The keeper of the little temple brought his men out to stand at the gate and welcome them in.
In each temple, there was a room reserved for the head of the capital temple, this room must be the most comfortable room in the temple. Whether it's the environment or the layout, it would be very thoughtful, representing the honor that the saint should enjoy.
When the little temple keeper was going to let his men bring Carnia to the saint's reserved room, Orede suddenly spoke up. "Wait."
Everyone stopped to look at him, and Orede continued, "The saint's room, will be for Sylvie."
Carnia was stunned and couldn't react.
Louis immediately retorted, full of anger, "Only the capital's temple head can live in the saint's room, no one else can live in it. This is a provision in the law, and even if it's you, royal brother, you can't just casually go against the law."
The civil servants who supported Louis also agreed with him, looking at Orede with dissatisfaction.
"Even if the great prince has some dissatisfaction with me, there is no need to use these small things to find trouble with me. That will only make yourself lose the glory of a prince." Carnia made a seemingly solemn and righteous statement.
"You're overthinking it." Orede curled his lip and said disdainfully, "I'm not letting you live in the saint's room, because you now no longer have that qualification."
"The laws are more authoritative than the royal family, the law stipulates that only I can live in all of the saint rooms in the temples. What reason does the great prince have to say that I am not qualified?" Carnia barely maintained his calm facade, but his heart was already in a tumult.
"The laws never had your name in them, not before, and even more so not in the future. The law stipulates that only the saint can live in all of the saint rooms in the temples, and it is a violation of the law for anyone else to go in." Orede said words that made everyone except for Jing Yang shocked. "You are already no longer the capital temple's saint, and of course no longer have the saint's identity."
Jing Yang remembered that he had learned from the system that in the previous world, Carnia's name later on had really been written into the law, and it was Louis who upon becoming emperor had specifically modified the law to write his name in. He had stipulated in the law that anyone who spoke Carnia's name must address him deferentially and revere him, and anyone who insulted his name would be thrown in jail. And no one else in the empire was allowed to be named Carnia. But in this world, this matter was definitely impossible to happen again.
"Royal brother! Your words are really ridiculous, when did you have the right to decide who is the saint?" Louis looked at Orede furiously.
"The law has more authority than the royal family, but the emperor's power is greater than anyone's. He has the right to appoint or remove all positions." Orede took out two decrees from an attendant's box and threw one of them at Carnia's feet. "This is the decree from Father removing you from the post as the head of the capital temple, and instead appointing Sylvie in charge of the capital temple. So now he is eligible to live in the room of the saint, and you are not."
Carnia stared in shock, quickly bending over to pick up the decree to look it over. It was clearly written on it that his position as the head of the capital temple had been revoked. The emperor's seal on it proved that the decree was true and valid.
The officials all exchanged glances, full of incredulity. Carnia was removed from his position as the head of the capital temple, such an important matter, the emperor actually did not announce it in front of the public or the ministers, but was announced by Orede at this time.
"Impossible!" Louis snatched the decree from Carnia's hand, staring hard at the words and seal on it.
"Your Highness." A civil servant came forward. "For the position as the head of the capital temple, whether it's being removed or appointed, it's all very important. Since His Majesty has not made this public, it would be better to wait until we return to the capital to discuss it again, and still maintain the status quo now."
"Weren't Louis and Carnia always telling me about the law just now?" Orede expressionlessly responded. "According to the law, the emperor's decrees come into effect once they are issued, and even if it is to revoke a previous decree, that would have to wait for a new decree to come down to be effective."
The emperor and Orede had done this deliberately. If the matter were announced publicly, those officials who supported Louis would definitely cause all kinds of trouble, and the chaos would not allow for results for a long time. Now they were already on the road, and even if Louis and the rest went back now to the capital to protest to the emperor, Orede's group would definitely not return. Then for the matter of negotiating with the demon clan, Louis's group would no longer have any right to participate.
"Take off his holy robe." Orede commanded his attendants and said to Carnia, "From now on, you will no longer have the qualifications to wear this holy robe again."
