Chapter 33: Conspiracy

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“The most ecstatic thing is to destroy the enemy, in the most profane and gruesome way. To obliterate the gaze that looked at you with killing intent, only to be morphed into one that is pleading mercy, and wallowing in despair. That is the ecstasy of the warrior”

Devil Satan, Sin of Wrath

Year ???

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--POV: Lilith Von Adion—

--Place: Conference of Countenance / Time:11:08—

“…..and with that, let the conference begin!” The king, my father, announces the beginning of the conference as I sit next to my siblings at an excessively large and round table that seats 30 people, total. “Speak, Daniel” My father sits back in his seat, before crossing his arms over his chest, as he orders his administrative advisor to start.

“Yes, your highness” An old man in a red robe with golden garments stands up. “Ladies and gentleman, there are currently many topics and discussion that need to be disclosed and decided on.”

“As such, we will start with one of the most urgent matters, that being, the revolt in Avalon against the church and the pope.” Oh, this is going to be a sensitive topic, especially with the fact that both the pope and the two Prime Priests are sitting here with us.

Taking a quick glance at them, they have stoic expressions…..trying too hard to show indifference, instead, it shows how much the holy doctrine is affected by the previous events.

“Something about a newspaper?” Duke Augsburg adds on a question, because even though everything seems fine. It is entirely possible that Augsburg just tried to jab and annoy the pope further.

“Precisely, Lord Augsburg. A new media has recently taken Avalon’s megacities by storm. It has quickly risen to the most popular and influential press in the entirety of Avalon.” Daniel readjusts his glasses like he is giving a lecture to the most powerful people in this kingdom. “The name, The Avalon Times, is a press coverage that has recently gained popularity after getting rebranded from the previous name of Avalon Post.”

Daniel continues. “Avalon Post was bought by Volkhiem Co. from Tokkingdam Industries. Before getting renamed to The Avalon Times, it is a newspaper that explicity degrades the church, the federalist political faction in Avalon, and…..Adion.”

“Why haven’t we issued a request to Avalon authorities to have this newspaper taken down?” The hot-blooded Earl Macalister, an influential politician who comes from a line of very powerful men, both physically and magically, just asked why didn’t we order another country, who has complete independence, to shut down that newspaper. If the kingdom was in his hands, we would be at war with every country without a doubt. “I mean, couldn’t we give an accusation that this is seen as a political attack to rile up anti-Adion war support?” No, we can’t genius, because Avalon would feign ignorance in the matter, dumb muscle brain.

Of course, I keep these thoughts to myself.

“Well, Avalon would refuse most of our political requests regardless of what accusation we have. No matter how legitimate our excuses are, Avalon will downplay it as either not happening, a very small issue or that they had no hand or connections in the situation.” Augsburg responds to the muscle brain, but he didn’t explicitly tell him that “you are an idiot”, but he did refute it well.

Macalister gives a powerful nod, like he truly didn’t think of that, which he probably didn’t.

“Back on track.” Daniel continues, ending the slight skirmish between Augsburg and Macalister. “So, The Avalon Times is spreading propaganda and creating an anti-Adion sentiment in major populaces across Avalon. This continues until….”

He pauses for a second, before looking around the room. “The church sends spies under the order of Head Priest Falone, who is standing right there.” The advisor introduces Falone to the big shots here, I think Falone may be pissing his pants right about now, as his order, in a way, had a connection to the revolt. “The spies then kill two journalists working under Anthony Volkhiem, the current owner of Volkhiem Co. who owns the newspaper.”

The explanation goes on. “This results in a legal case that is to be handled by the Magical Order, a legal organization who deals with magic, law, and justice in Avalon. The Magical Order rules the church as guilty of committing the murder of two people who were speaking out against them. The spies have pleaded guilty that they have murdered the journalists in cold blood under orders of Head Priest Falone.”

The nobles around the room give Falone the dirty look. “However” Daniel says. “Head Priest Falone swears on God’s divinity that he did not order a murder, and instead, a simple investigation of the newspaper company.” This leads to the pretence of the crime, who is lying and who is saying the truth, what a dirty game. “The Magic Order has demanded that Head Priest Falone to testify under oath, and to bring his evidence to prove his innocence.”

“Hmph, nonsense” Macalister snorts, completely forgetting the fact that he was advocating to order Avalon around, but when suddenly the situation is reversed, he isn’t on board anymore? Fucking hypocrites….and not just him, everyone here on this table has the ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ logic in their heads, it’s disgusting.

“As such” Danial ignores the Earl’s interruption. “Our officials and diplomats have refused to cooperate with such a request, and have refused.”

Daniel takes a deep breath this time, seems serious.

“With Head Priest Falone’s absence causing the Magic Order to judge him guilty, The Avalon Times did not pull any punches in stating this is all a conspiracy created by Adion along with the pope.” The person actually behind Volkhiem Co. is advocating for war and conflict, that is certain. “In response to this, the pope issued a holy decree for all churches and divisions to raise their defences to maximum level to avoid any raids an enraged mob who fell for the propaganda may do.”

