Faith of the Children of the Moon

Although Iver's original intention was just to collect equipment, he suddenly realized...

... It seems I've already obtained the evidence.

Minister Griffiths was indeed quite cautious.

He destroyed all the letters immediately and left no evidence in his home; the Ritual Array in his basement only confirmed that he had attempted to summon demons, but nothing more—after all, it was just a trial, and failure wasn't illegal. Minister Griffiths himself hadn't Path of Transcendence level, so there was no way to explain what rituals he had performed.

As for the Stibium Kingdom, it was clear that they did not provide him with any irregular funds.

As the same Minister of Trade, he's just like his predecessor, with all his assets tied up in Xingti. Only when he flees can these assets truly be cashed out.

Of course, if he doesn't survive to run away, then all these things are just empty promises.

So Minister Griffiths's funds were fine, his letters were fine, his itinerary was fine, and his journey was fine. It seemed as if no evidence could be found.

But the relics that Iver took from his shrine are evidence in themselves.

Without a doubt, it would be impossible to find Sister Sasha's faith in Avalon, where the Nine Pillars God Church holds considerable influence. Such icons are absolutely unavailable in Avalon.

There are only two countries that honor Sister Sasha: Iris and Star Antimony. He had never been to Iris... and with a little investigation, the Inspectorate could easily find out that he obtained it from Star Antimony.

This kind of thing definitely needs to be reported to customs. Otherwise, he wouldn't dare to display it openly at home.

Soon, Ligeia learned the result—it was a "souvenir" brought back by Minister Griffiths under the guise of a "gift from a friend".

As is widely known, Sister Sasha is the mother of the Blood Angel Blood Angel, who is the progenitor of the Child of the Moon. The Child of the Moon, born from the moon, are the favorites of Constant Self. The fundamental reason for this is that the Child of the Moon are born from corpses, a miracle of "death and rebirth."

Like the moon, it falls to the earth and then rises again, turning into a waning crescent and then becoming full again.

However, as the progenitor of the Child of the Moon, Blood Angel chose the path of Celestial, rebelling against the Pillar God.

This directly led to the internal divisions within the Child of the Moon.

Blood Angel is the ruler of the Blood Domain, and his status is even higher than that of his father, Banquetor.

After all, the Banquetor, being a dragon, neither drinks blood nor eats people.

Having inherited his father Banquetor's Path Urge, Blood Angel also leans towards the Path of the Feast —however, Banquetor prefers proper banquets, the kind of eating, drinking, singing and dancing that dragons enjoy; while Blood Angel's Path of the Feast leans towards sacrifice, flesh and blood, pain and craving.

And the Child of the Moon's blood-sucking urges also stem from Him.

From this perspective, the Child of the Moon actually have four different beliefs.

The Blood Angel are the most cruel and depraved lineage. They must harm others for their own satisfaction, and even take pleasure in harming others. They are extremely aggressive. The Banquetor, on the other hand, are Hedonist Faction hide their identities and blend into the world. They use their immortality and the pleasure they can enjoy at will to amuse themselves.

As the darlings of Constant Self, the Child of the Moon who directly believe in Constant Self are currently the fewest. Their defining characteristic is that they dedicate themselves to love and go mad for love.

Those without a clear preference will all worship Sister Sasha. Because she is neither Pillar God, nor an apostle, nor a celestial being, worshipping Sister Sasha doesn't constitute taking sides; she herself won't give any tasks or issue any orders. This is essentially maintaining neutrality and finding an excuse to avoid trouble from other factions of the Child of the Moon.

The most numerous were the Child of the Moon who once believed in Constant Self.

As a nation of mages and Child of the Moon, the Narcissus Principality previously worshipped the Pillar God Constant Self. It is said that Narcissus Duke Dracula of Narcissus died for love—although this cannot be considered lawful, since the phases of the moon represent chaos, but at least there was "love" involved.

In other words, everyone is Shi Lezhi with love.

After the fall of the Narcissus Principality, the scattered and wandering Child of the Moon generally harbored hatred towards the Narcissus Duke, who had caused the kingdom's demise. Therefore, apart from the Child of the Moon who were still living in the Narcissus Principality, almost no one believed in Constant Self anymore.

A significant portion of the Child of the Moon have turned to the Blood Angel, and they are the most powerful faction. This is because the Blood Angel are inherently powerful, and they respond quickly to the Child of the Moon's prayers and are extremely protective of their own. The downside is that they impose numerous tasks and demands, much like the patriarch of a feudal family.

Those Child of the Moon who do not wish to be controlled by the Blood Angel will worship Sister Sasha.

Because worshipping the Blood Angel makes one vulnerable to assassination and persecution, while worshipping the Feast Lord requires wealth—the Feast Lord is an extremely generous god who despises stingy misers. The minimum requirement for the Feast Lord to provide blessings and protection is simply to hold a grand banquet every week to entertain a large number of guests.

