“Damn you, what would the Church get from the fight between my children? The Church will also sink into a sea of fire, many of their believers will get killed during the war, and the kingdom will become a total mess…” talking until here, Wimbledon suddenly got a distracted look, not believing his upcoming thought “Do you want to –” another burst of severe coughs interrupted the king’s speech once more. When he was finally able to speak again, his voice became as thin as a gossamer, as if that array of coughing had consumed all his remaining energy, “You… want to destroy the royal family!”
“Exactly, but it would be more accurately to speak about the royal power.” Mayen couldn’t help himself from praising the king within his heart for his keen judgment. Even after staying for six months in the completely dark dungeon, by not losing his consciousness he could already be regarded as strong willed, but he has even managed to keep his intelligence. The only other people who would be able to do this can be counted on one hand,
“The monarchy will always be a hinderance to the development of the Church, no matter how weak it becomes, it will always rise again just like weed. So only by completely eradicating it, will the Church be able to ‘genuinely’ control the Kingdom.”
“…” suddenly Wimbledon looked a lot more aged, previously only his outer appearance seemed to be old, but now it seemed that his spirit had left him and his eyes dimmed.
“The Kingdom of Graycastle is the kingdom with the largest territory in the mainland, it has also the largest number of soldiers, so in the case of a full-frontal war, my church can only be at a disadvantage. We had already planned all this for a long time now. During a civil war, your kingdom will lose a lot of soldiers and mercenaries, after waiting for only two to three years, our God’s Punishment Army will be able to easily take over the whole territory of your Kingdom. But you don’t need to be sad, your kingdom isn’t the only one we are subjugating. The other three kingdoms are all facing the same situation. Soon the mainland will no longer have the four kingdoms. Instead of the “Wolfsheart Kingdom“, the “Kingdom of Eternal Winter”, “Kingdom of Dawn” and the “Kingdom of Graycastle“, there will be only one regime, “the Church”, ruling over all the countries.”
Wimbledon turned completely silent, the man who had won the throne from his brother by force of arms was now like a man who had lost his life, even for Mayne it was hard to bare, but in his mind, he hadn’t the slightest thought of regret. The Church had also invested a lot into this plan – a large number of outstanding believers had been willingly used as pawns, regardless of the danger to themselves.
For example, the man who had played Wimbledon III was a devoted member of the Judges. He was a strong believer and absolutely loyal to the Church, and would have originally received the transformation ceremony, becoming a member of the God’s Punishment Army. However, in order to complete the mission, he got his appearance changed by a witch into that of you. So when he died in the castle he didn’t receive any honor. Before the mission, he could have carved his name on top of the Church’s monument on Hermes, but now the Church could only bury his name forever.
When Mayne came to the conclusion that Wimbledon wouldn’t speak any further, he took a small porcelain bottle out of a pocket and gave it to him to drink.
When Wimbledon had collected himself and drank the potion, he spoke ist final words, “Curse…”
“Yes?” asked Mayne, waiting for the King to continue.
“I curse you… I’ll be waiting for you in the depths of hell.” Wimbledon’s voice grew fainter with every word, in the end, Mayne had even to concentrate if he wanted to understand what was said.
“It’s a pity that there is no hell in this world. Even if there is one, it isn’t a place where I belong to. Everything we are doing is for the continuing of humanity. Only by unifying the four Kingdoms, are we able to get enough power to confront the true enemy, or else… ” The Archbishop stopped his speech when he saw that Wimbledon’s hand had lost all of its strength and had fallen to the ground, his head twisted to one side, and his chest stopped to move.
This was the end of a king, but it’s our beginning, he thought.
Mayne took up the bottle and put it back into his pocket. Then he opened the door and stepped into the quiet corridor, which gave the feeling like there had never been any cries. He only explained to the member of the Judges how to deal with the aftermath, and then he left the castle without looking back even once.