Chapter 701: Rebelling Against Father
Thirty minutes later, on the outskirts of [Holy Radiant City], Astrid found Lyra standing before the formation of the Church’s knightly army, accompanying them in a choral hymn to hold back the bitter wind.
The Church of Light’s missionary campaign against the Valeria Empire had failed. As the military arm, the Church’s Knight Order had borne the brunt of it, suffering heavy losses and losing a vast number of able fighters. If they wanted to replenish their immediate combat strength, the only option was to select suitable candidates from among the younger faithful, equip them with weapons and armor, and send them onto the battlefield.
Most of the Church Knights here had only been chosen by clergy and inducted into the Church’s Knight Order after the two battles at Liya Tower Fortress and White Maple Town.
Before that, they’d all been reserve troops and had never personally experienced the battlefield. Naturally, they didn’t hate Lyra, once an enemy, quite as much.
Later, when they met her, they instead found it easy to accept her: with her exceptional affinity for the light element, plus her outstanding performance in two pre-battle speeches, she carried an innate air of leadership and personal charisma.
As for the small handful of others, especially those Church Knights who had witnessed Lyra use that holy light sword to kill their comrades, and who had themselves once feared death descending upon them, though their personal emotions still churned and were hard to resolve, they also understood that all of this had only been because their positions had differed. The Valeria Empire, as the defending side, had been forced into passive counterattacks; there was no one to blame.
A few days ago, after Knight Commander Kales laid out the pros and cons and announced independence, he had once granted his soldiers the freedom to choose: those willing to fight for the people and rebuild their faith could stay; those still devoutly believing in the Pope’s New scripture could leave, he would not stop them.
These veterans who had endured the torment of war couldn’t, for the moment, quickly build a new faith after the collapse of the old one. Driven only by chaotic hatred, and by the inertia of having once believed in their commander’s orders, they became part of the current allied army.
Lyra could understand their feelings, and she believed that before long, these people would be able to make the right decision.
When the hymn ended, a surging tide of light-element power stirred within [Holy Radiant City]. Anyone who set foot here would feel a baptism of holy light, personally experiencing the warmth and gentleness of this magic.
Lyra, who had heard the familiar footsteps behind her long before as she led the singing, turned around and saw Astrid likewise bathed in the holy light.
"Good morning, Your Highness Astrid."
Her tone restrained its cheerfulness, but her steps quickened slightly. Lyra came before Astrid, her water-glass blue eyes shining as she looked at her.
In public, Astrid’s voice was much more formal than when she was alone with Lyra.
"Good morning, Countess Lyra."
Even a solemn, majestic hymn could be led by Lyra, looking like they were integrating quite well. Her late-night rehearsals over the past few evenings hadn’t been in vain.
After receiving Astrid’s greeting, Lyra turned to bid the others farewell, then followed Astrid down from the choir dais, asking softly,
"Have you spoken with Knight Commander Kales?"
Astrid gave a slight nod. "Mm. We finished. Mostly strategic supplements."
After all, they were in the holy city, with too many eyes and ears around. Astrid couldn’t say much to Lyra. After a few casual exchanges, she had Lyra leave [Holy Radiant City] with her.
Only after they reached the small pavilion where they were lodging did Astrid tell Lyra the content of the morning’s conversation.
"We march the day after tomorrow? That fast?"
"Mm. While the royal capital has only just begun to react and their military deployments aren’t yet complete, we strike first."
The news of the Church’s Knight Order defecting had already reached Sevilla City, and they had also received a punitive decree from the Church of Light.
Every second they delayed, the other side gained another layer of preparation. The longer it dragged on, the worse it was for them, plague was raging within the Kingdom of Velys. If they had come with the intent to invade, Astrid, who possessed healing ability, could have dragged it out indefinitely, until Velys collapsed from within or perished on its own.
The key was that she hadn’t come to plunder wealth, or rather, she didn’t intend to plunder in such a barbaric way. And given Brennild’s trait of drawing sustenance from death to revive, allowing the plague to spread on a large scale would, with high probability, strengthen Its power, making that ancient existence, already hostile to them, far more troublesome.
