Under the watchful eyes of the spectators, the Minister of the Palace first broke his white cane and broke it into two pieces.

"Farewell, Your Majesty."

The Minister of Hermes respectfully placed his broken cane on top of the Queen's coffin and bowed to it.

This meant that McCroft ended his allegiance to Her Majesty for the rest of his life, and at the same time removed him from his position as Minister of State.

He was a little regretful, but also relieved. Turn around and leave the coffin.

Attorney General Carter, who was standing behind him, also stepped forward and tore his shoulder strap in two pieces and placed them on top of the coffin.

"Farewell, Your Majesty."

Secretary Carter also closed his eyes and whispered, a little stunned.

It's not speaking to the Queen's soul, it's like speaking to her past self.

After all, the queen is not like an ordinary person, and the soul is officially ascended to the dream realm when the funeral is completed. At the time of her death, the knights of the Lord had already taken her into the kingdom of the Lord of the Crown. Now it is only her shell that remains in the material world.

Each minister had to destroy the token of power given to him by Queen Sophia at the funeral, and remove himself from his status as a minister. The names of the new ministers will be decided at a round table on the day after the state funeral.

And there is no doubt that there will be another announcement at this round table.

That is a declaration of war on Star Antimony.

Ivas was dressed in a solemn black priest's robe, his hands tucked into his cuffs in front of him. Quietly stood behind Isabel.

It stands to reason that Eivas should be worried about war.

After all, Avalon was destroyed by Star Antimony, not to mention that Ivas would soon leave Avalon for the Church. With Isabel alone, can she really resist such pressure?

Obviously, the ministers were also a little apprehensive or excited about this.

And those who knew about the advancement of Star Antimony were obviously a little absent-minded - they knew that Avalon had come to the edge of a cliff more than ordinary people who only knew anger. At this time, whether Avalon starts war or not, it may incur destruction.

- But Eivas wasn't nervous at all.

For there is now a secret information - except for Isabel, only the people who lived in the Temple of Silver and Tin last night know.

Emma's assassination of Isabel even alarmed the Church.

Perhaps because Bishop Mathers realized that he had been seduced, he urgently contacted the church through the channels of the church—in short, Bishop Mathers personally came to the Temple of Silver and Tin that evening.

After asking Ivas and Isabel if they were still in danger and if they needed to be purified and healed, he apologized to Ivas and Isabel for being seduced with great sincerity.

After that, he acted as a microphone to explain to them what the church meant.

- The Church recognizes Avalon as being on the side of justice, allowing Avalon to wage a limited war of revenge against Star Antimony.

That is to say, this war can be stopped whenever the Avalons say they want to stop; And Star Antimony must at least make King "Valentine VII" abdicate and make a satisfactory reparation to Avalon before the war of revenge can be mediated and ended. After the war began, the Star Antimony people could only resist within the territory, but could not counterattack into the territory of Avalon, otherwise the Church would intervene to stop it.

Ivus breathed a sigh of relief when he learned of the attitude of the Church Nation.

In the original timeline, the Church ran into very difficult trouble in the summer of 1899, the year of Avalon's demise. Because of this, when Avalon was invaded by the Star Antimony in the fall of 1899, the Church remained silent and unable to help.

And now it's January 1899.

The vicious incident that led to the near collapse of the church order and was not resolved by players until 1900 has not yet happened.

The relationship between the Church and Avalon is very close...... In a sense, it can even be said that Avalon is one of the vassal states of the Church. After all, Isabel herself has a quarter of elven blood. And this time there is no doubt that Star Antimony is 100% responsible. Therefore, the church is firmly on the side of the Avalons.

Therefore, the attitude of the church is to pull the bias with a clear banner.

Not only support Avalon in launching a war of revenge...... And the eternal pope himself ordered that nine papal guards would be sent to protect Isabel.

The Papal Guard, that is, the "elven butlers" of the Founders family, who are only responsible for preventing the heirs of the Founders' family.

And the guardianship from the elves is to guard directly to death. After all, Isabel certainly didn't live as long as they did.

The weakest of them also has strength equivalent to the peak of the fourth energy level, and among them, an excellent powerhouse like Oswald Butler even has a combat power equivalent to the fifth energy level.

