You can rest assured,” Tayfun nodded. “But … there is something wrong with the situation at the Longsong Stronghold in the Western territory.”
“What is the problem?”
“The 4th Prince Roland, after his victory against Duke Ryan, he immediately went back to Border Town, and furthermore he didn’t answer to High Priest Taylor’s offer, doesn’t he have any intention of fighting for the throne?”
“Well … what are your thoughts about it?” Mayne asked while looking in Heather’s direction.
The latter just shrugged: “What else can I say… What were the rumors about him again? He has a nasty character, is incompetence, has neither any learning nor skills to speak of and he’s also known to be greedy. How was it possible that such a person could win against the Longsong Stronghold? The answer to this question is very simple, he deceived everyone, whether it was the other nobles or us.”
“You mean …” Mayne frowned.
“We have chosen the wrong person, Lord Mayne,” she sneered. “He is the one who should have been on the main stage, not the 3r Princes Garcia.”
“That he was able to defeat the Duke truly showed his talent, but even if he was such a skilled person, without the resources he will be unable to fully display his skills.” Tayfun shook his head in disagreement, “Since he chose to return to that piece of desolate earth, it seems that he has given up on his chance to reach the throne, and because of this he won’t be causing any threat to our plan.”
“That’s seems to be correct, theoretically. But there is another interesting piece of information you shouldn’t overlook either,” Heather threw out a note, “This information was something I gathered with my personal eyes.”
Mayne spread open the note and quickly swept through it’s contents, “Witch?”
“Uh-huh, they’re one of those witch organizations. They call themselves the Witch Cooperation Association and claim for themselves to have a firm foothold in Border Town and now ask others sisters to also gather there. While this is only hearsay and could be a groundless accusation, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. We already know that the name isn’t fictional. We have already sent our Army of Judges against them once and after their defeat in the Eastern Forest, they crossed over the whole country, only to ultimately disappear somewhere west of Longsong Stronghold. Border Town is just west of Longsong Stronghold, directly next to the kingdom’s border and the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range. Two important powers situated at the same location, isn’t that a little too much of a coincidence?”
Witch Cooperation Association… I also have some impression of that name, during their whole journey they often had to face the Army of Judges and even after losing a lot of their staff they still insisted on moving in the direction of the Impassable Mountain Range. According to the information gathered from some of the tortured witches, it seemed they wanted to find the Holy Mountain, located somewhere to the west of the mountain range. It was just a suicidal move, so we did not put much energy into this matter. There are even similar witch organizations within the Kingdom of Dawn and the Wolfsheart Kingdom. They are always lurking within the cities, and after some time they suddenly rush in the direction of the Wild Lands, only to throw away their lives against an even stronger threat.”
“You mean, the Prince and the witch organization both hooked up?” After reading the news Tayfun’s face became a lot darker.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Heather smiled, “That is only a simple guess on my part. What do the witches fear the most? ‘Exposure’. And it is obvious that they will draw all the more attention when they use the name of their Witch Cooperation Association, but they still use the name for their underground message. Why is that?”
“Because it’s a familiar name to us,” Mayne said quietly. “However that’s also the same for the other witches.”
“Full marks!” exclaimed Heather clapping her hands, “This will effectively reduce the wild witches wariness, perhaps there will really be someone who could be attracted by this news and decides to go to Border Town to explore what the actual situation might be. It’s not hard to imagine this, since Border Town is without any member of the Church to overlook them, they would perhaps dare to do such a thing. We often say that it’s better to choose the lesser of two evils. Obviously, the other side has considered this and decided that the consequences of being unable to recruit witches is more serious than the consequences of them being exposed…” Here her voice became gloomy, “And I don’t like the feeling of being underestimated.”