Chapter 578
The Home Faction and Cardinal Fafnir
After a period of friendly banter, Yunus led the way, ushering Eivass into the house.
Sherlock followed a few steps behind, until he was level with Eivass.
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly as he said in a hushed, teasing tone, “You noticed, didn’t you?”
Eivass continued to look at Yunus’s retreating back, not turning to face Sherlock. “Naturally.”
What Sherlock was referring to was the fact that Yunus had recognized Eivass’s identity.
This was not surprising.
Although Yunus had been active as a lone hero for a long time and hadn’t transformed into Prince Albert in ages… he was, after all, active in Avalon. In other words, even if he didn’t know if Yunus had returned to Glass Island during his travels… he would definitely have seen the newspapers.
Yunus had also left Avalon only after Queen Sophia’s death and Isabel’s official ascension to the throne.
This meant that he would certainly know that Eivass was Isabel’s sole trusted minister upon her coronation; moreover, he would also know that Eivass was Avalon’s Minister of Affairs.
… The only problem was that his father-in-law might also read news about “Miss Alistair.”
The long-standing rumored affair between Eivass and Alistair… that was the hottest topic in Avalon before Her Majesty the Queen’s passing.
The news itself was a tactic Eivass had used at the time to divert the attention of the people of Avalon. Although Isabel knew that Alistair was Eivass, so she had no reaction to it… others, evidently, did not.
In their eyes, Isabel’s inclusion of Eivass in her inner circle was essentially a competition with that mysterious and noble Miss Alistair for a man.
Sherlock hadn’t thought it was a good idea back then. And now that Eivass was encountering some trouble—or rather, retribution—for his actions, he could only stand by and gloat with a smiling face.
If there hadn’t been so many strangers here now… if it had just been him and Eivass alone, Sherlock would have probably circled Eivass, playing his violin with wild abandon, and singing the Avalon national anthem.
However, Eivass remained unruffled.
He merely glanced sideways at Sherlock and asked in a soft voice, “Did you discover anything?”
“Yes.”
Seeing that Eivass wanted to discuss serious matters, Sherlock immediately regained his solemn expression. “I didn’t go back yesterday because I wanted to confirm my suspicions…”
As they spoke, Yunus welcomed them into the inner room. This room looked like a living room, containing a giant white crystal screen, akin to a television. It had a rather modern feel to it.
A young elven couple was seated by a tea table, with the tea on the table barely touched.
They both appeared to be of a young age.
From a human perspective, they might not even be thirty years old… even considering the slow aging process of elves, they could at least be considered not middle-aged.
The man was wearing a moon-white mage robe, round glasses, and exuded a gentle and refined aura. His wife, on the other hand, wore a goose-yellow short dress and white stockings, with a flower-like hair clip on her head. If one were to disregard their mature demeanor and only look at their appearance and style of dress, one might even mistake her for a student.
Upon seeing a large group of people enter, the elven couple politely stood up and nodded to everyone—primarily greeting Eivass, who was dressed in the red robes of an Archbishop.
“Allow me to introduce, this is the outstanding talent of our Avalon, the well-known Eivass Moriarty! Gentle and handsome, charming and debonair, he is the idol of countless maidens. Even the Child of the Moon from the Imperial era was smitten with him, and he even had a relationship with Her Majesty the Queen when she was only nineteen years old—”
Yunus enthusiastically introduced Eivass to them.
Eivass nodded slightly, smiling gently as he corrected, “The prior matters were merely rumors—but the relationship with Her Majesty the Queen is true. In fact, Isabel and I are already engaged.”
Upon hearing this, Yunus suddenly faltered for a moment.
Sherlock, standing nearby, couldn’t help but smile, but he quickly suppressed it by adopting a stern expression.
Then, Eivass took over the conversation. “This is my friend Lily, she has come to the Church Kingdom with me to protect me; Detective Sherlock, you must all know him already… He received a distress letter from Mr. Yunus and came to ask me to bring him here. He now also resides in my residence.”
“Archbishop Moriarty.”
Clearly, the couple’s recognition of Eivass was higher than that of Yunus.
The male mage walked over, placing his right hand over his chest, and nodded slightly towards Eivass. “I have heard of your deeds these past few days. I believe your actions are correct—we all do.”
Eivass also walked over politely. “I do not yet know your name…”
“I am Maxim Rockbreaker. This is my wife, Grace Leafwing.”
Maxim the Mage introduced them. “Mr. Yunus came to find my daughter, Anastasia Moonlight… He said he rescued Anastasia in Avalon a few years ago and received her gratitude. But in reality, Anastasia turned to petrified wood twenty years ago.
“However, he produced Anastasia’s token. And after comparing information, we found that he might indeed know Anastasia… This is truly too strange. So, Mr. Yunus invited the renowned detective, Mr. Sherlock.”
He chuckled as he reached this point. “But actually, this matter is not important, it’s just somewhat magical. After all, Anastasia’s soul has long entered the Kingdom of Giant Trees, and my wife and I happened to have some free time. So we decided to look into it… Compared to that matter, becoming acquainted with you is a greater honor for us.”
Grace also smiled at Eivass and performed an Iris people’s curtsey by lifting her skirt—though Eivass wasn’t quite sure why one would lift their skirt when wearing a short dress.
Upon hearing their surnames, Sherlock covered his forehead, clearly looking somewhat pained.
In this era, only elves would have such peculiar customs: each family member’s surname could be completely different and sound very strange.
Because elven surnames were specific inherited names that must carry meaning, they could only be translated conceptually and not transliterated; and a child’s talents, hobbies, and strengths were not necessarily inherited from their parents, so parents would generally not pass on their lineage names to their children.
