As for Cain's situation, I was actually quite happy to see it happen. After all, the higher a knight's happiness index, the more loyal they would be to me, right?
"Hilda, is Cain married?"
"As far as I know... no, Sir Cain has always been single."
Hilda's explanation gave me a good idea of the situation. So, he already had someone in his heart?
I just didn't know who this woman was. I'd have Lola investigate her background once we got back.
"Let's go. We'll head to the East Gate to take a look. Cain's little secret... this is going to be interesting~"
A wicked smirk played on my lips. A self-deprecating but high-ranking knight and a husbandless widow.
I didn't expect to stumble upon such an unexpected find during my walk. This was truly... an interesting story~
Hilda and Nara exchanged a glance. Looking at the smirk on Her Highness the Saintess's face, both were utterly bewildered, unsure of what she was plotting now.
But that mischievous expression did make both their hearts skip a beat.
With a light and cheerful mood, I began walking toward the East Gate.
But before I could take more than two steps, the sound of frantic hoofbeats echoed from the distance.
Looking up, I could see a silver-armored knight galloping toward us on a white horse from afar.
Accompanied by the horse's neighing, the silver-armored knight flipped off his mount and knelt on one knee before me.
"Your Highness the Saintess, there is an urgent matter. Please return to the Temple immediately."
"How... how did you know I was here?"
"Please do not doubt us, Your Highness. We were arranged by Bishop Lola to protect you in secret. We just received an urgent summons from Bishop Lola; please return to the Temple at once."
For Lola to summon me back at a time like this, something major must have happened.
Without much hesitation, I looked down and asked.
"Where is the carriage?"
"Right behind us."
As soon as he spoke, the luxurious and grand Saint's Carriage, pulled by eight white horses, came galloping down the road and skidded to a halt at the intersection.
"Get in. Back to the Temple."
The Saint's Carriage sped all the way back to the Temple. No one dared to block its path because the Saint's Bell was ringing.
This was a sound that only rang when the Saint's Carriage was in a hurry.
Everyone living in Brilliant City knew that once they heard this bell, they had to clear the road immediately.
The crisp sound of the copper bell rang out the entire way until the eight white horses stopped in front of the Temple gates.
Just as I stepped off the carriage, Lola, who had been waiting at the entrance, hurried forward with a grave expression.
"Your Highness, news has come from the border. Count Simmons... has returned his soul to the Temple and his glory to his homeland."
Hearing those words, my heart skipped a beat.
This specific phrasing was only used for nobles of the rank of Count or higher, and it meant that exactly what I feared had happened.
Count Simmons at the border... had fallen.
"Continue."
Without stopping, I marched toward my bedchamber. As the Saintess, I had to maintain my purity within the Temple, which meant I could only wear the Saintess's robe. I had to go back and change immediately.
Lola followed closely behind me, continuing her report.
"Sir Klo and Sir Tristan were ambushed while heading to the border wall. They lost over two hundred knights. Those who attacked... were demon race elites."
A chill ran through my heart at the news. At a time like this, the one person the Kingdom of the Moon could not afford to lose was that man!
"Notify Sir Kevin Cromwell of this immediately. At the same time, issue an emergency recall order. Communicate this news to the other seven nations via courier and request His Holiness the Pope to authorize an Eight-Nation Meeting."
"Yes, Your Highness. However, there is one more thing..."
"Speak."
Between the conversation and the time spent thinking, I had already returned to the bedchamber.
Six little nuns entered from outside and quickly began helping me change clothes.
Lola kept her head down throughout the report.
"Rumors that are not very friendly toward Your Highness have emerged from the territories of the Campbell family and Howard family."
"What rumors? Just say it."
"They say... they say that Your Highness has been bewitched by the demon race and is now under their control. That is why you suddenly want to take control of all the slaves."
My brows furrowed. The Campbell family and Howard family were subordinate families under the Garnet and Dressas families, essentially acting as their vassals.
Hostile rumors about me were spreading in the territories of these two families?
