When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

It took just one day for Horn, who had successfully quelled the Blackbone Marsh battle, to ride his horse with over a hundred beastmen soldiers following him, their faces bruised and swollen.

Opposing commanders like Hariba and Dong Pia staggered behind, their expressions somewhat dazed.

These are over a hundred divisions. They fought for so many days, yet neither side could make even the slightest breakthrough. But today, with His Holiness the Pope's arrival, the Holy Knights immediately took down both sides?

Both of them are seasoned generals, as well as from families of military distinction. Although they might not claim to be great strategists, they could at least be considered renowned generals of their time.

But today shattered their understanding completely. "Seeing is believing," indeed. Is the army of His Holiness the Pope truly this formidable?

No wonder the beastmen of ancient times chose to submit to the El Empire. With strength like this, what enemy in this world could stand against them?

Similar in astonishment to the two great generals, Horn also showed a bewildered expression on his face.

Maybe he shouldn't have meddled in their affairs at all?

He thought these battles might affect his resettlement of refugees, but now it seems like it was all just his own wishful thinking.

For a war of this scale to affect his resettlement of refugees, it would take Kongge and Mengge descending personally to join the fight.

"Your Holiness, where are we headed?" Hariba, who had half a front tooth broken by the Black Hat, asked amiably, holding his face.

Horn turned his head to glance at him. "I've convened a United Kingdom meeting to discuss your war issues. Beastmen should value peace and not engage in infighting."

"Yes, yes." Hariba nodded repeatedly. "What is this United Kingdom, I've never heard of it?"

"There wasn't one before, but now there is."

This United Kingdom was temporarily established by Horn, initially to mediate the war. However, with circumstances changed, he intended to use this United Kingdom to manage these beastmen.

He came to pacify the situation after first informing the beastmen lords. Ultimately, neither side really wanted to fight anymore; they just couldn't let go of their pride.

It wasn't possible for Horn to suppress them without saying a word and directly taking action, especially since he was still on their territory.

Originally, both sides were amicable; using force to escalate the situation would be counterproductive.

Moreover, these beastmen could still be useful to Horn.

While Hariba and Horn were getting close, on the other side, Dong Pia and Victor were establishing ties.

Victor is the new Legion Commander of the Black Hat Army.

Jeska had been pulled out early by Horn to join Hakuto as the instructors of the new army, leaving the legion commander position vacant.

Since the Bloody Battle of Joan of Arc Castle, because all the more senior personnel had died—Buniyan's head even crushed by hooves—Madlan had been grieving for a long time.

And Raphael, who was supposed to take the position, inexplicably chose to join the Child Soldiers and became an instructor for the third batch of Child Soldiers.

Due to his outstanding performance in the Battle of Long Bridge, Victor was rapidly promoted and became the second Legion Commander of the Black Hat Army following Jeska.

"This Holy Envoy..."

"Holy Envoy?" Victor was surprised and then realized he was being referred to.

After a laugh, Victor patted Dong Pia's shoulder. "I'm no Holy Envoy, just a lowly Legion Commander."

Dong Pia's grasp of the Leia language was poor, and he didn't quite understand what Victor meant. "What does 'cheese' mean?"

"Just ordinary." This time, Victor deliberately slowed down his speech.

Dong Pia immediately shook his head. "You have such a powerful army in Blackbone Marsh. Remember the principle I gave, everyone has their own strength."

Dong Pia's pieced-together words obviously confused Victor, and he had to call a familiar Varangian Guard to clarify that Dong Pia was complimenting him.

With the Varangian Guard's interpretation, their conversation flowed much more smoothly.

"So you're the Wolf Fang King's nephew, is the Wolf Fang Kingdom in Central Beize?"

"In Lower Beize," Dong Pia shook his head.

In the beastmen's context, the lowland marshes of Autumn Dusk Island due to their southern location were called Nanze.

While the northern marshes where they lived were called Beize, Beize was further divided into Upper Beize, Central Beize, and Lower Beize from north to south.

"So you're a wolf-type beastman?" Victor hesitated, looking at the pointed ears on his head, and asked.

Dong Pia laughed, "No, no, no, during the Imperial Era, we beastmen had different forms of beast transformation. Each different beastman family would form a family based on appearance.

Later, due to extensive intermarriage between beastmen aristocratic families and human aristocratic families, those distinct beast traits gradually disappeared in mixed-bloods."

"I see."

At this point, Horn slowed his horse, moving parallel with Dong Pia: "Is your name Dong Pia?"

"Yes, Your Holiness," Dong Pia immediately replied respectfully.

"Your Wolf Fang Kingdom is in Lower Beize, must be very close to Nanze?"

"Yes, Your Holiness."

"Then have you seen those beastman barbarians and long-haired demons?"

Dong Pia immediately responded, "Your Holiness, those barbarians invade our borders every year, so we often encounter them.

As for the long-haired demons, which we call fur beasts, they mostly won't disturb you if you don't provoke them.

Those barbarians believe in an evil god, something like a Blood God, and these fur beasts are regarded as divine envoys. Every once in a while, they have to send some sheep heads for sacrifice."

"Where do they send the sacrifices?"

"Autumn Dusk Island," Dong Pia naturally replied, "There's an altar on Autumn Dusk Island. The evil god has to receive a sacrifice every seven days."

Blood God? Sheep heads? Horn frowned; back when the El Empire entered the Eastern Continent, the local Norn barbarians' beliefs included many heretical evil gods.

Could this Blood God be one of them?

Were these long-haired creatures created by the faith in the evil god? It shouldn't be, if it was faith in an evil god, they should have been wiped out by the El army long ago.

Even if some evil gods remained, they should have been eradicated during the Great Migration by Miseria.

The "Gospel · Eastern Tour" clearly recorded how Miseria, upon landing, killed every evil god she encountered, tying their heads to her waist and making a crown from their skulls to wear on her head, so that no more evil gods would be born on the Eastern Continent.

Since then, evil gods in the Eastern Continent did indeed vanish, only reappearing near the Northern Grassland and Furnace Highlands.

"Does the Blood God have any symbols or representative objects?" Horn asked Dong Pia. "If so, please write one down for us."

In Horn's team, there happened to be a Great Wizard from the Ruo'an Faction; instead of letting him idle around aimlessly every day, it was better to give him something to do.

When it comes to matters of evil gods, the wizards should be quite adept.

With the group of ragtag soldiers, they walked for another ten-plus minutes until a Mire Island finally appeared before everyone.

And a series of leather tents and over a hundred queens on this desolate, wild grassland were divided into two factions, hurling insults at each other as they awaited Horn's arrival.