When the plot-skips players into the game world

Although Aiwass originally just came to retrieve some equipment, he suddenly realized...

...he seemed to have obtained the evidence he needed.

Minister Griffiths was indeed quite cautious.

He destroyed all incoming letters as soon as they arrived and left no evidence at home; the ritual magic circles in his basement only proved he had tried to summon demons, but nothing else—it wasn't illegal to simply try, after all, if one didn't succeed. Minister Griffiths himself did not possess the rank of Transcendence to explain any rituals he might have conducted.

And from the Antimony Kingdom's side, there was clearly no provision of abnormal funds.

As the Minister of Commerce, just like his predecessor, he had all his assets in Antimony. Only when he decided to flee could he truly cash in on these properties.

Of course, if he didn't live to escape, then all this would be equivalent to a worthless promise.

So, Minister Griffiths's finances were in order, no problems with the letters, his schedule, or his Path. It seemed there was no evidence to be found.

But the relic that Aiwass took from his shrine was evidence in itself.

Without a doubt, in Avalon, which holds considerable sway within the Nine Pillars Divine Church, one could never find the faith of Sister Sasha. Such a holy image could definitely not be bought in Avalon.

There were only two countries that venerated Sister Sasha: one was Irisflower, and the other was Antimony. And he had never been to Irisflower... Just a little investigation by the Supervisory Court would easily reveal that he had obtained it from Antimony.

Such an item would undoubtedly have to be declared at customs. Otherwise, he wouldn't dare display it so openly at home.

And soon, Ligeia inquired about the outcome—this was a "souvenir" that Minister Griffiths had brought back under the name of a "gift from a friend".

As is well-known, Sister Sasha was the mother of the Blood Celestial Marshal, and the Blood Celestial Marshal was the progenitor of the Son of the Moon, born of bathing in moonlight. The fundamental reason being that the Son of the Moon was born from a corpse, this being the miracle of "from death comes life".

Just like the moon, after falling to the earth, it rises again, waning to transform once more into fullness.

However, as the progenitor of the Son of the Moon, the Blood Celestial Marshal chose to rebel against the way of the Pillar Gods' Celestial Marshal.

This directly caused an internal rift within the Son of the Moon group.

The Blood Celestial Marshal himself was the ruler of the Domain of Blood, his status even exceeding that of his father, The Banqueter.

After all, as a dragon, The Banqueter neither drank blood nor consumed human flesh.

Following the Path of his father, The Banqueter, the Blood Celestial Marshal was similarly inclined towards the Path of the Feast—however, The Banqueter enjoyed proper feasts, the kind dragons relished with meat and drink, song and dance; in contrast, the Blood Celestial Marshal's feasting tended towards sacrifices, flesh, suffering, and craving.

The Lifedrain impulse of the Son of the Moon also originated from him.

From this perspective, the Son of the Moon actually embraced four differing beliefs.

The Blood Celestial Marshal represented the most brutal and depraved vein necessitating harm to others and taking pleasure in such harm, exhibiting a strong aggression; The Banqueter represented a hedonistic faction that hid its identity and integrated into society, reveling in eternal life and pleasure for its own sake.

As the favored ones of Eternal Self, Sons of the Moon who directly believed in Eternal Self were now the least numerous; their characteristic being a sacrifice for love, madness for love.

Those without obvious tendencies all believed in Sister Sasha. Since she was neither a Pillar God, nor an Angel Envoy, nor a Celestial Marshal, believing in Sister Sasha meant not choosing sides; she would neither assign tasks nor issue commands. Essentially, this was the equivalent of maintaining neutrality to avoid trouble from other factions of the Son of the Moon.

Once, Sons of the Moon who believed in Eternal Self were the most numerous.

As a nation of Mages and Sons of the Moon, the faith of the Narcissus Duchy was once in the Pillar God Eternal Self. It's said that the Daffodil Duke Dracula died for love—although that couldn't quite be considered orderly, as the phases of the moon embodied chaos, but at least love was a factor.

In other words, they were romantics with a love-stricken mindset.

After the demise of the Narcissus Duchy, those scattered and drifting Sons of the Moon harbored hatred towards the Duke Daffodil, who had caused the nation's downfall. Therefore, aside from those who still resided in the Narcissus Duchy, barely any continued to believe in Eternal Self.

A substantial number of Sons of the Moon turned to believe in the Blood Celestial Marshal, forming the most powerful branch. The Blood Celestial Marshal was very strong and responded to the prayers of the Sons of the Moon quickly and protectively. The downside was the overwhelming number of tasks and demands, akin to the head of a feudal family.

Those Sons of the Moon unwilling to be dominated by the Blood Celestial Marshal all believed in Sister Sasha.

Because believing in the Blood Celestial Marshal made one susceptible to assassination and crusades, and believing in The Banqueter required wealth—The Banqueter was a very generous god, disdaining those miserly hoarders of wealth. The least demanded by The Banqueter in exchange for blessings and protection was to host a lively feast weekly to entertain numerous guests.

Yet not all who lived long were wealthy... and many Sons of the Moon might not live long at all.

Even though Sister Sasha was very gentle with her children, normal humans still wouldn't believe in her.

Unless they were the "spiritual Sons of the Moon" who had a few screws loose in their heads.

