Lu Li could feel that faith in the Holy Court was wavering, but he was not particularly worried.
Ever since his speech that day, he had noticed a peculiar power growing inside his body.
This power was holy and gentle, capable of affecting not only others but also himself.
Previously, if he wanted to use his authority to purify someone's sins, he had to endure a pain akin to an execution. Now, however, simply using this power could offset most of the pain he suffered.
This also gave him the confidence to establish a super knight order that would be fiercely loyal to him and invincible in battle.
How terrifying would a knight order be if they never tired, could rapidly recover even when heavily injured, and were virtually impossible to kill?
One could find the answer by looking back fifteen hundred years ago to the Order of Light, which had completely eradicated the vampires.
Moreover, the Order of Light rebuilt by Lu Li did not require its knights to fall into darkness, nor did it subject them to mental torture and stress.
They were knights of light in the truest sense, warriors of God! Warriors blessed by Heaven!
“Your Holiness, are you listening?” Julia frowned slightly, looking at the youth sitting at the head of the long table, who was clearly distracted.
Lu Li snapped out of his fantasies of conquering the continent, wiped away the drool from the corner of his mouth, and said, “Oh, I'm listening!”
Julia was somewhat helpless, but seeing his exhausted appearance, she could not help but feel a pang of pity for the youth.
For the past few days, he had come to her every day with bizarre ideas, such as laying down tracks called “rails” to allow a type of carriage called a “train” to travel without obstruction.
While these trains might not be as fast as a pegasus, they could travel day and night tirelessly. Moreover, they could carry vast amounts of cargo, which would go a long way toward solving the difficult supply issues at the front lines.
According to preliminary calculations, once the rails were built, using trains to transport supplies could reduce military logistics expenses by eighty percent.
And if the train carriages were converted into mobile cold storage units to temporarily store Holy Relics, it would ease ninety-nine percent of the logistics pressure.
Perhaps the dream of the knight order setting off to war with hundreds of Holy Relics would no longer be just a fantasy!
Although she did not know how the Holy See had come up with these bizarre ideas, he must have been working hard on them every day. Otherwise, he wouldn't always look so exhausted.
“If you are tired, go back and rest first,” Julia said softly.
In truth, Lu Li wasn't tired at all. However, he trusted that Julia would handle everything perfectly, and his presence made no difference anyway.
“Then I'll leave things in your hands,” Lu Li said with a grin. He stood up and left, confidently leaving this highly important meeting of the Cardinals to be fully presided over by the young Cardinal.
The other bishops were not at all surprised by this. They were sitting here merely waiting for news from the front lines so they could make the latest decisions based on the outcome of the Battle of Gargo.
Furthermore, the Holy See almost never micromanaged military operations. Thus, even though he left at this moment, no one said anything—especially since Bishop Julia herself had given her consent.
“Now, let us move on to discussing the obstacles facing the recent railway project.”
Julia looked up, swept her gaze across the Cardinals sitting around the long table, and slowly spoke.
The railway project was a plan that Julia had refined and implemented after Lu Li proposed the concept. Its goal was to lay multiple rail tracks from the holy capital to the Northland front lines as quickly as possible, replacing existing transport channels with trains currently being tested and perfected, thereby significantly reducing logistics costs.
However, the project had met with resistance from the nobility right from the start.
Those who refused to sell their land were merely the more moderate opposition among them. The more radical canal nobility not only intentionally sabotaged the completed railways, but even threatened the craftsmen with death to force them to quit.
Julia was furious when she learned of the nobles' actions, but for a time, she could not find a way to resolve the issue.
After all, a significant portion of the nobility made their living through transport, extracting massive amounts of gold coins from the Holy Court. The conflict of interest between them was almost irreconcilable.
Now that this proposal was laid out, not a single person present dared to speak easily.
Julia did not urge them. In truth, she already had a vague plan in mind.
The arrival of a new era was destined to tread upon the bones of the old. Those nobles who clung to outdated ways and refused to change would surely become the first sacrifices of this transformation.
Rather than waiting to act until they caused greater trouble for themselves and the Holy Court, it was better to strike now. Only by cutting away the rotten flesh could they better welcome the new era.
After another moment, seeing that still no one spoke, Julia stood up and said:
“In that case, we shall suppress them by force!”
“As for anyone who dares block the Holy State's great march, I am not responsible for judging their sins—that is God's job. My only responsibility is to send them to meet Him.”
As her chilling words fell, every Cardinal present felt a shiver run down their spine.
With the might of the Holy Court, a military crackdown on the uncooperative nobles would inevitably result in a one-sided slaughter.
However, they would never plead for those useless gluttons who did nothing but eat, drink, and play all day long. A consensus had long been reached among everyone regarding the path of “making the Holy State great again.” Anyone who dared stand in front of this chariot of war would be completely and ruthlessly crushed.
...
When Teresa led the newly established Order of Light to Gargo City, Eleanor was organizing the retreat of her knight order and the expeditionary force.
The atmosphere within the city was incredibly oppressive. Even those who had just arrived could feel the low morale of the defending soldiers.
“Commander, are they... retreating?” one of the accompanying knights asked hesitantly upon seeing the scene before them.
Teresa narrowed her eyes slightly. They were a knight order independent of the main legion and did not answer to Eleanor's command. Currently, all actions of their order were decided by Teresa alone, so the retreat of the expeditionary force would not affect them.
She then spoke:
“Let them go. You only need to keep your mission in mind—”
“Win victory for the Holy See, and win victory for the Holy State!”
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