Chapter 78 Queue

Lucas finally got his dish served but what he got wasn't what he was expecting. The name didn't give much away, but what he received were small, dough dumplings also made from cheese and potato. He wasn't very picky when it came to food, he ate grass and worms at a certain point. His plate was very varied.

Still, for the amount of money he spent on it and what he received were simply too contrasting. In his village, he could buy out the entire bakery for a single silver coin, but now only half of his plate was filled.

'Is this it? A few small doughy-looking lumps and a few vegetables?'

'What a disgrace! This is at max a few bronze coins, what is this!'

Part of Lucas still wanted to give it a try, the cost for this plate had to be for a reason. But even after eating it, he didn't find it very tasty, especially when the price of it kept popping up at the back of his head.

'This was a mistake, you were right, let's never do this again.'

'Good to see you're somewhat reasonable.'

Lucas quickly paid for his meal and left for the main square, trying to move his mind from the massive loss he just made. Searching for distractions didn't take very long as at the very center of the main market was a woman being stoned. Lucas didn't know what was going on, but there were some people dressed in white robes with golden outlines.

'Are those people priests?'

"Don't listen to this woman's cries! She is an underling for the evilest cult on this planet, a henchman of the cruel demonic cult! She must be removed from this city for your safety! We have concrete proof!"

Lucas picked up some shouting from one of the priests and couldn't help but find it ironic. The group chastising another cult for being cruel is publicly stoning someone else.

'I guess that's her husband.'

'Wow, he looks pathetic...'

A man was being held by two strong-looking guards bawling his eyes out for what was happening and a priest crouching to speak to the man. Lucas didn't pick up their conversation but did wonder what kind of evidence they found that could be so concrete.

Speaking openly would attract a lot of attention, and Lucas didn't want to be placed in the spotlight, he didn't even want to help the woman or the man. He was a bystander, why should he involve himself in trouble for someone else's trouble?

Approaching the priest that was talking to the husband, Lucas asked another spectator something.

"She didn't do anything, please, stop this!"

"Please understand that the trial has already been settled. Stopping the stoning now will only leave her in a barely alive state. She would die from blood loss, it would be less painful to keep this going."

The man couldn't help but cry again, tears falling as if a dam had been broken, his speech started to fall apart as his breathing grew erratic. The priest looked with sad and comforting eyes, yet it didn't change anything.

'Poor man, if only I had been quicker to look over the evidence I might've convinced my brethren to stop this.'

"Excuse me, sir priest.", one of the spectators that had been standing there for quite some time approached the priest. "What is it, good citizen? How may I help you find your guiding light?"

The religion of the Order of Light wasn't very welcome in the Frigus country, but their influence was simply too powerful to completely hold it back. The borders were already converted for the most part, but this man was still caught off guard by the strange introduction.

"I wonder if we can look into that proof... not that we need to!", the man didn't want to get in trouble with the priests looking at what they could do with people that opposed them.

'This is quite a surprise, normally people who don't believe in us don't even dare to approach us.'

"But of course, I'll go grab a copy real quick, just stay here for a moment.", the priest left and quickly came back. The man suspected he would be in trouble for asking for such confidential documents, but the priest readily gave them away with a smile.

"Here you go, and if you ever need guidance, my child, simply visit our church here and ask for Micheal. I'll gladly help you find your guiding light.", and with a smile, the man was left alone.

Lucas was standing further back, looking at the spectacle. If he wanted, he could save the woman and completely heal her, but he didn't want to get in trouble with the biggest religion on the planet. Lucas couldn't even discuss this topic with himself, both parties agreed to not mess with them.

A somewhat older man approached Lucas with a few papers in his hand. "Here you go, now give me my reward!", Lucas had asked the man to request the priest for the so-called concrete evidence. This way he wouldn't put himself at risk. "Before I give you your reward, did he say anything strange?"

"Not really, all I know is that his name is Michael, that's it."

Lucas threw a few bronze coins at the man before entering a dark alleyway, removed from the noise in the main square. Looking over the documents he got, they were all anything but concrete.

'A few rumors without any good source, an anecdote from the local blacksmith, and leads that don't have any base or ends.'

'In other words, this is all just a set-up and they're lying.'

'Could be, perhaps they want to announce their arrival here, or they have actually seen her dabble in dark magic. Who knows?'

'And who cares, let's move.'

It might seem like a waste to spend money on such useless information, but it gave Lucas a lot of insight into how things worked. You could easily pin the blame for a crime on someone as long as you have enough people backing it. The fact that they were willing to share the documents with others without putting a target on them showed that it was an open secret. It also gave him a name to work with and how the priests treated normal citizens. The only thing he couldn't figure out is the strength and power the priests held.

The document stated that the woman practiced dark magic and thus was a part of the demonic cult, which is quite a loose statement.

'But if she can use magic, how can she be put down so much as to have been killed by stoning?'

There were still a lot of unknown things about the priests, making Lucas want to stay away from them for now. Once he had good intel, he could dabble with the men in cloth, but otherwise, he would avoid contact with them.

Making his way further into the alley Lucas decided to start searching for the school. He knew that it had to be somewhere in the city, but not exactly where it was. Asking a random person revealed he was going in the somewhat correct direction. Adjusting his route he would inevitably end up at the Blue Fire academy.

