Chapter 214: Extreme North and Extreme South

In the northern region of the Anzu Kingdom, frost and snow had already covered the ground.

This mountainous region was the Anzu Kingdom’s coldest place. The northerners with rugged folk customs took root amongst the lofty mountains and high ranges, guarding the northern gates of the kingdom, and, in seven hundred years, worked hard to maintain a delicate balance with those difficult neighbors even further north.

Whether it was the Violet Kingdom in the northwest direction or the Sacred Dragon Kingdom in the northeast direction, they were never countries that were easy to deal with.

But in this disconcerting winter, new shadows surfaced from the frost. In the eyes of Duchess Victoria Wilder, these new threats were even more worrying than those unpredictable northern neighbors ——because this threat had emerged within the kingdom.

“Ice Duchess” Victoria Wilder stood on the tall balcony of the Bitter Winter Castle, looking down at the city beneath. The snow that had begun falling before winter set in only stopped last night; the city was a sea of silvery-white everywhere. The north’s typical spire buildings could effectively reduce the accumulation of snow cover; those black spires pierced through the snowy white clothing in the winter sun, standing on the plain below the castle, like black pines on a vast snow land. At one glance, they towered in great numbers.

In most places within the kingdom, the arrival of the winter sun signified the halt of production; people hid in their houses, shivering as they waited for the days to pass. However, in this northern region that was the coldest, the situation differed instead. The people here had already adapted to the cold, and for the sake of survival, they had to get used to the lengthy frigid winter that took up half a year. Even on this day where the heavy snow had just stopped, countless moving crowds could be seen in the city —— they had to, as far as possible, clear up the accumulated snow before the next round of snowfall destroyed the city’s buildings, open up paths, and while at it, drag the bodies of the homeless who’d frozen to death in the drains outside the city. And that central square that was directly facing the castle had the most crowds gathered——

The accumulated snow on the square had been cleared away. The people that gathered there had done so to watch the burning of the heretic cult believers.

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Those figures cloaked in black robes were tied onto the tall wooden posts one after another. Heavy black steel chains and rune shackles bound their bodies and magical power at the same time, but their appearances that were distorted and terrifying due to the practice of sorcery still sent chills down spines.

The watching crowd had already closed in on the square. Soldiers separated these people and the heretic cult believers, gleaming swords stopping these overly agitated residents from further approaching those dangerous blasphemers. And during this process, firewood was piled on, and melted animal fat had also been splashed on.

“Burn them to death!” There was someone amongst the watching residents who finally couldn’t hold back and hollered loudly.

This single roar garnered a hundred responses. “Burn them to death!” “They killed my child!” “Burn these heretics to death!”

A high priest from the Church of Holy Light walked towards the fire execution platform. He took the holy emblem from a believer at the same time and turned around to face the enraged people.

“The God of Holy Light exposed the conspiracies of these heretic cult believers. Before more people were harmed, The Lord guided us to destroy the lair of these heretic outlaws!”

The high priest raised the holy emblem up high. He turned around and used the emblem to spark a powerful radiance, igniting the flammable oil and firewood, while shouting loudly, “Praise the Holy Light! Praise our Lord!!”

Under the effect of the Holy Light and oil, the execution platform was instantly enveloped in golden-white raging flames. The heretic cult believers tied to the posts twisted around like wax in the flames, letting out all sorts of indescribable howls. A sound resembling the calls of the mountains and snarls of the seas rang out in the square. “Praise the Holy Light!” “Praise the God of Holy Light!”

Blazing flames charged towards the sky, and the howls of those heretic cult believers amidst the fire did not cease for a long time: even until the flames had engulfed their bodies, their growls continued to come from it. The surrounding people finally realized that something wasn’t right. They watched that abnormal fire with fear and listened to the abnormal roars, and those cries finally became a language that humans could understand. The remaining spiritual power of a dozen heretic cult believers pulsed in the air, letting out a terrifying shriek. “Laugh to your heart’s content! Cry to your heart’s content! Everyone will die! All of you will die like livestock, will die like insects! ! When they return, they will eat your flesh clean and drain your blood! !”

