“Are you aware of the origin of our crusader order?”

Sett was surprised by the sudden by the cold-faced vice-captain that had suddenly become talkative enough to speak of history lessons, not that he was going to complain. Still, it was a rather odd timing.

“I believe my history teacher spent a solid five minutes on the matter during our Earth studies. Sadly, it was mostly surface-level stuff.”

Sett truthfully replied to Adina. History was an always expanding subject and it was impossible to teach about every single facet of it. It was hard for the teachers to cover the little over hundred years of Gliese Prime, let alone the thousands of years of history of Earth. The crusader orders and their history were one of the subjects that had largely been axed to make space for more current and important subjects.

Thus, Sett could only say that he was mostly ignorant to the matter. He knew about the surface knowledge of their order, but it was limited to stuff like their religion, who they fought, and the historical time period that they existed in, which was wrong considering that the order was still around.

“Our crusader order of Gliese Prime can trace its roots back to the original crusaders back on Earth for more than a thousand years. The ancestors of the crusader order fought many wars against countless different enemies. The early northern crusades against the pagans, the crusades against heretics within Christianity, and even the crusades for the holy land can be counted among the achievements of the earlier order members. Do you know what the common denominator between all those crusades was? Do you know why they fought those wars?”

“Because their enemies were heretics and heathens?”

“That is the reason that is often given to the public, yes, but there are much more behind it.” Adina gathered her thoughts. “While the mortal crusaders objective was to safeguard Christianity, the ascendant crusaders, the true rulers of the order, had much more dire objectives. They sought to protect their part of the world against much more dangerous foes.”

Sett could almost feel his brain clicking as her words sunk into it.

“They were protecting against other ascendants.”

“Yes.” Adina nodded. “The crusader order was one among many such orders and organisations on Earth that sought to safeguard the world against monsters and the greedy ambitions of some ascendants. Take the Ottoman Empire, one of the order's most unyielding enemies, for example. They expanded far too quickly to be natural. To the mortals, it simply appeared to a well-oiled war machine, but to ascendants, it was clear that there were more going on behind the scenes.”

Sett could vaguely remember learning about the Ottoman Empire, a small Sunni state that originated in the Anatolian peninsula which grew into a startlingly large empire in only a couple hundred years.

“Though records of the time have been restricted and even outright erased in some cases, it is theorised that the Ottoman sultans were collaborating with a number of evil interdimensional entities in order to empower their armies. This rather blatant display of ascendant powers brought them the ire of the international ascendant communities and eventually brought war to their shores, with the crusader order as the bulwark. Though the crusades are often said to have failed, the order’s ascendants were supposedly successful in their fight against the Ottoman ascendants, greatly crippling their connection to the interdimensional entities.”

Sett nodded along to Adina’s words, but he simply did not understand why she was telling him this history. What use did it have?

“Why are you telling me this?”

“While the order was often successful in their wars against their countless enemies, the order was frequently outnumbered greatly and in great need of outside support.” Adina continued her story despite Sett’s apparent confusion. “This support often came from the many kings, queens, organizations, and the church that held the power at this point in time. As time went on and the order became more reliant on outside support, the leadership of the order became more and more intertwined with the leadership of other countries and organisations.”

Slowly, but surely, Sett began to understand where Adina was going with her story and what she wished to explain.

“And you are still facing the same problem now?”

Sett spoke up, hoping to show Adina that he had listened and understood her words. Just from the way that Adina had spoken about the grandmaster’s meeting with the western Gliese Church, Sett could vaguely guess that their ancestor’s problems were still very much their own problem.

“Indeed.” Sett could swear that he almost saw Adina smile for a second. “Much has changed within the order, but we can never escape from the inner turmoil that has plagued us since our origin. While our Grandmaster is ‘independent’, it is clear for all to see that he is a puppet. Our current Grandmaster is in affiliation with the western Gliese Church, meaning that they currently control the order indirectly, while our last Grandmaster was under the boot of an aristocratic family.”

“Am I correct in guessing that the Sergeant’s enmity from earlier has something to do with this?”

“Right again.” A quick flash of anger appeared in Adina’s eyes as Sett’s words brought back the memory of what had happened earlier. “Every platoon in the order supports a potential Grandmaster in one way or another. We, the 69th crusader company, supported an independent potential Grandmaster, while Galloway’s platoon supported the current one. Although publicly the conflict between the potential Grandmasters have long since died out, the infighting that happens away from view has not.”

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Sett felt aghast. It was no wonder why Adina had not just punched the bratty Sergeant Galloway on his nose even when angered to such a point. The waste of human space had been trying to provoke her into fighting him. If she had gone berserk at him, all the blame would have laid with her. A small plot in the grand scheme of things, but one that could certainly work against Adina.

He almost wanted to spit in the direction of the Sergeant. To think that crusaders of all people would stoop to the level where they would use small ploys such as this to gain a leg up on their own supposed comrades. Frankly, it was a thing that he would have thought that only gang members would use, not dignified crusaders.

