Chapter 87: The Witch Cries 2

“Are we evil you ask?”

The acolyte said that to the proud priest in black robes. His bowl cut hair shined as the grained glass illuminates it. There was a serene expression on his bearded face. It is the face of a man enlightened by the Light.

“Evil is the ones that do evil, my dear Acolyte.”

The acolyte nodded and asked.

“If we aren’t evil then why would we need to terrorize a whole land of peaceful fiefs? It is simply my dear Acolyte of Light. We need the evil to remind them. There is no evil and we cannot bring something as filthy like an Orc or an Elf to these blessed lands. Oh, you ask why we instead bring fear and terror to the fiefs.”

The Acolyte nodded.

“It is simple. Those guards are former criminals, heinous traitors to the lands that are controlled by forces that try to subvert the crown. Ah, the sun crown’s duty is to make sure that the divine right’s of a king is withheld rightly. For it is against the law of the God of Light to throw the king they have put”

The Acolyte questioned.

“So are you saying that it is evil itself that we are killing them? Yes, indeed, evil is evil no matter how we sugarcoat it. The Sun’s crown admits that the use of such half blood to make fear known is disgusting. But necessary it is for making sure that the sun’s crown would be able to deliver its duty.”

The Acolyte said.

“The duty of the Sun’s Crown, really my dear Acolyte, have you been sleeping in my lectures? The city of the sun’s crown is to protect the realm of men from the evil that is demi-humans. My acolyte, the real of humankind is sieged in all sides. The Orc wanted to kill us, the Elves wants to punish us. The Dwarves want to do the same for ‘stealing’ their technology. The Druids and Mythical beings want to subdue us for stealing their magic and so on. ALL RACES DESPISE US FOR WHAT WE ARE.”

The Acolyte jerked back and said.

“Why you ask? My acolyte, humanity is fragile, we are weak and to them, we are of lesser beings. Do you know that they call us?”

The Acolyte answered.

“Yes, Mud Men. They call us with such disgraceful term. Mud men, a term for in our scriptures we are born from mud, and in the likeness of our God. And as were mud, we became soil, and as soil, we became an organism and slowly we became human. We grow from hardship, cultivated by blood and sweat!”

The black robed priest face twisted.

“THEY INSULT US FOR NOT BEING PERFECTLY BORN AND BLESSED! MY ACOLYTE, DO YOU THINK THAT WE GOT THE FAVOR OF THE GOD OF LIGHT BY SIMPLY PRAYING? NO! WE MANAGE TO GET THE FAVOR FOR OUR FIRST POPE. THE FIRST MAN WHO SAW THE LIKENESS OF THE GOD OF LIGHT WHO THEN CARRIED A BALL OF FLAMES THAT WAS FIERY! HE CARRIED THAT BALL WITH HIS BACK BURNING AND YET HE DID TO PROVE THAT WE ARE NOT MUD MEN BORN OF MUD. WE ARE HUMAN.”

The Priest calmed himself down. A sorrowful expression appeared on his face.

“Before we were humans were thralls. We were mud men living in huts. Those pesky elves would put a collar on to us. Treat us like dirt and only until we rise up to the occasion and the first crusade led by First Emperor of the Empire of light that we manage to tame the southern continent of old. We resisted, we broke the collar that bound us and we fought despite them being the strongest. We came here in this land not by blessings, but we came here using our wits and will to survive. The other races could not stomach us, the failure that is us and thus they try to subvert us. Bring us down to a peg, in order to put their collars on us again. The overlord in the north is such a man, a demonic being that desires the collars back in our necks.”

The Acolyte then said.

“So why kill them? Why make the other suffer? My acolyte, the front-lines is filled with men who want nothing but fame. Some of them are levy farmers, thinking that fighting they are fighting for the good of their lives. But believe me, my dear acolyte, they will realize the futility and before long they would want to come back. And the only thing that most of the soldiers in the frontline stay for is the food and wage. My acolyte, do you know how many we feed on the front-lines alone?”

The Acolyte answered.

“Yes, about million soldiers and personnel’s are relying on the Kingdom of Altria, while the Empire of Light sends their best of men to provide defense. The amount of grain and cattle we have to send cost us millions of coins. The Bank of Brewrael, that heinous bank somehow keeps us afloat through borrowing from them, but they cannot be trusted. They are evil, and we know from our scouts that the fund both sides. So my Acolyte, imagine if the fiefs around the area in Dunwich would revolt. All those farmers that feed the front-lines would stop sending grains and cattle, thinking that we are lying to them. Imagine, a number of soldiers dying as they starve and fight without anything in their stomach. Do you think that they would fight without the fuel? Do you think that without food they can muster up the power to fight enemies that are far stronger than them? They fight through faith and they believe that they are being blessed by the people. Now imagine their despair, imagine if they just heard that the people that they trust to feed them while they fight revolted. Do you think they won’t fall in despair?”

