Chapter 367: The Person with Rights to the Army
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Finally, Benjamin brought out the information of those ‘brave’ mages that sacrificed themselves and left.
Actually, pleading for mercy was not really a bad thing, but, he needed enough people and he had to do in public. In the open, the Church would not dare to do anything to these mages, but in private, they would definitely.
But, they had already left, Benjamin could not let them just die for nothing.
He had to create a strong backlash, and he needed more support. The ‘The Declaration of the Freedom of Magic’ was only the beginning, when the unsuitability of the mages and the Church started showing up, he planned to create a weekly newspaper. These few mages that went to die would become the front cover of the newspaper, being one of the first innocent mages that were harmed.
Of course, he had to do all this step-by-step.
He could not rush this.
Just like when he was against Vinci, the pretext had yet to accumulate to that point, if he were to stand up now, people would just think he was a madman. Once it has accumulated enough, the pre-mission - Historical Background - Complete, then with him standing out, other people would see him as a hero.
With this, Benjamin went back to the inn for now, packed his things, and got ready to go out.
He had to see another person.
"Sir Benjamin, please don’t tell anyone about this meeting we had."
In a secluded alley in Rayleigh, Mikel was hooded, and carefully looked around, then said this to Benjamin.
"I understand." Benjamin smiled and said: "You’re an officer of the city, with the circumstances now, you seeing a mage in private in Rayleigh, that would definitely raise some eyebrows. But…..why is Lance here as well?"
After dealing with the ‘Rabkauhalla’ cult, he has not met these two so much anymore, but, they still maintained their relations.
Right, Benjamin needed help from the government, so he invited Mikel over.
But, Lance tagging along was weird. These two did not really get along with each other back then.
"Him?" Mikel heard this, then glanced at Lance, saying, "After the change of weather in the palace, he snuck out like a dog that just lost his home. If not for me, he would already be captured by those people now."
Lance was helpless. But, Mikel seemed to be telling the truth, his situation was not good, so he had kept quiet and tried to resist showing his reluctance.
Benjamin frowned.
Change of weather in the palace? People being captured?
"What happened?" He asked.
"Right now, the government issues are basically all handled by the Queen herself and the newcomer bishop, Victor. " Mikel shook his head, "But, her Majesty is pregnant, and is not that well, most of the things have to go through the Bishop, don’t you think this is a change in weather?"
Hearing this, Benjamin raised his eyebrows.
Taking over…..even though he had already predicted this would happen, but the Church did this without any hesitation, when they said they would take over, they took over, not afraid of what the other officers have to say.
"No one amongst you objected?"
Mikel nodded, and said: "Of course there was. The Bishop has mentioned a lot of unreasonable things, and was scolded by the lot of them, he should be really angry now."
Benjamin chuckled.
Seeing this, looks like the Church did not really have much progress in Snow.
From the looks of it, his series of plans did work out, he got rid of their ultimatum, and even slowed down their domination of Ferelden by a lot.
But…..the Church was still the Church.
"Be careful, the Church still has more what than meets the eye." Thinking of this, he became serious. The Church was standing behind Aldrich’s back, their real goal was to control Ferelden and turn it into another Helius, they would be willing to do anything.
Mikel nodded.
Lance interrupted: "Don’t worry about this guy. When the Bishop first came, this guy already warmed himself up with the bishop, how could he be afraid?"
Benjamin heard this and laughed, then said: "Today, I have invited the both of you over, it is because I have something important to ask of you both."
"Tell us."
Benjamin breathed in deeply, then asked, "Right now, how much of the troops are under control of the Church in Ferelden?"
This was of utmost importance.
At the day of the execution, he had heard others describe it. According to them, there were around a thousand men that held the mages down. The one that pushed Aldrich into the pit was General Barrett, whom Benjamin had personally eaten with before.
Without question, the general that the king trusted was already being controlled by the Church. As for the royal forces under his command, most of them should already be under control of the Church.
Well…..what about the others?
If all of them were already controlled, then Benjamin thinks it’s game over.
After they are done laying their foundations, and having slowly influenced the officers and the citizens, they can take action by using military force to oppress the mages, and start a new White Terror. It would be hard for the mages to retaliate. After killing off all of the mages, they can slowly preach and turn Ferelden into a whole new religious country.
Thus, military rights was an important issue at hand.
"The troops….." Mikel heard this and thought for a while, then said. "Inside Ferelden, there are six generals that have control over the army. Barrett is out of the question, after the King died, he became like a dog that follows the Bishop everywhere. The other two generals, they quietly left Snow on the day of the execution but were discovered by the Church, their whereabouts are unknown."
Hearing this, Benjamin’s heart sank.
Unknown whereabouts…...which means that they were already controlled by the Church, or were about to be, there was not much difference.
This meant that the Church was about to have control of half of the military force of Ferelden.
Horrifying.
"What about the other three? I need to know about them." Benjamin took in a deep breath and asked seriously.
Mikel nodded and said, "I don’t know much, but…..alright."
Following that, he told Benjamin about all the information he knew about the remaining generals. Benjamin nodded and recorded all of it down using the System and planned an itinerary.
That’s right, he wanted to visit all three of them.
He was not trying to persuade them, to make these three stand behind him with their armies, he did not want to start conflict with the Church using them either, creating a civil war in Ferelden-----Benjamin knows what he was capable of, he did not have the speechcraft or charisma to do all that.
What he wanted to make sure now was that these three generals would not fall under the Church’s control.
Of course, all of this had to wait after he met up with them. If there was chance, he would not hesitate to start a fire, making these generals go independent. In conclusion, he had to do all he could to mess with the Church’s plans, buying himself more time.
What else could he do?
Him wanting to unite the Mage organizations in Ferelden still had a long-long-long way to go!