The Old King’s Shadow and the Church’s Role

Outside the window, the torrential rain still lashed against the roof, yet the atmosphere within the dining room had grown ten times more oppressive than moments before.

“Father,” Allen broke the silence, his fingers unconsciously tapping against the tabletop. “Given our standing as robe nobles, we ought to be supporting Princess Charlotte, aligning ourselves with the moderate faction, shouldn’t we?”

Bernard, however, merely offered a bitter smile, shaking his head slowly as the weariness etched across his face seemed to deepen further.

“It is precisely because we are expected to be, yet are not, that the hardliners view us as a perpetual thorn in their side.”

He let out a heavy sigh, his voice imbued with a gravitas born from the harsh realities of their existence:

“My son, the brutality of political struggle far surpasses anything you can imagine.”

A sudden clarity dawned upon Allen.

Within the depths of his transmigrated soul, an innate political acumen seemed to stir, allowing him to immediately grasp the underlying helplessness behind his father’s outwardly indecisive stance.

“Father, the fundamental reason you’ve chosen to be a fence-sitter, pleasing neither faction, is our complete lack of a power base.

Regardless of which side we align with, we risk becoming a discarded pawn at a critical juncture, thrust forward as a scapegoat, or even sacrificed to rally their banners?”

Bernard’s head snapped up, his gaze fixing on his son, eyes wide with profound shock.

“Yes! You’ve hit the nail on the head! Exactly so! In the eyes of those powerful figures, minor, declining nobles like us are nothing more than expendable pawns!”

“The hardliners are now making a brutal example of us, intending to ‘kill the chicken to scare the monkeys’! They mean to use the tragic state of our de Laval family to compel all those hesitant, fence-sitting minor and mid-tier nobles to declare their allegiance swiftly! To remain neutral is to share our fate! This is their overt scheme!”

“So, if that’s the case,” Allen felt a cold dread creep up his spine, “are we not now the target of all? Are all arrows pointed squarely at us? The hardliners seek to crush us to assert their dominance, while the moderates might simply stand by, deeming us insufficiently loyal?”

“Precisely,” Bernard’s voice was impossibly heavy, each word weighted with lead. “To choose a side is a dead end, yet not to choose is a slow, agonizing demise. Surrounded by a pack of wolves, our de Laval family is quite literally dancing on a knife’s edge, with no discernible path forward!”

Allen’s mind raced, his thoughts frantically seeking a lifeline amidst their desperate predicament.

His father’s words swirled in his mind like disparate puzzle pieces, which Allen then meticulously assembled into a complete and chilling picture of the kingdom’s political crisis.

In reality, the kingdom was not fractured into merely two factions, but three distinct camps:

There were the Crown Prince’s hardliners, the Princess’s moderates, and the Old King’s neutral faction.

Their respective political ideologies were stern suppression, gradual reform, and the preservation of the status quo.

Yet, with the Old King’s perpetual inaction, the neutral faction had effectively become a spent force, having largely lost its influence.

The inherent stability of a triangle, a fundamental physical property, also serves as a potent metaphor for the “triangular balance” within a political landscape.

Should one corner of such a triangular structure vanish, the delicate equilibrium that once held it together would inevitably shatter.

By all accounts, with the neutral faction’s checks and balances removed, the struggle between the hardliners and the moderates should have escalated dramatically. However, in the original *Starlight Love Song*, the relationship between Charles Durand and Charlotte Durand, siblings though they were, remained surprisingly amicable.

Clearly, another power had stepped in to fill that crucial missing corner!

A sudden flash of insight ignited in Allen’s mind, and he blurted out, “Father, what role, then, does the Church play in all of this?”

Bernard was utterly flabbergasted, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at his son as if he had grown a second head.

He had just delivered a lengthy discourse, yet not a single word about the Church had escaped his lips! How could Allen have suddenly divined this?

After the initial shock subsided, Bernard managed to quell the tempest in his heart before explaining, “The Church… is a third power, distinct from both the hardliners and the moderates. Archbishop Lucien shares an exceptionally close personal bond with the Old King, Louis XI! His Majesty, now deeply immersed in his spiritual cultivation, refuses to see even his own children, yet he frequently grants audiences to the Archbishop. The Church’s standing is truly transcendent!”

‘Wait, is this a case of ‘two dragons cannot meet’? Could this Old King actually be channeling the Longevity Emperor?’

