I Became the illegitimate son of a duke

106 – Previous (2)

“Your Majesty, are you sure you are all right?”

A meeting was held with leading figures such as Armand Leclerc and Luca to discuss measures for the future. Of course, the topic of the meeting was a proposal sent to Cardinal Andrea of the Seonghwangcheong not too long ago.

“It’s going to be a man and a woman anyway, so what? Isn’t that right, Bishop Armand?”

“…Yes, Your Majesty. As you said, the Canaanites will no longer be able to go back.”

Since there are many merchants from the Empire, the situation of the Imperial Civil War is well known not only to me but also to the people of Rotaling. Even among the territories of Rotaling, there are many places that were formerly imperial territories.

Anyway, the situation in the empire was quickly conveyed to Rotaring, and this made one thing clear in the heads of Rotaring people.

The Canaanite religion will no longer be able to regain its former prestige.

“Yes, Seonghwangcheong will be completely defeated in the empire, and the reaction is currently ongoing. Haven’t all the countries that participated in the war gone into chaos? Instead, you should be more mindful of what you can rip off. Of course, it’s better if you build a cause.”

Since the influence of the Seonghwangcheong is still strong for the Canaanite believers, it really shouldn’t go out, but the Seonghwangcheong also believes in the Canaanite believers and cannot be stopped by the secular countries.

Basically, the authority, power, and duty of a country with an undeveloped social system, that is, a country that maintains a medieval feudal system, belongs to the ruling class who leads the country, typically the monarch. This means that the state is the private property of the monarch, and the faith of the monarch soon becomes the faith of the state.

Of course, no matter how many monarchs there are, there are so many groups in the country, so it’s not like you can change your faith at will, but now the situation has completely changed.

‘In the first place, not only me but everyone knew that the current church was an asshole.’

Although they still have faith in the main god of Canaanism, the number of aristocrats who are truly loyal to the Seonghwangcheong was greatly reduced as they dealt with the church’s foolishness.

There are more than a pile of nobles who have converted to avoid being attacked by the anti-temple war, and most of them are probably nobles who don’t want to give up their faith but don’t want to listen to the words of the Seonghwangcheong. Even though they were far away from the battlegrounds, there were so many converted nobles.

Anyway, what these results suggest is that the Seonghwangcheong can no longer fool the monarchs like before.

What if the Seonghwangcheong still disputes the monarch’s rule without justification?

Are you kidding me right now? I’m offended… I just want to believe in the Reformation… Get all of you out of my estate… Excommunication? What to do… It’s roughly like this.

“Even if the Seonghwangcheong wanted to reject what I proposed, the basic schooling of the Canaanite Church and the mediation of negotiations with the Empire, it could not be done. Because we can completely solve the problems they face, such as the problem of failure, in the first place.”

“…And the Seonghwangcheong will not be able to say anything to Your Majesty anymore.”

Armand, who was by my side, answered me like that with a shy expression.

What kind of words… I mean.

Surely, the things I committed are serious sins that cannot be escaped according to the doctrine of Canaanism, but it means that the Holy Office can no longer say anything about those serious sins.

Considering various political stances, it is obviously beneficial for the Seonghwangcheong, but it is the worst in terms of religion. That is, faith has yielded to politics.

“That’s right, isn’t it really good that the Seonghwang Office pays for the entire cost of building a basic school in the province, and then I can’t properly express my dissatisfaction?”

Currently, there are too many churches in Rotaring to count.

There are many corrupt places now, but those churches were originally installed for the purpose of projecting administrative power on the countryside and psychological stability and control of the people.

We can send priests trained at the Dijon Theological Seminary to churches everywhere, and teach many things to the local people through them. It is possible to teach letters and official languages through translated scriptures, to teach loyalty to the king, and so on. Can you say that it was a public academy in the Joseon Dynasty?

Originally, sending priests to local churches was only within the domain of the Seonghwangcheong, but what I proposed to the Seonghwangcheong was not the construction of additional churches, but the establishment of a theological school. It’s my sole responsibility to decide who to send to that school, so even if Seonghwangcheong realizes it late, it won’t be able to respond.