But living a long time doesn't necessarily mean you'll be rich... and many Child of the Moon don't necessarily live very long.

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

Unless they are those "Mental Child of the Moon" who are mentally challenged.

According to the common sense of normal superhumans, they actually know that the Child of the Moon and the real person are not the same person—this world has souls. The souls of the dead can be summoned back; experiments have already been conducted to prove that this is not the same person.

As a new life born from corpses, most people tend to think of it as a "stranger who has stolen their interpersonal relationships and social identity," just like a shapeshifter that absorbed all their memories, killed them, and stole their identity.

A normal human being would only feel fear about this.

Minister Griffiths himself returned from Star-Anti as a diplomat close to Star-Anti, and had received a "gift from a friend of Star-Anti." Now, he has discovered that this gift contains a priceless relic. Minister Griffiths himself also has adaptability to the Path of Love —this is enough to form a complete chain of evidence.

No one would pay the price of a sacred object to frame a dead person.

There are only four relics of Sister Sasha in the world, and almost all of them have been lost. If someone were to find these relics, the Child of the Moon, with their long lifespans and vast wealth, would likely be willing to pay a huge price for them, and might even gain their friendship.

—Although few people know information about the Child of the Moon, it's not impossible to find out; at least, writing to the Theocracy would certainly yield the information. The Iris People would probably be happy to provide answers and stir up trouble.

Having assured himself he wouldn't be betrayed, Iver skipped the verification phase and directly shared this knowledge with Ligeia, having Ligeia act as his guarantor and establish the nature of the matter.

From this line of inquiry, Iver could even search the religious items in the homes of all the ministers.

This is perfectly reasonable and makes no sense. After all, they had just uncovered irrefutable evidence by examining the icons in the home of a minister who had provided absolutely no evidence of collusion with the Star Antimony.

After all, intelligence can be destroyed, evidence can be destroyed, but no one dares to destroy something like a holy icon so easily.

If the icon is given to the church, the church can use rituals to find out how many times it has been worshipped in the past year.

If the investigation were to be conducted thoroughly, it's likely that very few ministers are completely clean.

Why haven't I worshipped the Silver Crowned Dragon in a long time? Why do I worship my ancestors much more often than the Crowned Lord? Why are there other celestial statues in my home?

There are always ways to find fault, but that would put too much pressure on them.

And this kind of thing won't cause any serious harm. Even if you get arrested, you won't get a long sentence; it'll just make you look bad. In the end, it'll only offend people—it's like checking all your web browsing and call records for the past year without any prior notice. There are always people with some shady secrets... like the host's rituals having aphrodisiac effects.

If this is discovered and made public, it's hard to say whether it's illegal or not, but it will definitely cause social unrest.

So when Ligeia, as Iver's representative, submitted evidence at the Round Table Conference the next day, she only warned the knights and did not really take any major action.

That's enough.

As long as the Queen shows an attitude that she might thoroughly investigate the matter, the High-Rise Faction will inevitably back down.

After all, the reason they are called the High-Rise Faction " is because they have all received money from Lloyd's and are a complete community of interests.

Given that Lloyd's's of London is not exactly clean these days, if you investigate thoroughly, you're bound to find something.

Looking back, Griffiths is already beyond redemption, while Iver is currently flawless. And unlike a young man easily manipulated, Aiwas is like a mad dog, biting anyone in its path. Griffiths held a small meeting at noon to berate Iver, who died that evening, his home was raided the next day, and by the third morning, substantial evidence of treason was presented.

—For the Round Table Hall where the average age is over fifty and a proposal to raise the "match tax by 1%" can lead to three months of heated debate, Iver's efficiency is truly remarkable. It's frighteningly high.

Young people lack martial ethics.

One moment of distraction and an old friend is gone.

But after the High-Rise Faction shut up and calmed down, they were surprised to find that Griffiths's own Chocolate Faction had completely sided with Iver.

They were not only completely unassailable towards Iver, but not a single one spoke up for Minister Griffiths. They even repeatedly praised Iver's high level of initiative.

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

Without exception, without omission, everyone conceded. The scenario that Iver had previously anticipated, "what if someone didn't write a letter," never occurred.

They were, after all, veteran ministers.

Compared to the younger, more flamboyant High-Rise Faction, they are indeed more pragmatic.

They had clearly been waiting for a reply for a long time, and if Iver didn't reply, they would probably be too anxious to sleep. So Iver wrote back to all of them that very night, praising them and pointing out that "since everyone has written, then this matter is settled."

The next morning, the ministers of the Chocolate Faction were visibly relaxed.

In this situation, the knights from other factions immediately noticed the change in the wind direction.

Although they might not have figured out the specifics yet, they were always opportunists. Now, the Round Table Hall was completely silent, devoid of any attacks on Iver or disdain for Isabel. Some even politely invited Ligeia to the meeting, their attitudes much more friendly than the day before –Iver a complete transformation.

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