The Hypocritical Holy Knight 106 Part 1

This familiar icy coolness inexplicably reminded him of the memories of the man's kisses on his body in his previous life.

In that instant, it was as if he had fallen from the bustling bright square into an alternate space. Those countless images and fragments belonging to another time and space, like thousands of broken stars drawn by the distant starlight, passed through the distorted corridor of time and space, across the polar day and eternal night, and poured into his mind.

In his previous life, because Xuan Qi's spiritual power resentment was too heavy, his spiritual sea carrier was limited by the overly fragile human body and could not bear the man's imprint on his spiritual sea. However, before leaving, he had already left an indelible spiritual imprint in the deepest part of the man's spiritual sea that could not be erased even through eternal reincarnation, establishing a spiritual connection between the two.

Relying on this spiritual connection, he believed that the man would definitely be able to catch up.

He even suspected that even if he did not leave a spiritual imprint in the man's spiritual sea, they would still meet in the new world.

Once or twice could be called a coincidence, but he had already met the same soul in different times and spaces for four consecutive reincarnations. This could not be explained by a simple coincidence.

However, after only a few short seconds, he broke free from the sudden memories.

...This wasn't right.

It was just a brief physical contact, there was no reason for it to have such a big impact on him.

Perhaps his thoughts were too heavy, or... there was a problem with Ambrose's identity?

He really wanted to extend his spiritual power directly into Ambrose's spiritual sea to probe and test, but thinking of the true character of this Holy Knight Commander, for the sake of his own life, he still forcibly suppressed this urge.

He Yan endured the lingering vexation in his heart, the corners of his mouth imperceptibly pursed, the jet-black long raven feathers fanned up and down, and finally heavily drooped down, hiding all the instantly leaked complex emotions in his unfathomable eyes.

After Ambrose's icy lips moved away from the back of his hand, he immediately withdrew his hand. Due to his unstable state of mind, the movement appeared a bit hasty.

However, Ambrose seemed to not notice his abnormality, and gracefully retracted his white-gloved hand. He elegantly rose from the ground, then turned to face the Pope's direction and bowed slightly to greet him, "Good Advent day, Your Holiness."

The Pope still slightly nodded, seemingly not minding at all that Ambrose performed a knight's salute to show loyalty to the Holy Son whose status was lower than him, while giving him an ordinary greeting. He accepted his greeting in a friendly manner, "Good Advent day, Sir Ambrose."

He Yan quietly stood at a position slightly behind and to the right of the Pope, eyes lowered, using his peripheral vision to pay attention to the confrontation between the two people in front of him.

In the short few minutes since Ambrose's arrival, he had personally felt the unrest within the Holy See.

The Pope was undoubtedly the person with the highest status in the entire Holy See. It was no exaggeration to say that as the incarnation of the Goddess of Light's messenger, his prestige on the Delan Continent was no less than that of the king's.

But this kind of prestige relied on the characteristic of the Pope's position itself being able to "communicate with the gods", not on personal charisma, and the foundation was not stable. In other words, people did not truly pledge allegiance to him, but to the Goddess of Light behind him.

The concept of the Holy Knight Commander was different. To a certain extent, the actual power that the Holy Knight Commander could mobilize was much greater than the Pope's.

The Holy Knights were also known as the Knights of Light. From this name, it could be seen that in the beginning, the Holy Knights only existed as an appendage of the Holy See.

Six hundred years ago, in order to show goodwill to the Goddess of Light, the Delan Empire established the Holy Knights. The Delan Empire would select children with suitable talents and send them to the Holy See to receive blessings from the bishops, while learning light magic and horsemanship to guard the safety of the Holy See.

Moreover, every bishop in the central Holy See who reached the rank of Cardinal could choose a Holy Knight in the Holy Knights as their contract knight.

The knighting of the Holy Knights was not much different from the ordinary knights of the Delan Empire. The only difference was that their main responsibility was to serve the bishops in the Holy See.

—However, they were essentially people of the Delan Empire.

This model was still feasible hundreds of years ago when the Holy See was still weak, but as the power of the Holy See expanded rapidly, the bishops gradually became dissatisfied with the Holy Knights responsible for the safety of the Holy See being controlled by the Delan Empire, and wanted to completely seize control of the Holy Knights from the hands of the Delan Empire.

Because of the Holy Knights, three hundred years ago, the relationship between the Delan Empire and the Holy See quickly entered a cold period from the honeymoon period.

However, for the stability of the Delan Continent, they also tacitly did not put the tension of the relationship on the surface.

While the Delan Empire and the Holy See were superficially peaceful but secretly chasing after each other, the Holy Knights, as the point of conflict, were not idle either.

The Holy Knight Commander at that time was a born politician. Taking advantage of the rivalry between the two, he cleverly maneuvered and the final result was that the election of the Holy Knights was no longer controlled by the Delan Empire, nor could it be snatched away by the Holy See. Instead, the Commander was chosen independently within the Holy Knights.

The Holy Knights themselves would elect one commander and twelve iron riders, thus becoming a relatively independent institution.

After the Holy See recovered from the feud with the Delan Empire, they discovered that the final beneficiary was actually only the Holy Knights, and naturally they were shocked and furious.

Although they hated the Holy Knights' "betrayal", they also clearly knew that after hundreds of years of development, the Holy Knights had long become an inseparable part of the Holy See.