Anyway, the people who grew up in such a school will prioritize King Rotaring’s orders rather than the Seonghwangcheong, and in the end, a new church only for Rotaring, which is only Canaan on the outside, will be created.

“Arman, what’s going on? The faith of the Rotaring Kingdom is hanging over you, so relax your shoulders.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I was just… A little confused.”

“It is possible. I consider it fate that you, a native of Dijon, become a bishop of the Dijon Province. Please do your best.”

“…I understand, Your Majesty.”

And Armand will design a new church unique to Rotaring.

As a cleric of this era, it seems that he is still very reluctant to completely turn to the Seonghwangcheong. I also received a little bit of Jeanne’s influence.

“Your Majesty, the Emperor of the Empire has sent you a positive reply. Here is a separate letter from the Emperor to Your Majesty.”

“Really? That’s great.”

At that time, the door was opened and a messenger cautiously entered, bringing an answer to the letter sent to the empire a while ago.

As the emperor of the empire, I want to end this war as soon as possible, but since all the forces around me are directly involved in the civil war, it must have been very difficult to decide who to mediate. Look at the detailed conditions, even though I asked to meet and coordinate them, I was happy to receive them all at once.

I read the letter roughly, and it says things like, “What is the degree of the neighbor, the throne was given to the Rotaring, and the land was also given?” Are you doing

The throne was given to you at will, the land was bought for a fair price, and the civil war is on your side. If you’re on one side in the first place, the other side will be damned.

Still, there’s nothing wrong with being close to each other as the borders are adjacent, so for now, let’s not overdo it in exchange for mediation, but rather take it in moderation.

…………

“…Greetings, I am Ferdinand of Meissen, entrusted with the negotiating authority to His Majesty Friedrich.”

“…Nice to meet you, I am Andrea, acting as His Holiness Leo.”

The atmosphere at the negotiating room in Dijon could not be described as good even in empty words. Close your mouth and scan up and down before talking to each other is not respecting the other person at all. If you scan openly like that, there’s no way the other person will know about it, but if you dare to do that, it’s subtly insulting.

‘Still, it’s fortunate that both sides restrained themselves a lot.’

The Imperial side sent Elector Meissen, who was a Reformist but belonged to a very moderate axis and was still loyal to the emperor, a faithful Canaanite, and the Seonghwangcheong side sent Andrea, who had a strong political temperament rather than a cardinal. It seems like everyone wants to end this war.

If one side had sent hardliners, things would have gone haywire in no time.

The two sides greeted each other lightly, then decided the order of remarks with a coin toss, and started announcing their position from the empire.

“Kuhm, first of all, His Majesty the Emperor demanded reparation for the damage caused by the false crusade, a public apology from the Holy Emperor, and a guarantee of the faith of his vassals. Also, no interference in the punishment of the secular electors who had rebelled. —-“

Uh…? Does it come out a little hard?

The reason why the Seonghwangcheong accepted my mediation was because they wanted to damage their prestige as little as possible.

Other things aren’t much of a problem, but Seonghwang’s public apology and assurances of the trust of his vassals are too much. If Seonghwang makes a public apology, the prestige of Seonghwangcheong, which has already fallen to the ground due to the ruin of the temple, will dig into the underground, and the assurance of the faith of the vassals will not use any means such as hardline and appeasement measures to return heretics back to the arms of Seonghwangcheong. It means no.

Over there, the envoys of the Seonghwangcheong listening to the words of Elector Meissen are rotting by the minute. Andrea, the representative of the delegation, is doing her best to restrain them, but she looks pretty precarious.

“ㅡThis is the position of His Majesty the Emperor. Of course, if we fine-tune each other’s opinions through negotiations, we will be able to achieve mutually satisfactory results in many ways.”

‘What is it, did you shout loudly before watching it?’

I wondered if I was really going to ask for all of that, but judging from the word tuning, it seems that the purpose was to get what I wanted by pretending to yield after shouting loudly.

The other clergy still don’t know what’s going on and look angry, but their representative, Andrea, understands what’s inside and breathes a sigh of relief.

I’m glad he’s the president, but if one of those priests were to be the president… Ugh, just thinking about it is terrifying.

“…I heard you well. Now let’s talk about our Seonghwangcheong’s suggestion.”