Chapter 161: A Trap Within a Trap

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Benjamin stopped hiding behind the rock. He walked out onto the middle of the mountain pass, looking straight at his opponent.

"...Andrew."

Andrew stood in front of him, opened his arms, and laughed saying: "Are you surprised?"

Considering his actions and attitude, it was as if he was a different person.

Benjamin was quiet for a moment, then shook his head and suddenly said: "I should have realised earlier, books on the creation of magical objects have already been collected by the church, if a mage were to learn about these things it would be difficult. Moreover, the communication pearls that you invented for the others, is similar to the church’s "God’s Eye"."

Now that he thought about it, Andrew disguising himself as a stuttering mage who was proficient in magical objects, hiding amongst the Mage Guild of the town of Crewe, was a work of genius.

Only... he refused to believe it. He was a mage, why would he side with the church?

"Is that right?" the smile on Andrew’s face disappeared, returning to calm, "If you really thought about it, you shouldn’t be here."

Following his words, the sound of marching footsteps was heard. The sound was so continuous like the continuous sound of the rain hitting the tiles. Very quickly, in the pitch darkness of the sides of the mountain pass, the silhouettes of humans appeared.

One of the first ones that appeared was a group of Priest wearing robes, when he counted, there were at least ten people; the red robes looked even more solemn in the moonlight. The one standing in front was wearing a robe that was somehow different from the others.

It was the Bishop and the Priest of the Crusader Gateway.

The Bishop and the ten Priest blocked the mountain road on both sides, encircling Benjamin completely.

"I don’t understand." Benjamin’s gaze fell on Andrew, "you are obviously a mage, why are you a spy for the church?"

Andrew just turned around, and first bowed down to the Bishop, then he glared at Benjamin.

"Because, the church is the future." His gaze held sincerity and disregard, as though he wasn’t answering Benjamin’s question, but was saying something deep and meaningful, "I just chose the right path."

Hearing this, Benjamin grunted in disgust.

"Then we have nothing to talk about."

Even today, there are mages that didn’t understand this principal, the church is their biggest enemy, each can destroy the other, and the victor can rebuild everything from scratch. Besides that, there are no other options.

A mage that seeks refuge from the church, can at most become a lamb beneath the shadow of the cross, being shaved for wool and milked. Once they have lost their function, they will be the feast, set on the Holy Spirit’s table.

‘Grant Lithur." the Bishop seemed disinterested as he looked at Andrew, then at Benjamin, "when I first saw you ten years ago, I didn’t think that we will meet again in this place."

Benjamin just felt like laughing.

He didn’t know how many times he had been mistaken as Grant.

It seems him replacing Grant in the news about the rifle was covered up well by St Peter’s Church; if the Bishop from the border didn’t know, then the public would definitely not know.

"My Lord Bishop." Thinking about this, Benjamin looked around him, and asked in return, "you spent so much effort to lure me out, wanting to corner me, surely you must be with more people than this right?"

Hearing this, the Bishop was shocked but laughed and said, "you’re right, for someone who can make such a big fuss in the kingdom, the infamous Water Demon, I should have shown you more respect."

As he said this, he snapped his fingers.

As he smiled calmly, the sound of many more footsteps was heard. But what was different was that these footsteps sounded more uniform and louder, as though following the bass of a rock music festival.

Suddenly, an uncountable number of patrol guards came out from the darkness. They stood behind the Priest, their footsteps coming to a halt. their movements were synchronized, backing up through the whole path, making the narrow mountain road even more crowded.

"These people are more than enough." The Bishop waved his hand, as though he was showing off to Benjamin his grand ambush, "besides them, at every road in the place, I have sent a Priest and a team of patrol guards, this is for security - you will never escape from this place."

Is that so...

Benjamin looked at the endless sea of soldiers, not saying a word.

It wasn’t that he was confused, only that he suddenly remembered in the beginning, he used water particles to spy on the internal workings of the Crusader Gateway, stopping at the Bishop for only few seconds but was immediately detected by the him.

"So this is to say that since the beginning, you knew I was in the town of Crewe?" he asked.

Initially, Benjamin thought the Bishop only had a strong sixth sense, and didn’t really spare it much thought. What he didn’t consider, was that his enemy knew of his existence right from that instant.

