Chapter 654 - 652: The Internal Factions of the Holy Court
The Phoenix Kingdom has always been regarded by the Ista Empire as its greatest enemy.
That was something Hilia knew, so up till now she had never gone anywhere near the Phoenix Kingdom.
The other empires might be wary of Ista and the Holy Court’s strength after their restructuring, but the Phoenix Kingdom isn’t afraid.
If she went wandering around inside the Phoenix Kingdom without having the strength to protect herself, they might not care about the Holy Court at all and just kill her outright.
But according to Melina, the Phoenix Kingdom seems like they’ll interfere with the Holy Daughter election even if they themselves don’t do anything?
Could it be they’ll send assassins too?
Hilia voiced her doubts.
Melina said, "Not exactly. Their methods of interference are very complicated. Sometimes it looks like they haven’t done anything, yet in the end some unexpected event always occurs. Sometimes they do carry out assassinations. We have absolutely no way to predict what method they’ll use to interfere, or whether in the end they’ll do nothing at all."
"That weird?"
"Mm. They seem to have their own unique system of scrutiny, trying to interfere with and steer the Holy Court’s Holy Daughter election. It doesn’t succeed every time, but they do have their successes. In short, from now on, Hilia, you need to be careful."
"Since their goal is to interfere with the Holy Daughter election and they sometimes resort to assassination... then why don’t they strangle us while we’re still weak?" Hilia asked.
"Because their goal isn’t to kill off the Holy Court’s living strength. If assassination were their main purpose, the Holy Court’s Holy Daughter election wouldn’t be semi-public, and you and I wouldn’t be allowed to move around freely."
That was Benovia’s explanation.
She seemed to have known about this for a long time.
So I’m the only one who doesn’t know anything, huh? Hilia muttered inwardly.
Melina said, "At the beginning, the Holy Court could still grasp some of the Phoenix Kingdom’s movements. But after the other empires successively integrated and became independent, the Holy Court’s ability to control things has long since vanished. After so many years, it’s not that we have no information at all, but what we can obtain is limited. Just be careful, that’s enough."
"All right then."
Hilia could only make a mental note for now.
Benovia smiled. "No need to worry too much. The Phoenix’s purpose isn’t killing. Judging from their behavior over the years, they seem to just want to see whether each Holy Daughter through the generations is fit for the position."
"I doubt it’s that simple."
The Phoenix Kingdom is far from the Ista Empire, with the Northern Alliance and the Beastman Empire between them, and supposedly there’s a powerful enemy from the distant west as well. In theory they shouldn’t have time to bother with some Holy Court Saintess election, and on top of that it’s not straightforward assassination but some bizarre kind of examination.
All mysterious and opaque—no way to figure it out.
Hilia grumbled to herself and in the end could only shake her head.
"Leaving the Phoenix issue aside, there’s another problem you probably need to pay attention to, Hilia—the matter of factions within the Holy Court."
As she spoke, Melina turned her head and glanced at Benovia.
"Factions..."
Hilia blinked. "There are actually factions inside the Holy Court?"
"Of course." Melina gave a slight smile. "And the internal factions of the Holy Court are extremely tangled. That’s one of the reasons I don’t really like staying at headquarters. Normally, when you’re at the Huijin Divine Hall, you’re either active outside or in the prayer area. You haven’t been to places like the Cardinal College or the Judgement Court. Plus your strength used to be relatively low and you didn’t have much recognition, so you didn’t need to know about faction issues."
"So now I’m allowed to know?"
Melina nodded.
"Haven’t you noticed that the people who usually interact with you—aside from me, Blake, and Vasily—at most add the Holy Master?"
Hilia froze for a moment. Thinking it over, that really was the case.
The Holy Court has twelve Archbishops, but she basically only knew Melina, Vasily, and Blake fairly well.
As for the others, she had hardly any contact with them.
Even the current Holy Daughter, Anna, was like that.
"The ones you’re familiar with all belong to the radical faction."
Melina said this mildly.
"The Holy Court’s upper echelon can be roughly divided into three factions: the radical faction headed by the Holy Master, the neutral faction headed by Shuoen, and the conservative faction headed by August. The radicals’ stance, well... you’ve seen it. Vasily, Blake, and I are all active in purging heresy and on the border frontlines."
"As for the neutral faction, they’re more devoted to research. They’re the backbone of the Holy Court. Normally they don’t meddle in affairs, but even the Holy Master has to take their opinions seriously."
"You probably haven’t had much contact with the conservatives yet, but if you interact more with Doris, you’ll notice that behind her explorations of ancient ruins, they’re always involved. Of course, the conservatives aren’t just passionate about exploring ancient ruins—they also enjoy fighting, but they’re relatively conservative and oppose all sorts of our strategies, even though our strategies are already so conservative."
Melina gave a brief overview of the factions within the Holy Court’s upper ranks, without going into detail, merely touching on the subject.
After that, she returned to Hilia’s situation.
"Right now you’re very high-profile. What you’ve done among the Elf Race is already beyond the point where the conservatives think you’re too radical—at this stage, even the radicals think you’re too radical."
"Uh..." Hilia blinked. "R-really?"
The girl felt guilty.
"Anyway, they’ve already tacitly assumed you’re on the Holy Master’s side. They may try to obstruct you from becoming Holy Daughter once the formal election begins... because the previous Holy Daughter was from our faction too, which makes them a bit worried."
"Uh..."
Hilia fell silent, not sure what to say.
This sort of thing wasn’t her strong suit.
Radicals, conservatives—she didn’t understand any of it.
After stewing on it for a long time, she suddenly noticed Benovia off to the side, who had already quietly picked up a book and started reading. She couldn’t help asking, "Benovia, what faction are you?"
"Me?" Benovia looked up, then lowered her head again. "I’m custard faction."
"Cus—custard faction?"
"She doesn’t belong to any faction," Melina said.
"Isn’t that the neutral faction?"
"The neutral faction isn’t actually neutral, Hilia."
"..."
All right, Hilia had officially been talked in circles. It took her half a day to finally grasp what Benovia meant.
For some reason, Hilia instinctively felt a bit repulsed by the notion of factions.
But both Melina and Blake had helped her a lot. Without realizing it, she really had already become "one of theirs."
The girl’s brows knitted slightly. After a moment, she sighed inwardly.
Forget it, whatever. As long as this faction stuff doesn’t escalate into open and covert strife, reaching the level of assassination and the like, it’s fine.
"Thank you, Ms Meilina, you’ve brought me a brand-new source of anxiety." Hilia expressed her ’gratitude’ sincerely.
Melina couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.
"I know you don’t like these things, but as long as you intend to run for Holy Daughter, you have to face them. Whether it’s me or Blake, we both think highly of your future. Whatever you want to do, we won’t stop you—we’ll only support you."
As she spoke, Melina also blinked.
"Besides, from the moment you took the championship in the Northern Alliance up till now, everything you’ve done has been so radical that even we radicals think you’re too radical."
"..."
Hilia awkwardly poked at the ground with her toe.