It was evening and it was time for Benjamin to arrange his lodgings for the night. He initially wanted to book a room from an inn in town, but Augustine enthusiastically invited him to stay at his place temporarily. Benjamin did not want to trouble others, but Augustine was so enthusiastic that it was difficult for Benjamin to decline his offer. In the end, he followed Augustine to the west side of town.
"Relax, my place is very interesting. You won’t want to leave once you’re there!" Benjamin could only smile and shake his head at that.
Before Augustine came here, he was a butler for a wealthy family. The family raised a mage too, but they told the world that the mage was just a close servant to the missus of the family. Augustine had no idea initially and kept flirting with the maid, and when they really did get on the bed, she tied him up with a Binding Spell and ‘played’ throughout the night.
He was distressed, to say the least. He wanted to report to the Church in town about the incident the next morning, but he was locked in the room by the mage, who forcefully taught him one magic spell. From that day onwards, he became a mage. He soon found a window to escape from the hands of the mage, and somehow ended in the Town of Crewe. He wanted to leave the kingdom, but was blocked by the gate. Hence, he used his savings throughout the years to open a tavern.
When Benjamin first heard this story, he was caught off guard.
Was this really appropriate?
Although Benjamin transmigrated into this world, Benjamin was physically still a sixteen or seventeen year old teenager; was it appropriate for a child to be told about this? Who would be responsible in the event that the child became addicted to this inappropriate hobby?
Augustine shook his head in bewilderment when Benjamin expressed his shock.
"I thought you’d be into this too," Augustine said somberly with a hint of regret in his voice, "The experience with the Binding Spell is horrendous. Multiple times I suggested her to go and buy some ropes for a more realistic feel, but she refused. Also, speech will be restricted with the Binding Spell. It was nowhere safe like what we agreed beforehand! I couldn’t take it, and soon I left when she was not paying attention."
"....."
There were too many aspects of Augustine’s story for Benjamin to fret about he did not know where to begin with.
He started to regret his decision to stay temporarily in Augustine’s place.
Thankfully, Augustine was preoccupied by the guests and errands in the tavern that he did not get the chance to elaborate on the details with Benjamin. Benjamin felt like he could finally breathe.
Benjamin sat at a place near the windows in the tavern, enjoying the beer and grilled meat that was a treat by Augustine.
However, he was secretly in deep thoughts about the mission he got from Andrew.
... Getting a cross from the patrol guards.
That was indeed a task of high difficulty. It was not that the patrol guards were very powerful; it was that he needed to evade detection of the people in the Crusader Gateway after they got the cross. Once the guards realised that a cross was lost, they would certainly have their defences up, which would narrow the chance of escape.
Benjamin must at least prepare a dupe for a switch.
Not only that, he also had to properly collect information on the inner workings of the gateway. How many standing guards were there within the gates? What was the daily routine of the guards? Where would they place the crosses when they take a break?
He still had much homework he needed to catch up on.
If he attempted to steal something without proper information, even the petty thieves in the streets of the kingdom will scowl at him for being unprofessional.
As he came over this thought, he glanced towards the table beside him.
Two off-shift patrol guards sat beside him, resting for their break. Augustine shared a look with Benjamin when he saw them, and acted as if nothing was wrong when he arranged Benjamin’s seat. Both of the guards looked tipsy now; he could probably eavesdrop on them to get some useful information out of it. These two patrol guards were happily eating and chatting, unaware of someone secretly observing them.
"....That m*therf*cking leader, who was he trying to scare with his stormy face?"
"The Bishop was the reason! Say, what do you think is wrong with him these days? Why is he tormenting us several times a day, like an enemy is breathing down our necks?"
"Who knows? But I did catch wind that His Highness the Pope will go into seclusion and communicate with God’s Will again. He just resurfaced not long ago, though. Do you think that was the reason?"
"Not really …... Why would the Bishop be angry at this?"
Benjamin listened at the side, in deep thoughts.
From the information he got from the other mages, he knew that there was a bishop within the Crusader Gateways. In contrast to the bishops in the kingdom, this bishop was a reclusive one, and basically no one outside the gate saw the bishop’s face. However, there was no doubt that the alerted priest whom Benjamin saw when he surveilled the insides of the gates using the Water Particle Detection was the bishop.
Based on their conversation, the bishop was behaving oddly.
Although Benjamin was slightly surprised when he heard that the Pope was going into isolation again, he did not understand the necessity for the bishop in Crusader Gateway to behave weirdly because of this. The bishop was so far away!
Unless, there was a more sinister reason behind this ‘seclusion’. Benjamin shook his head when he came across this thought. The affairs in the kingdom was a mess, where the power players would intersect; they might be friendly today but stab each other tomorrow. It took him much effort to get out of that terrifying quicksand, and he had no intentions nor interest to go and find out what happened there.
The only thing that he would probably care about was what happened to the Lithurs after he left. Did the Church blame the thirty thousand ‘plague’ deaths on the Lithurs? What did Grant think about all the events that happened? What would Claude, Jeremy, and the madame be up to now?
Although Benjamin did not live with them for a long period of time, they were still his family members after he came to this world. He did feel embarrassed when he used the word ‘family members’ though.
Benjamin inhaled deeply, collected his wandering thoughts, and pulled himself together. He focused again on the two drinking and chatting guards. The two talked about everything from their leader to women, and Benjamin still managed to gradually get a picture of the shifts of the patrol guards.
There were three shifts in every twenty hours. 6 am, 2 pm, and 10 pm were the times when the exchange of shift would happen. Aside from the shifts on 10pm and 6am, there would be ten people checking the pedestrians that entered or left the kingdom at the gates. Two hundred people would stand guard at the top of the gates, while the others will rest and be on standby inside.
The patrol guards were not allowed to leave the gates most of the time, but they would have an entire month on break every two years. They could go back to their home, drink, have fun and do whatever they like. These two guards drinking in the tavern just arrived here from their homes as their break was ending soon. They would be on duty soon.
Benjamin sighed as he realised that the management control system of these guards were quite scientific and humane.
Unfortunately, the two never talked about the key point - the cross that could identify mages. Hence, Benjamin had no way to determine where would the crosses be placed - were they collected and given by the people in the Church, or were they carried personally by the patrol guards?
Benjamin could only move on and investigate by himself.
The two patrol guards left after they were full and satisfied. Benjamin left the tavern after he realised that he would no longer get any useful information, and walked towards the gate. Benjamin decided to observe the Crusader Gateway again using the Water Particle Detection. After all, there was a saying, ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’ It would be best if he could plot out the entire structure of the gate, as it would greatly simplify his work when he finally wanted to go in for the cross.
He quickly arrived at the hand-knitting shop that was the closest to the gate.