Seeing Orede's attendants come over, Louis immediately blocked in front of Carnia, "Who dares!"
Orede made a gesture, and the soldiers immediately suppressed both Louis and his attendants.
Even though Louis had also brought soldiers, no one had the courage to rush over to Orede, and could only stand still.
Louis and those civil servants who supported him could only watch as Orede's attendants forcibly removed Carnia's holy robe.
Carnia was trembling with anger. Not to mention all of the glory that he had enjoyed all these years, but even before that, he had never been subjected to such humiliation in public.
Orede looked at the holy robe in his attendant's hand. "Take this dirty robe and burn it. When we return to the capital, we will make a new one for Sylvie."
The little temple master was someone who was very good at observing the situation, and seeing that the entire matter had been handled by Orede with a couple words, he immediately walked to Jing Yang and said, "Please the saint come with me."
Jing Yang took off his outer robe and sat by the bed. Orede let his attendants all retreat and went to the bedside to sit down, hugging Jing Yang for a kiss.
He pressed Jing Yang down on the bed, and the two people kissed for a while. Jing Yang held his shoulder and said, "Why did you have to announce this matter at this time? Didn't we say that you would wait until we reached the border and then announce it? It doesn't matter where I live."
"I just don't want to see him living in comfort. If it weren't for us wanting to keep him alive, I would long have gotten rid of him. I have countless methods of making him wish for death." Orede was so disgusted with Carnia that he had wanted to kill him when he had just left the temple.
"Endure it a bit longer." Jing Yang stroked Orede's face. "It's very easy to kill him, and it will happen sooner or later, but if we don't solve the demon king behind him, killing him will have much less meaning. We will use this opportunity to give the demons a devastating blow, which will at least allow the humans to live better for several hundred years."
Speaking of the demon king, Orede's eyes changed. "This time if we don't make him suffer a great loss, it will be difficult to eliminate the hatred in my heart!"
~
Early the next morning, the diplomatic team continued to set off. After spending almost twenty days on the road, they finally reached the border.
Orede had already not been to the border in five years. The closer he got, the more he felt the difference here compared to five years ago.
Before he left the border to return to the capital, even though there would be occasional wars with the demons at the border, the people's lives were still quite good. The soldiers struggled to fight with the demons, using their own lives to protect the lives of the people, so the people living here were all full of hope, working hard to live. Even though the streets were not busy, they would still be very lively.
But now, they had passed through several cities, and the closer they got to the border, the fewer people they saw on the streets, and all of the doors of the homes were tightly closed. They would occasionally encounter one or two people outside their doors, but their faces were all filled with caution.
After passing through two cities, the streets in front of them were suddenly full of demon magic. The dense black fog made them unable to see the road in front of them, but they could hear that in the thick black demon magic, there were many screams. The team could only stop.
Carnia walked off his carriage and saw this scene, immediately coming forward to release his false holy light, so that the demon magic slowly dissipated. Looking at the people lying on the ground, Carnia quickly walked over and wanted to help one of them up, and also asked with concern, "Are you all right?"
Carnia had been sullen the entire journey, and the anger that had accumulated in his heart the entire time was almost about to make him explode. Right now he urgently needed these people's gratitude and respect to calm his mood, and he also wanted to let Orede and Jing Yang see that his position among the people was not so easy to replace.
But after being rescued, these people did not even look at Carnia, covering their wounds and running away in panic. They left Carnia alone, stretching out his hands and squatting there very awkwardly.
Orede's expression was very ugly. He had long guessed that the situation in the border cities would not be great, but he had never thought that it was already so serious. He had fought the demons here for seven or eight years, and countless soldiers had sacrificed their lives here in exchange for that previous peace. But now the situation was simply like thousands of years ago, when the humans were completely in a weak position and didn't even have their own army, only being persecuted by the demons and powerless to fight back.
Orede looked at Louis and asked furiously, "This is the result that you gave the people from your so-called peace treaty?"
