Chapter 84 [Conspiracy]
The lit candlelight was so conspicuous in the darkness. Mela tiptoed along the empty corridor to the door and was surprised to find that the heavy, carved door was not closed properly. Instead, faint voices could be heard through a small crack in the door.
"...Tomorrow is His Majesty the King's funeral."
A deep, steady male voice drifted out from behind the door.
Huh? Tomorrow is King Nurenger IX's funeral? Is it that soon?
Generally, to allow the nobles time to travel and to prepare for the funeral, the king's body would be temporarily placed in an ice coffin until the funeral began, a process that would take at least ten days.
However, Mela calculated that today was only the third day since Erika escaped, which meant that the funeral arrangements for King Nurenger IX were made far too hastily.
Mela held her breath and continued eavesdropping.
"Hehe, if I hadn't tried my best to settle this matter as soon as possible, I wouldn't have known that Laod had a backup plan."
Another aged male voice drifted out, instantly conjuring up the image of a kind old man with a white beard.
However, what he said next was anything but kind.
“I knew it all along. That old man Alonso couldn’t be satisfied with just making his only son an archbishop. Otherwise, what use would an archbishop be after he died? He’d just be kicked to some poor, desolate place. You agree, don’t you, George?”
Upon hearing the familiar name, Mela's eyes widened slightly.
I never expected that Bishop George, who used to be in the territory of Fister, would be here.
Upon hearing these words, George's expression immediately turned displeased.
This matter had been weighing on his mind for far too long. Ever since he was kicked out of the royal city and assigned to the territory of Fister as a bishop, it had been like a thin fishbone, occasionally causing a sharp, stabbing pain.
Back then, George's patron was the previous Pope. He was so powerful back then. Everyone in the church greeted him with a smile. Even Alonso only deserved a cold look from him.
Unexpectedly, Alonso had already secretly rallied a number of people, directly ousted the archbishop whom George had originally favored, and became the new pope. He also swiftly kicked George far away, causing him to stay in the poor region of Fister for nearly ten years.
If George hadn't seized the opportunity and discovered the witch's whereabouts, he probably would have spent the rest of his life filled with resentment.
Ha, even though Viscount Fister was useless and the cunning witch escaped, Gordo still managed to return to the church in the royal city.
However, with Alonso looming over him, Gordo was relegated to the sidelines upon his return, suffering constant neglect.
Now that Alonso has finally died, and the old story has been brought up again, Gordo's resentment resurfaced. He stared at the speaker with a sinister look:
"Fikler, are you deliberately trying to make things difficult for me?"
The old man named Ficoler stroked his well-groomed white beard, his wrinkles deepening into a kind and gentle expression as he smiled. "Haha, don't be angry, George. After all these years, how come your temper is still so bad?"
“Let’s continue talking about tomorrow’s funeral,” Ficoler said.
"Yes, yes, let's talk about funerals."
The male voice at the beginning seemed to have finally found an opening to interject, and awkwardly tried to smooth things over.
"After all, isn't the purpose of our gathering tonight to ensure that we can successfully expel Laod from the church tomorrow?"
Once Laod leaves the Church, he will lose his eligibility to compete for the Pope.
In fact, if it weren't for discovering that the Gardner family was backing Laod, Gordo and the other two might not have joined forces.
George was one thing, but Ficoler and another middle-aged man present, Andrei, were considered hot candidates to become the next pope.
The reason they were able to temporarily set aside their struggle was because Fawson Gardner and the Gardner family he represented were truly formidable.
“I never imagined that Foussen Gardner would be the helper Alonso left for Laod. I’ve never seen Alonso have any dealings with him before,” Andre remarked.
"Otherwise, how can you say Alonso is cunning?" George said irritably.
He had learned a similar lesson before, and even after Alonso's death, he remained cautiously wary of Laod. Unexpectedly, he discovered the clues about Laod's dealings with Foussen without any effort on his part.
This led to Ficoler secretly colluding with Antonio to hastily finalize the date for Nurenger IX's funeral.
As everyone knows, only the Pope is qualified to preside over the funeral of the King and Queen. However, no new Pope has been elected in the Church at present. Fico and his two companions want to take this opportunity to disrupt Laod's original plan and put George on the cusp of Pope first.
Anyway, once George exposes Laod's unknown secrets and expels him from the church in front of everyone, his reign as a lone pope will be over.
"However, is it true that Laod had dealings with witches?" Andrei looked at George and asked again, still not entirely sure.
