Chapter 1010 – #99. The Story of the Three Thousand Concubines and the Emperor (68)
After the emperor and crown prince had settled the affairs of King Geos, they were discussing the disposition of the priests.
The priests were sighing deeply.
I was tired of the stuffy life in prison, but the problem was that I was sighing more and more at the uncertainty about the future.
“What happens to us now…?”
“They just keep locking me up…”
“I don’t know how long they plan to keep us locked up.”
“Will you save us from the temple?”
At first, the priests talked to each other in this way.
While lamenting about his situation, he drew a line and fought with the captive priests who came in late.
Their prison life was becoming more difficult day by day, and their temperament became sharper due to the stress.
But these days.
“…”
“…”
“Haa~”
“…”
Other than the occasional sigh, we didn’t talk to each other.
The atmosphere was gloomy, and all they did all day was stare blankly at the black ceiling.
Knock-kkeuk-
At the time, the atmosphere of the prison where the priests were imprisoned was penetrating underground and descending into the inner core.
The guard came inside.
The eyes of the priests who were having a boring time naturally turned to the guard.
It was strange that the guard came in even though it wasn’t meal time.
The guard hurried inside and stopped at a certain place.
“Hey.”
“… Did you say that to me?”
The guard answers with his eyes.
“Is there someone who can treat me?”
“Okay.”
At the guard’s words, the priest didn’t try to say, “It’s not my turn,” But just stood up.
Since I was lying here, it wasn’t a bad idea to go outside and get some fresh air.
Follow the guard and escape the prison.
The priest took a deep breath in the outside air.
‘When will I be able to regain my freedom? What will happen to my proposal to the Emperor? If he’s this silent, is it better to think he’s rejected it?’
They clearly told me to wait.
But no matter how long I waited, there was no news coming from the other side.
Wouldn’t it be natural for humans to become urgent?
The priest was suspecting that his proposal had already been forgotten by the emperor.
“You’re here.”
“Huh?”
I entered the tent guided by the guard.
It was a tent that was much larger and more luxurious than the soldiers’ tents.
Additionally, I thought it was strange to see so many soldiers walking around, but I had no idea that the emperor would suddenly appear in front of me.
“Woe, Your Majesty?”
Without realizing it, the priest knelt down and bowed his head in front of the emperor.
It was my first time meeting one-on-one like this since I saved everyone by creating a huge shield.
It was already widely known among the priests that the emperor was not in good health.
This is because priests were summoned from time to time to treat the emperor’s body.
Unfortunately for her, she had never been summoned to the emperor, but today, luckily for her, she seemed to have won her prize.
“Yeah. It seems like it’s been a while.”
“Yes, yes.”
“There is no need to show such extreme courtesy.”
“No. How dare I…”
Even though I was wondering why I was doing this, the priest did not stop showing utmost respect to the emperor.
He has already clearly decided to become the emperor’s man.
In a situation where there was no certainty that the temple would save them, there was no one they could rely on except the emperor.
And she had no intention of putting her life in danger by showing off her shy pride.
“The reason I called you was because I thought the time had come. The time had come to take action against the priests.”
“Are you accepting me? I know I have to prove it.”
“Yes, you have to prove it. There are quite a lot of things you have to do in the future.”
“What can I do?”
“First… I have to go back to the temple.”
“Yes?”
He defected because it was obvious that the temple would not accept him, but he was embarrassed when the emperor told him to return to the temple.
“The temple will not accept me.”
“Just because they won’t accept you don’t mean they can do it. If we release them, they will have no choice but to accept you.”
“…”
The priests and paladins sent to war are returning, but the temple refuses them?
This is nonsense.
If we set such a precedent, who would willingly go to war for the temple?
“The temple won’t bail?”
“Pay for the bail with your own bodies. Then return to the temple.”
“You’re probably not sending me to the temple to mean that you’re letting me go.”
“Yes, there is work you must do at the temple.”
Even if you return to the temple, your place will already be occupied by another priest.
The temple wants to completely erase all traces of this humiliating defeat.
But what if the priest is released and returns to the temple?
Confusion will arise in a situation that has been barely organized.