Still, this was clearly Adina warning Sett to be careful in what he was doing. There were great political turmoil and infighting in the crusader order and one wrong word or move could lead him into great trouble with one of the sub-factions. Hell, even if he did not try to trouble others, they might just bring the trouble to him given his friendship with Adina.

Sett suddenly thought of something. Could it be that Adina had brought him to the training fields in order to parade him around? Although she did not know exactly why she knew that he was going to meet with the Grandmaster. A one-on-one meeting with the Grandmaster was a rare sight that normally only the captains of the platoons were entitled to and even that was on the rarer side. For Sett to meet with the Grandmaster meant that he had some importance and by parading him around, she made it clear that they were affiliated.

If he had to tell the truth, Sett did not know whether he should applaud Adina for her cunning or curse her for forcing him to throw in his lot with them.

Still, what was done was done. Even if he would have liked to have the ability to make his own choice, there was still nothing he could do about the things that had already happened.

“Though the order seems united to outsiders, it is far from the truth. I urge you to be careful not to bring unneeded trouble to yourself or those who are close to you.”

“In that case, I will thank you for your warning.”

Leaving the training fields behind, with the countless eyes that were watching their every move, Adina led Sett towards another of the large islands. This one was the biggest among all the islands and placed where Sett would have guessed that the middle of the realm would be. Yet, despite its size, there was only a single building present on it.

This building was massive and made only out of the purest marble. It almost felt like the complete counterpart of the vampire’s great hall. Despite its great size, the building did not look out of place. It was almost as if the building had been designed entirely with the island’s nature in mind, letting it look as if it was completely natural.

Before they crossed the last step on the bridge connecting the two islands, Adina stopped Sett and looked at him with serious eyes.

“This island and building are known as the Grandmaster’s seat. It is the place where the Grandmaster resides and issues all his orders from. Needless to say, but you should try to be as respectful as possible while inside.“

Adina looked around, looking if there were others nearby. She then leaned closer to Sett and whispered.

“Be very careful of what you do and say in there. The walls have ears, and the plants have eyes. Any careless thing you do or say will be used against you. The Grandmaster, despite his undeniable ascendant tier, was not chosen because of his strength, but because of his cunning. He will try to fool you.”

Sett’s opinion of the order once again went down a peg. Adina made even the Grandmaster sound like a sleazy salesman.

Sett nodded slightly, attempting not to alarm any of the dozens of crusaders who stood guard at the entrance and around the island.

They then began approaching the building.

“Halt, state your purpose!”

They had not even made it halfway to the building before they were stopped by a crusader wearing a highly expensive piece of plate mail armour with pieces of gold inlaid.

“I am Vice-captain Adina of the 69th crusader company. I am here on orders to deliver this person to a meeting with the Grandmaster.”

Adina’s cold voice returned, allowing no emotions to be shown.

The crusader wearing the costly armour looked at the two of them suspiciously. Sett understood why. It was really suspicious for the Grandmaster to want to meet a person who did not even seem to be a first-tier ascendant.

“Please, stand by while I confirm your orders.”

While they were waiting for the crusader to contact his superiors, Sett became bored and began to scan the people surrounding him.

They were powerful. Even the lowest crusader in this place was closing in on being a second-tier ascendant while the vast majority were of the second tier and higher.

There was so much personal power concentrated here that it almost seemed wasteful. Such powerful people were wasting their time guarding that had little chance of being attacked. How could the crusader order be so wasteful?

No, a quick look at the man’s armour revealed that he was not from the crusader order. Instead, where the orders mark should have proudly been hung, there was only the emblem of the Western Gliese Church.

Sett immediately understood both the reason for their strength and their opulence. They were forces sent from a stronger faction to establish their hold on a weaker faction. It was only natural that the church's forces would not be sent on military expeditions.

“The orders were proven to be true. I apologize for the delay.”

The crusader saluted before them and spoke with much more respect in his voice than earlier, though much of it was directed towards Sett for some reason.

“Please follow me.”

They soon arrived before the massive gold inlaid wooden door of the Grandmaster’s residence. As they approached, the massive doors, that would have required ten strong men to open, swung open without a single sound.

Although Sett had prepared himself for the sight, he still felt startled at the sheer amount of money that been poured into the residence. Every wall had countless works of art hung upon them and many statues populated the halls. But what revealed the costly nature of the residence was not the art or statues, but what Sett saw with his mind’s eye.

Every surface in this place was plastered with countless different runes. Some were made to aid in defense in case of an enemy attacking the residence, but most of them were simply made to ease the life of the resident. The intricate design told tales of how much money it would have cost to the runes up.

Sett could only shake his head as they proceeded down the hallways. The display of wealth was simply too much. Each room was more abundant in wealth than the former.

Soon, they arrived before a final set of doors.

“Grandmaster, I have brought the guest as ordered.”

The doors swung open.