Chapter 217: The Aftermath of a Coup d'etat
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the capital of Icor, Regina.
It was very chaotic at the central part of the city, especially nearby the anti-magic prison.
At first, Benjamin was leading a bunch of angry citizens about to attack the prison guards. But the most unexpected situation occurred when they were about to charge -- single-eyed Queen came out of nowhere and blew the horn. The loud noise froze everyone.
The Queen was said to be at the gates. Why would she suddenly come back out of nowhere?
Benjamin immediately realized that it was a trap set beforehand. The Crusader Gateway was not that close to Regina, and even if they were quick, they would not make it back in less than ten days. The Queen appearing meant that she already laid waiting somewhere in Regina, unbeknownst to other people.
She hid in the dark, waiting for the prey to take the bait. And now, with her elite forces, Benjamin could only pray that they would not strike immediately.
Luckily, very quickly, the Queen’s troops charged towards the prison and started slaughtering the guards and did not care about the stunned militia. Seeing this, Benjamin finally understood what was going on.
----The Queen was using the Church’s coup as a way to get rid of the spies in Icor.
What a gigantic game of chess -- leading the army by herself, taking the Crusader Gateway -- all of this was just an act.
Thinking of this, Benjamin suddenly felt demotivated.
The Church’s conspiracy was discovered, and the mages were about to be rescued by the Queen, there was no point of them staying here any longer. Plus, he looked at the people that were following him. After they saw their Queen, the rioting crowd started to disperse.
They were all citizens of Icor, and the Queen had a high place in their hearts. Plus the adrenaline and impulse they felt from the beginning was probably already weakening. The urge of them leaving would only grow stronger.
The thousand strong militia stopped before the appearance of the Queen. Following that, when they saw that the Queen started attacking the prison guards and no one was stopping them, they all understood, turned around, and ran.
So, what was Benjamin’s reason for staying?
He and five other mages saw this and exchanged looks. Panicking, they quickly blended themselves into the fleeing crowd and left the place before the Queen could notice.
-----If the Queen were to recognize them, they would probably not be able to leave anymore.
With this, they quickly left the central part of the city and stopped at a deserted street.
They started discussing on what to do next.
The scene at the prison already signified the end of the coup, the Church had no other way of creating more chaos. But with Benjamin’s prediction, the chaos would still remain in Icor for some time. Thus, they could not leave Regina quickly. To capture the Church’s spies, there were probably troops waiting in ambush around Regina, them leaving rashly would mean them entering the Queen’s traps.
At this point, the Queen was busy getting rid of the secret agents and had no time to care about them. Thus, they could still remain here for a while.
Benjamin’s relations with the golden-haired girl needed more time for closure as well.
The coup happening was an accident along the way of them saving Augustine. But now, there was another accident within the accident, thus, their following movements had to be right.
So, after discussing with the five other mages, they decided to go back to the inn to observe for a while before taking action.
On the way back, the streets were all empty. Because of this, they did not meet any blockade. After returning to their rooms, the other mages who went to gather information all returned shortly as well.
Seeing that everyone was safe, Benjamin was satisfied.
According to them, when the coup happened, the troops under the command of the Church started investigating people. When they saw that the situation was not safe, they all hid in secluded streets. After a few hours, when they saw that there were no longer any patrolling troops, they sneakily returned. Looks like after following Benjamin for so long, their skills in stealth has improved a lot besides other things.
It was still chaotic outside, so they might as well hide in the inn like other normal citizens, shutting their doors to the outside world and taking this time to meditate.
Very quickly, the chain of events that was triggered by the "coup" started reaching a fever pitch.
In addition to other things, the traffic on the streets were almost two out of three parts less than before. It remained so even after the Icor government gave an official statement on the second day to explain the situation, saying the bloodbath was a result of the citizens’ heroic acts to defend themselves against the enemies of the country and assured everyone that they should remain calm. But in reality, most of the citizens were skeptical.
For this to happen during a festival, everyone was happy originally, but the sudden political upheaval undoubtedly left a mental trauma in people for sure.
Other than that, on the second day, the streets were filled with patrolling troops frequently questioning passersby, checking if they were spies from the Church. Faced with this sort of situation, it was hard for the citizens to feel safe.
The act of the Queen probably damaged her reputation by quite a lot.
But Benjamin was too lazy to care about all these. After meditating in the inn for the whole day, he managed to bring his mental state to its best. On the afternoon of the second day, he put on a disguise, left the inn, and was ready to go to that "Sister’s Massage Shop."
On that afternoon, he purposely controlled Sidney’s curse to make it trigger a little, which should be enough to give her pressure.
In reality, this "lady" who took away Augustine had a really mysterious background.
From Sidney’s small talk, Benjamin could guess that they were being hunted by many people, not only in Ferelden, but also Carretas, all of them seemed to have some grudge against them. But Benjamin had nothing to do with them, and did not know why they came to find him.
Other than that, his thoughts were with that young stranger who found out about Benjamin’s identity. Before this he had heard from other people that he was working together with the golden-haired girl, but in the massage shop, Benjamin could not find him at all, and it was all too strange.
With many unanswered questions, he came to that street once more, walking to that same door.
Maybe due to the current situation, the shop was not open for business as usual, even the sign that once hung on the door was kept away. The bald door that had some weird patches on it looked rather depressing.
Benjamin understood that the opposition was waiting for him.
Before he entered, he let out his water particle sensing technique to observe the situation within ---- the whole shop was very empty, there was no one at the front counter, only in a room, Sidney laid on a bed, and was saying something to the golden-haired girl. In that corner of the room was a giant sack.
In the sack, Benjamin could feel a familiar face whose eyes were closed tightly.
It was Augustine who had gone missing for a long time.
Seeing this, Benjamin could only laugh bitterly and shook his head.
He found him finally.
He suddenly thought of Augustine’s story, on how he became a mage. At that time, Augustine was complaining why the mage who taught him did not use real ropes for tying, but right now, he should be satisfied.
Making sure there was no ambush, Benjamin opened the door and walked in.