The flames abruptly became a black color at this moment; the flames of a dozen fires merged together in the air. A ball of indescribable dark purple rose from the flames, expanding as if it wanted to devour every person present. Even the priest who was just loudly praising the Holy Light in front of the execution stage earlier had been stunned. But just as this terrifying anomaly was about to befall them, a piercing ray of white light shot onto the square from the balcony of the Bitter Winter Castle.

Under the impact of the “Bitter Winter Whip”, that ball of ineffable dark purple was frozen instantly. Then, it shattered with a bang due to the lack of support of a subsequent energy. Large pieces of ice-crystal dust fell from the sky, as if another blizzard had fallen and recovered a good half of the public square again. Both the agitated crowd and the Holy Light priest who had been hailing loudly a moment earlier went completely quiet. And in the silent air of the public square, the cold voice of Duchess Victoria Wilder sounded, “Clean things up ——then praise Anzu and our founding king.”

The powerful magic gradually dissipated in the balcony. Victoria waved her hand, getting the magic book that floated midair to return to her side, then turned, and left the balcony.

The balcony doors mounted with man-made crystals automatically closed behind her, blocking out the sounds coming from the public square. This duchess returned to the warm lounge hall, a rare hint of exhaustion showing on her face.

A black-haired maidservant walked forward. She dismissed the other servants with a wave of her hand, then placed her hands near Victoria’s temples, and massaged lightly. “You rarely show such an expression —— the last time was after you saw Duke Gawain Cecil return.”

“It’s still related to him this time. If it wasn’t for the warning that the pioneering hero sent from the extreme southern borders, we might have only realized the extent of the corrosion after those heretic cult believers caused even greater damage.” Victoria sighed. “This is already the fourth heretic hide-out that was destroyed ever since winter set in —— the previous three were the Oblivion Association. This time it’s the Eternal Sleepers. Even if the Sons of the Storm counter-attacked from the sea and made a comeback, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“It is said that there are, instead, very few heretic forces in the southern borders. They only made an appearance for a total of two times but were discovered and snuffed out by that Duke both times…”

Victoria waved her hand lightly, and the black-haired maidservant, Maggie, immediately stopped what her hands were doing.

“We’ve been comfortable for too long. The entire kingdom has been comfortable for too long.” Victoria stood up from the sofa and quietly gazed at the portraits of the pioneer heroes hung on the wall across. Gawain Cecil’s portrait had been taken down, but she still watched that blank space beside the founding king, Charlie. “From the king to the local aristocrats, everyone severely lacks vigilance, but the Duke Cecil from seven hundred years had lived through the kingdom’s most precarious era. He is more vigilant than all of us. —— What’s laughable is that the bunch of incompetents in the capital had, at the start, treated all warnings about the heretic cult believers that the pioneer Duke sent as oversensitivity — as the fuss of an ancient person in modern society… Hmph, now they’re flustered.”

The black-haired maidservant stood quietly behind Victoria and did not express any opinion; the Duchess was clearly used to this. She paused for a moment and asked, “Is there progress with what I told you to investigate?”

The black-haired maidservant bowed her head. “Yes, the priests of the Church of Holy Light have been active more often than usual recently. And new missionary teams have appeared everywhere, but all their movements are very reasonable —— they are resisting heretic cult believers, searching for and eliminating the hideouts of heretics. The missionaries are also publicizing in all places how to identify heretic cult believers and ways to protect oneself from sorcery. The power of the Holy Light indeed has a natural advantage in this aspect. Other than these, there is nothing more that they are doing, no conflicts with other sects or vying for religious resources. The more, there isn’t friction created with the feudal lords of the various territories.”

Victoria frowned. “Is that so…?”

The black-haired maidservant asked curiously. “Duchess, are you suspecting that there is something wrong with those priests of the Holy Light?”

