Tome of Blood

Chapter 375 -31- Cooperation between the Royal Family and the Church

After successfully accepting Albrecht, the dark apostle of the Gorefiend Cult, as a blood servant, Charlotte no longer tossed about, but honestly hid in the manor, waiting for the central meeting to be held.

However, the aftermath of the legendary battle in the Lutetia night sky has only just begun.

That night, the city guards and demon hunters sealed off the entire royal city and searched for the whole night. They arrested a large number of Gorefiend followers in various parts of Lutecia, and discovered several cult dens.

Especially after the in-depth investigation of the manor where the dark apostle appeared, a large-scale hidden underground temple gradually emerged before the eyes of the world.

According to the news from inside the church, the age of the temple may be traced back to nearly two thousand years ago.

As soon as this news came out, the entire capital was shaken.

Lutetia has a long history. Over the past two thousand years, the city has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. There are many ruins of the old city buried under the existing city. These things are well known.

In fact, Lutetia's existing drainage system was built on the ruins of the previous old city.

That was the heyday of the Unet Empire, and the old empire, which was popular in the construction of baths, built an extremely large drainage system, which criss-crossed. Even today's Lutetia has benefited a lot and is still using it.

However, the complex and ancient drainage system has created the complexity and mystery of the underground part of Lutecia, and the irregular underground drainage system has also become a breeding ground for evil and darkness.

The ancient temple found was connected to the underground drainage system, but it was deeper, and its depth was also below the drainage system.

After further identification by the high-ranking priests of the Holy King's Court, this temple is likely to be the temple left by the ancestor of the blood race in the blood race era, and it is also the ninth ancient temple of the blood race found in the mainland of Miria.

By the way, the eighth temple was discovered in Castelland a month ago, and the Holy King’s Court has already planned to send clergymen to investigate further, but they can’t start yet, and Lutecia has another Found one.

Town God Bell, Legendary Gorefiend, Ancient Temple...

Even the most insensitive of people sensed a stormy trend.

And when more and more investigation news about the ancient temple came out from the church, it caused further earthquakes in Lutetia——

This temple... turned out to have long been the stronghold of the Gorefiend Cult, and the Gorefiend Cult even built a huge sacrificial circle in the temple, which was located just below the Kingdom Council Hall!

After the appraisal by the priests of the church and the trial of the captured Gorefiend Cultists by the trial knights, the plans of the Gorefiend Cultists in Lutetia gradually surfaced...

The ambitious Gorefiend Sect actually planned to take advantage of the central meeting of the New Moon Kingdom to wipe out all the nobles in the kingdom and sacrifice all the nobles who attended the meeting!

As soon as the results of this investigation came out, the entire New Moon Kingdom was shaken, and the nobles were shocked.

King Louis V was furious when he heard the news, and immediately dismissed Lutetia's city defense commander and city magistrate, and ordered the city guards, courts, and witcher knights to attack immediately to wipe out the blood demon forces entrenched in Lutetia .

Louis V personally met with Charles de Loren, chief priest of the Holy Royal Court of the Crescent Parish. The two highest secular and religious leaders of the Crescent Kingdom rarely agreed. power.

One order after another was issued from the Crescent Palace and the Lutetia Cathedral, and quickly spread throughout the entire capital.

First, the central meeting is postponed, and the specific time is tentatively postponed for one week, depending on the specific situation.

Second, all the city gates of Lutetia are under martial law. Everyone, including the nobles, is prohibited from leaving the city. Except for the transportation of necessary living materials, all other items are prohibited from entering and leaving, and must pass strict inspections by the court.

Third, led by the Holy Royal Court, led by King Louis V and High Priest Charles, the review team composed of the Kingdom's First Guard Knights, Judgment Knights, and Demon Hunters conducted a comprehensive investigation of Lutetia. Including nobles, priests, chambers of commerce, mage associations, mercenary associations, and civilians in the inner city and outer city, all degenerates who are suspected of dealing with or even joining the Blood Demon Sect are hunted down and tried.

Nobles in particular are listed as key targets of the investigation, and those suspected of colluding with the Blood Demon Sect will be dealt with most severely.

