Chapter 766: Sun Church Hierarchy

Kaia stared out to the sea. The rushing waves, the sea life that swam through the waters.

She felt the wind that carried the salty breeze of the ocean and the heat reflected from the surface of the waves.

She leaned against the ship’s railing, elbows resting on the wooden frame.

Leaving Yuhai port wasn’t difficult. Especially now that she was Gwen’s friend. As a Cardinal’s guest, it would be crazy for the Sentinels to question her identity.

Especially for someone who’s the friend of Guinevere, the daughter of Arax.

Of course, this leisure came with its own risk as the moment her identity was found out. . .

Letting out a dry chuckle, Kaia sighed.

It was. . . a little strength but she felt a pang of guilt whenever she thought about revealing her identity. The moment they inevitably part ways.

There was always a part of her that worried for the girl. Someone who put up a brave front despite being ever so lonely.

Someone starved for familial love.

If she. . . Had she not found friends like Lilia, Ria, Luke, Selen, Egil and so on, perhaps she’ll be the same.

She knew how lucky she had been, finding people with whom she could share her thoughts with.

Making friends when starting at the bottom was a lot easier than when you have an identity attached to you.

Rather than seeing Gwen as Gwen, they see the shadow of Arax. A fear of the Apostle.

Thus people who approach her often times were forced to do so rather than of their own volition.

If anything, they’d rather avoid her like a plague than interact, no matter how amiable she may seem.

Purely off of the fact that she’s the daughter of an Apostle.

One mistake and bam, you could be dead.

This kind of pressure, this kind of risk, was not something normal people are willing to take.

To be friends, they’ll need to be comfortable to be in each other’s presence.

If they aren’t, there will always be this air of awkwardness.

Kaia was sure that Gwen would notice this whenever she talked to someone.

Regardless, these are the cards they’ve been dealt in life and they have to find ways to live with that.

On the other hand, while they were travelling, she managed to learn quite a bit about the Sun Church.

With Solaris being as lazy as he is, he doesn’t actually have much of a hand in what happens.

To sum up his role, he’s simply there as a figurehead. He has a schedule of making an appearance every week or so while his subordinates organise a sermon in his honour. He’s simply there to observe and act the part.

Of course, this was information that only the high ups and Cardinals know, as they’re all aware of how lazy Solaris is.

But saving that to his face was another matter. The only ones that can lecture him are the Apostles.

If a Cardinal were to say it. . . Well, there will be one less Cardinal in the church.

The only exception is Gwen due to her dad.

With Solaris taking the highest role in the church, the next highest would be the Apostles followed by the Lords under his command.

Solaris never specifies how many Lords they have in the church, only that if things go out of hand, a Lord would be sent out to resolve the issue.

However. . .

To make it seem like he cares more, he has the Apostles dealing with this most of the time while the Lords are responsible for other matters.

Though Gwen theorises that there are probably around nine or so Lords within the church.

Then beneath the Lords are actually two ‘factions’ in a sense.

The first was the Cardinals. People who have the potential to become a Lord and the executor of Solaris’ command.

Then the other half was the Council. Politicians who organise what goes on in the church. They are largely responsible for diplomacy where strength would only give the church a bad image.

Or in Gwen’s own words.

“They’re pretty much just rat b*stards mixing up words to get what they want while acting like they’re doing it for you.”

Gwen disliked interacting with them so she rarely stays in the branches and it wasn’t one sided either.

The Council puts a heavy emphasis on rules and regulations. How one should follow the rules that are set so that society could function.

And with Gwen being the daughter of an Apostle and someone who could get away with a lot of things, they hated her very existence.

[Not much has changed. Though the Council used to be called something else in the past and Solaris has gotten lazier than before.] Cayla summarised.

[During the period of Ayr, the Council was called Dawnsworn and they were actually not half bad, implementing regulations in a time of chaos. Making sure that the average civilian could live without fear.

[Then it was disbanded since a lot of their members were hunted down by. . . Well.] Cayla scratched her cheek.

