Divine Kingship

Chapter 638 Disaster Had Already Arrived
Rand already enjoys a high reputation in the world.

The kings and nobles of this world always subconsciously overlooked Rand's youthful face, otherwise they would not be able to match Rand's face with his deeds.

And if that's the case, then Rand isn't that young anymore. When Rand first participated in the Frostmoon Kingdom civil war, he looked to be in his twenties. Now he should be in his thirties.

But Rand always looked like a young boy.

This only makes everyone believe that Rand must be a superior or even the highest-level professional. It's hard to understand how Rand could have so much time to hone his combat skills while handling government affairs.

And he's so talented.

Fortunately, there were two even more extraordinary geniuses ahead of Rand: the White King Berlan and the Crimson King Karin, which prevented Rand from being too shocking or envied.

Of course, there were also quite a few who were jealous and hateful of Rand.

These people, of course, would not trust Rand's warnings and advice.

Take, for example, the matter of plague.

As everyone knows, Rand herself holds the position of head of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health.

Now that Rand has eliminated the vast majority of the opponents of the Kingdom of Bolen, what is he trying to achieve by starting to promote conspiracy theories about the plague?
Does he want all nations to be like the nobles of his Lunar Kingdom, accepting the temperance of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health?
Although everyone acknowledges that both a bountiful harvest and good health are things that everyone needs.

But if the price is being restrained by Rand, then that is unacceptable to them. How many years have the nobility and the royal family been suppressed by the Torch Church?
Now that we've finally escaped that predicament, what's next is the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health pressing down on us?

Moreover, there are signs of a revival in the Torch Church.

Many nobles simply could not tolerate having their power restricted.

Moreover, they didn't think the plague that Rand mentioned was a big deal at all.

The previous Poison of the Dead was extremely harmful because there were still many remnants of the Scourge who could spread poison everywhere, but now, the City of the Dead has been destroyed.

So even if there is a small amount of plague, there is no need to worry. Just kill the people or wild animals infected with the plague.

They even suspected that if a plague did occur, it might be a means for RAND to expand its power, and that the plague might not have been RAND's doing.

Many people understand the principle of nurturing an enemy to enhance one's own power.

Without a sufficiently threatening plague or famine, the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health in Rand would only have enough influence within the sphere of influence of the Moon Phase Kingdom in Rand.

The Torch Church grew to its current size because of the evil threats lurking in the darkness.

Last time, the poison of the dead gave Rand an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, which already made things difficult for many of Rand's opponents.

Anyone who is unwilling to believe Rand has reason to suspect that Rand has ulterior motives.

But now, they finally feel something is different.

Initially, only some villages had cases of infection, and the nobles weren't truly ignoring Rand's words.

But these are all small-scale, rural areas.

Thanks to the health bible, which had some effect, these small-scale plagues were quickly discovered and dealt with by the nobles.

This made them even more dismissive of Rand's warnings.

But soon, the first rat covered in sores appeared on the outskirts of the human city.

The rats scurried through the dense grass, crossed the woods, traversed the field ridges, and climbed the rugged but "skeletal" city walls.

The rat's festering body reached the surface of the city wall.

Standing atop the fairly high city walls, the rats were already taller than most of the buildings in the city, let alone humans.

The mouse's cloudy eyes had almost no vision left; it could only smell the sweet scent of grain.

The rats crawled past the feet of the guards on the city wall.

The guards on the city wall were dozing off, and rats are so small that they are not easy to notice.

But because he was dozing off, the torch in his hand fell to the ground.

The torches fell onto the ground of the city wall, the leaping sparks like splattered blood, the trembling tongues of fire like the claws of a demon, the claws reaching for the rats, but easily blown back by the wind on the city wall.

The commotion startled the rat, which ran with its festering claws and leaped off the city wall.

The guard, now fully conscious, simply picked up the torch again. He seemed to have run past something, but it was insignificant—just a rat or squirrel.