Allen mused inwardly, the enigmatic image of the historical “Taoist Emperor,” the riddle-master, flashing through his mind.

“I come to seek the Dao, and there is nothing more to say. Clouds drift in the blue sky, water rests in the bottle.”

The Taoist Emperor’s philosophy of governance posited that a monarch must remain as elusive as the Dao itself.

The Dao is unseen by all, yet it permeates everything. The monarch may not be seen by his ministers, yet his presence is felt everywhere.

With the Old King concealed behind the kingdom’s political crisis, what precise role did he truly play in these unfolding events?

Was he genuinely merely shirking his duties?

No, that couldn’t be right!

A sudden, startling realization, like a bolt of lightning, streaked across Allen’s mind!

He had keenly seized upon a profound sense of incongruity.

Was it truly necessary for the hardliners to resort to such extremes as openly hiring mercenaries to block their gates, deface their property with paint, and hurl insults?

Was it merely to tarnish their reputation?

Coincidentally, everyone from the de Laval household had been absent that day—his father was out collecting debts, while he, Marianne Durand, and the butler had just returned from the Heretical Inquisition.

Had they all been home at that moment, would the conflict have escalated into a bloody massacre aimed directly at the nobility?

After all, those mercenaries had been armed!

Directly employing foreign mercenaries to murder nobles was an egregious breach of all established rules, a desperate, last-resort act of outright hostility!

Had Allen not so deftly defused the situation, the internecine struggle among the nobility would have instantly escalated into an irredeemable bloodbath.

Such an action simply did not align with the hardliners’ current strategic objective of “forcing allegiance”; rather, it seemed designed to pour fuel onto an already volatile fire!

Someone was deliberately fanning the flames, exacerbating the feuds among the nobility and accelerating the kingdom’s descent into the abyss of civil war!

Who could it be? The covetous Empire, perhaps? Or some shadowy conspirator, eager to seize immense gains from the ensuing chaos?

“Archbishop Lucien shares an exceptionally close personal bond with the Old King… His Majesty, now deeply immersed in his spiritual cultivation, refuses to see even his own children, yet he frequently grants audiences to Archbishop Lucien…”

Bernard’s words, like a sudden peal of thunder, reverberated once more through Allen’s mind.

A nascent “killer’s instinct,” almost a passive skill, flared to life, issuing frantic warnings.

An unexpected name, shrouded in layers of suspicion, surfaced within his rapidly forming hypothesis.

The Old King, Louis XI.

Allen’s heart plummeted.

The Old King’s sudden dereliction of duty, his instigation of infighting among his children, and his deliberate fracturing of noble consensus.

On the surface, such actions appeared to be the result of senile incompetence, yet upon deeper reflection, they seemed orchestrated to deliberately muddy the waters!

What benefit could he possibly derive from stirring up such chaos? Was the Kingdom of Lorraine not his own domain?

Unless he harbored a hidden, profounder objective, one that transcended the very notion of kingship itself!

The Old King had once been a cleric of the Church; did he perhaps possess some secret knowledge?

Did he know the Church’s secret of its ‘dark technology’? Did he hold the truth of those endless cycles and humanity’s impending doom?

To validate this startling conjecture, Allen suppressed the tumultuous thoughts in his mind and inquired with feigned nonchalance, “Father, what became of those mercenaries? Did the guards manage to apprehend them?”

At the mention of those hyenas who had sought to tear at the decaying flesh of the de Laval family, Bernard’s anger remained palpable.

“They escaped! Damnation! Their original plan was to traverse the Upper City and flee through the East Gate. Yet, as fate would have it, the East Gate was under martial law today, patrolled by Royal Palace Guards! They claimed there were roving bandits recently, necessitating heightened vigilance.”

“Consequently, as those rogues neared the East Gate, it was as if they suddenly caught wind of danger. They abruptly veered into a nearby alleyway, weaving through its labyrinthine twists and turns until they vanished without a trace! The cavalry couldn’t possibly keep up! Those worthless guards! They collect exorbitant sums in security taxes, yet they couldn’t even apprehend a mere band of mercenaries! We’ve been funding them for naught!”

Allen lapsed into silence, his gaze growing increasingly profound.

Royal Palace Guards?

To appear so “coincidentally” on the mercenaries’ predetermined escape route? Such a coincidence felt far too deliberate!

