After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

Upon hearing this, the foul language that Bishop Stephen was about to utter transformed into a crystallization of wisdom in the next moment.

While he was having fun with the boy, he wasn't paying attention to his brain for a while.

But now he realized that the elves seemed to value the Regent highly, and they had previously sent a letter of condemnation because of the Tranquil Exile incident, so they were unlikely to be affected by his current smear campaign.

Um...

To allow wisdom to regain its prominence, Bishop Stephen decided to abandon the plan he had impulsively proposed in the past.

However, this means that with the former regent almost certain to head towards the Elf Forest, his strategic plans will need to be adjusted accordingly...

Um...

Bishop Stephen seemed thoughtful. After first instructing his attendant to abandon the plan, he raised his head and asked seriously:

"How much do we know about the forces in the Elf Forest? Not just the number of troops, but also their weapons, armor, and other things."

"Not many, but not few either—we have actual samples of the weapons. Please follow me."

"Also, notify all the accompanying chaplains to come here. We need to thoroughly study everything about the elves. Not only for going to the battlefield, but also for skinning and dismembering them."

The bishop and his attendants arrived at the specimen room on the 57th floor of St. Peter's Basilica as quickly as possible. Here were stored all sorts of spoils of war collected by the Church of Light over a long period of time through various means—including, naturally, the weapons of the elves.

The elves' weapons could hardly be called weapons.

They do indeed possess the capabilities expected of ordinary weapons.

But they look more like works of art—no, they are works of art.

Bishop Stephen stared into thought as he looked at the elven weapons displayed behind the glass in the specimen room.

From a human perspective, this is an over-decorated longbow.

The longbow uses the highest grade of wood, the highest grade of bowstring made from a mixture of plant and animal materials, and the most important process: enchanting.

This shows attention to detail in the [practical aspects].

The skill of the elven craftsmen is more evident in the less important decorative parts.

Human craftsmen, at least, could not, while ensuring the stability of the bow's structure, micro-carve along the wood's grain and use expensive and rare golden magical materials to create a rotating scroll.

But the elves can do it—not only that, the content of the paintings on each bow will have different artistic conceptions according to the owner's preferences and the material of the wood.

Should this kind of thing really be taken to the battlefield instead of being displayed in a glass case like it is now?

Even the arrowheads and wooden branches are covered with paintings and hymns!

Bishop Stephen fell into deep thought, while his attendant remarked that it was said the elves would need a full hundred years to craft such a longbow.

"This longbow alone, if we take it out to display, especially to foreign merchants in Drake Harbor, would be enough to fetch an astronomical price, and could even be used to demonstrate the majesty of the parish and the God of Light."

Bishop Stephen nodded subconsciously, then suddenly realized:

"And you're saying... this [Elven Standard Longbow]... takes a hundred years to make?"

"Yes. Considering the lifespan of elves, this seems acceptable. And it must be admitted that this longbow is perfect, whether in terms of artistic value, practical value, or magical value."

"But given the course of the war, this is undoubtedly a foolish thing to do—the elves are using thousands of years of 'perfection' to deal with modern warfare, just like an ant that has evolved to perfection trying to fight a blazing torch with its indestructible claws."

“You’re right. After all, given the elves’ usual ‘perfect’ practices, they can’t possibly stockpile a large number of elven longbows, let alone compete with our followers in terms of numbers—we can pave a path to the elven forest with our flesh and blood, and their arrows will be consumed at a rate that our reserves can’t even keep up with.”

"Not to mention, the more shields we equip our vanguard with, the less damage the elves will inflict on us. Those elven archery masters who can shoot through an entire formation are a tiny minority; most elves are simply sharpshooters. Their arrows don't have that much penetrating power; at most, four layers of wooden shields can stop them..."

The attendant proceeded to elaborate on his views, while Bishop Stephen nodded thoughtfully.

"Therefore, our main task is to classify our 30 followers."

Classification—As a bishop who had once commanded large armies in battles against barbarians, Bishop Stephen naturally understood that classification was an essential and crucial matter in the army.

