Chapter 304: The True Three Prophets
"Sister Clancy...she's dead. But her death was an accident, not ours."
Circe answered readily enough.
"How did he die?"
Li Ang asked her questions in a probing manner, obviously wanting her to explain everything clearly.
"That was when we were sent to the Fierdsvain by King Ulric..."
Sissi was very patient. Perhaps she still wanted to gain cooperation with Leon, so she told Leon everything.
One year ago, the Sarleon Kingdom was plagued by internal and external troubles.
During that period, the kingdom experienced chaos again and again.
There is hardly a peaceful place in the entire Sarleon Territory...
Baron Keldren plotted treason and stole Lion Lake City, Long River Town was occupied by Granlon, the Kingdom of Stern Crow invaded the North Gulf, the Jatu people moved south in large numbers, and Governor Levius of the Bacchus Empire was attacking White Hart Castle...
That was a turbulent time for the Sarleon Kingdom.
At that time, the Kingdom of Firdsvain also stationed troops in Highcliff Castle, watching the situation covetously and was likely to break the alliance at any time.
At that time, Ulric had not yet recovered from his illness and was unable to go on the expedition. Brennus went on an expedition to Lake Lion City on behalf of the king, taking away almost all of the king's direct troops, leaving Lake Lion City extremely empty and completely unable to deal with the attacks that the Bacchus Empire and Firdsvain might launch at any time.
So, at that time, Ulrich provided a large amount of money and food to the Bacchus rebel Hira Yuzas, causing the Bacchus Empire to fall into civil strife.
Meanwhile, in order to remove the threat from Firdsvain, Ulric made a deal with the Three Prophets.
For the Three Prophets, making deals with the king has long been the norm - whether it was the previous generation of King Sarleon or the current Ulric, they all regarded the Three Prophets as butcher knives in their hands.
The massacres of Troublen and Serenmis were all done by the Three Prophets, in fact, they were all done to eliminate rebellion.
Using the Legion of Prophets to eliminate those rebellious or disobedient vassals is a clean and labor-saving way for the king - the Three Prophets will deceive many people in those places into becoming heretical followers, and then no one will sympathize with those people.
There is no handle, no evidence, so let the three prophets create the evidence of "heresy". Both the King of the Fierce Lion and the nobles of Bacchus will use the same method - the Bacchus nobles will call the disobedient civilians "snake worshippers" in order to obtain slaves.
As for the three prophets, they can also get what they want from this cooperation - such as offerings from believers, the skin of young girls, and ever-increasing strength.
Moreover, they would not attract the Kingdom's army to attack them, as the Lion Knights would cover up the truth for them.
When the three prophets were defeated in Changhe Town and captured back to Sarleon City, they used dragon tears and medicine to cure Ulric's illness and save his life.
But they were still supervised by King Ulric in the swamp, just like being in prison - they led the Prophet's Legion to seize Changhe Town. This was indeed done by the three prophets themselves. The main reason was that Count Oden, who had the strongest military force at that time, died, and the three prophets tried to take the opportunity to control the eastern part of the kingdom.
At that time, the content of the deal between King Ulric and the Three Prophets was to release them, lift the blockade of the swamp, and allow them to lead out all the heretics in the swamp - let the Three Prophets take them to the Fierdsvain to raise an army and plunge the Fierdsvain into chaos.
For this deal, King Ulric was willing to pay with a castle - Longhowl Castle.
The three prophets agreed.
They did succeed in pulling out a legion of prophets near the Fog City, causing great chaos in the Firdsvain.
Afterwards, Leon and Duke Brennus repelled the Crowmen at Eagle Claw Castle and killed the Jatu, but the Lion Knights and the Royal Guards suffered heavy losses, and Brennus was stripped of his position as marshal.
After leaving Firdsvain, the three prophets moved into Longhowl Hold.
This was what Ulrich had promised, allowing them to settle in Longhowl Castle and promising not to grant it to other lords. It would be a direct territory of the king, where the three prophets could spread their beliefs - that is, let them control the city.
Gaining a base was of course the best reward for the three prophets, so they kept their word and worked very hard - they held back the Firdsvain army for at least two months, until all the problems in the Kingdom of Sarleon were resolved, and then they returned to Sarleon.
But after the three prophets entered the Howling Castle, they found that the castle was empty. Except for the temple of the goddess of order, the other residents were nowhere to be found...