“Only 7 churches within the land of god in Avalon responded with affirmation, the other churches show no response.”

“Every other church deserted the holy doctrine?!” Macalister jumps up, probably from shock. But he isn’t the only one.

The old geezer known as the pope speaks for the first time in a quiet voice. “I wouldn’t say deserted, I would say oppurtunists.”

“Explain” Father demands in response to the bold declaration.

“The churches who didn’t respond are waiting, they are waiting to see what happens.” The pope raises a skinny wrinkled finger. “Shall my church claim victory, the deserters, as you call it, will easily return to us, and when asked of this incident where they didn’t respond. Then they will feign ignorance, and mention excuses such as they misinterpreted orders, or they didn’t understand….and so on.”

“However” The pope draws circles with his skinny finger on the table. “Shall the Magic Order and The Avalon Times win, the churches who didn’t respond would show Avalon evidence that they didn’t follow orders. Thus, they are playing it safe, or so they think they are.”

“Moreover, we have plenty of evidence regarding our enemy who is the cause of the revolt.”

Shocked faces, murmuring, things expected to be seen after the pope makes such a statement. However, his wisdom shouldn’t be cast aside as bullshit. Because, this old geezer, despite him being past his expiry date, is still very smart, overly so.

“Go ahead.” Now with the king giving the green light, the pope can finally continue, after the aftershock died down.

“You have all heard of the burning down of St’ Louis Church.” The pope starts from the beginning which was before this Avalon Times thing went down.

Seeing the audience nodding, he goes on. “A demon escaped from an underground cell in this church during the incident.” He states it likes this shit doesn’t concern him, demon? Fucking fantastic.

“And why weren’t we notified of such a thing living under our noses?” Augsburg asks with a frown, probably displeased at a demon being so near him….

“To stop leakage.” And those three words shut everyone up. “The king was the only one outside of the church who knew of the demon’s existence.” My father knew about this?

“This demon, however, was chained to mana-reducing chains in a cell that was built with enhanced iron bars. There is practically no way she can escape without outside help. And yes, it is a she. The Avalon Times is lying when they say it was a male vampire.”

“However.” Waving his finger around, he lectures us. “How did they know it was a demon? To know, they would have to have seen through the demon’s disguise, thus seeing her true self. So if they saw her true self and identified her as a demon…..how did they get the identity that she is actually a succubus and female wrong?” He drops another bombshell that the demon is a succubus? This day is getting better and better.

“They didn’t get it wrong.” He answers his own question. “They knew her real identity, but chose to publicise the fact that a demon is on the loose, but gave the demon a wrong identity. These actions are only logical in one scenario, and that is, if they want the public to know there is a demon running about, and that it is the church’s fault, but they don’t want the public to find the demon. In this case, they are probably using the demon, it is safe to say, if we find our enemy, the succubus will be with them.”

“Isn’t this counterproductive?” He asks himself another question. “No, it isn’t. Because if you give the idea that the demon running about is a male, that is deathly pale. No one would look for a young looking girl as a suspect, would they? However, if Avalon Times just said “There is a demon on the loose”, the public would suspect anybody, including the young-looking girl.”

“So by doing this, they are changing the direction that the public will point their fingers at, when they scream “demon”.” Extremely plausible and logical now that I think about it. “More importantly, back to the perpetrator of the St’ Louis explosion. The culprit talked to one of the statues I was controlling to monitor the demon.”

“So don’t we already have their identity?” Impatient Macalister asks another one.

“No, we don’t” Pope Andrew responds. “The enemy appeared in the form of a young man, called Crower, who was working as a paladin.”

“So it isn’t this…..Crower?” Macalister again, damn idiot. There is no way a paladin can pull such a feat, no matter how talented.

“No, it isn’t. It’s someone who possessed him, who took his form and body. He is the only missing corpse of the incident. I researched and investigated and realized that Crower doesn’t have even near the minimum capabilities required to do such a thing. Plus, the culprit managed to get through the bars and destroy the mana-reducing chains. Making him a very strong individual.” His hand that was waving in the air, proceeds to rest on the armrest. “So now we know, this unknown individual is very strong, capable of possessing, got their hands on a succubus and took her with them, right?”

Andrew asks to make sure everyone is on the same page. “Then we have The Avalon Times who managed to find out about something that even the nobles of Adion didn’t know. Not only did they find about it, but they publicised that a demon exists here without revealing her true identity.” Oh….damn…. “So it is safe to say, the culprit is an Avalonian, has great prowess, and has a demon on their hands, they also went from here to Avalon in the time frame after the attack on St’ Louis.”

“This person or organization, has great enough status to start up a company with thousands of golden coins, publish false propaganda without anyone commenting, and could do as they please in general.” We really limited the possible suspects now. “It isn’t Anthony Volkhiem, the owner of Volkhiem Co. who is the enemy. No, it is the people behind him in the shadows. They are the people who are spreading pro-war propaganda against us. They are the people who are weakening the church’s influence in Avalon. They are the people who are seeking to destroy us.”

“We find out who is actually pulling the strings, we find the mastermind of this whole show.”