The information they wanted to hide about what happened in the war will also spread to other believers.
The temple will want to deal with them before that happens.
“Actually, even if we go back, I don’t know if we will be able to properly carry out His Majesty’s orders. There is no way they will leave us alone.”
“If you try to survive on your own, then yes.”
“… Do you think you can survive if you are not alone?”
“Yes, you all have to stick together to survive. When you return, you will inevitably find that the people you can rely on are the people you shared your experiences with on the battlefield.”
“The idea is to persuade the priests who are with me now and make them my people.”
“If possible, it would be better if you were the center.”
“If you can give me a little help, I’ll give it a try.”
All she had to do before returning to the temple was to restore the relationship that had broken down due to stress.
The friendships built up like that will be of great help to each other after returning to the temple.
“A dog is boiled after it has been hunted. If I use that, I think I will be able to persuade you well.”
“And I heard that there are a lot of complaints about the new priests.”
“I’m sorry. There are many people who are worried that we will be tied up with them and punished because we have to live too.
“I wonder if we will punish them without even distinguishing between them. It’s okay to tell them not to worry because we plan to deal with them soon.”
Processing?
The priest trembled at the emperor’s words.
The word “Process” Gave me goosebumps.
There was a strong bloody smell in those words.
“I know this is presumptuous, but… Are you going to kill them all?”
“I did something like that, but I can’t let him live. But I won’t kill him.”
“Ah!”
I felt relieved to hear they wouldn’t kill me.
I know they made a big mistake, but it was impossible to accept the death of priests calmly because their arms had no choice but to bend inward.
“But they will never return to the temple. For the rest of their lives.”
“Yes. They will be thrilled by Your Majesty’s mercy.”
You won’t live comfortably.
However, the remaining priests will change their image of the emperor in that he showed mercy by saving his life even though he committed a great sin.
It was natural that it would be easier to persuade them to become pro-imperialists in the future.
“And after returning to the temple…”
The priest listened attentively to the emperor’s secret instructions with his ears wide open.
And the priest realized what the emperor was aiming for when he accepted him.
“Is there really such a person in the temple?”
It was especially so because it was something I had never thought about before.
What her emperor told her was that there would be believers who did not like her temple, so she should unite them and increase their power.
She had no choice but to choose the emperor because the temple abandoned her first. From her perspective, she couldn’t believe that there were people who were dissatisfied with the temple.
“There will definitely be one.”
The emperor put an end to her doubts as if stating the obvious.
“Ah… Are you talking about those who were pushed out in the power struggle?”
“No, I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about people who are really dissatisfied with the temple. People who step down like that are idiots.”
Even within a corrupt temple, there will definitely be true ‘believers’ who are pure and innocent.
They will be tired of the actions of corrupt priests and will be pushed out of power by unfair tactics.
“Catch those people. The justification is clear. They are corrupted to the point where they use human lives to use power in the temple. We are using that as justification to gather strength.”
“If things go well, the temple will split in half.”
“Yes, the best way to take it down is to attack from the inside, which is more effective than attacking from the outside.”
“…”
The priest was afraid of the emperor thinking like this.
I thought that the Geos Empire, or even the kingdom, would have collapsed through this process.
I heard that before the war, the Kingdom of Geos was in turmoil due to internal fighting between the king and the nobles.
‘Isn’t this all planned by the emperor?’
I was too scared to ask about the priest’s keen guess and decided to leave it as a question.
“I will work hard.”
“Yes, I have high expectations for you. If you succeed, the empire will welcome you warmly when you return.”
The emperor said it was okay even if the rebellion did not succeed.
It’s just that it’s important to sow seeds of confusion inside the temple.
‘What happens if things go well and the rebellion succeeds?’
Suddenly, she thought that if the rebellion went well, she might be able to rise to a much higher position than she thought.
If that happens, there will be no need for her to return to the emperor’s side.
‘That’s something to think about then.’
It wouldn’t be a bad thing if he was elevated to a high position even by the emperor and the temple itself turned pro-empire.
The priest ignited a small spark of ambition in his heart and bowed his head more carefully before the emperor.
She did not know until the end that the emperor was looking down meaningfully from above.