And this time, the Church sent them were all elites in the papal guard, and all of them were powerhouses of Oswald's level. And they were all young enough not to be as old as the "elven butlers" of today.

- Nine queen guards equivalent to the fifth energy level!

As the country with the most top powerhouses at present, there are only more than 50 powerhouses of this specification in the sect. This time, it directly dialed nearly a fifth of Avalon.

Then the attitude of the eternal pope is very clear.

It is just that there are too few top powerhouses of Avalon's generation who are bullied by the Star Antimony people...... Therefore, the rich and wealthy side of the church directly made up the difference.

There are a total of seventeen fifth-level people on the Star Antimony side. In addition to the old monarch of Star Antimony, the red and black phases of his command, and the dead Emma, there were thirteen left.

On Avalon's side, Janis has left, and there are still four transcendents of the "big characters". Counting these nine people, it adds up to exactly thirteen people.

- What, like to bully people? Then if you have the ability, send them all?

Apparently, the Eternal Pope was also angry.

Because when the Avalon royal family was cursed before, the meaning of the church was that it was better not to go to war. Because after all, they have not directly attacked the monarch - but directly against the ruler of another country, which is the one that is expressly forbidden in the rules of the church. The rulers of each country can only be overthrown by the locals, and it is not allowed to be settled by other countries.

Even in the original world line, the Cult was almost paralyzed, and the Star Antimony, who were heavily armed and ready for war, had to wait for Trade Minister Droist to poison the queen before they dared to start a war.

As a result, now the Star Antimony side is becoming more and more rampant, and even directly attacked Isabel herself.

This infuriated the church.

- Why, it's shameless, isn't it?

If it weren't for the fact that the Church was a permanently neutral country, they might have to beat up Star Antimony themselves this time.

While Avalon could not send them out to use in the war, it also prevented the Starty-Tyrants from decapitating their tactics. They can even find out all the spies, which is also within the scope of "keeping the living space safe". In other words, the Church just hopes that Isabel can find a way to use them more to make some trouble for the Star Antimony people.

And it will also greatly boost the morale of the people of Avalon, letting them know that the Church is on Avalon's side!

But there's nothing to say about the Star Antimony people.

Because that's exactly what Emma did.

When they heard the news, they were also very frightened. Since the Star Antimony people are not ready for war at all, this time they sent Emma to cooperate with the Avalonians - she did not mean that Valentine VII would do something to Yulia, but a personal request from the Red Phase.

As a result, no matter how much the prophet on the side of Star Antimony divined, the most he could get was the answer that "the succubus did attack Isabel".

Shortly after Bishop Mathers left, the Star Antimony royal family called the Temple of Silver and Tin.

This should not be done in etiquette. Matters of this caliber require the issuance of formal diplomatic correspondence and the assurance that every dialogue is traced on three sides. But because he was desperate to explain, Star Antimony called directly that night.

It was Valentine VII who made the call himself.

Isabel asked Ivers for her opinion, but chose not to answer.

Because the "young queen who was attacked" should be angry, especially the Great Guardian who "almost died" because of it. At this time, Jiaoguo generously gave help, and it was normal for her not to answer the phone.

When the phone rang for the second time, Ivas answered the phone for Isabel. Isabel listened quietly.

The "Valentine VII", who was known for his ruthlessness and decisiveness, seemed unusually gentle and even humble on the phone at the moment.

He didn't care that it wasn't Isabel who answered the phone, but immediately made a formal apology to Isabel and all those injured and killed in the incident, and declared that he would give a "sufficient compensation".

His explanation can be summarized as follows: "This is the work of the demon inside Emma, and Emma herself is a victim, and this matter has nothing to do with her and therefore with Star Antimony's political position".

Valentine VII verbally promised a lot of benefits. He also said that the Star Antimony side would immediately send a diplomatic mission of the highest standard, and would let his eldest son personally visit Avalon, hoping that Avalon would remain calm for the time being.

It is clear that he plans to cede a lot of interests in the next diplomacy, just hoping that war will not happen.

- What is he afraid of?

Ivas was keenly aware of something.

