Chapter 41: Chapter 41

Yveste was now very angry.

As the Third Princess of the Saint Roland Empire, she hadn’t felt the sensation of being threatened for a long time.

Even though she was the least favored among them, she had rarely encountered such a situation thanks to her innate powerful abilities.

In fact, the reaction she most often encountered was fear.

But today, an insolent fool actually came before her, shamelessly trying to threaten her.

Moreover, that bug was from the Church of Providence.

As one of the Three Major Churches of the Saint Roland Empire, the Church of Providence had become increasingly autocratic and overbearing in recent years.

It even faintly showed signs of surpassing the Church of Silence and the Fertility Church.

In terms of the number and strength of Extraordinary Beings, their internally established Star Knights Order was nearly comparable in scale to the Royal Guards.

Even in terms of top-level Extraordinary Beings, they were not much behind.

Just in Fifth Rank Legends alone, if you included the newly promoted young lady of the Snow Eagle family, there were six in total.

As for the even more powerful Sixth Rank Demigod, it was rumored that the Church of Providence had a former Archbishop who had been lying in a coffin, maintaining his life through various means, only to appear when the church faced annihilation.

In terms of Sealed Artifacts, the Church of Providence was also frighteningly formidable.

They had as many as four registered Level 0 Sealed Artifacts, not to mention the unseen depths of their foundation.

Setting aside Extraordinary Beings and Sealed Artifacts, just in terms of the number of believers, the Church of Providence was truly the number one church in the Saint Roland Empire.

Take Oren City for example.

As a border capital, it had as many as 800,000 people, of whom about one-quarter were believers of the Church of Providence.

No wonder they were no longer as humble as before.

But the problem was, Yveste was royalty, and now they even dared to be so disrespectful to the royal family.

At the thought of the conditions proposed by that cleric, she couldn’t help but sneer.

Speaking of which, that guy came to see her today about a matter related to Duke Tyrus.

As the Governor of the Southern Province, he had become increasingly dissatisfied with these churches in recent years.

Due to the Empire’s weak control over the south, coupled with being adjacent to the border and the demon battlegrounds, battles had been frequent in recent years; many cities lacked regulation and deterrence, and there was a faint trend towards becoming lawless regions.

The more this was the case, the more harshly ordinary civilians lived.

And the harsher life became, the more they needed spiritual sustenance.

Therefore, the beliefs of the major churches began to grow wildly on such fertile ground.

The Church of Providence was one of them.

Because this force was too powerful, even official institutions like the City Council and Security Bureau in places like Oren City did not dare to act rashly.

Alternatively, perhaps due to the intricate relationships and temptations of profit, they themselves chose to stand on the same side as the church.

Here’s something truly laughable.

For several years, the royal family hadn’t received the population taxes from these border cities, which together amounted to an extremely large sum.

Those churches often colluded together, using tax exemption policies to hoodwink people.

Yet the commoners didn’t live better lives because of paying less taxes.

In fact, to show loyalty to their faith, they donated five to six times the original amount to the churches.

As the Governor of the Southern Province, Duke Tyrus came to Oren City this time precisely to deal with these long-standing issues.

Collect taxes!

Collect taxes!

Still fucking collecting taxes!

This was also one of the reasons why Duke Tyrus didn’t want to meet with Yveste.

He was simply too busy.

This wasn’t a battlefield; it was impossible to have the army forcefully crush those parishes just because they didn’t pay taxes.

If he really did that, he’d be removed from his position as Governor the next day.

Perhaps having caught wind of something, upon learning that Duke Tyrus had personally come to Oren City, those churches also began to feel uneasy.

So the Church of Providence sent someone to seek an audience with Yveste.

In the end, it ended up with an unhappy parting.

Speaking of which, it’s laughable.

Those stupid pigs actually wanted her, as a princess, to confront Duke Tyrus on behalf of the church.

Alternatively, cause some trouble to muddy the waters in Oren City, delaying the tax investigation for a while to facilitate their transfer of assets.

As a reward, they would ‘generously’ provide Yveste with fifty thousand gold coins as her Candidacy for the Throne funds.

This princess is only worth a mere fifty thousand gold coins?

Yveste felt her intelligence had been insulted.

What’s more, everyone knew that her visit to Oren City this time was to establish good relations with Duke Tyrus.

To propose such conditions only showed that whoever was behind this was either stupid or malicious.

Yveste was already quite displeased, and who would have thought that guy would even dare to threaten her.

「Your Highness, regarding those 300 innocent people outside the city, if you need help, the church will surely provide substantial support. We hope you consider carefully; otherwise, if too much time passes, perhaps some unexpected incidents might happen.」

He seemed very sincere on the surface, but the last sentence revealed his true intentions.

Regardless of what they intended, Yveste took that sentence as a threat.

In her heart, she had already sentenced this guy and those stupid pigs to death.

She actually wanted to kill that guy on the spot, which fit her character.

But on second thought, could the people of the Church of Providence really be that stupid?

Knowing that such conditions would anger her, yet they still sent such a fool to meet her?

Could it be that they wanted her to kill someone here, making a big scene, and then confuse matters by assuming the victim’s role?

With this in mind, Yveste temporarily suppressed her killing intent.

But in any case, the 300 civilians stranded outside the city were indeed a big problem.

In the end, this might have been a trap set for her by the Church of Providence and the City Council.

But she had no choice but to take the bait.

Regarding this, she felt an even greater headache.

She didn’t know whether that guy had a solution; she was, after all, grasping at straws in desperation.

After all, this was a major matter concerning the people’s livelihood, definitely not something that could be settled with quick wit and scheming.

But now, it seemed she could only choose to believe.

Believe that that guy would create another surprise.

However, three days was still too little time; even processing fifty people a day, it would take about a week.

Therefore, Yveste had already mentally prepared for them to temporarily fail.

If Lynn came to beg her for a few more days, Yveste wouldn’t refuse.

But she would take this opportunity to give him a good admonishment, completely suppress his arrogance.

Yveste picked up her teacup with a cold expression and sipped.

Then she glimpsed Lynn sneaking in through the doorway, looking very stealthy.

Upon seeing him, Yveste’s mood eased considerably.

She didn’t even know why.

「What’s the matter?」

Seeming to have guessed his purpose in coming to see her, Yveste spoke majestically.

In the next moment, Lynn knelt on one knee, holding a stack of papers in his hands and presented them.

「Your Highness, these are the Extraordinary Contracts signed by the refugees stranded outside the city,」 Lynn said solemnly. 「A total of 312 people, with 311 actual signatures.」

「Except for one villain who resisted stubbornly and was killed on the spot by me, all others are here. Mission accomplished!」

His voice was loud, as if he wanted the entire manor to hear.

Even the passing maids outside the door subconsciously stopped, thinking that some joyous event had occurred.

Yveste stared at him, somewhat stunned.

「You… what did you say?」