As the main area where the Blood Demon Cult is active, cases of evil priest sacrifices are not uncommon in the Crescent Kingdom, with one or two happening in every place every year.
Even the Church of the Holy Royal Court has long been accustomed to this.
no way.
The world is so big, and although the church's control is relatively strong, it is far from covering every corner. There are always people who choose to embrace darkness for one reason or another, and it is impossible to catch all the cultists.
This is also the consensus from the nobility to the church.
Of course, even if we cannot catch all the criminals, we still need to crack down on them severely.
At least the church will never allow the core areas under its control to become places where cultists are rampant, and every time cultists emerge, they will inevitably suffer severe blows from the church.
The latest case involving the Blood Demon Cult in the royal capital of Lutetia took place in the slums of the outer city.
Strictly speaking, this was not a serious blood demon incident. It was just that some ordinary people were bewitched by the blood demon cult and wanted to gain extraordinary powers through blood sacrifice.
The clerk at Castel's shop was one of the bewitched members. In order to gain power, he voluntarily believed in the Blood Demon Duke and participated in the blood sacrifice.
It can be said that the blood sacrifice was quite successful. At least the cultists who participated in the blood sacrifice really gained strength and obtained extraordinary powers from the evil god.
Of course, as a "quasi-evil god", Charlotte only needed to listen to Sebastian's description to know that this so-called extraordinary power was most likely just that he was bestowed with blood power by some descendants of the Shedit clan, and transformed into descendants or even just blood servants.
This sacrifice was soon exposed.
Although the location chosen by the Blood Demon Cultists is a relatively chaotic slum, it is also the capital of the Crescent Moon after all, and the place with the highest number and quality of Demon Hunters.
The church didn't even send out the Inquisition; the Blood Demon case was solved by the Demon Hunters stationed on the corresponding streets in the outer city.
Its intensity and difficulty are comparable to the situation in the past where a village in the Tianchao Mountains "proclaimed itself emperor" and was then "destroyed" by police officers from the police station overnight.
The reason why this incident alarmed the king and caused a stir in the city was that the timing was too delicate.
This central meeting was aimed at the third prince Philip. The reason why the third prince Philip became the target of criticism from almost the entire aristocratic parliament, in addition to his blatant violation of the rules, was another important reason that he had dealings with the Blood Demon Cult.
Not to mention how many families among the Crescent Moon nobles dare to guarantee that their own families have absolutely no dealings with the Blood Demon Cult. No matter how to say it, suppressing the Blood Demon Cult is absolutely politically correct for the Crescent Moon Kingdom.
Even Louis V, who hated the interference of theocracy in royal power, was ruthless in cracking down on the Blood Demon Cult and used quite harsh means.
In the case of the Third Prince, as long as the Central Conference ultimately determines that the Third Prince does have dealings with the Blood Demon Cult, he will be absolutely finished.
Of course, the political life of Prince Philip III was over the moment the Bold-Castell War ended.
But no matter how finished he is, he is still of royal blood.
The third prince's own destruction is different from his being judged to be involved with the Blood Demon Cult.
The latter could easily lead to the conclusion that the royal family was also related to the Blood Demon Cult, which was absolutely unacceptable to the king because it was almost shaking the foundation of the royal rule.
Charlotte could even imagine that the matter of the third prince must have made Louis V very angry.
It's simple. This is not just handing a knife to the nobles, it's handing a knife to both the nobles and the church.
His Majesty the King seeks to strengthen centralization and weaken the power of the nobility and the church, and this is no secret among the nobility.
And the matter of the third prince was simply a dismantling of his plans.
Charlotte didn't even need to investigate to realize that this central meeting might turn into a meeting where the nobles and the church would unite to put pressure on Louis V.
This is something that is very easy to understand. Now, His Majesty the King does not like the church, there are constant conflicts between royal power and religious power, and the King is actually in the upper hand.
Under such circumstances, this central meeting was definitely a good opportunity for the nobles and the church to suppress the royal power and would undoubtedly become the center of the conflict.
At this critical juncture, it would be very annoying for King Louis V if the Blood Demon Cult did such a thing again, as disgusting as eating a fly.
It is only natural that the king, in a rage, would want to thoroughly investigate the entire capital.
At this point, Charlotte recalled what happened when she first entered the city.
