Chapter 533

A midnight ambush.

The suddenness of the attack, coupled with the fact that the Keres Church Order’s forces had been nearly crushed by the Bølberg Church Order, left them unable to mount any meaningful resistance. With only one high-ranking paladin defending the cathedral of the Holy City, what more could be said?

This ambush was carried out precisely because they knew the situation. If the Keres Holy Legion had been intact, capturing the cathedral would have required a great deal of bloodshed. But now, they could subdue everyone without even needing to kill.

As Lacey had predicted, the Keres Church members who tried to defend the cathedral were overwhelmed by the sheer difference in power and were captured without a fight. She achieved a nearly bloodless victory.

“Elmain…!”

“You know as well as I do that there’s no chance of winning, right? Give up this meaningless resistance and surrender.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

The last remaining high-ranking paladin of the Keres Church raised his sword, glowing with divine light, and roared in anger.

“Refusal… What a pity.”

To Lacey, it sounded like the cry of a cornered beast.

“Subdue him.”

“Yes!”

At Lacey’s command, Richard, Bels, and other high-ranking paladins charged at him.

The Keres Church’s high-ranking paladin, who had tried to hold the line until the end, was captured without being able to do anything as five paladins of equal rank rushed him.

The Keres Church Cathedral was completely occupied.

—

“Kurt! Hermann! What is the meaning of this? How could you commit such atrocities!”

Cardinal Rosof of the Keres Church shouted the names of the two cardinals accompanying Lacey, but they remained silent and ordered the paladins to bind him. Struggling and venting his fury, Rosof was brought before Lacey, tied up like livestock headed for slaughter.

“Audius Rosof, with the agreement of three of the five remaining cardinals in the Holy City, you are hereby dismissed from your position as cardinal and will be imprisoned.”

Lacey looked down at Rosof with cold eyes, her voice as stern as an angel delivering a sentence to hell.

“Elmain Staldorf! So it was your doing after all!”

“The charge is… inciting civil war. You falsely accused the Bølberg Church Order of the assassination of Paulus Hindenburg, undermining the stability of the Holy Kingdom for your own gain. It’s time you faced the consequences.”

The charge of inciting civil war was the perfect justification for his arrest. While the Bølberg Church Order had also been expelled for their bloodshed, the root cause lay with Cardinal Rosof.

“Consequences? Consequences!? That’s rich. Isn’t it you who’s inciting civil war now!”

Rosof glared at Lacey, gnashing his teeth.

“Kurt, Hermann! You’re no better! Since when did you have the authority to dismiss a cardinal from another church order!?”

“Starting now, I suppose.”

Rosof’s protest was valid, but Lacey didn’t care. She valued the right and wrong according to Elpinel’s teachings over the Holy Kingdom’s procedures and customary laws.

If Rosof had framed Cardinal Wolfgang of the Bølberg Church Order to punish their misdeeds, that would be one thing. But since it was done to gain an upper hand in a power struggle, Lacey had no reason not to punish him.

“Audius Rosof. You have the right to remain silent, though I doubt you’ll exercise it. Every word you utter will be used against you, and anyone who defends you will be imprisoned as an accomplice. I hope the food in the interrogation chamber suits your taste.”

“I should have eliminated you long ago…!”

“Long ago? So you admit you had plans to harm me. I’ll add the charge of plotting to assassinate a saint candidate.”

Lacey smiled like a snake, mocking Rosof.

The growls of a captured beast with no teeth or claws left were nothing but pitiful to her.

Ignoring Rosof’s curses, she gently touched the holy symbol around her neck and offered a prayer of thanks to Elpinel.

Everything had gone smoothly.

Thanks to Ha-shal-leur, she had more than enough fame, the testimonies of cardinals including Ernliter, and an overwhelming power disparity between allies and enemies.

With even Cardinal Karnius, who might have sided with Rosof, dealt with, there was no risk in openly removing a cardinal using force.

—

After being struck on the head by Bels’ hilt and knocked unconscious, Cardinal Rosof was dragged away like an old dog.

The two cardinals who had accompanied Lacey averted their eyes, uncomfortable with the pitiful sight of their former peer, but they didn’t stop the paladins dragging him away.

After locking Rosof in a prisoner transport carriage, Lacey gave a speech to the captured Keres Church members to clean up the aftermath.

She explained that they had been detained out of necessity due to urgent and critical matters, not out of hostility toward the Keres Church Order.

Indeed, despite the cathedral being captured, not a single casualty had occurred on the Keres Church side.