“No… I’m just a little bothered by their recent movements. They became active all of a sudden.” Victoria shook her head. “But it’s probably my misconception. After all, the heretic cult believers are suddenly causing a disturbance everywhere, and only the Sect of the God of War and the Church of Holy Light can directly destroy those heretics. Between the two, using the theurgy of the Holy Light to counter sorcery has the best effect,” Victoria said indifferently. “We have no reason to interfere in their activities within legal scope. —— Continue to pay more attention. If they really have any inordinate ambitions, they are bound to let the cat out of the bag.”

“Yes.”

……

After winter set in, the circulation of information also became difficult and slow, following the reduction of traveling merchants.

In this era where cutting-edge technology was rare and the general society still maintained a primitive and backward lifestyle, the passing of information was an awkward and inefficient matter. Although there were magic spells and devices, such as the communication spell and the Mithril Ring, as the people who held these communication technologies were very few and did not have an effective avenue for sharing information, these technologies could not allow people to timely and comprehensively understand what was happening in a distant place. To the majority of residents and even aristocrats, the main way of passing on information was still through the traveling merchants, as well as commissioners who delivered letters.

And to the new Cecil territory that was remote and not attractive to traveling merchants, the situation of slow delivery of information was an even more apparent problem.

Within the territory, Gawain built a simple messenger team. In addition, the main population gathering areas were only the city, the logging village in the west, the mine village in the east (it was soon developing into a small town). Hence, the internal delivery of information still wasn’t a problem, but if they wanted to connect with the outside world, there was no way of building their own channel, given the territory’s current manpower and resources. They could only rely on the extremely limited traveling merchants, who come over from Tanzan Town to purchase grains, cloth, or slaves, and the expatriates specially sent to the Kant territory and Leslie territory to gather information.

Therefore, by the time Gawain had learned that traces of the heretic cult believers’ movements were found in various areas within the kingdom, it’d been a month after he sent a warning to the capital.

This was still the outcome with the help of Andrew Leslie’s information channel —— if not for the speedy gryphon messengers, it would have taken more than a month for a peddler to walk to and from the capital and the southern borders to deliver news.

Looking at the intelligence before him, Gawain’s brows knitted tightly.

But Amber was unaware of what was written in this letter that had come from Tanzan Town in the early morning. She idly carved a block of wood with a dagger at the side. Lifting her head and seeing Gawain’s expression, she casually asked, “What’s wrong? The price of rice went up?”

“No, it’s the heretic cult believers.”

Amber instantly leaped up from her chair. “We’re fighting heretic cult believers again?! Ah, is it too late to say that my stomach hurts now?”

“Not our place here.” Gawain glanced at Amber. “It’s that, outside of the southern borders, heretic cult believers have appeared all over in the kingdom.”

Amber was assured upon hearing this. She sat back with her head bowed and continued carving her wood. “Oh, so long as it doesn’t get in our way.”

Gawain looked resignedly at this disgrace of the elves but was unable to be as relaxed as she was in his heart.

The situation was really just as he’d expected in the first place —— the heretic cult believers had infiltrated into all aspects of the kingdom. Not only did the border feudal lords find traces of their activities in their territories, there were also signs of them causing trouble near the capital or in the Plains of the Holy Spirits.

Large numbers of heretic hideouts had been found and uprooted, but for most of them, clues were lost promptly after some traces had been found.

Either that, or it was already too late when they were found. The heretic cult believers had long completed their heretic sacrifice; what the local aristocrats found were merely the bloody scenes after the ceremony.

Other than these disconcerting intelligence, another matter similarly had Gawain feeling urgent and… constrained.

All the intelligence was severely late. The news from the capital was from a month ago, and there was still no way of getting started with the situation in the northern region even now.

He needed to build an information channel of his own, to be grasped in his own hand, and it had to be more efficient and rational than the various information channels of this era.

There was no spell mold that could analyze the communication spell for now; the attempt at electromagnetic communications had also failed. Technologically, it was impossible to achieve the “modern communication network” that Gawain envisaged anytime soon. But even without avenues of cheap and immediate communications, he could first come up with a framework for it.

Those potions in the alchemy factory allowed him to come up with a way.