Release That Witch

The pope's chair was still empty.     

Three archbishops sat in a line. As usual, Mayne started the conversation. "I've heard that some conflicts are bursting out in the Kingdom of Everwinter."     

"The Judgement Army garrisoned there is dealing with it. Coburn, the High Priest is the commander," Tayfun answered.     

"What exactly is happening?"     

"It's all because of the dregs that were introduced into the church." Heather whistled. "After the queen was beheaded, the nobles joined the church in swarms and took high occupations in church. It was all caused by your plan to compromise, Lord Mayne. The city guards turned a blind eye when the nobles sacked the city in the name of arresting the witches, resulting in provoking the people to rebel."     

"It wasn't my plan, Lord Heather," he said unhappily, "It was the will of the Supreme Pontiff. This way, we'll be able to take over the entire kingdom in the shortest possible time, rather than waste time contesting with the nobles. Which, I must say, have generated a number of capable people who can offer us great help. As for the borers who have no right to succeed, the lineage will be sifted out in one generation."     

"Well, since you bring up the name of the Supreme Pontiff, I'll argue no more." Heather shrugged. "But please let me deal with those defaulters who have discredited our reputation."     

Mayne turned to look at Archbishop Tayfun who pondered and said, "I suggest that instead of punishing them now, it's better to detain the defaulters after we quell the unrest. The nobles have just joined the church. If we punish them now, it'll create panic among the nobles."     

"No!" Heather shouted, banging her fist on the table, "The rule is the rule, and it can't be violated. Any plunder that was acted on in the name of the church will never be spared. I'm the one in charge of law and arbitration!"     

"We should be greater than ourselves at this time..." Tayfun said.     

"That's what I mean." Heather interrupted. "Don't forget how we built up the reputation of justice in the Kingdom of Everwinter. If we don't punish those scum severely now, we'll lose the people of Everwinter. The foundation of the church is the people, not the nobles. If you disagree with me, I'll ask for instruction from the Supreme Pontiff!"     

The Pope did not have time for this kind of affair. They were not built on the support of people, but on how great the power they had. Mayne sighed, reaching out his hand to signal Tayfun to calm down. "How about letting High Priest Coburn take them back to the new Holy City for trial?"     

"No need for that. I'll take care of it myself," Heather said, "I've finished my work here already, and I'll be back in two or three months. As for the location of the trial, of course, the more attendees the better. I think the ice and snow stage of the king's city in the Kingdom of Everwinter would be a good place."     

"You sure?" Mayne frowned. "Now that we have no extra commander to escort you, it would be perilous if you were to run into an Extraordinary on the road."     

"We could meet an Extraordinary anywhere," Heather said disapprovingly, "A team of Judgement Army soldiers will be enough for me."     

"If you insist." Mayne wanted to drop the topic. "I've got bad news. Something unexpected happened in the battle to attack Broken Tooth Castle in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. We lost more than 20 men from God's Punishment Army and over 100 members of the Judgement Army. What's worse, we haven't taken the castle yet."     

"More than 20 men of God's Punishment Army?" Tayfun said, staring at Mayne, "Who was the conductor?"     

"It was Bell, and she's dead."     

"The conductor is dead? It looks like they've met something quite strong," Heather said with interest, "Lord O'Brian should be very annoyed at losing so many men in one single battle."     

"We can't blame him. Broken Tooth Castle has taken advantage of its unique topography. They built the gate between the hills with a height of around 10 meters. They destroyed the wooden bridge in front of the gate in advance and had the aid of an alchemist who invented some unique things for them," Mayne explained, "It's reported that as soon as the army climbed up the ladder placed against the outer wall, they were stricken by weird flames. White solids were shooting out from pipes in the gate before they smoked and caught fire. The flame was able to adhere to the human body. The unquenchable flame would keep burning until the carriers turned into ash. Currently, they're connecting the believers in the city to see if they could work in collusion."     

"I'm sure that the believers in the city must have been slaughtered." Heather curled his lip. "We should send more men to consume the fire if we want to breach the wall. That's the right thing to do. I never knew that an alchemist could prepare their items on a large scale. The more men we send to consume the fire the less stock they'll have."     

"Those men you said are the God's Punishment Army!" Tayfun shouted angrily, his beard jerking, "Do you have any idea about how difficult it's to incarnate a member of God's Punishment Army? And by now the number of them hasn't reached 1,000 yet. What do we have to resist Months of Demons if we lose over half of the army in unifying the continent." "Not to mention the demons following after that."     

