An hour later, Benjamin and the two officials ended their meeting and, one after another, left the remote little village.
On the flight back to the City of Rayleigh, Benjamin had a heavy heart.
There were a lot of unexpected gains from this meeting. Only, there might be something that was a little too unexpected— General Stuart had already belonged to the Church from earlier on. This piece of news had really taken Benjamin by surprise.
Supposedly, not long from now, he was to carry out what had been agreed upon with the general, and hold the first public rebellion in the City of Rayleigh to attract the Church’s attention. After that, the general could then stand out and oppose the church. In the end, looking at everything now, this was all a trap set by the Church.
If Benjamin had really done so, the only person to suffer a crushing defeat would be him.
Because of that, having gotten this information from the Prime Minister himself, Benjamin felt somewhat consoled although his heart was heavy.
This strengthened his belief— whether what the Prime Minister had said was true or false, whether the general was on his side or not, in the end, he still had to safeguard everything himself and refrain from depending on anyone else.
After discussing the problem about General Stuart, he had discussed the next step of collaboration with the Prime Minister. The entire plan revolved around Benjamin; the Prime Minister was to comply the best he could with whatever Benjamin needed. Benjamin would also refrain from revealing the details of the plans to the Prime Minister beforehand, in case he turned back to the Church if things did not seem to go his way.
Finally, they decided on the methods of communication for each of them, and subsequently ended the meeting.
Very soon, flying speedily on a single route, Benjamin arrived at the City of Rayleigh. He entered the room at the hotel and lay down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. Falling into deep thoughts.
Now, knowing of the general’s betrayal, a huge change to their upcoming plans was necessary.
What should be done?
Taking a deep breath, Benjamin pushed aside all the miserable feelings of betrayal. The corners of his mouth curled up into a cold grin.
He knew of the General’s stand now, but the Church would still be using this to keep track of him. In that case, he could totally beat them at their own game, and use this to counter the Church.
As for putting that into action...
Benjamin closed his eyes, and slowly a plan formed in this mind.
Thus, a few days passed; the entire country of Ferelden was quiet. The influence of The Free Mage continued to spread. More and more mages joined the rebel organization, and there were some merchants and mercenaries who secretly expressed their support for them. Basically, everything was still under wraps. No one had really stood up and pointed a finger at the Church telling them to get out.
Generally… Many people were waiting for that moment to arrive.
In the midst of such busy atmosphere, suddenly, out of nowhere a new piece of news was quietly passed on.
"Hey, did you hear? In a week’s time, the group of mages who started a newspaper will hold a huge demonstration against the Church in the City of Rayleigh."
"Demonstration? What is that?"
"I’m not too sure, but I heard that the leader of the group will appear before everyone and announce some secrets about the Church, including information about the hail being punishment from the gods- that story has been spreading like wildfire. They are encouraging everyone who are unsatisfied with the Church to join."
"Is it true? How exciting..."
Once news like this was releas
ed, it spread extremely fast through the entire kingdom of Ferelden.
Having published so many big news, The Free Mage’s reputation had surpassed those of the other newspapers, and had become the hottest headlines immediately. Thus, along with the newspaper, this widely spread news quickly gained the attention of the masses.
They were very curious. This group that had managed to produce such a newspaper, what on earth were they?
Of course, at the same time, they were also curious about how the Church would react to such a piece of news. And what about the royalty? Would they still support the Church as before?
Many could foresee, with acute discernment, that the day both sides would officially clash had drawn near.
Therefore, the enthusiasm of the people were unexpectedly great. Even some who were not used to seeing the Church had come to the City of Rayleigh a few days earlier to see what was going on. After all, they were only commoners; they believed that whatever might happen, neither the mages nor the Church would do anything to them.
Thus, slowly, the City of Rayleigh became crowded. The mourning period for the king was still going on, yet it was bustling with excitement as though a festival was going to be celebrated.
At the same time...
Having known all this from the reports of his men, Benjamin felt rather pleased.
At the moment, he was sitting in the official residence of the Desert City, putting away the magical tool created by Morris that could transmit audio frequencies. He nodded in satisfaction.
It looked like everything was proceeding smoothly.
That’s right, although this piece of news was being spread, but him and many of them had already left the City of Rayleigh earlier on, quietly hiding in the Desert City.
He could imagine, if he had not gotten wind of the general’s true intentions and had stayed in the city of Rayleigh to host the demonstration, perhaps it would have ended up in the great army surrounding the city with bloody consequences. However, even though the plan had changed, the news of the demonstration still had to be disseminated— he had to let the Church think that he had fallen into their trap. Only then could he lure the enemy out.
At first, he was even thinking about whether to gather all the mages and attack the Palace with the Prime Minister’s help, and force a coup d'état after having lured the army away. However, that would be too dangerous, and the Prime Minister was not completely trustworthy. Benjamin could not take the risk, so he could only pass on this opportunity and choose a safer plan.
—he was preparing to bring the mages to ambush the Bishop.
The Church, wanting to get rid of Benjamin, was bound to mobilize a great number of manpower. And that time in the Pure Blue World, through the spies in the Palace, had also helped Benjamin obtain rather accurate information about the fighting strength in Ferelden.
They did not have many powerful Divine Arts Users; the most powerful was Bishop Victor. Therefore, he would definitely take action personally, or else it would have been impossible to capture Benjamin. The chances of success for Benjamin to launch a surprise attack with a huge group of mages against the team of priests led by Bishop Victor, were very high.
Of course, after all that, the realistic situation would depend on what the Church did. If the Church divided its troops and quietly surrounded the City of Rayleigh, then Benjamin would have the opportunity to catch the Bishop by surprise. If the Bishop hid amongst his troops and suddenly charged in, then Benjamin would not be able to do anything.
However, even if they could not kill the Bishop, there were still alternative plans. He would not let himself fall into danger.
Up until then, the plan was only known to him and some trusted mages under him. Most of the mages were still under the impression that they were really going ahead with the demonstration. Once the Prime Minister and the spies had given the news that the Church had set out, only then would Benjamin gather the mages and announce his plan, to prevent anything from leaking out.
And when the time was right, Benjamin would assemble the teams and immediately begin the surprise attack. Hence, even if there were the Church’s spies amongst them, they would not be able to warn the Bishop.
In short, this plan was perfect, in his opinion.
No one could take into account everything, but Benjamin believed that even if there were loopholes, they had the backup option of completely retreating. For this reason, Benjamin dared to lead his men and take this gamble.
Hopefully, everything would go smoothly, and no unexpected changes would occur…
Thinking thus, Benjamin looked out the window and took a deep breath.