Chapter 12: The Price of Twenty Oxen

The next day.

At the break of dawn, Agricultural Officer Moor galloped frantically to reach Roman's estate.

He stumbled and scrambled to find Roman.

"Master Roman, disaster has struck! Last night, a devil appeared in Sige Town!"

At that moment, Roman stood before the neatly cultivated vast expanse of fields, admiring the orderly lines of ridges, the soil moistened by the morning mist, growing more pleasing to the eye the more he looked.

Not until that pig-slaughtering scream did Roman suddenly frown,

...

"Could it be a witch?"

"It must be a witch."

"Magic can't achieve this level, and even if it could, it wouldn't last so long; only a witch's peculiar and unpredictable spells could do this."

After learning the details, Roman called over Green and Aaron to jointly deduce the main cause of the phenomenon.

Speaking of witches, one had to mention the Church.

This religion, which venerates All Gods, occupies a very special position on this land.

The King, Nobles, and Church together constituted the ruling class of the era.

But their interactions with each other were quite delicate. Nobles obeyed the King, the King bowed to the Church, but the Church was very wary of the Nobles.

The Church's power was mostly within the borders of the Divine Mysterious, not only controlling Clergy with healing abilities but also possessing a strong military force of their own.

Such as the Pope's Holy Temple Knights, the Cardinal's Demon Hunting Knight Order, and various other armed groups of the Judgement Court.

The Church, with its military power and faith bonus, could levy tithes across the entire land.

A tithe represented one-tenth of the national income.

Even so, Roman had never seen the Riptide Grand Duke make any concession to the Church.

The Black Iron Kingdom was the most powerful nation on this land, with three Dukes controlling nearly forty percent of the Kingdom's military forces and territory.

They shook their heads at the Church, and never paid the tithe.

Of course, this did not mean that the peasants of the Black Iron Kingdom lived more comfortably than those of other nations.

The Nobles and the Church were alike, both oppressors, only leaving enough grain for the peasants to barely survive before taking away the majority without mercy.

Faced with an insatiable gluttonous beast, no matter how much grain was cultivated, the peasants could only remain on the brink of starvation.

The three Dukes refused to pay taxes, yet the Black Iron King would pay the tithe.

To Roman, this was an interesting phenomenon.

The Big Boss pays the Church, while the three big bosses under him simply snub their noses at the Church, with rather complicated historical reasons behind.

Not just snubbing their noses,

If the Church Court's forces dared step out of the Divine Mysterious, they would encounter a joint strike from the three Dukes.

As a remote territory of the Riptide Duke, Sige Town had no stationed Church forces, nor did the Church consider spreading its doctrine there.

Had there been a church, Roman would have had to deal with it privately.

Out of sight of the Emperor, what's there to fear!

Back to the main point.

Magic is a kind of supernatural power.

But Mages require special training, and most Mages on this land had virtually disappeared, with only some nomadic tribes possessing rudimentary magic, calling themselves Magicians, relying on performing arts and tricks to make a living.

Witches are natural Spellcasters, and all women have an extremely small chance of awakening a witch's power.

The Church views both witches and Mages as the sources of disaster, the unclean filth.

Thus, the Church's Demon Hunting Knights have always been hunting witches and Mages throughout the ages, countless tragedies stemming from this.

These issues did not involve the interests of the Nobles.

So the Nobles couldn't care less whether witches were persecuted or not.

The Witch's Magic was considered by the Conquest Knights as nothing but trickery and sorcery.

In the eyes of a Conquest Knight, even a mere mortal could kill a weak witch with salt and a dagger.

This kind of phenomenon was impossible for a Conquest Knight.

Witches didn't warrant attention.

However, the Church seemed to harbor a terrifying obsession with witches; once discovered, it wasn't just the witch who would be burned alive, but also her family members who would be purged alongside her.

And they claimed that evil witches, through blood relations, contaminated their relatives' flesh.

At age ten, Roman had witnessed the Church's burning of a witch.

It was a witch who had awakened in the territory of the Riptide Family.

The Grand Duke Riptide refused to pay the tithe, yet for some reason, did not object to the Church capturing and publicly burning the witch on his lands.

Curious about this, Roman went to have a look.

He saw the burning stake, with flames and billowing black smoke drifting towards the sky, like the devil's sneer.

Tied to the stake was a defenseless woman, her head thrown back high amid the fierce flames, her face marked with dust and soot, her hair disheveled, her body enduring the scorching heat.

But her screams of pain and despair were drowned in the crackling of the snapping wood fibers.

Until everything collapsed with a crash, turning to ash.

That scene had left young Roman deeply shaken, as if something inside him had been shattered.

...

"It's not a devil, just a witch."

At the breakfast table, Deacon Seth served the meal.

Roman signaled to Moor to take a seat.

There were few rules here; Green and Aaron had already started eating.

Seth could join the table too, but this old stickler only stood by his side, refusing the fresh delicacies in favor of stale leftovers.

At Roman's invitation, Moor reluctantly took a seat as well and then asked, "So, my lord, how do you plan to deal with this witch? Should we inform the Church?"

Sige Town had no Church influence.

But Moor believed that once those zealous believers got wind of a witch in the area, they wouldn't care about the brief thousand-mile journey and would even offer a reward of ten gold coins for the information.

That was the price of twenty oxen!

Roman glanced at him, "Why deal with her? Why would we inform the Church? She's just passing through."

Moor was speechless.

This was the Black Iron Kingdom's frontier, and nowhere was more remote than Sige Town; yet, there was a witch just passing through.

My noble lord, do you believe your own nonsense?

Moor believed him.

"Yes, you're right."

Roman then asked, "It didn't cause panic, did it?"

Moor replied, "No, a couple of poor souls saw her, but they weren't cursed. I told them to keep quiet. I've also checked around Sige Town, no one is missing or injured."

Roman nodded, "Then let's not worry about it."

It seemed the witch was in Sige Town looking for someone.

But it didn't matter; Roman didn't care about the origins or intentions of the witch, as long as she didn't interfere with him.

Otherwise, how would you find her?

Turn Sige Town upside down?

It is said that when nearing a witch, holding a Purple Crystal, an extraordinary gem, would produce special phenomena.

Because Purple Crystals had the power to reveal evil.

But Roman had no Purple Crystal, nor did he have the leisure.

He finished breakfast and set off for Sige Town with Green, Aaron, Seth, and Moor.

...