In the city of kerosene, inside the school’s headquarters.

Monroe carefully checked the room again to confirm that the wizards had not secretly set up any eavesdropping magic, and then placed the crystal ball on the table.

The red light became increasingly intense, and a strange wave of magical power quickly spread in all directions.

Monroe was not worried that the energy fluctuations would alert the wizards.

Although the entire Fire Oil City was set up with magic to detect divine arts, the crystal ball in his hand was essentially a magical weapon, which was why it had passed the previous search.

The wizards have a wide variety of alchemical tools, and the parliament cannot check them one by one, nor will it do anything that could easily cause dissatisfaction.

A wizard used magic in the room, which caused some magical fluctuations. This was completely normal and there was nothing suspicious about it.

After all, there are too many wizards who conduct experiments in the room and even cause accidents...

However, Monroe's face showed a trace of disgust and aggrieved. He was an adjutant of the God's Punishment Army, but he had fallen to the point where he had to rely on such an evil magical weapon!

This is such a shame!

As he was thinking, the red light gradually faded, and a blurry image appeared in front of him, but he could vaguely recognize that this was the current head of the Holy See - Pope Alvis! "Your Holiness!" Monroe knelt on one knee, excitedly and respectfully said.

As an ordinary adjutant in the God's Punishment Army, he had only had the opportunity to meet the Lord's messenger on earth when attending grand ceremonies in the past, but now he can talk to him alone.

"You should not have attracted the attention of those wizards these days, right?" Pope Alvis asked indifferently as he looked at Monroe who was kneeling in front of him.

"I don't think so, sir." Monroe hesitated. Although he had some arguments and rebuttals while teaching at the academy in the past week, they were all within normal limits.

In fact, because some of the professors' remarks were so bizarre, there were questions and doubts in almost every class.

One more or one less makes no difference.

Monroe estimated that he had probably not attracted the attention of the wizards yet. At least when he went out, he did not notice any signs of being followed or monitored.

"In that case, how much of the task I assigned to you have been completed?" Alvis asked again.

Monroe replied, "I haven't found out where Lord Joshua is being held. The wizards are very vigilant. I guess only a very small number of councillors, or even the Speaker, know this information."

"As for the Magic Star, his whereabouts are unknown. He should be staying in the Fire Oil City recently. I have only collected some information about him..."

Speaking of this, Monroe felt extremely ashamed.

It is because the Pope trusts me so much that he has entrusted such a difficult task to me.

But after a whole week, I didn't have any key gains...

After successfully entering the City of Kerosene, those wizards seemed very generous and did not restrict anyone's freedom, but in fact they just locked them up in the Wizarding Academy for the convenience of supervision.

Not to mention that they have to waste a lot of time listening to the nonsense of those professors.

Alvis was naturally aware of the risks of infiltrating the enemy's hinterland, so he did not intend to blame Monroe. Instead, he asked about the current situation in the City of Kerosene, and then added with a sigh.

"How many of the Lord's people are left under the rule of those wizards?"

Although they were reluctant to say so, to a certain extent, they were indeed forced to abandon the believers of Fire Oil City and even the entire kingdom, allowing them to fall into the evil control of the wizards.

Now there is probably a scene of corpses and heads rolling everywhere...

The wizards would never let go of those devout believers! But I think they seem to be living... not bad? Monroe paused, wanting to say something but stopping himself. These days, he has also conducted a series of investigations, trying to expose the prosperity of the kerosene city. The result surprised him greatly.

Not only were those wizards willing to pay high salaries to buy the labor of the poor, they also guaranteed their three meals a day. Even the temporary workers recruited from the slums had delicious white bread to eat, and occasionally a fish fillet for lunch.

Add to that the salary of five imperial silver coins, which is already the salary that only the elite soldiers of the empire can get! Monroe told everything he had seen and heard, and finally reported. "I think these wizards are trying to use money to corrupt the piety of the poor people to the Lord!"

