Chapter 1: The Burning Execution Stake
The thick smoke was billowing, every breath was like the ragged bellow’s heavy sound, like the burning of the throat and lungs, Xia Feng’s consciousness was starting to blur up.
“I can’t, I can’t sleep, I will die.”
“Stay awake, must absolutely stay awake!”
…..
The boundless crimson color suddenly dimmed, the deepest, heaviest pitch-black appeared, Xia Feng seemed as if he was drowning, struggling to grab onto anything that could help himself change his powerless state, to get rid of this unspeakable darkness.
Suddenly, in front shone a bright red light, much like the rising sun.
Under its shine, Xia Feng felt he recovered a little bit of strength, and then he used everything he had to draw closer to the red light.
When Xia Feng drew strength from the light and truly took the final step, the brilliant rays became even brighter, turning from red to pure white, then the dark cave was completely smashed to pieces and instantly vanished.
“Whew.” Xia Feng fiercely sat up, taking in deep breaths, he actually dreamed of himself in a terrible fire, moreover, before the fire reached him, the sleeping him inhaled too much smoke and sunk into a coma, only being able to fuzzily, hopelessly wait until the flames spread over. It was comparable to the sleep paralysis he had a few times before, clearly he knew he was dreaming and want to struggle free, yet had no strength and no control.
This dream was unusually real, Xia Feng had lingering fears, plus he did not see signs of the big fire, that’s why he sat in a daze for a long time.
Along with the rapid heartbeats slowly returning to a steady pace, Xia Feng’s attention returned, and he remembered he was in the school library’s overnight-reading room rushing his graduation thesis, he self-joked: “Recently it has all been this type of irregular all-nighters, no wonder I would have this kind of realistic nightmare.”
But as soon as Xia Feng looked forward, preparing to pack up and return to the dorms, the foreign and unimaginable scene in front of him was like having a giant hammer striking his head. He suddenly froze, his mind blanked-out.
Before him it wasn’t the beautiful wooden desk of the library, it was not the disorderly reference books, it was also not the draft of his thesis which planned to type into the computer. There was only a black, corners tattered blanket, and this blanket happened to be on top of his body.
The place he is sitting in now is not the library’s high-back chair, and is rather a narrow wooden bed.
“Where is this?!”
Although Xia Feng’s personality was a little introverted and shy with a slow reaction, but at the moment no matter what even he found that various things didn’t match up. Even if he was really on fire and got sent to the hospital, this didn’t look like the hospital either!
His heart tensed, and he frantically looking at the surroundings and as in a reflex-like action, Xia Feng hurriedly went towards the side and wanted to stand up.
Just when he stepped on the floor, Xia Feng felt a wave of extreme weakness and dizziness, both of his legs became soft and he was about to faint.
Xia Feng panicked and extended his hand, propping himself up on the bed and steadying himself. His complexion was deathly white, and he felt ill-at-ease, just now with a “graceful” glance Xia Feng already sized up his surroundings.
A dilapidated, narrow little house. In the house, except for the wooden bed by his side, there was also a wooden table that was about to fall apart anytime, two decent chairs, a holey crate, and on the other side of the wooden door on the verge of collapse, there seemed to be a stove which you can’t tell the original color and an earthen jar by its side, below the stove the firewoods had long gone out without a hint of heat radiating from it.
Everything was this unfamiliar, Xia Feng had no way to determine where this place was, and the continuous weakness caused Xia Feng’s mind to be even more chaotic.
“Where am I really at?!”
“My body feels like I’ve just came out of a serious illness, just like that time in high school with pneumonia.”
……
Countless thoughts resound in his mind, but Xia Feng had never encountered this kind of weird event. Having an introverted personality, he was at a lost on what to do and a deep panic quickly began to root itself.
The only thankful thing was, nothing too annoying had appeared yet and allowed him to take a few deep breaths out of old habit and slowly calm his anxiousness. At this time outside of the small house came a loud shout:
“Burn the witch! Aderan Church is going to burn the witch!”
[TL: I think it’s Adrian Church but it sounds like a name so I just used Aderan]
“Everyone go see quickly!”
“Kill the d.a.m.ned, evil witch!”
