Chapter 905: The Third Force
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"You’re really too much, killing a child as young as she was!"
In Benjamin’s brain, the System was yelling in a rather awkward, twisted tone of voice.
"It’s not that I wanted to kill her. Just that, in the state she’d been in before, what’s the difference between that and being dead?" Benjamin put the report in his hand down, sighing as he said, "I’ve already asked the two siblings to do a specific inspection. The imprint planted by the Church was very mysterious. It seems that it had existed since she’d been a year or two years old, and it would deepen more and more as she grew up. It’d have been impossible to get rid of it. So, the real her had died in the hands of the Church from the very beginning. I was merely giving that weak and declining body a quick ending."
Hearing that, the System was quiet for a moment, before its voice returned to its original, lazy tone. "Oh, whatever then. I was just looking for an opportunity to make fun of you."
Benjamin shook his head helplessly.
He stood up from the chair and walked out.
The suicide of the Princess, or as they called her, the Queen, was undoubtedly a huge blow to the Church. The Church had just kidnapped her from Worchester and brought her back to the Imperial Capital, only for everyone to see her dead at the doors of the palace the next morning, having hung herself. The implications of such details were just too strong. Without a question, everyone would feel that the Church had forced the Princess to die, just as they had hounded the Queen to death previously.
The Church had become a gigantic scapegoat. Such matters... There was just no room for argument.
It was apparent that they understood this principle as well, which was why they had begun completely sealing up the spread of the news in the morning of that same day. Havenwright was sealed up once more; no one was allowed to leave, and everyone at the palace who had witnessed that scene were all captured and locked up in prison. Until now, they had not yet been released. It was a pity that news of the death of the Princess still circulated little by little, even though they had practically blocked all channels through which the news could have been spread.
There was no other way. How was it possible to completely seal off the spread of such big news?
The rule of the Church had finally been pushed to the edge of the cliff.
There were uprisings happening in various places all over the kingdom, and were becoming slightly too overwhelming to suppress. More than half of the churches were being smashed by the locals, with swear words scribbled all over the walls and main doors. The people were furious and confused. They did not know what would become of the Kingdom of Helius; with the last member of the royalty dead, and the royal lineage being completely cut off, how would the Kingdom of Helius fare under such a situation?
Who would defend this country? Could this country... still be considered a country?
The sprouts of division had emerged in many places. Some local governments had even completely severed all connections with the Imperial Capital and begun building their own armies. It could be said that, if it were not for the fear of that bit of military power left with the Church, the entire kingdom would have probably fell apart right then.
Furthermore, under such a situation, the threat that the Church had posed to the Black Nightmare Army was also greatly weakened.
"The latest news is that they have spent a lot of gold to forcibly recruit an army of more than ten thousand men." After a week, the person in charge of the Black Operation came before Benjamin once more, reporting in a soft voice, "The royal army has begun getting ready to sortie. Only, we don’t know which place they’d head to."
Hearing that, Benjamin rubbed his chin and nodded.
A Church that had been forced to take desperate measures... How would they decide?
"Get those soldiers who have been pretending to be mages back into the camp. With things having gotten to this point, they don’t have to continue their disguises anymore." After mulling the matter over for a long time, Benjamin took a deep breath and spoke slowly. "We must prepare well. This might be the Church’s final struggle!"
Without question, having snuck into Worchester for approximately more than half a day, Grant would definitely have seen through those fake mages.
He knew that the Black Nightmare Army was actually quite hollow inside. Given the situation before their eyes, if Benjamin were him, he would definitely forget about everything else and charge towards Worchester, even if it was to vent his anger or to grab this final opportunity. Whatever it was... he would absolutely not let them take it so easily.
Because of that, he tried to contact the Academy of Magic to see if they could send some mages back to help them out. However, all the students and teachers of the Academy seemed to have already set out at the moment, to fill in the gaps at the Mercenary Guild. They were unable to spare them any help at all.
There was nothing Benjamin could do about it as well.
Thus, it was confirmed a day later that the Church was leading the royal army, and had set off towards Worchester once more.
The outside world was completely baffled by this decision. They had just been beaten off a short while ago, so why were they starting again? Had they been beaten up so badly that their brains were now fuzzy? Everyone felt that the Church was hitting its head against the wall due to the result of the first military campaign. Only the two parties involved knew that the disparity in military strength between them was even greater than before.
In actual fact, both sides had already suffered heavy losses. If they were to continue fighting, it would only inflict greater harm upon them. Therefore... Benjamin made a quick decision.