Louis's expression was also not very good. He had changed the border defense position to his cousin, and had originally wanted him to mix in here for a few years, and then when he returned he could give him a proper name and position. But who knew that when the time came his cousin was also not willing to return to the capital, and said that staying here was better for him. He had thought that after the peace treaty between the humans and the demons, the border would be peaceful and calm, so that his cousin had been too comfortable and wasn't willing to go back. He didn't think that he had actually concealed the real situation here from him.
Carnia walked to Louis's side to help him. "It must be because the great prince you killed the demonic beast, and caused the demons' dissatisfaction, so they would retaliate."
"Huh!" Orede coldly snorted, looking at Carnia with a knife-like gaze. "You are very good at finding excuses, the demons would retaliate, then our soldiers are just for decoration?"
Those civil servants also didn't think that they would see this kind of situation, most of them were coming to the border for the first time in their lives, and it was also the first time they were experiencing the threat from the demon clan. So in their hearts, they were surprised at the situation here, but also full of panic.
The cities that were still some distance away from the border were already like this, then what those cities really on the border would be like, they already didn't dare to imagine.
Originally they still needed to pass through four more cities in order to reach the border between the humans and the demons, which was also the humans' defensive position. But when they were still three cities away from the border, they saw that general in charge of the defense bring his soldiers to greet them.
The general was a fat man with a greasy face, it was very clear that he was living very well here. He was in sharp contrast with the people, who were hungry and panicked. This person was Louis's uncle's son, Barron.
"Your Highness, your highness the second prince." Barron saluted. "I heard the news that you have all arrived, so I came to welcome you to the official residence."
"The official residence is still very far away, why did you run here to greet us?" Orede frowned.
In front of Orede, Barron had never dared to raise his head. As long as he spoke to him, he almost trembled from fear. Even though he had not seen Orede for five years already, and he had thought that he had become a general already, then when he next saw him he wouldn't be as scared as before. But when Orede had just opened his mouth and said a few words, his legs already couldn't help shaking.
"It's, it's like this your Highness." Barron lowered his head, his fat waist slightly bent. "Now the garrison is already stationed in this city, so the official residence is also built in this city."
"The garrison is stationed in this city?" Orede repeated his words, his face calm and dark. "So the other three cities, what is the situation now? Just thrown away and not caring about them?"
"The other, three, three cities…" Not only did Barron's legs tremble, but his voice also started shaking. "Because the demons were much more active in those three cities, in, in order to not conflict with them, we retreated to his city."
"So you're saying that you just directly gave up those three cities to the demons?" Orede narrowed his eyes, and the sense of oppression in his voice made Barron even more unable to lift his head.
"I, I did it in consideration of the peace between the humans and the demons, in order to not create unnecessary conflict…" Barron's voice became lower and lower, and he became guiltier. In fact, he had received benefits from the demons, and only then directly gave those three cities to the demon clan. Originally he had thought that Orede no longer had hope of inheriting the throne, so his cousin would be the emperor later. Then even if he knew that he did these things, as long as his father was in, he would have no worries. But he had never thought that Orede had not only cleared the demon magic but had also followed the diplomatic team here to the border. After receiving the news, he had panicked and didn't sleep well for several nights.
"Lead the way, go to the residence!" Orede felt that there was no need to waste his saliva on this person, looking at him as if he was a dead man.
"Yes, yes." Barron saluted again. "Two Highnesses please come this way."
When Louis passed Barron, he viciously glared at him, this useless idiot.
Translator Notes:
[1] keeper – 掌管, basically like the person in charge of the temple, apparently keeper is used in "profane Greek" in this context
[2] saint – 圣者, means the holy one or the saint, I think it's basically like a pope?
[3] make him suffer a great loss – 大卸八块, literally translation is like chopping off 8 chunks, basically means destroying him I thin
[4] Barron – 巴隆, pinyin ba long, everything translates this to Baron but I don't really want to use a position as a name
[5] your highness the second prince – 大殿下,二殿下, I don't know anything about royal address, what variation do you call the second prince?
[6] useless – 成事不足败事有余, idiom, basically never does anything good but instead does everything bad
Random Notes:
About one hour: 10 am – 11 am, for 4.1k characters to 2.8k words. Aren't some people disgusting.