The Pope, an existence whose word was law within the Church of All-Father, the proxy of the All-Father, the one who shepherded the mortal world on His behalf.
That was how it should have been, but everything changed after Maximus took over as Regent.
Facing a Regent Duke equally blessed by divine favor, the Church’s resistance could only be described as feeble.
What could they do? Question someone chosen by the gods? How would that differ from undermining their own legitimacy?
As for assassination, that was even more laughable. If a great knight could be assassinated by the Church so easily, the Kingdom would have been the Church’s domain long ago.
It wasn’t until Lucius burst onto the scene that the Church’s situation improved somewhat.
Seeing that Maximus was gravely wounded and unconscious today, the Pope was quite pleased with himself.
Though he’d heard Lucius had also suffered considerable injuries, that didn’t matter. As long as Maximus died—or even just became paralyzed—he would have plenty of room to maneuver.
The Pope maintained his good mood until golden light shot skyward from the Duke’s Mansion.
“O God, do You no longer shield Your lambs?”
Even if it couldn’t compare to a true divine artifact, a flute containing a sliver of the All-Father’s power could hardly be called a mundane object.
At this moment, Astraea was wreathed in divine power, more astonishing than any bishop’s moment of enlightenment.
When the song ended, the priests had long since prostrated themselves on the ground, weeping uncontrollably.
Seeing the power of the divine should have been a pleasant surprise, so why was it manifesting through an elf?
An utterly unqualified elf—a pointy-eared demi-human, no less! Yet the cruel truth remained: no matter how you looked at her, Astraea was unmistakably an elf. Please, they desperately wished someone would tell them Astraea wasn’t actually an elf.
But the fact was, the little elf lowered her whistle flute, honestly having never expected that casually playing a tune would cause such a commotion.
She hadn’t thought much of it back then, simply forcing herself to finish the entire piece.
At that moment, Astraea didn’t spare the priests a single glance. She walked straight over to Maximus’s side to observe his condition.
Lucius, who had been keeping watch nearby, sent a surge of Holy Light into him. The Black Qi that had been coiled around Maximus’s heart had already been completely incinerated by the All-Father’s power.
“Is he about to wake up?”
Aiouwen felt strangely nervous for some reason. She suddenly regretted not taking the chance to flee earlier.
Well, too late for regrets now.
Maximus snapped his eyes open.
“Cough, cough… Where am I…”
The Duke, his memories fragmented, propped himself up and looked around.
He remembered fighting that unknown Dark Creature before, so how had he suddenly ended up here?
But he quickly pieced it together. He probably hadn’t won against that monster and had been knocked out with a single punch.
Thinking of this, Maximus couldn’t help feeling anxious. That Mysterious Space of unknown vastness contained countless monsters, many of which were stronger than both him and Lucius combined.
If those monsters came pouring out of the Royal Capital Sewers, how could the Royal Capital’s current forces possibly hold them back?
He knew well that in the Eastern Region of the Kingdom, his “cooperative partners” had never been entirely stable. And the Western Region was practically a haven for desperate outlaws.
If the Royal Capital fell at a time like this, the entire Kingdom would likely splinter apart.
But where could he possibly draw forces from to defend the Royal Capital right now?
The Expedition Front needed reinforcements, and the Western Region needed suppression.
Forget it. That wasn’t something he needed to worry about at the moment. All he had to do now was report the situation to the King. Let the King have the headache.
As it turned out, the King’s carriage was still faster than the Pope’s.
After all, the King didn’t need to bow every three steps after leaving the palace before setting off.
The young King barged straight into the Duke’s Mansion, then nearly kneeled before Maximus.
That move startled everyone present, especially Astraea. She stared at this man in gorgeous attire who looked so haggard he seemed about to drop dead at any moment—he didn’t look like a King at all.
“Your Majesty?”
“My dear minister!”
“Cough, cough. Forgive me for interrupting this touching scene between sovereign and subject, but Your Majesty, King Scaurus, leaving the palace without authorization like this is irresponsible behavior.”
Lucius inserted himself between the King and Maximus. Since he couldn’t recall the current King’s name, he addressed him by the royal family surname.
After all, he was loyal to the Church, not the royal family. Had the current royal house not been designated by the All-Father originally, the Church would likely have established its own rule long ago.
The haggard young King, whose name no one seemed to remember, blinked in surprise, then surveyed the scene around him.
A Physician from the Order of Life and Reincarnation, a group of Church priests kneeling on the ground with tear streaks still fresh, a holy knight and a young knight, and finally two elves… Elves?!
He had long heard that the Duke kept elves in secret, and now he saw it with his own eyes. But the King, having weathered far greater storms, didn’t call this out in such a setting. He simply pretended not to see the two elves present.
He roughly understood why Maximus so openly kept the elf who had assassinated the previous King within his mansion. To this, the King could only say: Maximus is an honest man indeed!
