BXBX NOVEL Chapter 126: The Fear of Being Dominated by Statistics
The two deliberately remained around a while longer to avoid the peak of chaos in the city. When they went on the streets, the people around the city gates were a lot lesser than before.
People still came to and fro, but at least, Benjamin who was pushing the cart with Michelle lying in it could move now and not be blocked by the crowd.
In just a while, they arrived at the city gate entrance.
The north gate of Havenwright’s infrastructure was decent. Its white walls were baptised by the "flood" some time ago, and it looked opulent and majestic now. Under the wide, tall arch, people flowed in and out continuously.
At the entrance, a few holy knights stood guard and monitored the people that passed through.
To this, Benjamin was not surprised.
The Church sent its people to investigate this place, it was not out of the ordinary. To be honest, if there were nobody from the Church at all, it would have been strange.
He took a deep breath, and continued pushing the small derelict cart and passed by the entrance.
The guarding holy knights turned around and looked at him suspiciously. Benjamin kept his act, and shuffled like a lowly peasant with his head down.
He was sure that an albino pushing an ugly female that has contracted the "plague" out of the city was a rare sight to see.
But, he was confident with Michelle’s disguise, even though they drew some looks from the crowd, but it was the kind of attention that proved them innocent.
Other people that noticed him, would only be perplexed by their peculiarity, but would never link them to the one that conjured the giant water ball and the "plague" in the whole city.
"What a pity..."
Of course, after a few glances, the few holy knights showed pity but disgust, then turned away.
With this, Benjamin successfully left the capital.
There was a flatland outside the north city gate, greenish tiles was laid as a foundation for a road that stretched far. The trees were considered lush, this part world did not have any form of development, so the greenery was still abundant.
After passing though the gate, Benjamin did not rush to escape, but trundled on with Michelle in the small cart, along with the other travellers and continued down the road.
The pavement stones became more and more shattered and less frequent as they walked, the surrounding people also decreased, thus, they found an opportunity to slip from the crowd. After half an hour, Benjamin followed the road as Michelle described, and left the main road, towards the wilderness.
"Did we.....succeed?"
After looking around, there was no one else, thus, he stopped and said this.
"I don’t know." Hearing this, Michelle dropped her act as a sick person, opened her eyes and sat up, "After leaving the Church, I don’t really have any idea what their course of actions are anymore. The Church would probably not let up so easily, what they are about to do, I have no idea either."
Hearing this, Benjamin wiped off his sweat from pushing the cart, and sighed.
Even though they left the capital, it was not yet time to let down their guard.
Seeing this, Michelle stood up, got off the cart and said: "It’s alright, there’s no one else around anymore, no need to continue this act. Let’s hurry to Perseus Lake, we don’t have much time to waste, the faster we move, the higher the chance of us escaping the Church."
Benjamin nodded in agreement.
Of course, even though they left the capital, it did not mean they were safe. If they were still in the boundaries of the kingdom, the Church still had power, plus due to his injury to his mental state, he was unable to use magic.
They were at a flatland, and there was not many places for them to hide themselves.
Might as well hurry.
Thus, they pushed the cart aside and set it on fire. After that, they removed any evidence that they’ve been there, and headed off towards north.
At the same time.
The capital that opened its gates, seemed to be rather abandoned. Following all the peasants that fled, the people on the streets were a lot fewer than before.
In the inner city.
In the depths of Saint Peter’s Cathedral, in a confessionary, two hands were clasped together, the Pope who was kneeling on the floor suddenly opened his eyes.
He turned around and walked out of the confessionary, and looked at the bishop who was silently waiting, and said:
"I felt it, the source of the mental energy that laid the curse, it left the capital half an hour ago, it was around 10:18 to 10:21. The feeling was weak, I can’t be sure of its direction or its position."
Hearing this, the bishop nodded. He did not say anything, but only opened a small book in his hands, then flipped through the pages as if he was looking for something.
After half a minute or so, he closed the book and raised his head.
"The holy knights submitted the data they gathered half an hour ago. In total, in the three minutes when Your Holiness was sensing, two hundred and fifty one people left the city. The east had seventy-three people, the south had fifty-five people, the west had sixty-eight people, and the north had sixty-five people. Even though they did not describe their appearances, they all had some sort of distinguishing feature labelled together with them, it shouldn’t be likely that we would end up catching the wrong people." After saying this, he stopped, and continued, "I will send men immediately along the main roads to round up all two hundred and fifty one people that left.
The Pope made a satisfied face in response to hearing this.
"Confirm the total, make sure that none of them escape." His hands clasped behind him, he narrowed his eyes, a faint sense of killing intent emanated from them, "Whichever gate that has the least people, that would be the direction that lad escaped to."
The bishop nodded again, and kept the book, turned around, and left.
The Pope turned around and returned into the confessionary.
After giving orders for the plan of capture, in complete silence, he lowered his head, and contemplated at the corpse in the room.
-----That holy knight that contracted the "plague", that was still resting in the infirmary yesterday, was already severely dismembered into many parts, piled up on the red brick surface of the confession room, its blood was all dried up.
"Brave knight, your body was cursed, but it helped us to track the source of evil." The Pope clasped his hands together, as if he was praying for the knight," Your glory will be remembered on this world forever, may the Lord be with you."
Saying this, he threw out a pile of golden fire, which burnt the remains of the knight into nothing, not even ashes. Then, he turned around and left, and never looked back.
Very quickly, the nobles that knew what was going on and remained in the capital found one after another squad of holy knights appearing on the streets of the capital. They charged out of the four city gates, and very strangely advanced in the four directions.
The nobles were confused, at that time, rumors spread like wildfire. Some said the Church was filled with regret, some said tons of mages surrounded the city......you have to know, anything that happened in the capital, they were the most sensitive to, and they did not looked at this lightly.
After a while, they saw the holy knights return, one by one---- they all returned, irregularly with captured prisoners that were peasants and led them into the cathedral.
With this, the nobles were even more confused. Some found out that some of those that were captured were people that left the city today. Of course, knowing this, it still could not answer the nobles’ questions, which made them even more unsettled.
What was the church up to?
The nobles had no idea. But, soon, they went from confusion to shock.
Because, they heard, the Pope along with the bishop, and two squads of Cleaners, all appeared for no reason at the North gate, and looked like they were fully prepared to set off somewhere with their gear.