Chapter 99. Difference In Theology

A Week ago, The Northern Central Church, Goldance Duchy

"I am certain most of the priests and priestesses will be more than happy to serve you in your bed, Your Excellency," High Priest Landon, with his long white beard and smooth bald head, commented to the young lady sitting opposite him.

The flickering candlelight in the grand room only multiplied the uneasy tension between them, while the howling sounds of the Winter Freeze rattled aggressively against the heavy stone walls. Kavya and Samuel stood by at a distance, leaning against the far walls alongside other junior priests who were clearly not native to the North.

"Oh, if they are true devotees of the Goddess, they must be. I don't see why you are turning this into such an incident," she replied with a sharp scoff. Wrapped in the pristine revealing holy robes of the Central Church, her unusually bright golden hair and striking golden eyes gave her an oddly eerie, almost divine atmosphere but her pompous, sneering expression immediately betrayed that illusion.

"Your Excellency, Bishop Anna, I understand that you are an important guest from the Capital, and that you are even in contention to become the next Pope... but we would greatly appreciate it if you asked for consent from the priests before demanding they serve you," the High Priest replied in a tight, constrained tone.

Bishop Anna’s scoff grew even more pronounced. "So, I have to ask permission from a bunch of clergymen just to sleep with them? Is this how the Northern Church shows its devotion? How laughable."

Kavya felt a hot wave of frustration raging inside her, but Samuel gently patted her shoulder, shaking his head to warn her into silence.

The High Priest forced a tight smile. "Sexual promiscuity is indeed a defining trait of the Goddess, and as her devotees, we do practice it to honor her. But, Your Excellency, you must still seek consent... after all, we are not the Goddess herself, but merely mortals."

"Pfft—!" Bishop Anna burst into loud, mocking laughter, clutching her stomach as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world. "So you do understand the fundamental difference between the divine being that is the Goddess and us mere mortals?"

She abruptly stopped laughing, slamming her hand flat against the table. Leaning in to glare directly into the High Priest's eyes, she snapped, "Then why does the Northern Central Church continue to recognize and perform same-sex marriages despite the Capital's repeated requests to abolish the practice? We cannot allow the Jin Kingdom’s corrupted influences to persist within the Empire’s borders!"

"All mortal beings were made in the image of the Goddesses themselves. Goddess Hakio herself took many female lovers and partners. We simply wish to follow in her footsteps; love is not a luxury strictly reserved for the divine," High Priest Landon replied promptly, his voice ringing with fierce determination. "Of course, if you wish to bypass consent, we can arrange for only those priests and priestesses who are willingly available at any time to serve around your quarters during your stay-"

Bishop Anna cut him off with another violent slam on the table. "My, is that so?"

She stood up, gesturing wildly toward the grand murals covering the walls and the ancient paintings of their legends. "Say, Goddess Hakio and Goddess Nakio were sisters, yet they engaged romantically and physically." She pointed an accusing finger at a massive painting depicting the two Goddesses nakedly embracing each other. "Does that mean you will legalize incest as well? Just because the Goddess participated in it?"

"That..." The High Priest was taken aback slightly by her aggressive retort.

Bishop Anna pressed her advantage, her golden eyes flashing. "You see? Even the existing rules of the Northern sect recognize the hard line between the divine and the mortals. We are not equal to higher beings! The Jin Kingdom corrupted your faith, and yet you stubbornly wish to protect these vile influences?"

A suffocating, heavy silence filled the room for several minutes. The wind howled against the stained glass.

Finally, High Priest Landon replied, his voice trembling with suppressed anger. "It is true that the Northern sect of Hakionism picks and chooses what we safely incorporate into our mortal practices. But, Your Excellency..."

"'Thou shalt not praise one for their blood, but for their merit,'" the High Priest quoted, his fists clenching tight on his lap as he explained. "The Goddess clearly despised class division, yet our entire Empire indulges in it daily. She clearly despised discrimination based on lineage, yet the Empire discriminates against anyone with Mermaid blood in their veins! The Central Church is no better, Bishop Anna. You also pick and choose exactly what you want to believe in."

"What did you say...?" Bishop Anna’s face twisted in visible, ugly offense as High Priest Landon pressed on.

