"Enough! What nonsense about the Church controlling the Queen, utter nonsense! I won’t arrest you for blasphemy, you should consider yourself lucky. Please leave my camp now, mage, or else!"
...
"General Hunt, what I say is all true, please think properly about it."
"Hmm…..interesting words, I understand. The Church has controlled the royal family…...is that so? Thank you for your reminder. I have my own plans, you may leave now, sir."
...
Half a month later, at a small town south of Ferelden, Benjamin and Lance hurried together to meet the last general with control over the army.
-----in this half month, they have been to almost the whole of Ferelden.
They could not let the Church totally control all the troops inside Ferelden, this was an urgent matter. Thus, after meeting with Mikel that night, Benjamin left Rayleigh immediately and headed towards the army camps.
As for Lance, according to him, after the Bishop came, the Knights of Snow were put in a really awkward position-----the bishop had brought lots of holy knights, which took over as the protectors of the royal family. As for the original knights, he gave a command, wanting to rearrange them.
Rearrange was what he said, but in reality, most of the knights were fired. Thus, most of the royal family knights quietly left the capital before it happened. As for Lance who was the head knight, he was left powerless after the arrival of the bishop.
Thus, he followed Mikel to Rayleigh, and tagged along with Benjamin, ready to see the three generals.
"I have a few friends in the army, they can allow us to meet these three generals. If not, you have to waste a lot of effort, and you not might even get to meet them." He said.
Benjamin thought for a while, and agreed that Lance would be helpful, thus nodding.
Sadly, they found out that this only allowed them to successfully meet the generals, and nothing else.
Benjamin already said all he could, but, whether it was warnings or kindly advice, the two generals that he met with did not really treat him all that well. One treated him as a conspirator, and the other one was nonchalant and did not heed much of his words, then sent him away.
He did not care what their attitude was, what was most important was, he did not know whether his warnings helped the two generals.
The Church wanted to take control of the military, and would definitely target them. These few generals had a lot of troops under their command, it would be hard for the Church to make a move, once they become cautious, it would be hard for the Church to succeed.
Benjamin hoped that his thick-skin that made him remind them would actually help them take more caution.
He did not request for much, this was all he could hope for.
"We’re almost there." Flying halfway, Benjamin confirmed the location and said, "That last general, do you know anything special about him?"
"General Stewart..." Hearing this, Lance thought for a moment, and said, "He has to be the general I understand the least. He’s rather old, and he guards the border of Carretes, before the King passed away, he rarely came to Snow."
Hearing this, Benjamin nodded in acknowledgement.
"...So, he’s a loner?"
Lance shook his head and said, "I’m not quite sure, I never really met him before. But, before the kingdom split, he was already a quite powerful general, and he has even fought the holy knights of Helius before, he’s a rather capable senior."
Hearing this, Benjamin’s eyes lit up.
He was someone who has battled the Church before, he should be able to understand how scary the Church is, plus, he was an old general full of experience, maybe, he could understand how Benjamin thought.
For this half a month, the forces in Ferelden had yet to pledge their allegiances. The Church secretly controlled the royal family, but the way the rights worked in Ferelden still continued on as before, other than the priests and mages having conflicts on the streets, and the churches in every town that has yet to even have their foundations done, there was not much change in Ferelden.
With these unknown ties, if an experienced general could just stand out and oppose the Church openly, this would be a huge blow to the Church.
They might even lose control of the royal family.
"Right..." Suddenly, Benjamin seemed to have thought of something, turned around and said, "How are you so close to the troops all over the country, aren’t you a knight?"
"A knight can become a bodyguard." Lance smiled, and said, "Don’t look down on me, I’ve led troops to war before."
"What war did you fight?" Benjamin was surprised.
"I just went to defeat mountain bandits, but…..at the time I did lead around a thousand people." Lance shook his head, and said with regret," Rising to a general from a knight is not impossible, if the King did not die, and the kingdom was not in chaos like right now, maybe in ten years’ time, I might have become a new general of Ferelden."
Hearing this, Benjamin nodded and smiled.
"Don’t feel sad." He turned around and said, "Maybe, you becoming a general someday would take even less than ten years."
Lance was confused: "What are you trying to say?"
Benjamin shook his head and replied: "Nothing much."
Lance wanted to continue asking, but Benjamin controlled the Pillar of Steam and accelerated. Lance who was dragged around mid-air almost lost his balance and turned into a human cylinder, he spun around and was too busy to continue asking anymore questions.
As for Benjamin, he looked downwards at the camp, stopped his laughing, and took a deep breath.
"We’ve arrived."
He gently reminded.
Following the turning of the Pillar of Steam, the two slowly spiraled downwards. After five minutes, they finally reached the entrance of the army camp and descended.
"Who are you people?" The guards saw this and quickly asked after being surprised.
Two people suddenly appearing out of a clear blue sky, to a soldier, it was rather eerie.
"Wait…..aren’t you the head knight Lance?" But, the soldier just glanced at Lance, and his eyes brightened, saying with excitement: "Aren’t you still in service to the King? Why are you suddenly here?"
Lance just laughed loudly, and walked over, patting the soldier on his shoulders: "Son of a gun, long time no see. I came here today because I needed to see General Stewart. So, is he in?"
"He’s in! Of course he’s here! Wait here for a moment, I’ll inform the general immediately! "The soldier was suddenly full of energy and replied.
With this, the soldier dashed away. After a while, he came back from the camp, and told the two that they could enter, that the general was waiting for them in the largest tent.
Seeing this, Benjamin was not surprised at all.
Lance had explained before, he trained recruits for years. So, no matter which battalion they went, he could find one of his students. Benjamin could not help but think of the days he trained in the army in Havenwright. A knight becoming a trainer for new recruits was rather common.
He faced the guard and nodded, then, with Lance leading, they walked into the enormous army camp.