116 – Appointment – 5
Despite all of this, the man seemed calm and expressionless, and the host asked me.
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“Count Rochepol. “Is the author the actual criminal?”
“Yes. “It’s the same face I saw two days ago.”
Afterwards, the interrogation began after asking several servants of the Urbino family whether this person was the actual criminal.
“I will ask Antonio, who was a servant of the Urbino family. Why did you betray your master, Cardinal Urbino, and poison the wine of Cardinal Urbino and the Count of Rochepol? There were some here at the Council who speculated that it was because of your religious beliefs, but is that correct?”
“… “
“Is it true that it is because of religious beliefs? Isn’t it?”
“… “
The man did not answer. Sebastian looked at the cardinals as if asking them to see something. He was a man who did not open his mouth even after being tortured harshly. I thought there was no way I would open my mouth to an interrogation like this. However…
“No.”
Soon, the man opened his mouth. With those words, the atmosphere started to become chaotic.
“Wait! No? “What does that mean?”
“It’s not because of religious beliefs. “I received a large amount of money from a nobleman.”
“Large amounts of money? “What do you mean?”
“Ten days ago, a nobleman came to me and spoke. If you kill the Count of Rochepol, who will be invited to Cardinal Urbino’s mansion, he will give you a large sum of money that will allow three generations to live in prosperity. Take money and leave the Holy Kingdom. It was an offer I should have rejected, but I was momentarily greedy and accepted it. Sorry.”
“Now, wait! “There wasn’t a word like that said during the interrogation!”
When Sebastian shouted, the man responded like this.
“I said it! I said it! He had already said the same thing fifteen times, but Sebastian did not believe him and continued torturing him to answer correctly! Even though they had created a scenario, they even forced them to put their stamp on this scenario. However, I couldn’t put my stamp on it because it seemed like it would harm other clergymen besides me… “
“Shut up! It’s a conspiracy! “We never did anything like that!”
Sebastian shouted, but the mood of the cardinals was already heading towards catastrophe.
“Of course! “It was a plot hatched by the Hiron family!”
“Shut up! What benefit do we have by killing Count Rochepol? “If there is a reason to kill Count Rochepol, then of course it must be for the Jujeonpa!”
“But the criminal doesn’t actually say that!”
“That’s… !”
Meanwhile, looking at that scene, I sighed deeply.
‘It looks like the Hiron family was hit hard.’
It may have been true that the criminal kept his mouth shut during the torture.
Nevertheless, the reason he suddenly opened his mouth was to give strength to the main faction.
That criminal was probably trained by Cardinal Bergamo on how to deal with such situations. He looked up at Cardinal Bergamo and saw that he was facing me and smiling meaningfully. It was the smile of a winner.
Because the anti-war faction took a hit, the voices of the mainstream faction began to grow louder. If this continues, the anti-war faction will be defeated and the anti-war faction will win. Salome trembled with her hand, and I held her hand.
Salome looked this way with her face very red. I said to her after giving her a little smile.
“I will solve it, so don’t worry.”
She and I decided to hold her hand. So that she and I can become dukes of each other. So, for now, I was planning to create the seeds of a solution somehow here.
I stepped forward, pushed the criminal away, and went up to the podium. And he spoke to the cardinals.
“Everyone.”
However, the cardinals were so focused on raising their voices and fighting with each other that they could not hear me.
“Everyone!!!”
After shouting loudly again, the cardinals began to quiet down. After waiting a moment, it became completely quiet and I began to speak.
“Actually, it is not important at all who the culprit of this incident is.”
“What do you mean! This council was held to uncover the culprit… “
“No, you are wrong. This council was not a council to find the culprit. “Aren’t you misunderstanding the agenda?”
The priest who was confronting me blinked. He seemed puzzled as to what he was talking about.
“Today’s agenda is how to respond to the assassination incident. Because of the assassination, the relationship between Princess Leonia and Her Majesty could worsen and a war could break out, so wasn’t the council held to deal with this? “It’s not about finding the culprit.”
“… “
“What happened happened happened. I don’t care whether the culprit is an anti-war or an anti-war. “I, the person involved and the victim, said it was okay, so I’ll end the search for the culprit at this point.”
