novelThe Whistleblower
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Chapter 227 The Whistleblower
In the grand hall of the church, the presiding priest was overlooking the farmer kneeling before his feet.
The farmers originally tall and sturdy stature had now turned into a completely crooked lump, with his hands slightly trembling and his skin showing an abnormal purple color. Not much longer and those patches will condense into dark spots, and eventually spread all over his body. By only getting infected today he can be considered as strong enough.
"I remember you; you are Rocky Hill living in the Eastern District, you frequently come to the church to bring us fresh wheat grain, " the priest said.
"You... recognize me! That's great, Your Reverence" he kowtowed again and again, "The demonic plague infected my family, I, I need the Holy Elixir, I beseech you."
"However, what is it that you brought with you to the Church today? The Holy Elixir isn't something that I can arbitrarily give away, " Ferry stated, not stalling or taking his time."The exchange it requires has to be given by your heart."
"I, I in order to buy medicine, I have been cheated by those rats and lost all my money, " Rock Hill said with a trembling voice, "Please forgive me, for my heart wasn't sincere, I should have never sought shortcuts by going through the black market. At present I only have one last egg left, please accept it." With this words, he took one plump egg out of his chest and offered it with his hands extended above his head.
"Pinning your hope on the deceiving and mean people of the black market will naturally be punished, but God will always extend his hand to help a lost lamb back on the right track. Only those who recognize their own faults will be able to go further and further on their pilgrimage." Ferry took the egg and smiled." Get up; God forgives you."
"Re-really?" Rocky Hill didn't dare believe his ears.
"God's envoys will never deceive someone." Ferry beckon waved, and another follower holding a box with potions immediately came over. Ferry picked four bottles and handed them to Rocky Mountain."If I remember correctly, your family has a total of four people, right?"
"Yes, Your Reverence, " he swallowed his tears, took the Holy Elixir in his hands and then leaned over to kiss the priest's shoes, "Thank you, thank you, from now on I will dedicate my whole life to the Church and to God!"
This scene also touched all the believers standing at the side, they immediately began to cheering, happily welcoming a new member to their family of believers.
Waiting until the cheers ebbed down a little, Ferry held his hand up indicating that they should become quiet, then said with a clear voice: "Next."
...
This kind of Holy Elixir distribution continued until dusk.
With the sounding of the King's City's bell, Priest Ferry declared the end of the day's distribution ceremony which would be continued tomorrow morning, leaving the begging crowd behind in the main hall.
Although his body had become somewhat tired, his spirit was still fully burning. Since standing in the grand hall listening to the pleas and prayers of the people, and watching as they couldn't wait to do everything they could to please him, made it impossible to not feel like a God in his mind.
No, what is commonly known as God is really just the Church itself, Ferry thought. After developing the demonic disease and the corresponding antidote, we can easily decide about other people's life and death, with this kind of power in our hands, what is the difference between us and God? Sighing with emotion, he was once more assured that giving up the inheritance of his family business and joining the Church had been the right choice.
In the face of such power, no one will be able to stop up. Wealthy businessmen? High-ranking nobles? When facing death, they will all be equally willing to abandon everything in exchange for the opportunity to live.
Returning to the rest area in the back hall, a clergyman hurriedly came up to him and whispered in his ear: "Your Reverence, a street rat came in and reported that he had discovered an important matter."
"Regarding what?"
"Something about the refugees of the Eastern Region, the concrete news he only wants to say when meeting you face to face." The clergyman immediately answered.
According to the Church's instructions given beforehand, Ferry should make full use of the demonic plague and its antidote, and gather as many new followers for Hermes as possible. Therefore, winning over the refugees was also a part of his plan, but compared to the citizens of King's City their importance wasn't as high. He had intended to wait another two or three days, and let half of the homeless refugees die before coming out to treat and cure the rest, which would make them feel as if their King had abandoned them. As a result, within the whole of King's City, 90% of its population would become the Church's followers. With this kind of merit and the previous order for the Battle for the Throne, would perhaps be sufficient to take another step down the road to the rank of Bishop.
At least in regards to rewarding the people for their merits, the Church has always been very fair, never considering someone's blood relationship or former identity. As long as someone showed outstanding performance, they would be promoted.
What kind of severe problem could have arisen within the refugees?
Suppressing his doubts to the bottom of his heart, he quietly said, "Alright, just take him to the secret room, I will join him soon."
"Yes, Your Reverence."
