After the death of Albert VI, the Marquis of Canaan, who succeeded him, was his third son and the fifth king of the House of Zion to bear the name "Elijah". Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 In order to prove the purity of his faith, Elijah V immediately ordered the expulsion of Otlo and his disciples, and soon after publicly announced that the worshippers of Naro would be elevated from "suspicious" to "extremely evil", which meant that the Inquisition in Canaan had to work overtime to hunt down Naro's followers, and if they were deemed suspicious, they would need to be burned at the stake, even if there was no real evidence.

The burning at the stake throughout Canaan helped Elijah V survive this ****, gaining the understanding of the imperial authorities and winning the favor of the Church of Pelo, so much so that he was canonized a "saint" by the Holy See shortly after his death, and the price paid by the Canaanites for this was a complete break with the Naroku Order and forced to give up all the rights and interests of the Hou State in the Twilight Valley.

Elijah V did not live long, ruling Canaan for twenty-three years before his death, and his eldest son, Joshua, succeeded to the throne by his energetic and ambitious successor, Joshua VIII, a contemporary Marquis of Canaan. Joshua had privately complained that his father had been too aggressive in dealing with the Naraku Order, which had deprived the royal family of a stable source of magic crystals, but he also admitted that his grandfather was to blame for all of this, and that his father's actions at the time were overkill.

The country that Joshua inherited from his father was a mess that was glamorous on the surface and ill on the inside. Perhaps out of some kind of compensatory psychology, the "saint" Elijah spent his life trying in every possible way to curry favor with the Holy See and not give up any opportunity to express his piety to the public. He gave away vast tracts of land to churches and monasteries free of charge, and always favored the nobles and clergy when they were at odds with the latter, as if the secular kingship was a passing thing for him, far less important than the seat in the kingdom of God behind him.

Elijah V's generosity and piety won the favor of the church, but he put his rule in jeopardy. By the end of his reign, most of the noble lords in Canaan had semi-openly refused to pledge their allegiance to him, and even the royal family of Zion itself was facing a financial crisis due to the marquis's profligacy.

The Shariah decrees that all fields, forests, mines, and other properties that are included in the name of the Church will be exempt from taxes, and that the laity who cultivate the land, graze cattle and sheep, and provide other essential services for the clergy will be protected from taxes and military service by virtue of their sacred mission. During the reign of Elijah V, the land held by the Church of Pero in Canaan expanded rapidly, and more and more peasants and herders were exempted from the obligation to pay taxes and serve the royal family under the patronage of the Church. By the end of Elijah V's reign, the clergy had become a family of their own, occupying more than half of the country's arable land but not paying a single copper tax to the state, becoming the largest landowner in Canaan, so much so that Canaan was nicknamed the "monastic republic" by foreign nobles.

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the Canaanite government is facing financial bankruptcy. The greater problem was that the clergy had caused a severe shortage of troops in the country, and the financial deficit had caused the Canaanite royal family to have no money to hire professional soldiers, and the lack of armament gave the nomadic tribes of the Desert an opportunity to take advantage of it, and these fierce and bloodthirsty psionic peoples would cross the border every autumn to loot the inhabitants of the interior of Canaan, burning, killing and plundering all kinds of evil.

According to tradition, Elijah V ordered the nobles and knights from all over the country to organize armies to assemble in the capital city of Bethlehem and take his command to sweep away the bandits. This time, however, the nobles of the realm did not obey their duty and expressed their grievances against the Marquis in a deaf and unobed manner, and even his brother Baron Adonijah wrote in a mocking reply: "In the present situation, it seems all the more important for you to give orders to the Church, as proof that your years of generosity towards the clergy have been worth it......

While Elijah V and the noble lords exchanged letters and accusations, the barbarians from the desert were pleasantly surprised to find that the once powerful Canaanite frontier guards were only an empty shell, which was easily broken through, and plundered the army, approaching the city of Bethlehem almost unimpeded.

Elijah V was shocked to learn of the bad news, and he fell ill. The burden of the capital's defense fell on the shoulders of Lord Joshua, who had just become a father, and he hurried to the barracks to take charge of the situation after kissing his terrified wife and infant son, Glophaa Zion.

In his father's name, Joshua issued a sternly worded ultimatum to the lords, specifying that if they refused to fulfill their vassals' obligations, the Canaanite royal family would revoke their titles and fiefs, and would petition the Holy See to expel disloyal ministers.

The threat had an immediate effect, and the nobles did not think that the House of Zion still had the power to strip them of secular power, but it was well known that Elijah V was close to the Holy See and was the intended "saint", and if he exerted influence on the Holy See, then the Holy See was likely to support the House of Zion in the form of wholesale "excommunication".

The local lords were forced to agree to lead their troops into King Qin, and at the same time, Joshua's negotiations with the church made progress. In his meeting with the Archbishop of Canaan, Joshua pointed out sharply that once Bethlehem fell, the pagan barbarians would have no scruples about plundering the great city, and it was well known that the Church had even more property to protect than the royal family; On the other hand, if the royal family of Zion is overthrown, it is likely that the family that is not very friendly to the church will come to power, and it is difficult to say whether the church's property will be preserved at that time.

Out of fear of the pagan barbarians, the archbishop agreed to summon donations from the abbots and to use a portion of their "modest assets to support a righteous cause," so that Joshua would have sufficient military expenses. He took out 500,000 gold coins from this money to buy a barbarian leader outside the city, and skillfully leaked the news to the leader of another tribe, successfully provoking the enemy to infighting.

The benefits of this were obvious: when the knights from all over the country rushed to the capital to attack the barbarians, the two most powerful barbarian tribes refused to fight together or even die, giving the Canaanite coalition a chance to break through. After two years of fighting, Joshua succeeded in driving the pagan barbarians back to the desert and establishing his authority in the army.

Soon after the end of the war, Elijah V's soul returned to heaven, and Joshua VIII, who succeeded him as Marquis of Canaan, spent another ten years strengthening the royal power, suppressing the unruly barons in the territory, and reclaiming some secular power from the church through both soft and hard means, thus realizing the grand strategy of centralizing the royal family.

After quelling the civil strife, the ambitious Joshua once again set his sights on the Twilight Valley, where he was eager to find a new agent for the interests of the Canaanite royal family in the Far East, in keeping with the tradition of the House of Zion.

After careful consideration, Joshua finally identified a candidate with great potential. The man who came into the royal vision of Zion was named Rudolph Kolas.