Along the way he was once again faced with tons of shops he didn't know of or questioned their existence in the first place. Eventually, he could see the academy in the distance. A ginormous building more than twice the size of the baron's mansion stood strong. The towers at the corners gave off a majestic look. The roof was painted a dark blue while the walls were a bright white.

When he looked back down he saw an enormous line of children waiting in line to enroll.

'Oh god..'

'Yes, this won't be very pleasant.'

Lucas contemplated whether or not to stand in line or flaunt his Rank 1 power and skip ahead. When he scouted out the power of the future students he felt that they were all below rank 1. Lucas got lucky, or unlucky, to be poisoned with enough energy and a core to skip most of the preparations for reaching Rank 1.

Merely swallowing the core would've killed him and leaving the poison alone could also place him in an undesired position. Since he didn't want to wait, he decided to walk past them all, some gave a few dirty glances at him, and others were annoyed, but they all left him alone.

At the very beginning of the row was a man behind a desk with a few papers and a crystal ball. The students had to place their hand on the ball to see how much magic they had in their core, if it was above a certain amount they were allowed inside the courtyard where there were a bunch of other queues. Lucas dreaded what was about to happen, luckily, he was more than qualified.

Standing almost next to the desk, the man behind it switched his attention from the student to Lucas. "May I ask what you're here for?", the man said with an extremely monotone voice, as if he was so tired of saying it. The student who was being tested felt that he could make a few points if he helped pressure him.

"Yeah, if you want to enroll, get in line, at the very back!"

Although the student was filled with arrogance, neither Lucas nor the inspector said anything, creating a somewhat awkward atmosphere. Eventually, Lucas looked at the inspector, "I would like to enroll in this academy."

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Bros got back home. His wife had been stoned to death and he was now under constant surveillance and had multiple death threats at his door. Entering the dark and empty house, he didn't feel very welcome.

The only love that he had been with for decades was out of nowhere cast aside by all his friends and acquittances. She was placed below the dirt, and people were happy with her passing. But Bros knew that his wife was always very friendly and kind. Donating their little savings to multiple orphanages and churches, they never stepped out of line, they did everything they were supposed to. And still...

The man looked for relief in his alcohol, but after looking for half an hour he didn't find anything. The mercenaries had scrubbed his house clean for any clues that could lead to the demonic cult, but they just took anything of value. The house felt cold and was left in a mess, with clothes, and items all across the floor.

Bros couldn't hold it in anymore, he was put down in such a humiliating way. Knowing that his wife was a demonic cult follower, he was immediately fired from his job. His anger started to grow too intense levels, making him fling things across the room, screaming. At a certain point that screaming turned into crying, he was left alone, abandoned.

All his friends started to doubt him, he didn't have any money left since they stole everything and he lost his only lover. He wasn't homeless only because they had paid off their house only recently. But if he couldn't find a job soon, he would have to sell his house to buy any food.

Bros grabbed a blanket and started to curl up into a ball, escaping reality in any way he could. It was too much, way too much to handle, he couldn't find any way to escape his present situation.

"Bros?"

He was even imagining her voice in his dreams, it had to be a delusion. There wasn't any explanation. Bros kept his position, even trying to make himself smaller in any way he could.

"Bros, is that you?"

There was her voice again, taunting him, eating away at his sanity.

"Bros! Please, don't ignore me!"

Bros couldn't handle it anymore, her voice was honey to him, too sweet to ignore and forget. But he knew what happened, she wasn't alive, she was gone, and his anger flickered up again.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!", he didn't move from his position as he didn't want to give in to his delusions.

"Oh...okay then, I wish you good luck, my dear..."

Hearing her voice was so alike listening to what he said, made him question everything. Bros quickly got out of his position and blanket to look at who he was talking to. And there she was, Franciska, in all her glory, standing there.

His eyes opened wide as if he had been awoken from a nightmare. She was there, alive and well!

"FRANCISKA! You're alive!", Bro's eyes teared up again, making new trails on his cheeks. He stood up and ran towards her with open arms, but he only grabbed air.

"Huh?"

"She's dead, for a few hours now.", a mysterious voice appeared from nowhere. He couldn't pinpoint the location from where they were talking, even the gender seemed to be hidden. His emotions were unstable, making him force out another batch of anger.

"What did you do to my Franciska?! Give her back!", he seemed to be filled with a sense of hatred toward anyone that would harm his wife. He even tried to defend her by standing in front of her.

"Dear, please listen..", Franciska herself seemed to be really calm about being deceased, as if it didn't matter. Bros could only listen to his wife now, she was his only support. "What is it dear, who did this to you?", he really wanted to touch her but kept phasing through her.

"Do you know who killed her?", the voice asked an extremely obvious question. Bros didn't have to think for a second as his fuse had been lit once again. "ISN'T THAT OBVIOUS IT'S THOSE GODDAMN STUPID PRIESTS!!!"

"Correct," the voice answered unemotionally as if checking off a list, "do you know why she was killed?"

And once again Bros' anger flared up, he couldn't hold his frustration anymore, and the voice asked a final question.

"Would you like to have your wife back?"

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