Chapter 185: The Great Pigborn
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
This was Benjamin’s first attempt at identifying priests in disguise. In the past, priests had never needed to be in disguise, based on their clothing and demeanor you could tell they were one. Due to the the fact that Benjamin was not experienced in this field, he was not at all confident of his judgement.
But to say that they were three mages that had successfully opened their dimensions of consciousness would be a real stretch. The kind of training required was far too specialised; only through sheer coincidence could this be genuinely possible.
Did this world even have three mages that were not have an affinity to water elemental energy, and have yet to try learning any water magic at all? It’s possible but extremely unlikely.
Benjamin still had to make sure that his conclusions were correct. If there were really three priests in disguise inside the border of Icor, that would mean trouble.
How could he make sure….? Benjamin of course would not dash out clumsily, shouting at them" Are you guys priests", that was too much. He did not know what these three were capable of, and did not know if he could beat them - what if he ended up losing?
He had a find a more practical way.
First, he made sure that the 3 suspects were obviously resting and would not leave anytime soon. Following that, he left and used his water elemental sensing technique to find a relatively weak dangerous magical beast - a fire breathing pig. He used the Icebreaking Spell to trap it, then brought it within the proximity of these three so called "mages".
He intended to make the beast attack the suspects, forcing them to fight back and based upon how they reacted, he would know who these "mages" truly were. He felt that this was a rather smart idea. As long as he did not expose himself, he could perfectly test his opponents to see if they were priests, and they would have no clue.
"What did this pig do wrong?" The System appeared and chastised Benjamin’s way of thinking, "He is just an ordinary pig that ended up being able to breathe fire, how much effort did it take? Do you know any of its struggles? It is still just a child!"
"..."
Benjamin lowered his head, seeing a confused pig staring blankly at him in a block of ice, he shrugged helplessly. "You can’t think that way. Many pigs end up living their lives just eating and sleeping, but this pig, not only did it learn how to breath fire, it would take part in the battle against the evil Church, and would give its life to help the mages. Even if it is sacrificed, it would not be in vain." He used a sad tone when he said this, "This will be a glorious pig, a great pig that acts as a catalyst for change, a revolutionary pig."
The pig was still frozen in ice, it could not move at all and looked very innocent.
"...You really know how to bullshit your way around." the System commented.
"I agree."
Up to this point, the three "suspect priests" still sat there resting, but they seemed to be prepared to leave soon. Benjamin did not dawdle any longer. He left the pig behind a giant tree that was close to them then quietly left the area to observe the results from a distance. Without the control of his mental energy, the ice that was freezing the pig would naturally melt. Benjamin would just have to wait patiently.
After some time, there was a terrible cry from the forest where Benjamin had left the pig. Benjamin heard the cry and perked up. The three that were resting heard this cry as well and were shocked, standing up immediately.
That pig emerged like a deity from the back of the tree. It leaped forward, huge flames spouting from its nostrils, which then flowed and encircled his body - very similar in fact to Nezha’s silk cloak.
"Upon second thought, I agree that this pig is surprisingly talented, and would have achieved great things in the future." Seeing this, the System could not help but comment.
Benjamin was speechless.
As for the three people, they immediately responded to the pig’s domineering stance - the three started chanting spells, and magical energy expanded. The surrounding holy energy gathered and formed a blade of light in mid-air.
With a loud crash, the blade of light came down. The pig hadn’t even landed from its initially leap, but was already sliced cleanly in half. With a loud thud, it dropped onto the floor, its heroic act brought to an abrupt end.
"What a selfless pig." The System remarked," How cruel, I want to cry."
"..."
No matter what, the pig still completed its mission. Besides helping Benjamin discover the three people’s identities, it even overdid itself and helped Benjamin gauge their power levels. Benjamin could not help but be filled with respect for the pig.
These three people’s identities were confirmed. Without a sliver of doubt, they were priests. After seeing their calm actions and arrogant demeanor, they were unmistakably people born out of the Church and practitioners of the divine arts.
The question is, why would three priests appear within the borders of Icor?
All this while, the three kingdoms had been very defensive against the Church, they had never allowed priests within their borders. Carretas even burned some priests on stakes as a public sign of adamancy. For three priests to be within Icor’s borders was definitely very fishy. What were they up to?
The Queen was still battling Helius’ forces at the gate. Was this an attack from behind? The Church could be trying to flank the Queen’s army so that they may regain control of the gateway.
If this were true, three people would not be enough. But if done on a larger scale, the whole of Icor might contain many of the Church’s members hidden inside, they might have always laid low, waiting for a chance. After defeating the Queen, they could even launch a massive counteroffensive on Icor.
The scale of the disaster forced Benjamin to be even more serious, and he started to judge the situation with even greater depth. After some time, Benjamin felt that things have yet to progress to that point.
Even if the Church had always had an outpost near the border of Icor, they could not have so many hidden members in Icor. The Mage’s Guild had great power and they would never allow the Church to hide so many pawns amongst them to the point where it would threaten national security.
Benjamin estimated that even if the Church were to smuggle priests over, they could only do so a maximum of ten times. But if it was not for the purpose of ambushing the Queen’s army at the gate, their presence could only have one other reason.
Their appearance here was probably to carry out a secret plan of the Church that no one else knew. It could be to start chaos in Icor, or even assassinate important member
s of the Mage’s Guild. These three people were without a doubt spies carrying out their plans in disguise.
After some thought, Benjamin nodded. The possibility of this was quite high. If not, the priest would have no reason to eat, drink and relax in this forest? What was this, a cosplay event?
As Benjamin was hesitating whether or not to try to stop this conspiracy, the three priests checked the corpse of the fire breathing pig. They checked the surroundings of the big tree where the pig had jumped out from; they were suspicious and started investigating the real reason on why the pig appeared.
One of them knelt down and touched the ground where Benjamin had earlier placed the frozen pig. Benjamin was stunned.
The ice that trapped the pig was formed using magic, and would melt really fast and disappear, but the melted ice would still form a puddle there, making the soil wet.
If it was not some life-threatening hint, Benjamin would have ignored it. But seeing this, the priests would realise that the pig did not just appear naturally, and that someone had placed it there.
They will notice Benjamin’s existence.