Damian left the immense edifice that is the headquarters of the Rose Blanche, going down the long and large outer staircase leading to the outer court, holding a large envelope.

Wearing the formal armor of the Paladin Order fitting his rank, Damian attracted the focus of many eyes around him. That is to say, it was not a surprise to him. The Rose Blanche was a well-known establishment in the holy capital, particularly among those of the Paladin Order, for their expertise in smithing. Though their clientele was somewhat limited to high-ranking nobles, they had quite a reputation to boast about.

In other words, a brothel, but not just any brothel, whose clients are primarily nobles, particularly young nobles from all over the territory who come to the holy capital to attend the Academia.

This goes without saying that those working in that establishment are not noble but rather commoners, young and beautiful commoners picked to be lusted upon by young nobles who, at the age they come to the Aurora Academia, know little about themselves. An enterprise of that nature had undoubtedly found a niche to be installed next to the Academia in the Holy Academia. With the nobles as clients, it is clear that the nature of their work will be substantial and profitable.

Those points being clear, the Rose Blanche being an organization of that type, there are still rules it must not violate, and the Rose Blanche, despite what it is, is working on a close collaboration with the Church.Under normal circumstances, relationships between nobles and commoners are something the church and especially the clergy would frown upon. In fact, it is something that the church would consider a grave offense, but in the case of the organization of the kind of la Rose Blanche, a middle ground has been settled upon.

Damian had never been a loyal customer or even a client at all, so he didn’t know how it worked concretely, but he knew that there was a certain distance to be kept between the noble and the one providing the service.

As he reached the large front yard, he met a group of youngsters in very good company, who, upon noticing Damian, straightened, immediately adopting a salute.

"Our respect, Lord Paladin Damian!"

"You are out there as civilians today. So I will pretend we have never seen each other, so I expect the same from you." Damian mustered as she passed through them.

"Yes, my Lord Paladin."

A few meters further, Damian reached a carriage waiting for him, next to which, two people, a man and a woman, dressed just like Damian with the Paladin Order black armor.

"That was fast, my Lord. Could it be that you are one of these peopl-"

Thrusting her elbow onto his side, the woman interrupted him, "Shut it up."

"That was unfair, sis."

"I’m not your "sis."

"That’s enough, you two, I got what we came here for. It's time to move on. I still have one task to complete on the grounds of Aurora Academia.Once I’m done there, we will be good to go. "

Without discussing Damian’s word, the two of them signaled the coachmen and rode in the carriage along with Damian.

***

A few moments later, Damian was observing the changing scenery from the window of the carriage they were riding in the direction of the academy.

It's been six months, and the city is slowly but steadily rebuilding itself from the massive destruction caused by the water calamity.

Damian was among the first to have witnessed the invasion of the dragons. He was there when that creature, the light calamity, breached the barrier and made its way southward.

The moment he saw that creature making its way deep within the human continent's territory, he knew that the result would be disastrous, but the moment he learned that this kind of creature hadn't popped up only on their side but on seven corners of the continent as well, Damian's jaw dropped.

The moment he saw that creature, he instantly knew that there was no way for them to beat it, so he couldn’t even imagine what they would do against eight of them.

Damian didn't learn about the news until much later, after the breach had occurred. People in the holy city, specifically two of them, were able to repel one of the most destructive of the seven dragons that invaded the continent, the water calamity.

The creature was known for engulfing everything in its path with the colossal amount of salty water it was blanketed in.

Though all these people had done was to repulse it from entering the city, this act was much more heroic than it sounded, for if that thing had entered the city, Damian knew, saw it, more awful things would have to be expected.

The most unexpected part of that news was not that someone managed that feat, but rather who did it. Damian knew the two of them, and there was even one among them, with whom he shared the same name, Edouard.

These two people were Ramia, his friend, cousin, and almost brother Luke Aubrecht's daughter, and Mael, his older brother Philip's son.

Damian had watched these two grow up until their fifth birthday, when he had to return to his duty as a Paladin, so when he heard the news, his heart beamed with pride.

It has been six months since then, yet not even once could he have taken time to come to felicitate them. With the breach and destruction brought by those dragons, reconstruction has been relentless.

It was only now that things had calmed down that Damian was finally allowed to exhale a bit.

Calling it a "bit" was not an exaggeration, for before Damian would have noticed, the time out, he was given, was already exhausted.

"Now that I think of it, what exactly are we going to do in the academy, if I may ask?"

Before Damian could answer, the girl next to him spoke in his stead.

"Don’t you get it yet? "The young Lady of the Aubrecht and the young Lord of the Aubrecht."

"Oh,... them. You haven’t visited them, yet? "

Damian shook his head.

"You sure procrastinated on this, I thought you had already visited them."

The one who spoke was right, Damian did indeed procrastinate on the matter. The first thing he did upon being given days off was to head off to Beaumont, the capital, where he was born and raised. There he provided the help he could, which, in his opinion, didn't amount to much. Once he realized that his time off was almost up, he returned immediately to the holy capital.