For such rumors to be allowed to spread there, it was undoubtedly on the instructions of the Garnet and Dressas families.
Small noble families like those two certainly wouldn't dare to provoke me so blatantly on their own.
Should I say they were sharp enough to sense my intention to move against the nobility and had begun their counterattack?
Or were they simply testing my bottom line for now?
"Has the source of the rumors been investigated?"
"Not yet. Baker is still working on it."
I nodded. When I looked into the mirror again, the girl dressed as a noble lady was gone. Standing there was the most noble person in the entire Kingdom of the Moon.
"To the front hall." I paused, then asked another question. "Does Duke Fulong know about this?"
"Not yet. This news came from Baker. I don't think many people can surpass Baker when it comes to the speed of information delivery."
"Notify Duke Fulong. At the same time, order the heads of the Campbell family and Howard family to find the source immediately. Punish both family heads by stripping them of one rank of their titles. Also, hold the head of the Rowan family accountable for his third son's illegal slave trading in the Alvin family territory. Entrust the full authority of that investigation to the head of the Alvin family."
"Your Highness... isn't that a bit too aggressive?"
Lola pushed up her glasses. With the border falling into chaos, punishing the minor families under two major families and relentlessly pressing the Rowan family was clearly quite intense. It could easily trigger a backlash from the nobility.
"The Alvin family is now standing with the Cavendish family. Moving against the Rowan family's third son is the best way for them to show their loyalty. The Alvin family has no way back now. If we hand the Rowan family's son over to them and they don't handle it strictly, their family's reputation will be ruined. If they do handle it, it will inevitably enrage the Rowan family, pushing them completely toward the Garnet and Dressas families."
At that point, the internal struggle among the nobility would become clear, shifting from the shadows into the open.
And I could then mediate from the middle, transforming from a bystander into the one controlling the situation.
One must act according to the flow of events. I had originally planned to sit back and watch the tigers fight, but it seemed these various families had accumulated plenty of grudges and grievances over the past few hundred years.
This was very advantageous for me.
"Where are the units of Robert and Tristan now?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, they are currently twenty miles outside the city. They are expected to arrive by dusk today."
"Which families do those two belong to?"
"Robert is from the Norman family, and Tristan is from the Lancaster family."
Among the thirteen great families, four were the largest and most deeply rooted in the Kingdom of the Moon. Then there were seven great families that were rising stars. The last two were slightly weaker but still significant enough to be called great families.
So, their names were Robert Norman and Tristan Lancaster?
"Have these two families shown any reaction to the changes in the slave system at this stage?"
This was important. Although these knights were Temple knights, it was hard to say whether they would side with their families or the Temple in such a situation.
Therefore, their families' attitudes were crucial.
"So far, among the four major noble families, the Cromwell family has had no reaction. The seven great families have also remained silent. The remaining two families have likewise offered no response."
"The slave data compiled by Duke Fulong has been delivered to you, right? Which noble territories does it cover?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, it includes the territories of the Alvin family, Cromwell family, Stuart family, Lancaster family, Julius family, Borgia family, Von family, Cavendish family, and Follis family. It also covers parts of other families' regions. Most of the remaining areas have not yet been fully tallied."
I arrived beneath the statue in the front hall and sat upon the divine platform.
"How many have been counted in total?"
"At this stage, the counted territory accounts for about one-fourth of our national land. We have counted eleven million men, approximately six million women, about 1.1 million minors under the age of fourteen, and around thirty thousand elderly over sixty."
A quarter of the territory, and the total number of slaves was already close to twenty million?
This was likely just a rough calculation and hadn't reached a more detailed level; some were probably being hidden.
Looking at it this way, the real number should be over twenty million.
And if a quarter of the country had that many, then the national total was likely close to a hundred million slaves!
"What is our country's current population?"
"According to last year's statistics, excluding slaves and nobles, there are about 290 million people."
If the labor of the slaves could be liberated, the national strength of the entire country could actually increase by more than a third?
But I knew in my heart that this was just a wishful dream for now.
The biggest problem was... the nobles who enjoyed the endless benefits brought by this system.
