When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

In the City Hall, Horn called someone to bring a refreshing glass of mint water, and while waiting for it, he smiled and said to the core group:

"Now that everyone here is one of our own, we can relax a bit and speak freely. I'll take a sip of water and rest for a moment."

These people were the core power group of the old camp, including Qianqian, Chervis, Jeska, Armand, René, Dass...

Anyone who wasn't injured was basically here.

After the thrilling night before, the remaining senior members began discussing.

"Should we reorganize the four major corps we used to have?"

"I think we should forcibly recruit a number of artisans."

"White sails will be hoisted along the entire Ibe River..."

Unlike before, through this period of honing, their views and experiences now surpassed what they were.

Horn and Boned had been tutoring them consistently, which was not in vain. After this battle, compared to the outer refugees, the mentality of these old camp's core members leaned towards Horn's side.

"Your Grace, now that we've exposed the blue-blood orphan matter, which is yet another issue with the Church, you left and returned, how do we explain to our old camp brothers?"

"Yes, the old brothers haven't said it, but they're quite confused."

"We'll talk about this later." Taking the mint water from René, Horn took a sip and then asked Busak: "I asked you to assemble the first batch of departing refugees and their families before sunset, how did that go?"

Busak immediately stood up: "The first batch includes 6,000 people. The list and provisions have been confirmed, and they can set out before dusk."

"Good, well done." Horn nodded, "Don't be too forceful, but once on the road, no turning back is permitted, understand?"

"Understood."

"Armand." Horn called out to Armand, "Did you complete the investigations as instructed?"

Armand pulled out some papers and handed them to Horn, along with a brief report: "Per your direction, I, along with Boned, sampled and questioned 1000 refugees. About 105 have a positive view of us, 411 hold a negative view, accusing you of deceiving them, resulting in them being..."

"What now?" Jeanne's face immediately furrowed, "We painstakingly sought revenge for them, and this is their attitude?"

"They're not wrong." Horn calmly sat at the table.

Seeing the surprised expressions in the meeting room, Horn rubbed his forehead and stood up, "I'm about to discuss our Salvation Army's situation next, to synchronize our thoughts, let's use this as the entry point."

Standing in front of the table, Horn handed some compiled materials to Jeska next to him, allowing them to be passed around for viewing.

"Let me put it this way, when they followed us to kill the Duke, from a certain perspective, they acted impulsively and recklessly, much like passionate murder.

They lacked that awareness, it was a spur of the moment decision. If the Duke were still alive, this vigor could be sustained a little longer.

Now that the Duke is dead, the tension has dissipated, and with the Church and edicts soon arriving, they've started regretting it. You ask them to call 'Unjust people, kill the unjust' again, see if they dare.

Of course, the blue-blood affair was bound to explode eventually, and they would inevitably revolt. It would have been a less intense rebellion, without such animosity with the Church."

After shattering the fantasies of the core group, Horn continued talking on.

"If I were Johnny VIII, I would directly sever ties with the Thousand River Valley Church, sell Constans off, and exchange him for a batch of bishops from the Thousand River Valley Church.

On one hand, I'd rehabilitate Juanuo and on the other, send troops to suppress dissenters, finally offering two years of tax exemption.

A great army on the border, bishop replacements, the Pope backing down, tax exemption, any further unrest would be disrespectful.

By then, do you think we would be betrayed by the farmers, just as Duke Kush was back in those days?

You remember what you once said? Ordinary people can't see that far ahead, even when such an affair, in the long run, benefits them.

They will never see it, without overthrowing the Church, such events will endlessly occur, leading to 'oppression — revolt — concession — forgetfulness' in perpetual cycles."

Upon this point, even Horn felt a bit emotional.

Extraordinary forces represent a gap far greater between ordinary people and individual Knights compared to Horn's homeland. A few Knights can suppress a large number of farmers.

Thus, they are bound to adopt harsher measures to prevent farmer uprisings, after which the clean-up of remaining forces will be more thorough, barely leaving any sparks.

Due to Extraordinary phenomena, Priests can manifest before people, even truly summon Angels to descend, heightening divine authority and deepening the people's ideological restraint.

