The Hypocritical Holy Knight 113 Part 1

Since the Pope is still under house arrest in the prison specially made for him by the Delan royal family for investigation, it is obvious that this year's coming-of-age ceremony for the Holy Son of Light cannot be presided over by the Pope in person as before.

Although the reputation of the Church of Light has fallen to a freezing point with the Pope's imprisonment, the Church of Light's history in the Delan Continent can be traced back to nine hundred years ago. It has fought against the Delan Empire, but the two have also relied on each other. Now it has already become an inseparable part of the Delan Empire.

If the Church of Light, which has a large number of clergy, really collapses completely, the overall strength of the Delan Empire will also inevitably be weakened.

The Delan royal family obviously also understands this point. Although they took the opportunity of the Pope being invaded by the demonic energy to heavily damage the Church of Light together with the Holy Knights, they obviously have no intention of destroying it completely. Therefore, the coming-of-age ceremony of the Holy Son of Light still needs to be held normally.

To be precise, not only must it be held, but it must also be held as grandly as possible, using this as an opportunity to appease the current turbulent situation.

So this time, in the absence of the Pope, it was finally decided that the coming-of-age ceremony of the Holy Son of Light would be presided over by the King of Delan himself.

In the three days before the start of the coming-of-age ceremony, He Yan, according to the usual practice of the Church of Light, besides eating, bathing and sleeping, just devoutly prayed in front of the statue of the Goddess of Light.

Of course, he was just going through the motions. In fact, he was just sitting boringly in front of that statue of the Goddess of Light whose face could not be seen clearly, quietly lost in thought.

Anyway, the Goddess of Light is now busy with secluded cultivation to expel the dark impurities in her godhood, and it is absolutely impossible for her to have the energy to pay attention to the small issue of whether one of the thousands of believers in the lower realm is praying devoutly or not.

Since the Holy Knights took over the administration of the Church, all the moles originally left by the Pope around him have been replaced.

-- And they were all replaced by the moles of the Holy Knights' Commander.

However, these moles were much more tactful than the previous batch. Who knows how the Commander of the Holy Knights instructed them, except when necessary, these attendants all wished they could stay ten meters away from him.

That's why he was able to space out so unscrupulously in the temple.

The three days passed in a flash, and soon it was his eighteenth birthday.

After being served by countless attendants in an extremely complicated manner, He Yan once again boarded the carriage of the Church of Light and arrived at the Square of Light under the escort of a team of Holy Knights.

The attendant lifted the curtain for him and welcomed him down from the carriage.

He Yan stood in front of the carriage and looked around, feeling a little sentimental in his heart.

The Pope, who once stood here with infinite glory, has been imprisoned because of his crimes. The Church of Light has also fallen into disrepute because of the Pope's affairs. However, this Square of Light still maintains its former glorious image, showing a magnificent momentum under the particularly warm sunlight today.

And because it is about to hold the coming-of-age ceremony of the Holy Son of Light, it has also been well repaired, decorated with many exquisite decorations made of gold ribbons and fresh flowers, making it appear even more glorious and solemn.

The wind is a bit strong today, blowing his wide sleeves into a mess. He reached out to tidy his robe, and under the guidance of the attendant, he walked up the high platform along the winding steps, just like he did on the first day he came to this world.

It's just that this time, the one waiting at the top is not the Pope, but the King of Delan.

This most noble man in the entire Delan Empire had a visible joy on his face, presumably feeling physically and mentally refreshed for knocking down his mortal enemy this time.

Seeing him approaching, this slightly chubby king greeted him in a loud voice, with a kind light flashing on his face: "Oh, my dear Holy Son, happy coming-of-age ceremony."

He Yan replied in Cecil's usual cold and emotionless voice: "Thank you for your blessing, Your Majesty."

Although the Pope is probably completely done for this time, fortunately Cecil's persona of loving only the Goddess of Light is deeply rooted, and the Delan royal family does not intend to take action against the clergy outside of the Pope's faction. So he has basically not been substantially affected by this matter.

From a long-term perspective, he has even gained some benefits from it.

After all, as long as the Pope is in power in the Church of Light for a day, he will never be able to escape from the life of being watched in every move, and even his own life will be difficult to preserve in the end.

-- The original Cecil was just a sacrificial piece in the transaction between the Pope and the beastmen.

The beastmen have a fragment of the Light Divine Artifact in their hands. In order to retrieve this precious fragment, the Pope agreed to make a deal with the beastmen.

He planted the "Blessing of Eros" in the Holy Son of Light's body, using this special physique that combines holiness and promiscuity to exchange for the lost Light Divine Artifact fragment with the new lustful leader of the beastmen.

In order not to arouse suspicion, they specifically reached an agreement to carry out the handover of the Holy Son of Light near the elven territory, thereby drawing the focus of public opinion to the secluded elven race.

If time had stopped at the moment of the handover, then this transaction would undoubtedly have been very successful. The Pope got back the fragment of the Light Divine Artifact, thus increasing his bargaining chip, and the narrow-minded leader of the beastmen also got the Holy Son of Light he had been longing for.