"I’ve heard from my little brother that not too long after the event, they founded their own faction and have ascended in the mere span of three to the rank of Great Faction… they are racking up achievements like dead leaves in autumn."

She was right, this was incredible. In fact, it was happening too fast. Even with everything going on lately, this was just too abnormal.

The truth is that almost no one in Beaumont has a clear idea of what is going on with the two of them. Neither Mael nor Ramia’s father were aware of what they were up to.

All this Great Faction mess escalated so quickly, before the news reached Beaumont, it was too late.

Of course, Damian was proud of what they had accomplished, but he also knew that those were not things that were for children to meddle in, especially in those troubled times. As a child raised by the leading faction and as a high-ranking Paladin, Damian was very well aware of that fact.

it isn't something to be taken lightly.

It was for that reason that he was to go today to the Academia. To clear this thing with the two of them.

As the carriage rode through the lower city to the Noble district, it came to a sudden halt.

"What’s going on?"

Before they could get an answer, they noticed the commotion outside the carriage.

"Sir, there is something in the sky." The coach said as they descended from the vehicle.

Upon getting out, the first thing Damian noticed was people pointing at something in the sky.

Following their gazes, Damian’s eyes stumbled upon something in the sky.

"What the hell is that, again?"

In the sky, something rectangular appeared. It was a bright yellow. From a glance at the surrounding, one could tell that something was projecting that thing from the roofs of two of the many houses littering the neighborhood.

Damian used his magic to propel himself to the roof, followed by his two companions. Upon landing, he noticed a spherical metallic object on the ground, most likely a magic item, projecting a rectangular light onto the sky, maybe sixty or seventy meters away from the ground.

Damian deduced that the other roof there

"What is this? A magic item? It doesn’t look like the offensive kind, but why would- Oi Lord Paladin, look at those. " The man said, pointing in the direction of the noble district.

Looking at where he was pointed at, Damian saw thousands of similar rectangular lights appear across the sky of the Noble districts and even in some areas of the Common district.

A sudden phenomenon occurred on the rectangular surface refracted in the sky while everyone was still stunned by what had happened. It went from yellow to suddenly chaotically rainbowy before settling on a clear image.

The image of women, six to be exact, dressed in nothing but black, reflected in the sky as clearly as a mirror.

Black dress, black veil.

Damian immediately thought of that organization I had once heard being mentioned during a meeting of the Fourteen he had ever assisted when he saw that image.

The Mourning Widow.

Out of nowhere, from the projection, a voice rippled not only from the screen above Damian, but also the ones floating above the city.

"I address this message, to all humans across the continent."

The voice belonged to the woman standing in the middle, most likely the leader of the group.

"We are the ones known as the Mourning Window, and I, Maa, representing my sister and all the people I represent, have a message for you."

"For many of us, nobles and commoners alike, times must have been grim. The seven calamities, as the Church, calls them, have deprived us of many things, crops, lands, squandered our money, or even the lives of loved ones. During those past six months, we across the continent did our best to rebuild, to mourn our dead, to forget them. "

The woman who took parole took a long pause so as to make her words marinate well.

Damian, having listened to the speech, felt slightly uncomfortable for reasons he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

"But to you, listening to me right now, I have several questions for you."

"Will we just stand up, turn back, and forget? Will it be all? Will we just pray and expect things to go well? Will it be like that?! If that is what you think, then allow me to show you the truth. We are at the dawn of the darkest age known to humanity. If you think that the Church will truly see you and your people through, then let me tell you that they won’t. What is the church other than an organization whose control is solely in the hands of the Seven Great Nobles Family, an organization run by old, lazy, greedy muttonhead who are unfit for the changing times that humanity is experiencing? Tell me what you believe. What did they do for you? What did they do for your people? The responsibility of this tragedy that we were plunged into is theirs, yet did they take it upon themselves? No they didn’t. All they did was leave you licking your wounds by yourself, and yet here you are looking at them. While they swindle upon you unpunished. "

"The reason why I am on this stage, along with my sisters, is because I would like to announce, to you, my brothers, a new alternative." The Aristocracy. "

We are at the dawn of a new age. We lived through a tragedy. As such, as one of the survivors, I announce that today and onward we will raise."

The orator took a pause, and what she did next made Damian’s heart skip a beat.

Lifting the veil hiding their faces, the features of each of the five women were seen clearly.

Among them, Damian recognized three faces. One among the three of them was one Damian had so often seen as a child that if he were to imagine the face of a mother figure, it would be hers.

"My name is Mathilda Douglas, daughter of the Douglas Conglomerate.I assume most of you know my name, but I will simply state what I expect from you. It’s simple that our dead, our losses will not be in vain. You brave men and women will join hands with us to overthrow the treacherous church and the corrupt Great Noble Family.

The screen slowly moved out, unraveling behind the six women an army dressed in grey and white; quite an impressive one, if Damian had to comment, but what attracted his attention the most was what was in the room. The room seemed to spread endlessly, at least from what one could see from the footage, but from point to point, something that resembled a pillar of pure diamond, was towering toward the sky. The ceiling being not visible, one could only assume how far it towered.

