Chapter 71: The Omnipotent Lord Lin Wei! Please, Help Me!
Chapter 71: The Omnipotent Lord Lin Wei! Please, Help Me!
Wait, all this fuss just because she lost an argument?
Lin Wei glanced at Veya, her cheeks puffed out in frustration. He knew there had to be more to it—nothing ever riled her up this much without a good reason.
Still, he couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch her cheek. She was just too adorable when she got worked up like this.
“So, the empire’s nobles are blaming The Holy Church for the situation at the front lines? Even if you’re managing things on that side, it’s not really your responsibility, is it?”
“Isn’t the Pope supposed to take the fall for everything related to The Holy Church? Even if the nobles wanted to hold someone accountable, it should’ve been her. Why would they shove you to the front?”
After teasing Veya, Lin Wei mulled it over, a flicker of doubt passing through his mind.
He might not think much of that useless Pope, but since this involved his Veya, he had to get the facts straight.
Besides, all his so-called “experience” in the Northern Countries was fabricated. As long as he didn’t do anything too outrageous, no one would ever suspect him.
Veya let out a long sigh. “Well… the Pope lost the argument too.” She was really just looking for comfort, so she decided to lay everything out for Lin Wei. Who knew—maybe he’d come up with one of his unexpected ideas again?
With that in mind, Veya dropped all pretense and explained the situation from the perspective of an ordinary cleric.
“Today, the imperial nobles came to The Holy Church not just to demand answers about the missing supplies, but also to seize some of our logistics authority.”
“Ever since the current Pope declared war, the demons have repeatedly intercepted the supplies we send. And now, just as we’re trying to retake the Northern Fortress, yet another shipment was stolen.”
“With such a critical operation underway, losing supplies again handed the nobles the perfect excuse to hold us accountable. Their accusations were justified—no matter how much they were targeting the Pope, we really were in the wrong this time.”
As a Demon Lord who’d spent years fighting the allied armies, Lin Wei understood all too well how supply lines worked—and he knew The Holy Church was responsible for this particular front.
“Still… if they got you this riled up, those nobles weren’t just looking for accountability. They must’ve been pushing their luck.”
“I mean, even if the Pope is useless, she can’t just sit there and take it, right? She could’ve at least found some excuse to push back and save face!”
No wonder Veya came home looking like that—she must’ve been chewed out the whole time, forced to swallow her anger until she was about to burst. If he were in the Pope’s place, those nobles would’ve lost their heads long ago!
“What else could she do? The Pope can’t just lash out at humans for no reason. Otherwise, the Goddess Alicia would punish her with a Divine Decree.”
“If she scolded those nobles without just cause, she could even temporarily lose the blessing of the Holy Light… and then things would get even messier.”
Wait, there’s a punishment for something like that?
Lin Wei blinked in disbelief. He’d never dealt with the Pope directly, but this all sounded a little too absurd.
Getting punished by divine decree just for putting insubordinate nobles in their place? How did the previous Pope handle things? Surely he didn’t just bottle up his anger every single time!
“But… there are other ways to deal with this, aren’t there? Couldn’t that useless Pope at least find some excuse to send those nobles to the front lines?”
Lin Wei stared at her, incredulous. If he were that powerful and someone dared to disrespect him, he’d rather quit on the spot than let them walk all over him.
“If those imperial nobles aren’t under The Holy Church’s direct authority, then have the knights investigate them! Don’t tell me The Holy Church’s knights can’t dig up anything shady.”
“Just line up those damned nobles—sure, maybe one or two would be innocent, but if you take out a hundred and let one slip, there’ll still be plenty of rats left hiding!”
“Exactly! Those bastards deserve a thorough investigation by the knights!” Veya agreed with a cheerful curse, but her expression soon clouded over again.
“But most of the Grand Commanders of The Holy Church don’t get along with the Pope. Some of them have even tried to undermine her authority. Normally, the Retribution Knights would step in to keep them in line, but today, they just stood by and watched.”
“So with the Pope left completely isolated, even if I tried to help, it wouldn’t have made a difference. If it hadn’t been for the Judgement Knight finally stepping in to disperse them, we really would’ve lost control of The Holy Church’s logistics authority…”
“If that happens, it won’t just damage the Pope’s reputation—the supplies for the front lines will definitely be embezzled! That’s something we absolutely can’t allow.”
The soldiers fighting on the front wouldn’t care about the politics behind it all. If their supplies were skimmed, they’d only blame the Pope for failing at her job.
Especially since the nobles controlled all the channels of communication downward—no matter how she tried to explain things herself, it would barely make a difference.
Only now, in the midst of all this, did Veya finally understand what Lin Wei meant the other day when he said, “You have to do the work, but you also have to put on a show.”
If you don’t take the initiative to publicize your efforts, how can the people possibly know what you’ve done? Otherwise, when it comes to the matter of losing logistics authority, you might not even need to intervene yourself—the soldiers on the front lines, who know all too well what kind of people the imperial nobles are, would start protesting on their own!
“The Pope’s been losing sleep over all this lately, and she’s started to rely on me more and more, so the pressure’s really piling up.”
“Lin Wei… do you have any ideas? Is there any way to get the supplies through without the demons intercepting them? What’s the situation at the Imperial Capital’s Magic Academy?”
She rubbed her cheek against his, her voice soft and coaxing as she pleaded, “Lin Wei~ Won’t you help the Pope and me, please?”
Damn it! This woman is way too seductive.
She’s actually coming to me for help—acting all cutesy, no less?
After all these years of marriage, Lin Wei knew exactly how dangerous this beautiful woman could be, especially when she was the one taking the initiative. How could he possibly say no?
Even if it meant stretching the truth a little—claiming he had “a friend in the imperial court,” or something like that—he’d still have to help her analyze the situation.
The real problem was… how could anyone refuse her when she was like this?
“Give me thirty seconds to think.”
Honestly, stopping the demons from raiding supply lines wasn’t that hard. He’d pulled those kinds of tricks himself so many times, coming up with countermeasures was practically second nature.
But as he replayed Veya’s words in his mind, Lin Wei felt like something wasn’t quite right.
“Supply convoys keep getting ambushed, the useless Pope can’t get along with The Holy Church’s knights, and now, right as the assault on the Northern Fortress is underway, everything blows up.”
“The imperial nobles are seizing the chance to grab control over logistics… Wait, something doesn’t add up here.”
Threads of suspicion began to weave together in his mind. Lin Wei paused for ten whole seconds—and then, suddenly, everything clicked.
He looked at Veya, a flicker of suspicion in his eyes.
“How are the supply convoys usually escorted to the front lines? Does The Holy Church send people on its own, or do they travel with the Coalition Army?”
“To prevent any accidents, the convoys are always guarded solely by the Judgement Knights. In fact, only I and the knights in charge of the escort know the exact routes,” Veya replied without hesitation.
“Then the problem’s obvious, isn’t it?”
At this point, with supply shipments getting stolen again and again, you’d have to be blind not to see what was wrong.
“Are you sure it’s always the demons who come sniffing out your convoys every time?”
“Huh?” Veya stared at him, puzzled.
“I mean, isn’t it possible that while the demons do sometimes raid your supplies, there’s no way they could hit you this often.”
“So it stands to reason that a good portion of the recent thefts weren’t done by demons at all. The nobles must have sent their own people to intercept the convoys, all to cause trouble for that useless Pope and wrest control over logistics.”
“There’s no doubt about it—there’s a traitor inside The Holy Church!”