Release That Witch

Hearing Ed's words, Timothy remained speechless for a moment. "Indeed, it's strange. I sent Lehmann Hawes to sack the Western Region two months ago. Counting in the time spent on the road, now it's time for him to report or return to the king's city."     

Timothy was clear that Lehmann and his knights who had merely 1,500 drugged men could hardly occupy the Western Region, so he had only told Lehmann to try to take control of the Western Region if possible. Their main tasks were to bring back the pills of the stronghold church, investigate the battle between Duke Ryan and Roland, and launch drugged men attacks to consume Roland's effective strength before leaving the town.     

This tactic of drugged men attacks paid off during his battles against Garcia. Even if he had not capture Port of Clearwater at once and all the drugged militia members had been killed, his knights would have still managed to get back safely. As long as they could mass another group of useless people, they could launch another round of attack like that.     

This time, however, out of Timothy's expectation, he had heard nothing from Lehmann Hawes and his platoon of knights since they had left.     

"Maybe he's attacking the town or on the way back." Timothy finally opened his mouth to give Ed some unconvincing explanations instead of the most possible one. "With any luck, I'll receive information from him when I return to the king's city."     

"Your Majesty, if you receive any news, could you please..."     

"Tell you the information he's come back?" Timothy nodded. "Of course, I'll send a carrier pigeon to you at that time."     

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"     

Leaning on a railing, the new king looked at the dark, cloudy sky. He occasionally saw a lightning in the clouds and heard muffled, deep thunders coming from a long distance away. His heart sank.     

Ed's question neutralized his excitement of finally conquering Port of Clearwater. Garcia Wimbledon, as he had expected, had fought back. Tilly Wimbledon, out of his expectation, had left Graycastle. As for Roland Wimbledon, Timothy thought what he had done was unimaginably queer. The new king had thought he would have never needed to worry about this incapable little brother who would have soon got tired of the dull, remote town and returned to the king's city by himself. However, what had happened in the town was contrary to what Timothy had thought.     

Roland had stayed in the town and survived the Months of Demons. He had even defeated Duke Ryan and seized Longsong Stronghold. Now, Timothy wondered what had he done again to make Lehmann and his 1,500 militia men lose touch.     

He did not know very much about this younger brother. Neither Garcia nor Gerald had liked to play with him in childhood. When Roland had grown up, he had only seen him on banquets in the palace and heard quite a lot about his numerous bad deeds. Even their father had not liked him very much. But based on what had happened after he had gone to the town, Timothy doubted whether he had been hiding who he really was all the time.     

Soon he vetoed that idea. No one was born to know how to disguise or deceive. Smart as Tilly was, she had not been very different from a common little girl in childhood except for her talent in learning. Given that, Roland's change must be caused by something happened to him in Border Town.     

He shook his head to banish these thoughts.     

"What's the matter? Your Majesty."     

"Nothing." The new king took a deep breath. "A rainstorm is going to start."     

"No matter what he's met in Border Town, the position of the town has already put him in a corner. What's behind Roland is Barbarian Land, making it impossible for him to retreat backward. Without any port and fleet, he can only fight till death if I keep on launching attacks," thought Timothy.     

"Do you insist on setting out tomorrow?" the knight asked with some anxiety.     

"How can we withstand a real storm in the future, if we're easily stopped by some raindrops?" Timothy turned around and said to Ed. He believed that sooner or later Roland Wimbledon would kneel down in front of him to beg for mercy, and he himself would become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He also knew it was just the beginning and the real challenge was the church, as he had already sensed its intention. "Go ahead and do your job. The sooner you finish the task I gave you, the earlier we'll return to the king's city."     

"Yes, Your Majesty."     

Ed walked two steps away and suddenly turned around to say, "I almost forget. Your Majesty, what should we do about those drugged men who didn't die on the battlefields? They've taken pills for three times."     

"Let them burn with Port of Clearwater," Timothy answered, showing no emotion.     

The knight received the order and left. Timothy suddenly felt something cold drop on his nose and looked up. Several raindrops fell down from the clouds and then more of them came down, rippling the surface of the sea.     

***************     

On the top floor in Tower of Babel, New Holy City, Hermes     

"Damn it, damn it! This b*tch! This devil defying deities! How dare she aim her spearhead at the church!?" Tayfun shouted harshly while banging the table.     

It was the first time for Mayne to see this elder archbishop acting like that. His face looked ferocious now with his beard shaking and veins throbbing on the forehead. He acted as if he wanted to swallow Garcia alive.     

Tayfun had complained a lot about Heather before and would have even spent a whole afternoon quarreling with her over a trifle. However, the moment he had opened the jewelry box sent by Queen of Clearwater, he had flared up.     

Inside the box, there was no pearl but a blood-stained finger wearing an iron ring that bore an archbishop emblem and had been bestowed by the pope.     

Mayne heaved a sigh and stretched his hand to close the box, saying, "Of course, she dares to do so, as we weren't blessed by deities this time. Deities prefer the winner."     

Hearing this, Tayfun, still panting heavily, calmed down at once and then sat back in his chair without a word. In the end, he asked with great efforts, "So, what're you going to do next?"     

The church had never met such a predicament in the recent 100 years. They had never expected that Garcia would have come to the Kingdom of Everwinter. After she had captured the king's city, she had sent out Blacksail Fleet to approach Hermes. Even though the church had almost succeeded in seizing Wolfheart City at that time, Mayne had still recalled God's Punishment Army to the old Holy City.     

They had to defend this city which had no city walls, as behind it there was Hermes' underground castle.     

When the God's Punishment Army had retreated from Wolfheart City, Blacksail Fleet had also changed its course, sailing back to the king's city. By doing so, Garcia had shown the church that if they dared to attack the Kingdom of Wolfheart, she would attack Holy City from waterway. Her strength stirred up the nobles in the Kingdom of Everwinter again. Mayne believed that as long as she could ensure the safety of those greedy nobles' domains and property, they would support her to become the new queen of the Kingdom of Everwinter without hesitation.     

He knew these problems now were not easy to solve.     

But the church would never be subdued by them. Before officially becoming an archbishop, Mayne had understood that it was a thorny path ahead.     

He slowly said to Tayfun, "First of all, Holy City needs a new archbishop. You can make a list of candidates for the pope to pick."     

Tayfun snorted and said, "So what about the enemy?"     

"I'll tell everything to the pope. Don't worry." Mayne closed his eyes. "His Holiness will make a wise decision."