Chapter 173 - Restless Winds (2/2)

These secret letters came from the ‘aristocrats of the King’s party’ who had their titles directly conferred by the King placed throughout the kingdom. There were also such people around the territories of the three border dukes, or to put it more directly, they were simply ‘spies’. Such a system that was inherited from the founding king had been perpetuated for 700 years. It was an important tool for the Anzu royal family’s control over the entire kingdom. The Fog Month internal conflict as well as the Second Dynasty’s ‘illegitimate-child weak spot’ had once rendered this system useless. However, after a hundred years of reestablishment, especially when the few Dukes successively compromised for the stability of the kingdom, this intelligence network that belonged to the King still operated as effectively as it did during the First Dynasty.

The majority of the aristocrats whose titles were directly conferred by the King were located in the south; only a small group of them were distributed in other places in the kingdom. Usually, the secret letters sent back by these spies reported the situations at their respective lands. Those situations were poles apart with essentially nothing in common. However, the secret letters that came recently showed a trend that had Francis II vaguely uneasy——

There were more and more reports about various dark sects being active, and these numbers were growing everywhere in the kingdom.

Although, till today, these additional reports only took up less than 10% of the entire kingdom’s, they had become so widespread. This was enough to make the old King concerned.

Anzu indeed had a decadent system, but its Kings were essentially all clever people.

At present, before him was a secret letter from the southern borders’ Viscount Andrew Leslie. The content of this letter was even graver than the reported situations from the other aristocrats elsewhere:

A heretic cult believer from the Oblivion Association appeared in Tanzan Town. The heretic cult believer had sneaked in on one occasion and controlled part of the staff using sorcery. Fortunately, Duke Gawain Cecil sent assistance. The Duke eradicated the heretic cult believer lurking on this land.

The old King wouldn’t know that Viscount Andrew Leslie had already concealed many truths in this secret letter — for example, the Eternal Stone Slate that had landed in Gawain’s hands, as well as details of himself being controlled by the heretic cult believer. Moreover, he had consciously reduced the criticality of the entire matter greatly. ——But despite doing so, the information revealed in the secret letter was still enough to terrify the old King.

Heretic cult believers who only dared to move in the dark had actually dared to directly invade an aristocrat’s abode!

Once upon a time, whether they had offered living humans in sacrificial ceremonies or used the remains of dead people for rituals, it wouldn’t really make the aristocrats nervous. It was because those deeds had been done to ‘lowly commoners’. Those heretic cult believers seemed to be very good at complying with the bottom line of the game and had never reached their hands into the aristocrat hierarchy, but now… things had changed.

It had to happen at such a time when relations between Anzu and the Typhon Empire was most tense. Initially, Francis II had slightly heaved a sigh of relief when he learned that the Typhon Empire would not start a war during this winter and believed that he could make use of this opportunity to further strengthen the border armaments to lay a good foundation for war. Yet now he suddenly felt that those heretic cult believers probably didn’t want him to have this margin.

Just as the old King had his brows knitted in anxiety, a genial and warm feeling suddenly filled the whole room.

He looked up in slight surprise and saw Veronica who was dressed in white priest robes walk into the room.

This ‘Saint Princess’ walked towards her own father with a smile and some coyness. “Father, I asked Lord Eden. He said you were still in the study.”

“Veronica, my daughter… Why are you here today?” Francis II looked at Veronica, slightly surprised. Although this daughter of his still retained her identity as a princess, she was an officially converted believer of the God of Holy Light. She spent most of her time in the Cathedral of the Holy Light and rarely returned to the Silver Castle.

“Have you forgotten? Today is the day I leave the cathedral and come to the castle to visit you,” Veronica said with a smile. She drew the emblem of the God of Holy Light before her chest. “While serving The Lord, we cannot forget to look after our parents. This is the doctrine of the Holy Light.”

“Look at this head of mine.” The old King could not help but tap his own forehead. “I got the day wrong!”

“It’s alright. The heavy load of the kingdom weighs on you. Your responsibilities as King ought to come first,” Veronica reassured; at the same time, she noticed Francis II’s exhausted look. She lifted her hand to summon a streak of Holy Light and used theurgies to relieve her father’s stress. “Father, has something happened?”

Francis II sighed. “Heretic cult believers, Oblivion Association, Eternal Sleepers, and small sects like the Black Stone Sect, Pursuers of the Abyss… No idea what came over them. Every one of them is starting to cause trouble in these days before winter.”

Upon hearing the three words ‘heretic cult believer’, as a devout believer of the Holy Light, Veronica immediately couldn’t resist frowning. “May the Holy Light be the salvation of those pitiful people assaulted by those thugs… Heretic cult believers are always spreading everywhere. Regrettably, other than the Church of Holy Light and Sect of the God of War, the theurgies of other sects are too powerless against the sorceries of those heretic cult believers.”

Francis sighed. “Don’t worry. Those followers of evil won’t dare to make trouble in the capital.”

Veronica glanced at those secret letters carrying special marks that came from all over the kingdom. She crossed her hands and placed them on her chest, sincerely saying, “The Holy Light will protect Anzu.”