Inside the Basilica of San Antonios, sunlight shines through the long painted windows into the main nave.

The largest church building in the Northlands of the Empire has been cleared, but perhaps deliberately by the Cardinal Priest Sirudelt, it lacks the proper setting of a meeting place.

Standing near the long painted windows that shine diagonally into the light, you can turn your head and see that all the prayer benches in the main hall have been removed, and the vast interior space has been roughly swept away, apparently leaving only a long straight blanket from the main entrance of the church to the main priest's podium and marble statues at the bottom, plus a few metal candle stands that extinguish the candlelight and dozens of armor-clad paladin guards standing together, scattered by the inconspicuous windows and corners.

Sirudelt ascended the presiding podium with his back to the marble statue and facing the door of the church, and with a look of superior arrogance, he witnessed the entrance of the delegates of the Northland.

The old priest of Macallon still held the staff in his hand as before, and used it to support his hunchback, but the white three-pointed hat with gold trim had to be worn on the top of the head of the old priest of the Northlands, next to the priest's pulpit, as a foil to another red yarke.

The old priest bent his waist and counted the number of people with his eyes, starting with Scambed, who came first, and counted every noble official who came in from the main entrance of the church in turn, until after a while, he finally saw Alice walking slowly in with a white-clothed "maid" and a tall "guard" on the left and right of the hand-held cane, and then half-turned around and looked up at the podium: "Priestess Sirudelt, everyone has arrived." ”

Sirudelt could hear him clearly, but seemed to disdain the presence of the old priest.

The blonde, blue-eyed cardinal of Holm smiled and raised his chin, the focus of his eyes on Alice's face like a pair of hooks and locks that had already been targeted, and the sight of the church door from the end of the long carpet from the bottom of the door to the door.

He was the first to speak, with a mask-like hypocrisy, and at a glance he noticed the mid-length emanation of the latter's ponytail and the blue flame robe he was wearing: "Gazteth is on top—I knew you wouldn't be absent, Miss Alice Stun." ”

"Ma'am, Lord the Red Priest."

"You're shining today."

"Thank you, and may the eyes of the God of Justice always be on you."

Alice raised her eyes to him, corrected and symbolically complimented, and then saw two paladin guards coming from both sides not far away and closing the door, and the movement of the two doors closing seemed to crunch and sigh slowly, so that the noble representatives of the Northland court finally found that the venue without seats and long tables looked like the Inquisition presided over by Sirudelt.

Well, it looks like a serious occasion, not for anyone to sit down.

Scambed shrugged his shoulders slightly, and with a hint of sarcasm in his heart, he put his hands together in front of his stomach and smiled casually, then glanced back, and motioned for the courtiers present to move out of the way with him.

Alice understood Scambed's eyes, and immediately walked forward, walking along the long carpet under her feet to the front of the Northland court, the sea blue eyes under her blonde hair raised the angle of her gaze on behalf of her lord's interests, and confronted Sirudelt.

Thea watched carefully, and like Urs, she played the role of maid and guard, following Alice's left and right.

Urs was also watching his surroundings as he moved forward with Alice, knowing that in addition to the Helmet City as the capital of the Earl, the Northland Earls of this era also had two subordinate barony realms, "White Pines" and "Brown Hills", which were ruled by two local nobles, Baron Marken and Baron Friedrich.

Neither of the two barons was there today.

Baron Marken and Baron Friedrich, both as knights and border generals, delegated the governance of their fiefdoms to their respective court governors, the former stationed in the Winter Fortress to monitor the movement of the snowfields, and the latter stationed in the mountainous fortress area on the eastern border of the Northlands all year round to prevent the nomadic tribes in the east of the empire from bypassing the Duchy of Ulan to launch raids.

Sirudelt seems to have seen through this, so he called this meeting abruptly, only "courtesyly" to reserve a day for Alice and Scambed to prepare, so that the essence of this meeting is really just a face-to-face battle between him and the representatives of Helmet City, so that the Northland side lacks the support of the two barons.

"Ahem—" Suddenly, Sirudelt stood on the podium and cleared his throat, glancing at the people in the church, ready to begin the first speech of the meeting.

Alice and Scambed exchanged glances, raised their hands, and motioned for the crowd to quiet down and listen to him.

Sirudelt nodded with satisfaction, glanced at Alice and Scambed, took a breath, and then said in a solemn tone: "Since the founding of the Golden Eagle, our first emperor, His Majesty Calvinland, has led the generation of our ancestors to sweep away the monsters and barbarians, and carved out this paradise, foundation and glory belonging to the empire on the shores of the Emerald Bay, thus establishing the legal system, turning the pages of human history in the Third Age of Castano to the length of civilization, and dividing the princes. ”

"The first monarch crowned with the imperial crown, left the hinterland plain of Holm as the emperor's direct domain, bestowed the glamorous and rich southwest coastal region to the brave and warlike nobles, bestowed the Arranster region full of barbarians to foreign heroes other than the Holmes, and then bestowed on the northern prince of the great territory to be cultivated north of the emperor's direct domain, that is, His Royal Highness Ed Hornface, the royal brother of His Majesty Calvinland, the noble king of the emperor."

"His Royal Highness Ed is the perfect prince, and even in those days he was called the vice-monarch of the empire, and the most trusted right-hand man of His Majesty the Monarch, and this honor is a testament to history."

"His Majesty's great deeds are destined to leave a glorious page in the annals of history, and the end of this long page is far from stopping here, but continues little by little with the passage of time, bearing witness to the rule of the empire in his time by the descendants of the royal family of Hornface today, His Majesty Leopold IV, whom we serve today."

At this point, Sirudelt suddenly paused to speak, and the eyes under the round hat of the red-clothed priest once again swept their gaze over the people present, and the expression on his face and the tone of his mouth suddenly changed to sadness, and sighed: "But ......"

After lamenting, he raised his right hand and lightly covered his heart, bowed his head slightly, and continued: "The continuation of the empire will never end, and the glory of Hornface will live forever with the golden warbler, but this will not prevent a series of tragedies from happening, such as a past incident that we all know—"

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