Divine Kingship

Chapter 595 may be related to a history that is possibly, possibly, or even related to Lysa.
Rand, along with the First Knights of the Moon Phase Kingdom, dealt with the rebels.

The Kingdom's First Knights Order is now even more renowned.

Unfortunately, the time for relaxation and travel is always too short; the kingdom still has a lot of work waiting for Rand.

So after wandering around outside, Rand returned to his capital.

A royal city without walls, a resort, and an upper sanctuary.

Rand went to see Karin first.

When Rand met Karin, Karin was praying.

Whether as a saint in the past or as a high-ranking nun in the Torch Church now, prayer is an essential part of her life.

Members of the Torch Church do not actually receive a response or blessing from the Holy Torch Goddess during prayer.

But this does not mean that prayer is ineffective.

For members of the Torch Church, the effect of prayer is actually similar to a kind of meditation.

In short, members of the Torch Church were able to adjust their mindset and strengthen their beliefs during this process.

As dusk seeped into the sanctuary like melting amber, the fiery emblems interwoven with crimson gold on the stained glass windows spread a flowing glow across the floor.

Karin knelt with her head bowed beneath the statue of the Torch Goddess. Her pure white robe, embroidered with silver thread, trailed to the ground, and the crimson ribbon wrapped around her hair fluttered gently in the breeze, like a cluster of flames frozen in the rosy light.

Perhaps this is Karin's true nature.

Pure and holy.

Now it has been somewhat tainted by Rand.

Karin opened her eyes, her red eyes reflecting the sea of ​​fire, and gazed at the approaching Rand.

"Long time no see," Rand said with a smile.

“It hasn’t been long,” Karin muttered, then stood up. “Let’s go, you can begin your wicked plan.”

Karin put on the crown, and then left the Torch Cathedral with Rand.

Rand and Karin have theoretically always kept their relationship secret, but they've been meeting less often lately due to their busy schedules.

Karin is back today, which is rare for her, so Rand naturally has some wicked plans in mind.

Although Karin was already familiar with and had anticipated Rand's wicked sense of humor, she was still somewhat nervous.

Without Rand, there might have been many things and much knowledge that she would never have learned in her lifetime.

She felt that she had been greatly influenced by Rand, in other words, led astray.

Of course, Karin has no regrets about it. Although she has turned bad, her life has indeed been completely changed because of Rand.

Without Rand, Karin the Crimson Queen, and the original faction of the Torch Church, they might have truly faded away.

Instead of now, which is gradually flourishing and even showing a tendency to reunify.

The reunification of the Torch Church will undoubtedly be fraught with difficulties, but Karin is already confident in this endeavor.

Then, without realizing it, Karin was taken to the basement by Rand.

Karin was stunned for a moment: "How did we get here..."

“You said it yourself, so I can proceed with my wicked plans.” Rand grinned wickedly.

Rand originally intended to be more normal, but after seeing the holy saint version of Karin today, his evil desires became somewhat uncontrollable.

In short, it's an evil plan.

"Is it too late for me to retract my statement?" Karin was starting to hesitate.

"Hehe, too late." Rand pounced like a lion.

Then Karin was fitted with the latest mermaid outfit.

Karin could only add another entry to Ryza's account, since only Ryza could come up with such a strange invention.

……

It wasn't until the next day that Rand and Karin returned to normal.

"What are your plans for reuniting the Torch Church?" Karin and Rand finally got down to business.

“We have a great advantage now. I think we can proceed normally. Those conservatives have obviously realized the drawbacks of conservatism. The Grand Knight Commander of the New Holy City is one of our people. I think our chances of winning are very high.”

“If necessary, I can also resume my identity to facilitate this matter.” Karin looked at Rand.

For various reasons, Kalin has always acted as a high nun, rather than as a saint of the Torchbearers.

The existence of the Holy Maiden of the Torch Church and the Crimson King will make the original faction of the Torch Church very wary, which is not conducive to its previous development.

