Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 644 - 608 Political Game

"The Church wants to participate in this Imperial action?" Perfikot stroked the bear skin beneath her while stepping on the specially preserved bear head, a playful expression on her face: "It's possible, but I'd like to know the reason."

Though she spoke this way, Perfikot could actually guess the reason. The Church simply hoped to use this opportunity to purge or at least organize the heretical sects in the colonies.

After all, in the past, supported by the Empire's official power, the Church had always been the Empire's most mainstream faith faction, conducting missionary activities both in the Empire's homeland and colonies, accumulating a considerable foundation of belief.

But the arrival of the apocalyptic winter not only severed the connections between the Empire and the colonies but also robbed the Church of control over its colonial branches.

Now that the Empire has decided to recover the colonies, how could the Church not step in to recover its branches?

"The Church hopes to reinstate the faith in the colonies into orthodoxy, asking Count for permission." Shabelle changed her phrasing but not the essence, which was that the Church wanted to regain control of the colonies' faith.

Perfikot didn't mind this and merely nodded before asking: "Why do you need my permission? Aren't these things supposed to be directly approached by the Empire's officials? I remember the relations between the Church and the Royal Family have always been good, right? Isn't Her Majesty the Empress and the Eldest Princess more influential than I am?"

Facing Perfikot's question, Saber felt somewhat difficult to respond.

If answering from a politically correct perspective, undoubtedly the Empress and the Eldest Princess would be more influential.

But nowadays who doesn't know that, for the Empire, it is really Perfikot, the Count of Northern Territory, who holds effective power?

Though such matters obviously cannot be openly stated, as it would undoubtedly accuse Perfikot of being a power holder.

Even though this is currently something everyone knows, as long as Perfikot remains a loyal subject to the Empire, such words cannot be openly said to her.

So Shabelle could only say at this moment: "Count, you are the living saint directly consecrated by the Patriarch, a person under the protection of the All Father. As followers of the Lord, we should consult you."

"A clever answer, but also a cunning answer." Perfikot remained unconcerned and just waved her hand: "In that case, send your people with them! But think it over, whether to go with the Northern Territory people or the Imperial Center people."

Having said this, Perfikot didn't wait for Saber to say anything else and had the old butler see her out.

After Shabelle left, Perfikot then stood up, walked barefoot to the window.

Inside the Lord's mansion, there was comprehensive heating, and a square at the entrance had both an Energy Tower and a temperature barrier. Perfikot felt a bit chilly walking barefoot indoors but wasn't cold.

However, outside the windows now, snow was falling heavily.

Even though the Energy Tower and the temperature barrier maintained the temperature inside their range at a level humans could tolerate, it still remained below freezing.

Thus, when it snows, even within the temperature barrier of the Energy Tower, snowflakes still fall and form thick layers of snow.

Compared to the extreme sub-zero temperatures outside the temperature barrier, the temperature inside, which was less than ten degrees below zero, was quite comfortable.

But ultimately, snow still brings some unnecessary impacts to people's production and life, so government agencies throughout the Northern Territory arranged special personnel to handle clearance, ensuring smooth roads.

This work was originally primarily done by robots, like the one clearing snow from the Lord's mansion square in front of Perfikot now.

However, with the advent of the apocalyptic winter, the population of the Northern Territory saw a significant increase due to the migration from the Imperial Center, leading to an unexpected issue with employment rates.

So nowadays this work is more done manually, with machines focusing on clearing snow-covered roads and transporting the snow outside the city.

The weather being as cold as it is, it's no wonder snow melting is impossible, so snow inside the city can only be cleared away and transported out truck by truck, forming a wall of snow outside, slowly.

The reason for saying this is because the government of Chernobyl City actually had plans to build a wall using snow.

It is said they believe this could prevent the wind.

Perfikot neither agrees nor opposes, as theoretically, it indeed might work.

Moreover, the snow inside the city does indeed need to be cleared out, just like certain things are bound to happen even if she doesn't take action.

"Aunt Annie, I've paved the way for you and created opportunities, now let's see if you can seize them." Perfikot sighed, but she truly lacked the energy to focus on these matters.

Although she has seemed relaxed recently and appears quite lazy, what people mostly see is her stand-in doll.

As for herself, she spends extensive time in the lab conducting new research with the goal of completing her research project, to meet the requirements of the Jade Record to turn to the seventh page, thereby gaining omniscience.

Perfikot clearly understands how powerful this omniscience ability is and what changes it will bring to the world.

She must invest most of her energy into this endeavor, so regarding political struggles? She's genuinely unable to divert her focus much, thus she can only adopt a lazy demeanor, providing significant guidelines when necessary, while entrusting the rest to her subordinates to manage.

Fortunately, whether it is the officials from the Northern Territory or the team left by the old Prince, these individuals are highly competent, and under the guidance of Perfikot's major guidelines, they handle affairs reasonably well.

They maintain political pressure on the Imperial Center without causing severe disruptions, ensuring that Perfikot doesn't end up imitating the old tales of Grandmaster Dong and Prime Minister Cao, trying to control the emperor and command the nobles.

Though with Perfikot's current power and influence, she really could do this, she doesn't intend to.

After all, she was never interested in power and politics, and reaching today's position was entirely forced by circumstances, not to mention she has more important tasks now.

Just as she said, some things happen regardless.

Power never truly exists in a vacuum, if she doesn't hold this power, naturally, some ambitious figures will emerge to try to grasp it.

So, to prevent the Empire's power from genuinely being controlled by some ambitious figures, Perfikot can only hold onto this power herself, until Eldest Princess Annie matures to a qualified level to then hand it over.