"We are not sitting idly. We have done our time mourning our dead. We must look forward onward to the future. Now that it has come to this, we shall use force to show our grief, for our fallen comrade and the future of beloved children. "

"Let justice be done."

With these words, the screen disappeared as magically as it appeared.

"What the hell was that!" The man asked a few moments after the projection ended.

"Lord Paladin, what will we do?" The woman asked, Damian.

Her question snapped Damian out of the trance he was in. Looking around, he saw that all the projections had been shut down across the city.

A lot went through Damian’s head right now. This footage concerned him in a way that no one could ever imagine. So when he was asked what should be done, he had no idea what answer.

"Lord Paladin?"

"Sorry, I was lost in thought, I think… We should proceed as planned. We head for the Academia and make our way back to the Northstearn Fortress. This matter does not regard us, let the clergy take care of it. "

"Yes, Lord Paladin."

***

Somewhere in one of the 21 Archduchies of the Meilen Empire, a man was seen stomping in a fit rage at the device used to project the aristocracy across the city.

"Damn you Douglas, that’s why!"

During the footage, he saw, among the army, the features of the man who haunted him day and night, even in his nightmares, the leader of the Erwein Brotherhood, Sclain Erwein.

Only death could put an end to their hatred.

He was one of the first Church’s executives put on the Aristocracy’s case so far, and though there were connections between the two, never would’ve he assumed that the one referred to as Maa was someone so high-ranked in the Douglas Conglomerate.

Since the first weeks after the dragon's passage, the Douglas Conglomerate has been seen squandering their money and their enterprise across the tree nation. Right now, their name, the image they built, has never been as popular as it is nowadays.

As it is now, there is little to nothing left of their fortune except maybe imobiliar possession and maybe their personnel.

He could clearly see what was going on and the reason behind it. which is why he felt so frustrated by it.

"What will we do, Archbishop?" A man accompanying him asked.

"Nothing, for the time being, beside collecting those magic items. There could be a possibility to trace that magic back to where it was broadcast from.."

Without elaborating any further on those words, Archbishop Durant Sunnivah made his way toward the Holy Capital.

***

In the Imperial Capital

A woman with a little boy on her lap was peering at something mirror-like in a magic item that was projecting the same footage as elsewhere across the continent.

The projection being cut down, the woman said, "Quite a surprise. I thought the one you call Mother, or at the very least, you too, would make her own appearance somehow."

"That is not for today yet, your highness." ", "For the time being, neither she nor I will be involved in any of this."

The one who spoke was a gorgeous black-haired woman.

The little boy on the other woman's lap, approached the back-haired woman and offered her one of his gifts to play with. She gently took it, and played along. "Besides, I do like the freedom I benefit from this position right now." So I would like to be kept free of all of this mess, at least until it is absolutely necessary. "

"You sure do take all of this lightly for someone who is up to their neck in it. Do you have any idea what the Church will do to you if they ever discover your involvement in all of this? "

Instead of directly answering, the black-haired woman played along with the child, finally answering, "I will not be caught. Even if I was, I doubt that would change anything." After all, I am just a mere commoner who has nothing to do with those noble conflicts. Those are simply beyond me. "

"For a mere commoner, you’ve got some nerves to come to my porch claiming to be an envoy of those whose heads are most likely already at the top of the Church’s Faty Adidy list." With how much I displayed my appreciation of Mathilda during that assembly and the active help her family provided to my empire, I’m sure I’m on the church’s suspected list of potential traitors with what you and your people pulled off today. "

"So... will your highness arrest me and hand me over to the church?"

Both women looked each other in the eyes before the Empress said, "No, I don’t particularly like your people. I believe I owe Mathilda and her family enough to let this slide. "

The black-haired woman smiled, stood up, and called out a name. In a flash, a young man of maybe 13 years old appeared out of nowhere, next to her, holding in his hand, with an uneased face, an embellished box.

So he’s your little teleporter, now? I didn’t expect him to be this young." Looking at the box in his hand, the empress asked, "What is this?" doubtful of its content.

"A little gift from mother; take this as proof of the purity of our cause," the black-haired woman said before putting it on top of a nearby table.

"That being said, I think it is time for me to take my leave, your highness," she said before putting a hand on the young man's shoulder, "-Oh, I almost forgot to warn your highness, if I were you, I wouldn’t open that box with that adorable little boy around. I do not know what relationship your son had with that person, but I doubt he would like to see him in this state."

"Your Highness, Young Prince, it was a pleasure to meet you. May we meet again sometime in the future." She simply said, biding her farewell before a split-second later she disappeared along with the young man, just as he had appeared.

The empress, still seated in her chair, threw a glance at the said package, before approaching it, and just as her child was looking away, she checked its contents.

Upon seeing what was inside, a sneer appeared on her face. "What a grotesque way to show one’s goodwill." she said before closing down the box.