Without enough power in my hands, I couldn't confront this behemoth.
"With so many slaves, what do they do to survive?"
"Your Highness, the slaves are naturally owned by the nobles. Their entire lives are sold to them."
Lola paused for a moment before continuing.
"Farming, pulling carts... they are willing to do anything just to stay alive, even killing each other. As far as I know, within the Rowan family territory, there are specialized colosseums where slaves are occasionally pitted against beasts or forced to hunt each other."
There were even such inhumane practices?
But then again... this was indeed the kind of thing nobles under a feudal system would do.
"The Rowan family... I'll remember them."
This Rowan family would likely have to die before the Cavendish family!
Lola pushed up her glasses, the candlelight reflecting off the lenses and obscuring her eyes.
"Yes. I need to understand the situation at the border as soon as possible. Have Sir Klo and Sir Tristan report the details immediately. How much longer until the knights recalled from within the country arrive?"
"Your Highness, it will likely take about another month."
"We don't have enough time... notify Sir Robert outside the city to lead half of his knights to the border as reinforcements. Tell them to be extremely cautious. Have the soldiers on the front line transport the body of Count Simmons back to Brilliant City. Notify the local mages and alchemists to find a way to preserve the body. I will personally guard the coffin."
"Your Highness... is that perhaps inappropriate?"
"For someone brave enough to sacrifice their life for the country, no amount of solemn treatment is too much."
If I wanted to win over hearts, as a ruler, I couldn't be stingy with my own status.
"Is there anything else?"
"Not for now."
"Go then."
Two hundred knights!
Every single one of them was a precious part of my combat strength and the foundation of my security.
Those damn demons, how dare they kill my people!
But it was too late to say anything now. In this era, there was no way to command the front line with perfect synchronization.
Point-to-point communication could only be done from city to city at this stage. They could only send information back once they reached a town.
Even the way I communicated with the Saintesses cost several gold coins per minute. Aside from the nobility and the Holy See, ordinary people really couldn't afford it.
What most people could use was a delivery method similar to a courier dispatch.
A single page of such a dispatch cost anywhere between ten and a hundred silver coins, depending on the distance.
One hundred to ten thousand per letter—one could imagine just how expensive communication was in this era.
Ordinary people couldn't even afford a single exchange of letters with an entire year's income.
Usually, commoners relied on horse-drawn carriages to deliver letters.
This method was inefficient and prone to various accidents, but there was no other choice because it was cheap.
About fifteen minutes later, Lola sent someone to notify me.
"Your Highness, His Holiness the Pope requests a call."
"Understood."
I went to the communication room. When the connection opened, a 3D holographic image of the Pope appeared before me.
The composure the Pope once had was gone, replaced by a look of anxious concern, though to me, this expression felt incredibly fake.
"Lady Luo Li, has the border Count of the Moon Kingdom returned his soul to the Temple?"
Lady Luo Li... what???
So I've basically become your subordinate, then?
Although that was technically the case, could we maybe not say it so bluntly~
It really hurts my pride, you know?
"Yes, Your Holiness. Count Simmons of the Moon Kingdom border has returned his soul to the Temple. Currently, two Guardian Knights are defending the border in his stead. However, the two Guardian Knights were ambushed by the demon race during their reinforcement mission and lost some Temple knights. I suspect there are demon spies within the Kingdom of the Moon helping to hide the demon army."
Besides that, I couldn't think of any other possibility.
After all, an ambush against the knights of the Kingdom of the Moon within their own borders sounded like a fairy tale.
The ones most familiar with the Kingdom of the Moon were those knights, yet they had been ambushed by the demon race.
Something felt wrong no matter how I thought about it.
"I see... Since Lady Luo Li understands the situation, I won't say more. The Eight-Nation Meeting will begin tomorrow morning at eight o'clock. Please be there on time, Lady Luo Li."
Diocletian suddenly changed the subject.
"Lady Luo Li, you aren't married yet, are you?"
"..."
Huh?
Rate on N.U.