She looked at Sebastian and asked:
"So... you had already arranged for the Lutetia City Guard to greet us instead of you?"
"Yes, Master. I have to cooperate with the inspection of the store and cannot get away for the time being, so I asked them to pick you up, but... it seems that they did not do it."
Sebastian said.
Charlotte chuckled and said:
"Oh, it's not just that I didn't do it..."
"Hmm? Master, is there something else that happened?"
Sebastian's heart moved slightly.
Charlotte nodded slightly and briefly recounted what happened when her team entered the city. Sebastian frowned as he listened:
"Didn't recognize you? That's impossible! I have already reported the information to the officials of the capital. There is no way the guards at the city gates would not recognize your badge!"
Then, he couldn't help but ask:
"Master, are you sure that the city guards really didn't recognize you when you entered the city, and weren't deliberately making things difficult for you?"
Charlotte recalled the details of the incident and shook her head:
“They probably really didn’t recognize it.”
"In that case, I'm afraid the city gate guards were temporarily replaced, and it is very likely that they are deliberately targeting us."
Sebastian frowned and said.
After saying this, he was a little puzzled again:
"Strange... What good is this doing? Other than embarrassing us..."
Charlotte sighed and said:
"That's because they let us in in the end. If they had not acknowledged our identities at the beginning, we don't know how things would have developed. Conspiracies are always linked together, and it might affect the subsequent central meetings."
After hearing her words, Sebastian's heart moved:
"Master, from what you said, someone finally helped?"
Charlotte nodded slightly:
"probably."
Then, she looked at Sebastian again:
"Sebastian, how much do you know about Duke Gaston's family?"
"Duke Gaston? I only know that the Duke of Gaston's family is one of the nine duke families in the kingdom, and is also a well-known neutral noble family..."
Sebastian said.
After saying this, he had an idea:
"Master, is it the Duke Gaston's family who has come to our aid?"
Charlotte nodded slightly, as a sign of agreement.
She was sure that the change in the guards' attitude before and after entering the city was because of the Gaston family's convoy.
Although the Gaston family's carriage was moving very fast, she still noticed with her extraordinary spiritual perception that the young noble threw a bounty bag to the guard when it passed by him.
The guard later recognized the Castel family's identity based on something in the bag.
Although Charlotte didn't know what was inside, she could figure out after a little thought that it should be a reminder of the identity of the Castel family to the city gate guards.
In other words, if the Gaston family had not secretly intervened, entering the city would not have been so easy.
However, Charlotte didn't care too much.
As a major attendee of the central meeting, there was no way she could really be denied entry to the capital.
Some disturbances are just farces at best.
Of course, we should not underestimate farces, as sometimes conflicts are accumulated during farces.
A quarrel could create a pair of enemies, let alone for nobles who always attach great importance to honor.
But, no matter what, there was one thing Charlotte was sure of.
That is, even if she had no intention of doing so, the fact was that from the moment she entered the gate of the royal capital, she had actually stepped into the vortex of power struggle in the Crescent Kingdom.
"Master, do we need to change our next plan?"
Sebastian asked.
"Change? Why change? Let's proceed according to the original plan. We are here to attend the meeting to show our loyalty, expand trade routes, expand our network, and add some dirt to the Third Prince's grave. I won't offend others unless they offend me. As long as they don't go too far, we don't have to worry about anything else."
Charlotte shook her head and said.
Sebastian's heart moved slightly:
"You mean... to remain neutral at the Central Conference?"
Charlotte smiled:
"To be more precise, I will maintain neutrality between the nobles, the royal family, and the church on the basis of crushing the third prince to death. I have no intention of getting involved in Xinyue's muddy waters, at least not now."
"Master, forgive me for being frank... This is not easy to do. From the moment we planned to crush the third prince to death, I'm afraid the king was bound to remember it, not to mention that you have a church background..."
"Well, how do you know if you don't try?"
Charlotte said with a smile.
After saying this, she looked at the sky again and said:
"Okay, it's almost time. Let's make some arrangements. I want to go to bed early tonight."
"There are still four days until the meeting. I'm afraid the news of our arrival in the capital has already spread. I guess we'll be busy tomorrow..."
…
Charlotte miscalculated this time.
On the second day of staying in the royal capital, there were no visitors to the manor.
Everyone...seems to have forgotten the Castel family.