This was indeed a situation the Church hadn’t encountered in the last hundred years. No one had thought that Garcia would come the whole way up from Graycastle to the Kingdom of Endless Winter, and even send the Black Sail Fleet towards Hermes after having seized the capital. Although the Wolfsheart Kingdom had been on its last breath before being conquered, Mayne still hadn’t hesitated to order the God’s Punishment Army to come back to the Old Holy City.
This city, even without any walls, was the barrier defending the base under Hermes and they couldn’t afford to lose it no matter the price.
After they repelled their offensive, the Black Sail Fleet didn’t try to go on and instead returned along the river all the way back to King’s City of Endless Winter. The other’s intention was quite obvious, as long as the Church dispatched troops attack the Wolfsheart Kingdom, Garcia would attack the Old Holy City from the river. Furthermore, the nobles who had previously been suppressed by the sudden loss of Endless Winter’s royal power would now begin to stir. Mayne believed that as long as Garcia promised that they could keep their territories and possessions, all those greedy nobles wouldn’t hesitate to support Garcia to become the new Queen of Endless Winter.
Now they had a dilemma which couldn’t be easily settled.
But the Church would not bow just because they were facing a difficult situation. Even before he had become an Archbishop, Mayne had already known that the road before him would be a long and thorny one.
“First, the Holy City needs to announce a new Archbishop, so we will first make a list of possible candidates, the final candidate is to be decided by His Holiness,” Mayne slowly stated.
“And the enemy?” Tayfun snorted from his nostrils.
“I will explain everything to His Holiness, do not worry,” he closed his eyes, “His Excellency will execute a holy judgment on them.”
Mayne passed through the gloomy corridors before he rode the hanging cage into the depths, arriving at the secret temple inside the gigantic cavity.
His Excellency O’Brien was already waiting at the doorway.
He seemed to have aged since the last time he’d seen him. He had wrinkles spreading out like a spider web from the corners of his inwardly sunken eyes and over his cheeks. However, his smile was still just as soft and filled with concern. Mayne couldn’t keep his eyes from becoming wet at the sight. He quickly sunk to his knees, “Your Holiness, we — ”
“Rise, child,” the Pope’s voice was both gentle and calm. “I’ve heard that you’ve run into some trouble. Follow me to the hall and we can talk.”
Today wasn’t the Day of Conversion, so the hall’s walls weren’t decorated with as many candles as stars in the sky this time. Instead, only a few candles had been placed over in the corner. The Pope returned to his Lord’s seat, breathing out in relief after he sat. “Explain, just what happened outside.”
Mayne fully realized the heaviness of His Holiness O’Brien’s responsibility. It wasn’t that His Holiness couldn’t find out news from outside of the Holy City, simply that he did not have enough time to pay attention to trivial matter. As a result of this, the three Archbishops were then established, and would coordinate themselves to manage all of the religious affairs. Making sure that they avoid bothering His Holiness with their matter as much as possible, but the current troublesome situation was something he was unable to solve by himself.
Mayne sharply began to narrate the matters at hand, one piece of news at a time from beginning to end.
“Heather is dead…” After listening to everything, O’Brian remained silent for a very long time, then released a long sigh before saying, “She possessed a keen sense of observation and she was both a clever and devout little girl, I’ve seen her as she slowly grew up…”
“Feel free to grief, Your Holiness.”
“The murderer must be punished,” the Pope nodded. “How is the current situation, are Garcia and the Wolfsheart Kingdom mutually helping each other? Isn’t the new poison showing any effect?”
“During the attack and capture of the Broken Tooth Castle it already showed its effect. After a month passed, all of the stronghold’s defenders had fallen dead, and the Army of Judges could quickly storm the city. They were unable to find almost any living soul within the residential areas. However, for the attack on Wolfsheart City, it seems the poison wasn’t able to have the same influence and the enemy still remains tenaciously resistant.” Mayne reported.
