After hearing those two people, Gloria continued with a serious expression on her face, as the news was by no means good.
But she had expected this. After she and Minos had refused the offers of the various high-level factions of the Spiritual Church, it was only natural that those groups would use their means to increase local pressures, things that would upset her and her husband.
The subliminal message of these groups with these actions was simple. Join us and regain control over your territory without outside interference.
Previously the northern region was protected by the Church. Still, with the rise of Minos and the end of some old agreements he had with members of this organization, the Church leadership had changed some rules.
Since specialists were emerging in this territory, it no longer made sense for them to continue protecting this territory from 9th-stage people.
According to the Church leadership, when Gloria questioned them about these changes, the northern region was getting stronger, but for the sake of the local people, they would release access to outside powers to this territory. That was because only then could these people have easier access to higher-level resources.
That was obviously bullshit, but there was nothing for Gloria to complain about. What was done was done, and now they had to bear the burden of independence!
The only faction not trying to force them against the wall was the Supreme Pontiff's chosen one, which had offered various possibilities of help to Gloria and Minos' group.
But they had not accepted the help of this group to avoid debt with this person, and so they were in a challenging situation.
Then the representative for the Waves area said. "But despite everything, we have had breathing room in these areas. With the women of the Flowers Kingdom in the Endless Snow Mountain Range, powerful men are keeping their distance from these frozen areas.
Some even fear that our state will help that kingdom kidnap men and send them into that territory led by Queen Mcbride."
Minos had made several agreements in that kingdom after his many victories against nobles, because of that and the agreement with the queen regarding that area of the Immemorial Graves Sect, several women from that state lived in the Black Plain Empire.
Not only that, when problems arose with Spiritual Sages, something that happened with or without the intention of the parties to fight, these women had been assisting Emperor Stuart in maintaining order in his territory.
Because of this, the situation was not so drastic, even with several high-level foreign experts circulating the area and even living in this state.
Gloria nodded to that woman and said. "The Flowers Kingdom has been an important ally of our state and faction. We need to improve our relations with those women.
They are favorable to the Church and have essential connections in Green City.
We can benefit greatly from a rapprochement between our groups!"
The Mcbride family was friends with the Spiritual Church and had great knowledge about that organization.
With that in mind, Gloria couldn't help but wish to be closer to that state, whereby she could approach smaller factions of the Church.
The Church not only had factions vying for the position of Supreme Pontiff. It had several groups with smaller interests, vying for positions less relevant to those colossi. However, they had much power compared to Gloria's faction.
She knew of the existence of these groups and wished to improve their relations with them, perhaps even convincing some of them to join their faction for both parties to become stronger.
She then said. "Continue to have good relations with the women of this kingdom. If they need anything, help them and try to gently talk to them about the other factions of the Church.
If there is the opportunity, try to get a meeting with people from factions similar to ours or even a little stronger."
"Hmm, I will do that, Matriarch." That person said.
After that, Gloria heard about the situations in Brown and Cromwell, these two territories that were closer to the core of the empire and therefore had less action from foreign forces.
These places had been developing a lot in recent years since they had become part of the empire before the other areas. As a result, the quality of the local forces and the dominance of Minos over these areas was more significant, creating more tranquility for the Church posts in these places.
As for Stone Island, that place was far from Elves Island, not as interesting as other parts of the Black Plain Empire due to the small amount of land, and not far from Dry City.
That was also the most favorable territory in the empire for Minos, where virtually all the families supported him, and there was no room for foreign forces to try to meddle in business there.
After hearing all the updates, Gloria gave a few more orders to those Patriarchs and Matriarchs, letting them go soon after.
"Sigh..."
'It won't be long before the people of the Blood Triangle Pirates group return for their 10-year promise...' So she imagined as she stopped in front of one of the sides of her temple, from where she could see the beautiful imperial palace. 'I don't believe things will go well. That group belongs to the Evergreen family, whom we have already refused to join the faction of one of their descendants.
So Minos will probably have to use that damn map!' She clenched her fists, feeling a little afraid about that.
But all she could do was continue with her current plans, holding on to the situation and slowly changing things in her family's favor.
"Sooner or later, we will achieve our goals!"
...
A few minutes later, in Clouds City, Flaming Empire...
A wormhole appeared over this city of the Gray Clouds Sect, where it currently only had a few dozen members of these forces locally besides the local population.
But these people were all Spiritual Saints at levels 78 and 79, enough to maintain ownership of this area for this Minos' organization.
Because of this, when this wormhole appeared there, these experts immediately sensed the arrival of a Spiritual Sage, frowning and preparing for the worst.
They quickly moved to the surroundings of that wormhole, waiting to see where the problem was coming from this time.
Not only the northern region was experiencing an increase in the number of 9th stage experts passing through there. Even the Flaming Empire, Albano, Rosser, and Blackrock were experiencing something similar.
Therefore, the appearance of Spiritual Sages in the Flaming Empire had increased, and it was no longer as shocking for local leaders to see wormholes in the skies of the largest cities in the state.
However, those subordinates of Minos would soon lose the severe expressions on their faces to grin from ear to ear, seeing one of their old acquaintances crossing that region of space.
"Old fellows, I'm back!" The strongest elder of the Coleman family after Oswald roared, surprising all the high-level elders of the sect in the vicinity, looking at him intensely.
...