"The moment things look bad, we withdraw from Worchester. There’s no point forcing a fight against them." He looked at everyone in the great hall, speaking slowly. "Inform the men under your command to pack their things and conserve all of their energy, as well as they can."
Hearing that, everyone on the scene exchanged looks. It was obvious that there were still some people who were unwilling to leave. They had developed a sentimental attachment to the city they had risked death to protect.
"Then let’s fend them off again, can’t we?"
"Even if we could win, we’d still have to pay an enormous price. The entire Black Nightmare Army might even disintegrate in battle like that." Benjamin advised, giving his explanation. "The situation now is extremely disadvantageous to the Church. If we continue to drag this on, they would not be able to endure it themselves. What we should do is to continue preserving our strength, and attack when the enemy is down to their last breath."
"Alright..."
They understood the situation as well. Surely, it was not a wise decision to engage in battle now. Because of that, the people there finally nodded and turned to leave. They began preparing for their retreat.
Of course, the entire operation was done in an extremely clandestine manner. They must not let the Church catch whiff of the fact that they were about to slip away! Not only that, they also had to spread false signals so that the Church would think that they were about to defend stubbornly, until the end. They had to cause the Church to attack with all of their might, before discovering that they had merely taken down an empty city.
At the same time.
"Every person from the Academy of Magic have really withdrawn, there’s no mistake about the situation. This time, Worchester is ours!" It was noon. As the royal army marched on, a bishop followed Grant’s horse closely from behind, reporting as such to him.
Grant’s face was dark and sunken, however. He did not even wish to speak.
The bishop felt a flurry of panic in his heart when he saw the way he looked.
Ever since Her Majesty the Queen had died hanging at the great doors of the Palace, the bishop had never seen Grant in a good mood since. They had barely exchanged more than ten words during this period of time. In addition, after that incident, the situation had been deteriorating; the entire Church seemed to be shrouded in dismal clouds of sorrow. There was deep fear in the eyes of every person.
They had to make a move now, otherwise... the Church would be destroyed in their hands!
The royal army had only set out for battle this time because of that. The bishop was clear in his heart that they were gambling the last of their capital upon this operation. They would only be able to turn the situation around and piece together a lifeline if they could just take over Worchester and completely annihilate the Black Nightmare Army in this upcoming battle. Otherwise, if they were to let only a third of their enemy escape, they would be plunged into a dead end.
"Your Highness the Pope, don’t worry. The situation in various places isn’t that bad, actually." Seeing how terrible Grant looked, another bishop moved closed to him and said, "It’s all because of the existence of the Black Nightmare Army, making them feel so bold. That’s the only reason why they dare jump out so arrogantly. We just have to stifle the Black Nightmare Army’s bravado this time, and the rest of the rebels would obediently shrink back to their shells!"
Thus, having been advised for quite a while, Grant finally opened his mouth to utter a word. "...En."
Those few bishops secretly felt some relief.
The thing that they were most afraid of at the moment was His Highness the Pope’s emotions becoming unstable, letting that devil strike at his weakness when the time came. After all, his power was the greatest asset that the Church was currently relying upon. There was no other way. His Highness was unable to beat that devil in a forced fight; he could only keep his cool and think of ways to drag that man down.
"Report! We’ve bad news!"
However, it was at this time that a soldier suddenly appeared behind them, chasing and shouting after them.
At that moment, the bishops were almost pushed over the edge.
Over the past few days, they did not know how many times similar scenes had occurred. There were mages rebelling and causing chaos in some city in the north, another village in the west had suddenly lost contact with them, and a certain small town in the east had begun to raise their own army... They had been hearing so much bad news that they were already somewhat numb. All they felt was frustration in their hearts when they heard once more that there was new information.
Could all these not wait until they were done with the war?
"What is it?" Grant drew the reins on his horse and turned around, looking at the soldier with a shocked and ashen white face.
"Something, something big has happened!" That soldier finally caught up. Suppressing his voice, he reported in a rather panicked manner, "Your Highness the Pope, an unidentified army troop had just snuck in from Icor and taken over Crusader Gateway. Also, the gateway now... The flag raised on the gateway, is... Is..."
The bishops were completely rooted to the spot even before he had finished his sentence.
A murderous instinct that was difficult to control flashed through Grant’s eyes. However, he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
"What is it? Speak."
The soldier gulped and gathered his courage, saying, "It’s... the flag of the Wood family."