The Amber Sword

Holy Knight Ascension (1)

It definitely won’t be easy, Brendel thought. This meeting was less of a conference and more of a final bid to gather more support. Everyone present in that meeting was the absolute pinnacle of Aouine’s power.

The six dukes, Duke Arreck, Duke Seifer, Duke Covardo, Duke Viero, Duke Karsuk and Duke Grinoires; the two lords of Sword Fortress, legate of the White Lion Squad, Marquis Balta, and the king’s cousin Marquis Yoakam; the five earls; two Archbishops of the Holy Cathedral; representative of Ampere Seale’s merchant guild. Without enough influence and power, it would be hard to enter the meeting.

Luckily for Brendel, the meeting was not happening anytime soon. The nobles would only have their meeting next week, giving Brendel sufficient time. He gave this task to Sue, as he had other pressing matters to attend to. After making sure the youngsters from the White Lion Squad had settled down, he had Amandina and Scarlet accompany him into the city.

The carriage drove towards Anderla Cathedral. This cathedral was built in the 227th year of the 1st era, more than 100 years ago from today. Merchants in the city had provided the materials for building the cathedral, and the construction was overseen by the master architect Master Rogning, thus it is known as Ampere Seale’s most treasured piece of art. The cathedral had an oval shape, countless pillars supporting the structure from outside the walls, the arrowhead-shaped doors signifying the power of the divine. They walked on for another hundred and twenty steps and saw a natural geyser in front of them.

The plaza in front of the cathedral was restricted for carriages. The three of them were struck speechless by the imposing architecture in front of them. Anyone who came from the south would be amazed by the magnificent structure. This was the only place in Aouine where one could change classes to Holy Knight. The Holy Cathedral of Fire of Aouine had two ranks of knights. One of them was the Paladin, awarded to those who could become an Elemental Awakener, and the other was Holy Knight, an actual class.

In the early days, only the monks of the Holy Cathedral could become Holy Knights, but later on, the children of nobles could also become one. Any player who wished to advance into this class had to fulfill two conditions. One was that they had to be pure of heart, and the other was that they had to have the mentality of the Flame King. The second condition was easy to meet. All that was needed was for Religious Knowledge(Kirrlutz) to reach a certain level. However, the first condition was more complicated as the letter of recommendation had to be written by the head of a noble family.

The letter in Brendel’s hand was written by Tuman. After the Calamity of Wolves, trying to get Tuman to write a letter of recommendation was rather easy. Since Brendel already had the intention of becoming a Holy Knight, he would not let the opportunity go easily.

This was actually the second letter of recommendation that Tuman had written for Brendel. The old man grinned at Brendel, claiming that the little fox would only come to see him if something was up, indicating that he did not forget about the incident in which he had been tricked.

Brendel could only laugh awkwardly. At that point in time, he really had no other choice, and technically he did not lie. He just felt that it would be complicated trying to explain why he wanted the War of the Slates to happen sooner.

Brendel passed the letter of recommendation to one of the guards at the door of the Holy Cathedral. Anyone who wanted to become a guard at the doors of the Holy Cathedral must have come from a noble background, so the guard immediately recognized the letter as important. He dared not dally, after asking about Brendel’s intentions, he led Brendel into the monastery, where the priests were resting.

The guard was no commoner, but the three visitors exuded an air of nobility about them. Beside Brendel was the jewellery-adorned Scarlet and the noble Amandina. The former had an aura of a high-class warrior that could not be suppressed, while the latter obviously had the air of a noble on her. Brendel was feeling well today too, furthermore he had the air of a Gold ranker, thus giving people the impression that he was a person of importance.

This was the only reason he had Scarlet and Amandina follow him. The guard had mistaken Brendel as some descendant of an important noble family, after seeing the silver letter with the seal on it, he dared not suspect Brendel anymore.

Anderla Cathedral was separated into two sections. Most people would only enter the main cathedral to offer their prayers, at most going up to the hall. In truth, Brendel was also familiar with the back half of the cathedral. Such as the place he was in now was actually the cathedral’s training grounds for knights. It was separated into the living quarters, the three training halls and the meditation room. He was now in the meditation room, where the class change would take place.

The process of advancing class to Holy Knight was actually very simple. All that was required was an experienced clergyman to perform the ceremony with holy water. However, depending on the clergyman the new Holy Knight could obtain several ranks of blessings. Normally, the higher the rank of the clergyman, the blessings obtained would be stronger as well. These blessings were actually free levels.

