277: The play of politics

Two days late, but there's a good reason. I had to scrub everything. No more using tools to write or modify. They kill what I want to convey in my writing. So you'll have to make do with my broken English. Hope you have a good time fixing my mistakes because I'm never going back to using tools again.

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Chapter 277

Solemn would be the word I’d use to describe the current atmosphere in the royal court best.

But solemn alone wasn’t enough to describe it. It was just the best word to describe it.

You see, there was a little bit of everything in this court. Ambition, plans, schemes, wariness, and religion.

One thing that wasn’t present was hatred.

That’s right. The earlier ‘Heretic’ yell wasn’t representing hatred. It was representing religion. Well, what was religion if not another form of politics? So I guess it’d be safe to assume the atmosphere here was revolving around politics.

Solemn politics, huh?

That’s a new one.

Anyway, there were four major factions right now in this room. Giant room, granted, but a room nonetheless. The royal court wasn’t open to others at the moment. Only the pillars of the kingdom. And the church.

Of course, there was the church.

“Grand Lady Elara should be excluded from this meeting.” A man in red and white spoke vehemently, as if his words carried any weight here. They didn’t. But no one here disagreed with him. The reason? Fear of god?

Naw.

Because it aligned with their goal. Not having the strongest person here present to make decisions.

As for the cardinal, he knew his words carried no weight either. But you know how there were people in the modern times who would have their own islands or were settled in extradition-free countries, but when it was time to elect a ruler, they’d appear out of nowhere, rally their supporters, and do their best to block the path of the one they were opposing.

Then they’d lose, and go back, never to be seen again until the next elections.

Such people had one purpose and one purpose only.

To be a hindrance.

They know they won’t win. But they kick up the fuss anyway, because the goal is to not let the other person win either. Because there are never only one or two parties in an election. You get the rest of the picture, right?

Right now, there were parties in this room. One belonged to the crown prince, who was a carbon copy of George, and from the mana emanating from him mixed with divinity, I’d say he was pretty strong too.

The second party was the noble party. They didn’t want Galliard on the throne, because from what I had gathered, Galliard didn’t hold the same position as George in the church. In other words, where George was someone who could move the church, Galliard was someone who was subservient. Letting him become the king meant letting the church run the kingdom.

That they couldn’t allow. So they chose the other options. The other two sons of George. Four noble ducal houses, equally divided for one prince each, together only until their demands were met. After that, they’d simply duke it out among themselves.

The third party was the princess. She was only fifteen and had no major noble support. But that changed when Elizabeth stood behind her. And that changed even more when Elara stood behind Elizabeth. Right now, letting the princess become the queen and the ruler was the same as letting Elara become the ruler of this kingdom.

And fourth and final was the church. Right, one would ask what the hell they were doing here. I asked that question too, only inwardly, because I had no right even being in this room when even Elara’s own son was asked to be left outside.

But Elara said only two words: ‘He comes.’

And that’s how I was in.

No one said anything about it either. Mostly because one old man was still yelling out loud, being stubborn as hell and fulfilling his purpose.

To make sure Elara doesn’t become the ruler of this land.

Now, why they wanted so, let me tell you before we move forward. Since coming to this world, I have familiarized myself with the geography of this kingdom and the continent it is on.

There were nine small kingdoms. There were rankings among them, but compared to the three superpowers on this continent, they were small. Kingdom of Newmark, where I was, was one of those kingdoms.

Then come the three superpowers. Two empires and one church. So here’s how this goes. To the north, there was the empire of Elizia. An empire strictly based on militaristic power. Strength was the law. That was all. They were warmongers, and right now they are in the process of swallowing two kingdoms bordering their lands.

Bordering those two kingdoms were three more kingdoms, and then came the church, as if planned by someone, right in the middle.

The holy land of the continent. That was also where the temple of Kaya was, where children were born.

Then, to the west, there was another empire, bordering the church, one of the three earlier-mentioned kingdoms, and two more kingdoms. That empire was more focused on magic.

How strong were they? I had no idea. I couldn’t be bothered either. But apparently they were strong enough to hold thirty percent of the entire continent, and also two kingdoms under their command.

Then comes our kingdom, the kingdom of Newmark, to the east, and bordering no other kingdom but the church itself, but it wasn’t to the far east, like the empire was hogging up the entirety of the west.

No. This kingdom only had a tiny little bit of east, and the rest of the east was a dark forest. Most of it is uncovered, and old legends have mystical races such as vampires and dragons in it, but no one has been able to make it past the outer edges. The edge where George and I battled.

Finally, the south consisted of lush forests, two kingdoms, and then the kingdoms of other races: dwarves, fairies, elves, and such.

Here’s how the continent is divided. Twenty percent to the north, with the empire of Elizia hogging up fifteen percent of it.

Thirty-five percent to the west. The empire of Moonlight took up thirty percent of it, which also included the two kingdoms under it.

The south had about twenty percent, with about eight percent under the humans and the rest under the other races. Those two kingdoms mostly had demi-humans because of that. They were frowned upon, but they had the powers of the other races backing them up, which was why no one had been able to do anything about them yet.

Finally, out of the remaining twenty-five percent, the Kingdom of Newmark and the church combined only had ten percent. The rest was the forest.

Those figures weren’t accurate, but just a slight overview.

Anyway, the reason why the church, despite having so little land, was able to remain in the center, and having so little region, was because of one reason and one reason only.

Goddess Kaya.

Despite having so little land and not a mighty army, they had the authority to call to arms the armies of other nations, even the empires if need be.

And the reason for that was because they were the only ones who could produce children. Of course, there were extensions of the temples, but the main vein was connected to the main temple, and that was in the church’s territory.

But times were changing. Revolutions were coming. The people of this continent have realized that the goddess and the baby-making temples existed regardless of the church. And for that, the church was slowly realizing that its reign of terror was coming to an end, and if lucky to survive, it’d be confined to a small area of land, barely able to exercise any right over the world.

If lucky.

So, they came up with another plan. To make fanatics. To put people loyal to them on the thrones, such as in the case of this kingdom, when the old king sent his son, George, to the church under the guise of better relations, but everyone knew he was granted the blessing of a god to enhance his power.

And even if not on the throne, put them in places of power. Such as this one cardinal right now. Officially, he was a member of the church. But in this kingdom, he was an honorary count. While it wasn’t a high position to be allowed in this room, like the other counts, he was here because the crown prince honored a companion of his father.

Yeah, right.

Anyway, that was the general overview of what was going on. If Galliard doesn’t become the king, the church would lose a significant standing in this region, and doing so, they’d lose access to the never-ending forest, which covered a significant part of the continent and held magical herbs and monsters, pulling up a significant economy, both for the kingdom and the church.

There was only one hindrance in the church’s way, and the figure who wasn’t taken into consideration when the old king sent his son to the church was none other than Elara von Christine of the house Christine. A mere baronial house of this land, whose daughter had risen to one of the highest positions in the kingdom, and on the continent, in just fifty years.

To give you just an idea, there were only four more people as powerful as Elara on the entire continent. The high elven queen, the emperor of Elizia, the pope of the church, and the mercenary king, Helio, who was said to have inherited dragon blood.

So yeah, that was the general overview of the politics. Now let’s see the politics play.