Chapter 113: The Struggle for Survival
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Benjamin finally understood the situation.
Not only was he the cannon fodder for Grant, he was also an innocent chess piece in the game of war between the church and the nobles, as well as between the nobles.
The nobles were not happy with the increasing control of the church, which was why they retaliated. Since the church targeted the younger generation of the nobles, the nobles had no plans to let the younger generation of the church off the hook. Their way of retaliation was to destroy the most important genius of the church, the one who will most probably be the next in line as the Pope.
Of course, one of the reasons was probably Accius’s personal vendetta against the Lithurs.
That was why Accius ordered this boy to seduce Grant. Although the church did not care about who Grant was sleeping with, homosexuality was still forbidden in the teachings of the church. Hence, if this was exposed, the church have no choice but to cripple itself and burn Grant to death.
With that, the church was effectively affected, and they could cause conflict between the church and the Lithur household, who was always loyal. Once there was a crack in their relationship, the church’s influence within the nobles would also be indirectly weakened. All in all, this was indeed a cunning method to avenge the noble’s anger.
However, the church seemed to have preventative measures in place already.
Before all of this blew up, they found Mary, who always had the idea to let Benjamin die in Grant’s place. The two parties worked together seamlessly just like that, and the plan to substitute the ‘prince’ with a dupe was born.
That was really a beautiful plan.
Without a doubt, it was executed perfectly. Accius was completely fooled by Mary’s superb acting and mistakenly assumed Benjamin to be Grant. Accius was probably now sitting in his manor, cackling gleefully to the sky in the wrong impression that he has successfully shattered the hope of the church and settled vengeance against the Lithurs.
He would not even imagine that the church and Mary had already collaborated to stage this performance for him.
Benjamin nearly laughed at the irony.
This was like a battle of the heavens, where the angels had a great war. The nobles noticed the church’s Achilles’ Heel and proceeded to shoot at it in hopes to deal a critical hit. However, the church was not even worried. They simply picked up a mortal from the ground and blocked the attack.
That mortal was Benjamin.
And the funniest thing? This was just a tiny exchange between the two. There will be another one after this, and another, and another... And the Benjamin that the church used to block the attack will soon be forgotten by everyone.
Yeah, who would remember him?
Grant will take his identity after he was burnt to death, and use the name ‘Benjamin’ to live on discreetly until the day when he could finally stand out again. Then, everyone will sigh once again under the orders of the church and exclaim that "Benjamin was in fact a genius!" The nobles will not be able to use ‘Benjamin’ as a weakness of the church again.
What a perfect plan!
Who would even remember him then?
The person who was burnt to death on a cross in place of the future pope.
After Benjamin saw through the boy in the next cell, the boy looked nervous and he remained motionless at the same place for a while. It did not take him long to start screaming again for people to capture the real Grant instead of this fake one.
It was understandable, really. He sacrificed himself for an imposter; how could he live with that?
Unfortunately, no one cared to acknowledge him. Even if he shouted until his throat became sore, his voice breaking 9 times out of 10, the Cleansing Centre was as silent as death itself.
In truth, there were numerous Holy Knights standing guard at the entrances and exits in every level of the Cleansing Centre. No doubt, there was no way that they would bother this boy. They were the people of the church, and the church always intended for Benjamin to be the cannon fodder for Grant.
This boy was the same as Benjamin; he was just an insignificant chess piece between the battles of the two sides.
Chess piece...
Benjamin exhaled suddenly, attempting to clear out the anger and unwillingness bottled up in him.
He sat on the cold, hard floor, suddenly recalling the night when Michelle ordered him to pass the letter to the church. At that moment, he was also just a chess piece in the contest between the church and Michelle. However, that time, he thought to himself that he would work hard to gain leverage for him to one day be the chess player.
So many days have passed, and he was still the chess piece.
It felt as if this was a role-playing game that has multiple outcomes. The main character makes many decisions that hold different possibilities, thus changing the plot of the storyline, and finally at the end, the character obtains his rewards.
Was this it?
His life, a messy blueprint named ‘A Chess Piece’, with a description of less than 50 words?
He was not satisfied. How could he be? Even the System was now shrieking in his brain, crying about how unwilling it is to die at a place like this, and how much of a waste of talent this would be.
But... what could he do with all this emotions?
He could not escape this tiny cage, much less the cross in front of the public tomorrow afternoon.
When he was kidnapped by Michelle before, he was in a similar predicament where he was constantly shrouded by the veil of death; but at least he could still see hope. He gripped tightly to that hope like a breeze in a sealed cave, and finally dug his own escape out of the situation.
What now?
Now, he could not even see a glimpse of hope.
"Hey! I’m not having it, I’m not dying tomorrow with a gay boy. This is insulting to my name as the great artificial intelligence," The System screamed at Benjamin, urging him to do something, "Quick, come up with some ideas! I know you will think of something, right?"
"What ideas can you think of?" Benjamin clenched his fists, the anger has filled his heart and had nowhere to spill, "Yeah, my way with magic is different than the norm in that these steel bars cannot stop me from casting spells, but what good would that be? Can I escape if I used magic?"