Fear and excitement, these two sharply contrasting emotions, were expressed clearly in a strange accent, this event threw off his fear and his curiosity rose, talking to himself: “Witch? What kind of world is this?”
As a novel-loving adult, a bad premonition grew in Xia Feng’s heart, but before he had time to ponder on it, with a bang, the pitiful shabby wooden door was forced open and a 12-13 year old boy rushed in
“Lucien-dage [honorific: older brother] …” A little boy with short brown hair, wearing a knee-length linen shirt saw Xia Feng who standing by the bedside and was both surprised and happy: “You’re awake?” (Nooooo he’s a zombie)
Xia Feng looked at the clothes different from the modern styles and numbly nodded his head, his mind a complete mess, he had an absurd idea: “Lucien, witch, church, burn to death, can it be that I really time-traveled, and even yet I came to the witch hunts of the Dark Ages in medieval Europe?”
Events always move in a bad development, Murphy’s Law grimly reminded Xia Feng, the boy’s hair color, the dirty old linen clothes were all proof of this, as to the boy’s language, Xia Feng’s body instinctively could understand it as if he could also use it, but since there is still a long way to being a linguist, he had no way to determine which language is it.
Seeing Xia Feng’s restlessness, the boy with blots of ash across his face did not find it strange: “Mom kept refusing to believe me and even secretly cried in the middle of the night. Her eyes were swollen and she repeatedly said ‘Poor little Evans,’ like Lucien-dage had been buried in the graveyard already.”
“Dad was helplessly annoyed, early in the morning he went to find Simon family’s bad son to send a letter to Sir Wayne’s manor, to ask older brother to find a way and come back. He is already a trainee knight chamberlain, the Virtuous Hall’s doctor did not dare to insist on that outrageous and ridiculous price.”
Speaking of his older brother, the little boy lifted his head slightly with a kind of heartfelt proudness.
“But, now everything is fine, they lost, I was right, how could anything have happened to Lucien-dage!”
While speaking, he pulled on Xia Feng’s arm: “Let’s go, Lucien-dage, let’s hurry to the church’s plaza to see the burning of that witch, she’s the hateful witch who caused you to be arrested by the church guards and interrogated for a whole night!”
With this big change, Xia Feng who was just planning to quietly reflect on life did not planned to go with the boy to join in the action, not to mention it was a direct burning of a live human; it was something that the self-proclaim good-hearted Xia Feng could not accept. Since he was powerless to prevent it, then it’s better if he did not see it at all, but the little boy’s last world shocked Xia Feng: “This witch and I have some involvement?”
As a result Xia Feng changed his mind and put away his astonishment, letting the little boy pull him and stumble towards the Aderan Church.
On the way, Xia Feng seized the opportunity to evaluate the crowd who were also heading towards Aderan Church.
The weather was warm, the men basically wore short sleeves linen shirt, the same color pants and backless shoes. The women wore a simple solid-colored long dress, on the dress was often sewn a large pocket. A common points was that their clothes were plain and worn out.
Most of them were brunettes with brown eyes mixed with blondes, red hair, black hair, blue eyes, red eyes, blue eyes, etc. Their facial features were deep with a very firm feel.
“Is it really the Middle Ages?” Xia Feng looked upon himself, the same linen top, the same long pants, the same backless shoes.
Coming out from the area of old, low houses of the commoners, it did not take long before the small but imposing church could be seen, a towering semicircle dome, a huge white cross nailed to the top, and on the bottom the windows were very narrow.
The square was already packed with people, the little boy pulled Xia Feng flashing left and right nonstop, heading front and attracted a lot of people’s angry looks, but this was the church plaza and they did not dare to beat up these two a.s.sholes.
Squeezing for a short while, the view in front of Xia Feng suddenly opened up, they had already pushed to the very front rows.
In the middle of the plaza stood a wooden cross, tied to it was a pale, and rather quite pretty twenty-years old black robed woman.
The surrounding ma.s.ses from time to time took the rocks, wood splices, saliva, and so throwing it towards the black robed girl, the sound of cursing mix together:
“Kill this d.a.m.ned witch.”