On another level… because elves, as long-lived beings who primarily followed the lineage inheritor model, usually had multiple Paths. Surnames, in another sense, could quickly indicate a person’s general Path.
The surnames of these two were not too rare; Eivass had studied them in the Avalon library.
For example, the Rockbreaker lineage was primarily based on the Path of Wisdom, also requiring a certain level in the Twilight Path; Leafwing was a lineage of Adaptation, Beauty, and Twilight, also requiring a considerable level of dancing skill.
Knowing a person’s surname basically allowed one to understand their personality, strengths, and preferences; but this did not mean that Maxim couldn’t have adaptability and extraordinary levels in the Path of Devotion or even the Transcendent Path.
Although elven surnames were not decisive, they did have some reference value.
Eivass then understood why the couple was so friendly and even respectful towards him. “Are you opponents of the Controlled Fire faction?”
“That’s right.”
Maxim nodded. “My entire family belongs to the ‘Home Faction’ of elves. Those Controlled Fire people… putting aside whether they are extreme or progressive, at least I believe they haven’t done anything concrete. They’re just shouting slogans.”
“The Home Faction?”
Sherlock, standing nearby, looked at Eivass with some confusion.
He had come here yesterday, but the man had not discussed such topics with him at all.
However, Eivass shook his head, signaling that he also didn’t know.
He only remembered the most famous—or rather, the most powerful—factions in the Church Kingdom: the Judgement Hub, the Mediators, the Ruins Restoration Society, and the Market Supervisors.
In the original storyline, after the Church Kingdom split, these four factions quickly completed their initial territorial divisions. Along with the Controlled Fire, they became the five warring factions of the Church Kingdom. Players would then take the Saintess and work to gain favor with these four factions, while the Controlled Fire was considered the faction with the largest number of red-named monsters.
The Judgement Hub was the faction currently pressuring the Star Antimony Kingdom; they were extreme papal loyalists. Their primary responsibility was to punish other small nations that angered the Church Kingdom… Most of the Pope’s Guard belonged to this faction, making it the most formidable church faction. The Queen’s Guard dispatched to Avalon and the guardians of the founding families almost all came from this iron-blooded faction.
The Mediators were primarily elves who enjoyed mediating disputes.
They existed among elves of all ages and classes. Within the Church of the Nine Pillar Gods, these individuals were the most numerous.
Whether it was wars or minor brawls, they would intervene. They advocated for pacifism, but their drawback was a sort of long-lived superiority complex—many conflicts among short-lived races seemed ridiculous and unimportant to them, much like how humans viewed street fights between cats and dogs. Although, this was indeed the case.
Therefore, their opposition to other factions primarily stemmed from their attempts to “mediate,” which ultimately drew them into the conflict.
The Ruins Restoration Society was likely the faction managed by Cardinal Matilda, as she was in charge of “grave keeping”; however, it could also be managed by a Cardinal from the Sixth or Seventh Ring.
This was the most conservative force within the Church Kingdom and the faction most strongly opposed to the Controlled Fire—they were also the ones who resented the modifications made by short-lived races to the Church Kingdom and resisted the professionalization process.
As for the Market Supervisors, Eivass was now certain that this was the faction led by Cardinal Cyril.
—Because Eivass now knew that among the Cardinals of the Church Kingdom, only he understood rituals.
These supervisors specialized in cracking down on the trade of populations and human tissues of various sapient creatures, and occasionally on the trade of dangerous ritual materials. This wasn’t for the sake of “heavenly retribution,” but simply to reduce the profitability of murder.
Overall, the more powerful, intelligent, and long-lived the creature materials used by Ritualists, the more they could accomplish. Therefore, not cracking down on such material trade was equivalent to encouraging murder. If people were murdered, their corpses could be dismembered and sold at a high price to Ritualists or Necromancers, which would increase the murderer’s profits. Most people couldn’t sell directly, so middlemen would emerge—and the profit margins within this system were immense.
It could even form a sinful black profit chain, serving as a downstream industry to help other grey and black industries dispose of bodies and evidence. The profits generated by this could, in turn, feed back into upstream industries, providing stronger protection umbrellas, and even secretly cultivating powerful Ritualists, Curse Masters, and Necromancers.
Cardinal Cyril himself was a Great Mage and had a good understanding of rituals and curses. Therefore, he could identify valuable materials—and by investigating in reverse, he could address the problem. This was equivalent to reducing the power of his own lineage to lower the profits of murderers and evil organizations worldwide… For him, this was naturally also a form of devotion.
Without the efforts of the supervisors, the degree to which the Noble Red, with its ample supply of ritual materials, would be difficult to deal with would likely increase considerably. However, generally speaking, the supervisors were mainly active in the Ancient Kingdom of Anxi and the Star Antimony Kingdom.
When Eivass first heard of Maxim the Mage’s considerable animosity towards Cardinal Loki, he assumed he was from the Ruins Restoration Society.
In response to Eivass’s question, Maxim nodded. “Yes, I was initially from the Ruins Restoration Society. But I later realized that clinging to the old ways is meaningless… Thanks to Cardinal Fafnir’s teachings, I understood how to use my life most valuably.”
“Can you tell me about it?” Eivass asked.
“The Home Faction is the church faction to which Cardinal Fafnir belongs… Cardinal Fafnir is the administrator of the Third Ring, and their highest principle is ‘the most enduring and continuous devotion is construction.'”
Maxim enthusiastically introduced Eivass, or rather, preached. “Avalon’s ‘Silver and Tin Hall’ was built by Cardinal Fafnir. The other elven-style buildings are the same… Even Avalon’s orphanage, nursing home, and church schools were all built under our supervision…”
(End of this chapter)
