Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 401 - 400: The War Has Not Ended

The command center of the Intelligence Agency within the Cecil Clan military district. Leimont’s body was quickly brought before Gawain.

The district bishop of the Southern Diocese died in a mysterious manner. Besides some scratches and dirt from his escape, there were almost no external injuries on his body. The cause of death was some kind of "intense heat" generated from within his skull. The bishop’s eye sockets had been burned into two dark holes, and the desiccated skin around the eyes clung disgustingly to the bone socket, while his brain...seems to have been burned to ashes.

"We found him on a mountain path in the Dark Mountain Range," Soldrin reported what he knew, "He was already dead when we found him. There were no signs of struggle around nor any residual fluctuations of magic. The cause of death was as you see, the brain burned to ashes...but I’ve never seen any curse or magic effect like this."

Gawain squatted down, carefully examining the state of this Holy Light archbishop. When he reached into Leimont’s eye socket, Amber couldn’t help but gag, "Ugh... That’s too gross..."

Gawain ignored Amber and took some ashes, rubbing them softly between his fingers. A faint golden glow flickered briefly in the ashes.

"It’s a residual echo of the Holy Light, emanating from the brain... this bishop was burned to death by his own Holy Light," Gawain frowned, "But why?"

Amber began an earnest yet haphazard analysis, "Maybe it’s because he ran away from the battlefield, violating the Church of the Holy Light’s doctrines in some way, and then, unable to bear the guilt, he died of a conscience explosion in the mountains?"

Gawain glanced at Amber, "Do you believe that yourself?"

Aunt Heidi ignored Amber’s haphazard analysis and solemnly asked, "Ancestor, can you see anything from this?"

"I can’t see anything except the cause of death from the Holy Light backlash... but I’m not without any leads," Gawain clapped his hands, stood up, "The Holy Light backlash destroyed his brain, indicating that the initial loss of control started from the brain, which reminded me of a certain group of people..."

Heidi looked at Gawain’s expression and suddenly realized, "The Eternal Sleepers?"

"It seems those evil cult followers haven’t stopped their activities. In areas beyond our knowledge, they are continuously active," Gawain commented with a tone of unsurprise, considering there’s already traces of the Oblivion Association in the background of the Anzu Civil War, it’s not unimaginable for Eternal Sleepers to appear on the battlefield of the southern borders. Although he’s curious why the Eternal Sleepers would ’help’ the Cecil Clan kill an invader, that doesn’t stop him from carrying on with his work. "Send this corpse along with the others to the incinerator, burn it thoroughly."

Two soldiers came in and carried Leimont’s body away. Meanwhile, Amber watched the Holy Light bishop being carried away and sighed, "A district bishop... just died like that... Seems you’re completely at odds with the Church of the Holy Light now."

"Their district bishop came to the Cecil Clan with twelve knights to ’negotiate’ with me, demanding that I hand over the civilians in the city. From that moment, they essentially declared war," Gawain said indifferently, "And even if this incident didn’t happen today, sooner or later, I would come into conflict with them — you should know the law implemented by the Cecil Clan. The Church of the Holy Light, which is becoming increasingly extreme and bloated, can never accept a rule of ’Administrative Office law superseding church law’."

Aunt Heidi recalled the battle reports sent by Kamel earlier, suddenly showing a thoughtful expression, "Speaking of which... this bishop and his knights probably never intended to fight us to the death. The bishop claimed they came to negotiate with the leader, demanding that we hand over the sheltered ’heterodoxies’. I suspect their initial goal was just to lure the ancestor out and hold him off temporarily, waiting for the right moment before finding an excuse to retreat — later, by adhering to the rules of friction between the church and aristocrats, offering gold, silver, and some land as compensation, they could cover this up. I guess according to the initial plans of Count Hosman and the Church of the Holy Light, the Cecil Clan would be the absolute loser in this war. The Church of the Holy Light was probably waiting for our compensation."

Aunt Heidi had previously been busy handling information from all sides and hadn’t focused on this. Now that things have calmed down, she suddenly understood the real purpose behind the Southern Diocese District Bishop leading twelve church knights to the Cecil Clan to ’negotiate’, and Gawain’s response made her expression subtle, "This was obvious — they only came to delay me. Did they plan to capture this city?"

Aunt Heidi didn’t know what to say, "In the end, they all died here...not even the bishop survived."

"Remember what I said at the beginning?" Gawain looked at Aunt Heidi and said calmly, "They can initiate this war, but once the war starts, they can’t dictate its scale."

Aunt Heidi pondered Gawain’s words, while Gawain issued her new orders, "Notify Godwin to publish an extra edition, stating that the Church of the Holy Light colluded with Count Hosman... no, that some corrupted priests colluded with Count Hosman to conspire an attack on Cecil Castle, but due to their own incompetence and weakness, their entire force was wiped out after a skirmish with one of our technicians."

