Faith was always a grave matter.
No matter how chaotic Ryan became internally, and no matter how distorted their doctrines became, the sole deity they had revered for over a millennium remained the Lord of the Dawn.
When the people of Ryan could act in the name of the Lord of the Dawn, many problems ceased to be problems at all.
Just as convening the World Council was the will of the Lord of the Dawn, none of the forty-three regional councilors in the fractured nation would oppose it; in fact, they would cooperate with everything they had.
Regardless of the means by which they had seized power, the Lord of the Dawn was an exalted presence they could never disregard.
Having obtained permission from the Lord of the Dawn to summon the council in His name, James Watson felt certain none of them would dare refuse.
It was not merely the binding force of faith; the forty-three councilors would also believe James Watson would never dare use the name of the Lord of the Dawn to set a trap. In the realm of Ryan, no one possessed such audacity.
Still, the Lord of the Dawn had mentioned what Anbaixiu wanted. That lich truly harbored schemes, yet James Watson could not fathom what the undead sorcerer actually sought.
"No matter. Everything unfolds beneath the gaze of the divine. Ryan will surely be reborn."
James Watson suddenly felt an immense weight lift from his shoulders. The future seemed bright once more.
Then, the Supreme Arbiter used the magic mirror to contact his other son—Cade Watson.
James Watson had three sons, each gifted in his own right. Regrettably, his eldest son, Ang, was gone, and Alan was utterly exhausted, leaving only Cade to shoulder the burden.
Cade Watson was typically the least conspicuous of the three. He spent his days slacking off, unwilling to stick his neck out for anything, and seemed less dependable than anyone else.
Yet during Ryan's recent turmoil, Cade had fully demonstrated what it meant to "slack off without being truly incompetent." When the critical moment came, Cade had truly stepped up to carry the weight, rendering great service to ensure Ryan's stable transition.
Cade had gathered a large host of young clerics of light while recruiting many young nuns in Alan's name, establishing a new Church of Dawn that immediately provided a clear direction for their battered, chaotic faith.
Alan was young and handsome. In status, position, and personal exploits, he was the dream of countless maidens; even nuns devoted to the deity held affection for this young hero.
Technically, doing this went against doctrine, but Cade did not care in the slightest. His priority was rallying his forces first.
The clerics of light were responsible for preaching, while the young, beautiful nuns used their charms to soothe people's hearts.
It seemed somewhat deceitful to enchant hearts with feminine beauty, but for the vast majority of the empire's youths, it proved remarkably effective.
A lovely young nun praying before you with tear-filled eyes, pleading with you to put down the blade of suicide and return to the embrace of the Lord of the Dawn—this tactic worked wonders. Especially against zealots, it proved far more effective than any divine spell cast by a cleric of light.
Even if he drew endless condemnation for it, Cade continued unabated: he used young nuns to persuade young men to join—handsome ones only! Then he used those young men to persuade the women of their households to put on nun's habits—beautiful ones only as well.
Repeating this process amidst the gloom and misery, this aesthetically pleasing host snowballed in size. Cade also selflessly shared the "experience" he had gathered over years of hearing confessions, making their reconciliations far more efficient.
While faith endured, one spoke of ideals, doctrines, and devotion; when faith collapsed, one had to speak of something else entirely to pull people out of despair—even if that something was mere anger.
Thus, despite the barrage of curses hurled his way, people found themselves too busy cursing to think about dying.
Cade had spent his earlier years serving in the lowest grass-roots churches, so his methods were far more down-to-earth than those of his father or brothers.
In this manner, Cade's Church of Dawn radiated outward from the imperial capital across the entire nation, swiftly stabilizing vast swathes of territory.
As for publicly smearing his own name later on just to prove the Holy Light would not abandon them—that was merely one of Cade's many unconventional stunts.
Regardless, this normally unreliable cleric of light had saved countless lives through his unreliable methods, to the point where his Church of Dawn had nearly evolved into a new sect within the empire. Now that the domestic situation had largely stabilized, Cade displayed no lust for power. He promptly disbanded this Church of Dawn, allowing every member of the clergy to return to their original posts.
He had hoped to slip back into slacking off, only to be awakened in the middle of the night by his father.
Seeing the message on the magic mirror, Cade muttered sourly, "Sigh, Father really is... always making trouble for his own people. If you ask me, Ryan's affairs should just be left to those ambitious schemers. They'd manage everything properly just for the sake of power."
Though Cade grumbled, he did not drag his feet.
This was an order from the Lord of the Dawn and a demand from that lich—both heavyweight figures he could not afford to offend.
Yet Cade's approach was remarkably straightforward. Rather than personally hunting down those power-wielding councilors, he simply opened the magic mirror and sent messages to his subordinates.
Even though the Church of Dawn had disbanded, many people remained eager to follow Cade. He had now become a scribe of the Cardinal Inquisition, serving effectively as the Supreme Arbiter's deputy. Since James Watson had dumped the workload onto him, he naturally dumped it down to those beneath him.
There would naturally be people to draft the invitation letters. The contents did not need to be overly detailed; they only had to make one thing clear: an order summoning them to the imperial capital to attend the disposition meeting regarding the Ryan royal family, appended with a special note—"By Decree of the Lord of the Dawn."
That settled it.
Cade did not believe anyone would dare not show up.
Having been jolted awake in the dead of night, Cade gave up on sleep entirely. He picked up several recent intelligence reports to study.
A closer inspection would reveal that these reports all concerned the recent "transaction" between Ryan and the Dwarf Kingdom.
Ryan had agreed to return the desert to the dwarves and pay reparations.
For reasons unknown, the dwarves had submitted a manifest of requested items, with a material called "temple stone" placed right at the top. The reparations demanded by the dwarves included vast quantities of this stone.
Cade had felt something was amiss earlier, but he had been swamped with other matters and had no time to look into such a minor issue.
Now that he could not sleep anyway, Cade spread out the intelligence reports to reorganize them.
"Temple stone... what use do dwarves have for this stuff?"
So-called temple stone was a type of masonry used in constructing shrines. Once specially sculpted and treated, it was exceptionally suited for condensing faith and conducting mana, making it an indispensable foundation material for building large-scale magic circles.
Due to Ryan's religious fervor, the nation possessed an absolute technological advantage in processing temple stone.
"Why would the dwarves need so much temple stone? Are they preparing some colossal magic circle? Could they be plotting some massive scheme for the World Council?"
Cade wanted to find someone to discuss it with, but he quickly realized the empire was currently overwhelmed with crises. The nobles and dignitaries were absorbed in their own self-serving schemes, barely able to secure their own territories.
As for his father and brother... Cade knew how exhausted they had been lately. With only an unsubstantiated suspicion in hand, there was no reason to trouble them.
After some thought, Cade used the magic mirror to reach someone far across the empire.
Looking at the gaunt, weary paladin in the mirror, Cade said, "Radiant General, my apologies for disturbing you so late."
Chapter 590