Currently, the Spiritual Church is facing great uncertainty. The future could be both terrible and incredible in case Maximillian succeeded in his projects.
But in both futures, high-level people in the Church would suffer and could range from getting great opportunities to losing everything they had built so far.
The Church would hardly be destroyed in a continental war, but many experts could die in such a confrontation.
The currently powerful factions could lose their power and become decadent groups or even be exterminated.
All members of the Church could be affected in these uncertain times, and as such, the members of the main factions were already beginning to think of what was best for themselves.
With the appearance of Maximillian, the dispute for the position of Church leader no longer made sense, so the positions of a few months ago of these factions had changed.
The Minos and Gloria faction still had great potential within the Church. Still, it would no longer be influential in deciding the next leader of this institution. So, amidst the uncertainty about the future, these factions no longer bothered Emperor Stuart and freed their members to act toward him as they preferred.
Some of these powerful experts saw Minos as someone who would keep growing and the Empire of the Black Plain as a place that would reach a relevant level in the post-war period.
As a place that would at least be at peace in the short term, this was an interesting state to associate positively with!
Because of this, even members of high-level factions of the Church had been accepting conversations with allies and members of the Gloria faction, thinking of a future where they could benefit from being on the good side of the Black Plain.
Among the first to act, one of the Cardinals of the faction to which Gloria's father belonged had already shown interest in improving his relations with this red-haired woman's group.
As for how Gloria's group could benefit from this, well, there were several ways.
Gloria knew that having this person on her side would give her access to virtually every Church post in the Flaming Empire, a crucial information network.
She could reach more people, gain more observers, and get information faster through this.
For now, she and Minos were not interested in obtaining positions within the Church. But when they did, the more Church positions they had on their side, the greater their bargaining power would be!
So upon hearing the words of that ally, she smiled in satisfaction and continued the conversations.
"Well then, let's approach the group of that..."
...
Meanwhile, Isabella was at the imperial palace in her residence, receiving envoys from Blackrock.
This woman had already overcome the death of the old supreme elder and was currently dealing with the expansions of the Black Plain Empire's interests across the independent domains of Minos.
Even though they had more power and these territories for themselves had chosen to subordinate themselves to their family, this did not mean that Minos and his women could demand anything they wanted from their inferiors.
They could even try to do this using force. But such a thing would not be interesting, and the best thing to do in the current situation was to gain benefits gradually, making the other side accept agreements that would one day give the empire greater powers over these states.
Therefore, Isabella, who Harold had educated to deal with politics since she was a child, negotiated monthly with powers from the Blackrock, Albano, and Rosser areas.
They wanted more protection, sometimes investments from the Black Plain. In return, the empire wanted to impose its laws on these areas, take in young talent, and pay lower rates on products and services.
This was something that could benefit both sides and was discussed slowly, as Isabella was doing now with the crown prince of that area of Blackrock.
"Your Majesty, we need more protection over us. As much as we do not face immediate danger, the pressures on our neighbor to the south are increasing with each passing day..."
"Your Highness, it is not that simple." Isabella smiled. "We don't have that many specialists, and some of them need to cultivate for the state to get stronger. We can't just send them all out...
But there are ways your territory can lessen the dangers about itself. For example, why don't you change the position of your capital? Build a new location near the Snow area. In that area, you will not face any problems."
"Change our capital?" That prince thought about it, considering it would make his most important city practically within the Black Plain Empire.
"Yes, another option is for you to join Queen West and both of you to build a new capital on the border of your territories. That would immediately make the capital of both of you have more Spiritual Sages and more power.
Together you can become much stronger and decrease the need for large numbers of our experts."
With this measure, these two territories could more easily protect their leaders and stronger cultivators. Still, it would also be easier for the state of Minos to influence these people.
This would also strengthen the borders of the Black Plain Empire, something necessary for a future in which Maximillian's words would no longer matter.
That was Isabella's interest in talking about this, to increase her state's defenses and powers of influence!
...
Meanwhile, Minos and Abby were in the imperial throne hall dealing with the internal affairs of their state.
Kendrick was at the academy at that time, but Sarah was there to follow her father's work, watching this man's way of governing.
While she stood in the corner of that area watching Minos and Abby, the imperial guards in the vicinity, and some advisors were out there working with their leaders.
At present, Kara Carline's mother and stepmother were there to update the emperor on the situation in the End area, which was closest to the North Sea.
Minos had been paying particular attention to this area ever since he found out about the fears of the leaders of the Western region, worried about the proximity of the calamity predicted by Henricus Longus, which he felt would come from the North.
As such, for the past 20 months, he had been allocating much of his investments around the empire to that region, even placing three Spiritual Sages there to watch the area for him.
"Your Majesties, we still don't have any results from observing the North Sea, but our numbers have been improving considerably recently." Linette Carline, level 69, said as she looked at Minos with a smile on her face.
"Under the command of our leader, Kara, several Spiritual Saints are appearing in our area. Some of them will even join the exploration of the Ancestral Sea commanded by Her Majesty Ruth."
"Oh? That's good to hear..." Minos said, but at that instant, he was interrupted by one of his subordinates who rushed into that hall.
...
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