"This is indeed worthy of attention." Alvis's expression was extremely solemn.

If the wizards continued their brutal rule, it would be easier to deal with them. This kind of hypocritical and unscrupulous flattery is actually undermining the foundation of the church's existence!

Monroe continued, "Moreover, they update their weapons very quickly, with a large number of new weapons being produced every day."

"I also heard that these wizards are building something called a train that can transport nearly a thousand tons of cargo and a thousand-man army from any corner of the kingdom to the Fire Oil City in a few hours!"

Hearing this, Alvis's face turned extremely ugly, and he immediately realized how much of a threat this thing called a train would bring.

This means that wizards will have extremely terrifying war potential, and they can continuously dispatch soldiers and supplies from the entire kingdom for reinforcement whenever they need.

Just as Alvis was frowning and thinking about a countermeasure, Monroe suddenly spoke.

"But it seems to me that it won't be long before the entire kingdom collapses on itself!"

"Oh?" Alvis looked at Monroe in surprise, wondering why he suddenly said that.

Monroe explained with a solemn oath. "Those wizards slaughtered the local nobles wantonly, but were not good at management. They wantonly squandered the looted wealth, forcing the poor in the entire Fire Oil City to eat meat and white bread, and paid extremely high rewards..."

"However, they don't care about farming and production. They only know how to greedily earn more money. Now a large area of ​​land in Fire Oil City has been abandoned. I believe that other cities in the eastern part of the kingdom under the rule of wizards will be no exception!"

The more Monroe spoke, the more excited he became, and Pope Alvis gradually understood the meaning of his words.

In order to make money, wizards pulled poor farmers from the fields to the workshops to produce weapons and more valuable alchemical creations. Such a short-sighted move is undoubtedly a way to death! "The kingdom can still maintain its dignity now because they tempted those traitorous merchants with money and can buy enough food from the empire. As long as this trade line is cut off, I dare to conclude that in three months at most, the wizards will collapse without a fight!" Monroe concluded proudly.

He is worthy of being the person strongly recommended by Gustav, the commander of the God's Punishment Army!

This keen insight and reasoning ability is simply a natural for intelligence activities. It was a bit of a waste of talent to be just an adjutant of the God's Punishment Army before! Although he trusted Monroe's judgment very much, Alves still shook his head and pointed out a flaw in the plan.

"Three months is too long! I suspect that when the wizards realize something is wrong, they will make a desperate move and sit back and watch the kingdom decay, and then launch a massive attack on the empire!"

He couldn't imagine how armed the wizards would be in three months...

The kingdom has a population of more than three million. Even if only one out of fifteen can be drawn, a legion of tens of thousands can be formed. It only takes one week for each person to skillfully operate a musket and become a qualified soldier, threatening the fully armed God's Punishment Cavalry on the battlefield.

Not to mention the wizards' new aircraft, airships, alchemical vehicles, thunder cannons (electromagnetic cannons) and many other powerful alchemical instruments. Even if the entire empire were to gather its strength, it might not be possible to win this fierce battle.

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?" Monroe asked hesitantly.

"We might as well speed up the process!" Alves said in a deep voice, with a gleam in his eyes, "I think you should have noticed that the actions of the wizards in the kingdom have caused dissatisfaction among some people."

Monroe's thoughts turned slightly, and he immediately realized that the Pope was referring to the nobles of the kingdom.

"Although they betrayed the Empire and the Church, I think some of them were forced to choose the wrong path due to coercion by the wizards. We might as well give them another chance to prove themselves..." Alves' eyes flashed with a cold edge, and then he continued to speak.

"I will let someone else handle this matter. You just need to continue gathering intelligence in the Fire Oil City and provide some cooperation while ensuring your own safety!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Monroe nodded in response.

He knew very well that the church would never send only him and Ivina to sneak into the kingdom. In fact, as far as he knew, there were more than three hundred spies caught by the wizards, and those who were still hiding in the dark were the elite among the elite.

