slightly injured, but Rand equipped them with golden leaf potions.
A minor injury is equivalent to no injury.
However, this also adds to Luca's legendary experience.
Afterwards, the Duke certainly would not say that he had failed in his siege of the Sunlight Adventurers, but instead claimed that he had invited the quasi-hero Luca to destroy a cult organization in his city.
If the Sunshine Adventurer Team was just a team of adventurers, they would not be able to expose the Grand Duke, but Rand was standing behind them.
Now, the news of the Grand Duke's cooperation with the Scourge Cult is about to become a bargaining chip in Rand's hands.
But Rand was not happy about this.
He felt that he had underestimated the number of mentally retarded people among humans.
It is completely understandable that the southern countries do not cooperate with him. After all, the conflict of interests is too great.
It is understandable that people do not believe that the plague can cause harm that destroys the world. After all, there has never been a precedent in history.
But what the hell is cooperation with the Scourge Cult? How come it is the same as what the Flying Fox Count of the Frost Moon Kingdom thought? Do they think that in today's era, as a human force, they can still use the evil cult to achieve their goals without getting their hands dirty?
Back then, under the suppression of the Torch Church, various cults could not make any waves. Only the Nurturing Blood was a little rampant. It was understandable that some nobles secretly took advantage of the cults.
But now, does anyone still think that if they cooperate with the current Scourge Cult, they will be let off in the future?
Or have I been fooled into believing that eternal silence is also a form of eternal life?
Rand was too tired to complain, so he prepared to send a letter to threaten them to cooperate with the work, or else he would make their stupid behavior public.
As for the widespread spread of Luca's identity as a hero, Rand was somewhat helpless. People like Luca, who have a kind personality, good talents and good luck, are indeed easy to attract attention.
I hope they have better luck.
"How's Karin's progress?" Rand stopped thinking about the southern front.
"Carin Eldridge is about to arrive in the New Holy City with the army of the Novices and the vanguard of the Old Holy City." Olenna reported, holding the documents.
"Very good, our army should be nearby?" Rand looked at Ellie who was sitting on the queen's throne on the other side.
Ellie nodded: "Yes, our main force has arrived nearby. If there is any change in the New Holy City, we will cooperate with Ms. Karin to attack. If there is no problem, we will directly enter the city and take over the city."
"So what about the progress of our allies?" Rand asked.
"We have already started to build several lines of defense with our core 'nail' city."
Rand's strategy is very simple, no different from the past. It is to build several core cities to fight the plague, such as the New Holy City and the City of Ratmen.
Another example is the border city that the Moon Kingdom is currently renovating.
These key cities will become the backbone and nails of the defense line.
Then Rand will make a judgment based on the situation, and at that time he will gradually arrange his own retreat, or launch a counterattack when the situation is favorable.
In short, Rand plans to behave himself and see how the situation develops. After all, he is not omniscient and omnipotent, and he doesn't know whether his human teammates are reliable or not.
He has different coping strategies for different situations.
If things really don't work out, RAND has strategic redundancy and can retreat to the north.
In this world, bad things, such as cults or vampires, used to wreak havoc in the north, and now it is the turn of the south. I hope the people of the southern kingdom can be more reliable.
Judging from the strength on paper, the Southern Kingdom is much stronger than the Northern Alliance.
The climate in the south is warmer, and crops can be harvested twice or even three times a year.
This allowed the South to have a larger population within the same land area, and the surplus food allowed them to spend less time growing food and more time developing culture and industry.
But higher population density may also make it easier for the plague to spread.
…
At the same time, the New Holy City has gradually been controlled by the clergy of the Holy Land.
At first, seven of the upper-level knight commanders disappeared.
Then some mid-level paladins began to disappear.
Then some lower-level paladins began to be summoned, imprisoned, or simply disappeared.
Such changes will not cause more reactions in the short term, but over time many people will naturally feel that something is wrong.
The paladins who realized that something was wrong came to the cathedral and asked the Grand Knight for an explanation.
The Grand Knight was not afraid of this at all, or was very satisfied with it.
The Grand Knight Commander looked at the fully armed paladins gathered together.
These Paladins are indeed quite threatening. There are a large number of them, and their combat effectiveness is probably not bad.
But it doesn’t matter, this is exactly the effect the Grand Knight Commander wants.
During this period of time, he has been taking action to eliminate potential leaders among the utilitarian faction.
Now it's almost done.
If we say that before all actions, the power of the Utilitarians in the New Holy City is certainly far beyond that of the Holy Land.
On paper, the power of the Utilitarians in the New Holy City now far exceeds that of the Holy Land.
But now that Saint Karin is about to arrive, several knight commanders of the utilitarian faction have been controlled, and even the middle-level ones have been almost cleared out during this period when they are not yet suspected.
Then these quantitative games on paper are meaningless, and these utilitarian heretics no longer have the power to truly resist.
And now the Grand Knight was making the action more obvious, provoking these people to come to the cathedral to question him, which was also part of his plan.
These must be the Paladins who are most opposed to the Sanctuary, and they should also be the richest Paladins.
For the sake of their money, they came to question the Knight Commander whom they used to love.
It would be troublesome if these opponents were to hide in the city and wait for an opportunity to escape or cause trouble.
Now, they have come together...
All problems should be solved now.
"What do you want to know?" asked the Grand Knight.
The Grand Knight is kind and amiable, just like a father and a grandfather.
