Lord: Marry the villain's daughter at the beginning?

On the other side, in the royal capital, Lilith met with the Pope of the Goddess Church in the Cathedral of the Rest of the Holy Spirit.

"His Majesty the Pope."

Lilith subconsciously used the etiquette she used when she was a saint, but the Pope did not dare to accept it, and instead continued to use the etiquette he used when meeting the king.

But as long as both of them are not embarrassed, it will be others who are embarrassed.

"Your Majesty, how are you these days?"

Although the old Pope addressed him as "Your Majesty", his tone was more like that of a grandfather caring for his granddaughter who had just entered society.

"Everything is fine. The recent reforms have been implemented very smoothly. We would also like to thank the Pope and the cardinals for their strong support."

After saying this, Lilith touched the lantern on her waist. She was no longer a saint and it seemed that she was no longer qualified to use the lantern, but the Pope had no intention of taking it back.

The Pope also noticed Lilith's actions and simply said, "Let's leave it here, Your Majesty."

Thinking of the strange cause of death of Augustine III, Lilith nodded.

The Church of the Goddess of Light has been unusually low-key recently, as if it has always been outside the vortex of the royal capital. However, if some people pay close attention, they will find that the Church of the Goddess is providing support behind many reforms in the royal capital.

For example, many pilot projects were launched in areas with a large number of believers, which makes it hard not to suspect that Her Majesty the Queen is still connected with the Goddess Church.

But this is not something strange. Not to mention that Lilith was a saint before she ascended the throne, Augustine III had many collaborations with the Goddess Church since then.

Lilith even directly regarded the Goddess Church as her own home. Whenever she sensed danger, she would go to the church to pray.

Although Lilith is still like the old Pope, not very pious.

The Church of the Goddess of Light is no longer as glorious as it once was, and can only rely on royal power now. However, as long as the old Pope is determined, the extensive influence of the Church of the Goddess is still a force that cannot be ignored.

No one noticed that the old Pope was taking advantage of the Queen's reforms to continuously advance reforms within the church, making the church more secular.

"Your Majesty, what do you think of the religious reform we are now carrying out?"

Although the church was decorated in an extremely holy manner and was surrounded by devout believers who were dutifully guarding the Pope and the Queen, and everything seemed to be thriving, Lilith heard a hint of helplessness in the old Pope's tone.

"At least it was much more successful than my noble reforms."

Lilith smiled bitterly. There are some real red lines in the aristocratic reform that cannot be crossed. Once they are crossed, no matter how high Lilith's prestige is, it will only become a revolution against herself.

The old Pope shook his head. The king was gradually losing control over the feudal nobles, and the same was true for the church.

Traditional religious thinking is no longer applicable. After the split, the Church of the Goddess of Light can only submit to the royal power and is gradually becoming weak. Now the Holy See must find a new way out, especially after the goddess no longer responds to believers.

The idea proposed by the old Pope was to use the fact that the Goddess of Light was the most widespread belief among mankind, to continuously secularize it and weaken the concept of the central church.

This is equivalent to the old pope voluntarily giving up the power in his hands and returning the faith to the believers. Although the power has been reduced, it has gained corresponding influence. However, the old pope does not care much about the power in his hands. The continuation of the church is now the top priority.

The old Pope even wanted to open up the interpretation of the Goddess's scriptures, that is, to return the right to interpret the scriptures to the general public, but he was strongly opposed within the Vatican.

Once it is opened, many heresies will have a basis, especially the small church that split away.

After a moment of silence, the old Pope took out a reform plan from his arms and handed it to Lilith.

"This is?"

"It's the gray-collar religious reform program."

The old Pope looked into the distance.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. To be honest, we are no longer able to control most of the churches in the North. Those churches have basically escaped the control of the Central Church. They are now running a different system internally, and it is difficult for us to interfere."

"It's not your fault."

Lilith comforted the old Pope. To be honest, the blame should be put on Augustine III. After all, it was he who started the reckless pursuit of the North and abandoned the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, so that most of the churches in the North were in a semi-independent state at that time.

After quickly scanning the religious reform plan from the gray-collar workers, Lilith put the report down.

"You're not shocked at all?"

The old Pope was a little surprised when he saw Lilith's calm face, but he was soon relieved. It seemed that Lilith had cultivated to the level where she could not show her emotions. She was qualified to be a king, and even without religious protection, she would not do too badly.

When Lilith heard what the old Pope said, she could only smile awkwardly. Was he trying to say that she had seen similar reform plans before?

After all, it is similar to the regulations for managing religion in previous countries.

Although some of the regulations seemed shocking to the old Pope, they were really within Lilith's expectations. The most surprising thing was that the other party actually dared to do this in a world where gods really existed, and the pious heroine actually agreed to it.

But to be honest, Lilith is still very envious. Although theocracy is still based on royal power, Lilith's royal power is not stable, and is fundamentally different from that of gray-collar workers.

The Gray Collar Church has been fully integrated into the Gray Collar management system, unlike the current central church and the king in the royal capital, which are two independent systems.

"There are many aspects of this reform plan that are worth considering. For example, religious personnel will no longer have to conduct self-inspections, but will be included in the territory's supervision system, making the church a semi-institution for handling affairs and completely subordinate to the lord."

The old Pope flipped through the reform plan page by page on the table. Although Lilith felt that what the old Pope said was a little too shocking, he was indeed a Pope who was not very devout to the Goddess like herself.

"Some of the Governor's ideas coincide with mine. For a religion without a God, secularization is the only way out. If we can implement the same reforms, it will be very helpful to Your Majesty. However, to implement these reforms, we must have a strong king and a stable country."

The old pope looked up at Lilith and continued, "It's a pity that I may not see that day. I have made some comments on this reform plan. If that day really comes, Your Majesty, I hope you can protect the Church of the Goddess of Light according to this reform plan."

After saying that, the old Pope took out a thick stack of annotations, which were even thicker than the original reform plan.

After Lilith picked it up and read it for a while, she felt that the annotation in her hand was extremely heavy. The old Pope not only summarized the religious plan implemented by the Gray and White Collar, but also combined it with the current situation of the kingdom and analyzed to Lilith how to carry out reforms based on the current situation.

Many of these methods will also be beneficial to the reforms that Lilith is currently promoting.

In these annotations, the old Pope even made a very thorough psychological analysis of some religious people. Lilith could only sigh that it was no wonder that the old Pope was not pious at all.

He did not believe in the goddess, but in the scriptures that taught people to be united and friendly.

"Popes like me are always villains in some knight novels. To be honest, I can't blame those authors. After all, the Church in the past did... did violate the canon of the Goddess. There were heresy and religious wars, and in the end, it even split itself. It's really hard to talk about it."

"But I hope that, at least starting from me, the Church can return to the image in the original scriptures, the image that the goddess expected."

After saying that, the old Pope revealed the real purpose of calling Lilith out today.

"Your Majesty, the Holy See has decided to officially grant the title of Saint Flora of the North."

This was equivalent to cooperating with Lilith to set things right, and also helping Lilith to create cards in the void, showing goodwill to the gray leader.

"And restore your title of Saint."

Lilith was shocked to hear this.

"Are you serious?"