The Bishop nodded his head and said: "That is correct, I wasn’t sure of your identity, so I had Andrew guide you behind the scenes, letting you join the Mage Group. After that when you met with Andrew again, from then on we knew your true identity."

...Mage Group?

When he heard about this, he was silent for a while. Suddenly, his face changed as he said, "You already knew of the Mage Group’s existence."

Once he said this, not only the Bishop but also the rest of the Priest also showed him a harsh smile.

"More than just knowing about it." The Bishop shook his head and said, "it is like killing rats: we get them to gather together, and we keep them; once there are enough of them, we’ll kill them all at once. Every two years, we will guide all the mages that have been stuck here because of the gateway, let them create the Mage Group, and when the time is right, to destroy them all together. Actually, it almost time for the day of harvest, the only thing is that I had a hunch that you would think that you can escape from here, so I let them stay a while, as a bait for you."

... So, the existence of the group, was only the church’s trap.

No, it can’t even be called a trap, at most they were just a handy means. Just like sowing seeds in the springtime, and reaping them in the fall, something so simple, how can it be a conspiracy?

That’s right, an average group of mage apprentices, managed to build Mage Group right under the noses of the church, it would be impossible.

Benjamin sighed.

He didn’t feel surprised, only dissapointed.

The boss lady, Augustine, old blacksmith, they have been in town of Crewe for about a year, they even have their own businesses; never talking about escaping the kingdom, only thinking about hiding their names and living here. Everyone still thought, being able to find so many of them in a town was a good thing, as though the wandering mages finally found a place that they belonged.

They discussed meditation and magic, the things happening in their own families, even about the fresh gossip that appeared in town. No matter who was in trouble, the others will always try to find a way to help, they weren’t strangers anymore, they were each other’s family.

But... what about now?

In the end, their sense of belonging and affirmance, was only a trap by the church.

They couldn’t even tell that this was a conspiracy.

What if in the end, the church will gather up their nets, and kill them all. Their genocide was something that occurred every two years, and they weren’t the only ones, nothing special, commendable or cherished. What an unremarkable way to die.

This kind of harvested death, there were already so many other mages who went through it before them.

"You don’t have to be scared, if I wanted to kill you, I would have already done it." The Bishop saw that Benjamin was silent, not saying a word, and continued on saying, "you can see, there are mages working for us, my way of doing things and the Bishop of St Peter’s church is different."

Hearing this, Benjamin came to his senses and laughed coolly, saying: "You’re right, you refused to make your move, until I led you to this wilderness only then will you show yourself, maybe you don’t want the church in the capital to know about me. If not, the Bishop would have already done something, instead of creating this "sending patrol guards bearing crosses" farce of a plan, and luring me here."

While listening to all of this, the Bishop didn’t look frustrated, instead there was admiration on his face.

"You guessed correct, I cannot let anyone else know that you are in town of Crewe." He nodded his head and said, "if the people in the capital knew, they will be more alert, and everything I want to do after this will be under scrutiny and. So right from the start, I sent the Quartermaster to send you the keys, and sent the merchant mage out to buy food, hoping to lure you into the gateway. That guy couldn’t even hold his liqueur, the keys didn’t reach you, it almost ruined my plan."

...So that’s what happened.

At that moment, Benjamin was a little shocked.

He didn’t think, the Quartermaster who was drunk in front of him, was actually sent by the Bishop as bait. The food order that Varys received, was also a trap by the Bishop to lure him into the gateway.

What a game plan.

Thinking about this, Benjamin could only feel it was a good thing the Bishop was more anxious than he was, forcing this trap in the mountains before Benjamin tried to sneak into the gateway himself. If he had, Benjamin could really be stuck in the gateway with a broken wing.

But...

The Bishop wanted to keep things under wraps, not wanting the people in the capital to know about this. He should really have thought this through.

"You want to rebel? Aren’t you afraid of your so called God’s wrath?" he spoke as his eyes swept across the people behind the Bishop. However, whether it was the other priest or the patrol guards, they had the same indifferent look, as though they weren’t surprised by this.

... that was interesting.

At first glance, the entire Crusader Gateway belonged to the royal family and the church, but in reality, it belonged to only to this Bishop.

