Chapter 197 The investigation is not to find the murderer
Turning around in the alley, Mizam lowered his head and walked through the alley with colorful triangular flags and clotheslines hanging in the alley. The houses around him changed from wooden houses to stone houses.

After crossing a flower bridge between two stone houses, Mizam nodded to the soldier guarding the intersection and walked towards the inner area.

This place is far away from the dock and close to the church. It is the wealthy area of ​​the entire Feiliu Castle.

Crossing the street with neatly stacked tiles, Mizam arrived at the side door of a courtyard. The gatekeeper was sitting on a small stool, dozing lazily.

"Old Hammers!" Mizam woke the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper looked at Mizam sleepily, stood up, and knocked on the door: "Open the door, it's Reverend Mizam."

A few seconds later, there were several unlocking sounds from inside the door, and an honest and simple butler opened the side door and invited Mizam in.

The little garden was beautifully decorated, with a green hedge that was delicately green as if it were spring, and hundreds of white cypress orchids in bloom, cut into the shapes of cocks and crosses.

There was a huge stove in the center of the garden, and waves of heat were coming from the stove.

Archbishop Constance sat by the fire, and opposite the archbishop sat the uneasy Barnifors, with two soldiers escorting the black-clad "Segar" to kneel beside them.

Standing in the middle of the garden, Bishop Matteo of Lvwa Township waved his right hand back and forth and stamped his feet fiercely: "Sir, how did the entire Thousand River Valley become like this!

Look at my robe. When I came to the city today, someone poured a bucket of manure on it.

I asked the night guards to look for the murderer. They pretended to search him and then told me that they couldn't see the murderer's face and couldn't tell him apart. But I can see it clearly!

Not to mention the laborers..."

Archbishop Constance waited impatiently for Matteo to get to the point, and when he saw that he was nagging endlessly, he interrupted him: "What is the progress of the Valentel case? Has the murderer been caught?"

Matteo wet his dry lips with his tongue: "Not yet."

"Not yet?" Constance repeated Matteo's words with emphasis.

"We have tried our best to track him down, especially Knight Rosso, who has been chasing the murderer day and night for three days without sleep, but the nearby citizens and villagers are protecting Valentyl..."

The case of Valen Taylor, this was the news that Mitzam heard on his way back from Grand Rapids.

Valentyl, the steward of the manor of Knight Rosso of Green Valley, secretly killed the knight's entire family of thirteen people under the cover of night when the knight was out to suppress the mob, and then fled on horseback.

Valentyl's motives are currently unclear, but even a fool can see why Valentyl, who is 45 years old and still childless, has such a drastic change in his temperament.

It's all because of blue blood wine.

Mizam couldn't help but sigh secretly. No matter which of the three incidents, the flood, Juano, and blue blood wine, occurred alone, the church had the confidence to easily suppress it.

Even if there were only two incidents, the church could have suppressed them with some effort, but all three happened at the same time, and the situation became somewhat out of control.

“…At present, we can confirm that he ran towards Rapid City. We will track him down along the way…The most hateful ones are the laborers and villagers, and even the local itinerant priests.

I have clearly seen pieces of clothing with blood stains many times, but when we asked the villagers nearby, they insisted they didn't know.

One of our night watch guards had clearly seen him before, but the local refugees pretended to cross the river and squeezed the guards on the bridge, preventing us from arresting him, so he got away again.

The villages and merchants along the way were unwilling to provide us with any supplies, but were willing to take in the damned Valentyl for free..."

"Okay, I understand. No need to continue." Constance rubbed the sides of her nose with her slender fingers. "Ah, I should execute Juanno later... The past is gone and cannot be retrieved. Let's think about the current problem."

Constance burned Juanno to death in order to suppress the dissenting voices of the people of the Thousand River Valley and ensure temporary peace.

Once the Pope's bull was issued and he was promoted to cardinal, he didn't care about the floods in the thousand river valleys.

But now, no sooner had Juanno been reported dead, the Thousand River Valley was at peace, and the Blue Blood Wine Scandal and the Duke of Kush were killed.

If this hadn't happened, Constance would have packed up and prepared to go to the Holy See City to take up her post.

But once the blue blood wine came out, although Grandivar was still arguing with Pope Johnny VIII over the Longsong City incident, there was no guarantee that he would stop and block his promotion. The other bishops who lost the election might also interfere.

For example, if Grandivar asked him to suppress the Thousand Valley Rebellion before leaving, or to serve as a cardinal concurrently and suppress the rebellion before taking office.

How long will it take to suppress this?

The most important thing is that Johnny VIII is in poor health. If things keep dragging on like this, one day Johnny VIII will die, and he won’t have the chance to enter the College of Cardinals. Wouldn’t that be the end of him?

There is no other way but to pass the buck.

Constance looked at Barneyforth. She had thought that this young man had a bright future, as he had achieved his current position at such a young age. But now it seemed...

