novelraw Chapter 324: The Witches' Church
Chapter 324: The Witches' Church
Life had been quite peaceful recently, until Loren saw a familiar term in the newspaper.
"The Witches' Church?"
Having transmigrated for so long, this was the first time Loren had heard news about the Witches' Church.
The Witches' Church, led by the Secret Witch, was elusive and mysterious. Even if they took action, it would quickly be concealed by secret authority, rarely leaving any traces.
So, to this day, people weren't very clear about what the Witches' Church had actually done. However, the mere fact that they took in witches was enough to make everyone hate them to the bone.
Hearing the name of the Witches' Church, the others also gathered around. They were very interested in the Witches' Church. Since they themselves were also witches, they held a certain degree of goodwill towards an organization that treated witches well.
"A village on the border of the Nofica Theocracy suddenly vanished. Multiple witches were reportedly seen nearby prior to the incident, suspected to be the work of the Witches' Church..."
"This is just framing them..."
After reading the report's contents, Anna muttered a complaint.
She was used to it. The authorities would pin the blame on witches from time to time.Higher-ups were coming for an inspection, so suddenly a witch appeared and set fire to the granary; the King was going to inspect the military camp, so a witch ate eighty percent of the soldiers in one go; a minister was checking on road construction, so a witch destroyed the road overnight.
Because such things happened so often, even Loren didn't believe witches were truly responsible.
And people had already reached a tacit understanding about this. Witches were a convenient scapegoat, a brick to be moved wherever needed. Just toss the blame onto the witches. After all, people wouldn't think critically; they would just blindly hate witches.
To the point where witches had become a tool to divert conflict: Your hardship isn't because of my exploitation, it's because of the witches' curse. Go hate the witches.
"Master Mentor, if we ever truly encounter the Witches' Church one day, what should we do?"
After Loren put away the newspaper, Naclis suddenly posed a question.
"Of course, we recruit them."
The Witches' Church only grew powerful after the Divine War began. Right now is an era of peace and prosperity. People are busy framing witches; they simply can't stir up any waves.
So, although the Witches' Church is the largest witch organization on the surface, in reality, they probably have fewer witches than Loren has in his bed.
"Would they be willing?"
Naclis pressed further, and Loren also pondered. This was indeed a problem.
Most witches in the Witches' Church had suffered trauma. Naclis's experiences were considered fortunate among them, and they weren't as lucky as Naclis to be picked up by Loren.
Therefore, most of them harbored extreme hatred towards humans and were utterly incapable of peaceful coexistence. They might even attack the witches around Loren instead.
Though Loren wasn't even sure if he counted as human anymore, the witches of the Witches' Church definitely wouldn't trust him.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. At worst, we beat them into submission and then slowly persuade them. And even if we can't recruit them, we can still cooperate."
Loren wasn't too worried about this. In any case, his stance and the Witches' Church's were aligned.
"You can knock them out and send them to me. I guarantee I'll train them into your most loyal dogs."
At this point, Mirrorheart suddenly chimed in.
"..."
Loren ignored Mirrorheart. He truly didn't know how to respond to her.
"Then I'll take that as your silent consent."
"Don't! I'm really begging you..."
In this world, Loren was uniquely helpless against Mirrorheart.
While everyone was chatting, Loren heard the doorbell. It had been a long time since anyone came looking for Loren. Coincidentally, Loren was feeling quite idle, and it could also interrupt the conversation with Mirrorheart. Loren quickly got up to answer the door.
"I'll get it."
Loren disliked being disturbed. When he first moved here, many nobles wanted to visit Loren to build good relations. But Loren had made his attitude clear to the King: he did not wish to be disturbed. Since then, Loren had enjoyed much more peace and quiet.
Now someone was visiting Loren, and it was still class time, so it couldn't be Jessica. Loren guessed it was someone from the Church.
Sure enough, when Loren opened the door, he saw the Bishop.
"Another thing you can't handle?"
"Yes... I really can't hide anything from you..."
The Bishop admitted directly. He understood clearly that putting on airs with Loren was useless; he could only tell the truth.
"What happened?"
Loren asked, guessing it might be related to the Witches' Church?
"Recently, many people have gone missing in the city. We can't find the culprit.
"The victims all disappeared from their homes. There were no signs of forced entry on doors or walls, and the amount of blood left behind is abnormally large."
"Take me to see."
Time to play detective again. Loren found it quite interesting. He threw on his black robe, placed the raven transformed from Movila on his shoulder, and followed the Bishop out.
The Bishop coming to him wasn't actually because of the Witches' Church, which was a bit unexpected for Loren.
"What's the deal with the Witches' Church news in the paper? Is it true or false?"
The incident location was quite far from the Gedlan Kingdom. Movila didn't have any clones there, so Loren wasn't clear on the specifics.
He was very interested in this and didn't plan to beat around the bush, so he asked the Bishop directly.
"Witches did indeed appear in the vicinity, but I'm not entirely certain the village's destruction is related to the witches."
The official stance had already been established: the village's destruction was the witches' doing. But the higher-ups knew the truth very well.
The Bishop knew Loren wasn't asking to hear those excuses, but he couldn't state it outright either, so he could only phrase it euphemistically.
"So witches definitely appeared, but the village's destruction most likely has nothing to do with them. And the ones who probably did this are the authorities themselves, which is why they pinned the blame on the witches?"
Loren roughly deduced the general sequence of events and stated it directly.
The Bishop didn't dare reply, tacitly confirming Loren's speculation.
Loren wore an expression that said "just as I thought." Although the witches of the Witches' Church had many fanatics, they weren't to the extent of indiscriminately killing innocents. Even if they killed, there would be some reason.
"Never mind. First, take me to the crime scene to have a look."
Loren stopped talking about the Witches' Church, and the Bishop finally breathed a sigh of relief, eagerly leading the way for Loren.
"Are there many victims?"
"Many, and all of them are nobles..."
Loren glanced at the Bishop. The Bishop understood Loren's personality well, knew what he was thinking at that moment, and also felt a wave of awkwardness.
If the dead were all commoners, he would absolutely not have come to Loren for this matter. In fact, he might not even know about it by now.