Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 332 - 130 Solomon’s Plan to Restore the Nation

The Sirius Peninsula, Olympia City, the Mage Holy Land, was now furiously preparing for war.

Constantinople had once again fallen, this time to the short-lived Latin Empire of the Crusaders, and the new master of the Queen of Cities, Sultan Suleiman of the Seljuk Empire, had already begun to intensify his military preparations for an assault on the cities of the Thrace Plain.

During this time, a call from the Church Court rang through the study of Apilius, the City Lord of Olympia.

After the end of the destruction brought by the Magic Tide, the Church had sent new communication telephones to countries across the continent within a few weeks of restoring its productivity, even to Emperor Otto of the opposing Divine Luo Empire. Now, as the telephone rang ding-a-ling, Apilius knew it must be the Church—besides them, no one knew the number of this new phone.

"The Azure Longsword?" Apilius pondered after hearing the question from the other end, "Yes, my granddaughter is indeed in that Mercenary Corps."

"If I were you, I’d arrange a political marriage for her," said Pope Innocent, "rather than let her roam the world on her own."

"Fortunately, her grandfather is me," retorted Apilius with a cold huff, "She is no longer the Empress of the Empire, just a Transcendent with dreams."

"Even so, Theodora still has the noble bloodline of the Solomon Royal Family!" Innocent’s words became slightly more fervent, "In an age where Constantinople has fallen, Empress Zoe alone can hardly uphold the prestige of the Solomon Imperial Family. Apilius, don’t you wish that one day Constantinople could be restored?"

"If I remember correctly, the fall of Constantinople was precisely due to someone’s betrayal," Apilius responded icily.

"I admit, allowing the Crusaders to plunder Constantinople was a mistake," Innocent said, softening his tone, "The Cardinal Council is not a place where I can decide everything alone. Nonetheless, no one had expected that a mere few tens of thousands of Frank Knights could actually take down Constantinople."

"So what’s the point of mentioning the past now that it cannot be changed?" Apilius said impatiently, "There is no longer an East Solomon Empire, only the totalitarian Monarch of Epirus on the Sirius Peninsula. As for the glory of Ancient Solomon, whoever wants to take it can have it! Be it Otto or Suleiman!"

Innocent remained silent for a long while before suddenly saying:

"What if the Church Court were to launch another Crusade to the East?"

"To plunder Constantinople once more?" Apilius scoffed, "From the hands of heathens?"

"This time it will be a true Crusade to the East," Innocent replied calmly, "To reclaim Constantinople, rebuild the East Solomon Empire, and restore the strong Shield of the Christian World in the East."

Apilius fell silent, then after a long pause, he said, "Even so, the East Solomon Empire that the Church would establish would be nothing more than another exclave of Pope Country in the East."

"No," Innocent denied, "We will support Theodora as Empress."

A lengthy silence.

"Was this decided by that supercomputer?" asked Apilius in a grave tone.

Supporting Theodora, as the Empress of the restored East Solomon Empire, was completely inconsistent with the Church’s interests in the East.

Theodora herself belonged to the legitimate direct line of the Imperial Family, possessing inherent profound political prestige, and with the backing of her grandfather, only to march into Constantinople with the momentum of the Empire’s restoration, would have the subjects within the whole range of the Orthodox confessors in a frenzy of worship, vowing to serve unto death.

At the moment she reclaimed her throne, all chains imposed upon her by the Church Court would automatically break.

Indeed, if Apilius asked himself, standing in the position of Pope Innocent, calling for a Crusade to the East was not impossible, however, it was inconceivable it would be for the purpose of establishing a new, centrally governed East Solomon Empire.

Unless it was Raphael’s intention.

As a politician, an inescapable, serious problem lay in the fact that one often could only see the short-term benefits, especially so at the brink of a crisis.

Because humans are realistic animals that have evolved over tens of millions of years, those apes with a long-term vision who did not pay enough attention to short-term benefits were eliminated by the ruthless natural competition before the long-term benefits came to be, struggling for the right to survive from moment to moment was the norm.

Raphael was different. It was a super artificial intelligence, capable of calculating tens of thousands of years ahead and simulating thousands of years back, even the most complex game of Go was no more than a fully solvable Rubik’s cube to it—it always considered the overall situation, with the overall ranging from now to the infinitely distant future.

That is to say, was rebuilding the East Solomon Empire more in line with the existence and continuity of the technological civilization? Even if it meant the Church Court had to pay a substantial cost without receiving enough return in the coming decades?

Wrong! The focal point in Pope Innocent’s words was never "rebuild the East Solomon Empire," but "let Theodora become the Empress"! frёewebηovel.cѳm

Theodora... Once Apilius had grasped the key point and was momentarily shaken to the core, he quickly steadied his mind and suddenly asked,

"In Raphael’s monitoring queue, what is the threat level of Theodora?"

"Encluid level, R4," Innocent fell into silence for a moment before answering, "It started with that young man named Aske, and then last night, after a new round of updates in the BI warehouse."

"The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps, all members elevated to Encluid level, R4."

"May I know why?"

"That is not possible, the algorithm for predicting Chaos can only be Chaos itself, cloaked within layers of decorated convolutional neural networks at the base, it is impossible to reproduce the entire logical circuit because observation itself will disrupt prediction. Observation means collapse, you should understand what I mean, Lord Apilius."

"I understand," the voice of Apilius grew progressively more authoritative, "Your Majesty Innocent..."

"If your supercomputer truly calculates without omission, then Theodora’s future return to the Imperial throne is likely an inevitable convergence node on the timeline of the future. And by then, whether she is friend or foe to the Church Court will greatly influence your survival and continuation in this world, thus she presently warrants the R4 threat level."

"Indeed," Innocent replied, "Hence, the Church Court would rather send coal in snowy weather than add flowers to the brocade."

"When is the Crusade to the East planned?"

"2-3 years later, after the war with Emperor Otto is concluded, the Church Court will initiate advanced contact with The Azure Longsword. Once I persuade the Cardinal Council, we will begin a new round of the Crusades."

"Good," Apilius fell silent for a long while before finally saying, "As soon as the Crusaders cross the Adriatic Sea, the entire Sirius Peninsula will join the ranks of the campaign to the East... this is for Theodora."

"For the Christian World," Innocent spoke slowly and solemnly, as if making a vow at the feet of God, "and for... the future of human civilization."

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