He could gather the water particles in the space of his consciousness, and use nonverbal spell casting to start the magic in the Space before he brought it out to reality. He could even break these bars without causing any magical disturbances!
But, what good would that bring?
Layers and layers of guards populated the Cleansing Centre. After he killed all of the Holy Knights standing guard, the bishop would already be here. He would be dreaming if he wanted to leave without alerting the guards.
The System became quiet after he listened to Benjamin’s reasoning, as if it accepted the fact and lost its drive to push Benjamin for an escape plan. This rare silence did not comfort Benjamin, though; it was the cacophony of hopelessness.
Hopelessness...
Was there anything more hopeless than waiting for your death as the seconds ticked by?
Yes, there was; it was to wait for your demise when you have no idea how to express the vengeance that flooded your heart.
Benjamin’s nails dug deeper into his palm.
Benjamin thought he was a relatively open person who could get over things easily, but he finally realized that no, he could never be at peace with this matter. All of his mind was clouded with his emotions and the dreams he will never achieve now. He wanted to explore the secrets of the Cerulean Arena, he yearned to fly in the actual sky, he dreamed to leave his footsteps in every corner of this world, he longed to make his own name, he desired to know more interesting people and listen to their intriguing stories….
How great it is to live! Why would he be at peace with his fate?
The rise of these emotions clambered and gripped his heart, the chill of hopelessness and the burning anger mixed and rolled in his blood, and Benjamin felt his limbs go numb as he started to tremble uncontrollably.
No... No, he refuse to die.
To die in this world where he never belonged with a mistaken identity, accused of a non-existing crime? Who would die in such an asinine way?
At the very moment, he made his decision.
F*ck this sh*t.
Benjamin closed his eyes and quickly went into his Space.
The three runes still blinked blue in the darkness; the chaos in the real world never did affect them. They were just like stars in the night sky that stayed to their own orbits; they never bothered to look at the eyes of the watchers below, never bothered to look at the hope and emotions that these people put on them.
Benjamin inhaled after he glanced at the 3 runes. His hands were balled in fists.
A fire started to roar in his heart. Anger, hatred; excitement, agitation... These complicated feelings boiled in his being. Every breath of his seemed to burn.
Everyone treated him like an insignificant chess piece, one who would perish and turn to dust after tomorrow. Soon, people will forget him, right? Well, if that was the case, he might as well show them how much power this tiny chess piece could bring to the table! No matter if he succeeded or not, he wanted to die gloriously and proudly!
He uttered the first spell he ever learnt.
With the rush of water particles, a huge water ball formed in front of him. He did not stop, though; he continued chanting. One, two, three... Water balls that could drown a cow appeared one by one around him and accumulated in the endless darkness of the space.
Still, he had no intention of stopping.
He did not condense the water balls to become water bombs, nor did he change their state to let them start swirling into vortexes. He merely summoned and maintained them in the Space, one after another, with no end goal in sight.
Tens, hundreds, thousands... He summoned the water balls tirelessly like a robot. Even though he experienced a significant growth of spiritual energy, it did not take long for him to drain them with this insane level of activity.
However, Benjamin could not care less.
Who the f*ck cares? Let’s continue!
He persisted despite the splitting headache. He forcefully linked his weakening spiritual energy, and it was as if he was back in the cerulean arena again, where he bore with the pain that came from the immense attack against his soul. He protected the drive in his heart by ignoring the mental torture, summoning water balls and maintaining them as if his life depended on it.
It did not take long for more things to get depleted. The formation of water balls requires water particles, and it was evident that the water particles in the Space was not sufficient to sustain this crazy mission of Benjamin’s.
However, that was not a problem for a crazy Benjamin. There were no more water particles in the Space? No problem, just get them from the real world! The anti-mage steel bars could only stop the elements from gathering; they had no power to stop them to be forcefully absorbed into the space of Benjamin’s consciousness.
In a flash, the Cleansing Centre that was humid became dry. Somehow, the boy from the neighboring cell stopped shouting as he coughed instinctively, swallowing saliva to try and soothe his parched throat.
This was just the beginning.
The gathering of water particles was endless, so was the need for water particles. Benjamin gradually lost his awareness throughout the process, and was nearing the state of comatose. Still, he instinctively pushed his mission further by sheer emotional strength.
Absorb the water particles from the outside and accumulate water balls in the Space….
Even Benjamin himself had no idea of his end goal. Soon, the Holy Knights standing guard in the Cleansing Center felt the dryness in their mouths as they licked their chapped lips. They could not help their thirst. The green fields outside the Cleansing Center somehow turned yellow, and the nobles who passed by the area asked their servants to bring them water.
As time went by from noon to the late of night and to the dawn of the next day, this eerie dryness expanded throughout the kingdom with the Cleansing Center as its center. No one noticed it, though; even the thick clouds were unusually thin. In the depths of the Cleansing Center, Benjamin sat silently in a random cell, his eyes shut. He seemed to turn into an ancient statue that will sit unmoving for years to come.
In his head, the System sounded unusually terrified, "Oh…. Oh my God! What are you doing? Wake up, stop chanting, oh God…. You’re not starting a huge commotion here, even the huge commotion is f*cked by what you’re doing now! Stop!"