However, neither party had anticipated that the Holy Son of Light, whom they regarded as a trading commodity, would eventually make such a resolute revenge.

Cecil's personality is very simple and pure. He devoted all his loyalty and love to the Goddess of Light and the Church of Light, and never had any doubts about the Pope.

Although this purity made him fail to detect the Pope's conspiracy and thus fall into danger, from another perspective, he is also tenacious and extreme. After being betrayed by the Pope he trusted, he did not choose to compromise, but forcibly broke through the prohibition set by the Pope in his body at the cost of burning his life, and cast a high-level light forbidden technique in the territory of the beastmen, taking away half of his own life and the life of the leader of the beastmen at the same time.

This accident provoked the anger of the leader of the beastmen. He challenged the Pope for this and demanded the return of the artifact fragment, but was caught by the cunning old Pope when he was seriously injured, and the remaining half of his life was taken away.

However, there was a mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. The correspondence between the Pope and the beastman was discovered by the Commander of the Holy Knights.

This blood elf, whose scheming was no less than the Pope's, carefully investigated and gradually uncovered the truth behind the disappearance of the Holy Son of Light. He ultimately used this dirty secret to deal a heavy blow to the Pope.

However, those events all happened after Cecil's death.

From beginning to end, this seemingly glorious Holy Son of Light was just an unwitting pawn in the Pope's hands. Although he unexpectedly rebelled in the end, it came at the cost of his life.

Now that the Pope has fallen prematurely, it is undoubtedly a good thing for him.

After greeting him, the King of Delan continued, "Regarding the recent events with the Pope, I express my deep regret. However, I believe the people still have faith in the Holy Church of Light, and you should always believe this."

He Yan pursed his lips slightly. "Of course."

The King of Delan didn't seem to mind his somewhat cold attitude and continued to chat with him enthusiastically for a long time.

During the conversation, a hint of satisfaction flashed in the King's slightly narrowed eyes.

He had seen it clearly long ago. Compared to that old fox of a Pope, this Holy Son of Light was a completely different species, with no scheming at all.

This also meant that he was very easy to manipulate.

He was very satisfied with this Holy Son of Light and intended to make him the next Pope of the Holy Church of Light. Most of the Cardinals in the Central Church belonged to the Pope's faction, so he couldn't trust them.

During their conversation, He Yan inconspicuously used his peripheral vision to search around, but to his puzzlement, he couldn't find the Commander of the Holy Knights even as the ceremony officially began.

As an ancient bell tolled in the center of the square, the coming-of-age ceremony for the Holy Son of Light formally commenced.

The coming-of-age ceremony for the Holy Son of Light was actually very simple, with only three steps in total.

The first step was for the Pope to take the stage and affirm and praise the past deeds of the Holy Son of Light.

However, this time the ceremony was presided over by the King of Delan instead of the Pope. So everyone present watched as the kind-faced King of Delan stood on the high platform and emotionally read out a full nine pages of parchment praising the Holy Son of Light.

Originally, due to the recent events with the Pope, the people present had developed doubts about the Holy Church of Light, and their impression of the Holy Son of Light had also declined. But as the moving deeds the Holy Son of Light had done in the past were recounted one by one from the King of Delan's mouth, the people's emotions were gradually stirred.

By the time the King stopped speaking, they couldn't hide their excitement and spontaneously cheered for His Holiness the Son.

The ministers and nobles who came to attend the ceremony exchanged knowing glances, all seeing the King of Delan's undisguised admiration for the Holy Son of Light.

Originally, the second part of the ceremony was for the Pope to bless the Son with an advanced Light spell. However, due to the King of Delan's limited Light divine power, it was already extremely difficult for him to cast an intermediate Light spell just for show, let alone an advanced one that he had no chance of even attempting.

So the second part of the ceremony was tactfully changed to having the King personally place an elaborately woven, gorgeous flower crown on his head to express blessings for his coming of age.

The final step was for the Son to choose his contract knight.

The King of Delan left the center of the high platform and took a seat to the side where many nobles and ministers attending the ceremony were seated, leaving the stage to the Holy Son of Light himself and the Holy Knights who were about to arrive.

He Yan stood on the high platform, appearing very calm on the surface, but in fact, he had no preparation at all for the upcoming proceedings.

Not long after he returned to the Central Church from Ximi, the Pope was imprisoned. The Central Church fell into chaos in a very short time. During that period, he was busy dealing with the mountain of affairs piled up in the Holy See. After the Holy Knights took over these matters, he was finally able to extricate himself from the affairs.

But immediately after, he had to start preparing for his own coming-of-age ceremony, and simply couldn't squeeze out time to interact with the three Holy Knights the Pope had chosen for him.

Well, in fact, even if he had free time, he wouldn't have gone to interact with three Holy Knights he knew nothing about except their names.

A contract knight was a very intimate concept. Under the binding of sacred contract power, the two parties to the contract would be unable to betray each other. Relying on this unquestionable loyalty, the two would often establish a very close relationship.

After contracting with the Holy Son of Light, this Holy Knight would no longer prioritize loyalty to the Holy Knights, but would put his contractor first.

As for the Son, a contract knight who would never betray him would also become one of his closest and most trusted people.