Chapter 907: A Game of Chess from the Deceased
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Just as Benjamin was stuck with confusion, a voice suddenly spoke from behind him, causing both him and the person in charge of the Black Operation to jump in shock.
"Hi." The two of them turned around in astonishment, only to see Miles. They did not know when he had popped out; he was now leaning against the corner of the wall in the room, speaking in a nonchalant manner. "It’s been a long time since we’ve met. You seem to living quite comfortably here."
Benjamin blanked out for a few seconds, before letting out a sigh of relief.
"You’ve finally awakened," he shook his head helplessly, saying, "the Academy had sent word to me before this, saying that the treatment had originally still been ongoing, but you’d suddenly disappeared from the sickbed. You barely left a footprint behind. They’d even thought that some elemental mutation had occurred and wanted to send people out in search of you. But... I knew that you must’ve awoken and ran off on your own."
Mile shrugged. "I’d been lying down for so long, I’d have needed to come out and move my body anyway."
"You can say whatever you want to say..." Benjamin rubbed his chin. As though a thought had struck him, he suddenly switched the conversation to another topic. Recovering his stern expression, he asked, "It seems that you’re definitely involved in the breaking through of Crusader Gateway?"
The timing of his appearance had been so coincidental. In addition to that, there was the fact that the gateway had been conquered easily. There was no way for him not to overthink the matter.
Hearing that, Miles did not say anything. However, he nodded.
Benjamin hurriedly inquired of him, "What on earth happened? You’ve had some close connections with the Wood family previously, so you’d definitely know the inside story, right?"
Miles shrugged, saying, "There’s actually no inside story. There was an extreme lack of defense troops within the gateway. They’d found a few mages to attract attention, then I’d secretly snuck in. Finally, working in coordination from the inside and out, we attacked and secured the place."
"You make it sound really easy, indeed." Benjamin shook his head, before continuing to ask, "Such a huge army. Where on earth did it came from?"
"This... I’m not too sure about the actual situation, but the honorable duke seemed to have been planning this since a long, long time ago. Everything had happened very discreetly. It was only when Duke Collin died in the accident that Elizabeth received a visit from a few knights who informed her of everything." Miles pondered as he spoke. "The entire army consists of twenty thousand men. Originally, I think it was formed by large scale Mercenary Groups, divided into over a hundred forces. They had been low profile with their activity all this time, in Icor. Then, after the honorable duke died, over a hundred branches gathered together to form the great army that has now invaded the Kingdom of Helius."
Listening to him, Benjamin felt that it was slightly unbelievable.
An army of twenty thousand, over a hundred Mercenary Groups...
Truth be told, merely providing for an army was already extremely costly, not to mention if it had to be done outside the country, raising one secretly in such a complicated manner. If he thought about it carefully, the expenses for daily operations of over a hundred Mercenary Groups... Although Benjamin could be considered rather wealthy now, it was still slightly difficult for him to imagine the sum.
Furthermore, Duke Collin had undoubtedly spend immense amounts of time and effort to be able to get all these done. This was not a coincidence, and even more so, it had nothing to do with his own sudden death. This was definitely a secret plan that he had prepared for a very long time. Even Benjamin had not noticed it beforehand.
Without a doubt, a plan that caused such trouble and suffering must have a goal that would commensurate with the cost.
Benjamin believed that he had definitely not done it to protect himself; if he had wanted to protect himself, he should have taken his chance when the situation had been calm to escape the country. He would not have had to mix himself in with these trivial matters between the mages and the Church. Even more so, he would not have gotten involved and died. Benjamin would go as far as to feel, vaguely... that Duke Collin might have even taken his own death into account.
"What on earth does he want to do?"
"This, I’m not clear on." Miles shook his head and said, "According to sources, the honorable duke had left a letter for Elizabeth, but... Due to various reasons, I did not peek, neither have I tried to dig out information on this."
However, Benjamin suddenly drew near and lowered his voice. "Then... if I were to hope that you’d go and fish for information?"
Miles immediately looked troubled.
"Don’t, please spare me."
"...Alright."
Benjamin had no choice but to temporarily give up on the question. The Wood family had always shown kindness to Miles, so it was very difficult for him to request that Miles undergo intelligence work in this aspect. Moreover... Duke Collin could still be considered his ally, whether alive or dead. Having an ally with a hidden hand could still be deemed as a good thing to him.
He was merely acting upon his curiosity. In addition, he had been kept in the dark all this time, so he felt slightly strange about it.
"How about Elizabeth?" After some thought, he asked again. "Her emotions should be quite stable if she can led her soldiers into battle. But, to suddenly have an army shoved into her hands, she should have some of her own ideas, in addition to Duke Collin’s arrangements, right?"
"You’re talking about..."
"Her purpose of going out to battle this time."
Hearing that, Miles raised his hands and shook his head, saying, "Aren’t you just asking me about the letter in a roundabout way?" This... I really don’t know as well. Elizabeth has come to take revenge. That much is publicly known, at least. Oh, right. She’s also asked me to give you a few words."
"What words?"
"I can’t really remember the specifics, but she and the honorable duke are extremely grateful for all the effort you’ve put into fighting the Church, all this while."
Hearing that, Benjamin frowned.
Grateful towards him? There seemed to be something wrong, somewhere... He did not know why, but at that moment, he felt as though he had been used. It was as though everything he had done, had suddenly turned into stepping stones in Duke Collin’s masterplan.
Furthermore, if he were to think about it carefully, everything had started when Duke Collin had invited him over to the Kingdom of Helius and asked him to help rescue the King who had been under house arrest. From there, things had progressed, step by step, until today.
Benjamin felt chills when he thought about it.
He must figure the plan out clearly.
"Also, she’s given me something to pass to you. She said that you’d understand what it means when you see it." Miles hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth to speak once more. He reached into his pocket as he spoke, and pulled out a ring before placing it in Benjamin’s hand.
"This is..."
"Don’t ask me, I don’t know as well. It’s none of my business, I’m just passing it on." Miles seemed to have finally tossed away a hot potato. He immediately gave a sigh of relief and put up both hands, claiming ignorance to everything.
Benjamin could only look to the ring.
...He would understand once he saw it?
Understand his ass!
He felt confused, having been mysteriously given a ring. A diamond ring at that, so there was an extremely strange feeling. He could not figure out why Elizabeth would want to give this thing to him. Was there some sort of special meaning? At any rate, he was completely unable to find anything in his memories that was the least bit connected to this.
Suddenly, as though he had thought of something, he gave the System an order in his heart. "Search the memories of the original Benjamin."
After a momentary silence, the System gave an answer.
"This is your engagement ring." It used the calm tone of voice that robots should have, as it gave an objective recount. "On a certain Tuesday evening, just after your eleventh birthday, in a classroom of an elite school, an altercation had occurred between you and a few classmates. You had taken the ring off in front of everyone and tossed it out a window on the third floor, officially dissolving your engagement with Elizabeth Wood."
Hearing that, Benjamin was stunned.
The System suddenly underwent a change in its tone of voice. With a forced feeling of innocence, it continued to speak like a child telling a story. "From that day onwards, this ring seemed to have vanished completely. No one had seen it. The truth was... that it had been picked up by Elizabeth herself!"