Taking off the ceremony priest robe, Ferry grasped a flexible plate armor out of the closet and put it on, and then covered it over with a loose coat. Afterward, he stepped in front of a silver mirror for a little reorganization before he left for the secret room.
Stepping into the chamber and analyzing the situation, the priest saw that the "informant's" hair was disorderly, and his complexion was sallow and skinny, allowing him to see his bones in his arms. However, what was strange was that on his whole body there was not a trace of the black spots or any other symptoms.
The moment the opposite party saw the priest enter, he immediately went on his knees and announced, "Your Reverence, my name is Needle, and I have important information to tell you."
"You may speak."
"But..." He looked up, drifted with his eyes to the other two people accompanying them in the secret room, indicating that he was hesitant to speak in front of outsiders.
"They don't matter, they are Priest Shattrath, my right-hand, " Ferry said."And the other one is Grandma Hera, who is responsible for safeguarding and taking care of this secret room, almost never leaving this place."
"Then I will speak but regarding the promised..."
"The Holy Elixir is here, " Ferry said, impatiently pulling out the blue vial."As long as your information is valuable, I will, of course, heal you from the evil spirits."
"Your Reverence, I assure you that this information is absolutely astonishing, " Needle proclaimed and raised his head."Some people are continuously transporting the fugitives away, and they have empty ships everywhere on the canal, all this I have personally seen with my own eyes. I fear that within a few days they will be able to bring away all the refugees."
"They are taking away those patients infected with the black spots?" Ferry frowned."Are you sure you haven't misread the situation?"
Previously he had already received the message that a fleet was transporting the refugees of the Eastern Region away, but something like this was quite normal. Those nobles always love it when the territory of another noble is stricken by natural disaster, this time it will allow them to plunder some workers for a very low price. Anyway, now that the demonic disease is running amuck those idiots will naturally be punished by God. However, now... after they know that the plague has infected the people, how can they still shelter the refugees?
"No, they are in possession of a cure for the demonic disease! After those mercenaries gave the patients a bag with some strange water to drink, the dark spots on their body quickly disappeared. Furthermore, they also claimed that they are coming from the Western Region, and as long as the refugees are willing to come along with the fleet, they would receive food, shelter, and remuneration for the work they have done." Needle's eyes paused on Ferry's, "But the most astonishingly is that these people are working together with a witch!"
"What did you just say?"
"What I said is absolutely correct, Your Reverence!" Needle shouted, "I mixed in with the ranks of the fugitives and embarked on a ship. In the beginning, I hadn't seen anything, but then somebody jumped from the ship, and the mercenaries on shore began the pursue him. Before long I noticed that there was a shadow circling in the sky, but it wasn't a bird, it was a witch flying in the air. I was so scared that I did not dare to move. I waited until the ship had sailed several kilometers and I couldn't detect a trace of the witch, before I took the next opportunity and dived into the water to escape. I almost needed a day to come back."Needle rubbed his hands, " Your Reverence, do you believe now that this information is worth a bottle of Holy Elixir in exchange?
"Wait a minute, you said that they have a way to cure the demonic plague and that you also have drunk it, in other words, does that mean you were previously sick?" Ferry asked.
"Uh... That's right, but didn't you say, as long as I have valuable information to offer, I can..." Needle grinned awkwardly, revealing a mouth of uneven yellow teeth.
So that's the reason, he doesn't want to use it but instead wants to take this bottle of Holy Elixir to the black market to sell it, after pondering for a moment Ferry asked again, "How many people does the other side have? Are you sure they were mercenaries from a caravan? "
"They assuredly were, they have no armor, no horses, and their weapons were a kind of wooden spear. As for their numbers..." Needle went with his hand through his hair, "Not more than a hundred people, at most!"
"To whom did belonged the ships?"
"This... I cannot tell, most of the ships haven't hung any flag, and even in case they had hung one up, I wouldn't be able to recognize them. But the mercenaries personally said that the fleet was leaving for the Western Region... ah... yes, he also mentioned that the recruitment was for the Lord of Border Town." Needle racked his brain to recall his words, "he was currently in the process of reclaiming the land, and thus the Lord needs a large workforce. That's all I can remember."
"Well, this was indeed a crucial news you had to offer, " the priest took a deep breath and pulled a bottle of blue liquid from his pocket and threw it towards Needle, "Take it with you, it is yours."
"Th-thank you, Your Reverence!" Flustered the latter caught the bottle, but suddenly his whole body began to tremble, and his eyes became huge. Only seeing a slender dagger sticking out of his neck, sending out a faint coldness, with the old and senile room manager suddenly standing behind him.
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