The meeting between Duke Collin and the King lasted for about twenty minutes. Out of courtesy, Benjamin did not eavesdrop, and waited quietly outside the door.
After twenty minutes, the duke walked out with a disappointed expression on his face. He turned to glance at Benjamin with mixed feelings in his eyes, but he did not say anything; nodding, he left the place.
"...What did they talk about?"
Watching Duke Collin leave, Benjamin suddenly opened his mouth, asking the System in his heart.
The System felt helpless. "Didn't you say you weren't going to eavesdrop on them?"
"I did not eavesdrop on them, but the room is within your range of detection so you definitely listened in on them," Benjamin spoke, bold in self-righteousness. "Enough. Tell me what you heard. I won't condemn you."
"..."
The System was speechless for a moment, but after repeated urges from Benjamin, it quickly divulged the content of the conversation between the two men: During the meeting, Duke Collin had kept on trying to persuade the King to leave with him.
He mentioned the word "replacement" many times. Apparently, after the King had disappeared, the Church had quickened their preparations for a back-up plan. Duke Collin had explained that if the King did not return to the capital as soon as possible and return to the throne with the help of the nobles, once a replacement had been created, it was likely that he would never be able to go back.
The Kind was actually quite shaken by this. However, the operation over the past few days, lobbying throughout the entire kingdom, had impacted his perceptions a great deal. It had nothing to do with the psychic spell. Finally, he still rejected the suggestion of the nobles.
He indicated that there was more hope staying with Benjamin.
Thus, after a long time of persuasion, Duke Collin could only leave in disappointment, like how he had just moments ago.
After learning about the content of the conversation between the two people, Benjamin nodded to himself. He turned around and watched the King who was walking out of the room, and smiled. "Your Majesty, we should set off now."
Hearing that, the King was stunned.
"Set off… Set off and do what?"
"To heed the call of your supported in this kingdom."
The King was startled for a moment. Coming back to his senses, he nodded, as though he understood.
Thus, Benjamin brought the two siblings as well, and set off from the village next to Perseus Lake. They flew towards the south of the kingdom, the district the posters had the biggest impact on. Also, the further a place was from the capital, the weaker the control of the Church over it. It was not bad as a starting point for them.
He was ready to build a local organization in the Kingdom of Helius.
The local people, the mages with hidden identities… If they could gather the strength of all who opposed the Church and form an underground organization, in addition to the influence of the posters, they could take a step further towards changing the mainstream mentality of the Kingdom of Helius, truly pulling the Church down from the altar!
After summarizing the information gathered from the black operation of the academy from various locations and a careful deliberation, Benjamin had finally chosen a city by the sea: Worchester.
Worchester was known as a city of merchants, and was one of the top trading cities in the Kingdom of Helius. The nature of merchants who pursued profit and the doctrine of the Church did not complement one another. Therefore, the religious atmosphere here was not as thick.
They had been here once to form the agreement with the city governor for the purpose of putting up the posters. However, after the incident of the posters, the city governor, afraid of the Church's revenge, had fled with his entire family, young and old. Right then, the governance of Worchester was in a huge mess. There were only a few lower level officers who were temporarily taking charge of matters.
In the night, after putting on their disguises, the few of them directly went in through the city gates.
There were people everywhere, on the spacious streets. Passerbys, hawkers, caravans in a hurry… The various happenings in the kingdom had not affected the hustle and bustle here. Even at night, the cries of the sellers in the streets still rang in their ears. It was so lively that the entire place was somewhat noisy.
"We… How do we know which people are willing to support me?" The King followed Benjamin from behind as he looked around, asking in a small voice.
Benjamin smiled, saying, "Only secret signals would do for secret people, of course."
Before they came, he had done his preparations. Yesterday, some anti-Church slogans had appeared on a wall in the warehouses of Worchester, which were only removed by the guards this morning. This was very evident that there was a problem.
Because of that, they did not pace about on the street, but came straight to the warehouse district in the south of the city.
Compared to the central streets, it seemed far quieter here. The numerous warehouses here looked like great mountains set in a line on the ground, extending onwards uniformly. Some had been abandoned, some were filled with goods. Under the dark night, there were only little lights shining from the guardhouses.
"En… This should be the place those people had drawn on previously," Benjamin arrived at the empty spot behind a warehouse, muttering to himself as he looked at the wall which had just been painted black today.
"Here?"
"En, just yesterday, a line of huge words was painted in red on this wall: Church, get out of Worchester, followed by a few drawings of the corpses of priests," Benjamin nodded as he explained. "Although I do not know who drew them, but if we wish to contact them, shouldn't we do it their way?"
"You're saying…"
"We draw as well. Of course, we need to perform better than they have," Saying thus, there was a move in Benjamin's thoughts, and several ice blades appeared in midair, aimed at the wall.
They were very far from the church, and there did not seem to be many people passing by here. Even if magical oscillations were emanated, they did not have to worry about being discovered.
The ice blades moved swiftly, and soon, on the wall of the warehouse, were lines of words and extremely eye-catching drawings. Benjamin had never intended to create street art anyway; he simply mimicked the graffiti of the people and casually came up with a few slogans rebelling against the church, as well as a few small cartoons of priests. Quickly, he completed his work.
"This… Is enough?" The King could not help but furrow his eyebrows as he looked at the words on the wall.
"It's enough. The main area of activity for people who can stay here and create graffiti will definitely be close by. They will see it," Benjamin dissipated the ice blades with a wave of his hand, speaking slowly, "Moreover, I've already left the mode of communication up there."
The King did not comprehend. "Mode of communication? Where?"
Benjamin smiled, and pointed at the first letter of every sentence. The King and the two siblings were quickly to realize that the letters, put together, formed a simple word: Tavern.
He had chosen the local tavern as the place of contact.
"This… Does not mention which tavern. How would they know?" The young lad could not help but scratch his head, saying. "And if the people of the church look at this long enough, would they not be able to see it too?"
"If they see it, then let it be. It would still be impossible for them to check and seal off all the taverns in this city," Benjamin shrugged, saying. "What we want to do is just to distribute something a bit different in the tavern…"
Saying that, he opened his backpack and took out a small booklet. The booklet looked a little old, as though it had been printed somewhat long ago. The title on it seemed very familiar.
It was The Declaration of the Freedom of Magic.