Chapter 400 Peace Talks
On February 4, 1033 in the alien world, in the northern part of Middle-earth, in Grosen, the Middle-earth province of the Kenyan Empire, the capital city of Ishta.
Gejier, a member of the investigation team who returned from the Eastern Kingdom with great difficulty, was isolated in the monastery and waited for many days before finally being received by the bishop of the Grossen Province Diocese.
"Gergeir Wesley Croft, are you willing to swear to Father God that everything you say is a fact that cannot be falsified?"
In the spacious prayer room, a priest wearing a red robe and holding a scepter sat at the head, looking majestically at the black-haired young man who was kneeling on one knee .
With a haggard and anxious look on his face, Gejier leaned forward and bowed his head: "I swear to Father God that everything I said is true."
The red-robed priest nodded slightly and turned his gaze to another red-robed priest sitting on a high-back chair.
Gejier knew this red-robed priest who came from the Holy Land...Priest Jonathan, the godfather of Captain Ross.
Only priests with real power can hold the scepter. Priest Jonathan has never held a real position, but he is qualified to attend the meetings of the Holy Land Main Hall and is recognized by the cardinal as the successor to the Senate. Even if the red-robed priest holding the scepter is the diocesan bishop of the province of Grosen, he has to show respect to Priest Jonathan.
Priest Jonathan nodded slightly to express his gratitude to the bishop of Grossen Province, and then asked Gejier: "Don't be nervous, child, please tell me how my godson Ross is doing now."
Gejier responded respectfully and briefly introduced the situation of the investigation team being captured by the undead and trapped deep in the Tarantan Wasteland, as well as the situation of Captain Ross.
Upon hearing that his godson Ross had not been deliberately targeted by the Nightmare Butcher, Priest Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief.
Ross Jonathan Mansfield is not only his godson, but also the descendant of Grand Duke Mansfield, who is regarded as an important arm of the next generation of Duke. The Nightmare Butcher detained Ross and was only willing to release Gajil to act as a messenger, which caused Priest Jonathan a lot of headaches.
When the two red-robed priests heard Gejier mention that the total number of undead in the exile town was confirmed to be over 30,000, their brows furrowed.
But after Gejil listed the ruling policies of the undead regime that he had witnessed with his own eyes, the brows of the two red-robed priests gradually relaxed.
"The Gold Coin Church is so short-sighted." Upon learning that only one in ten nobles remained in the area ruled by the Undead regime, the bishop of the Grossen Province made a disdainful comment.
They coveted the land and wealth owned by the nobles and killed them all, and used the money and land looted from the nobles to please the common people. For the Fiery Sun Church, which complemented the Kenyan nobles, this was really unreasonable.
Priest Jonathan couldn't help but shake his head: "Those barbarians in the east are too indulgent."
The history of the rise of the Kenyan Empire and the expansion of the Church of the Fiery Sun are both closely related to the expansion of the power of the Kenyan aristocratic group; the Nightmare Butcher slaughtered local nobles, and the royal family and the Gold Coin Church of the small eastern country did not interfere. In the eyes of Priest Jonathan, they were so vulgar and ignorant that they were no different from barbarians.
Gejier looked surprised.
Gejil, who returned alone as a released prisoner, knew that he would be labeled with negative labels such as "shameful loser" and "suspicious traitor", but he still rushed back resolutely; the reason was that he hoped that the church could learn as much as possible from him about the dangers of the Nightmare Butcher and his undead regime.
The bishop of Grossen Province Diocese from the Inquisition and Bishop Jonathan from the Senate reacted in the same contemptuous manner... With Gejier's intelligence, how could he not guess the attitudes of these two red-robed priests!
After a moment of thinking, Ge Jier came to his senses.
His persistence may have had the opposite effect.
If the Nightmare Butcher imitated the old path of the Church of the Sun and closely united with the noble groups in the Eastern Kingdoms, with the siege and territorial capabilities displayed by his undead, the church might regard him as its number one enemy.
But the Nightmare Butcher not only abandoned the aristocracy of the Eastern Kingdom, but also slaughtered and persecuted them wantonly... In the eyes of the high-ranking priests, wasn't it tantamount to cutting off his own future!
Gejier felt bitter in his heart and bit his pale lips, but he did not dare to deny the facts confirmed by the two red-robed priests.
Although he was also born into a noble family, he was not as respected in the family as his leader Ross; even Ross would not dare to disobey his godfather here, let alone him?
"Well... If the Holy Land believes that the Nightmare Butcher's undead regime does not pose too much of a threat, at least their attitude will be more moderate, and they will be willing to negotiate with him and exchange Ross and the others back." Gejier could only comfort himself in his heart.
If Ross and other members of the investigation team cannot escape, it will be difficult for Gejier, who returns alone, to be reused. He may be neglected for a while and then sent to some rural place to be the captain of the night watch. That kind of life with no future is not what Gejier wants.
Gejier was just worrying about what would happen, when he suddenly heard Priest Jonathan start discussing with the bishop of Grossen Province about who to send to the Eastern Kingdom to rescue the investigation team. He immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
"Your Majesty, I still have something to report to you." Gejier said hastily, "As far as I know, the undead summoned by the Nightmare Butcher have the characteristic of ignoring the location of the Nightmare Butcher himself and appearing in any area at will!"
Priest Jonathan and the bishop of Grossen Province looked at Gejier in astonishment at the same time.
"This is what I heard from the former thief in Exile Town. All the Tarantan Undead know how to respond to summons on their own. Even if no one summons them, they will know how to go to another place through the activated summoning circle." Gejier said nervously, "If the Nightmare Butcher places a summoning circle between the two places, without his instructions, these undead will know how to go back and forth between the two places through the summoning circle and attack all enemies they can attack."
