Chapter 69: Going Home With a Clean Slate
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Today was a special day to everyone in the outer city of Havenwright and the entire kingdom of Helius.
"Hey, have you heard? Something happened at the theater! Several mages caused chaos there that resulted in many deaths, and quite a number of others were captured!"
"Oh, really? Why didn’t I hear anything about it? The father of my son went to the street opposite the theater to visit the blacksmith and buy a hammer, and he ended up getting captured too! We have no idea when they will release him. G.o.d, it was just for a hammer!"
"Tell me about it. Say, where did all these mages come from in this kingdom?"
"Shus.h.!.+ Keep it down, I heard this was definitely related to the Fulners."
Gossip was heard everywhere on the streets. There were some who said the mages attacked the city; some said it was a n.o.ble’s uprising; others suggested that the King was a.s.sa.s.sinated; several even guessed that the Pope went insane... All of a sudden, everyone in the kingdom was terrified, and even the price of the wheat doubled.
No one in the kingdom knew what happened, but they did see the thousands of Holy Knights storm the theater and the blood-covered ground.
The gossip provided the materials required for chaos.
The witnesses to this incident -- the audience sitting in the theater -- were also removed by the Holy Knights to somewhere unknown. It was said that they were being interrogated now and have yet to be released. Thus, no witnesses could pa.s.s on the truth to the people.
Meanwhile, the church, who was the perpetrator of this incident, stayed quiet.
They only released a statement as an explanation on the evening the day after the incident. By then, the thousands of spectators were released.
This was how the church described the incident:
The activities of the mages in the kingdom has been steadily increasing. In an effort to curb the rampant evil forces, the church and Duke Accius Fulner plotted a trap for the mages.
Firstly, Duke Accius contacted an unknown mage organisation and worked to gain their trust. Then, he used the name of the Fulners and the organisation to recruit any mages hiding in the kingdom.
Finally, on the fated night, the Fulners used the performance as an excuse to gather the mages, and the church deployed the battalion of Holy Knights to capture them, once and for all.
As mages were skilled in the art of disguise, the Church decided to be cautious and kill everyone -- even if they got an innocent person -- just to ensure that no mage was accidentally released. It a.s.sumed all the staff in the theater were mages and annihilated every single one of them. Of course, they would never include this detail in the statement.
What else was written on the notice board, then? It was of course the numerous ‘crimes’ committed by the mages: Colluding with the devil, harming the public, spreading evil… At the end of the notice, another crime was added: Kidnapping the n.o.bles.
It wrote:
"Benjamin Lithur, son of Duke Claude Lithur, was found backstage and in a box. His head was injured, and he was unconscious and clad in tattered clothing when the Holy Knights rescued him and rushed him back to the church. The church confirmed that Benjamin Lithur was kidnapped, tortured and knocked out by these mages before he was brought backstage. He was fortunate to be recovered and he is now back with his family."
An ordinary citizen would either not read this excerpt, or if they did read it, they would proclaim the cruelty of the mages who dared to kidnap a n.o.ble. But this was too far from their lives, so they would not pay much attention to it.
For the n.o.bles, this excerpt was just another joke for them to gossip about the useless child of the Lithurs. Of course, some would also imagine that this was an act of revenge from the Fulners to the Lithurs, and come up with some conspiracy theories.
However, in the inner city...
As the character described in the excerpt, Benjamin kept rereading the text.
At this moment, Benjamin was reclined on his bed in his bedroom, lazily reading the copy of the statement that Jeremy got for him. He was deep in thought.
Yes, he was back in the Lithur Manor.
In fact, Jeremy was also rescued by the people from the church. Although his salary suffered from a ma.s.sive deduction, at least Jeremy was still alive and breathing. For now.
Benjamin was both relieved and saddened.
Once again, he escaped the throes of death.
He was climbing out of the box minutes before the show started when a realization hit him. Something was wrong.
A bunch of oblivious mages, gathered in a place? This was a trap! This happened in the theater owned by the Fulners, and coincidentally the head of the family, Accius, was suddenly called to the church for a meeting! You do not need a rocket scientist to guess what would happen next.