"By God’s will, no one can rebel." The Bishop had a solemn look on his face, "His Majesty the Pope has not appeared for eight years, and when he did, he just disappeared again in two months, this looks very suspicious to me. I just wanted to know if his Majesty the Pope was still alive. You come from the capital, the chaos that caused his Majesty the Pope to disappear was caused by you, you must know what the capital is hiding. "

Benjamin shook his head nonchalantly.

Truthfully, whatever the Bishop said next, he wasn’t listening anymore. If the pope was locked up, then the Bishop has all the power, but that Bishop didn’t do anything - the internal workings of the church was compromised, leading to infighting. But honestly, Benjamin really did not care one bit about who had power over the church.

Even though he did not want to admit it, he cared about the silly mages of the town of Crewe. He only wanted to lead them out of this hellish Kingdom of Helius.

"Shaking your head? Is it that you don’t know, or you don’t want to tell me?" the Bishop squinted, murderous intent dripping from his eyes.

Andrew stood to the side, and used a threatening voice: "You have nowhere left to run. Having said that, you can be like me and have a bright future. If you don’t agree, death will be the only option for you."

Hearing this, Benjamin just shrugged.

Bright future...

Suddenly, he sighed a breath, touched his hand to his forehead, and spoke to himself, rambling away: "the number of guard patrols in the Crusader Gateway is about two thousand, the guard here now should be about one thousand. I’m not too sure about the number of priests, there are about ten here, added on with the number guarding the other mountain roads, should be about that amount. If it’s like this..."

As he said this, his voice became softer, his eyebrows knitted together. He kept muttering odd numbers, like a student who was called up in math class, and did not know how to do calculations in his head.

Seeing this, the Bishop and the Priest were confused.

"What are you thinking about? You... How do you know the number of people in the gateway?" Andrew hesitated for a while before asking.

Even though there was no reason for being flustered, his words were a jumble in his mouth. Still, compared to when he was acting like a stutterer, this sounded much more natural. To Benjamin’s ears at least, it was much more pleasant.

"If there are so few people left in the gateway, then it should be about time." When he said this, Benjamin stopped his incoherent rambling. He lifted his head and faced the people surrounding him, opened his arms and revealed an innocent smile on his face.

He looked as innocent as a cat, purposely pushing a vase over, and blaming it on the sleeping husky, later acting innocent in front of its owner.

"I just think that you should look behind you." He reminded them kindly.

Hearing this, the Priests were surprised for a moment, and then with a skeptical look on their faces, they turned and looked at the town of Crewe.

The sky was dark, and even with the moonlight they couldn’t see much. Right at that moment, the sky above the Crusader Gateway lit up with fire, it was with that light that they could make out the outline of the town.

"That, that is..."

Besides Benjamin, everyone else had a shocked look on their faces.

It looked strange in the firelight, it wasn’t a natural fire as the flames were floating in midair. Looking carefully, it looked like countless fireballs gathered together, with people directing it from below, changing it into certain shapes.

The night was dark, and the flame was their only source of light. It floated in midair like a spirit, above the town of Crewe, facing the thousands of people in the mountains, facing the entire Kingdom of Helius, it smiled.

The fire changed shape and formed a simple sentence, it was like someone wrote a short sentence in the sky above the Crusader Gateway with flames. A propaganda slogan, a banner or the like.

But it really was a simple sentence.

It was so simple, everyone in the town of Crewe understood it, the tourist on the road understood it, the thousands of men on the narrow mountain road with Benjamin also understood. The hundreds of people in the radius around the Crusader Gateway, those who were ready to sleep, were all attracted by the fire, turning their curious eyes towards it.

Looking at it, everyone was stunned, some yelled in surprise, some laughed, some were so angry they stomped their feet. But no matter what, it remained the main character for the night. Very quickly, this image will be propagated to the rest of the Kingdom of Helius, sent to the entire land, and soon become the talk of everybody in the land.

The fire didn’t last too long, only about two minutes, then it disappeared, but it caused a commotion that could not be quelled. In fact, heated discussions had already begun, the words written in flame in midair, already left a deep impression in the hearts of the people.

Just like as if it was playing on a loop, everyone was either silent, or are unable to stop themselves from saying the sentence. It was as though it had become a strange spell, said by people from different places, with different identities, and different countries, something so simple yet so crude was being said everywhere:

"The church is so retarded."