"Is there such a thing?!" Priest Jonathan was greatly surprised.
"When the nobles of the Eastern Kingdom hired the Tarantan Undead as mercenaries, they took advantage of the characteristics of the Tarantan Undead and summoned them to areas not ruled by the Undead regime to fight against other countries." Gejier said, "It's not just a few elite Tarantan Undead who have human-like intelligence, but all of them do!"
Priest Jonathan and the bishop of Grossen Province looked at each other, and both of them looked solemn.
All 30,000 undead possessed human-like intelligence, and knew how to use summoning circles to relocate without having to issue commands one by one. Coupled with the warlike nature and immortality of these undead, the threat they posed was much greater than that of 30,000 soldiers. Even if the Nightmare Butcher was restrained at all costs, anyone who rashly entered the area ruled by the Undead regime still had to be prepared to respond to the enemy at any time. This undoubtedly greatly increased the difficulty of rescuing the Ross Investigation Team by force.
The two red-robed priests were thinking about this when the ascetic monk who was guarding outside the prayer room knocked on the door and walked in.
"Your Majesty, General Bernard sent an envoy, saying he has an urgent matter to discuss with you."
"Please invite General Bernard's envoy in." said the Bishop of Grossen Province.
Ge Jier quickly stood up and stepped aside.
Not long after, a soldier wearing the uniform of the Kenyan Empire's Middle-earth Military strode into the prayer room.
After bowing to the two red-robed priests, the envoy from the Middle-earth military said, "Your Majesty, in Hayak Territory, Krenniburg Territory... and many other territories, Tarantan Undead have frequently appeared in the past week and attacked the imperial garrison!"
"What?!" The bishop of Grossen Province was shocked and furious.
"What's going on?" Priest Jonathan also became serious.
It is one thing for the Senate and the Inquisition to compete openly or covertly, and it is another thing for someone to step into their own territory and provoke them; the northern part of Middle-earth is already the territory of the Empire, and the undead of the Nightmare Butcher came in to cause trouble, provoking everyone in the Church of the Fiery Sun.
The envoy sent by Admiral Bernard immediately listed the war damage reports received by the Middle-earth military headquarters to the two red-robed priests...
The elusive Tarantan Undead began to appear in various places in Middle-earth a week ago, and they stay in the same area for no more than six or seven hours at a time. When the garrisons in nearby areas rush to rescue them, the undead have often disappeared without a trace, leaving only a mess behind.
A total of sixteen areas were harassed, some were occupied areas, and some were contested areas; the contested areas were fine, but the impact on the occupied areas was particularly severe - for example, in a place like Krenniburg, where the empire had been operating for many years and had invested heavily, the mines and factories could not start work, and the empire was suffering losses every day!
In particular, local resistance organizations and guerrillas would follow the undead and take advantage of the situation. In some areas, not only were all the workers running away from the factories, but even the machines were taken away by those greedy guerrilla rebels!
What's worse is that those brutal guerrilla rebels will not only take advantage of the situation to loot, but will also kill all the Kenyans who have been disarmed by the undead!
In just one week, the number of casualties among officers and non-commissioned officers of the Southern Army of the Empire sent to various places was almost comparable to the losses in attacking a small country!
What is even more shameless and unbearable is that these undead ghosts don’t just come once, but come one after another, over and over again!
The guerrilla rebels who followed the undead to pick up the leftovers and took away the food and artillery have become a security risk that cannot be ignored!
The bishop of Grossen Province and priest Jonathan looked at Gejier in astonishment.
Gejier, who was standing nearby and listening, was sweating profusely. When the two priests looked at him, he hurriedly bowed tremblingly and said, "Your Majesty, this is probably the situation I just mentioned... In the area where the undead appear, there must be a summoning circle hidden that can summon these Tarantan undead from thousands of miles away."
The two red-robed priests twitched their lips at the same time.
High-ranking priests like them have sufficient knowledge of mysticism and various kinds of magic common sense; the summoning array used to summon the undead is not as demanding as the teleportation array used for the living. It can be engraved on stone, soil, paper, sheepskin, or monster skin.
The range of activities of the undead that appeared in the northern part of Middle-earth is often dozens of kilometers. It would be extremely difficult to find a piece of paper or leather scroll engraved with a summoning array hidden in such a vast area !
If a large army were sent to guard all sixteen areas, the Nightmare Butcher could just temporarily ban his undead from using these teleportation arrays; and once the army withdrew, he could send his bandit-like undead over... It would simply be endless!
If we allow these undead to run around without any hesitation, the guerrillas in various places will continue to grow stronger...
Priest Jonathan leaned back and lowered his eyelids, seemingly not intending to make any comments on the matter.
The veins on the forehead of the bishop of Grossen Province began to throb.
The stability of the Middle-earth province is closely related to the aristocratic group that has close ties with the Inquisition.
The rampant undead and the proliferation of guerrillas will only add to the already heavy security pressure on the Middle-earth military...
Priest Jonathan only came to Grossen Province to discuss the matter of rescuing the investigation team. The chaos in Middle-earth Province has nothing to do with him and can be left aside.
The bishop of Grossen Province had no way to avoid it, so he ordered the messenger to go back and tell General Bernard that he would solve the matter as soon as possible. After the messenger left, he reluctantly said, "Gergeer, what are the conditions of the Nightmare Butcher?"
Negotiating with the Nightmare Butcher and exchanging prisoners would obviously bring shame to the Inquisition, but in the face of the more important interests of Middle-earth, the diocesan bishop had to step up and take the blame.