Perhaps Ulric's original intention was to leave the three prophets with an empty city...
"We barely got anything useful from Howling Castle, no people, money, food or livestock - nothing. Everything was taken away."
When Cersei mentioned this, she smiled helplessly: "Only the orphans in the temple are left unattended... In order to make up for the loss of manpower in Firdsvain, we can only let those orphans go into the arms of the goddess Ereda."
"You killed the people in the temple?"
Li Ang felt that the so-called "throwing oneself into the arms of the dark goddess" might be rather cruel.
"No, Lord Leon, you may have some misunderstandings about us - we will not kill people at will."
Sersi shook her head, her face serious. "Even if it is a sacrifice, we will only allow believers who are willing to sacrifice everything to perform it, because those who do not believe in the goddess Erida are not qualified to participate in the ceremony. Those who say that we use children for sacrifice probably heard it from others and mistakenly think that we are the same as other heretical supplicants. Those idiots don't understand anything. Do they think the Dark Goddess will be happy about this? The goddess is not a demon from the abyss..."
Leon frowned, but he kind of believed what Cersei said - if they really used the flesh and blood of innocent children for sacrifice, it would be difficult to get followers like Morgan. After all, most people still have some humanity.
"Then... you must have killed the people in Trubrunn. Where are the children in the village?"
After thinking about it, Li Ang asked about the uninhabited village.
"The girl was adopted by us, and the boy was sent to other cities. The Red Brotherhood likes to adopt boys... Sir Leon, the former lord of Trubrun had a grudge against the king, so he was accused of heresy and treason. We did help the king clean up his territory. But we will let those people follow us first and give them the opportunity to choose. If they are still unwilling, they will have to be eliminated by us... But the children in the village are different. They are ignorant and don't know what choice is or what faith is, so we won't have to harm them."
Sersi seemed to be deliberately trying to make Leon understand them again, and explained patiently: "In fact, Lord Leon, what do you think would have happened to those children if we hadn't taken them away?"
Li Ang did indeed look at the Three Prophets in a new light.
They fabricated crimes on the king's orders and then massacred the rebels...their actions were essentially no different from those of the Lion Knights.
Perhaps the only difference is that the three prophets’ methods are more bizarre, especially those involving changing skins.
If they had not taken those children away, the children in the village would have been regarded as heretics, or would have died of hunger, hardship or in the mouths of wild beasts, and most of them would not have survived anyway.
"Sir Leon, we are not murderers. Everything we do has a purpose. Most of the girls we adopt will become our followers... Of course, every girl loves beauty, so we will also reshape the bodies of our followers - those who blaspheme the goddess don't need such a beautiful face."
Circe said it very frankly.
"Only women can change their faces? What about men?"
Li Ang suddenly remembered the fake Igor.
"We have never changed a man's face, because there is no need - most men don't pursue appearance. Money, power and beauty are what you men desire."
Sersi shook her head. "Besides, the replaced ones are never as good as the real ones. You have to use medicine every day to keep them active. Men don't have the patience, nor do they have the habit of putting on makeup every day."
So, the fake Igor has nothing to do with the three prophets?
This is possible. After all, Cersei also said that the heresy in Weird Fox Town and Alanric's death had nothing to do with them - they really had no need to cause trouble in Weird Fox Town, so they probably didn't lie.
Probably from the perspective of the Three Prophets, those who do not believe in the Dark Goddess are heretics, so Le Ang can understand her way of thinking.
These are indeed very purposeful behaviors.
They use the pursuit of beauty to attract women to join the Dark Goddess, and use the pursuit of power and wealth as well as beautiful women to attract men to follow them. And of course, they will show no mercy to those who they consider to be heretics.
This is the typical logic of religious power in this era, and it is basically the same as the Dawn Knights. The Three Prophets were originally priests of the Goddess of Justice, and they are from the same lineage as the Dawn Knights...
He suddenly felt that the process of rebuilding the Knights of the New Dawn might have to be accelerated.
The Snake Cult, the Knights of the Dawn, the Three Prophets...
They worship their own gods, but they are all exclusive religious warlords and cannot tolerate other beliefs.
Sir Roland has a long way to go...I'm afraid the goddess of justice won't be able to come back for a while.
"Let's go back to the temple in Long Howl Castle... What did you do to that temple? The followers of the Goddess of Order probably won't take the initiative to surrender to you, right?"
Li Ang changed the subject.