Leaving a handle for him to grasp—truly loyal beyond words. Knowing his own authority had long been established, even enough to threaten the throne, he still deliberately left a vulnerability. But if the Duke declared his intention to take the throne right now, the King would abdicate without a second thought. Yet the King would rather Maximus covet the throne openly. If he kept doing things like this, the King feared he wouldn’t live past thirty.
Heh. “Physician Pius, I’ll have to trouble you for the foreseeable future.” In response, the King addressed Lucius by his surname with his own weak voice.
In this regard, he couldn’t lose face for the royal family. No matter how much the Church stirred things up, at least on the surface, the royal family still stood supreme. Even if Lucius was about to take over the Royal Capital’s defense, he couldn’t let the head of the royal family be humiliated!
Seeing that the King seemed to have misunderstood his intentions, Lucius paid it no mind. He was merely fulfilling his duty with a reminder; whether to heed it was the King’s own business.
Meanwhile, Ron stepped forward and gave the King a knight’s salute.
Though he hadn’t inherited his father’s title, he still bore obligations to the Kingdom, so he had to maintain a respectful demeanor toward the King.
The Physician from the Order and the priests who had just risen merely offered the King a perfunctory bow. As for Astraea and Aiouwen…
Theoretically, slaves had no right to look directly at the King, but neither of them knew this rule, so they simply stared openly at the haggard King.
Why does he seem like he doesn’t have long to live?
The elves, with senses far more acute than humans, could already smell the stench of decay emanating from the King.
“Hmm… So this is what decay smells like?”
Astraea, who had never even attended elementary school, huddled together with Aiouwen and whispered curiously. Though the content of their conversation wasn’t exactly respectful toward the King.
As a full-fledged knight, the King could of course hear what the two elves were saying, but he chose to pretend he hadn’t.
Because no one present seemed to be genuinely loyal to the royal family. Oh wait, there was one—Maximus.
The royal family had been in decline for too long. Seeing this situation was within the King’s expectations.
The King was about to say something to ease the atmosphere when the doors were slammed open once more with a bang.
“Divine grace abounds, all living things bask in its light. Now receiving this blessing, I kowtow in reverence to holy favor!”
The Pope, robed in white with gold-threaded patterns, dropped to his knees the moment he entered, leaving everyone in the room dumbfounded.
The Pope, kneeling and paying homage to divine grace, waited a long while without receiving any response. He then cautiously lifted his head and looked at Maximus still lying on the sickbed.
Maximus looked a bit more haggard than before, but nowhere near someone who’d suffered grave wounds. More importantly, there wasn’t a trace of the All-Father’s aura on him.
This left the Pope, a seasoned holy official, bewildered. The divine light had definitely come from the Duke’s Mansion earlier.
Could it be that the one who received the All-Father’s favor wasn’t Maximus?
The Pope’s heart leaped. He quickly scanned everyone in the room, eliminating the two elves first.
How could an elf receive the All-Father’s favor? Still, the fact that they remained unharmed under the All-Father’s divine might meant these two elves certainly had some skill.
That left a knight, a King, a Physician from another order, and the priests he’d sent to check on Maximus.
Then the Pope spotted Lucius standing at the front of the priests.
‘If it’s Lucius, then that works too. Though he’s a bit close to the Duke, he’s still the Chief Paladin after all.’
The Pope calculated quickly in his mind. Since it was one of his own, there was no need for all this kowtowing to divine grace business.
“Oh, Your Majesty, you’re here as well.” The Pope gave the King a perfunctory greeting first, then turned his gaze to the priests with red, swollen foreheads and lingering tear stains.
“What’s going on with you lot? Getting into this state?”
The priests exchanged uneasy glances, none daring to tell the Pope that the All-Father had blessed an elf.
But even if they stayed silent, the All-Father Himself seemed displeased. Not long after the Pope rose to his feet, golden divine light flared up again—though this time it didn’t shoot into the heavens like before.
Thud.
The knees the Pope had just straightened hit the floor once more.
As a holy official, how could he not recognize the All-Father’s aura? The divine presence he felt now was somewhat different from what they experienced during rituals, but there was no doubt—this was the genuine aura of the All-Father!
Before his eyes could even focus on who the source was, the Pope was already prostrating on the ground. Though he wasn’t weeping like the priests before him.
The little elf, realizing she was radiating golden light again, stared speechlessly at the priests who had once again collapsed to their knees alongside the Pope.
Lucius and Ron were also on one knee, and even the just-recovered Maximus had scrambled up to pay his respects.
The only one who seemed to remain composed was Aiouwen. But her attention wasn’t on her fellow elf glowing with golden light; she was more concerned about whether Maximus might suffer any lasting aftereffects.
In any case, an elf named Astraea had just been thrust onto the grandest stage the entire Kingdom had to offer.
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