Above the gate of Dar City, another flag was erected.
Originally, there were two flags erected here. One was the dragon-tail flag, which symbolized the Dar family, and the other was the gold-coin flag, which symbolized the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. The gold-coin flag was higher, and the dragon-tail flag was lower, which meant that the Dar family belonged to the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. But today, between these two flags, there was a third flag.
The jellyfish flag, which symbolized the Church of the Void Mask, fluttered high, and was much higher than the gold-coin flag.
This meant that the Dar territory had changed from a traditional aristocratic territory to a church territory. From today onwards, the Dar family would become a vassal of the Church of the Void Mask. In the future, if there were any inheritance disputes, they would only seek the Church of the Void Mask to mediate, and had nothing to do with other aristocrats.
To put it bluntly, they had broken away from the aristocratic system and joined the clergy system.
This was not common, but it happened sometimes. Some weak aristocrats would often consider riding on the powerful church's coattails, and switch from the aristocratic system to the clergy system.
For those weak aristocrats, if they wanted to survive and continue their family, they would have to ride on the coattails. It did not matter which family they rode on. Compared to the aristocrats who looked gentle on the surface but were ruthless behind the scenes, most of the good churches were sincere, reliable, and trustworthy. The only problem was that the good churches had very strict requirements for the lords of their believers. If the family could not maintain the path of good in the future, it was very likely that they would be deprived of their territory — this had happened more than once in the past.
But even so, from time to time, there were still weak aristocrats who switched to the clergy system. After all, it was rare for the good church to deprive a family of its territory, but it was much more common for the big aristocrats to annex the small aristocrats.
The big aristocrats' most common method was to marry a daughter to a small aristocrat's wife, and then their children would naturally become the heir of the territory. If there was a problem with the family's inheritance, the big aristocrat, as the elder, could naturally come forward and arrange for one of the daughter's direct descendants to change their surname and inherit the family.
This so-called turtledove occupying a magpie's nest was not a very clever method, but it was completely in line with the aristocratic inheritance system. After all, in theory, the daughter's direct descendants also had the right of inheritance — although not much, the difference between "having" and "not having" was the most important.
Of course, there were other ways to make it even more beautiful. For example, a marriage that connected several generations in a row. Then, the two families would naturally have a connection between them. At that time, the small noble family would be swallowed up without a sound, and there wouldn't even be a chance for a dispute over inheritance rights.
In comparison, although the Church of Kindness had strict restrictions and regulations, they would never do such a thing.
Initially, Baron Dahl did not intend to change the nature of his territory. However, man proposes, God disposes. His eldest son, whom he had painstakingly raised, met with an accident not long ago. He did not die, but this "young man", who was already married and had a child, suddenly awakened a special bloodline.
Generally speaking, awakening a special bloodline was not a bad thing, but what if it was a demon bloodline?
This matter caught Baron Dahl completely off guard. Although he had already sealed off the news and no one else knew about it, that was not the crux of the problem. He was certain that his eldest son was his own son and a direct descendant of the Dahl family. If this child could awaken the demonic bloodline, then what about the other members of the Dahl family?
This was what worried him the most, especially after he had asked Archbishop Kabala to hold a secret large-scale ceremony and confirmed that his wife definitely did not have the demonic bloodline, his headache became even more intense.
In theory, the demon bloodline of his eldest son could have come from his maternal grandparents, who were the baron's father-in-law and mother-in-law. However, both of them had passed away long ago, and Baron Dahl was too embarrassed to dig up their graves for this matter. Besides, even if he dug up a pile of rotten bones, he would probably not be able to verify anything.
Moreover … To be honest, Baron Dahl felt that this bloodline was most likely passed down through the generations of the Dahl family.
He carefully thought back to the process of his ancestor's rise to power. No matter how he thought about it, this ancestor, whom he had always felt to be sly and shrewd, was actually as cunning as the legendary demons.
More importantly, after the ancestor's rise to power, he mysteriously died in the prime of his life, and his son did not show any special reaction. He originally thought that this ancestor had been killed by his son, but now that he thought about it … it was likely that the ancestor had discovered the signs of his bloodline awakening, and had no choice but to use death to avoid danger and protect the family.
Thinking about it this way, he was even more certain that the Dahl family's demon bloodline most likely came from this founding ancestor of the family.
Thus, the question arose. Was Baron Dahl, who most likely possessed the demon bloodline still suitable to be a lord?
Nonsense! Of course not!
Nobles cared the most about face, and the saying "honor is my life" was definitely not just empty words. There were many things that could not be brought to light. Once it was exposed, at best, they would be despised by others, and at worst, the legitimacy of the entire family would be questioned.
Possessing the demon bloodline was one of the more serious problems, and could probably be ranked in the top three in terms of severity.
Baron Dahl was very indignant about this. There were far too many filthy things in the noble circle. Although many people looked human, they were no better than demons in their bones. More than a hundred years ago, there was once a female noble who, in order to preserve her youth, captured the virgins of the commoners in her territory and drew their blood to bathe in.
Although Baron Dahl had the demon bloodline, he knew that he would not be able to do such a thing.
He was not a good person, but bad people also had to pay attention to style. Drawing human blood to bathe in? That was a disgrace to the "bad people" group!
Compared to such a vicious woman, demons were not necessarily that cruel.
However, no matter how indignant he was, the demon bloodline was still a problem that he could not avoid.
Thus, after much thought, he decided that the most appropriate way was to break away from the noble system and become a clergyman.
The Church of the Void Mask did not discriminate against any race or bloodline, even if it was the demon bloodline. He had specially asked Archbishop Kabala about this matter, and Archbishop Kabala had also specially held a prayer and directly asked the great Void Mask for instructions. The Void Mask's answer was, "As long as you abide by my teachings, not to mention the demon bloodline, even if you are a demon, I will still acknowledge your faith and be willing to protect you."
These words dispelled Baron Dahl's last concerns, and so he gathered the core members of the family and held a secret meeting. During the meeting, he explained the crisis that the Dahl family was facing, and called out the eldest son who had awakened the demon bloodline and had a small horn on his forehead to meet everyone. Finally, he invited Archbishop Kabala, who was also present, to hold a small bloodline screening ceremony.
The results of the bloodline screening were not out of his expectations. Among the core members of the Dahl family, there were no less than three who were found to have a weak demon bloodline.
In other words, the Dahl family really did have the demon bloodline, just that it was very weak.
Now that things had come to this, there was no other choice.
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