"On the contrary, Lord Leon..."
Sersi smiled meaningfully: "Almost everyone in that temple has voluntarily thrown themselves into the arms of the Dark Goddess, and all for a few pieces of bread - perhaps, except for Sister Clancy and her daughter Anna, no one is a true believer of the Goddess of Order..."
"What do you mean? Most of them should be orphans adopted by the temple. How could they take the initiative to come to you?"
Li Ang was indeed a little surprised.
"It was Brennus who relocated the residents of Long Howl Castle. Of course, he was following the king's orders. However, he did not leave any food in the temple. When we entered the temple, there were only two women, Sister Clancy and Anna, and hungry and crying children all over the ground. Those children were real orphans, without aristocratic backgrounds..."
There was obvious sarcasm on Circe's face. "The other clergy had already fled. Only Sister Clancy and her daughter stayed there, trying to find food for the orphans. But the two women couldn't feed the children in an empty city. After seeing us, she handed the children to us personally... To be honest, although her beliefs were different from ours, I still felt her compassion and remembered her name."
"……Then what?"
Li Ang sighed. This tragedy was indeed different from what he had imagined.
"Sister Clancy and her daughter, Anna, did not oppose us after they knew our identities. Instead, they made a vow to dedicate everything they had to the goddess Erida, hoping that we could give those orphans a chance to live."
Sersi spoke softly, as if she really respected the mother and daughter: "Then, the mother and daughter committed suicide together... They said that people who abandoned their faith should not live."
"They didn't abandon their faith..."
Leon shook his head and said that he felt sad for the Clancy family.
"Yes, they didn't betray us. But they thought we were cruel abyss demons, just like you did before. In fact, we originally intended to let them live well. We are not inhumane. We were once nuns... But we did betray our original beliefs."
Cersei shook her head. "So, we used Anna's body to become Ulrich's princess, and she will become the Queen Regent in the future. This will make the Clancy family rise again. This is actually our way of showing respect to Sister Clancy. However, we did not expect that there are other people in the Clancy family..."
"But you also know that I can't hand Ors over to you..."
The conversation finally returned to the main topic, but Leon directly blocked Sersi's intention.
"We won't kill him. We just need him to follow our daughter... I promise that he will become a true father-in-law, gain great power, and enjoy all the good things in the world - since you are his friend, this will also be of great benefit to you."
Sissi probably realized that Leon would never betray his friend, so she started making all kinds of promises.
"But the question is... after losing your love, is the power and status gained through the witch's lies really good?"
Leon shook his head and stood up: "Besides, Sersi, if I hand Ors over to you now, will you still tell me so much truth?"
Sersi's expression changed: "Sir Leon, we don't want to be your enemy, but don't force us to deal with you!"
"As for Ors's matter, he has to decide it himself. I have no right to decide the fate of my friend, and neither do you."
Li Ang smiled and said, "Let's first properly resolve the issue between Amy and Godric, and then I will bring Ors to see you. After all, Anna wants to give him a letter of guarantee so that he can obtain a legal identity. By the way, he can also meet his son..."
"That's fine, but if you break your promise, I promise you'll regret it!"
Circe agreed and stood up as well.
But then she turned around, a little confused: "Ors's son... You mean, Anna's brother you mentioned before? He is in Sarleon City?"
"Yeah... you didn't expect that, maybe you could try to kill your followers, so that you can silence them - Anna's brother is among your followers."
Li Ang smiled: "Or, after Madam Anna gives birth to a child, you will naturally not need to care about him."
A hint of murderous intent once again appeared in Cersei's eyes.
This time, several people in the tavern looked at her at the same time - perhaps after working as an assassin for a long time, one will gain some special talents or feelings, and Scorpio assassins are quite sensitive to this kind of murderous aura.
But Leon pretended not to see it: "Circe, lies can only be covered up with more lies. This matter has nothing to do with me. Anna's brother is among your followers. I can't control him. You figure it out on your own."
"who is he?"
Circe asked, frowning.
"The commander of your Royal City Guards has already left for Weird Fox Town this morning to supervise Godric... Moreover, this supervisor was sent by Madam Anna herself."
Li Ang did not tell the truth.
Inna, the adjutant of the Royal City Guard, is the son of Ors, but Leon plans to hide him - since the Three Prophets have never changed the faces of men, this Inna is the original one, just like Morgan was a pure follower.
Well, maybe we can try to get Inna to come back.
