The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

In Castile's capital, Cartier, the current rightful king, Garcia, was drinking bottle after bottle of wine in the palace.

"Come on, come on again!"

Wine bottles were scattered everywhere, but no one in the palace came out to clean them up, so the once magnificent palace now looked somewhat dirty and messy, and even had a faint stench.

Garcia today doesn't seem like a king, but rather a drunkard sitting on a throne.

After a moment of disorientation, Garcia found himself back in that dream he knew so well.

"Welcome back, our King."

The bishops of the Dark Night Holy Court appeared on both sides of the long table, and Garcia gradually regained consciousness and sat down in the seat that was practically his.

"So what? What's going on this time? Didn't I already hand over all the power to you?"

Perhaps still slightly intoxicated, Garcia was now even somewhat self-destructive, lashing out at the bishops of the Dark Night Holy Court.

"No, after all, you are His Majesty the King, so there are some pieces of information we still need to share with you."

Seated on the main seat and wearing a crown, the Pope said: "Your brother is dead, Domingo Castile has been destroyed in a very short time, and Domingo himself was hanged from a newly built lamppost after being tried."

Upon hearing this news, Garcia instantly sobered up.

"Was it Rosalyn who did it?"

"No, it was done by the empire from the continent of Mu. Of course, you could also say it was done by your sister, since the empire sent troops in her name."

The pope's crown swayed slightly with his head as he continued, "We need to re-examine this empire from the continent of Mu, so Your Majesty, it is time for you to take action."

Garcia understood; this was a way to send him to test the empire's attitude.

"I understand."

Garcia had no choice, after all, Catier was completely controlled by the Dark Night Holy Court, and he had to go through these cultists to learn of his brother's death.

Stroking the patterns on the long table, Garcia sighed repeatedly. He could feel that the power of the Dark Night Holy Court was growing stronger and stronger, and the dream it was building was becoming more and more realistic. The dream, which was originally somewhat blurry, could now be clearly felt in terms of touch and details.

There seemed to be construction sounds around, and Garcia understood that the Dark Night Sanctuary planned to build a church in this dream and create a true Dark Night Sanctuary.

This dream is not over yet. After all, Garcia is now considered half one of the Dark Night Holy Court's own people. Moreover, in order to give Garcia, who has been locked in the palace, a basic understanding of that empire, the Dark Night Holy Court has not kicked Garcia out.

Of course, Garcia felt that this was more of a display of the Dark Night Holy Court's great ability to construct dreams.

After compiling the intelligence about that empire, the Pope, sitting on the main seat, said, "We need a new batch of Morning Star Apostles to help Bishop Levian with his research and construction of the Dark Night Sanctuary. Your Majesty, I trouble you to send the new batch of Morning Star Apostles to Bishop Levian."

“I understand. I will have someone send the homeless people from Cartier over.”

Upon hearing Garcia's reply, the Pope prayed fervently: "Praise be to the Lord of the Morning Star, may your radiance bring the homeless back to their homeland."

The other bishops also joined in the prayer, saying, "Praise be to the Lord of the Morning Star."

After the prayer, the Pope continued, "I know you have objections to Bishop Levian receiving another batch of Morning Star Apostles, but Bishop Levian has not only developed new rituals that allow the starlight of the Lord of the Morning Star to better shine into dreams, but also made us more capable of controlling dreams."

"I believe you have all noticed that the Dark Night Holy Court has become more realistic. We are gradually having a sense of touch, heartbeat and breath that are close to reality in our dreams. All of this is thanks to Bishop Levian. If any of you can do better than Bishop Levian, I can assign you more Morning Star Apostles."

Upon hearing this, the other bishops nodded in agreement, looking at Levian with envy and approval.

The Dark Night Holy Court has made breakthroughs in its dream control technology recently, but Levian's breakthroughs are the most significant. Almost everyone has benefited from Levian, so even the other bishops of the Dark Night Holy Court are convinced of their colleague's abilities. Many of them have even given their assigned Morning Star Apostles to Levian in order to improve their relationship with him.

"Your Holiness, you flatter me. I was just doing my duty."

Even through the mask, everyone could sense the humility and piety in Levian's tone, as well as his fanatical faith in the superior being.

The more the Pope looked at Levian, the more satisfied he became. He was steady, meticulous, and not impulsive in his work. He was also a technician. In the Dark Night Holy Court, where most of the members were legitimate cultists and underground churches, such people were becoming increasingly rare.

"So there is another resolution to be made today, which is to promote Bishop Levian to the rank of Cardinal. This is something we have mentioned before. Let's begin the vote."

This was also to allow Levian to make reasonable use of more Morning Star Apostles' quota. Of course, the number of cardinals is fixed, since the quota of Morning Star Apostles is limited. However, the meeting still unanimously passed the resolution to promote Levian. The cardinal who was originally scheduled to retire also held Levian's hand tightly, hoping that Levian could build this dreamlike papacy into a magnificent and grand structure.

Even Garcia, who hadn't left the field yet, turned his gaze toward Levian.

To be honest, if he still had the ability, Garcia would even like to win them over, but unfortunately it's impossible now. However, Garcia could give them more Morning Star Apostles. Anyway, there are homeless people everywhere in Katil now. If he can't win them over, he can at least try to please them. That way, he can have a better life in the Dark Night Holy Court in the future.

As for the information about the Empire that the Pope had mentioned earlier, Garcia did not listen carefully. After all, no matter how powerful the cannons were, as long as they could not withstand the attack of the dream, they would still have to sit at the same table as him in the end.

The thought made Garcia almost laugh; he thought that Rosalyn might come and sit next to him soon.

"Alright, this meeting is now adjourned. Everyone, let us not forget the radiance of the Lord of the Morning Star."

Garcia rose and bowed with the others, waiting to exit the dream.

But even as the people around him gradually disappeared, Garcia still didn't wake up.

Garcia looked up in confusion and saw that only he and Cardinal Levian remained in the room.

Just as Garcia was wondering what was happening but wanted to take this opportunity to get closer to Cardinal Levian, a lantern appeared in the void, and a nun in a close-fitting habit casually sat on the table that had just finished a meeting and was regarded as a sacred object by the Dark Night Holy Court.

Cardinal Levian, the rising star of the Dark Night Holy Court, approached the nun like a dog.

"Nice to meet you, King of Castile."

Although she used polite language, the nun looked at Garcia as if he were trash.

“I am Bernice, the nun of the Empire, the Lamp Dream.”