[There was a period of blood bath where Kaden went to each of their branches, disrupting the entire flow of operations. Apostles tried to catch him but Kaden was slippery.

[Naturally, it wasn’t limited to the Sun church either as Kaden hunted all three down without discrimination.

[Then came the second iteration, the Solstice. They were more ambitious, acting as though they wanted to help when in reality, they wanted to usurp the powers of the Apostles and Cardinals.] Cayla explained.

The Solstice behaved themselves at first. But as Solaris became lazier, they started to act bolder. And at a certain point, they crossed the line and the Apostles dealt with them, thus creating the current iteration which is simply called the Council.

Rather than dipping their hands into the. . . super human side of things, the Council focuses on the people.

People with blessings and Sigils should be dealt with by the same kind while human diplomacy should be dealt with by the weak.

They have their own guards but the two sides, Council and Cardinals, largely leave each other be unless needed.

But that doesn’t stop them from throwing insults at one another.

To Cardinals, the Council are a bunch of powerless parasites who do nothing but work things from the shadows. The only reason why they live is because Solaris has given them mercy.

To the Council, the Cardinals are a bunch of egotistical psychopaths who use their powers to subject others to their tyranny.

‘What a pain. . .’ Kaia sighed inwardly.

With Gwen needing to go to a branch for her sponsor as well as her artifact, there’s no doubt that she’ll probably be dragged into an argument with the Council.

She was simply a bystander.

‘Honestly, they might take this chance to use you as a way to get back at the Cardinals you know?’ Alyss smiled.

She felt a little bored recently since there wasn’t much fighting to be done. And what little that could be done had to be done as ‘Kaia’.

‘Probably.’ Alice nodded in agreement.

“Don’t you just look miserable, sea sick?” Gwen called out from behind as Alice glanced back.

She had brought over a drink since she was worried that Kaia might be thirsty.

“Just thinking about what I might have to deal with later.” Kaia shrugged, accepting the drink as the two leaned against the railing.

“Oh don’t tell me you’re a little scared of the parasites? They’re all bark and no bite. Honestly, I wouldn’t care if all of them just stuck to diplomacy but I swear, the amount of times I have to hear them yap about responsibility and duty makes me go crazy.” Gwen laughed, complaining about them with a mocking gesture.

“Like, I know I’m dad’s daughter, they don’t need to remind me. It’s not like I asked for this Cardinal role either. But oh no, if the daughter of the Apostle isn’t a Cardinal, it looks bad for the church.

“Make up your damn mind! Right? Do you want me to be a Cardinal or not? If you do, stop b*tching about what I do.” Gwen grumbled, causing Kaia to laugh.

“If I so much as breathe in front of them, they’ll probably complain it’s wrong as well.”

“Oh I’m sure it’s not that bad.” Kaia waved her hand but Gwen shook her head.

“It IS that bad. Lemme tell you, one time I was simply walking with my hands behind my head. I was feelin’ a little relaxed. The sun was nice, cool winds and I was in my own zone.

“Next thing I know, I have two old men with one foot in the grave lecturing me about maintaining the dignity of the Cardinals and my dad’s reputation. How I shouldn’t be walking around so ‘loosely’ and instead, should be standing straight and looking serious. Blerg.” Gwen stuck out her tongue in disgust.

“That does seem a little over the top.” Kaia admitted.

If someone was to tell her to stop drinking in order to maintain Allura’s reputation then. . . Well. She’s sure that Allura wouldn’t mind her drinking as long as she ‘looks’ like she’s keeping it under control.

“But it’s fine. Most of them are on the mainland anyway, we’re going to an island branch. At most, there will be like one or two Council lackies but nothing you can’t deal with. After all, you don’t find an issue mocking a Cardinal right?” Gwen grinned, finishing her drink and grabbing Kaia from behind.

“Hey! Ah! I haven’t finished my drink yet! MY DRINK!!!”

Time passed quickly with Gwen messing around with Kaia every chance she got and soon, they arrived at the Sun Church branch located on an island.

New month new code! Enjoy!

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