Chapter 74: Countdown of the Witness State
Chapter 74: Countdown of the Witness State
Locke Street 42.
Roel and Nora were currently sitting around one of the short tables the children in the monastery usually dined at. Neither of them was saying anything at all.
They had just listened to the story about the prince of this country, Wade Xeclyde.
Born as one of the royal twins, he was blessed with incredible gifts at birth. His intelligence allowed him to easily grasp new knowledge, and his transcendent abilities were amazing even by the standards of the talented Xeclydes.
Going by the usual plotline of fantasy novels, Wade Xeclyde should have either walked down the path of success, leading the Theocracy on to defeat the Austine Empire and rise to the top of the world, or he should realize that human nature is inherently evil and fall into depravity, just like how history eventually came to depict him.
But, the truth was neither.
The first 12 years of Wade’s life was filled with accomplishments and bliss. Everything was smooth-sailing, and it felt like it would continue so till the end of his life. Yet, everything descended into tragedy when he turned thirteen.
It all stemmed from Wade and Victoria’s mother, Consort Mary.
Mary was born in an average viscount house in the South Sea Fiefdom. She met Prince Ryan during the banquet held for his sixteenth birthday, and the two of them fell deeply in love with one another. Prince Ryan overcame all opposition to wed Mary, and they ended up having twins together.
Needless to say, the twins were none other than Wade and Victoria.
Having come from a humble background, Consort Mary was especially empathetic to the suffering faced by the common folk. She loved children and had a gentle personality. She often spent her time visiting the orphanages in the Holy Capital and donated to smaller monasteries. From time to time, she would even conduct lessons for the populace.
Little wonder that she was so well-loved by the citizens.
However, despite her good nature, she concealed a secret that no one could learn of. She was actually a transcendent, and her Origin Attribute was not one of the Three Main Origin Attributes, which made her a heretic. This secret was made known to the public by accident when Wade and Victoria were thirteen.
For the wife of the incumbent Holy Eminence to actually be a heretic… it wasn’t hard to imagine how this would shake the upper echelons of the Theocracy. All sorts of conspiracy theories surfaced, and in the blink of an eye, Consort Mary suddenly became public enemy number one within the highest levels of the church and the royal court.
Holy Eminence Ryan was also swept into the midst of this storm. Consort Mary had turned into the weak spot of the royal family. No one knew for sure just what kind of political strife had broken out within the royal court, but this uproar ended with Mary fading from public view. She was sent to a monastery in the Holy Capital to live her life out quietly.
From then on, even though Mary still lived in the same city as the twins, they were firmly separated from one another. They never got a chance to meet once more.
This could have all changed when Wade ascended to the throne and donned the holy robes, but he didn’t manage to make it in time.
It was when Wade was 15 that a plague broke out in the Holy Capital. The well-protected royal palace wasn’t affected due to swift measures put in place, but the monastery in which Consort Mary lived happened to be one of the infected regions. In the end, in the March of Year 824, Mary succumbed to the plague and died.
Just like that, a kind woman who was loved by the populace departed without anyone knowing. There was no sorrow and no funeral. It was almost as if she had never existed in the first place.
This incident really agitated the young Wade.
No one understood just how that 15-year-old child felt when he learned his mother had died, but he couldn’t even see her off. It was not that no one tried to probe, but he didn’t allow anyone to peer through his inner thoughts. All everyone saw was a diligent youth persevering in his studies and training. Compared to Victoria, who spent her days grieving over her mother’s death, it looked as if he was completely unfazed.
All of the nobles who had put Consort Mary down back then heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing Wade’s attitude. They praised him for his wisdom at being able to see the bigger picture.
Yet, they didn’t understand that the more silent a person was, the more frightening he would be when he finally erupted. Wade hadn’t lost his emotions; he was just sharpening his edge. He channeled all of his wrath and sorrow into motivation, the motivation to seek greater power. He bided his time and quietly grew his power while waiting for an opportunity to surface.
And an opportunity finally surfaced four years later.
In the March of Year 828, when Holy Eminence Ryan left the Theocracy to visit the Austine Empire, he finally drew his blade on his enemies. With a single move, he cut down half of the upper echelon of the Theocracy. None of the bishops who had insulted Mary were able to escape from his fury. He didn’t give them any chance at all, just like how they hadn’t given Mary a chance back then.
If all Wade did was kill, he would have been no more than a butcher blinded by vengeance. However, the truth was not so. Wade’s ambition went further than just exacting vengeance; he had ideals as well.
‘Revolutionaries’, that was the name of Wade’s faction. It was filled with many hot-blooded youths who sought to change the rules that opposed the existence of heretics.
For his goal, Wade even took on a huge risk by changing his Compassion Origin Attribute into something else, thus turning himself into a heretic. That effectively meant that Wade had turned his back on the succession of the throne. He was putting everything he had on the line; if it failed, he would have been left with nothing at all.
It was the sheer determination he displayed that moved the hesitant heretics in the Theocracy to make a stand. They swiftly joined Wade’s ranks, and to everyone’s amazement, three of the Five Eminent Noble Houses actually chose to stand alongside him.