This kind of thing happens frequently at night, and there's nothing special about it.

The rat fell to the ground in the city. The height killed the rat, whose body was already festering. But soon, the dead rat's cloudy eyes opened again, with eerie green flames flickering in them.

With its bones broken and internal organs ruptured, the rat stood up again and crawled toward the city's sewers.

Soon, this dead rat will encounter a human dumping garbage in the sewer, or a rat-man taking on the dirty work.

Then, the remaining plague will spread.

……

The Dragonblood Eagle Knight, also known as Rand's envoy, explained Rand's strategy to the King of Lionheart.

“But the real problem is not the severity of the plague, but that we can only watch helplessly as the situation develops,” the messenger said. “It is now clear that these entities that are trying to spread the plague have consciously amassed troops to try to divide our forces.”

The King of Lionheart asked, "What advice does King Land have?"

"The suggestion is very simple: strictly adhere to the Health Codex. We have revised the Health Codex, and we hope Your Majesty will require all nobles and commoners to strictly abide by it." The messenger presented the revised Health Codex to King Lionheart.

The health bible was already relatively complete in the past; the revisions only added some measures to deal with extreme situations and some targeted recommendations for the current pandemic.

King Lionheart was quite familiar with the Health Codex. He flipped through it in a short while and understood what the revisions were: "The seriousness of the situation is now becoming apparent, but... while I have no intention of questioning King Land's judgment and plan, I would like to say that not all nobles will be willing to comply. I am the king, but my orders to the country are not absolute."

The classic theory that a king's power is limited if he disregards the notion that a vassal's vassal is not his vassal.

In this era, the king was equivalent to the largest shareholder of a company, and his words carried great weight, but obviously not absolutely.

Now, Rand's suggestion is clearly to require the Lionheart Kingdom to completely transform into a nation that follows the doctrines of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health in everything.

what does this mean?
This means that the Lionheart Kingdom transformed from a secular state into a state with significant ecclesiastical characteristics.

In the process of following the sacred texts of health, the politics of the Lionheart Kingdom will inevitably be influenced by the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health.

This influence was even more intolerable than that of the Torch Church, because Rand was a secular king, not simply a pope.

These are completely different in nature.

"His Majesty Rand anticipated this. The Holy Scripture of Health does not necessarily have to be issued in the name of the Righteous Church. The Great Goddess of Harvest and Health is a benevolent deity. Even if one does not believe in her or know her name, as long as one is willing to follow her teachings, her divine power will protect us," the messenger said.

It would indeed be much simpler to implement if it wasn't published under the name of a health bible. Although knowledgeable nobles and commoners could still figure out what it was, at least there was a fig leaf to cover it up.

The King of Lionheart fully believed in the severity of the plague. If he were in Rand's position, he would be overjoyed and would be doing everything in his power to fight the plague while expanding the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health.

Unexpectedly, Rand came up with such a plan. Rand was actually willing to make concessions on expansion?

Such concessions have very little impact on the actual situation.

When the time truly comes when the Holy Scriptures of Health and the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health are needed to combat the plague, the influence of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health will not diminish much.

But Rand really did have some considerations on this...

This is not a good thing.

This means that, in Rand's judgment, confronting the enemy was a higher priority than the expansion of power and faith.

This means that the enemy is even more formidable.

"Does Rand know something?" King Lionheart asked solemnly.

The envoy was taken aback before he understood what King Lionheart meant. Had he realized so quickly what His Majesty Rand's concession meant?
Even when the situation wasn't serious, Rand always prioritized the bigger picture.

But this does mean something.

“We suspect that the apostles of natural disasters have exerted a conscious influence on all of this.”

……

The king of Lionheart Kingdom eventually issued a decree to follow the Holy Scripture of Health and dispatched manpower and resources to build more churches for the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health.

This was just a few weeks after the King of Lionheart issued the order.

The Lionheart Kingdom received the news.

In the southernmost part of the world, several large cities in various countries have been hit by an epidemic.