Aunt Heidi blinked, "... Write exactly that?"

Gawain nodded, "Write it like that, then publish it throughout the territory — not just within the fiefdom, but also let the army distribute it across the southern borders, so every literate person has a chance to see it. And make sure to emphasize that it was ’a few corrupt priests conspiring with Count Hosman’.

Gawain originally wanted to declare that the whole Church of the Holy Light was in collusion with Count Hosman and opposed to the Cecil Clan, but he knew he couldn’t consider the entire Church of the Holy Light as an enemy—not at least for now.

The priest class in the Church of the Holy Light may be corrupt and depraved, but the followers of this religion are composed of a vast number of people, including within the Cecil estates, where about a quarter of the residents are believers of the Holy Light. Although the ordinary believers’ faith and support for the Church of the Holy Light might not be so strong and extreme, if he suddenly declared the Church of the Holy Light as the enemy, chaos would inevitably ensue. Therefore, it was best to distinguish the corrupt priests from the ordinary believers from the very beginning of the public opinion campaign.

Furthermore, there’s another point: religions in this world are not only a spiritual support, their "Divine Arts" and the gods themselves are real and tangible, even forming part of productivity and the natural world. Unless the Church of the Holy Light becomes thoroughly twisted and depraved like those three dark sects, losing its grounding in normal social order, he cannot target "faith in the Holy Light" for elimination. What he can eradicate are those priests.

And they must be the corrupt ones—after all, the Church of the Holy Light couldn’t possibly consist of just one Cleric Wright Awiken, right?

Amber just said he has completely antagonized the Church of the Holy Light, which might be true, but Gawain had his own understanding and arrangement regarding this statement.

Aunt Heidi left upon her orders, temporarily leaving only Amber and Gawain in the room. After pondering for a while on her own, Amber suddenly recalled a detail from the task Gawain assigned Aunt Heidi: "Ah! You just said to have the army send supplies across the southern borders... Could it be the war isn’t over?"

Gawain glanced at Amber: "When did I say the war was over?"

"But we’ve won on all fronts," Amber scratched her head, "Count Hosman to the north is dead, his army scattered, Earl Peibo to the west is also dead, and it’s said even fewer escaped, and now even the bishop of the Church of the Holy Light is dead... I’ve heard that a lot of prisoners have been captured on the northern and western fronts, many of whom are southern aristocrats. Wouldn’t you normally consider this war over? Then you should negotiate with the families of those aristocratic prisoners, asking for money, grain, land..."

Amber looked at the faintly smiling expression on Gawain’s face, her tone gradually lowered, finally pausing completely with a frightened look on her face: "Oh my—aren’t you planning to stop at all?"

"I’ve long said this is a war to reorganize the southern borders, and what I want is not the previous situation where nobles fiefdoms are divided, relying on fragile loyalty and vassal relationships to maintain unity, hence I never intended to ask for any ’ransom,’ nor plan to negotiate," Gawain said sternly, "Count Hosman’s coalition might have indeed disbanded, but remember, they just scattered, not vanished or surrendered, but ran off the battlefield. They neither became Cecil Clan’s population nor became nourishment for the land in the southern borders. And those captured aristocrats... their families, their castles, their manors, their independently fragmented territories—all still exist. As long as those scattered troops return to these places, they remain divided noble lands, not Cecil’s territory."

At this point, Gawain emphasized word by word: "The southern borders have only one Cecil estate."

"Are you planning..." Amber looked incredulously at Gawain’s eyes, "to kill all the noble families in the southern borders..."

"Of course, I won’t slaughter them all, at least not directly, because that would cause a societal collapse. And whether I admit it or not, the ’upper class’ that includes the nobles and their vassals is currently a major source of intellectuals; I have to utilize this group, their power," Gawain remarked, "but I still need to ’destroy’ them, destroy their system and foundation... After this, everyone will be an honorable and law-abiding Cecil citizen."

Sighing slightly, he continued: "I truly hope every southern aristocrat and their vassals can accept this arrangement, but if they can’t accept it... I hope at least there will be enough incinerators."

Amber’s face gradually showed a bewildered expression, eventually jolting with realization.

Seeing this, Gawain couldn’t help but laugh: "Can you understand what I’m saying?"

"I won’t listen anymore!" Amber covered her ears with her hands, "What you say is either dead difficult or terrifying enough to scare someone to death!"

Gawain smiled, patting Amber’s hair—this short stature was just right, allowing him to place his hand comfortably.

Then he turned, looking out at the sunset gradually sinking outside the window.

Sir Philip should have already set off with his orders, the sweep across the southern borders has begun.