The Game Difficulty Is Crazy
After that, Glen briefly explained the plan to annihilate the Black Order to Luceria.
“There’s nothing particularly difficult about it.”
『First, use Luceria’s position as a Saintess to gather sufficient troops.』
『Second, use those gathered forces to attack the Black Order’s headquarters and major dioceses that Glen has identified—all on the same day.』
“Th-that’s… simple…….”
Bishop Roderick showed a troubled expression.
“Well… it probably sounds difficult.”
Of course, if one looked into the details, neither gathering troops nor identifying the locations of the dioceses was easy.
No matter how she stood shoulder to shoulder with the Pope, even a Saintess had limits to the troops she could mobilize, and finding Black Order dioceses without any clues was practically impossible.
“But I’ll be going with you.”
Confidence filled Glen’s eyes.
“Yes. I believe you, Sir Glen. After all, you’ve already annihilated two Black Order dioceses.”
A truly shadowy organization—aside from committing atrocious acts, neither its scale nor its leader was known.
If it was Glen, who had already caused such a group no small amount of trouble, his words were more than trustworthy.
Above all, Luceria, like Glen, was someone who directly heard God’s voice, so she trusted him completely.
“Then figuring out the locations of the dioceses and the cult leader shouldn’t be a major issue, since you’re receiving divine revelations.”
Luceria smiled in relief.
What remained was the problem of troops.
At present, the Grand Cathedral was under the control of corrupt priests led by Archbishop Bastian.
How many troops Luceria—who had only just begun forming her own faction there—could gather would be the deciding factor.
“Ugh… that is definitely a problem.”
Even Luceria, who had confidently declared her support, looked flustered when she heard the scale of the required forces.
That reaction was understandable.
There were a total of 399 Black Order dioceses across the continent. Of those, 250 were located within the Papal State.
And of those, 50 dioceses existed within the capital, Istirenne, alone.
“Simultaneously striking over fifty dioceses would be impossible with anything less than a massive force.”
Roderick wiped cold sweat from his brow.
With preparations for the war against the demon race in full swing, moving troops at all was difficult—that was his view.
“Of course, realistically, we can’t hit all of them. But we still need to prepare so we can strike the important ones.”
No matter what, the task ahead remained the same, and she intended to accomplish it somehow.
With that resolve, Luceria clenched her fist toward Glen.
“You must have so much to take care of already, yet I’m sorry for only making requests of you.”
Glen smiled bitterly.
Though he said that, simply achieving the feat of destroying the Black Order would allow Luceria to expand her influence.
“I’m the one worrying about how I should repay you for proposing something like this to me.”
“If the Papal State can return to its former, pure state, that will be more than enough.”
After giving her the kind of lip service that would move her heart, Glen continued by offering several pieces of advice.
Luceria listened intently, and only in the late afternoon did she finally leave the mansion with a satisfied expression.
Once Luceria left the mansion, Glen gathered his companions in the reception room.
After briefly praising them for their efforts during the Saintess assassination incident, he immediately got to the point.
“Some of you already heard this from me, but our next target is the Black Order. And this time, I’m planning to see it through to the end.”
At the mention of settling things with the Black Order, most of them reacted with surprise.
Only Romina, who already knew, calmly nodded from the back.
“I talked with the Saintess about gathering troops, and I’ve already identified the location of their headquarters to some extent.”
“Oh! To think you’ve located the headquarters of the Black Order—how impressive!”
Hawkney widened his eyes in admiration.
“There’s no need to exaggerate, Sir Hawkney. I merely listened to what God told me.”
“As expected of a devout Saint!”
Glen continued.
“Anyway, the Saintess will handle the troops, but that alone won’t be enough. So we’ll also invest manpower on our side and gather as many forces as possible in a short time.”
Because events were unfolding differently from the original story, there was no way to know how the Black Order would alter their plans.
That was why they had to hurry, even cutting into the time it would take to visit Morce’s temple, to gather troops.
“First, Sir Hawkney.”
“Yes!”
Hawkney sprang to his feet, fire blazing in his eagle-like eyes.
“What I need you to do is similar to the task I gave you before—only its importance has increased.”
“Understood!”
Hawkney’s role was that of an informant.
He would move around the places Glen designated and immediately report events and reactions occurring within the Papal State.
The difference this time was that he would pay closer attention to nobles and high-ranking priests.
“And Tasha, your role is similar as well. I’ll outline the priority tasks for you.”
Tasha’s mission was to adjust the small events from the original scenario in ways favorable to Glen.
Naturally, events connected to the Black Order extermination plan would take top priority.
“You’ve done it once before, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
In the original story, the vice-captain of the Crimson Cross Knights was supposed to be assassinated.
Saving the life of Erichmann von Berger was Tasha’s achievement—and a turning point that would greatly affect future events.
“Understood.”
With her usual expressionless face, Tasha nodded.
In this way, Glen assigned roles to each of them.
‘Though by “each of them,” it’s really just Romina, Ridenhall, and Felix left.’
First, Glen ordered the blacksmith Felix to remain on standby at the residence.
To be honest, Glen hadn’t been able to pay much attention to Felix lately.
Still, seeing Tasha and Hawkney carrying decent swords he hadn’t seen before, it seemed Felix had been diligently trying to help behind the scenes.
‘If his condition’s good, I should probably entrust him with some materials.’
After assigning Felix, Glen turned to Romina and Ridenhall.
This time, Romina and Ridenhall would work together on a mission.
Their task was to visit the Black Order’s archives and gather detailed information on the cult’s future movements.
As expected, the reactions of the two of them(?) were exactly as Glen had anticipated.
“With him?”
“I’d rather go alone.”
The moment they received the order, Romina and Ridenhall glared at each other and growled.
“Do you want to get hit, or just go?”
“…Just go.”
With some rough mediation, Glen wrapped up his final instruction.
“What about you, Glen?”
“Me?”
At Romina’s question, Glen gave a meaningful smile.
“What do you think a CEO does?”
“C-C-E-O……?”
“There he goes again with those weird words no one understands.”
“Ahh… then what does it mean?”
At Ridenhall’s question, Romina shrugged, twirling a strand of her hair as she made her own guess.
“I don’t know what a CEO is, but isn’t it something like meeting important people?”
“Bingo.”
Glen snapped his fingers with a bright smile, and Romina shook her head.
“So lies come easily to your lips now.”
The archbishop’s office was neatly arranged and picturesque.
Yet the air filling it was nothing but cold cynicism.
“You say the promised plan will succeed, so I should put my doubts aside? Hah.”
Archbishop Bastian revealed the icy eyes hidden beneath his white eyebrows.
“Even your predecessor, Beveluga, didn’t stab me in the back like this.”
“This incident involved something even the Order didn’t anticipate—”
“You handle matters like that every time, which is why your cult keeps failing. Do you know that?”
The frigid air froze.
Within it, Amelia Cluny, with her dark crimson hair, maintained her usual gentle smile.
“….”
That calm demeanor, unpleasant to the point of being eerie, made Bastian pause.
Soon, Amelia spoke.
“For this operation, we deployed two Apostles of Kalungod and one Prophet, investing considerable effort. However, the plan ultimately failed. First, I bow my head in apology for that.”
Her head slowly lowered.
Feeling irritated by her composure, Bastian clicked his tongue and turned away.
