Chapter 1081: Chapter 1022: Grandiva Prepares for Battle

The glorious debate between the two Popes has become the biggest topic in the empire’s religious circle over the past two days.

Especially the Sixth Grand Council meeting, which is attached to this debate, attracting a large number of monks’ attention.

In this era of faith collapse, the priests have high expectations for this Grand Council meeting.

They hope that through this Grand Council meeting, they can pave a new path for the Miseria Church, which has already reached a dead end.

Whether it leads toward the Divine Essence Sect or the Holy Sect, they don’t want to be left hanging hopelessly.

As the news emanated from the Holy Mechanism Court and Huaqiu City, it spread along rivers and roads to almost every church and monastery within a month.

In such a decisive moment, any monk or priest who had the means would try every possible way to attend.

Under the arrangements of the Holy Alliance and Falan, monks from various places began to travel by carriage and boat, gathering toward Red Leaf Hill.

Both the Bear Castle Territory, which is being rebuilt in the north, and the regency palace of the Leia Kingdom in the south, facilitated the monks heading to Red Leaf Hill.

Including food, lodging, and travel, though most of it borrowed from local church properties and what the monks already possessed.

As the time approached, hotels, churches, and monasteries in various cities around Red Leaf Hill began to overflow.

Although the Sixth Grand Council meeting will not officially convene until mid-September, theological debates had already begun among the monks the moment they met.

Among the monks, there were those leaning towards the Holy Sect and others towards the Divine Essence Sect, with a three-to-seven ratio overall.

"The Holy Sect makes up thirty percent?" In a corridor adorned with various elegant paintings and antiques, Grandiva stopped in disbelief.

"Yes, to be precise, many other small factions claim to be the Holy Sect."

In the church and monastic systems, not all non-divine theology factions are cut off.

In many local small monasteries and university divinity schools, a variety of theological factions with long origins exist.

For example, the Juanist Faction was one such group; since the monks controlled extraordinary powers, the church turned a blind eye.

As long as they didn’t proactively expand, like the Juanist Faction back then, the church didn’t really care.

In this Grand Council meeting, besides those indeed split from the Holy Sect, such as the Baptism Sect, Charity Sect, etc., there are longer-standing sects like the Numerology Sect and Holy Image Sect.

For example, the Norn sect, a branch of Miseria’s personal sect, remains along with the Thousand River Valley’s folk personal sect.

They don’t acknowledge the Trinity, and they love pursuing divine gifts, revelations, and auspicious signs.

Among dozens of imperial sects, the Holy Image Sect is the only one acknowledging Horn as the Holy Grandson.

"These heretics of the Holy Image Sect!" Hearing the name of the Holy Image Sect, Grandiva’s face turned dark.

Because the Holy Image Sect treats this as divine revelation, that as the Holy Image, but for himself —

This revered southern Pope, revered to have incarnated from an Angel, was not recognized as an Angel incarnation.

Horn Gallar, that ridiculous Holy Grandson; they specifically made an announcement acknowledging it, yet they had to clarify in the newspaper that he was not an Angel.

Grandiva wasn’t particularly concerned, it’s just a small fringe sect, insignificant.

Mostly because the Holy Image Sect is genuinely pretentious, it’s not that he really cares.

"None of the churches and monasteries under our control are allowed to house the Holy Image Sect."

"Ah? Oh, yes, I’ll arrange it right away." The aide following Grandiva quickly turned to leave.

"Wait." Grandiva called him back, "Deal with that later, I want to know what the Holy Alliance is up to?"

"Not much movement, recently they seem to be negotiating post-war reconstruction with the Bear Castle Territory in the north."

"Is he not trying to win over those bishops?"

"Not exactly." The aide flipped through his notebook, "He often receives letters from various places, then answers questions in the Truth Newspaper."

"Hey, trying to take the grassroots approach? That’s not an easy path."

Initially, only bishops could speak at the Grand Council meeting, but this time, due to the previous war and the Holy Alliance’s special religious form, a representative system is adopted.

Meaning that in addition to the bishop and the abbot, each parish must also elect monk and priest representatives from the monastic orders, prohibiting senior clergy from participating.

"Those representatives are just the bishops’ subordinates; how dare they defy the bishops’ orders? Horn is miscalculating this time."

"Horn Gallar is really asking for trouble." Grandiva touched his balding head, speaking to the aide beside him.