"As for the Church of Light, there’s no need to worry. Knight Commander Kales’s meaning is that he also hopes to end this conflict sooner, to save more lives."
Fighting for a practical future was better than blindly believing false dogma. Astrid could feel a certain vitality in Kales’s words and conduct.
It came from repentance, from hatred, from guilt.
Astrid didn’t care about these personal emotions belonging to Kales, but they had indeed reactivated this war-weary knight, and provided effective help for the Empire’s expedition.
"So I want to ask, Lyra, are you ready?"
As another key figure and currently the commander of one of the three allied armies, Lyra’s condition was especially important.
Hearing Astrid’s question, Lyra nodded, her tone serious.
"Of course."
From the moment she set foot on Velys’s soil, she had been fully alert, ready to face battle at any time.
"What a spirited answer." Astrid smiled, then conveyed Kales’s request to Lyra.
"The forces the Church of Light has assembled will be handled by Knight Commander Kales first. Lyra, you just focus on the enemies from the royal army."
On that issue, Kales had finally made her a promise: he would place the interests of the entire kingdom’s people first, abandon the hopeless, save those who could return from their misguided path.
"Isn’t that exactly in line with Astrid’s plan?"
As the one who shared her pillow, Lyra knew that Astrid’s original intention had been to have Kales and Monica actively leverage their reputations to rally more believers dissatisfied with the current state of the Pope and the Church of Light, and establish a new Church.
Kales’s proposal hit the mark.
Astrid gave a quiet "Mm," not denying it, and continued,
"Not all of Monica’s moles within the Church of Light have been exposed. Some bishops who have long harbored intentions of reform are still hidden behind the curtain."
The church within the church, hidden for so long, was about time to step onto the stage and show itself before everyone.
"Let Kales rally the lower-level knights, and let Monica contact the regional bishops she previously turned. We apply pressure from inside and out."
"Once suspicion is planted, everyone will feel unsafe. Even if the actual number of defectors is limited, as long as those blind believers realize that comrades who once shared the same faith might at any moment turn blades on each other over differences in ideology, their organizational strength and cohesion will plummet, and they may even begin to doubt the orders themselves."
"Even if this chain of offensives doesn’t collapse the Church of Light, it will at least leave Hebrew badly wounded."
After all, imagine a holy-Church Knight chosen by destiny suddenly emerging, holding one of the world’s only two holy relics of light, [Sword of Light]; possessing a higher affinity for the light element than the Pope; treating the people with greater magnanimity and gentleness; carrying a banner of radiance even more legitimate; and even absorbing the Church’s Knight Order stationed along the border, wherever she went, she’d be answered with a single call.
If that wasn’t the Daughter of Destiny, what was?
Whatever the outcome, in terms of public opinion, Hebrew had already lost catastrophically.
Aware that the coming days might bring the most pivotal battles of her life, Lyra exhaled lightly and said in a low voice,
"I understand. In other words, our greatest enemies next are actually the Royal Guard that shields the royal family, as well as transcendent experts at the level of legendary mages."
"Correct. To deal with Hebrew, I’ve already sent a letter to Headmaster Anthony of the Academy, asking him to rush to the front and await orders. He should have already departed."
Lowering the lotus-white arms folded beneath her ample chest, Astrid gently helped Lyra tidy her hair, gathering a few strands of pink that had fallen into the gaps of her armor, before continuing,
"And there’s another piece of good news, about the intelligence on the Royal Guard you just mentioned."
"Before I went to see Kales today, I received a letter from Iris Kroyd."
Lyra remembered the name. Back in the finals of the Magic Exchange Tournament, that foreign princess in water-blue attire had not taken advantage of the moment when Lyra was breaking through to interrupt her. Instead, she had strictly adhered to the knightly code, waiting until Lyra had stabilized her realm before fighting fairly.
Setting aside identity and stance, Lyra greatly admired such a person.
"What did she say?"
"Some of the Royal Guard’s deployments, the troop distribution around Sevilla City, and most importantly, a few nobles who may support the royal family."
For those messages to be released already spoke to Iris’s stance.
"....."
