Chapter 673
The Eve of the Election Ceremony
Although the Candlemaster Ceremony was on January 1st, that was merely a holy day yielded by Hengwo. Since Hengwo had no intention of celebrating, this day was given to the Candlemaster.
“The number three” is the Sacred Number of the Candlemaster.
Therefore, March 3rd of every year became the time when the Candlemaster’s power was strongest. If a ritual requiring the Candlemaster’s power was to be performed, it could be held on January 1st or March 3rd.
The day of the Pope’s succession was also always set for this day.
…But in truth, this year was not a regular Pope Election Day.
Normally, the Pope would prefer to retire in a year that was a round number. The best case would be three hundred years, and the next best would be three hundred and thirty-three years. If a Sacred Number couldn’t be chosen, then it would be some other round number of years.
It was now 1899, and next year would be 1900 – from “one” to “nine,” this was a very auspicious number for elves. And by next year, it would also be the three-hundred-year term for the current Eternal Pope.
Ignoring so many accumulated buffs… this wasn’t just a matter of torturing neat freaks.
Even a passerby would guess that the current Eternal Pope had likely stepped down early due to unavoidable circumstances.
It was precisely because of this… that on the night before, passersby on the streets were discussing with some worry.
The Pope election ceremony preparations would begin at 1:00 AM on March 3rd, and officially start at 9:00 AM on March 3rd. Three hours later, the results would be announced at 12:00 PM.
At 10:00 PM on March 2nd, Eivass changed into his new clothes and, with Isabel and Lily, began ascending through the “elevator.”
Normally, at the height of the Fifth Ring, short-lived races were already quite rare. But tonight, it was as if it were a New Year’s celebration—short-lived races everywhere, darting around with cameras.
The elves weren’t maintaining their usual reserve—instead, they were using equipment far more portable and expensive than cameras.
Those were memory stones, capable of recording and broadcasting. They were the culmination of divine art and ritual technology, a sort of elven specialty. They stored sound by pointing a divine art towards the Heavenly Envoy of Song, froze images by pointing a divine art towards the Heavenly Envoy of Amber, and then these were encapsulated in a white crystal using ritual techniques.
If there was still a need, the data within could even be remotely transmitted through rituals. When set up on a ritual altar, this equipment could achieve an effect similar to “live broadcast.”
In the Second Ring, filled with various advanced entertainment facilities, people used such equipment to remotely enjoy various musical performances and sporting events.
By tomorrow morning, the election ceremony would be broadcast to every ring through these broadcast crystals.
This technology wasn’t originally necessary because it was sufficient to simply transcribe Cardinal Loki’s “multi-angle real-time monitoring.” However, the monitoring on that level was damaged by Eivass. Although it was quickly repaired, it still occasionally had bugs—for instance, a surveillance magic mirror pointing at a certain spot might suddenly freeze for a period, requiring the corresponding magic mirror to be restarted to return to normal.
In principle, Eivass, who had also contracted with the Lord of Scales and Feathers, should have succeeded him and undertaken the role of “director.” However, for some reason, the Pure White Saintess had personally altered the ritual details—directly dispatching a group of “cameramen” to assist with the broadcast.
This meant that… only this year could individuals other than Cardinals directly enter the Pope election ceremony site. This implied that what they might capture would certainly be more than what the few fixed cameras could see, and unlike in the past, it wouldn’t be reviewed by Cardinals before being released to everyone.
Fresh exceptions often meant novelty.
And all of this began the moment Eivass stepped onto the elevator—
Anyone could see that he was wearing a black robe of special texture, with a peculiar diamond-shaped slit on the chest. The edges of the slit were adorned with a golden thorn pattern. Black sin thorns spread out, intertwined with the golden thorn pattern.
And in the center of those winding sin thorns lay a top-quality emerald. It had layers of inwardly collapsing cracks, becoming darker the closer they got to the center… resembling an iris and a pupil.
In addition, the black robe was sparsely decorated with golden patterns that looked like feathers, or like fish scales. A long ceremonial cape was draped over Eivass’s shoulders—its color combination was the opposite of the robe, with a golden background and black sin thorn patterns.
Undoubtedly, this low-key yet luxurious Cardinal’s robe also had attributes.
But counterintuitively… it wasn’t in the “upper garment” slot, but rather an “accessory.”
[Cardinal’s Proof · Eivass]
[Extraordinary Accessory (Deep Purple)]
[Cloak-Cardinal’s Robe]
[Attribute: Self-Cleaning (Triggers only on Path of Devotion)]
[Attribute: Self-Repairing (Triggers only on Path of Devotion)]
[Mythical Attribute: Scales and Feathers Adornment (Triggers only on Path of Devotion)]
[Scales and Feathers Adornment: The priority of all divine arts related to “Adaptation-Lord of Scales and Feathers” +1]
[“—Hey, hey, hey? Can you see these words?”]
This robe, on Eivass, could exert extremely powerful effects—it was specifically designed to amplify the High-Tier Divine Arts Eivass had learned. No wonder other Cardinals wore this attire when going out every day…
However, the last line of text made Eivass incredibly surprised.
Who wrote this? Why did this “equipment description” pop out from his panel?
…Was it the elven artisan who made this robe, or… the Lord of Scales and Feathers himself?
But Eivass felt that neither seemed quite right.
The Lord of Scales and Feathers possessed the strongest prophetic abilities. Even if he didn’t know Eivass had a system, he would certainly have seen his past and future performances, thus inferring this. And the elven artisan, having only interacted with Eivass once, had even less reason to communicate with Eivass in this manner…
The most crucial point was that the other party hadn’t left their identity or contact information!
Even if Eivass wanted to respond, there was no way to do so!
So, Eivass could only pretend not to see it for now.
Anyway, Eivass was very pleased with the robe’s attributes—not only did it have a powerful priority bonus, but it also had a remarkably practical self-cleaning function!
He’d wear it for now!
And this type of clothing with a ceremonial cape, a single opening revealing sin thorns and a jewel… and not even red or white, looked too familiar.
Not many people noticed Eivass at first, but as those around them pointed it out, more and more people did. Those who noticed Eivass’s attire quickly spread throughout the small elevator.
“…Is that a Cardinal’s attire?”
“—Wait, is that really a Cardinal? That’s a human.”
“What? I’m bad with faces, don’t trick me. Isn’t that an elf?”
“Don’t look at his face, look at his height and ears—that’s clearly a human!”
“Humans can be Cardinals too? It must be a replica…”
“Who said humans can’t be Cardinals? Are you discriminating against humans?”
“Are you brainless? Who would dare replicate a Cardinal’s attire?”
Uproar, whispers, arguments, debates… Eivass’s appearance had been met with a constant stream of sound. Lily’s presence was as if it were nothing, melting into the crowd. Eivass would have had trouble finding her if he’d tried.
As for Isabel, she had barely disguised herself, yet with her elven beauty, no one discussed her, nor even gave her a second glance. All eyes skimmed over her and focused on Eivass.
This made Isabel, who had initially worried about her identity being exposed, breathe a sigh of relief.
However, the fact that no one noticed her at all made her feel a bit peculiar.
—Well, it’s for the best.
Thinking this, Isabel subtly retreated two more steps into the crowd.
Finally, someone couldn’t hold back, pushed through the crowd, and approached Eivass.
“Respected… Cardinal Sir?”
She asked half respectfully, half hesitantly, probing: “Excuse me, may I take a photo of you?”
(End of this chapter)