“We merely sought to punish Rosof, who abandoned his duty as a cardinal and committed crimes in his lust for power. We had no intention of harming you or undermining the authority of Lady Keres.”

“It’s all just excuses! What crime did His Eminence commit!?”

“A crime so grave it would anger the heavens. For his own greed, he drove innocent and faithful believers to their deaths. What greater sin is there? Audius Rosof is no longer worthy of the title ‘His Eminence.’ He is but a traitor who has committed a grave sin against all of you and the Holy Kingdom.”

Lacey explained to the angry Keres believers why she had punished Rosof.

To gain an upper hand in the power struggle between church orders, he had falsely accused Cardinal Wolfgang of the Bølberg Church Order of the assassination of Paulus without any evidence.

On a small scale, it was an act of treason that disrupted the investigation and made it difficult to find the true culprit. On a larger scale, it was the very act that led to the annihilation of the Keres Holy Legion.

‘At the time, it might have seemed like a sound decision… but not anymore.’

If the Keres Church Order had maintained its power, even Lacey would have struggled to make a big deal out of it.

With the other cardinals also agreeing, Rosof’s vehement opposition would have plunged the barely stabilized Holy Kingdom back into civil war.

But the Keres Church had lost its main forces, and weakened to the point where they couldn’t even stage a protest, let alone a civil war, making such assumptions meaningless now.

“We’re not defending the Bølberg Church Order. Their slaughter deserves condemnation, and they will face retribution someday. But think about it. Your comrades. Your brothers and sisters, your friends. Those who died as martyrs crying out for Lady Keres. Why did they have to die at the hands of fellow Holy Kingdom members? Is that really solely the Bølberg Church Order’s responsibility?”

Lacey continued her speech, condemning Rosof’s immorality and asserting the righteousness of their actions.

Following the effective speech techniques she had learned and mastered, she paid attention to the pitch, emphasis, and gestures of her words.

“No. That can’t be! It wasn’t the warriors of Bølberg who killed them, but none other than Audius Rosof! The cardinal, who should have been the most faithful, whom you trusted without doubt and followed like a parent, drove your comrades to their deaths! For his own greed, like pawns on a chessboard! Thousands of lives were lost meaninglessly because of one man’s desires!”

While there was some exaggeration, it was largely based on truth, as was her way.

“…Even if that’s true, we can’t accept such forceful methods!”

“That’s right! Attacking allies in the middle of the night, isn’t that excessively despicable!?”

“…It was the only way. If we hadn’t resorted to such extreme measures, how else could we have captured and punished Cardinal Rosof? Trying to formally charge him would only have given him time to flee or fortify his defenses, leading to needless bloodshed.”

Lacey spoke decisively, showing not a hint of doubt in her heart.

The paladins who had been protesting wore expressions of disbelief, but they couldn’t refute her words.

They too knew that capturing Cardinal Rosof would have been nearly impossible without such methods.

“We understand your resentment. But it was unavoidable. With nearly half of the eleven… no, nine cardinals who should be upholding the Holy Kingdom gone due to disgraceful incidents, those of us remaining in the Holy City bear the responsibility for the fate of all in the Holy Kingdom.”

Though Lacey herself had contributed greatly to reducing the number of cardinals, in her mind, it was a necessary act of purification.

Aside from Drexler, who had retired due to health issues, none of the cardinals she and Ha-shal-leur had dealt with were innocent.

“Thus, we have a duty to ensure the order and safety of the Holy Kingdom. No one, no matter who they are, can endanger the peace of the Holy Kingdom for their own greed and escape punishment. We must prove this to everyone. I hope you can understand.”

Ending her speech with words that could be taken as either a threat or a plea, Lacey turned away from them and headed toward the carriage she had arrived in.

Whether the Keres Church members accepted her words or not, it made no difference to Lacey.

The cries of the powerless were always the same.

—

After transporting Rosof, Lacey gave a similar speech to the citizens of the Holy City, who were uneasy about the commotion in the middle of the night.

“Long live Elmain!”

“Judgment to the corrupt!”

Unlike the directly involved Keres Church members, the citizens of the Holy City praised her actions.

They too had grown weary of the moral decay among the Holy Kingdom’s leadership, though they hadn’t voiced their grievances openly.

The secret manifesto Lacey had spread earlier had planted seeds of distrust toward the cardinals in their hearts.

And so, another cardinal of the Holy City was gone.

Once numbering eleven, only four remained. And with three of them supporting Lacey and Ha-shal-leur, one could say Lacey had half the Holy Kingdom under her control.