Once the Holy Knights completely withdrew from the Holy See, the entire defense system of the Holy See would instantly fall into paralysis. At that time, if the Delan Empire wanted to move against the Holy See, it would almost be effortless.

So under the pressure of the situation at that time, the Holy See finally accepted this result. It was just that since then, their relationship with the Holy Knights gradually became subtle, and the Holy See also began to secretly cultivate their own knight team, intending to restrain the Holy Knights.

However, the effect was not great.

After all, those who could be selected into the Holy Knights were all outstanding individuals. Many Holy Knights themselves were nobles with real power in Delan. After reaching a certain age and retiring from the Holy Knights, they would return to their families to inherit their territories.

For a long time after the establishment of the Holy Knights, due to the conflict between their duties and identities, they were all in a state of hesitation and uncertainty. It was not until a reform took place and the Holy Knights formed an independent system that they found their direction:

They were neither loyal to the Delan royal family, nor obedient to the Light Church, but loyal to the Holy Knights, loyal to the Commander, and loyal to themselves.

The rule that the Cardinal Bishops could arbitrarily select Contract Knights from the Holy Knights was also abolished. However, the Holy Knights probably did not want to completely break ties with the Light Church. In the end, they still symbolically left a quota for the Holy Son to select a Contract Knight.

But unlike in the past where the Cardinal Bishops could unilaterally choose the Holy Knights, the new rule was that the Holy Son and the Holy Knights would make a mutual selection.

In other words, even if the Holy Son had already nominated a Holy Knight he favored, as long as the Holy Knight himself did not agree to become the Holy Son's Contract Knight, the matter could only be regrettably dropped.

It could be said that they did not take the Light Church seriously at all.

But now, the Holy Knights indeed had the capital to be arrogant.

The loyalty of the knights was one of the most steadfast and precious assets on the Delan continent. Even though many Holy Knights returned to their families after retiring, the knight's code made them still hold undying loyalty to the Holy Knights in their bones and blood. Their power would also be regarded as part of the Holy Knights' power.

It was no exaggeration to say that if Ambrose intended to make things difficult for the Light Church, a considerable number of lords in the Delan Empire would choose to go against the Light Church.

However, on the surface, everyone still had to maintain a facade of mutual respect.

For example, before the Holy Son had chosen a Contract Knight, when facing the possible object of their future loyalty, the Holy Knights still had to perform the knight's ceremony to the Holy Son - even the Commander of the Holy Knights himself was no exception.

The people of the Delan Kingdom had always believed that the Holy Knights showed such respect to the Holy Son in order to express their respect for the Light Church. But He Yan deeply suspected that the fundamental purpose of the Holy Knights doing this was purely to annoy the Pope and incidentally drive a wedge between the already complex relationship between the Pope and the Holy Son.

If they wanted to respect the Light Church, they could directly show the utmost respect to the Pope. Why flatter his powerless Holy Son?

Just like now, although the Pope did not show it on the surface, He Yan dared to bet his head that his "father" must have already been annoyed to the point of cursing frantically in his heart by Ambrose's differential treatment, and then recording it against this Holy Son.

- This Pope was not a magnanimous person at all.

Thinking of the Pope's moves on Cecil's body, He Yan couldn't help but feel a headache.

"My child," the Pope seemed to have noticed his distraction. He turned his head and stared at him intently with a pair of deep gray eagle eyes, and asked with a mellow voice, "What is it that troubles you?"

His deep gray pupils were as thin as needle tips, surrounded by a slightly lighter iron gray. The depths of his eyes held the irresistible authority unique to those in high positions. Coupled with the solemn aura of light divine power on his body, it would give people great pressure when he looked at them intently.

Under such oppressive gaze, very few people could calmly tell lies in front of him.

He, the Pope, and Ambrose were currently standing on a high marble platform, with countless dark masses of people's heads below.

Everyone had a sincere smile on their face, feeling genuine joy for the anniversary of the arrival of light.

As the celebration had not yet officially begun, they were just standing at the edge of the platform. There were many people below looking up in their direction. With his good eyesight, He Yan could clearly see the devout and yearning expressions on their faces.

Their devotion was not given to the Pope and him, but to the glory of the Goddess of Light implied behind them.

Hearing the Pope's question, He Yan showed a submissive expression. After a brief eye contact with him, he quickly lowered his gaze and said softly, "No... it's just that when I think of today being such a significant day, Cecil can't help but be a little disrespectful."

He paused, the blush on his cheeks expanding in scope and extending downward, disappearing into the high collar, and murmured, "It would be nice if we could see a 'miracle' at this year's celebration..."

The Holy Son's slender, fair neck was slightly lowered, his dense and long raven feathers covering his black pupils that were as pure and transparent as fine glaze. His cheeks flushed with a layer of blush due to excitement, dyeing his holy and aloof features with a touch of allure, inadvertently revealing a hint of seduction.

It was probably every man's secret desire to stain white paper black and defile the holy. If the ones standing in front of him at this moment were not the Pope and the Commander of the Holy Knights who had excellent self-control, but the beastmen of the Delan continent with relatively weaker self-control, they might have already impatiently torn apart his white priestly robes, roughly pressed him onto the cold, hard ground, and toyed with him until he lost consciousness before stopping.