Everything else went according to recorded history. The Revolutionaries moved with frightening speed, leaving those in the conservative faction facing a crisis before they even knew it.
Victoria and Ponte were the two final fortresses of the conservative faction. As long as the Revolutionaries could capture Victoria, Wade would be in a strong position to force Holy Eminence Ryan to acknowledge the ideals of the Revolutionaries. Unless Holy Eminence Ryan could bring himself to destroy his own heritage and pass the crown down to a non-Xeclyde, he would have no choice but to accede to Wade’s demands.
After listening to the full story, Roel and Nora were left flabbergasted. The story they were hearing right now was simply far too different from the history they had learned.
Roel himself wasn’t really a believer of the Genesis Goddess Church, so he empathized more with Wade’s actions, at least for the first half of the story. From his perspective, he felt that it was tragic for someone as kind as Consort Mary to end up with such a fate just because of human biases.
Well killed! Those who speak of forgiveness should try losing their mom in that manner first before preaching those values!
Vengeance in the face of injustice was an inherent tendency of humans. Putting the subjectivity of moral values aside, while Wade’s actions were extreme, there were still many who could see things from his perspective and empathize with him.
As for Prince Wade’s Revolutionaries and those ideals that were mentioned in the latter half of the story, Roel couldn’t really make a judgment about that, and he didn’t think that he was qualified to do so either. There were no history books that spoke about that faction, and he didn’t live in this era himself, so he didn’t fully understand the situation or its nuances.
However, based on what he had heard from Klaude, it would appear that while the ideals promoted by the Revolutionaries were shockingly progressive for the Theocracy, it was also overdue to address the issue of heretics.
For the past decade, the Theocracy had been attracting more and more heretics to settle down in the country, due to the stable livelihood provided. Given their growing numbers, it would be unwise to continue overlooking them.
This influx brought about both pros and cons.
For the pros, these heretics were important members of the workforce. In this world where most fiefdoms suffered from underpopulation, having more workers was almost always a good thing. Furthermore, there were many skilled individuals amongst them too, making them an invaluable resource that could potentially be tapped into.
However, looking at it from another perspective, the fact that their Origin Attribute wasn’t stable meant that problems could occur during their evolution, resulting in them falling into depravity and turning into vile evil cultists. In reality, the line between heretic and evil cultist was blurred, so it wasn’t that easy to distinguish between the two.
On top of that, public security in the Holy Capital had been growing poorer over the past decade too.
Hearing the truth behind the history, Roel was once more rendered speechless. However, the one who was most affected was none other than Nora. From a young age, she had viewed Victoria as her role model and strove to be like her. Yet now, what Klaude mentioned threatened to overthrow what she had believed in her whole life.
Naturally, Nora didn’t just take Klaude’s words for granted. She posed her doubts and questioned the validity of his statements, but Klaude had an answer to that too.
“I know all of this because I belong to one of the monasteries here in the Holy Capital. Our small monastery is acquainted with Consort Mary,” said Klaude as he reminisced about her beautiful silhouette with a look of nostalgia. “She’s a good person.”
Klaude muttered to himself, as if trying to justify something. Seeing this, Roel pondered momentarily before finally posing a question.
“Do you think that Prince Wade was justified in his vengeance?”
This question provoked a huge response from Klaude. The monk’s first instinct was to blurt out a response, but he managed to hold himself back at the very last moment. A long period of silence lingered in the air before Klaude finally replied with a vague answer.
“I can empathize with how His Highness Wade feels.”
His Highness Wade?
Roel took some time to ponder the underlying meaning behind Klaude’s words. He shot a glance at the pale-faced Nora before he moved on to pose his second question.
“Then do you think that Prince Wade’s initiative is the right choice?”
Klaude’s response was even bigger this time, but it was a response of uncertainty. His eyelids quivered a little as he thought over this matter. It seemed like a series of postulations and contradictions were occurring in his heart. He raised his hand up slightly in agitation, only to eventually put it down powerlessly.
“I don’t know… I really don’t know.”
This was perhaps a sentiment shared by many in this era too. Two different ideals represented two different paths the Theocracy could walk down. They were standing at a fork, and their decisions would determine their future and many others. It was too big of a decision, so much so that it frightened them, rendering them incapable of choosing.
With a deep sigh, Roel concluded his questioning. He turned his head over to Nora, only to see her brooding over this matter. She appeared to be in a gloomy mood. What Klaude mentioned earlier had really shaken her.
There was nothing that Roel could do to solve this, but at the very least, he could solve their physiological needs.
“It’s about time to sleep. We should get some rest.”
“Mm.”
Klaude brought the two of them to separate bedrooms. After packing up a little, Roel lay down on the bed and sighed deeply.
So many things had happened that it was hard to believe that it had only been half a day. Even with the ‘steroids’ he had received from the System, it was still a little too much for him to bear.
Recalling the System, Roel suddenly remembered the deal he had made with it a while back regarding the loan, so he quickly took a look at the System’s interface once more.
His eyes widened at what he saw.
【Progress of Bloodline Awakening: 60%】
【Countdown to the end of Witness State: 73 hours 55 minutes】
【Evaluation: Average (59)】