"According to these countries, the situation is still under control, but they need support," the King of Lionheart said as he listened to the report.

"What kind of support do you need?" King Lionheart asked.

"We need to send people to help deal with the roaming plague victims and the undead army that has already begun to take shape."

“Then reply: it’s impossible to send men; we can’t even protect ourselves,” King Lionheart replied.

"War is imminent." Rand's envoy remained there, not returning.

"Hopefully, our preparations will be of some use," said King Lionheart.

……

Rand had also received the intelligence. Ever since realizing that the undead might intercept the messenger, Rand had arranged for vibration communication devices to cross dangerous sections of the road, and the dangerous matter of delivering the message was quickly resolved.

Rand also finished reading the report very quickly.

“In my hometown jargon, the version has been updated,” Rand said with a smile.

"What does this mean?" Olena asked, while Ellie blinked and listened intently.

"Today, this world receives a major update. The Plague DLC has been released, increasing the human faction's chaos level by 100 and the Plague's stealth level by 100. The Scourge Order has added new units: Plague Prophet, Skaven Rotting Man, Rat Legion, and Rat Ball. The Undead Legion's weapons have been enchanted with Plague."

Olena and Ellie could understand most of it, except that the undead had added new unit types.

Furthermore, since Rand has also created some board games, they can now understand what version updates mean.

This is really not good news, so all I can do is smile wryly.

"However, we are not entirely at a disadvantage. Humanity has also upgraded and strengthened the White King's Guard, added vibration communication devices, increased the number of armored legions, increased the number of disposable magic weapons, increased the Dragonblood Eagle Legion, and increased the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health."

This is Rand boasting about his influence.

Ellie rolled her eyes, while Olena covered her mouth and laughed.

Actually, two more kings were added: the White King and the Crimson King. Without Rand, a new king for the human world would not be born until much later, and Rand's identity would be unknown.

Now, Rand feels that Elsa is not far from becoming king.

As for Ryza, if Rand didn't exist in this world, Ryza would probably end up taking care of everything.

Rand wasn't entirely sure about Lysa's attitude toward the world.

And Lysa's power is clearly, as she herself said, very limited.

In short, Rand's influence on the world is now truly beginning to unfold.

Since Rand came into this world, he has never truly given up, but has always been proactive.

Therefore, Rand is no longer a nobody who follows the crowd, but a player who influences the overall situation.

……

While Rand was chatting and joking with two beauties during his break from work, New Holy City was in complete chaos.

Back then, the newly formed Holy City, having seized some of the profits from the magical gold mines, was quite pleased with itself in the early stages of the split.

During the split, the New Holy City genuinely believed that they were the future of the Church of the Torch.

But things took a sharp turn for the worse once the newcomers were dealt with.

First, they suffered heavy losses, and then Rand actually sent people to the new Holy City, taking away a large number of laborers, which directly affected the construction progress of the new Holy City.

More seriously, the prestige of the new Holy City has been greatly affected.

This dealt a serious setback to the New Holy City's money-making endeavors.

This was an utter disgrace, and it also blocked people's path to wealth. The new Holy City almost collapsed because of this.

Fortunately, the new Grand Knight Commander they chose as a temporary expedient was far more capable than they had imagined.

It could even be said that he is much more powerful than the original Grand Knight Commander.

Thanks to the governance of the elderly new Grand Knight, the new Holy City was able to catch its breath. Unfortunately, it later intervened in the war between the Kingdom of Bolen and Land, resulting in further losses of personnel.

Currently, the new Holy City is doing relatively well, but it seems that there are fewer and fewer clergy who are pursuing personal gain, and I don't know why.

This phenomenon worried the knight commanders somewhat, but since the other paladins weren't greedy, they were able to be even greedier.

Originally, they needed to share a large portion of the profits with their subordinates, but now they are increasingly able to line their own pockets.

Faced with ever-increasing wealth, the knights decided not to think about the problem.

(End of this chapter)