According to the common knowledge of Transcendent beings, they are actually aware that the Sons of the Moon and the individuals themselves are not the same person—this world has souls. The souls of the dead can be summoned back, and experiments have been done to prove they are not the same person anymore.

And as a new life born from the remains, most people would tend to think of it as "a stranger who has stolen one's personal relationships and social identity," like a shapeshifting monster that had absorbed all of one's memories before killing and usurping their identity.

A normal human being would only feel terror at this.

Minister Griffiths, having returned from the Antimony Kingdom as a diplomat close to Star Antimony and having received a "gift from a Star Antimony friend," now discovers that this gift contains a relic of immense value. With Griffiths himself possessing the Adaptation of the Path of Love—this was already enough to form a complete chain of evidence.

No one would pay the price of a relic to frame a dead man.

Of the relics of Sister Sasha, there are only four in the entire world, and they are almost all lost to history. If someone could find a relic, those long-lived and wealthy Sons of the Moon would no doubt be willing to pay a huge price for it, even earning their friendship for it.

—Although not many people were privy to the information about the Sons of the Moon, these details were not unobtainable. A letter to the Holy Nation would surely garner an answer. The Irisflower People would probably also be happy to stoke the flames with their response.

Once Aiwass had confirmed that they would not be backstabbed or made a laughingstock, he skipped the verification phase and told Ligeia everything. He had Ligeia act as a guarantor to define the whole affair.

Even beginning with this thread, Aiwass could then search all the ministers' houses for religious items.

This was very reasonable, and entirely plausible. After all, they had just found ironclad evidence after inspecting the holy images in a minister's house that had absolutely no coordinated evidence with Star Antimony.

—After all, intelligence can be destroyed, evidence can be obliterated, but no one would dare destroy holy images so easily.

And if the holy images were handed over to the church, the church could use rituals to find out how many times it has been worshipped in the past year.

If they truly investigated thoroughly, there would probably not be many ministers who were completely clean.

Why hasn't the Silver-Crowned Dragon been worshipped in a long time? Why were ancestors worshipped more often than the Crown Lord? Why do they also have holy images of other Celestial Marshals at home?

Faults could be found at any turn, but doing so would press them too hard.

Moreover, such an investigation wouldn't hurt to the bone. If someone were actually caught, they wouldn't be sentenced for many years, only their reputation would be damaged. Ultimately, it would only offend people—akin to reviewing all of one's internet browsing and call history from the past year without any notice. Someone always has some secrets that cannot see the light of day... for instance, The Banqueter's ritual is known to have aphrodisiac effects.

If this were exposed and made public, whether it is illegal or not is debatable, but it would certainly result in social death.

So, during the Round Table meeting the next day, when Ligeia as Aiwass's spokesperson presented the evidence, she only issued a warning to the knights and did not truly raise a commotion.

This was already sufficient.

As long as the queen's side showed the potential attitude of conducting a thorough investigation, the Tower Faction would inevitably cower.

After all, they were called the Tower Faction precisely because they had all taken money from the Lohar Society, forming a complete community of interests.

In the current situation where the Lohar Society itself was not very clean, a determined probe would surely uncover something.

Looking back, Griffiths could no longer wash his hands clean, while Aiwass had no breaches at present. He seemed nothing like a young man easily handled, more like a rabid dog biting anyone in sight. Griffiths had a private meeting to berate Aiwass at noon, and by evening he was dead, his house raided the next day, and by the third morning significant evidence of treason was presented.

—For the Round Table Hall, with an average age above fifty and a place where a proposal to raise the match tax by 1% could lead to a three-month-long meeting, Aiwass's drive was frighteningly high. High to an extent that was scary.

Young people have no sense of martial virtue.

One might lose an old friend in a moment of distraction.

But once the Tower Faction silenced themselves and calmed down, they were astonished to discover that the Chocolate Faction, to which Minister Griffiths himself belonged, had completely turned towards Aiwass.

They had no hostility towards Aiwass and not a single one of them spoke out for Minister Griffiths. They even repeatedly praised Aiwass's high action capacity; it was all acclaim.

In fact, just the day before—just as Aiwass had returned from Griffiths Manor to the Hall of Silver and Tin, he had received more than a dozen letters, all from ministers of the Chocolate Faction.

Without exception, without omission, they all showed submission. The situation Aiwass had previously imagined, "if someone did not write a letter," never occurred.

They truly were the seasoned ministers, after all.

Compared with the younger, more arrogant Tower Faction, they were indeed a bit more with the times.

They had obviously been waiting for a reply for a long time, and if Aiwass did not respond, they probably would not be able to sleep out of anxiety. So Aiwass wrote back to them all that night, praising them and specifically pointing out that "since everyone wrote a letter, this matter ends here."

The next morning, the Chocolate Faction ministers visibly relaxed.

In such a situation, members of the other factions immediately sensed a change in the wind.

Even though they had perhaps not grasped the specifics, they were always opportunistic. Now, on the Round Table, there were no longer any voices attacking Aiwass or belittling Isabel. Some even politely invited Ligeia to have Aiwass come to a meeting, their attitude having become much friendlier than the day before, a complete turnaround.

And this was only the third day since Isabel ascended to the throne.