A look of disappointment appeared on Bergamo’s face at those words. It seemed perplexing that the composition that was at best advantageous had been reset.
“So, what do we want to discuss?”
“This is the future. As you can see from the traditional Lydia attire I am wearing, I hope that the Holy Kingdom of Lydia and the Principality of Claudia can foster friendly relations. So, I ask you to please stop fighting.”
“… “
“… “
At those words, the anti-war group laughed, and the main group frowned. The cardinals who claimed to be neutral were trying to decide between one thing and another.
“I will explain it to Her Majesty the Princess as best as I can. Some unscrupulous cardinals once tried to assassinate me by mistake, but I have already forgiven them all, and I hope that we will consider our future diplomatic relations and foster a good relationship with the Holy Kingdom of Lydia. “I will take responsibility for persuading Her Highness, so I would appreciate it if you could decide whether or not to join hands with Her Highness Princess Leonia from the Holy Kingdom’s perspective.”
“… “
“… “
I felt the atmosphere change in one moment. This time, Cardinal Bergamo looked bewildered, and Salome’s expression brightened. And, crucially, Alexander the Great, who had only been watching among the cardinals, stepped forward.
When Seonghwang came up to the podium, I naturally moved out of the way, and soon Seonghwang made eye contact with each of the cardinals and started talking.
“I would like to first apologize for this unfortunate incident.”
The cardinals looked surprised at that one word. This is because there has never been a case where a Holy Emperor with absolute authority in religious society said sorry to a Cardinal.
“Before I became a prosperous person, the many frivolous things I did as Alejandro de Hiron led to your distrust of the Hiron family, and I think that led to the sudden suspicion that we were the culprits in this incident. “I sincerely apologize to you for lowering the dignity of the kingdom.”
In response to those words, “No!” Was heard from everywhere. These words were mainly heard from anti-war or neutral cardinals who were in the same faction as Seonghwang.
“However, before we consider whose responsibility it is, there is something we must do first. It is for the Holy Kingdom to survive. In order for the Holy Kingdom to survive, should it fight against Princess Leonia or accept Princess Leonia? I believe that the only way for the Holy Kingdom to survive is for the cardinals to clarify their intentions and, once those intentions have been decided, for the opposing factions to follow the established policy. So… ”
Alexander’s success. In the game, political power was set very high, but now I think I understand it a little more. I try to let miscellaneous matters take care of themselves and only tackle major issues. Therefore, the weight of the title Seonghwang does not diminish at all. It’s quite good.
“So, I suggest you vote now.”
“Wait! A hasty vote when public opinion has not yet been gathered… “
“Let’s give it a reprieve. “To extend the voting deadline to one week.”
Hearing those words, there were nods of agreement and voices from all over the place. It was said that a week was an appropriate time to decide on the policy of the Holy Kingdom of Lydia.
Just like that, the council ended, and I left the Seonghwangcheong with a sigh of relief.
Everything was going well.
—–
For a week, Salome was busy. She showered many bribes and titles into the homes of each cardinal. From Salome’s point of view, it seemed like it would be a waste to give away all the money and government positions she had saved at once, but she did not skimp on bribes or state positions. When I asked her why she was like that, she said it was because she had been saving up for times like this.
So many cardinals suddenly became wealthy and their positions began to rise one or two levels. Meanwhile, Bergamo had only one way to deal with Salome’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering. That was ‘appealing to conscience.’ Bergamo sincerely believed that if the Taspilia peninsula fell to Leonia, the Holy Kingdom would be ruined, and he spread this belief to others. The story was that in order for the Holy Kingdom to have its autonomy recognized, it must not join hands with Princess Leonia and must spit out the territories of the Petrine Republic and the Principality of Plos that it had consumed so far.
With one side guaranteeing the interests and the other side emphasizing a sense of duty, it was as if the winner was determined. It was anti-war. The clergy who received bribes from the anti-war faction all voted for the anti-war faction, and the result of the vote was that the anti-war faction won by a crushing margin of 34 to 17.
In this way, the Holy Kingdom of Lydia joined hands with Princess Leonia, and as soon as Princess Leonia heard the news, she took all her troops and advanced to occupy the last territory of the Principality of Plos.
Now there was no need to worry about excommunication.