As there were soldiers of the First Army in the church, Roland did not talk about the origin of the Battle of Divine Will. He only briefly told him the history of how the Witch Empire turned into the church.
But this information alone was enough to shock the high priest. Every time Roland mentioned the internal secrets of the church, Jacob's eyes would widen until they were almost as big as lanterns. He looked like he wanted to refute, but he could only stammer. Obviously, some of the information was beyond his understanding, but it coincided with the various rumors in the church.
Seeing the old priest gasping for breath, Roland temporarily stopped. He did not stop because he had nothing to say, but he was worried that the old priest would die of anger if he continued. Although there was nothing wrong with that, Roland was not satisfied yet.
When Jacob caught his breath, Roland continued, "It seems that you don't know much about the nature of the church. Otherwise, you wouldn't be so shocked. You obviously wanted to scold me for talking nonsense, but you found out that there are unquestionable clues. I think everything about the demons and the Battle of Divine Will was passed down from the Pope generation after generation, so that this goal... or belief would not be forgotten. However, those who usurped power are naturally afraid of witches. They don't even dare to mention the past 400 years, let alone the last wish of the first Pope. They keep saying that they want to fight for humanity, but how many believers in the entire Holy City of Hermes know about this? "
"Unfortunately, the Kingdom of Graycastle is different... In the Western Region of Neverwinter, this kind of information isn't a secret. All of my ministers know about the existence of demons, and the plan to fight against the Battle of Divine Will is also written in the policy outline — from farmers to blacksmiths, all of my subjects are fighting for it. This is the biggest difference between me and you! You can say that as early as a few years ago, I have been preparing to fight against the end of the human race. " Roland looked at the old priest's livid face with great interest. "The church is the only savior of mankind? You think too highly of yourselves. Regardless of whether I can defeat this powerful enemy, at least I'm sure of one thing... "
He walked up to the old priest and said word by word, "The church can't even defeat me, so how can it have the confidence to save the human race? Stop your wishful thinking! "
"We …" Jacob's expression suddenly froze, and then his face quickly turned from green to white, as if there were thousands of words that could not be as lethal as this one. Clearly, it was not that he had not considered such a problem, but he had been deceiving himself and ignoring it. Now that it was suddenly exposed, his last bit of persistence also collapsed.
The old shaman slowly collapsed to the ground, no longer as solemn and arrogant as when he first appeared.
"Take him back to prison." Roland waved his hand. "It's useless to send him to the mines at this age. Let him live well. When the Bloody Moon comes, let him see with his own eyes how the people of Graycastle fight against the demons. I hope at that moment, he will still remember how to repent to the gods. "
"Yes, Your Majesty." The soldier lifted Jacob up by force, clamped his arm, and retreated.
"Also, you did a good job," Roland looked at Isabella, "If it weren't for you, the Holy City wouldn't have restored order so quickly."
Isabella averted her eyes and said a little hurriedly, "You … don't mind at all? In the name of the Pope's agent, I issued an order to unify those abandoned people. "
Roland had learned from the reports of Edith, Eagle Face, and Isabella about fabricating a new history and completely dividing the church into two. Among them, the Pearl of the Northern Region highly praised the idea. She believed that this would not only bring the old and the new Holy City under the control of Graycastle, but also completely absorb the influence of the church that had accumulated for hundreds of years. Even if those fugitives set up a new church, compared to Roland, who actually controlled Hermes, even if it was true, it would still be somewhat false.
Roland was more realistic. This plateau was located in the center of the Impassable Mountain Range, opposite to the Big Breach, which was a strategic place that must be defended in the Battle of Divine Will. Originally, he had planned to attack Hermes with the intention of replacing them. Now that he could make use of the existing manpower and thereby save some money, it was naturally a good thing.
"If it turns out to be effective, why should I mind?" He smiled. "But even so, you still have to serve your sentence."
"I've never thought about that …" Isabella hurriedly said.
"Of course, you can't go without a reward." He waved his hand. "In the future, if you need to appear as an agent, you can enjoy the treatment that befits your status. How about that?"
"The treatment … of an agent?"
"In layman's terms, it should be the Prime Minister or the Hand of the King," Roland said with a smile. "Of course, it doesn't include the position and power. It's just simple food, accommodation, and transportation. For example, spacious luxury suites, delicious food provided by the royal chef, and Chaos Drinks that you can drink until you're full. If you don't want these, you can also exchange them for the Golden Dragon reward — "
"No, Your Majesty," Isabella shook her head. "The former is fine … I mean, please do as you say."
"Well, then it's decided," he said cheerfully.
…
As the main force of the First Army joined the search operation, details of this strange city gradually appeared in front of Roland.
He was surprised to find that what the old priest said was "intact" was not an exaggeration. Except for the collapsed Hermes Cathedral, the other buildings were basically intact. The broken parts of the city wall had been repaired, and the catapults erected on it were also preserved.
The large number of Berserker Pills Isabella mentioned were also quietly stored in the secret underground cellar. After counting, there were more than 420,000 pills in total. Thinking of Zero's plan to use millions of berserker soldiers to fight the demons to the death, Roland was glad that she had not taken this step.
After counting the number, a big fire was lit on the 10,000-meter-tall city wall and burned all the pills. The remaining residue was pushed down the wall and consolidated with the permafrost soil. At this point, the spreading of the berserker army, which had worried him so much, had finally come to an end.
However, the results of the search report were far more than that.
For example, food.
For example, weapons.
New supplies were found every day, and the number of them was enough to arm several Knight Regiments of King's City. No wonder Appen Moya, the King of Dawn, and his vassals could not hold back and came all the way here to rob them. Roland found that, except for the gold royals and the jewelry, the top echelons of the church did not take any strategic materials with them when they evacuated. This also confirmed the statement that they would not come back after this trip — they were simply going to live a carefree life after dividing the family property.
The behemoth that had occupied the northwest side of Graycastle had finally disappeared and the dust had settled.
Roland was also free. What he needed to do next was to wait for Iron Axe to clear the Eastern Region, and then lead the army to converge on the border of the neighboring country. Together with the main force, they would launch a two-pronged attack on the Kingdom of Dawn.
Since it was rare for him to relax, he planned to take a good look at this territory that had been managed by the church for hundreds of years. After all, in the memory fragments, the Holy City of Hermes was not complete.
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