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The Sacred Churches... There weren't many of them but they still possessed immense power. Each Church was enough to trample over any Empire if they ever wished. However, they all remained out of conflicts of the mortal World for the most part.
Even if they usually interfered, no one could dare to say anything against them. There was no need for them to offer any explanation to anyone.
Unfortunately, this time was different. They had attacked the Empire of Arecia and almost destroyed it, only to later find out that they were fooled.
The Holy Priest of the Church of Flames was quite upset and distracted by the whole matter of the attacker, so he left the matter of dealing with the aftermath of the Empire conflict with a head priest.
The Head Priest in turn sent an envoy to Arecia in hopes of giving the Empire a brief explanation so the matter could finally be put to rest. He didn't want the matter to spread more than it already did. In this way, they were giving some face to the Empire of Arecia even when they didn't need to.
There was also another reason for him sending an Envoy. He wanted a message to be delivered to the new Emperor so that the new Emperor could change the story a bit! For now, no one in the Empire knew why the Church left so suddenly. There were definitely going to be some mixed feelings. That was why he wanted to get the Emperor to calm down his people to put the matter to rest.
Through this matter, he wanted the Emperor to tell the citizens that the Church came here because a criminal was being given shelter in the Empire and the Church left after they received the criminal.
In this way, not only did the Church clean its hands of the whole matter, but they could also act as if they were full of virtues, even if they had to push the blame of sheltering the criminal on the 'innocent' Empire.
The envoy came only for that matter. He didn't respect the Empire and its people. If anything, he just wanted to deliver the message and leave as soon as he could. Each second he spent here was a waste of his time.
Unfortunately, finding himself being blocked by the Saint Knight, he felt as if they were hiding something. He rushed inside immediately after pushing the Saint Knight back.
The Envoy opened the doors and rushed inside the room, only to be stunned.
The Saint Knight also rushed ahead, brandishing his sword. He wasn't sure if the Envoy recognised the real identity of Gabriel or not, but he was willing to take the risk and take his head off!
Strangely enough, as soon as he looked inside, he was also surprised. The room... It was different compared to when he left the room.
Raphael was nowhere to be found. What stunned him even more was that Gabriel was up! He was finally up!
Gabriel had woken up from his slumber. Not only that, he was also dressed in a new Attire, worthy of his position.
"You are the Emperor?" The Envoy asked, frowning. In the room, there were only two people. First was Gabriel and the second was Callum who stood behind Gabriel.
He had already heard along the way that the new Emperor was a cowardly young man. Since there was only one young man in the room, he immediately realized that Gabriel was the Emperor.
Strangely enough, even though he heard that Gabriel was a coward, he felt entirely different. Gabriel's eyes were clear. His body was brimming in energy and there was not a shred of fear on his handsome face. If anything, there was something about Gabriel which made even the Envoy feel slightly intimidated.
The envoy shook his head lightly, believing it to be his misconceptions.
"I am the Emperor of Arecia, Gabriel Arcadius Arecia. The person behind me is Duke Callum," Gabriel calmly answered. "Are you the Envoy from the Church?"
Initially, Gabriel didn't want to meet members of the Church so soon. However, as soon as he woke up, he was informed by Callum about the arrival of an envoy.
Since it was just an Envoy and not a Head Priest or Lerian himself, Gabriel didn't care much. After all, his ring was enough to hide his aura along with Callum's aura as long as the person before him wasn't a Holy Priest or someone on similar level.
His hands remained behind his back as he greeted the Envoy calmly.
"Hmph, you have good eyes!" The envoy arrogantly walked toward a nearby chair. "I am the Envoy of the Church of Flames. Do you know your crimes?"
He sat down on a nearby chair, resting one leg above the other without even waiting for permission from Gabriel.
Callum in the back frowned. This guy really didn't respect the Empire or even the Emperor. He was acting as if he was talking to his servants in his own backyard.
Gabriel didn't care much about this man's reaction. He had already killed half the Church's forces. If he wanted to kill this weak guy, all he had to do was snap a finger to summon one of the Death Knights and they could handle everything else. Even this Envoy's body wasn't going to be left behind.
Unfortunately, the person had Lerian behind him. Gabriel didn't worry about having to fight with Lerian in the future, but he didn't want this Empire to be dragged into the flames of war. That's why he took such a long winded route to deal with this problem.
"May I ask what I did wrong?" Gabriel asked.
The corners of the Envoy's lips crept up, forming an ugly smile. "You tried to have this Holy Envoy fooled?"
"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked again.
"Don't pretend to be innocent. You had your dog tell me that you were sick so I could be sent back. However you seem perfectly fine. Do you know what crime you committed by lying to me?"
The Envoy didn't care about the dignity of the Empire. He was already frustrated that he had to come this far, all to give an explanation to a measly Empire that they could destroy in an instant. Unfortunately, it was the other of the Head Priest. Despite that, he still wanted to trample on the dignity of the so-called Emperor.
"Lord Envoy, could it be that you're blind?" Gabriel asked calmly.
A sentence... Just a single sentence fell in the Envoy's ears like an explosion. This guy... He actually called him blind?