Untrained recruits and conscripted believers should not be mixed in with the professional soldiers who form the main force and fight alongside them. This is because recruits are easily frightened, are not as willing to follow orders as professional soldiers, and are unlikely to abide by discipline. Instead, they will shout for battle at the sight of merit and run away in fear at the sight of a powerful enemy. They belong to the category that must be separated immediately.

The same applies to professional soldiers. While they may indeed possess more professional characteristics and understand the importance of obeying orders and discipline compared to recruits and conscripts, they are ultimately just ordinary people who risk their lives for money.

Their willingness to obey orders and discipline is contingent on winning the battle; if the war turns into a rout, these professional soldiers are also prone to desertion. Therefore, they are at most used as the "backbone" of the legion, rather than as the final trump card.

Stephen designated the Holy Light Church's Knights of the Guard and the Order of Priests as its trump cards.

The Guardians of the Faith are the exclusive army of the Church of Light. In a sense, they are like the former national army of the royal family, receiving preferential treatment from the Church of Light. They eat the best food, wear the best equipment, sleep with the best women or men, and carry the best knives. However, unlike the national army of the Roman royal family, they have an extremely fanatical faith in the God of Light and will not betray their master for 800 gold coins like the trash of the national army.

Needless to say, the priesthood, with its equally fanatical faith, is even more formidable. Priests who know how to use various powerful offensive divine spells are not only the best morale maintainers for the army, but also junior commanders or officers responsible for leading small units in Bishop Stephen's subsequent military operations. Even if the army collapses, they can still be used as a mage corps. If they cooperate with the Papacy's army in combat, they are practically invincible within the Roman Empire—provided that there are a large number of believers around them.

However, whether it was the Papacy's Guard or the Order of the Priests, their numbers in this northern expedition were extremely small... Therefore, they were not only the last trump card in direct combat, but also needed to be used as the "military police" under Bishop Stephen in daily military operations to maintain discipline—Bishop Stephen meant to restrain the believers from appropriating the spoils belonging to the Church of Light for their own use. After all, that money belonged to the Church of Light and the Bishops' Council, not to these lowly believers.

...In short, in Bishop Stephen's vision, his army would be reorganized into these three categories, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, the number of useless recruits and conscripted believers would be the largest—these people would be given a shield and their own farm tools as weapons, since they were just cannon fodder and no one expected them to do anything other than attract arrows.

The number of professional soldiers is generally limited, requiring careful deployment. The elite Papal Guard and Priests, in addition to serving as military police in daily operations, need to be utilized in concentrated numbers during decisive battles...

Um...

perfect!

Bishop Stephen nodded in satisfaction, feeling pleased with his arrangements, when a remark from his attendant brought him back to his senses.

"The reorganization of the soldiers is not a problem, but the supplies... what should we do?"

...

In warfare, the most important thing is to ensure that supplies are in place first.

As a commander with extensive combat experience, Bishop Stephen, despite his extremely extravagant private life, knew the importance of ensuring that his soldiers were well-fed.

After all, without enough to eat, even the most devout fanatic warrior cannot muster the willpower to undertake a long journey, let alone go into battle.

While the Light God Cult's divine magic includes techniques that temporarily create an illusion of sweetness and satiety, these are ultimately illusory and cannot provide soldiers with sufficient nutrition...

Every commander should know the importance of supplies and provisions, but the problem is, the Roman Empire is suffering from a drought.

Since the parish could not rely on the royal family or the warlords of the military district to send food, it had to rely on itself.

Bishop Stephen calculated his current food reserves—aside from the half he had privately seized to sell at a high price, the food supplies for the Northern Expeditionary Force should last about half a month if the invasion were to begin ahead of schedule in October...

Half a month...?

He frowned, then in an instant, his brow relaxed.

"Anyway, cannibalism has happened during famines—we can turn the corpses of the dead into food then. Besides, there are plenty of mobile food supplies in the Monster Forest."

When war breaks out, many people will surely die in the elves' rain of arrows.

Disposing of these bodies would be a waste of time and money, so it would be more practical to reuse them rather than let them go to waste.

only--

"Don't let this get to the ears of the nuns of the [Saintess Faction] or the Saintess herself. They are kind-hearted and can't stand these things. If it causes trouble, we'll be in a difficult position too."

Bishop Stephen gave orders to his attendants with a gentle expression.