"If you can successfully cause chaos in the kingdom, then you will be the first hero. Once these blasphemers are defeated, I will baptize you personally!" Alvis said approvingly.

Monroe was so excited that he was almost speechless. In the past, only the top leaders of the church were qualified to be baptized by the Pope himself, which was equivalent to a guarantee of reaching the pinnacle of power! With the plan to weaken the wizard kingdom, Alves's worries for several months were suddenly alleviated a lot, and he continued. "Do you have anything else to report?"

Monroe hesitated for a moment, and then recounted many of the strange theories he had heard in class over the past few days.

From geometry, the laws of celestial motion to planetary theory...

After listening halfway, Alvis raised his hand to signal Monroe not to continue, and then explained.

"Obviously, they are trying to distort the Bible. I think Gustav must have warned you that all witchcraft books carry the power of the devil and are very deceptive. The best way to resist erosion is to not listen, not hear, and not ask!"

"I understand. Thank you for your warning, Your Holiness!" Monroe agreed deeply that the words of these wizards were indeed very inflammatory.

For example, the planet theory, which is something that goes against common sense, was able to fabricate many seemingly plausible theories as evidence, confusing tens of thousands of people. Even I myself couldn't help but feel that there was a hint of truth in it after listening to it.

It was not until now that Monroe came to realize that he had been polluted by the evil knowledge and his soul was no longer pure!

Perhaps this is why His Holiness the Pope baptized himself personally.

Realizing this, Monroe was extremely moved, but he soon thought of his companion Ivina!

She might be more polluted than he was, because in the past two days, Monroe discovered that the girl had even started taking notes in class! This was an extremely dangerous tendency, which made him feel deeply uneasy! However, just as Monroe was about to ask for instructions, the image of the Pope in front of him suddenly became blurred from clear, and the red light emitted by the crystal ball began to flicker irregularly, and then went out directly.

Monroe was startled and turned his head to look around, thinking that he had been discovered by the wizards and his magic was interrupted.

Fortunately, Menro immediately remembered that the cardinal who managed dangerous witchcraft creations had reminded him that the signal of this thing was not good, and the communication time should not be too long, otherwise the signal of this thing might be interrupted...

"Damn witchcraft creature!" Monroe cursed, but there was nothing he could do.

He was not a wizard, nor did he know alchemy, so he could only wait for it to recharge itself before making the next connection.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the key things have been said almost! Monroe quickly sorted out his emotions, put away the crystal ball, and walked out.

Ivana was leaning against the wall in the living room, her right hand on the hilt of her sword, trying to prevent anyone from suddenly barging in and interrupting the call. When she saw Monroe coming out of the house, she asked curiously.

"Everything going well, Monroe?"

"Very good, His Holiness the Pope has recognized my abilities and strategies!" Monroe said complacently, and then looked around Ivana for a while, and immediately noticed the thick notebook hanging around the girl's waist.

This place was originally used to hang Bibles, but now it is used to store notebooks containing wizarding knowledge.

Monroe said dissatisfiedly. "You seem to be very interested in wizard knowledge these days, right, Ivana?"

"You're being too obvious, Monroe!" Ivana's expression remained unchanged, but she warned him. "Wizards have a strong desire for knowledge. People like you who never take notes in class are definitely a minority, and it's easy to attract their attention!"

"This is indeed my negligence." Monroe's expression changed, and his tone suddenly slowed down. "You should also be extra careful. The knowledge of the evil spirits has the power to bewitch people. In-depth study may distort our cognition..."

Ivana nodded hesitantly.

"One month, we just need to hold on for another month!" Monroe said confidently. "According to my plan, with the help of those people, the huge Magic Kingdom will collapse in a month at most!"

A month? Ivana thought about what she had seen and heard in the past few days and sighed secretly.

The poor in the kingdom are likely to suffer again.

(End of this chapter)