"Probably because the Holy Alliance has been winning battles since its establishment, he imagines himself favored by fate, hence his arrogance." Naturally, the aide needed to flatter him.

However, upon hearing this, Grandiva paused in his steps.

He looked ahead, his brow furrowed, his jaw unconsciously shifting from side to side.

Those familiar with Grandiva know this means he’s pondering something.

"Where exactly is his trump card?" Grandiva spoke again, surprisingly circling back to the original topic, "No, we must continue to investigate."

The aide wished he could slap himself; had he known, he wouldn’t have taken up this conversation.

Despite intuitively feeling that Horn might not be much of a threat, Grandiva’s long-standing experience proves that caution is wise.

"I’ll give you a direction; your previous direction might have been mistaken." Grandiva glanced at the aide and continued walking forward.

The aide quickly pulled out a palm-sized notebook from Thousand River Valley and a charcoal pencil wrapped in bandages to start recording. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"The Holy Alliance is solid; recently, due to that fool Rabon, a large number of kingdom spies have been captured, making it difficult to uncover anything.

Therefore, my suggestion is to approach it externally, start the investigation within the Holy Sect all over Leia.

Also investigate those El people who are friendly with the Holy Sect, as well as the esteemed monks, etc.

I estimate Horn’s confidence might very well be due to the El people intending to betray us..."

El Council betraying the Holy Alliance?

The aide almost snapped the feather pen in his hand; what kind of statement is this?

"What? You don’t believe it? Look at those from the Lakin Clan, almost branding ’Falan traitor’ on my face.

That bandit Armand from the Holy Sect at Windmill Grounds is even a son-in-law of the Lakin Clan; doesn’t this say something?"

Grandiva has remained unshaken on the political scene for thirty years, thanks to this political sensitivity.

In Falan’s kingdom politics, if there were an opposition party, then the land aristocrats of the Lakin Clan would be it.

Places like Clove Corridor, Red Leaf Hill, Storm Cape, all fall under the jurisdiction of land aristocrats.

Despite Charles VIII and Lorenzo repeatedly attempting to cleanse these nobles, each time the land aristocrats persevere.

After all, nobles are family; if one were to utterly annihilate them, it would mean turning the sword on one’s own kin.

Who doesn’t have some distant relatives?

It’s unnecessary, Falan should value harmony.

"Anyway, you don’t need to worry about anything else; just follow my instructions to investigate."

After driving away the aide, Grandiva took a few more steps forward and arrived in front of a room door.

Even standing outside, the sound of pens scratching against paper could be heard within.

While Horn and Bear Castle Territory discuss the vulgarities of money, I, Grandiva, delve into theology!

Opening the door, over a hundred elite scholar monks were seen with heads bowed amidst a mountainous pile of papers and books.

This was preparation for the Duke’s meeting; as long as I quote more than you, and my examples are more obscure than yours, I win.

Thus, hundreds of top scholars and monks were tirelessly accumulating an arsenal for Grandiva.

"Grandiva."

Upon hearing this voice, Grandiva, who originally wore a smiling face, shivered.

He turned around to see a white-haired old man standing before him.

Despite the old man calling Grandiva by his name, he didn’t feel anything was amiss.

Even though Grandiva was the Pope, in the Falan Kingdom, he wasn’t the most powerful Archbishop.

For in Falan, whether it be religious nobility or secular aristocrats, all power is concentrated in the hands of the King.

Grandiva originally ascended through the political whirlpool with superstition and clever political tactics.

By the time he met with Charles VIII, the latter was already of age.

Thus, Charles VIII didn’t quite trust Grandiva; it’s just that there weren’t other contenders for the role.

Speaking of the religious figure the young king trusted the most, it was this Archbishop of Huaqiu City—Combeter.

This elderly Archbishop wore crystal glasses, and his slender eyes were like those of a snake, always making Grandiva uncomfortable.

"Archbishop Combeter." Grandiva nodded slightly in greeting.

"What you wanted." Combeter handed a thick manuscript to Grandiva, "This is the first draft."

Grandiva opened it with delight, browsed through it quickly, and exclaimed in admiration: "Excellent, truly completed before the Duke’s meeting."

"What’s your chance of winning?"

"Before the manuscript, only seventy percent; with it, ninety percent."

"Ninety percent?"

"Ninety percent!"

Combeter’s skeptical gaze swept over him before standing up, staring directly into Grandiva’s eyes.

"Grandiva, you know how important this is, do not disappoint His Highness."