Chapter 379: Two Birds in
one stone
The only person who could stop an Overlord was another Overlord. Amongst all the people present in this meeting, only the envoys from the East were here, representing the Eastern Overlord.
The guests wondered if the Holy Emperor had the backing of the Eastern Overlord? If that was the case, then wasn’t he a traitor? Was he siding with the Eastern Overlord over the Holy Priestess?
As the guests wondered about this, their gazes turned uneasy. Unfortunately, they had no way to confirm the truth. Perhaps the Holy Emperor was actually right, and the Western Continent had been infiltrated by traitors. In that case, his anger could be justified.
At this point, they didn’t know which side was actually right. Unlike the commoners of the Holy Empire who were fantastically loyal to the Holy Church, the nobles and influential people present in this banquet were much more realistic.
“Shall we begin the banquet?” Cardinal Treniel took control of the situation. He guided the Holy Priestess to a throne that had been arranged next to the Holy Emperor’s throne.
The Holy Priestess momentarily glanced at the Holy Emperor as she walked past him. Every time there was a banquet, a similar throne was arranged for the Holy Priestess.
While the Holy Emperor represented the Royal Authority of the Empire, the Holy Priestess represented the Divine Authority, holding the right to sit next to the Holy Emperor on the same level.
‘She is quite patient. But that’s for the better.’ Eren cast a glance at the Holy Priestess, walking back to his throne as well.
The Banquet had finally begun, and the guests started introducing themselves while offering toasts to the envoys from the East. Many of them did it from afar, not
getting too close to the guests.
Unlike the explosive beginning of the
Banquet, the rest of the evening was
relatively calm. Some nobles even approached Eren, gathering their courage. They tried to strike up a conversation.
Many of them had even heard that Eren
was a lecherous man. They offered him
some women, saying that everything could
be arranged as long as he desired.
Eren’s clone simply rejected their suggestions, while an angry Zia sharply
pinched him.
Many youngsters who had accompanied
their parents approached Yu Lin, mesmerized by her beauty and trying to get close to her.
Even though Yu Lin was not from the Holy
Empire, she was still the disciple of a Great Elder, on par with a Cardinal’s personal
disciple.
If they could win her heart and get close to
the Great Elder, they could also gain a powerful backing for their families. It was an additional benefit that the girl was so beautiful herself.
As the group approached the girl, they were met with a sudden, freezing cold that forced them to stop before they could even come within five meters of her. Overcome by the intense cold, they had no choice but to retreat.
Throughout this time, the girl didn’t even spare a second glance at them, her eyes staying on the Holy Emperor from the beginning to the end.
All the guests that had been talking to Eren’s clone, suddenly retreated when they saw the Cardinal approaching him.
The Cardinal stopped in front of Eren and Zia, holding a glass of wine in his hand.
“We investigated the Minister of War and we came to learn some truly interesting things from him about the person behind this attack,” he told Eren while casting a sound isolation barrier around them.
“And who was the person?” Eren asked the Cardinal, paying quite a lot of interest. He was slightly surprised that the Cardinal didn’t talk about the Minister of War exploding, but it was understandable. It was embarrassing for them after all.
“It seems that you had to suffer because of
us. For that, I would like to apologize to you.” The Cardinal lowered his head, even surprising Eren.
He wondered if the Cardinal was accepting
that the Holy Church was behind it. There was no way he could be such a fool. He was curious to see just what the Cardinal was planning now.
“The Holy Emperor had always been unhappy with the increasing influence of the Holy Church. It seems like he planned
this attack because he wanted to use the excuse regarding the Necromancer Tower to kill the believers of the Holy Church.”
As the Cardinal kept explaining, Eren finally understood the full extent of the Cardinal’s plan. It was a genuinely wise strategy.
If the Cardinal had simply insisted that the
Holy Emperor wanted Eren dead, only a fool would have believed it. After all, the Holy Emperor had openly tried to save him. from the Minister of War.
Instead, the Cardinal blamed the Holy
Emperor in a more nuanced way.
According to the Cardinal, the Holy
Emperor had been using Eren as a puppet.
The failure was also part of the plan. With this one scheme, the Holy Emperor tried to achieve two objectives.
On one hand, he wanted to get close to Eren, appearing as a savior. On the other hand, he tried to spread stories of the Necromancer Tower’s infiltration so he could eliminate the believers of the Holy
Church amongst the Ministers and Royal Guards with that excuse.
The Cardinal was right about using the Necromancer Tower to remove those loyal to the Holy Church. The only thing he
failed to guess was that the person behind
this was not the Holy Emperor, but Eren himself.
“I just hope that you don’t fall victim to this
plan. Hence I came to inform you,” the
Cardinal finished his explanation. “As for what you decide to do with this information, I will leave that up to you.”
He turned around to leave, appearing very nonchalant. He didn’t try to guide Eren into attacking the Holy Emperor but he subtly left that suggestion. “Oh, and everything is arranged. Tomorrow, we will be leaving to investigate the disappearance of your envoys. So today might be your last day in the Holy City,” he
further stated before returning to the other Cardinals..
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