Many people were tempted by this fact, so many nobles would bribe the Holy Cathedral with large amounts of money, hoping that their child would be able to get a higher-ranked Bishop to perform the ritual. Of course, they would not dare dream of allowing the two Archbishops here to bless their kids. After all, those people were probably not willing to help out even if they were involved in the briberies.

The guard had found an old Bishop for Brendel. Brendel looked at the Bishop’s red-rimmed white robes and suddenly his eye started twitching. This old man was a Bishop, his position was only second to Archbishops like Amman and Wood, but he was already sufficiently well-respected. Tuman truly was a powerful influence, even the Holy Cathedral wanted to get on his good side.

The guard leaned over to the old Bishop’s ear and whispered. Brendel guessed that he was relaying information about his identity and background. The Bishop’s expression shifted to one of suspicion. Brendel understood what had to be done, presenting the letter of recommendation into the Bishop’s hands. After the letter’s contents had been verified, all that remained in the Bishop’s eyes was caution.

Truthfully speaking, not many people knew of Tuman’s history. He had once in the footsteps of Grandmaster Fleetwood. Even though he had long since quit being the head of the Royal Library and the court mage, he rarely appeared amongst the nobles anymore, yet his name still rang loud within the circle.

Tuman was born in Aouine, but it was a well-known fact that he was actually a person from Buga.

Back then, the four Sages had received their blessing from the Buga people. And the reason why the mages of Buga had such power right now was not only because of their wealth, but also because they never participated in the power struggle between the four Holy Cathedrals, thus the four Holy Cathedrals had always been wary of this neutral group.

“Dare I ask what is the relationship between you and Grandmaster Tuman?” The old Bishop was still mildly suspicious. Tuman had not been heard of for many years, yet suddenly there was someone who came with his letter and the intention of advancing to the Holy Knight class. The Bishop had already checked the contents of the letter, but he still had to obtain the other smaller details.

“I have no personal connection with Grandmaster, but he has known my family for years.” Brendel did not explain further, after all no one would go to Tuman just to prove his statement. Even if they did, Tuman was more likely to help Brendel cover up his lie.

The old Bishop nodded his head. The relationship between noble families were often complicated, many did not like to elaborate on such matters, so he did not press any further. Most importantly, the letter had to be real, after all he was merely advancing class, not trying to join the Holy Cathedral.

The Bishop put the letter away. “According to Grandmaster Tuman’s wishes, the Archbishop should be performing the ceremony for you himself. Unfortunately, the Archbishop is not present at the moment. Perhaps you could come back later?”

Brendel saw the guard’s expression change once the words left the Bishop’s mouth. There were countless famous people in Ampere Seale who would go to the ends of the world so that the Archbishop would perform the ceremony for their heirs, but everyone knew that was impossible. In the last ten years, the Archbishop has only performed the ceremony for one person, and it was to honour Oberg’s dying wish. This was so that the relationship between Aouine and the Holy Cathedral at the time could be fixed. The person who was given that privilege was the legate of the White Lion Squad.

The guard stared at Brendel with awe, as if there were something different about Brendel.

This is bad. Brendel only came here to advance to the Holy Knight class, he did not want to garner too much attention. He cared not for the free levels, so he felt best if a low-ranked clergyman did the job for him. Brendel was starting to regret asking Tuman to write the letter of recommendation. If Wood truly were to perform the ceremony for him, then he would be the talk of the entire city by tomorrow, and people would soon start to investigate his identity.

Brendel did not believe that there was anyone in the world who could properly keep a secret. His advantage right now was that the enemy was standing in the light while he was waiting in the darkness, if things continued on like this, then he could just run back to Trentheim by tomorrow. An Archbishop aiding a rebel, not only will he be affected, even the Holy Cathedral of Fire and Tuman’s name would turn into trash. Brendel shuddered at the thought.

Thankfully Marsha was smiling upon Brendel as Wood was not present. He quickly shook his head, saying, “There is no need for that. I only want to follow the Path of the Flame, so it doesn’t matter who performs the ceremony for me.”

Upon hearing Brendel’s words, the old Bishop’s eyes sparkled and nodded his head. “Not bad. Youngsters like you are really rare these days, unlike those nobles. If that is the case, then allow me to perform the ceremony for you.”

The old man glanced towards Amandina and Scarlet. “However, your companions are not allowed to enter with you. Is it okay if they wait out here?”

“Of course,” replied Brendel.