At the end of June, the weather began to get hot.

However, in the tall church of the temple, there is an indescribable chill.

After the routine chanting is over, a meeting between the cardinals and the Pope - such a meeting will only be held once a week, because the calm "Rose Cross" has rarely changed after the last war. Now the Pope's biggest theme is "rest and recuperate", "waiting for work with leisure" and "maintaining stability", so that such routine meetings have almost become a formality.

However, for Rubens, who was advanced to the Cardinal, every meeting has become his torment.

According to convention, Rubens, who was once the admiral of the bishop, actually had difficulty going further, but because of his close cooperation with Iversa and a series of wars that later received the "Kiss of the Viper", he took over the position of Cardinal Moglani, who was mainly responsible for the mistakes in the war. After he took office, he became the spokesperson of the "Iversa" series in the position of Cardinal of the Holy See.

No matter what is discussed in the Holy See, if "Iversa" is involved, the first question to the Pope must be Rubens. In the past two years, Eversa's strong support for "Rose Cross" has directly increased Rubens' status. A few months ago, Cardinal Rubens had become the leader of one of the three major forces of the Cardinal Corps.

Although such a status is glorious and has a high position and a high position, it has long been separated from Rubens's original expectations.

Because he found that in the cardinal group standing above ten thousand people, he could no longer hear the chanting of believers in his ears as before. Instead, there were mountains and things like forming cliques for private purposes were uncovered. Even though he had expected it, he still did not expect that the core of the "Rose Cross" that he had been devout for decades would be like this.

It's a bit similar to what Sally feels when she is in a high position: when she stands high, the filth and filth you see will become clearer.

However, with Iversa's great victory in the war against the orcs, Rubens's life suddenly became worse. When "Rose Cross" saw Iversa quickly integrate into a centralized and efficient political system, there was a sense of crisis.

The Pope hopes to be stable, but in addition to the faction that supports him, there are two other voices in the Cardinal Corps: one is headed by Rubens, hoping to continue to maintain good cooperation with "Iversa" and everyone can develop win-win results.

The second type is somewhat radical, and he advocates expanding the Holy See and absorb more believers, and finally controls the Kingdom of Karen.

Rubens had dominated the Cardinals because of Iversa, but when the Pope refused to cooperate with Roddy, the general situation has now turned upside down - more than 70% of the Cardinals began to believe that the "Rose Cross" should get rid of Iversa and try their best to separate the relationship so as not to cause more trouble.

But what is ridiculous is that at this time the meeting was discussing the issue of "the military expenditure of the Temple Guards is insufficient, and whether to continue to rely on Iversa's assistance and support."

Rubens felt that these cardinals were sometimes shameless than nobles - while arming themselves with Iversa's subsidies, they screamed that we were going to break away from Iversa's control, and at the same time they dreamed of ruling the kingdom...

You are so powerful, why don’t you meet the God of Light?

But he couldn't say what he thought in his heart. After all, in this position, it was basically "the butt determines the head" - Rubens was not Rubens, he stood here to represent everyone in a political faction. So when everyone opposed cooperation with Everta, he could not slam the table and say "I am the same as you think", but could only silently bear the accusations of these old men, tightly pursing his lips to control himself from making a fierce argument with the other party, so as not to let the pope completely fall to that faction.

“The newspapers recently released by Everta seem to be good.”

The Pope casually started a new topic, but the people below didn't know how to respond. They read the newspapers, and the content above was full of positive reports on "Rose Cross". They wanted to spray for a while but didn't know how to spray it. The difficulty was indeed a bit too high.

But this is not a problem for the old men in red who have experienced many battles. Cardinal Nold said: "The content of the newspaper has now become a carrier of information circulated in the diocese and even the whole country. In my opinion, this is a long sword held by Everta - it pointed the blade at Milno today, and then it may point to us tomorrow..."

This was indeed an indecisive reason. There were a lot of discussions around him, and many eyes were focused on Rubens, but the latter seemed to have not realized it and said nothing.

Someone started, and then someone followed. Rubens remained silent after listening to them criticizing for a long time. This attitude was basically considered "giving up resistance" in the eyes of other cardinals, so after a few sentences, he felt bored and turned to other information.

"Virgate Cross cooperated with Mirno to conduct military operations, and the marching route moved some to the north."

"Bergen's territory was destroyed by orcs, and there was indeed no surplus food."

"Then are they going to borrow food to us like beggars to fight?"

The Cardinal was also talking about the scene that often occurs in the Karen Kingdom - the lord led his army to other noble territories, and his baggage was insufficient, so he would make a promissory note to borrow food, and even his manpower and even troops continued to fight. Milno was almost the same routine now, but the cardinals were discussing how to send away this wave of "beggars", but Rubens, who had been silent before, suddenly spoke: "How many troops did the Viper Cross bring to participate in the battle? Will it pose a threat to the "Temple"?"

However, before the Pope said anything, the other cardinals laughed collectively: "Mr. Rubens should remember to ask the war report clearly before asking questions next time. This is a battle of conquest that Earl Milno was authorized by His Majesty. How bold is he to run to the temple to cause trouble?"

"There are only two thousand people in the more than 10,000 army with the 'Viridian Cross'. Lord Rubens should be able to sleep peacefully when he goes back today."

These old men had a peaceful face, and when they left the chamber, they were all believers willing to kiss their boots, but the sarcasm at this time was no different from those sarcastic nobles. Rubens looked up at the pope with a calm expression, and understood that there was no need to continue speaking, so he lowered his eyebrows and responded with a pleasing response: "I am too worried about this, so that you can laugh."

This attitude of admitting one's own conscience really made the other old men feel like they were hitting the cotton, but they finally had the advantage. At the same time, they didn't think Rubens could have any skills to continue to churn. After passing three or four topics in succession, the meeting finally came to an end.

Rubens saluted respectfully and slowly retreated. When he returned to his prayer room along the corridor with white marble floor, his slightly trembling hands declared anger that was enduring in his heart...
Chapter completed!