Under such oppression from both sides, the farmer's tolerance threshold reaches heights that even Horn found somewhat despairing.

"Isn't this too ungrateful?" Qianqian couldn't help but say.

"It's not their fault. You stumbled over a stone, but instead of blaming the person who placed the stone, you blame the stone itself. Don't you think that's ridiculous?"

Horn lowered his head, but his voice was clear enough for everyone in the council room to hear.

"Why do they exhibit this wickedness? It's because there's a devil within their hearts, an invisible chain bound around their necks.

With the Empire's military hegemony and the Church's ideological dominance reinforced by extraordinary powers, they have become overwhelmingly strong, leading to their defeat in nearly every rebellion.

This constructs the third hegemony between the Empire and the Church – the Extraordinary Hegemony.

Through the monopoly of extraordinary resources by the first two, they sever the path of the extraordinary for those who are neither nobles nor priests, forcibly binding the extraordinary with identity both ideologically and socially."

During fasting years, while farmers are forbidden to eat meat, nobles can eat eggs and fish, and even use "Frugality Laws" to prohibit everyone except nobles, monks, gentry, and merchants from eating beef and spices.

All of this, isn't it because they fear the emergence of new extraordinaries outside their extraordinary system?

The endless hunt for the Secret Faction, isn't it precisely for this reason?

Because the extraordinary is the guarantee for the hegemony of the first two!

In the eyes of many commoners, it is not because they are extraordinary that they are honorable knights, but because they are knights, therefore honorable and extraordinary!

A knight, even stripped of extraordinary empowerment, still instills fear in them.

Why does Horn continuously bestow followers of the old camp with empty titles devoid of matching benefits, yet they remain content?

Isn't it because in their ignorant understanding, a knight is honorable because of the title, not because the knight is extraordinary?

This is why many knights despise mercenaries who practice breathing techniques, because mercenaries possess extraordinary powers but are ordinary in status, contradicting the existence of knights and priests.

"The Empire needs the Church to lower their governance costs, making it easier for them to acquire enough resources to sustain the extraordinary.

The Church needs the Empire to maintain their unbreakable stature economically and ideologically."

Like pondering while orating, Horn slowly moved around the table in the council room.

"In all the Thousand River Valley People, no, let's expand to the entire Empire system, deep down all Empire's lower class hold devils in their hearts.

Even though the Empire and Church oppress and betray them, they instinctively rely on and follow the Church.

Because this is the millennial practice, in their eyes, the Empire and Church represent victory and correctness.

Resisting the Empire and Church is forbidden to them psychologically.

Thus, most of the time, they don't stand with us, even if they're forced to join us, they think about surrender.

We can easily kill knights, easily destroy churches, but it's hard to kill the devil in their hearts.

Their uprisings are more akin to strikes and protests rather than true rebellions.

Over in Kasha County, it's slightly better because of Juanuo as our banner, but look at us, with the previous batch of Thomas' people, they join out of necessity or desire to be nobles.

No one ever says, I joined the rebellion to overthrow the Church."

As Horn moved, the expressions on the faces of the Salvation Army's leaders grew more grave, even falling into prolonged contemplation.

"The Duke's perception is not wrong in some sense; they lack cohesiveness.

When I mentioned using blue blood to inspire their cohesion, it was because of the Duke as a banner that this cohesion could persist.

Now the Duke has fallen, this banner is gone, and the flag of the Salvation Army is insufficient to convince them.

So they are both relieved and afraid and confused; relieved at finally venting their resentment, afraid of the devil within and the one before their eyes, confused about whether the Salvation Army can truly lead them against the Church."

After finishing this long speech, Horn exhaled a breath of pent-up emotion and sat back down:

"Their bodies are with us, but their hearts are with the Church; they're different from our old camp, they don't have a sense of identity with us, they don't perceive the Church and Empire as the true enemy.

Unless we can break the three hegemonies of nobles and monks, they won't support us.

But the problem is, if we don't break the three hegemonies, they won't support us; if they don't support us, we can't break the three hegemonies."

Picking up the mint water from the table, Horn took a sip to moisten his dry throat.

After a long silence, Jeanne asked in a low voice beside him: "Then what should be done? Is there really no way?"