When Horn heard the news of Tommy and Madlan, he was extremely surprised and shocked.
Two Cardinals, these are two Cardinals, figures just one step away from becoming the Pope.
Placed in Horn’s ancient hometown, they would be like two Cabinet Elders, each leading their followers in a brawl in front of the Pope’s Palace.
Could the Gulag Monastery be a mafia den?
Concerning the news brought by Fuchev, Horn, rather than believing that Tommy or Madlan came to assassinate, believed more that this was likely an eruption of a private vendetta between the two bishops.
They were merely using their own pretexts to attack each other.
But in any case, with things having blown to such a degree, especially when Tommy shouted out "storm the Pope’s Palace, demand justice", it had already become irreversible.
Quickly running through the whole affair in his mind, Horn finally decided—to strike with a heavy hand!
Anyway, that Grampwen and Chervis were both members of the Secret Faction, letting them contact instead of Tommy might be less stable, but the arrow was already on the bowstring and had to be released.
Horn immediately gathered the Child Soldiers, woke up Jeanne and Jia Li, and began to settle accounts one by one with those guards and minions of Tommy who were watching him.
It was earlier agreed, to send you all flying to the heavens, and no word would be eaten.
While Madlan, Tommy, and Jeska were in chaos at the door, countless flashes of electric light flickered within the monastery.
Originally, a lot of personnel within the monastery had already been diverted by Tommy, plus with Jeanne, the witch, at the side, dealing with these people was incredibly easy.
The Child Soldiers only had time to assassinate two or three thugs guarding the monastery gates; the rest were electrocuted or stunned by Jeanne.
Horn’s original intent was to stop the conflict between Tommy and the others, but when he opened the monastery gates, he was surprised to find—
This breathtaking coup, in some sense, was already over.
Despite Tommy still being surrounded by a dozen or so of his followers amidst a sea of pitchforks, they were completely encircled, and capture was only a matter of time.
This was indeed a bloody battle, with a total toll of thirty-three casualties, among them twenty-nine lightly injured, one severely wounded, and three dead.
The lightly wounded were mostly Pope Guards, Public Register Farmers, and Armed Farmers, while the deceased were three of Tommy’s thugs.
The only severely wounded was Madlan.
From the account of those present, while he was striking the enemy forces with a nailed club, he accidentally fell, and the club slipped from his hand, landing precisely on the back of his head.
Currently, monks from the herbal shop were administering a life-saving treatment.
Dragging his gaze away from the glaring scene, Horn again questioned Tommy: "Tommy, do you acknowledge your guilt?"
"Guilt? My only guilt is having accomplished too much!" Tommy, his face full of blood, remained unyielding in his anger.
He actually knew about isolating and imprisoning Horn, but seeing the crowd growing from the camp, he certainly wanted to seize the moral high ground.
"You led soldiers to attack the Pope’s Palace, but if it weren’t for the desperate resistance of the Pope Guard and Archbishop of Madlan, wouldn’t you have succeeded!"
Busak shouted at Tommy; these words should have been said by Jeska, but Jeska was never good with words, so in the end, Busak spoke first.
Horn cast an appreciative look at Busak.
Compared to the somewhat taciturn Jeska, Busak was much cleverer; some words could be said by those below, but not by those above.
If those below made a mistake, Horn could raise and lower his hand lightly, but if Horn made a mistake, he would have to invite the Holy Father to intervene.
Both the Holy Father and Witch cards were trump cards that Horn would not use unless absolutely necessary.
"I led soldiers to attack the Pope’s Palace because Madlan attempted to welcome and control the Saint to hold onto power; I came to rescue."
Tommy shouted at the crowd: "Is the Pope attempting to kill the dog after hunting with it because my accomplishments are too great?"
"His Holiness is merciful and wise, generous, his words and deeds as pure as water, his every action devout as light, how dare you slander His Holiness!"
Busak pointed angrily at Tommy with a finger, then turned respectfully to Horn and said, "Your Holiness the Holy Grandson, Archbishop Tommy slanders the Saint, showing disrespect to God, without decapitation, the Pope’s majesty cannot be demonstrated."
"Alright, alright." Seeing more and more people gathering, Horn adopted a benevolent and peaceful expression too, "Just sentence him to a fifteen-day reflection, suspending all affairs."
"Pah!" Tommy completely tore off his mask. "This is a false edict, I will not comply!"
Glaring at Horn standing on the hillside with hatred, he stepped onto a thug’s back, standing high.
The moonlight painted white sand in front of the heavily ink-drawn hillside.
The smell of burning resin wafted to everyone’s nose on the night breeze, and Tommy’s voice flowed with the breeze into everyone’s ears.
"Your Holiness the Pope, there’s one fact I can’t understand: those so-called resurrection legends, were only seen by the people of Red Mill Village, not to mention the Holy Father descent.
If the Holy Father truly descended, why doesn’t he directly change all things, turning us all into rich nobles?"
The once noisy scene fell silent for a moment, but quickly, this silence was drowned by even louder clamor.
The refugees began to whisper, gradually casting strange glances at Horn, a layer of subtle scrutiny emerging behind their original admiration.
"How dare you!" Busak shouted angrily, "These were all witnessed by our Pope’s Guards firsthand, how could they possibly be fake?"
"Ha, you’re from the same village, the same town, who knows what you saw?" Tommy retorted venomously.
Horn’s Holy Father descent was essentially the emperor’s new clothes; anyone with some brains could figure it out, and the refugees on the Gulag Monastery’s side were merely swept away by the myths of the chosen ones.
After all, unlike the Pope’s Guard, they hadn’t witnessed Horn’s ascension moment firsthand, only heard legends.
Tommy’s hidden instigators among the crowd started to sway the rhythm.
"Yeah, if he’s the Holy Grandson, why didn’t the Holy Father come to save us?"
"Aren’t you the Eye of God? Is it possible the Holy Father is indifferent to our suffering?"
"The Holy Father created us, so merciful, how could he be indifferent, perhaps this Eye of God is a fake eye!"
"Don’t speak foolishly, I just have some doubts, perhaps the Holy Father sees our sins and wants us to atone." Tommy feigned shouting to those leading the rhythm.
Turning around, Tommy smugly continued facing Horn: "Your Holiness, as the Eye of God, the Holy Father must be watching, right?
The earlier ’Gulag Treaty’ stated, written in black and white, that for punishing a cardinal, the Pope requires the agreement of more than half of the cardinals; the Pope does not have the authority for direct punishment.
Why not gather all the cardinals and see who is guilty then?"
Tommy pulled out the ’Gulag Treaty’, holding it high, although no one could see what was written on it or knew its contents.
But since it was written in black and white, with fingerprints and signatures, the possibility of forgery was exceedingly low.
Looking at the silent Horn, Tommy revealed a triumphant smile.
Standing opposite Tommy, Horn sighed lightly.
He scanned the noisy crowd, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, only the whites remained.
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah—"