"Of course it's true. He used to live secretly with a woman outside the city. He could hide it from others, but he couldn't hide it from his mother. Besides, if this woman's identity wasn't questionable, why would he be secretly with her?"
George grinned, revealing a set of white teeth.
"Even if that woman isn't a witch, if I say she is, then she has to be."
Upon hearing this, Ficoler and Andrei exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly at each other. "You're right."
Since you've decided to frame someone, why bother about the facts?
Besides, all three of them felt that the plan they had discussed was fine.
They planned to first use Laod's mother to expose his illegitimate status, which was an undeniable fact. Furthermore, he had dealings with witches and bewitched Alonso to secure his current position as archbishop, so no one else would question the latter's authenticity.
To make a lie believable, it must be a mixture of truth and falsehood.
"In fact, we have to thank the foresight of our predecessors. In the beginning, the relationship between the church and the witches was not so bad."
Perhaps it is the flickering candlelight that makes people recall the faded past, especially for an older person like Ficoler. He suddenly became very talkative about this long-forgotten history and began to talk about it at length in front of George and Andrei.
"But what can you do when they're a group of capable women?"
Compared to witches who truly possess magical potions and know mysterious spells, the people gathered in the church are just a group of ordinary people. They go through great hardships to come before people to spread their doctrines, but they are no match for a witch's casual remark.
"Huh? People have to suffer to get happiness in the next life? If you accidentally get bitten by a poisonous snake, are you just going to lie on the ground and wait to die? After all, the pain of being bitten by a poisonous snake is a kind of suffering too."
One sentence left the priest, who was standing in the center of the crowd, speechless. He could only stammer that this was not what the doctrine guided, but rather the witch in front of him was making a fuss.
However, the onlookers looked at the witch and then at the priest, and they all felt that the witch was right. After all, the priest was just an ordinary person like them.
Of course, what an ordinary person says is not as powerful as what a witch says.
“So, we had no choice but to get rid of the witch. Otherwise, how could we establish the church’s supreme position in the hearts of ordinary people?” Ficoler sighed.
He quickly regained his smile, "Nowadays, even a royal decree is not necessarily as effective as the words of our priest."
When King Nurenger IV intended to join forces with the Church to pin the blame for the murder of his brother on the witch, he probably never imagined that things would turn out this way.
Outside the door, Mela listened to the conversation inside about the origins of the witches' centuries-long isolation, a flicker of dark fire burning in her eerie green eyes.
She originally had no intention of tracing this history.
For witches, looking forward is more important than looking back.
Because they don't care about the past, the unchangeable ending; what they want to explore is the unknown, the future that may change at any time.
Therefore, none of the witches wrote about their resentment, bitterness, and pain in the journals that Mela treasured in the basement. They simply wrote down their accumulated insights over the years so that future generations who obtained these journals could step on the shoulders of their predecessors to explore more unknown mysteries.
Erica was right. The church was hiding too many dark secrets, and its stench was nauseating to be near.
Mela lowered her eyes, listening to what sounded like the conversation inside was about to end, and quickly and quietly left the place first.
She didn't have much time left. She hadn't found Laod's place yet, and she didn't know how Erica was doing.
*
No matter how much Mela wished for more time, the dawn inevitably arrived, even if it was just a tiny glimmer on the horizon. Mela had no choice but to return to the vicinity of the garden as promised to Erica.
However, Mela did not see Erica.
She walked around the garden and found Silas dozing off under the flowers.
"Hey, Mela, you're back."
Upon seeing Mela, Silas's eyes widened and he perked up.
It kept glancing behind Mela, "Where's Erica? Isn't she with you?"
“No.” Mela shook her head.
At the same time, her heart sank as she answered the question. Could something have happened to Erica?
Otherwise, she would never have broken her promise and delayed coming to the garden to meet Mela.
"Then what do we do? Should we keep waiting for her or..." Silas also became anxious. If they didn't hurry up and leave now, would Mela still be able to leave?
Recalling the conversation she overheard last night, Mela made up her mind in an instant, "It's okay, you go back and tell Yuriel that Erica and I won't be going back for the time being."
“I’m staying to attend King Nurenger IX’s funeral. I’ll find Erica before nightfall and go back with her.”
That's right. No matter what happened to Erica, Mela still has a whole day to make amends.
So, Erica, what exactly happened to you last night?
Mela unconsciously frowned, forcibly suppressing the anxiety in her heart.
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