BXBX NOVEL Chapter 555: Dismissal of the Army
Upon hearing what Benjamin said, those people were at a loss for words. Even so, they had already become a huge, integrated force and would not merely change after listening to such a nonsense.
"You...You’re on the same side as Stuart. Get lost, we don’t welcome you here."
Some of the people who were still full of rage shouted loudly. If it weren’t for the fear of the unknown magic powers, they would have made a move on him a long time ago.
Benjamin stood still with his arms folded across his chest, looking calmly at the people in the hall.
"No matter how you hypnotize yourselves, you’re never going to be heroes because what you’re doing now is destroying Ferelden." He slowly said, "Because of your existence, not only was too much energy dragged from the country’s army, but the spies from the Kingdom of Helium have also re-entered Ferelden. You’re all now a sinner of Ferelden."
"You’re talking nonsense!"
The first two men who came in the hall were enraged. More and more people from outside the hall rushed in as they realized something was wrong. The scene was getting increasingly tensed up.
A young man was off the top of his head and thrust his fist toward Benjamin.
Upon seeing this, Benjamin could only let out a sigh.
...This group of people was so foolish.
As Benjamin remained stationary, the man rushing towards him just stopped halfway and turned into ice suddenly. His body was maintained in a posture that he was waving his fist with an angry face, but he could no longer move.
At that moment, everyone else became quiet. The entire hall fell into silence.
"Is this what you what? A heroic sacrifice?" Benjamin shook his head, his voice echoed in the silence, "I can freeze all of you to death, or I can also reveal your location to Stuart for him and his army to wipe you all out. You have a thousand ways to perish, the only way to survive is if you choose to believe me."
"What have you done to him?" The leader took a deep breath and asked as he pointed at the young man who was turned into ice.
Benjamin knocked lightly on the ice after hearing what he said. Following that, the ice shattered onto the ground, and the young man had now been turned into a frozen, dead body.
"He’s dead." Benjamin said, "And he died with an identity of a bandit. Other than helping the enemy sneak into our country, he died worthlessly."
Looking at the young man’s corpse, everyone in the hall could not help but gasp.
"Boss, he can’t be wiping out all of our people." There were still some people who felt unsatisfied, they went up to the leader and said, "Call for our brothers outside to come in, we will fight him no matter what!"
The leader just looked at Benjamin blankly and shook his head.
"No...He can really eliminate all of our people."
The man who made the suggestion was immediately dumbfounded.
It was probably because of the fact their leader had usually portrayed a courageous manner, yet showed no will to fight right now. This great contrast was unbelievable to them.
Obviously, the ones who were not satisfied were the new soldiers who have never been in contact with Benjamin in the town.
"But are we really going to give up just like that?"
The leader lowered his head and did not answer, clearly trapped in between two difficult choices. On the other hand, Benjamin provided a response to that question.
"If you guys don’t give up, you will only be left with one route, that is to die." He shrugged and added, "Of course, you still have other options, such as doing something to make up for all the mistakes that you made done so far."
The leader looked up: "What do you mean?"
"I have built a magic academy at Carretas, aimed at cultivating mages to confront the attacks on each country from the Church." Benjamin clarified, "I know that most of you will probably never get that chance to know about magic, but... No matter what, we need more help from more people."
"In your dreams! You just want us to work for you..." Someone rebuked immediately.
"It’s not like I’m not giving out salary." Benjamin let out a ‘hmph’ and said, "As for you, there’s no need to be so agitated. We don’t even welcome someone like you, so stop trying to imagesne things."
That man to whom Benjamin’s words were directed became speechless.
"What do you think? Would you rather stay here to wait for death, or choose to do something more meaningful?" Benjamin then looked at the leader of the rebel soldiers and continued asking,
"I... The reason why I can gather so many people is that we all don’t support Stuart. If we stop revolting, there will be no need at all to have this army anymore, let alone following you to whatever magic academy you’re talking about."
Upon hearing that, Benjamin shrugged and said nothing.
That works too... At least no shots were fired in order to resolve this issue with the army.
"Boss, are you really just giving up like that?"
The leader took a deep breath and said, "If it wasn’t for the advice from this mage, I would have perished from the start, and never lived until today. Also, I don’t want all of you to die because of this.
As the leader of these people, he seemed like the more rational one.
"So what do you mean?"
"... Let us dismiss."
Immediately, everyone became dispirited. They all turned around and left the hall, one after another, probably going back to pack their belongings and get ready to escape. Even those who were the most agitated just glared at Benjamin, and nevertheless still left with disappointment.
As their leader made that decision, there were not many people left in the hall. Soon enough, people on the whole mountain would receive the news, this army that was gathered through much effort would also vanish in a moment.
Everyone looked very down.
For these people, a rebellion would be a once-in-a-lifetime rejoice throughout their mediocre life. Either they rejoiced until they die, or they would wake up halfway through. Now, the host of the party had called for a stop, so they had no choice but to return to their lives like before.
Within a blink of an eye, the hall was left with the leader and a few other old soldiers who had met Benjamin before in the town.
Benjamin looked at them and smiled suddenly: "You can’t decide where everyone will go, but... At least, you can choose what you should do."
The leader nodded his head.
"Teacher Benjamin... I am willing to follow you."
A few other men nodded in succession.
"Very well, pack your belongings and leave this place, head over to Carretas." Benjamin said with satisfaction, "I will write a recommendation letter for each and every one of you so that after you’ve arrived at the place, there will be someone there to make arrangements for you. You can also ask the remaining people in the rebel army, I’m sure that there are people who are willing to join in."
"We understand."
Just like that, these people too left the hall and busied themselves with the dismissal. As Benjamin slowly walked out of the hall entrance and looked at the crowd on the mountain come and go, he could not help but nod his head.
In so doing, he had probably saved a few thousand lives.
Those who were more stubborn might actually cause other issues after leaving. However... Those would be none of Benjamin’s concerns anymore. Besides, a small group of people could hardly pull off anything, Stuart could easily handle them.
Benjamin flew into the air and looked at the mountain beneath him before he turned around and left.