The church is a prominent influence in the empire. In a sense, they are their own faction of power under the Imperial rule. As mentioned before, people believed magic, specifically, mana was a gift given from "God", the being of creation who rules above all. With this gift, people were able to evolve to where we are today. Although the origin of mana is a bit vague, people follow these beliefs and created several churches around the empire to worship and honor the entity "God".
People who follow the belief in the entity of "God" are called "Believers". As the holy scripture reads, "In the appearance of the unknown, everything must have an origin. The gift of mankind, the source of our core, something out of reach of humanity lives a being. The being knows the unknown, perhaps a part of its core, and shared a kindness unbeknownst to man. We must do our part to cherish this warmth with our unembellished morality and carry our spirits as offerings. To give back as the oblivious man we are, as believers of goodness."
Viewed as righteous, for one reason or another, people started to also believe in "God", gaining the favor of the citizens of the empire. This causes the creation of several "Holy Cities", cities guided by faith. In each city lies a church as its center, displaying the strong belief in "God". So, it begins the co-existent of "Believers" and "Non-believers", a nickname given to those who don't believe in "God". Currently, the church and the empire have a harmonious relationship, despite the current Emperor being a "Non-believer". There was no real dispute these past few years of peace and therefore caused no tension on the surface.
However, with the discovery of the church's involvement, it may seem there was a hidden plot underneath the peaceful exterior. As a result, everyone was tense and the room was filled with silence. People knew those of the church don't completely abide by the rules of the empire, they just happened to fall under its rule. As a faction of power, they may be able to seize the throne.
'But why would they cause the rise of demonized beasts? How would that help their conquest for power if that was their real motive?' Arisanna questioned as she frowned in confusion.
Everyone had a look of confusion on their faces, even the Grand Duke scrunching his eyebrows together in order to make some sense of the matter.
"That is all we could find, unfortunately. We had to retreat before further damage was caused to our soldiers," the commander resumed, breaking the tension in the room.
"Yes, that was a wise decision. The well-being of our troops should be our first priority," the Grand Duke praised.
"What should we do on this matter, Grand Duke?" one of the officials questioned.
"Indeed. If word gets out, we won't be sure of how the Empire will react. We should immediately report this to the Emperor," another official sounded out.
"Yes, we need to alert my brother right away of their plans. We might have encountered a very risky situation that needs to be dealt with," the Grand Duke commanded. He gave Arisanna's father a look and nodded.
"But what would be our course of action? Do you think the church knows that we know?" the Grand Duchess questioned.
"We were very cautious when investigating the suspicious activities, however, we shouldn't completely rid of suspicion of them knowing. The church is a faction of power that should not be underestimated," Reynold commented.
"We should be wary of the church for now and keep a lookout. We can deploy and few mages to ensure no one is using magic to spy on our territory. We can alert the knights stationed around the Northern Territory to be on the lookout for suspicious activities within the city. Personally, I think we should first alarm the Emperor of the matter as it directly involves power over the throne. We can discuss this further once news reaches those of the empire," Theodore laid out. He cast a deep look at his father and the Grand Duke nodded his head.
Theodore looked at one of the attendants and commanded, "We will send a personal messenger with guards in case they are out to intercept our messages. We shouldn't send letters as it is too risky. Prepare a suitable envoy, we will head out as soon as time allows us."
Everyone sighed and another long silence ensued. Everyone was wrapped up in their own thoughts.
"It might have been an accident…" Arisanna muttered.
She was staring at the ground and didn't notice she blurted something out loud. Without knowing, everyone stared at her expecting her to answer. She, however, was a bit oblivious and continued to think while blankly staring at the floor. She heard a grunt and she looked up to meet the eyes that poked holes into her being.
"What do you mean an accident, Arisanna?" her mother asked.
She widened her eyes and realized what she did. She flushed in embarrassment.
"Well… I meant... the injuries that were inflicted on the knights."
"What about them?" the Grand Duchess asked.
Arisanna took a deep breath to seize her awkwardness.
