CHAPTER 564: CHAPTER 529: THE BLACK DOG OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY

However, when Perfikot sent people to investigate and summarize the situation of the Evil God Sect among the common people, the conclusion was that the spread of the Evil God Sect among the populace was not so severe.

Although some Evil God Sects did enter the Northern Territory with the migration of the Empire’s native nobility, their spread wasn’t very exaggerated.

Moreover, a very crucial point is that the lower the social class, the less they believed in these Evil God Sects. Those who were mostly influenced tended to be the nobility, merchants, and wealthy citizens.

These people originally lived comfortably, but after migrating to the Northern Territory due to the doomsday crisis, their quality of life decreased, and they became dissatisfied with the Empire and the Northern Territory, as well as their current living conditions, which made them susceptible to the seduction and allure of the Evil God Sects.

In comparison, the lower social class consisted more of immigrants who actively migrated to the Northern Territory. They knew what kind of life they would face and had prepared themselves mentally for it.

And after settling in the Northern Territory, thanks to various policies formulated by Perfikot, their lives became better than before and more hopeful.

In contrast, the nobility and wealthy classes were naturally more inclined to turn to the Evil God Sects, attempting to change their unsatisfactory living conditions through the worship of evil gods.

Some even went so far as to hope for an elevation of their status or position that was not originally theirs to have.

Compared to this, ordinary lower-class citizens were more content with the status quo and more willing to maintain their current lives.

They did not believe in the heresies and fallacies preached by the Evil God Sect. They only recognized the simple truth that the Northern Territory offered them a better life than before, and thus they wanted to maintain the order of the Northern Territory.

Thus, even though some people were indeed seduced, those who believed in the Evil God Sect among the lower classes in the Northern Territory were truly few.

Even before there was a church in the Northern Territory, what people believed in was Perfikot, the Lord of the Northern Territory who could bring them a beautiful new life, rather than any inexplicable divine entity.

With this kind of public support, the cleanup of the Evil God Sect in the Northern Territory went more smoothly than expected.

After all, the eyes of the people were almost everywhere and they often discovered problems more easily than official agency spies.

When they reported various issues to the surveillance department, the department could then sort through the reported information to extract the necessary content.

What remained was to follow the clues and uproot those Evil God Sects daring to spread various heresies and fallacies in the Northern Territory.

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"Count, so far we have eradicated and destroyed a total of 106 Evil God Sect strongholds, most of which involved nobles and capitalists. Currently, most of the relevant individuals have been executed, while some with lighter offenses are undergoing further interrogation and investigation. Once the relevant crimes are confirmed, punishment will be meted out according to their offenses," reported an inspector from the surveillance department, dressed in a black long coat, to Perfikot.

In recent days, the surveillance department had become renowned, with a large number of nobles and wealthy businessmen directly thrown into prison by them, either executed immediately or subjected to severe torture.

As a result, these members of the surveillance department were called the black dogs of the Northern Territory, said to be the hounds kept by Perfikot.

Regarding this, the members of the surveillance department harbored no resentment or dissatisfaction; they were, in fact, glad to consider themselves as Perfikot’s hounds.

The main reason for this was that most of those who could join this department were die-hard loyalists of Perfikot, and those who weren’t would have no way to join this department anyway.

These people were originally extremely loyal to Perfikot. Now, seeing what they were capturing and dealing with, their loyalty and trust in Perfikot naturally heightened even further, becoming more adoring of Perfikot.

In this situation, being called Perfikot’s hound was almost a compliment for them.

Perfikot had heard about this but did not intervene.

On one hand, the members of the surveillance department were indeed loyal enough to her; if they didn’t mind, why should she?

On the other hand, the current social opinion in the Northern Territory was not suitable for taking any major actions.

The cleaning operation against the Evil God Sect had unexpectedly gained the support of the lower classes and hadn’t caused social unrest overall, but the expected tension still rose.

The people trusted Perfikot, but this did not mean they weren’t afraid of the streets being filled with black dogs and tin cans.

Especially when encountering resistance during arrests, the Steam Knights aiding the inspectors often enjoyed using 75mm handheld recoilless rifles to send those resisting heretics and their fortifications skyward.

In a certain sense, the Northern Territory now was almost like a battlefield, and incessant gunfire could be heard on the streets even at night.

Under such circumstances, if Perfikot were to make a big fuss about handling rumor propagation, it would truly incite a white terror more serious than the current issues.

Especially considering that the Church’s Inquisition Knights had already conducted a cleanup of major cities in the Northern Territory once before; a repeat might truly be unbearable.

Perfikot did not wish for matters to descend to this point, so she restrained her desire to initiate a larger-scale purge, while also expressing to related individuals that the situation must be kept within limited bounds, unable to expand the range of suppression arbitrarily.

Particularly towards the populace, the focus had to be on stabilizing and uniting them.

If they were Empire bureaucrats, they would somewhat engage in passive resistance, especially towards the basic requirements of stabilizing and uniting the populace. Many Empire bureaucrats were accustomed to looking down on the lower classes.

But the surveillance department established by Perfikot didn’t behave this way. Most of them were of poor origin, and their sense of right and wrong was formed earlier than they acquired their current positions. Now paid salaries, they did not exploit the populace the way the military police did in the past.

With Perfikot’s stringent orders in place now, they naturally also rigorously followed Perfikot’s commands and demands.

This left Perfikot feeling quite satisfied and allowed her to devote energy to the settlement that previously broke out in plague, examining the current situation in detail, and investigating whether the plague research had achieved satisfactory results.