"The Central Church has been marginalizing Northern cultural practices ever since the Jin Kingdom’s defeat. First, you made us change our holy uniforms, stopped us from funding regional chapels, and forced us to align our sermons and practices with the Capital... and now you attack our traditional beliefs?!"

He stood up, his own emotions finally boiling over. "How long does the Northern Church have to be victimized by this oppression? We cannot keep making endless concessions to the Emperor and the Central Chur-"

Before he could finish his heated speech, Bishop Anna lunged forward, grabbing him violently by the collar. "High Priest! How dare you?!" she shrieked.

A sudden, chaotic struggle broke out between them. In the violent shoving match, Anna’s heel caught on the polished stone floor. She slipped backward, her skull colliding with the heavy, sharp edge of the stone table with a sickening, hollow crack. She slumped to the floor, her golden eyes wide and lifeless.

Samuel rushed forward, pressing two trembling fingers to her neck alongside a Capital junior priest.

She was dead on the spot!

"W-what? H-Her Excellency is dead!" the Capital priest shrieked in terror.

As the other Central junior priests turned to flee the room and spread the news, the heavy oak doors suddenly slammed shut. A squad of heavily armored Northern Paladins stepped out from the shadows, restraining the fleeing Capital priests in an instant. Kavya, Samuel, and a completely dazed High Priest Landon all looked toward the entrance.

"Bishop Kevin! T-this wasn’t intentional! You have to believe-" High Priest Landon frantically tried to explain himself to the brown-haired, middle-aged man stepping into the candlelight.

Bishop Kevin raised a calm hand, silencing the panicked High Priest. "I understand perfectly, High Priest Landon. I was watching the entire exchange from the corridors."

"We need to do something about this..." Samuel blurted out, immediately covering his mouth in shock.

Bishop Kevin nodded firmly, stepping deeper into the room. "That is right. Even if her death was unintentional, the news will inevitably reach the Capital. Even if we permanently restrain the Central Church's entourage, their prolonged absence will raise immediate suspicion."

The restrained Capital priests struggled and protested, terrified as they realized exactly what Bishop Kevin was implying. Kevin looked coldly down at the lifeless body of the would-be Pope. "An all out Holy Civil War is now inevitable."

"We won’t be able to gather local military support from the Northern nobles fast enough if we are truly going to rebel against the Central Church," Kavya commented nervously, watching the Paladins drag the struggling junior priests away.

The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. Suddenly, a violent gust of winter wind blew through the window, extinguishing several candles and scattering a stack of documents across the floor. As Kavya knelt to gather them, her eyes caught the seal on a specific medical report. She froze.

"But... there is one force in the North that can stand up against them..." Samuel looked down at the paper in her hand, his eyes widening in instant understanding.

Bishop Kevin raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

High Priest Landon pressed a trembling hand to his forehead and gulped. "You mean the Ironwood Mercenaries? Are you seriously suggesting what I think you are?"

Bishop Kevin frowned in confusion. "I understand that the Ironwood Mercenaries under Lord Miller are the second strongest army in the entire Empire, but why on earth would they ever agree to help us?"

High Priest Landon, Kavya, and Samuel exchanged highly strained, guilty expressions. Samuel was the first to speak, his voice trembling. "W-we recently examined Her Ladyship Francesca Ironwood's soul at their private request... and we found out that she can never conceive a child."

Kavya swallowed hard, nodding in agreement. "W-we are the only ones outside of Ironwood who know this secret. They haven’t made any public announcements since we sent the report back, and considering their fragile political state, they definitely plan to hide it. S-so if... if we..."

"Y-you don’t mean to use this tragic information to blackmail-" High Priest Landon started, appalled, but Bishop Kevin instantly interjected. "Request their assistance in the war. We will request their military assistance in exchange for our secrecy."

"W-we can’t do this... Your Excellency, this is not right!" High Priest Landon tried to protest again.

Bishop Kevin turned a lethal, icy glare onto the old man. "Do you have a better solution to defend our lives and our faith? Lord Miller will not side with us out of the goodness of his heart. There is absolutely no reason for a simple Northern noble, especially the isolated Ironwood Viscounty to join a religious war they won't even be affected by."

Kevin turned away from Landon and looked directly at Kavya with ruthless pragmatism. "Draft a letter right now. We need to be discreet about this, so instruct them to meet our priests in secret at the Hollowland Viscounty’s upcoming New Year’s banquet."

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