But things are different now. The Torch Church has gradually grown stronger and is supported by Rand, the king of the Moon Phase Kingdom.

Karin now has the option to restore her status as a saint to push things forward.

However, doing so would require reconsidering the previous issue of the marriage between the Holy Maiden of the Torch Church and the cult leader.

Rand is no longer a cult leader; he is now the seat of the goddess of harvest and health, and the king of the lunar kingdom.

This is... well, it's fitting for the identity of the Crimson King.

In any case, there is absolutely no way that the Holy Maiden of the Torch Church would become Rand's lover, and it is estimated that their secret relationship will continue indefinitely.

As for the idea of ​​severing ties with Rand after regaining his identity, that's something neither Rand nor Karin would accept.

"And there's the matter of the epidemic in the south..."

"I've already discussed this with Archbishop Kahn. We just need to keep a close eye on the Torch Church and the Holy Land forces."

Then there's nothing to worry about.

……

And so things remained peaceful for a few months.

Rand finally saw something interesting in the midst of the tedious work.

Luca of the Sunburst Squad submitted a report on the elves to the Adventurers' Guild.

In fact, Rand strongly suspected that Luca was the legendary hero from human history.

When Rand was compiling his play based on historical records, he knew that this world would give birth to heroes.

Whenever an extremely terrifying external enemy appears in the world, this enemy could be a demon king or a demigod descending from somewhere else.

Then a hero will emerge and defeat this evil enemy.

Rand wasn't entirely clear on the specific principles, but the heroes were indeed real; they possessed extraordinary luck, unwavering will, and powerful talent.

However, there are also cases where the brave fail.

In those situations, some unusual... history unfolds. In any case, Luca is indeed quite good.

For example, the intelligence that Luca handed over this time was quite meaningful in Rand's view.

Lysa sat somewhat frivolously on the armrest of the throne.

He glanced casually at the ancient elven script in Rand's hand.

Rand looked at Lysa: "How about it? Is it convenient for you to translate?"

The ancient script of the elves is not widely understood even among the elves themselves.

Ryza is probably the only one around Rand who understands this language.

Elves are theoretically expected to have a longer lifespan than humans.

Elves live about twice as long as humans. If the lifespan of an ordinary human is 100 years, then the lifespan of an ordinary elf is 200 years.

However, this does not apply to all sprites.

Just as among humans, there are also beings like the Azure King who have lived for nearly a thousand years.

There are also some exceptional elves in the elf group who live even longer.

Take, for example, the ancient elves.

Rand was quite skeptical that Lysa was truly an immortal being.

In any case, based on Rand's observations of Lysa, Lysa must have lived for a very long time.

Lysa is mostly nonchalant and has her own particular hobbies.

Lysa is quite special.

But Lysa doesn't deliberately hide anything from Rand, which allows Rand to gain a lot of information from her, such as the years Lysa may have lived through.

Rand was certain that Lysa understood this ancient elven script.

"The elves have been abandoned by the gods. In the past, the gods sent ancient elves as pioneers to guide the elves. The gods bestowed upon the elves the golden World Tree, which signifies life, but now the gods seem to no longer regard the elves. The grace has vanished, and evil is about to descend." Lysa translated this tattered parchment.

Lysa handed the parchment back to Rand: "This parchment is tattered, and the contents end here, but I can offer some explanation."

"So you want to know?" Lysa chuckled.

"Do you think I should know?"

"Elves are beings of God, the bright moon in the forest, the guide of silent life, the creator of elves, and the planter of the golden World Tree. However, due to the will of this God, no truly systematic elven church has been formed among the elven community."

"Of course, the belief in the Elf God is not uncommon among the Elf community, and there are also some spontaneous religious organizations."

"The Elf God sent her chosen ones, the ancient elves in the eyes of ordinary elves, to guide and develop the elves."

"But now, the Elf God no longer focuses his attention on the elves themselves."