The attendant accompanying Bishop Stephen nodded and accepted the bag of gold personally handed to him by the bishop, intending to use the money to reward himself and also to settle one-tenth of the remaining half of the grain privately.

Anyway, they'll just have to eat people eventually, so they can always fill the gap.

The master and servant exchanged knowing smiles.

Chapter Nine: A Peaceful Future, and the Little Queen Who Shatters It

......

the other side.

Yang Hao and the others followed the elevator of the Hanging Gardens—according to the elves, it was an ancient elevator given to them by the Bayerzans Empire—up to truly enter the Hanging Gardens.

They were not immediately ushered into the elven palace, the Green Courtyard, but were instead taken to the inner ring of buildings, which was closer to the Green Courtyard, to rest for a while.

"This is the house that Finn has prepared for you, sir, and your entourage. Considering the differences in diet, we will not prepare hot meals for you, but we have stored a lot of food, including meat, inside. Please feel free to use these things."

Qinna pointed to the house in front of her and said that a change of clothes and other things were prepared. Although there might be some differences in body size, it shouldn't be a big problem.

"If nothing unexpected happens, Fen hopes you can rest for a few days before seeing her. After all, you've been working so hard, you must be exhausted by now."

Yang Hao originally wanted to say that he wasn't tired yet and planned to finish up the important business before resting.

But seeing Mother Teresa's eyes light up, eager to go in for a relaxing bath, he nodded in agreement.

"However, if possible, I would like to request that after you have rested for a while, you accompany me to the Emerald Courtyard for registration. This is the rule of the capital, and I ask for your understanding."

"I know, I'll go with you later. Now, please let me settle my people."

Please make yourself at home.

After handing the key to Yang Hao, Qin Na waited quietly on the street outside with her entourage.

Yang Hao then led everyone into the house, which could be described as a "manor".

In the Elven way of thinking, no one other than Fen and the courtiers is allowed to live in the Green Courtyard. Noble families and high-ranking officials live as neighbors in the mansions closer to the Green Courtyard.

The manor in front of Yang Hao was built to the standards of a noble residence—in other words, they were now neighbors with important figures from the Elven Royal Court.

This is truly... a deep and meaningful act of kindness.

Yang Hao sighed and assigned rooms to everyone. He told them to rest for the time being, and then Teresa, looking completely bewildered, pulled him into the master bedroom of the house and disappeared without a trace.

Joseph just watched helplessly, and after a long while he shook his head and said to his wife:

“Just like we used to be—but then again, Lord Priscilla has never seemed this close to His Majesty.”

"She's just an ingrate, a coward, let's not talk about her anymore—alright, let's not disturb His Majesty and his wife's life, let's rest for a bit. After all, we still need to go to the streets later to find an elven doctor to treat the Ling people's injuries."

"But the money issue..."

"...That's up to His Majesty."

...........

After entering, Theresa immediately ran to the bathroom to take a shower, leaving Yang Hao alone in the bedroom, sitting on the sofa and staring blankly at the elven newspapers.

The social life of the elves is not as dull as humans imagine. They have newspapers that have been serialized for hundreds of years, covering everything from gossip to politics, from sweet nothings between husband and wife to how to feed children, and even a special journal on how to feed tree people—it has everything.

Moreover, elves also eat meat, and their cooking techniques for meat are even more advanced than those of humans—at least in the current human society of the Roman Empire, there is no cooking method like "hot pot," let alone "steaming" in addition to frying, grilling, boiling, and stewing.

However, Yang Hao was more concerned about the current Elf, Fang.

"From an elf's perspective, he's quite young... only about 300 years old?" He muttered to himself, looking at the newspaper in his hand. "Blonde hair and blue eyes, but short hair... Oh dear, are all elves blonde hair and blue eyes? Wow, apart from hairstyle and physique, they're practically indistinguishable to outsiders... But then again... 300 years old Fen is probably only in his early 20s in human terms, right?"

The standards for "maturity" among elves are very different from those for humans.

Although the time required for sexual maturity is similar to that of humans, elves do not have the low standards of the Roman Empire, where "as long as you can speak, look tall, and can work, you are considered an adult." Elves have extremely strict examinations and assessments to determine whether a member of their race is an adult.