Chapter 81 - Vol1 Ch81: Withdrawal and negotiations (2/2)

He was currently 30 years old, in a poor family, a man this age would be considered old, but for those who had obtained the Divine Grace, they were still considerably young. And it was at this age that he became the youngest Pope in the Church of Divine Grace’s history.

There were many factors involved in this, one of which was undeniably his own efforts, but his own status also brought him a great advantage. His late mentor was Cardinal Augustin who had considerable influence in the Church, thus leading to the majority of the Cardinals supporting him during the Church’s most recent election.

One other reason was war. War had always been a great opportunity for forces and organizations to change their chains of command. For example, Luen’s greatest rival for the position, a Cardinal who was older and more prestigious than he was, lost his life in the war.

Coupled with his status as an aristocrat, he could better coordinate the relationship between the Church and nobility. Finally, with a bit of “luck”, he finally realized his ambition and became the Pope of Divine Grace.

The next step is to take this opportunity to spread the influence of the Church

Luen glanced at Nala and Seth the First by his side. The reason why the Church of Divine Grace agreed to withdraw Nala from the frontlines was precisely because Seth and he, along with the remaining domestic nobles, had reached an agreement.

During the peace talks with Royas, they had worked together to pressure Royas’ ambassador, using the advantage of being the victor, they forced Royas to allow missionaries from the Church of Divine Grace into their country.

This was how humans were, Luen’s initial goal was only to become a Cardinal; after becoming a Cardinal, he set his eyes on becoming the Pope; and right after becoming a Pope, he wanted to become the greatest Pope in the history of the Church and achieve his great ambition of spreading the Church’s influence to the entire continent!

God’s light should shine on more people, so as to prevent the advent of the Black Abyss

Luen thought to himself.

After becoming the Pope, he obtained access to various secrets hidden within the Church, the most important of which was related to the disaster that spanned the entire continent, the Black Abyss.

Within the records of the Church of Divine Grace, the light of God cut through the Black Abyss, which produced the holy flame and purified a corner of the Black Abyss to form this continent. But God did not stay for long, as his battle with the Black Abyss continued.

During the First Empire, it was due to the false God and Dragon who abandoned God that the Black Abyss recovered and resurfaced. During the Second Empire, it was because everyone had prayed and obtained the attention of God once more that they managed to calm the Black Abyss again.

But this corner was simply too small, and God did not grant them his attention for a lot of time. Following the fall of the Second Empire, the faith of their God slowly faded away. During the Fourth Empire, this faith was even distorted to become a faith of all spirits of the world.

Fortunately, after the collapse of the Fourth Empire, the first Pope found the first Divine Grace of God from the remains of the Second Empire. Only when the light of God can shine on the world once more would the Black Abyss be completely purified and the world return to normal.

The more people that believe, the more they can attract the eyes of God

Luen’s heart was full of calculations about expanding the Church of Divine Grace.

…

Not too long later, Rhys returned to the capital together with the many noble knights of the army. Naturally, there were also several ambassadors of Royas who accompanied them. For the next few days, the negotiations for a post-war treaty as well as the necessary reimbursement of benefits for both sides took place.

The ambassadors of Royas made concessions for much of the demands, but there was one thing that the ambassadors would not budge on no matter what: that was, Nala, as a representative of the Interkam Kingdom, must personally head to the border and sign the final agreement.