Chapter 974 Leon's Plan
"The Wrath Law, huh?" King Lutheran uttered with interest.
King Lutheran had learned many things about the world, but it was his first time hearing such a law. He wondered where Queen Elizabeth learned about it.
Nevertheless, that wasn't the most pressing issue.
After King Lutheran tested the Demon Gathering Array and confirmed its ability to gather Wrathful Demon Energy in the surroundings, he fixed his attention on Queen Elizabeth.
"Name your price, Queen Elizabeth. Whether it's Transcendent Crystals, Redstones, pills, spirit herbs, or minerals, everything is on the table. How much do you want for this Demon Gathering Array?"
Although King Lutheran understood that the Demon Gathering Array couldn't completely resolve the Transcendents' problem, a temporary remedy was better than none.
"My, King Lutheran is quite generous," Elizabeth was pleasantly surprised to hear King Lutheran offer Transcendent Crystals.
"I planned to gift the Demon Gathering Array as a form of goodwill from a fellow ruler in the Human Domain. After all, we humans have to stay united in times of difficulty… But if King Lutheran insists, I suppose we can talk about this deal in more detail…"
Suddenly, King Lutheran had a bad feeling.
Queen Elizabeth seemed quite generous when she said she would gift the Demon Gathering Array. However, her gaze looked like she wanted to rob him clean.
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Crawford Empire, New Capital
"…And that's the gist of the situation, Father," Leon reported the religion problem to Heinrich in the study room after he returned with Faelyn.
Heinrich shortly dropped the documents onto the desk before pinching between his eyebrows as if to ease his newfound stress.
"I don't understand. Is the condition in the empire not very good right now? How can these people believe in a religion rather than the royal family?" Heinrich wondered with a frown.
"The condition in the empire is indeed very good right now. As proof of that, the people are working earnestly to develop the land once you passed down the order," Leon admitted.
"However, most people—or should I say all the people being converted into this unknown religion are refugees from Durham and Valaran. Although we regard them as people of our empire, they probably still regard themselves as people of the Durham Kingdom and the Valaran Kingdom."
"This is the problem with integrating the people of the defeated kingdoms. They don't feel like they are a part of our empire. The proud ones might even feel humiliated by it. In essence, it isn't easy to win over the hearts of these people."
"Un, I understand that much," Heinrich nodded.
"Furthermore, we were too focused on the development and stability of New Capital that we have neglected the people of Durham or Valaran living outside of the World Tree's protection. Thus—"
"We never neglected them," Heinrich interrupted with a sigh before Leon could finish.
"Oh? What do you mean, Father?" Leon uttered with surprise.
"While you were gone, I had Amelia and Ignis study the Demon Gathering Arrays you deployed in Old Capital. Thanks to their growing proficiency in runes, they perfectly replicated your Demon Gathering Arrays in a short time," Heinrich explained.
"After they reproduced more Demon Gathering Arrays, I sent people to deploy a few in every major city of Durham and Valaran. Furthermore, we've been sending food supplies to both regions every week to feed the people in need of it."
"Thus, it's baffling as much as it saddens me that people are putting their faith into this unknown religion when I've done so much for them," Heinrich stated.
After hearing that, Leon understood why his father had this look of betrayal on his face after learning about the unknown religion.
"Sometimes, doing so much for the people still isn't enough. And sometimes, doing so much for the people is too much," Leon said.
"At first, the people might feel grateful for the food supplies. But after a while, they become numb to it. And if the food supplies suddenly stopped coming, they may even blame you for it instead, father."
"Rather than sending food every week, it might have been better to send elves over to help them cultivate their crops. This will allow Durham and Valaran to become self-sustaining without us and save us the trouble."
"Nevertheless, I don't think this is the problem. The unknown religion must have something very convincing for people to put their faith in them. That, or the preachers are targeting the people's weakness to convert them."
"We don't know anything about this unknown religion yet, but I believe it won't be long before we learn something about them," Leon said.
"Even if we do, it will still be difficult to stop these preachers from spreading their religion in our empire. After all, we are in the open while they are in the dark," Heinrich thought.
However, Leon shook his head.
"I don't think it will be difficult at all, Father," Leon refuted before saying, "As you said, Father, we are in the open while they are in the dark. We can use our overwhelming influence to our advantage."
"How so?" Heinrich was intrigued to hear further from his son.
"We just have to put out an enticing bounty for these preachers and spread the news to every corner of the empire. It will be difficult for these preachers to move then," Leon casually stated.
"Furthermore, these preachers may be in the dark, but their newly-converted believers aren't. If we catch one of them to interrogate, we can learn more about their religion and come up with countermeasures against it."
"An educated mass will not believe in the fallacy of a crook. So long as our people understand where the truth differs from the lies, these religious preachers won't be able to gain anything," Leon stated.
After listening, Heinrich's eyes brightened at once.
"That's a brilliant idea, Son. It seems like I had nothing to worry about. You've already thought of the solutions for me," Heinrich said with a gratified smile, feeling relieved.
Leon smiled slightly.
"These methods can only be used when the religion's influence is still small and weak. If we let them grow huge in power, these methods might not work and may even backfire on us."