Chapter 620: The Church Serial Killings
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Benjamin arrived in silence, not even sound could be heard coming from his footsteps. The townsfolk couldn’t understand what happened. All they saw was the pastor’s corpse on the church’s podium.
From the horrified look worn by the corpse, the settlers imagined the pastor saw something nightmarish before his death. Yet… no one had any clue what had occurred. The rain stopped, the water which rushed into the church disappeared without a trace. All that’s left was the dried spot of blood on the ground as if the "pitter-patter" that reverberated in their ears was just an illusion.
When the church’s disciples hurried out and gathered the incident from the rest of the townsfolk, they could only respond with, "Rain? There wasn’t any! The sun is shining, the ground is dry, when has it even rained?"
At that moment, the disciples’ were wearing not the face of panic, but rather one of pure terror.
No matter how much they bend their minds around it, they probably couldn’t have figured out what just occurred. However, everything that happened within this morning had probably scarred their hearts deeply.
Soon, news of what transpired in the small town’s church was documented in an urgent message by the local officials and sent a report to the royal city. Moreover, they never would have expected this kind of incidents occurring one after another within the Holy Kingdom.
From the edge of the outskirts, gradually reaching the heart of the kingdom, Benjamin left a long, fine line through the deaths of pastors. While the churches had yet to react, he flew as he made his move, committing multiple cultish ways of killing, painting a streak of red across each passing church,
Of course, chances like "murder in rain" in that small town were hard to come by. Most of the time, the pastors died alone, in which case Benjamin nailed them onto the churches’ figures, making it seem like God’s hands had pierced through their torsos.
This kind of death would definitely grab the churches’ undivided attention on the grandest scale, in addition to wavering the disciples’ faith.
With everything going according to Benjamin’s prediction, two days later, he stained eighteen churches in blood, the entire Holy Kingdom was plunged into an air of murder.
"Have you heard? A lot of pastors died lately, apparently… someone from within the church triggered God’s rage, and so punishments were brought down by the divine spirits!"
"I’m not sure myself, but with that display of death. If they had not angered the divine spirits, what else it could be?"
The rumors spread like wildfire, and soon many became flustered and panicked. Benjamin couldn’t help but wonder, did the royal families play a part in the shadows for the churches’ downfall?
The churches naturally didn’t remain motionless.
Battalions of holy knights converged in the center of the kingdom, their commander vision caught glimpses of the pastors’ former selves in his journey. The churches made a public announcement, disclosing that an evil mage was stirring an uproar within the kingdom. They asked that the people should avoid panic, for they would soon apprehend the criminal for judgment.
Yet… the people were still uneasy.
This was so, especially those who resided within the "line". The church-murder cases happened in an order, similar to a phantom thief leaving a calling card before committing a crime, announcing to the world their next target. Everyone figured it out, based on the evident line left by the "evil mage", they could predict the next unfortunate church to be hit.
As such, the people residing in the town nearby didn’t dare venture into that church to pray.
"According to that bastard’s profile, he should be appearing at this time today, right?"
Inside out a certain town’s church, countless pastors, holy knights… perhaps even the grandmasters, a few teams of assassins and countless other people guarded the church under the night’s shroud, waiting to spring upon their approaching foe.
One holy knight couldn’t resist himself from asking, "So grandmaster… do you truly believe that pretentious bastard came to our Holy Kingdom?"
"Hmph, other from him, who else could it have been?" said a grandmaster hiding amongst the group.
"But we have so many people guarding here, would he still come if he had seen us?"
"Do not think that you possess a similar train of thought compared to those mages who are no different from psychopaths," said the grandmaster, "Our duty is to defend this church, we only need to prevent any mages from getting near. If we could scare him off, then we have accomplished our mission."
"Alright then… and here I thought, we could utterly purge that bastard today."
The grandmaster, however calmly smiled and said, "No need for us to be hasty, God has a plan for this sort of thing."
A similar scene could be found in churches in nearby towns. In order to put an end to the pastor serial killings, the churches sent out many of their men. Even the main streets in these towns were filled with guards, with their eyes fixated on the clouds above, watching out for any suspicious flying figures.
However, at this time, Benjamin had already left far behind this area.
In a small village lying at the south of the kingdom, gazing upon the distant, extravagant mansion, Benjamin nodded to himself.
"So this is the Walter Family’s estate." Benjamin thought.
With the church utterly shaken, various men were sent out. If he were to attack the church again, what difference would it be as compared to seeking his own death? The main goal was to attract the church’s attention after all, and now, he had achieved it.
With an ambush planned for him near the church, even if they had waited until dawn, Benjamin wouldn’t be making his appearance there.
He instead strolled towards the Walter Family’s mansion.
"Apparently after their daughter "succumbed to illness", the Walters rarely made their stay in the Royal Kingdom recently, shutting themselves within their own estate and hardly interacting with any outsiders even." His assistant uttered, "But… are you really here just to take a look?"
"What else?"
His assistant said, "After the school’s quiet demise, they never received any news regarding their daughter, she’s probably presumed dead. Circumstances aside, you should inform them about her!"
Benjamin shook his head and replied, "It’s not like Elizabeth had let me have my way with her body, it would be best if I don’t stick my nose in this trivial matter."
"...Forget it, you’re hopeless."
Without a concern for his assistant’s jibberish, Benjamin approached the mansion from the outside and sensed the interior. He found only a few maids busying themselves with cleaning, not a trace of the Walters' presence.
Benjamin’s eyebrows tightened.
...Where could they be?
Benjamin disguised himself as a merchant. As such, after given some thoughts, he approached the mansion’s grand gate, and questioned the still-snoozing guard posted there, "Greetings, I’m here to pay a visit to Count Walter, may I ask if he’s present?"
"My apologies. Our master and mistress had just left, may I ask that you come by again tomorrow?"
Benjamin then asked, "Then… would you mind telling me to where has Count Walter gone?"
The guardsman hesitated, but under Benjamin’s persistent questioning, he gave in and said, "Actually I’m not too sure myself. But if everything went accordingly, he and the mistress should be heading to the graveyard to gift flowers to the young missus."
Benjamin listened and nodded.
"Thank you."
And with that, he turned to leave. The guardsman watched his back as he left, eyes filled with suspicion, but soon he lost interest. He shut his eyelids and fell asleep.