When the news came out, the entire king was in an uproar.

No one, including nobles and priests, thought that the king and the church would be so decisive and move so quickly.

You know, the population of Lutetia is close to one million. In such a big city, the order to close the city and conduct a comprehensive search is not insignificant.

Not to mention that Lutetia's power is intertwined, and the power of the nobles is quite huge. Even the king's suppression of the nobles mostly relies on the mutual checks and balances among the nobles. composition.

The usual balance of power is nothing more than that. If you want to conduct a thorough investigation and trial, the difficulty is even far higher than Charlotte's review of the Northland.

And many nobles themselves have more or less contacts with the Blood Demon Cult...

In this case, the opposition of the nobles is almost obvious.

And so it is.

Not long after the order was issued, the nobles of the kingdom gathered in Lutetia protested one after another, thinking that such strict review was a breach of the "Contract of Kingship", it was done by a tyrant, it violated the contract, and it was not "legal". Some great nobles openly refused guard knights and church knights to enter their families.

The central meeting has not yet started, but the confrontation between the royal family and the nobles has started ahead of time.

Especially the Gaston family, a large family known for their neutral attitude in the kingdom, this time they raised a strong protest against the investigation of the royal family and the church. became the leader of the opposition.

In the words of Duke Gaston, it is important to judge evil, but the rights of nobles are also protected by the "Contract of Kingship" and "Holy Code", which is sacred and inviolable.

Even the church cannot conduct such strict scrutiny on nobles simply by relying on rumors for no reason.

When Duke Gaston's remarks spread, they were even more endorsed by the vast majority of the nobles. For a moment... the atmosphere in Lutecia became even more subtle.

It took less than a day from when the royal family and the church announced the closure of the city for investigation, to when the nobles were dissatisfied and chose to protest.

For a while, various rumors spread in Lutetia...

What the royal family betrayed the nobles and fell to the church and so on; what this central meeting is the king's conspiracy against the nobles, etc., they can say anything.

Panic spread in the capital, and soon turned into anger.

The nobles refused to cooperate, and there was a tendency to unite to fight against the investigation.

However, the subsequent development of the matter exceeded many people's expectations...

The legend... strikes again.

Bernard, the presiding judge of the Holy Court, and Cardinal Joseph, the Demon Hunter, personally led a team to investigate the Gaston family.

On the night when the investigation order was issued, the inner city of Lutetia once again erupted with terrifying energy fluctuations, or more precisely, combat fluctuations.

In this battle, the wave of magic power that erupted was far less than the legendary battle of the previous day, but its scope also covered a small half of the sky in the inner city.

This is a battle involving the Chiyang level.

The battle came and went quickly. Although the magic power was as high as the blazing sun, when the dazzling holy light descended like the wrath of the gods, the battle ended quickly.

And as the battle ended, there was more detailed news that shocked the nobles——

One of the nine Dukes of the New Moon Kingdom, the Kingdom's most promising next high-ranking superhuman——Duke Gaston... died.

And the person who killed him was none other than Bernard, the chief judge of the Crescent Parish of the Holy King's Court.

Immediately, the jury quickly investigated the Gaston family, searched out a large amount of evidence of collusion with the Blood Demon Cult, and arrested more than a dozen members of the Gaston Family who had become members of the Blood Demon Cult.

Among them, Richard, the direct heir of the Gaston family, was even included.

When the news came out, the nobles in the entire royal capital calmed down.

No one thought that the legendary clergyman of the church would really make a move, and no one thought that he would show no mercy once he made a move.

At the same time, such precise investigation and trial also made the nobles realize one thing, that is, the royal family and the church... have already mastered a lot of information.

This is a well prepared review!

Many people seem to realize something.

For a while, the number of nobles who resisted dropped rapidly, and some families even took the initiative to admit their mistakes and provided the church with a lot of information about the Gorefiend Sect.

And the review team composed of the church and the royal family did not sit idle, but continued to investigate, and each one was approved.

As if they had a goal long ago, the noble families colluding with the Blood Demon Cult were discovered one after another and suppressed with thunderous force.

Even within the Holy Royal Court, more than a dozen priests were directly arrested and escorted to the trial court on charges of depravity.