The Blue Blood Orphanage was exposed by the Saint Sun, and the Duke of Kush was also killed by the Saint Sun. The Saint Sun was exposed from the territory of Banifors. They went to capture the short-haired Saint Sun, but not only did they fail to catch him, they actually made him famous.

Let Barneyforth bear the blame. Barneyforth was very familiar with Constance's eyes, which were the same when he pushed the blame to his subordinates.

Barnifors immediately began to tremble. He could not put the blame on his subordinates, because letting his subordinates do such a big thing would also be dereliction of duty.

"Your Excellency, I offer my greetings to you."

Stepping out from the shadows, Mizam saluted Constance.

This Mizam was sent by the Pope to Prince Condé and has always been known as Prince Condé's lobbyist and adviser.

"It's you, our Reverend Mitzham." Constance stood up, opened her arms, and kissed Mitzham on both cheeks.

This is the Franks' way of showing intimacy.

"Sir, I know you must be worried about the problems in the Thousand River Valley. Those short-haired rebels have been rampant until today." Mizam got straight to the point and said, "We were stupid and failed to capture Saint Sun Horn, but we captured another important person."

Mizam looked at the bewildered Barnifoss, who suddenly woke up from his dream and shouted to the soldiers who were holding Segal, "Bring here Segal, who will be the Devil King on the second day."

Escorted by several soldiers, Segar Hoss, whose original name was Drolt, was pushed in front of Constance with his hands tied behind his back.

"This is?"

Mizam narrowed his eyes and looked at Segar. Segar shuddered and swallowed the urge to tell the truth: "I am Segar Hos Galar, the second elected pope of the Shorthair Army. As for the witches Jeanna and Horn, they are just my nephews and nieces."

"The next day, we're going to elect a pope?" Matteo walked up to the stern-looking bearded man and said, "Where did this wild man come from?"

"Sir, this is really Horn's uncle Segar. He can also draw portraits of the two short-haired leaders, the Demon Grandson Horn and the Witch Jeanne."

Moreover, his imagination is astonishingly extraordinary and can definitely satisfy the curiosity of the nobles.

"Don't joke with me, this is clearly..."

"Are you indeed Segal Galar?"

"Exactly."

"Okay, okay." Constance stood up and hugged Mizam and Barneyforth in turn, and even made up for the two kisses she missed when she met Barneyforth before.

"You two have done a great job." Constance sat back on the chair, holding the armrest, with a playful expression on her face, "Such a great achievement, you didn't publicize it?"

"Our small contributions are not worth publicizing." Barnifors stepped forward and said, "Because your command and planning contributions far exceed our execution contributions, we sent people to publicize some of them, mainly to highlight your contributions."

"Oh..." The playful expression on Constance's face suddenly brightened up. "Ah, what contribution did I make? I just did a little planning and cleanup."

Turning to look at Segar, Constance became more and more satisfied and wanted to kiss him twice.

Constance spent so much money, recruited so many soldiers, and spent so many days under the banner of suppressing the Short-Haired Army. Wasn't it just to defeat the Savior Army, add bricks and tiles to his resume, and prove that he had stabilized the Thousand River Valley?

As a result, the Savior Army is making trouble everywhere, killing the Duke and bombing the Blue Blood Orphanage. Doesn't that make them look incompetent?
If we catch Horn standing shoulder to shoulder with him to elect the Pope the next day, we can declare victory.

With this cover, he could go to the Holy See City to be appointed as a cardinal and enter the upper echelons of the Vatican under the pretext of escorting a serious criminal.

Even if it was found to be fake, he was already a cardinal, so it was understandable that he was not careful at first.

Once he becomes a cardinal, it is not that he breaks the law, but that the law breaks him.

This method was proposed by Mizam. He is the Pope's man. How could the Pope not know about it?

The Pope will certainly pretend to be confused and try his best to show the strength of himself and his power to prevent those below from coveting his authority.

"Such a serious criminal should be detained by me personally and sent to the Vatican to meet the Pope. I should explain that although the Salvation Army is powerful, it is only a matter of time before they are executed." Constance said righteously.

Mitzham and Barneyforth looked at each other and knew that it was done.

"Then what should we do with these troublemakers? There is also rebellion..." Bishop Matteo was confused. Now that the archbishop is gone, who will take charge of the situation?
"What rebellion? The shorthairs are trapped in the Black Bone Swamp. Isn't the rebellion suppressed?" Constance glanced at Matteo with dissatisfaction, "Wouldn't it be better to give some of the land near Jeanne d'Arc to Prince Condé and let him stay for a few more months?
As for the troublemakers, we can say that it was just the individual behavior of a single parish. We have launched a thorough investigation and are determined to clean up the entire alcohol trafficking network and clear the church's name!"

"Oh, sir, you can't check this. Who knows what you might find out?" Matteo was immediately shocked.

Constance turned sideways and faced Matteo, but did not speak. There were some things she could not say.

Walking forward, Mizam put his arm around Matteo's shoulders and explained in a low voice without disguising anything: "Sir Matteo, the investigation is not to find the murderer."

"What's that for?"

"It's to prove that we did take action!"

(End of this chapter)