The people from the church are coming in for the kill! They were undoubtedly enraged when the Cleaners were wiped out earlier, and they took this opportunity to retaliate.
Benjamin made up his mind within a split second. He went back to the box and hid. Then, he ordered the System to forge a memory for the Church, and with his teeth clenched, he slammed his head towards the side of the box.
That’s right; Benjamin did not escape when he understood the Church’s schemes. Instead, he utilized this opportunity to wash off any suspicion on him and returned home with a clean slate.
It was now or never. As long as he faked a kidnapping and forged a flawless memory, he could blame the death of the Cleaners entirely onto the mages backstage. The church would not even suspect a thing.
Of course, to match with the fake memory, Benjamin must be unconscious when the Church found him. That was why he rammed his head on the box and knocked himself out.
Everything else happened just as he expected after that.
The Holy Knights appeared and slaughtered everyone; no one survived it, regardless if they were mages or ordinary people. Benjamin escaped the onslaught by hiding in the box, and when the Church searched the theater after the initial killing, they found an unconscious Benjamin.
They then brought Benjamin back to the church where the bishop recognised him. Everyone who saw Benjamin died in the theater, and the church had an agreement to not interrogate d.i.c.k. The bishop then read the forged memory. With that, Benjamin was confirmed to be innocent, and he safely returned to the Lithurs.
The process was indeed extremely perilous.
Benjamin was grateful that he managed to figure out the Church’s trap just in time for him to react effectively. If he did not think and instead escaped the backstage, he would be stopped by the Holy Knights in ambush. If that really happened, he probably would already be dead by now.
He was basically walking on a tightrope!
After he was filled with thankfulness, he was soon filled with grief.
There were nearly a hundred people backstage, 30 of them were mages. Only he survived. Although he did not know them, he still felt sad for his fellow mages.
He could now understand the reasoning behind Mich.e.l.le’s determination to overthrow the Church and to build a country for the mages.
Every mage in the kingdom was fatally impacted by this raid. Now, Benjamin estimated the number of surviving mages in the kingdom to be less than 3, him and Mich.e.l.le included.
Besides, the ‘unknown mage organisation’ must be the Silent Academy. There were no doubts about that.
Accius alone could not have been enough to gather the 30 mages without the help of the Silent Academy.
To be honest, Benjamin was apprehensive about the Church’s role in this.
He suspected the church was the one who plotted this ma.s.sacre much earlier than anyone expected. If they really planned it, why did they call Accius for a meeting on that day itself? The Holy Knights were also gathered only after the Cleaners were wiped out.
All of the evidence showed that the attack by the church was more likely to be spontaneous than a premeditated one. Just face it, if it was premeditated, there would be more than 30 mages in the theater.
Since it was not the church, then the only other possibility would be Accius.
Benjamin raised his eyebrows.
Accius was most probably secretly collecting mages.
He had probably antic.i.p.ated the incident in the theater, so he decided to come clean with the Church. This was his method to protect himself by sacrificing the mages he supported in exchange for the Church’s forgiveness.
If that was the truth, the Church probably only knew about the relations.h.i.+p between the Fulners and the mages that afternoon.
Something else must have happened in that time.
The church would not have gone to Accius without a reason. There must have been someone who told the Church about Accius’ relations.h.i.+p with the mages. Accius realized the situation before the Church investigated the matter, so he made the decision to sacrifice the mages to save himself.
Then…. Who was the whistleblower?
Benjamin sighed.
He stood up from his bed and walked towards the windows. He gazed at the sunset. St. Peter’s Cathedral was just outside the window, its sharp roof piercing into the sunset. The sky was so red it looked like a sea of blood.
A flock of unknown birds slowly flew across the blood red sun.
Compared to the outer city, the inner city of Havenwright was always quiet. Even the carriages and pedestrians on the faraway street looked like they were bathed in a layer of holy light, lending an air of peace and calm.
However, Benjamin felt deep and hostile currents gurgling just beneath the graceful glow.