At this time, the coffin of the Duke of Buckingham rested in St Wyth’s Cathedral.

The funeral would be held in four days. Before that, representatives from various states and counties had already rushed to the Rose Palace from all over the land. The Duke of Buckingham was practically the last symbol of the empire of the last era, and his funeral was far more meaningful than all his contemporaries.

General Johan stood by his father’s coffin during the days awaiting the arrival of the funeral attendants.

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This was probably the time when General Johan spent the most time with the Duke of Buckingham. When he was young, the Duke of Buckingham led his troops to many expeditions, and when he grew up, he took over the task of stationing troops on the battlefield from his father. Accompanying the Duke of Buckingham with General Johan were his old friends.

First mate Charles also rushed to Metzl Castle on the day of the King’s return. He entered the palace to meet the King and handed a sword to the King.

“This was the sword he used back then.”

Charles looked at the long sword inlaid with rubies on the hilt with some reminiscence.

“At that time he left it on the ship, and now it is returned to its original owner.”

When the young Duke of Buckingham left the Walway Pirates, he asked if they needed some material support. At that time, the pirates on the ship drove him off the ship, clamoring that they would always have opportunities to rob the nobles. But, after the Duke of Buckingham left, they found the sword he had left in the room where he lived.

This sword should be a gift from the duke’s father, Charles the Lion, when he became a knight.

When the Duke of Buckingham bequeathed the sword that meant so much to him to the Walway pirates, the Walway pirates recognized him as one of their brothers.

“Let it accompany him,” Charles said, smiling.

When a knight with status was buried, descendants would use his sword as a funerary object. That was a symbol of his faithful fulfillment as a knight, fighting bravely, guarding the land and protecting the weak. But everything that belonged to the Duke of Buckingham was turned into bloodstained earth, and neither his armor nor the sword he carried at the time remained.

Charles knew this, and he came this time to bring the Duke’s sword.

According to the normal practice of the Holy See, it should be the Archbishop of St. Wyth Cathedral who presided over the entire ceremony of the Duke of Buckingham’s funeral. He was the head of the bishops of the entire Legrand area.

But the Archbishop of St. Wyth, who was supposed to be one of the most important figures at the funeral, was instead forgotten by the King.

Perhaps, it should not be called forgotten.

Rather, the King did not intend to involve Archbishop St. Wyth in this funeral.

“Father Anil has arrived.”

The Master of the Households reported to the King.

………………

Father Anil was waiting outside the Rose Palace to be received by the King.

He reached out and gently drew the cross on his chest, and whispered passages from the holy book in his heart.

At the invitation of the King, he came to Metzl Castle, the capital of Legrand, under the protection of several Iron Rose knights——or “wardens” as was likely more appropriate.

“Abbot.”

The young Father Remy looked at his mentor worriedly, and from time to time glanced at the swords on the waists of several Iron Rose knights in front of them, hesitating to speak.

Logically, as an ordinary abbot in a remote place, it should be an honor to be summoned by the King. But……

Father Remy couldn’t help but think of the story that had been spreading more and more these days——

It was said that the rebellion in the Northland was provoked by the Holy Court, and the death of the Duke of Buckingham was directly related to the Holy Court, which made the young king furious like never before. The always ruthless and tyrannical monarch was determined to set off a bloody war of vengeance for his uncle, and this vengeance would be directed at all the clergy in Legrand.

Those who talked of this privately regarded it as an after-dinner conversation topic, but Father Remy could not help being particularly alarmed.

He was different from ordinary priests. Before leaving the Holy Court with Father Anil, he also came into contact with some powers in the Holy Court and knew some things that ordinary people did not know.

Father Remy felt that the death of the Duke of Buckingham might really have something to do with the Holy Court.

If the Duke of Buckingham really died at the hands of the Holy Court, then the King, who had a habit of doing shocking or outrageous things, was likely to launch a bloody revenge campaign on the Holy Court forces in Legrand.

At this time, Abbot Anil received the King’s invitation, and it was difficult for Father Remy to control himself from not thinking more.

After persuading him to no avail, Father Remy worried that his mentor would come to the murderous palace alone, so he followed Father Anil here as well. Along the way, he clearly felt the coldness and hostility from the Iron Rose knights——this made him even more uneasy.

In the eyes of Father Remy, the magnificent and majestic Rose Palace was a huge execution ground.

“It’s all right, child.”

Father Anil opened his eyes, and he gently comforted his student.

