Chapter 189 - The King's Decision
While Azaroth was assisting Laura to train her group members, the situation in the Sinyalian Kingdom was turning grave.
The Pope had already gathered all of Radiant Church's people in Rashire City. They appeared ready to attack the Roger Dukedom at any moment.
They had naturally heard that the Roger Dukedom denied any accusations by the Radiant Church.
However, this was quite natural in the Pope's eyes. A criminal would never admit to committing a crime.
The Pope even looked down on Duke Roger, who was still trying to give excuses after committing that heinous act.
Nearly all the people gathered in the Radiant Church knew the situation. They didn't seem calm at all.
They were quite close to the priests in Kresa Town. Thus, their death angered them greatly.
After all the clerics of the Radiant Church had gathered, the Pope announced, "We shall now depart for the Roger Dukedom! It's time for the Radiant Church to pass judgement over these sinners!"
The Pope's voice was loud and clear.
The deacons, priests, bishops, and archbishops immediately let out loud shouts of agreement.
The King soon received the news that the Pope was departing for the Roger Dukedom with all the experts of the Radiant Church.
It could be said that the Radiant Church was comparable to a high-end organization within the Sinyalian Kingdom.
Now that the entire Radiant Church was attacking his strongest dukedom, the King couldn't help but grow worried.
'Should I send someone to assist them?'
There were many methods that the King could adopt to protect the Roger Dukedom. One would be to seek assistance from the Oracles of the Two Divines and give them a couple of benefits in return for protecting the Roger Dukedom.
However, even though the Oracles of the Two Divines was a rather well-spread religion all over the continent, that wasn't the case in the Sinyalian Kingdom.
Within the Sinyalian Kingdom, it had been restricted due to the Radiant Church's presence.
They possessed an influence comparable to the mid-rank Organization. However, annihilating the Radiant Church would be impossible.
If the Radiant Church survived, they would definitely find out that the King assisted the Roger Dukedom. At that time, they could even use their followers and instigate a civil war within the Sinyalian Kingdom.
Actually, if the Radiant Church was destroyed, the civil war would
'Perhaps it's time to sacrifice the Roger Dukedom.'
The King had essentially given up on his strongest dukedom. He knew that the next time, he had to assign more resources to the Walsh Dukedom.
Maybe it would be good to grant the territories to the Rhodes House and promote it to a Dukedom when the situation was right.
The King had made his decision. To prevent a civil war from occurring, he would allow the situation to continue as it was. The Radiant Church would attack the Roger Dukedom, and they would probably dominate until the Roger Dukedom's 6 Star Experts come out to defend their Noble House.
According to the information the King had on hand, the Radiant Church had no 6 Star Cleric. The Radiant Church couldn't hope to win against the Roger Dukedom's 6 Star experts.
Now that he thought about it, the situation was still not that bad.
The only thing that remained was to find out just how much damage the Radiant Church could inflict on the Roger Dukedom.
The more damage they inflicted on the Roger Dukedom, the better it would be for the King.
However, the King knew that he was too hopeful for his own good.
It went without saying that the Roger Dukedom would be prepared for this attack from the Radiant Church.
If they didn't prepare proper counter-measures, they would only have themselves to blame.
Around this time, Edwin and Siluca were in the Roger Dukedom's territory.
They were near the location where the fight was going to break out.
Siluca asked Edwin with a worried expression, "This will work out, right? We paid such a large sum. I hope it won't go to waste. If we miss this opportunity, the Radiant Church won't let us go."
Edwin remained silent at those words.
He actually had no surety that his plan would work out. But still, his primary objective would be accomplished.
Moreover, he had another identity unknown to Siluca. As Nudar, he could be considered the Holy Son of the other religions.
Siluca spoke once again, "Please answer me."
Edwin let out a sigh and spoke, "I have done everything possible on my end to ensure that the plan works. If it doesn't work, then that means the Roger Dukedom has seen through it. We can't do anything about it unless I figure out how the Roger Dukedom is countering it."
Edwin's words managed to convince Siluca. However, the duchess had no idea that this was a white lie.
Edwin did have some idea how the Roger Dukedom was going to counter the Radiant Church's attack. The Roger Dukedom only had a couple of options remaining where they could fight against the Radiant Church.
He had gathered information about Duke Roger and formed a profile of him in his mind. According to that profile, he could guess that man's actions.
Firstly, the man wouldn't ask for assistance from some organizations. This concerned Roger Dukedom's image.
Moreover, the Roger Dukedom had no information regarding the fact that the Pope could summon Angels to assist him.
Thus, it went without saying that the Roger Dukedom was in for a surprise when they fight against the Radiant Church.
For that reason, Edwin had used the Walsh Dukedom and prepared things from his end so that the end result was in his favor.
8 days later, the Radiant Church soon reached near the doorsteps of the Roger Dukedom.
Surprisingly, all the experts of the Roger Dukedom stayed in their locations. Not just that, but they were also using a Vision Transmission Array to record this exchange and then showing this vision in different parts of their territory.
From the Roger Dukedom's side, a single person came out to greet the clerics.
He spoke with a wide smile, "Is the Radiant Church here to resolve the misunderstanding between us? If so, we are more than happy to have a discussion with you."
"Discussion? What use are those discussions? We remembered that the last time we sent two archbishops to discuss some matters with you. However, what happened at the end? You attacked them and attempted to kill the two. If not for the Holy Boots worn by one of them to increase his speed, Archbishop Chris would have been buried here as well. And I would have remained in the dark about this." The Pope shouted with a scornful gaze.
He had naturally noticed the array around them. Thus, he gave his reasoning to reject those discussions with the Roger Dukedom.
If not, then the Roger Dukedom could give out the excuse that the Radiant Church was just too unreasonable and didn't want to discuss anything with them.
But now that the Pope had given this explanation, it went without saying that the Roger Dukedom couldn't use this tactic to strike Radiant Church's prestige.
"As we have said before, that matter had nothing to do with the Roger Dukedom. Someone is trying to frame us. But I guess it won't matter no matter how many times we explain it." The man looked quite distressed as he explained his side.
The Pope couldn't be bothered to pay attention to those words. He declared righteously, "You send your warriors to destroy our Church.. Not only did you kill innocent clerics, but you also greatly disrespected the Great Radiant God by killing his servants. And today, the Roger Dukedom will pay for its crimes!"