Were they truly on alert for roving bandits? Or were they merely lying in wait to “dispose of” these expendable pawns once their task was complete?

Could it truly be him?

Allen’s gaze drifted towards the Royal Palace, which lay shrouded in the torrential rain beyond the window.

It seemed he would have to find a way to infiltrate the Church as soon as possible.

The Church and the Old King, it seemed, might very well be orchestrating some grand conspiracy.

In the Church storyline of *Starlight Love Song*, Livia von Stern was relentlessly pursued across the world by the Heretical Inquisition. What transpired in the capital, Lucien, remained a mystery to players.

Now, Allen needed to uncover precisely what the Church and the Old King were truly plotting.

Only by doing so could he hope to survive the ensuing chaos.

Allen reined in his scattered thoughts, drawing his attention back to the present. “Father,” he asked, “has the Church always maintained strict neutrality concerning the matter of royal succession?”

Bernard swiftly nodded. “The Royal Family and the Church have coexisted peacefully for centuries, their harmony underpinned by that sacred, ancient covenant: ‘The Temple belongs to the Divine, the Crown belongs to the King.’ The Church never directly intervenes in the kingdom’s secular affairs, strictly adhering to its neutrality. This principle is the very bedrock of their existence.”

“I see,” Allen nodded, a confident smile gracing his lips. “I now fully grasp the political crisis facing our family. Rest assured, Father, I will find a way to align us with the Church, ensuring we receive their protection.”

“What? Son, can you truly achieve that?”

A sudden realization dawned on Bernard; indeed, rather than remaining a fence-sitter, seeking refuge with the Church seemed a far more prudent course.

The challenge, however, lay in the Church’s unwavering neutrality, making such an endeavor nigh impossible. How could Allen possibly manage it?

“Father, do not forget that I have received divine revelation,” Allen replied, a hint of mystery in his smile. “Do you possess any means of contacting Archbishop Lucien? I wish to speak with him.”

“Son…” Bernard looked at his son’s determined eyes, gritted his teeth, and agreed, “If you are truly confident, then your old man will help you contact him! I’ll stake my reputation on it, I must try!”

“Of course, leave it to me, old man.” Allen’s smile was brimming with confidence.

The father and son exchanged a knowing, silent smile.

Allen now harbored a brand new, audacious, almost insane plan.

His solution to their predicament, was it not written plainly within the *Holy Scripture*?

“In the final age of darkness, the Messenger of God shall awaken within a ‘blank vessel’. They shall bring an end to this ceaseless cycle of destruction, and guide lost humanity back onto the path to God’s Paradise.”

That was it!

Allen intended to convince the Church that he was that very Messenger of God!

Since Livia von Stern couldn’t fulfill the role, why shouldn’t he?

This idea wasn’t merely heretical; it was pure blasphemy.

Had Bernard known his son possessed such immense audacity, daring to impersonate the Messenger of God, he would likely have fainted on the spot from shock.

As the saying goes, the greater the storm, the more valuable the fish!

As a villain, without such daring, how could he possibly contend with Livia von Stern, that phoenix among men?

Allen’s audacious idea stemmed from his confidence in masquerading as the Messenger of God.

As a transmigrator, he inherently possessed knowledge far beyond his era.

Furthermore, through the *Holy Scripture* and the original *Starlight Love Song*, he had deduced the truth of the world’s impending doom.

With these two points alone, he could utterly expose the Church’s deepest secrets.

From the Church’s perspective, a young master, once reviled by all, suddenly claimed to have received divine revelation after nearly drowning, and even gravely wounded a cultist on the same day—this was already inexplicable, nothing short of a miracle!

Then, this unlearned young master suddenly stepped forward, proclaiming himself the Messenger of God, not only effortlessly revealing secrets the Church had hidden for a millennium but also prophesying humanity’s imminent demise. It would be strange if the Church weren’t utterly dumbfounded.

Only two choices would remain for the Church:

They could choose to believe Allen, or they could deem him a malevolent deity seeking to sow discord.

The choice would rest entirely with the Church.

However, Allen believed the Church would trust him.

Like the Church, he abhorred the despairing fate of an endless cycle more than anyone.

On the issue of humanity’s ultimate destruction, he and the Church had always stood on the same front!

The political crisis now had a solution, leaving only the next pressing and equally fatal problem—

The de Laval family’s financial crisis!