The Acolyte went silent.

“It is understandable that many would fall to despair. My acolyte of young age, do you know what Sun’s Crown is?”

The Acolyte shook his head.

“The Sun’s Crow is the corona that acts like a blade to protect the circle of the sun. The sun is precious, at its core; according to one of my acquaintances is the heart of the sun. He has said that once the core explodes, all of life will be erased, vanquished. The sun’s crown, the corona of the sun is an aura of plasma. The man, who told me about this, said that the aura of plasma is the one responsible for heating up any meteors, asteroids and such as. It could be said that the Sun’s Crown protects the core of the Sun. We name ourselves the Sun’s Crown for it is our duty to protect the core that is humanity. Ah, really, we had a great agent once my dear acolyte.”

The Priest made a nostalgic expression.

“He was crafty, out of the world. He was a great man, a great human that showed us the compass and overall allowed us to peer through the deep skies. He told about the universe, the world outside there. The man was capable of many constructs far from this age. He was a man that was both feared for his prowess. That man had the power to destroy both sides, yet his justice unable to make him do so. He killed everyone equally as he pleases and did his own justice as he pleases. He was greatest mage killer, the greatest Inquisitor that burned that town of half breeds. The man had many ideas, and do you know what his idea was?”

The Acolyte tilted his head.

“Give twenty thousand peasants and weapon that could shoot at the speed faster than sound. Of course, the man gave the idea and a mere version of this tool to us. The Empire of Light is developing the weapons and instead of peasants, we will have knights armed with them. Twenty thousand is a mere number, and thus we thought to increase the size. Most of the resources of the Kingdom has been going to the training and developing of these weapons.”

The Acolyte seemed to understand something.

“We are not able to currently have a revolt. We need the resources they can give so that we can continue the funding of that project. We can allocate the funds but doing so will prove the development of those weapons to slow down. Luckily my dear Acolyte that we found the half-blood blessed with both blood to do our bidding.”

The black priest clad in black looked down with bitter eyes.

“Evil at it is. I do admit that killing those who guard the fiefs and putting people that we protect into terror is breaking my heart. But we are the Sun’s crown, we live in the dark to serve those who in the light. We need to harden our hearts so that we can protect them from the evil that tries to collar us again. Humanity is fragile, and unlike those blessed beings that threaten us from both sides, we are weak and fragile. We rely on tools, and magic we stole in order to survive. Hence, I would have given hope if it wasn’t for that man who gave us the way. We do not know where that man is after the fire that happened years ago. But if we could, we would thank him for giving a bit of hope.”

He continued.

“That’s why even though it is certainly evil that we are letting our own people be slaughtered. We are doing it for there is no way other than. To save many, we need to sacrifice a lot. The man, who was kind to us, said that it is merely a simple equivalent exchange. Nothing can be done without any real work. The man did not believe our God, yet he told us what to do. To protect those who we love we must burden the sins of doing so.”

“Killing is killing no matter how righteous you are. We shed blood because doing so would allow us to protect. Do you think we are heartless men? We are not, we pride ourselves as humans, and although it is disgusting to me and to the others. We need to kill those who we protect sometimes in order to bring order to chaos.”

“We cannot allow a revolt in this time. Thus we have to remind them of the fear that we are defending them using the half-blood. The half-blood is useful and we can use her love for her tribe as a tool to control her. She will do anything to protect her tribe and thus she will do her duties. Of course, as she does her duties, the tribe of hers will be safe from harm. We have observed her tribe and all their activities. They are easily killed and harmed without her protection. But with the sun’s crown protecting them from the shadows, they shall be safe.”

The priest laughed.

“Honestly, we would not have done something like protecting her tribe. But a certain mage killer told us such ways would end up in our downfall. So thus we change our doctrines years ago. Really, that man, he would have been a fine leader for the sun’s crown if he didn’t vanish just like that.”

The priest said sadly.

“So to answer your question, we are not evil. We are merely people. Humans that are doing to their own duties to protect the realm of men from enslavement, we are doing this out of love. We are doing this to make sure we will not be thralls ever again. To survive and to live on, we will do everything there is to make sure that humanity will not fall. We will shoulder the entire burden and the sins....”

The priest made a determined expression.

“Even if all men do despise us for doing so”