Based on Lyra’s impression of Iris, she didn’t think Iris was someone who would lie lightly. But in something so critical, Lyra still found it hard to believe that Iris could, for the sake of ideals, stab her own father in the back.
"Astrid... do you think it’s reliable?"
In previous reports, Monica had also mentioned Iris’s wavering and hesitation. This princess, unloved since childhood, held a philosophy of governance utterly different from the king’s.
"I’m not sure," Astrid said.
"So I want to use a more direct way to make her decide."
"...Have her come?"
"Mm."
As the words fell, a thin sheet of parchment landed before Lyra, precisely the letter from Princess Iris.
"The letter mentions that Iris Kroyd has already won the support of many nobles who once favored a peaceful resolution to the dispute. These people, long suppressed by the king and political enemies, deeply hate the nobles of the radical faction, and would gladly see them crushed beneath the iron hooves of the expeditionary army, so long as they can get even a few crumbs of cake for themselves."
"But the premise is that this war won’t affect their interests. Compared to letting a ruler from the Valeria Empire ascend the throne, perhaps launching a top-down reform targeting old ties, they’d rather enthrone a new king, with her representing their interests."
That opened a certain space for negotiation. Those great nobles, each possessing extensive high-end combat power and deep foundations, though temporarily out of favor, still far surpassed the remote nobles who could abandon resistance the moment the expeditionary army arrived.
If they could reach an agreement and have these people remain neutral at the final moment, refusing to stand on the same front as the radical nobles who were about to be executed, then even reducing the number of legendary mages entering the fray by one or two would make what came next much easier.
"I’ll write back to Iris later, telling her to continue winning support among the domestic nobles. As for those dangerous radicals and their lackeys, they will be slaughtered to the last by the Valeria Empire’s expeditionary army."
"The king who started this war must be killed by my hand. If she wants to save this broken country, then she must rely on the power she has accumulated now, use the authority her father delegated to her, and gamble everything in the royal capital that once birthed her."
As the king’s daughter and a young princess rich in martial virtue, Iris actually possessed some authority to mobilize part of the capital’s Royal Guard. Coupled with her earlier active efforts to curry favor with many nobles, and with the many soldiers she had recruited under her, she had long since gained the physical means to compete for the throne.
Once the external war erupted, with legendary mages preparing on the front line and the royal capital left hollow, Iris could seize the opportunity to enact a coup.
By the time Astrid reached this point, Lyra, no matter how slow, understood her meaning.
Indeed... if the King of Velys could be toppled by an internal coup, then the Royal Guard, one of the major obstacles on the road of advance, would no longer be a threat...
At that point, the few things they would still need to watch for would be the occasional legendary mage among the radical nobles, and that Pope of Light who seemed determined to go all the way down the black path.
"This difficulty... it feels like we’re making things hard for Miss Iris..." Lyra muttered softly.
For a child to raise a blade against a parent was never easy. Especially since the King of Velys himself was a legendary-mage-level powerhouse, Even if the Royal Guard were drawn away, he alone still had the strength to break through layers of encirclement. If Iris wanted to stage a mutiny, the difficulty was obvious.
Astrid, however, held a different view. "Hard to say."
"When a king is on the throne, he is the representative of the entire royal clan’s interests. Every action must consider the family."
Just like Amalia now, if during her reign she couldn’t seek profit for the imperial clan, and only poured royal resources into her elder sister’s ideals, the various princes within would love nothing more than to kick this illegitimate daughter off the throne and take the position of emperor themselves.
Prince Clark, who had sent people to cause trouble at the magitech exposition, was a living example, he was simply more blatant than the other royals.
"Just like nobles: the family supports the king, and the king feeds back to the family. In normal times, that’s how it should be. But if his death alone could preserve a spark for the entire royal clan, preserve the Kroyd surname..."
"Wouldn’t the royal family consider replacing him?"
Blood ties were supported by lineage, and were indeed more solid than other interest relationships, but they weren’t unbreakable.
If the death of one king could save the whole family, then there would be plenty of people who wanted him dead. It might not even be Iris, who still retained a shred of father-daughter affection and hesitated until now before writing this letter.