All of a sudden, the situation in Lutetia changed rapidly.

In the inner city, Charlotte's manor also came under scrutiny, but it was relatively looser.

Only the shop of the Castel family, because there was a precedent involving Gorefiend cultists, the censorship was relatively strict.

Of course, after the review, there was no problem, and all possible exposures were easily resolved under Charlotte's [Divine Countermeasure].

Charlotte didn't care much about the church's censorship. As the instigator, she knew that the censorship of her own family was probably just a formality.

Such a targeted investigation by the church should have obtained the list she left behind.

Charlotte deliberately inquired about it, and it corresponds to the list she wrote down...

Obviously, at the beginning, the investigation was meant to be tentative, but after the list was confirmed to be true, it was not just an investigation, but the arrest and retrial was carried out directly according to the list.

However, Charlotte also noticed that the nobles who were arrested on the charge of colluding with the Blood Demon Cult were not only recorded on the list, but also some that even Charlotte had heard of. Pai has always been at odds with King Louis V.

Watching everything from the perspective of a bystander, and thinking about it based on his own intelligence, Charlotte quickly came back to it.

Thanks to the Gorefiend Sect, the royal family and the church have indeed united this time.

The royal family supported the church's review and arrest of the nobles who had contacts with the Gorefiend Sect, and the church also acquiesced in the royal family's suppression of the opposition nobles.

Although the New Moon royal family and the church had always been at odds, at this time they had a tacit understanding.

Charlotte clicked her tongue.

Speaking of which, this kind of tacit understanding was fanned by her little butterfly.

However, based on what she has seen and heard since she arrived in the capital, and the church's undercover work within the Blood Demon Sect, she probably guessed that the royal family and the church may have plans to cooperate.

The third prince, Philip... should have been abandoned by the royal family long ago.

The real purpose of this meeting... I am afraid that the real purpose is not that the nobles and the church unite to weaken the royal power, but that the royal family and the church unite to suppress the nobles and strengthen centralization and religious belief!

However, perhaps the royal family and the church originally planned to act when the Gorefiend Cult made a big move, or more precisely, when the central council was convened, but her coquettish manipulation exposed Albrecht, Stripping off the underpants of the Gorefiend Cult, directly advancing everything...

It is foreseeable that after this turmoil, the centralization of King Louis V may go a step further, and the Holy Royal Court will have stronger control over the faith of the Crescent Parish.

The only ones injured should be the nobles of the New Moon and the troublesome Blood Demon Sect.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Charlotte.

As an emerging nobleman of the kingdom, Charlotte's interests have not yet formed a direct conflict with the royal family.

She has not shown any hostility towards the royal family. On the premise that the royal family has clearly given up on the third prince, as long as she does not make the royal family feel threatened, she will not be suppressed for the time being.

And as for Albrecht's subordinate forces, they were completely terminated after this incident...

Honestly, Charlotte didn't care one bit.

She knew all too well what the Gorefiend cultists were. Even if Albrecht was allowed to infiltrate the Gorefiend cult, she was not willing to accept any monsters.

Those evil and chaotic dregs will be judged when they are judged, and they just use the hand of the church to "clean up the door."

The joint investigation between the royal family and the church is estimated to continue for a few more days, and the chaos in Lutetia may not be over for a while.

However, this has nothing to do with Charlotte.

Her goal had been achieved, and all that was left was to attend the meeting after the storm had passed, then pack her bags and go home.

If her predictions were correct, this central meeting might just be a formality. Since the church and the royal family cooperated, the end of the third prince might have already been doomed.

And what Charlotte really wants to do is probably only to meet the king and discuss business with other nobles.

Not bad either.

After this cleanup, the kingdom's aristocratic powers will inevitably change, and the ebb and flow will leave a lot of power vacuums.

Perhaps... this is also convenient for the nobles of the emerging kingdom like Charlotte to expand their influence.

After figuring everything out, Charlotte no longer paid attention to the investigation personally, and only told Sebastian to collect relevant information and watch the excitement every day.

And on the fourth day of this so-called "cleansing" investigation, Charlotte finally received a call from Albrecht.

More precisely, a sacrifice.