This made the leading Paladin relax a little: "The Knight Commanders disappeared. We want to know what they did. Also, there seem to be a lot of dangerous things happening in the city recently that we don't know about. Many of our companions have also disappeared."
"We want to know what happened."
"That's because we are preparing to welcome the arrival of the great Saint Lady. There can't be anything in the New Holy City that would disturb her mood."
"What do you mean?" The Knight Commander swallowed and placed his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
"You already understand, don't you?" The old and kind Grand Knight smiled.
Then the Grand Knight Commander's face became serious: "Surrender now, and you will be given the opportunity to undergo labor reform by His Majesty Rand. But if you persist in your wrongdoings, I will not be able to guarantee your safety."
The knights drew the swords at their waists.
Although they completely could not understand why their Grand Knight Commander, who had found a way out in the New Holy City after experiencing the decline of the Prideful Sun Project, would now become a traitor to the Sanctuary.
They could not understand the reason, but they knew very well that if they chose to surrender at this time, all the wealth they had accumulated over the years would be gone.
Furthermore, the Grand Knight Commander allowed them to come to the cathedral and question him.
But we didn't prepare enough troops to wipe them out. Wasn't that a bit too arrogant?
After all, they have experienced a lot of fighting over the years in order to expand their business and sell the fire materials of the New Holy City.
They still retain their fighting capacity and they share the same goal.
Of course, they were still nervous. The Grand Knight could be the leader of the New Holy City and was respected by everyone before the recent events. He certainly did not get the title for nothing.
They were just temporarily confident in their own numbers and combat effectiveness.
They were also certain that the old Knight Commander obviously wanted to sell the New Holy City to the Holy Land, and it was not certain that many people would support him.
The eldest Knight Commander just smiled faintly. Young people always believe in some possibilities.
When faced with a matter of life and death, the old man would extinguish all possibilities.
He slowly backed away, and a black-robed figure walked up to the old Grand Knight.
This is a thin figure, and it can be barely seen that it is a female. She is tall and should have a good figure.
He was wrapped in a black robe, so his face couldn't be seen clearly, but one could see some of his soft golden hair overflowing the hood and flying in the sunlight.
Of course, you can still see some metallic luster, which is suspected to be a crown, but it seems to be too low. If the crown is worn like this, it will cover the eyes and make it difficult for the wearer to see clearly in front.
Everyone was confused.
The man in black robe took off his hood.
The beautiful and dazzling blonde hair began to shine in front of everyone's eyes.
Her tiara did indeed cover her eyes, a beautiful tiara inlaid with silver, which served as an ornament to make this woman even more mysterious and beautiful.
But the paladins in the audience still didn't understand.
Until the expressions of some older and higher-ranking paladins began to change.
From nervous and determined, it gradually turned into cyan and then dark.
"Damn it... Damn it." A utilitarian paladin who understood the situation moved his lips.
The young paladin next to him was still confused.
"Yes..." Another elderly paladin who could no longer hold his weapon swallowed repeatedly, "It's Karin."
At this time, Karin also took off her crown and opened her eyes.
A pair of gorgeous ruby eyes, as if everything in the world is burning in them.
"I'm Karin Eldridge. You must have all heard of my name. People call me the Crimson King." Karin said lightly.
Her voice was not loud, but clear and soft, like a nun praying in the morning.
But the autumn breeze still carried these words to the ears of all the paladins present, and then burned the fire of fear in their hearts.
Now the confused young paladins understood the situation.
They may have never seen a king-level combat force in action, but they can already see from the reactions of their predecessors how terrifying it is.
They dropped their weapons, they turned around, they tried to lift their feet, they tried to wave their arms.
But the flames burned.
It was as if the horrific purgatory had descended upon the earth, but those magnificent flames gave it a touch of beautiful color.
Of course, it's just as devastating.
…
Afterwards, only a large number of charred corpses were left in the square.
The old Grand Knight Commander arranged for people to dispose of the corpses. After all, it was not a good sight to leave so many charred things in the square.
Then the Grand Knight came into the temple, where incense had been used to alleviate the stench of burnt corpses.
"Your Excellency the Saint, thank you for your help. Now all our troubles are solved. We can focus on building a defense and fighting against evil." The Grand Knight saluted Karin.
Karin supported the Grand Knight Commander and said helplessly, "It is my duty to come here to help. You have already done a lot. Without your assistance, I don't know how much trouble it would be to solve these problems."
The Grand Knight laughed heartily: "Hahahaha, I can still do something at my age. It is really a gift from the Torch Goddess. This is what I should do, hahahaha."
Karin smiled as well, but soon frowned: "You've worked too hard. Your health doesn't seem to be very good. Our Sanctuary's medical department will be here soon, and you won't have to work so hard and endure anymore."
If we were to say who was the biggest contributor to the smooth resolution of the New Holy City’s problems, it would naturally be this old man.
It would have been impossible for him to rise from a puppet Grand Knight Commander to the real Grand Knight Commander today without going through a lot of hardships, walking on thin ice all the time, and suffering harm and threats.
For such an old Paladin, he must be doing things with his life.
"Don't worry, Saint. Fighting against evil is what we need to consider first. My old bones weren't going to last much longer anyway, and it's already a pleasant surprise that I can still use them for something."
Karin's face was a little sad. She sighed and said, "I won't deprive you of your right to work, but I still suggest that you try to preserve your vitality. His Majesty Rand may have a way to save you."
But the old paladin no longer cared about these things.
He felt that he had lived enough.
Now the Torch Church has been reunited.
(End of this chapter)
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