Chapter 31: Church vs Royalty

In the opulent chambers of the royal chambers, Empress Florence sat on her ornate chair, her eyes fixed with dissatisfaction upon the woman standing before her. That woman was none other than Pontiff Ysandre, the highest spiritual authority in the land. Their gazes locked, each reflecting the displeasure they harboured, yet beneath it all, a veneer of respect held their words in check.

Pontiff Ysandre, her regal robes billowing in the dimly lit room, finally broke the tense silence. "Your Majesty," she began, her voice carrying the weight of her position, "I must express my deep concern. Sending Oliver to a prison was a grave mistake."

"He should have been sent to the church instead of prison." She firmly declared. "You will make an enemy out of the Saintess Valdora and Vespera, the Eternal Titaness if you keep disobeying the covenant of vast matriarch,"

Empress Florence, her demeanour unyielding, responded, "That was indeed the plan, but with all the chaos that unfolded after Lady Victoria's disappearance, I simply did not have the ability." She recounted the recent troubles that had beset the empire, her voice laced with urgency.

"The first princess vanished without warning, and the relentless attacks of the drake monsters have grown increasingly savage. I assure you, I am determined to bring him back swiftly." She was trying to reason with Pontiff, but the annoyed tone of her voice was rather apparent.

Pontiff Ysandre's disapproval was also palpable as she clicked her tongue in disapproval. "All of this turmoil is a consequence of your decision to send Oliver out of the empire," she chided. "This, Empress, is the misfortune you have brought upon yourself."

Florence wanted to strangle the woman in front of her to assert her authority. Still, at the same time, she knew that touching someone from the religion would essentially destroy her reputation and position in society, so she refrained from doing so.

"I've already sent my best knights, Please wait for a few days, soon they will bring him and when that happens, I will try to hand him over to the church," Florence said, but Ysandre wasn't satisfied with her words.

"Not try! You should send him. He is our holy son, he is the reincarnation of the nameless giant and the living shreds of evidence of the sin, and the only reason we allowed him to stay outside is because we couldn't convince Lady Victoria to hand him over, now that she is gone, his full authority is under the church,"

Florence had one of her eyes twitching from the anger, she felt hearing this woman talking.

Everyone else thought that Florence had no idea about what Ysandre and the church were really like, but nobody knew that Florence was not that incompetent of a leader. The prime minister thought she was able to hide everything from her empress, but she had other ways of obtaining information.

Once, she even tried to destroy the reputation of the church by collecting evidence, but for some reason, even the most abused-looking men that came out of the church refused to give witness against the church, which really dissatisfied Florence.

'I will destroy this bitch one day, but it's not the time yet'

She thought looking at the blonde-haired, curvy woman with religious-looking garb and the staff that showed her position.

Suddenly, Pontiff Ysandre stood tall and resolute, her eyes locked onto Empress Florence's twitching eye. After a tense moment of silence, she finally broke away and began to turn, as if to leave the room. But then, as if suddenly struck by a need to clarify her position, she abruptly turned back to Florence.

"Empress, before I take my leave, there is something of utmost importance that you must understand," she said with a tone that carried both conviction and urgency.

Florence, though still visibly angered, nodded for Ysandre to continue.

The Pontiff stepped closer to Florence, her voice lowered started to mutter the obvious.

"As you know resonance is born from the power our ancestor giantesses used to have. Because of the curse that Nameless giant brought after betraying her, the world got angry and cursed every living being on the planet." She started to talk about the basic knowledge of the Tablet of Profound Devotion, which is something like a huge book consisting of different ways that people should live.

"As a watered-down version of their power, all the resonances were born. With an EC stone (Essence Conduction) as a catalyst, any woman can use their resonances without any worry, but still, the level of the power is vastly different from that of a commoner and a noble."

Florence kept listening to her words, but she was annoyed that she was dumping information, without getting to the point.

"What are you trying to say? Just get to the point," Tired of Ysandre's behaviour, she muttered.

"Resonance can give a person three forms of different sub-skills that are relevant to the quality of the main resonance," She kept speaking without even bothering about Florence.

"Basically, what I want to say is Lady Victoria hid Oliver's real resonance. Even though he is a man, he managed to obtain a resonance and our church believes it cannot be something normal, it should be something far more valuable and impactful,"

"Are you trying to say that Lady Victoria's resonance wasn't valuable? She protected our empire from the drakes and other enemies for a whole decade," Florence didn't like her trying to downplay the value of her friend.

Florence and Victoria are not on good terms due to a certain incident, but still, her hate for Pontiff outweighs the problems she had with Victoria, so she decided to blame her.

"Certainly not! Empress, I ask you not to try to twist my words, what I'm trying to say is, that Oliver is much more important to this world than anyone else, so do your best to bring him within this week or else church will have to act and it won't be good for you,"

Leaving those last threatening words, the Pontiff left the royal chambers and went back to her holy garden to discuss about the problems with an annoyed look on her face.

*Tsk

"I know why she is so angered about this whole thing," Florence muttered to herself, looking at the royal door that closed as soon as Pontiff left the room.

"Oliver is a handsome man, so no wonder she wants him in his church, she is probably thinking about doing sexual things with him since he is like a rare treasure to us women with his toned body and face," She started talking like a real pervert with a blush coming to her face, but soon realization dawned upon her that she was lusting after her own son-in-law.

"Dangerous! Dangerous! I promised myself that I would forget about him after that night. I can't think about this," Her memories suddenly started to go back to that certain day when she first met this cute boy, who looked rather different from the other boys she had met in her lifetime.

It was a festive evening during the first birthday celebration of her precious daughter. As the cheerful laughter of children filled the air, she noticed a boy named Oliver, who stood out from the rest. He was younger than her, but still, he exuded an air of maturity and discipline that was beyond his years. His eyes sparkled with a curious intelligence that captivated her attention.

"So that's him? Living sin of manhood," She asked looking at her prime minister, who had the same surprised reaction.

Even though he was hated by most of the men in the empire, women didn't really care about his name. Instead, they were happy to see a man without the effects of the curse, and all of them had some general idea of how men were supposed to look and act by Oliver.

As soon as the empress laid eyes on Oliver, a thought flashed through her mind, a thought she couldn't ignore. She wanted to ensure that this exceptional boy found his rightful place within a family that could nurture his unique qualities. And so, without hesitation, she made a rather unconventional announcement at the birthday party.

With a smile that masked her inner turmoil, she cleared her throat and addressed the gathered guests, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have an important announcement to make today. On this joyous occasion, I'm thrilled to declare the engagement between my beloved daughter, Lilith Behemothia and this remarkable young man, Oliver Bloodborne."

It was such a vague announcement, but most people didn't find anything wrong with it since Oliver is from the bloodborne family. Most of them expected him to be in the church since Pontiff always tried to take him, but Victoria had more than enough power to prevent that from happening.

Florence knew that with this announcement, she would attract the rage of both the Pontiff and Victoria, but she still knew this was such an important decision for both the royal family and the empire, so she was ready to deal with any problems that might appear in the future and looking at the face of Victoria, she knew it won't be long before she witnesses the rage of her best friend.