Perhaps I didn’t expect some things to arrive so quickly. At the very least, I wasn’t prepared for them.

After verbally sparring with the Holy Church… fine, you may as well call it a backstabbing. Although I had angered the Holy Church, I had made my att.i.tude clear and had shown them evidence of my power.

"At the very least, it is now known by all that Wumianzhe’s Church of Law is to be temporarily tolerated by the G.o.d of Holy Light. We’re not a squishy tomato that can easily be crushed."

On the surface, all the major countries that believed in the Holy Light condemned what had happened on that day… yep, the incident in question was now even referred to by a formal name—"The Humiliation of Soros."

Alright, this name alone made it easy to see that fact that the pitiful Cardinal Soros had taken all the blame. Yet, from a certain standpoint, he would now become famous in history. Yep. He should thank me for that.

[It seems that your performance was quite meaningful, as it helped Princess Peach increase her shamelessness once again. It appears that you’ll soon be peerless in the world (in shamelessness.)]

"Shut up! I’ve already sealed this new piece of dark history! Who dares to bring it up in front of me!?"

Even though those countries were condemning me for my disrespect of the Holy Light, it was all on the surface and didn’t affect our weapon sales one bit. It was rather the opposite, in fact. In private, every secret envoy even praised me and promised large amounts of resources to support and encourage me in continuing to attack the Holy Church’s reputation.

Of course, the contracts and agreements on paper were meaningless. However, I was well aware that as long as Wumianzhe’s Church of Law would be able to threaten and antagonize the Holy Church to a certain extent, some verbal agreements would be far more effective than even demonic contracts. After all, the Holy Church enjoyed far more authority and respect than even the rulers; no ruler would be satisfied with this.

What made them even more dissatisfied was that they could only hide their dissatisfaction; they did not know how to vent their frustration. They even had to express as much belief and veneration for the Holy Light and Holy Light job cla.s.s members as possible, and provide the local Holy Churches with various benefits and support.

The Holy Church was so singlehandedly powerful that its believers typically consisted of over eighty percent of a country’s population. And its religious authority was powerful enough to easily get rid of any ruler; all they had to do was declare them a heretic. The domain lords under such an unlucky ruler would happily do away with that ‘heretic’ king and fight over his position.

Before the Yongye Calamity of about one hundred years ago, which had caused a ma.s.sive overhaul within the Holy Church’s internal system—wait, no; their internal changes had started even earlier. Before their first major internal changes from over three hundred years ago, religious authority had towered far, far above royal authority. In that day and age, even a local head priest would dare to stand against the ruler of the land, and a cardinal would be able to ruin an entire country. In fact, the various princes and princesses of a country were mandated to report to the Holy Church’s main headquarters for service (as hostages) and represent their faith in the Holy Light.

In a way, the incident of the Mist Kingdom was connected to all of this. If it weren’t for the fact that the Holy Church and the numerous countries had gone overboard, the Yongye Calamity would not have occurred. And this would not have led to the major internal changes within the Holy Church. In fact, even the religious changes within the Holy Church of three hundred plus years ago had to do with me. If you would calculate it in such a manner, it could truly be said to be a messy state of affairs. Perhaps it was my destiny to go against the Holy Church.

Once some opportunities were missed, they could never be regained. If the Holy Church wanted to regain their status from three hundred-ish years ago, the rulers of each country wouldn’t agree even if the other G.o.ds’ churches agreed.

Perhaps, the happiest of all were those countries of "fervent believers," which had "Saint" in their names, like San Antonio. It was no wonder that they were the ones who were in the greatest hurry to send their secret envoys to promise their support. It was as if they were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to provide their support in time in case the conflict between us and the Holy Church intensified, as though our Church of Law would be smacked to death with a single slap of the G.o.d of Holy Light.

As for them supporting us on the surface? Well, we couldn’t count on that unless they were idiots.

Yet we had finalized weapons deals for the next thirty years, along with unbelievably beneficial conditions for us such as them paying full price upfront and no time limit on delivering the goods. As long as we were shameless enough, this was no different from them giving us free money.

These obviously unreasonable conditions were not only evidence of the importance placed on our products by other countries, but it was even more so proof that they had long wanted to go against the Holy Church.

"I didn’t gain anything from the Holy Church and actually received support from the Holy Church’s potential enemies? I’m speechless."

The military parade and weapons sales were both highly successful. In a way, this also proved East Mist’s power and the foundational strength of the Mist Alliance. Now that a new generation was upon us and especially with our new products being proven in battle, no smart ruler would miss the opportunity to obtain all these new technologies we were offering to sell.

And this wasn’t only a temptation for outside countries. After we proved our might, several countries in the Northlands had secretly contacted us, and we were now in talks, discussing the possibility of them joining the Mist Alliance.

However, I still didn’t change my mind. The first, original members of the Mist Alliance would only consist of six factions and countries: East Mist Communal Country, Sleuweir Kingdom, Xiluo Empire, Sharal Autonomous Region [1], Northlands Barbarian Tribal Alliance, and Rhodes Kingdom. However, I had only added the Rhodes Kingdom to avoid too much suspicion of bias and favoritism.

Yep, the Rhodes Kingdom, which had been sitting on the fence, joined us after that military parade without a shred of hesitation.

"No matter how large the future Mist Alliance will be, all of the first original members of the Mist Alliance will become its core. Expanding it too much right away might not necessarily be a good thing."

And, right now, within the walls of my grand conference room, the Rhodes amba.s.sador added the final signature. The six original members of the newly born Mist Alliance was formally decided upon, and the Mist Alliance was officially born. I was surprised, however, to receive an unexpected notification from my System.

[System Notification: The Mist Alliance has been successfully established, completing your Epic Quest, Revival of the Mist. With this, the rulers of the Northlands have revived in a new form. Calculating all of your rewards… Would you like a full calculation now? This calculation may affect part of future karma calculations. Please choose carefully.]

"Didn’t I already complete this quest? The Sacred Sword?"

At the time, in order to deal with Karwenz, who had suddenly visited, the System had changed the Quest reward into "Receive the G.o.d Equipment, Roland Sacred Sword earlier than scheduled" from "Obtain the G.o.d Equipment, Roland Sacred Sword, as well as a clue leading to the G.o.d Equipment Crown of Thorns." Although I obtained the Sacred Sword, there wasn’t much of a reward apart from it, and, in the end, I never received a clue about the Crown of Thorns.

[That Quest reward was just calculating part of the reward earlier than scheduled. Currently, I’m calculating the entire Quest reward. System Reminder: It seems like it’s rather rare of me to help you out like this, so why are you so worried? If I don’t help you out, isn’t there no question about whether your younger twin brother would beat you so badly? Shall we calculate the rewards? Yes, or okay?]

I broke out into laughter. Was there any need to hesitate?

"Calculate the rewards. I want to know where the Crown of Thorns is."

[…It’s currently in the hands of the current Bardi Emperor, Orloss the Thirteenth. You even personally gave it to his ancestor .]

Note:

1. The 'Sharal Autonomous Region' was how 'Shawen Free States' was translated by Starve. We are now going to continue using 'Sharal Autonomous Region.'