Something seems to have suddenly gone wrong inside the Star Antimony...... That was a problem that did not appear on the original world line, which gave Star Antimony no confidence to start a war with Avalon.

Evas refused without hesitation - he was about to finalize an agreement with Grande and no longer needed the resources of the Star Antimony. Not to mention that the Grandet told Ivus that Star Antimony was now in a desperate situation, and they couldn't do it any good at all.

Today's Avalon needs a victory, an enemy, to awaken the spirit of the entire nation.

Such a strong casus belli, and the Church as a backer - if you miss this time, the Church may not be so supportive of Avalon the next time. You can't "save it up for next time".

Valentine VII also apparently caught his ample confidence in Ivus's tone.

He immediately realized that there was no way to talk about it.

But even so, Valentine VII ended the conversation politely and in a friendly manner.

During the state funeral ceremony, no one at the Starty embassy in Avalon was invited. Those with a keen sense of smell already sense the breath of war at this moment.

While Avalon had not yet expelled them, both sides now knew that war could begin at any moment.

The storm is coming.

And this oppressive atmosphere also lasted until the roundtable on the second day of the state funeral.

January 3, 1899.

Perhaps it was the most important round table after the new king succeeded to the throne.

When all the knights were in place, only the minister who did not have a ministry still did not come.

But this time, the knights didn't dare to talk about Ivas anymore.

There was no noisy discussion, only the silence that hung in the middle of the night in the round table. It is as if yesterday's funeral atmosphere continues to this day.

But just when the knights thought that Ewass, who was the shadow of Queen Isabel, would not be there......

But there was a man at the gate who appeared slowly.

That man was Evas.

There wasn't a crow resting on his shoulder, but a fluttering butterfly.

The Queen's Guard sent by the Church had arrived in Avalon by this time, and Evath no longer needed to keep the Daredevil on guard twenty-four hours a day. He was finally able to swap out the flame butterfly and use the shepherding method to feed it experience.

When the crow leaves, the butterfly returns.

This means that the glass island has become safe again.

Evas was not wearing the knightly armor of the Moriarty family, but rather his own clerical uniform, long trousers, and white cloth shoes.

- That's the Minister Moriarty, who is now known throughout the country!

He didn't wear armor...... Does this mean to be seated as a spiritual councilor?

The knights whispered a discussion, breaking the dead silence.

But at this moment, Aihuas, who had just entered the door, suddenly took off the outermost sacrificial cloak he was wearing.

He handed the sacrificial shawl to the ceremonial officer who was guarding the door.

The pure white shirt inside the Ivas also has a pure white clergy collar, and the neckline also has the two gold thorn pattern embosses with roses on the neckline. But the clothes he wore inside looked like the nobles of Star Antimony.

Plain white shirt, plain white trousers, plain white cloth shoes.

Coupled with Eivus's long white-blond hair, he looked like he was glistening in the morning light at the moment.

With his hands behind his back, he slowly stepped up the shattered glass steps.

Walk past the knights in armor and past the huge round table that holds twenty-two.

Ivus reached out and gently touched each of the knights in armor seated at the round table.

The butterflies jumped between his fingers, and the delicate aroma of sandalwood and jasmine spread in all directions.

Under the stunned but silent gaze of the knights, Ivas sat down in his seat.

That was the closest position to Isabel, to her left.

There is no doubt that Ivas was the first Knight of the Round Table to be unarmoured since the founding of Avalon.

Like the glass steps that have never been shattered since the founding of the country, the ancient traditions of Avalona, which have been passed down to this day, although meaningless but unshakable, have also been destroyed by Eivas.

But today, no one dares to question this.

Ivas rested his chin in his left hand and looked up in a circle.

Some made eye contact with him without fear, while others bowed their heads or avoided his gaze.

Ivas chuckled, lifted the hammer in front of Isabel with his right hand, and rang the bell that had been placed in front of the Queen.

"—meeting now."

With his chin propped up in his left hand, Ivas calmly looked at the knights who stood up.

He sat down in his seat and leisurely declared:

"Zhu Qing...... Just sit down as you are. ”

(Volume 1: The Glass Steps, End)

More than 8,000 words of update, end of this volume!

After that, there is a testimonial at the end of the volume~

(End of chapter)