“Clean this place up and take her down to rest. After that, let her visit her own people. She likely needs to see them with her own eyes before she can feel at ease.”
After he had ‘finished’, Louie currently bore the air of an enlightened sage. He looked at Lysfer who lay on the garden floor, gasping for breath. He slowly stood up and made for the main hall. After taking two steps away he stopped and spoke, “Have Clooney come here.”
“Yes, milord!”
The elven maids knelt on the ground as they responded. Some followed Louie to the main hall, some carried Lysfer and took her to the bedroom in the side hall to rest, some quickly brought mops and other items to clean up the traces of the act, and the remainder went to convey Louie’s instructions.
These elves had been in Louie’s service for more than a month now and had already divided their duties. Although Louie did not know their specific names, he felt it was enough for him to know their faces and that they belonged to him.
Louie continued lying on the gold mountain. Not long after, the sound of footsteps echoed in the empty hall. A young man was led in by the elves and somewhat cautiously arrived at the center of the hall. He immediately kneeled down.
The young man was wearing simple clerical robes. But the strange thing about them was how he lacked any insignia belonging to any God.
This young man was the young priest who had warned the archbishop when Louie attacked the city. The higher-ups of the Theocracy in this city had run away while some of the priests were unlucky and captured. Louie allowed them to live and serve him as slaves in order to atone for their ‘sins’.
Louie did not care about this young man’s loyalty. It was enough that he could work. Absolute unconditional loyalty was a myth any way and any appearance of it simply had to be matched with the right price. Louie believed that as long as he maintained absolute power, absolute majesty, and absolute justice, no one would dare betray him.
“Clooney, what is the progress on the task I gave you?” Louie’s eyes bore through the young man, filling him with a sense of dread.
At Louie’s side, were several elven noble maidens kneeling on the ground. Despite their beauty, Clooney did not dare raise his head to peek at them. Drenched in sweat he began, with a quavering voice, “Milord, the task you assigned me is almost completed.”
“In accordance with your instructions, I have taught all the citizens of Dragon City, whether humans or elves, that they must chant your name before every meal. I also taught them that they must stop their work at regular time intervals every morning to thank you for your gifts.”
Louie listened to Clooney’s words and nodded with satisfaction.
You might ask what was the best thing about church priests? In Louie’s opinion, it was neither the holy spells nor other random things, but – their ability to preach!
For priests and pastors, the main qualifications for joining the church wasn’t how strong they were, but how effective they were at proselytizing.
In the past, Dragon City had belonged to the Theocracy, causing most of their inhabitants to take on the same faith. Louie would not allow this, and so after capturing Theocracy’s priests, he gave them strict orders to convert the residents of Dragon City into his believers.
If he succeeded, then Louie would let him live. If he failed, then the consequences were easy to imagine. Since the young priest’s faith was not that strong and he was quite talented, he became a qualified missionary and did his task well.
Seeing Louie’s satisfaction, Clooney was able to relax. After a pause, he continued, “Some people are still stubbornly sticking to their faiths. I have given the list of them to the elven guards to let them secretly deal with it.”
Central City had been one of the important cities of the Theocracy. There were definitely some families with extremely strong faith. Louie was not interested in slowly convincing them, nor did he want to waste resources on them, so directly disposing of them was the easiest way.
Dragons could be generous and kind, but that was only limited to their own people and believers, and they were cruel and bloody to their enemies.
“You did a good job, Clooney…” Louie slowly spoke.
The young priest quickly lowered his head and said repeatedly, “It is all because of your generosity and greatness that my work was done so easily.”
He was speaking the truth. In the world of scarce resources, the reason why most people believe in God was to fulfill a goal, which was to have food to eat. With Louie fulfilling their wishes, their faith would naturally waver.
Naturally, there were also those stubborn fools who would stay unwaveringly firm to their faith even if they starved to death among the followers of the Theocracy. These people had already been disposed of.
Louie was not a true God yet, so he was unable to bless anyone. Moreover, the conversion of the people’s faith into divine power was relatively slow, so he did not let the people of Dragon City directly pray to him, but only subtly influenced them. When he finally understood the godhood and divine authority, then he would be able to turn these people into believers and establish his own religion.
By letting the elves and humans thank him before every meal, he was silently influencing them. This was also a way to prevent the elves from causing a disturbance. If he tried to destroy their faith in the Silver Moon Goddess, then they would begin to distrust him. So Louie simply had them appreciate his grace.
But over time, the faith of the elves in the Silver Moon Goddess would grow weaker until one day, they would become his followers!
This was a simple form of ideological indoctrination. Just like doing morning ceremonies and raising flags every day you go to school, the ritual would subconsciously affect you, so that your own country, your own land, and your own ruler will unconsciously become a firm part of your heart.
‘The next step is to carry out basic education. He would print loyalty and belief to him in textbooks to make them start believing in him from when they were born.’
Louie was thinking about the next step to develop the city.
“Clooney, I will give you one more task.”
Louie’s low voice echoed in Clooney’s ears.
He leaned down his body, making a gesture of listening.
“Next, the city’s army will be re-established. The beastmen will also join it. You should tell your subordinates to have the beastmen thank me as well. As for you, you will be temporarily stationed in the army, teaching all the soldiers every day and spreading my thoughts!!”