"I'll explain my thought process then. I found it a bit odd the knights sustained very heavy injuries on this expedition trip. Usually, only a few knights are somewhat injured, even a few scratches here and there. However, this trip had a larger majority of knights harmed."
The Grand Duke nodded, "Continue."
"The second thing I found odd was why the 'Believers' were there."
"Aren't they there because they have something to do with the demonized beasts?" Theodore asked.
"No, their involvement seemed quite clear. My question is more so why are they so obvious this time around in their involvement? Assuming this was something that has been under wraps for a long period of time, they must have a way of avoiding surveillance. They wouldn't show their involvement with the beasts unless they have a clear goal of doing so. For example, declaring their power over everyone with the beasts. This seemed more of an accident than an intentional plan they had."
"So, you are saying something went wrong and they were accidentally exposed?" her father asked.
"If you were the one hiding a dangerous experiment that can impact the Empire, you would do so discreetly and only reveal your intentions when the time is right. It feels a bit wrong thinking about it. Of course, I could still be wrong. For all we know, they intend for us to find out. But from a logical standpoint, it will bring no benefits doing so. If this were to be known to the public, they will lose supporters. The support of the citizens is what gives the church power and so it won't be ideal."
"Of course, assuming the church is behind this. For all we know, something could be brewing inside the church, but the culprit isn't the church itself," her father commented.
"Yes, everything I said is purely theory from what we have already gathered," Arisanna nodded.
"But you said this was all a flaw, or at least you speculate it to be," Reynold brought up.
"Well, this is the more unrealistic part of what I think…"
"We are all ears," the Grand Duke firmly stated.
"For the creation of the beasts, we can only rely on the scholars currently researching for a solution. However, we can assume that they have some sort of control over the beasts. This not only reassures those behind this from being exposed but also reassures anyone a part of their plan from getting hurt by their own creation. This can be explained through the intelligent demon who was capable of speech we met at the princess' debutante ball. Yet, even when they have full control over them, they still let them roam wild and follow their altered instincts. Assuming they have completely transformed into their complete form, they are released into the wild instead of being kept. Why is that?"
Everyone stared at her for an answer.
"It means that they don't actually have full control over them. When we fought Benford, there was only one Benford. The people who rebelled against us weren't demons but people. There was only one demon to ever appear to have intelligence. We can infer that it is extremely difficult to create a being that doesn't lose its sanity after being demonized. Again, we can't know for sure if there is only one Benford. However, I am sure the process behind this experiment is very meticulous if it takes our scholars a long period of time to figure out."
"So if the 'Believers', in theory, release them into the wild, why were they seen?"
"With these types of things, I can assume there would be a few guards keeping an eye out on the experiments that are not yet completed. The beings that are failed experiments I imagine will be released to cause chaos among the people, which are the beasts we are currently fighting. You will choose to keep the obedient dog and release the ones that can't be trained. This benefits them since the church is known to repel evil, which helps them gain more followers."
"As to why they were so obviously seen with all the commotion, the guards probably failed in their duties to keep the experiment from going wild, making this a very fortunate accident despite how ridiculous it sounds. The reason why it injured so many could be because it was going through the experimental phase of getting intelligence. This one was wilder than usual, which might explain their loss of control."
"While we were investigating, we did notice the beast spiraling out of control. However, we deemed it as normal behavior that is possessed by most beasts," the commander chimed in.
"Correct, it is normal behavior because they have no control over them, leading to a failed experiment," Arisanna nods.
"So due to a complete accident, the knights were severely harmed as retaliation for finding out about the experiment... No, they weren't actually supposed to be 'severely harmed' correct?" her mother asked.
"Hm. At least I think so. They probably noticed you first, as we wouldn't expect humans out fighting beats besides the knights. To hide their involvement, with no time to spare, they released the experiment. The knights are supposed to perish and keep their secret to the grave, masking it as a normal casualty caused by a beast. It may even benefit them as the public would view the North as incompetent to defend the people."
"But they failed, which means…" Theodore widened his eyes.
"They know. The church knows fully well that we know," the Grand Duke concluded.