"Stop fighting," Mayne said, "I didn't mean to tell you the news so that you could argue the means of attack. We have to admit that the church demands more God's Punishment Army soldiers at present. Since the church has taken the Kingdom of Everwinter, something that used to be carried out in the dark can now be performed in the right and proper way. There used to be two deliveries of 'seeds' every year. Now I'm requesting for one more delivery. As the duration of spring becomes irregular because of the Months of Demons, the delivery of 'seeds' to Holy City has to start in summer. We must secure the delivery every season. Accordingly, the incarnation ceremonies will increase to three times a year. Lord Tayfun, you'll be responsible for this."     

"But there aren't that many orphans and babies," the elder archbishop said, touching his beard, "Not all people will abandon their children to the church."     

"You have to figure out a way to gain more children. The church has had its roots in the Kingdom of Everwinter for the longest time and has developed the largest number of believers. If we can't even get enough manpower in this land, what better situation do we expect in the other three kingdoms? Never forget, the Judgement Army and God's Punishment Army are the only things we have to quell the resistance while we're on the way to unifying the continent."     

"I think we have the people we want." Heather raised her lips. "There're as many children who wander on the street as there're wild cats and dogs. Moreover, I heard that there're Black Street Rats who recruit the children and train them as pickpockets, smugglers, or scapegoats. The nobles may offer the Rats shelter before they're erased. Thanks to Lord Mayne who has brought the nobles into the church, no one will shelter these Rats now. If we send the Judgement Army out to crush the underground gangs once and for all, I'm sure that you'll get a lot of children. Meanwhile, eliminating the dregs will build up a good impression in people's mind as well as intimidate the nobles. It's a good move that'll kill three birds with one stone, don't you think so?"     

Mayne thought it was a good idea as well. No matter how extreme Heather could be, she was always the first one to come up with solutions to problems, except for some words that needed to be ignored deliberately. "Do as Lord Heather suggests. In any case, we must take the whole Kingdom of Wolfheart before autumn. After that, apart from the garrisoned Judgement Army that's necessary to preserve order in the kingdom, the army must be recalled to Hermes in order to defend during the Months of Demons. The enemy will be stronger next time."     

Tayfun looked unwilling yet nodded at last. "Just don't blame me when the nobles whose interests have been harmed start to protest against us. Also, since the Kingdom of Dawn has noticed what happened in the neighboring country, the churches in many cities have been targeted. The churches in some areas have even been robbed and burned. I suggest organizing the believers to evacuate so that they don't waste their lives in these conflicts."     

"No, they have to protest to the end." Mayne denied. "The more believers are sacrificed, the more justification we'll have to retaliate later. This isn't a waste, but a spark of fire. If we retreat our people from the kingdoms where we don't have many believers and our root isn't deep enough, the church there will become weaker."     

"All right, I'm just pointing it out." Tayfun shrugged. "The last one is the Kingdom of Graycastle. Hmm, read it yourselves." He pulled out a scroll and tossed it to Mayne.     

Mayne opened and scanned the scroll. It was actually a letter from Garcia Wimbledon, Queen of Clearwater. He frowned.     

"She hung Priest Decca?"     

"And fed the believers to the fishes," Tayfun added, "The church has been torn down to the ground as well. I suppose she found out the side effect of the pills."     

Heather smacked her hand. "How long have I said that even if someone kept replenishing the pills, the pesticide effect would decline until the takers became feeble and died. It seems a good weapon to destroy the enemy, but as soon as the effect emerges, the enemy will understand what the church is planning. What's worse is that I've heard from previous reports that her own men didn't take too many pills. On the contrary, most pills were fed to barbarians in the Southern Territory."     

"Less than 1,000 of her men have taken the pills. She blames us for her loss." Mayne put down the letter. "How ridiculous! How could she become the Queen of Port of Clearwater without the support of the church? Where's Timothy Wimbledon? Why didn't he march on the Southern Territory when he received our pills?"     

"Currently, he's engaged in plundering the Northern Region. The reason he gave us was that he has to stop the rebellion in the Northern Region in case his defense become unstable. I suppose he means to take the lands of the dukes in the north before coming to the final battle with Garcia," Tayfun answered, "I'm not sure if the new king will march directly to the Western Region when he takes the Northern Region."