Father Anil raised his head and looked at the huge cross on the top of St. Wyth’s Cathedral in the distance, as if he could see through it to another country on the west bank of the Abyss Strait, as well as the Holy Court that was decorated with crosses.

The news from Bressi and the Holy Court came day by day, the war in the Northland subsided day by day, and the pain in Abbot Anil’s heart grew day by day.

Sure enough, the Holy Court intervened in the rebellion in the Northland. In the name of the Holy Lord, countless lives were drawn into the vortex of war.

And war only brought hatred.

Rumors of the Jing’s imminent bloody vengeance against all the clergy unsettled Abbot Anil.

Among the clergy, there may be some people who were indeed the dark chess pieces of the Holy Court, but there were also more people who had nothing to do with the rebels. They were just some pious young people, but now they must bear this hatred because of what the Holy Court and the Pope had done.

And now, the torrent of hatred had swept over them.

The pain caused by war was difficult to erase, even if the victory was won in the end, the trauma was still extremely heavy. The free towns of Legrand, which directly bordered Newcastle and Balboa, suffered a brutal massacre during the rebellion. In fact, many people in the rebel army simply obeyed the orders of their lord.

The family of both sides, the elder brothers, died in this war, and many families were broken in just two months.

After happiness had become an illusion, people needed a target to divert the hatred.

The reason why the rumor spread so quickly was inseparable from this kind of pain and hatred.

Abbot Anil had a premonition of this scene when the war just started. And these days, he began to feel the change of people’s attitude towards the monastery: people did not accept their help to rebuild their homes, the poor refused their alms, and the number of people who went to pray began to decrease…..

The young priests in the monastery slowly hung their heads before the repulsion, not knowing what they had done wrong.

What were they doing wrong?

Didn’t they hold compassion in their hearts?

“But……”

Father Remy’s heart was bitter, and he wanted to say something else.

“Holy Lord above.”

Abbot Anil tapped lightly on his chest several times, and shook his head lightly to stop his words.

It was not that he didn’t know the danger of coming to the Rose Palace at this time, but he couldn’t avoid it just because of the possibility of danger. Those young pious people shouldn’t die when they are innocent. He wanted to say some things to the King, and wanted to make his pleas with the King. If this was really a path to meeting with death, then please start with him first.

This was their sin, and he had no regrets.

The Master of the Households came out of the palace.

He asked Father Anil to go in alone.

………………

The palace, the King’s study.

The King was going through all the records of the funeral rites.

A large part of the importance of the Holy Court’s status in the secular world came from the intermediary status of their clergy. In the concept of the Holy Court, believers were far away from the Kingdom of God, and bishops and priests held the key to the “gate of the Kingdom of God”. Funerals were an obvious manifestation of this status, and the core point of view was the “purgatory theory”.

But not everyone recognized this intermediary role of the clergy.

It was precisely because some theologians have held different opinions for a long time, the Holy See specially made a formal regulation at the Whitsunday Sanctuary in 1411: Purgatory was a place of exile and suffering, where the soul would be purified by the fires of purgatory until salvation was complete after the death of a person until before the “Doomsday Judgment”.

The King also heard rumors that he would raise a bloodbath in all the monasteries and churches, and to some extent, he also secretly facilitated the spread of these rumors.

However, the King did not intend to really do that.

One reason:

As early as a thousand years, people’s daily life had been integrated with faith. It could be said that belief had become an indispensable aspect of life. If one wanted to eliminate it directly, it would only have an impact on the existing system, and it might even cause the existing system to collapse.

The King did not deny that this belief had already become part of today’s Legrand.

His goal was not the faith itself, but the Holy Court as a belief institution.

After returning to Legrand, the King received some information about Bressi’s kingdom:

At the coronation of Prince Charles, he fulfilled the “Gift of Clemo V” by handing over to the Pope the secular dominion of the whole of the Lowlands and the western part of the kingdom.

But the Holy Court’s actions were not all smooth sailing. If it was only limited to this, they would not encounter much resistance, but if they wanted to truly gain control over the secular political economy, they would inevitably have some conflicts with the old local interests.

The Holy Court’s energy was spent on Bressi, and this was Legrand’s opportunity.

He wanted to build Legrand’s own church.

The Master of the Households knocked on the door.

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“Come in.”

The King closed the file in his hand, which was a record of the 1411 Whitsunday Council.

In this record, a priest protested the Pope’s interpretation of the “Confessions”. He denied the “purgatory theory” and the key concept of “the gate of the Kingdom of God”.

The priest, called:

Anil.

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