In the restaurant.
"Why did you take so long in the bathroom?" Ask asked curiously.
"My stomach feels uncomfortable." Mi'er said with a smile, and there was no sign of anything unusual on her face.
"Where are the others?" She looked at the empty seats curiously.
"I went back a little early," said Ask. "I packed up the cake on your table."
He picked up the bag and stood up, and Mier quickly followed him.
When they arrived outside the cafe, the car arranged by the Licinius family was already waiting on the roadside. Ask took Mi'er into the car, and the car drove towards the Lateran Palace.
“… Recently, the Undead Army has crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and brazenly invaded the Iberian Peninsula. His Holiness the Holy See strongly condemns this…” After a piece of music, the car radio suddenly started playing the news.
"Turn it off," Ask said.
The driver turned off the radio, and Mier hesitated for a moment and asked:
"Is the reason they left related to this?"
"Yes." Ask said, "During the time we were in the abyss, the undead army of the Hafsid Dynasty declared war on the Aragon-Castia Empire in the western Iberian Peninsula. So just now, Nora's family came over urgently and took everyone to the Lateran Palace in advance."
"Well, I guess the Vatican wants us to go and rescue them." said Mi'er.
"You guessed right." Ask said, "Actually, I don't really want to agree to this, because with the current magic tide limit at Lv. 20, your main task is to become stronger as soon as possible, rather than rashly going to a strange continent and fighting a group of enemies you have never fought before."
"In other words, we have another reason to go, right?" Mi'er's intuition is very sharp.
"If Iberia falls," Ask said, "the Church will lose a major diocese, and the Licinius family will lose a market for their goods. The next step for the Undead Army will be to reach the Pyrenees Mountains, threatening the southwestern border of the West Frankish Kingdom, or to control the Balearic Islands as a springboard to further invade Sicily."
"The former is absolutely unacceptable to the Vatican, and the latter... we will be the ones to suffer."
"It sounds familiar." Mi'er thought for a while, "I remember. In history class, Hera once said that the Punic War in the early Third Age, the war between the Carthaginians and the Solomonites, the situation seems to be very similar to the current situation."
"That's right." Ask said, "It depends on the geopolitical environment, so the current war situation is similar."
The car arrived at the Lateran Palace and stopped in front of a church.
When Ask walked into the church with Mi'er, they saw that a special curtain had been lowered behind the pulpit for mass, on which the current situation on the Iberian Peninsula was projected.
The Cardinal and Pope Innocent sat on the right, members of the Licinius family, other Italian wealthy families, and the girls of the Blue Sword sat on the left.
"Sorry, I'm late." Ask walked in from the side door.
The cardinals turned around one after another, but did not show any dissatisfaction on their faces. The Pope waved his hand and asked a guard soldier to lead the two men to their seats.