“You witch has been hiding in our Aderan grounds, you must certainly want to kill us all!”
“My poor Tracy died four months ago from illness, it must be done by you evil witch! Wuu, my poor Tracy…”
……
Occasionally being hit, the black robed girl but just tightly pressed together her thin lips, not uttering a slight groan of pain, but instead seemed like a statue looking at people standing on the church steps.
The front was a middle-aged man wearing a gilded-border large white robe with a white soft top hat, holding a badge with a white painted cross. He quietly watched, not speaking, stately and solemn, while behind him stood several men and women, clean and neat, complexion florid, providing a stark contrast with the dirty and poor in the plaza.
Behind these white robed people stood a row of silver chainmail wearing guards, mighty and extraordinary.
The middle-aged man took out what seemed like a pocket watch and seeing that time was almost up, he walked forward a step, one hand raising high the circular badge.
Immediately, the plaza’s anger, hatred, and argues suddenly quiet down, perfectly in sync.
In the whole square was only left the rustles of clothes from the wind.
Xia Feng was very surprised, even in the modern times in order to achieve this level of obedience and conditioned reflect, it at least takes a few months of training, and these who looked like the poor commoners, how could they do it? What kind of power allowed them to do this?
The middle-aged man holding a badge, his voice was not loud yet was spreaded throughout the plaza: “Poor sinner, you are confused by the devil, in vain attempts to acquire a sinister power, from the body to the soul you are filled with impureness, only the Holy Light can purify you. This is the Lord’s punishment, but it is also the gift of the Lord, it is the Lord’s forgiveness of the lost sheep.”
“Burn her, burn her!” The surrounding poor was spa.r.s.ely spread but neatly cried out.
The confusion and fanatical scene caused Xia Feng to shiver all over, if anyone learned that he time-traveled, the next person on that cross would be Lucien whose soul was invaded by an evil demon.
“Before I purify you, the kind and tolerant Lord allowed me to ask you: “Do you willingly repent? A sincere repentance can let your soul be completely purified and you will be allowed into the kingdom of heaven where the Lord lives.” The middle-aged man warmly and sympathetically asked.
The black robed woman suddenly laughed crazily, her voice shrill: “I have sought the truth of magic, and not the G.o.d of truth, burn me to death, I will look amid the flames at the destruction of this sinful kingdom, the collapse of this splendid church.”
“Lunatic!”
“How vicious!”
“The bishop’s mercy was returned with a curse, these wizards who let their hearts be blinded by the devil should die!”
“Burn her!”
The bishop did not say anything, but the surrounding ma.s.ses were caught in a shouting madness.
It was Xia Feng’s first time in his life being in an unreasonable and fanatical atmosphere, amongst the shock he could not help but think: “The Middle Ages of Europe sure is dangerous!”
“But, there is no woodpile, how are they going to burn her?”
Although towards the black robed woman he had some compa.s.sion and pity, but Xia Feng did not make the slightest move, otherwise one rock from each person would be enough to crush him to death.
The bishop prayed a few words, then his voice became loud and clear without a hint of emotion: “Sinner, then you can go to h.e.l.l under the Holy Light of purification.”
The crossed badge in his hands suddenly erupted a bright light, dazzling everyone, and all Xia Feng could see was a white vast expanse.
It was as if in the bishop’s hands he held a little sun, solemn, majestic and sacred, including the little boy at Xia Feng’s side, everyone bowed their heads silently in prayer and praised together.
The light gathered and shot towards the blue sky, when it reached the dome’s height, the light folded down and hit upon the wooden cross.
The red flames soared and sparked off up until it was a person’s height and entirely enveloped the black robed woman.
She laughed crazily, wildly cursing:
“I will look amid the flames at the destruction of this sinful kingdom.”
“I will look amid the flames at the collapse of this splendid church.”
“I will look amid the flames and watch you all sink forever into the abyss!”
……
The mournful voice endlessly entered everyone’s ears, the black robed woman along with the cross turned to ashes.
And Xia Feng had already became stunned when that badge began to emit light:
“This is not the Middle Ages of Europe…”
“This is a world with real divine power and magic!”
“My name is Lucien…”