Rand had gained some understanding of the ancient text, and although he still had some doubts, he was not in a hurry. He wanted to ask another question: "So I am very curious, is the God of Elves a benevolent god? Does He have His own will? From what I have learned so far, it seems that only the Goddess of Torch is on the side of justice."

"No rational being can remain rational forever. Over a long period of time, depletion is inevitable, and the power of a god can also erode the will of a god. When one goes to an extreme in one direction, then it can only be called an evil god."

"The God of Struggle may have started as a war god who craved victory, and the Apostle of Calamity may have originally been just a dead person who longed for peace. The Goddess of Dark Abundance is a chaotic god, and it seems that what we have come into contact with is not the real body. The Goddess of Flame, on the other hand, is resolute and can still maintain her rationality. I just don't know how long she can keep it up."

"As for the elven god, perhaps He has grown tired of it, or perhaps He has even made some different choices... for example..." Lysa paused before continuing.

“For example what?” Rand asked.

"Perhaps He has already descended?" Lysa chuckled.

"Is the situation now such that a god could descend upon this world?" Rand was somewhat shocked.

"I'm just using this as an example; I'm not entirely sure what it actually looks like," Lysa said somewhat strangely.

Rand rubbed his temples.

Regardless of the specific circumstances, Rand's involvement in the internal affairs of the Elf Forest should not be significantly affected.

perhaps?

However, the possibility of such a thing happening is really giving Rand a headache.

Even if Grand Prince Vladimir were to descend, there shouldn't be a situation in this world where a god could descend.

If such a deity were to descend, would humanity have a way to defeat it?
If the Torch Goddess were to descend, that would be a good thing, but what if it were the God of Struggle, or the Apostle of Calamity?
Or perhaps some god of plague emerged from some obscure corner of history?
That's really difficult to handle.

However, Rand didn't think too much about it. He'd deal with it when the situation actually occurred; there was no point in thinking about it now. Rand felt that even if it could descend, it wouldn't be ridiculously powerful.

Historically, the world itself has been known to resist overly powerful forces.

Let's think about how to continue supporting the guerrillas in the Elf Forest.

Rand was quite interested in the elf population and knowledge about elves.

The RAND Corporation's policy of using schools to govern local areas is slowly starting to show results.

Rand was also able to devote more of his energy to the Elf Forest.

The elves must have many secrets, and now it's necessary to investigate them.

……

The elven rebels, led by Nidhogg, have now gained a foothold.

A small elven town, which they did not conquer but voluntarily pledged allegiance to Nidhogg.

After gaining a foothold, Nidhogg's guerrillas could officially be considered rebels against the regime.

The elves here have learned of the current madness of the Elven Royal Court and the truly insane third faction, the Restorationists.

In comparison, Nidhogg's faction seems quite normal.

Nidhogg sought a normal order. They did not deny the Elven monarchy, but hoped that the Elven court would not kill or imprison certain groups of Elves without reason or on baseless pretexts.

In addition, it encourages communication with the outside world to obtain more new knowledge and resources to develop the Fairy Forest.

Contact with the outside world may not align with the mainstream ideology of the Elven Forest, but compared to the current situation of the other two factions, supporting Nidhogg's faction doesn't seem like an unacceptable option.

"Lord Rand has indicated that he can give us more support, and the Moon Kingdom seems to have temporarily stabilized," Nidhogg discussed with another elven elder.

"I actually had some questions before this: Did these things really happen?" Another elven elder looked at the document in his hand again and again.

At first, he simply assumed that Nidhogg had randomly chosen a human faction in the human world and gained their support.

He hadn't paid much attention to this before, but now that the guerrillas were making some progress, he began to learn more about this supporter.

Then it was discovered that Rand Nicholas's story was far too legendary; even if such a thing were written in some chivalric novels, it would seem unbelievable.

“Most of it is true; there’s not much fabrication involved.” Nidhogg could understand the elven elder’s shock.

"Then we really won't..." The elven elder couldn't think of a suitable word, but he was indeed beginning to worry that such cooperation was like seeking a tiger's skin.

(End of this chapter)