The Price of Twenty Draft Cattle

The next day.

At first light, Agricultural Officer Mol galloped to Romain's estate.

He scrambled and stumbled his way to Romain.

"Lord Romain, terrible news! A devil appeared in Sigg Town last night!"

Romain was standing before a vast stretch of neatly reclaimed farmland, admiring the orderly rows of furrows. The soil had been dampened by the morning mist, and the longer he looked, the more pleasing it seemed.

Then that pig-slaughtering shriek rang out, and Romain immediately frowned.

"Was it a Witch?"

"It must have been a Witch."

"Magic cannot achieve something like this. Even if it could, it could not be sustained for so long. Only Witches possess such strange and unpredictable spells."

After learning the details, Romain summoned Green and Aaron, and together they deduced the main cause of the phenomenon.

Speaking of Witches, one had to mention the Church.

This religion, which worshipped the gods, held an exceptionally special position across this land.

The King, the nobles, and the Church together formed the ruling class of this era.

Yet the relationship among the three was rather subtle. The nobles obeyed the King, the King submitted to the Church, while the Church was wary of the nobles.

Most of the Church's power lay within the Divine Realm. It not only controlled clergy capable of healing, but also possessed formidable armed forces of its own.

Such as the Pope's Templar Knights, the Cardinals' Demon Hunter Knights, the Inquisition's Judgement Knights, and many other armed organizations.

Its military strength and the support of faith allowed the Church to levy tithes across the entire land.

A tithe was one-tenth of every citizen's total income.

Even so, Romain had never seen Grand Duke Armor-Splitting make any concessions to the Church.

The Black Iron Kingdom was the most powerful nation on this land. The three Grand Dukes controlled nearly forty percent of the Black Iron Kingdom's military power and territory.

They all turned their noses up at the Church and had never paid tithes.

Of course, that did not mean the farmers of the Black Iron Kingdom lived more comfortably than those in other countries.

Nobles and the Church were alike. Both were oppressors, leaving farmers only enough grain to barely survive before ruthlessly taking most of the harvest.

Faced with a Gluttonous Behemoth that could never eat its fill, no matter how much grain grew from the earth, farmers could only remain at the stage of not starving to death.

The three Grand Dukes refused to pay taxes, yet the King of the Black Iron Kingdom paid the tithe instead.

In Romain's eyes, this was a very interesting phenomenon.

The boss paid the Church, while the three major underlings beneath him scorned it. There were rather complicated historical reasons behind that.

Scorn was putting it mildly.

If the Church's army dared step even one foot beyond the Divine Realm, it would be met with the combined attack of the three Grand Dukes.

As a remote territory of Grand Duke Armor-Splitting, Sigg Town had no Church presence, nor did the Church have any interest in preaching here.

If there were a church here, Romain could only deal with it privately.

The mountains were high and the Emperor was far away. What was there to fear?

Back to the matter at hand.

Spells were a form of supernatural power.

But mages required special training. Mages had basically vanished from this land. Only certain nomadic peoples retained rudimentary magic, calling themselves magicians and earning their living through performances and other talents.

Witches were born spellcasters, and every woman had a tiny chance of awakening the power of a Witch.

The Church regarded Witches and mages alike as the source of disaster, unclean filth.

Thus, over the long years, the Church's Demon Hunter Knights had continually hunted Witches and mages, causing countless tragedies.

These matters did not affect the interests of the nobles.

So the nobles could not be bothered to care whether Witches were persecuted.

War Knights considered the spells of Witches to be tricks meant to fool people.

In the eyes of War Knights, even an ordinary person could kill a weak Witch with salt and a dagger.

Such a phenomenon could never occur to a War Knight.

Witches were simply not worth taking seriously.

However, the Church seemed to have some terrifying obsession with Witches. Once it discovered one, it would not merely burn the Witch to death—it would purify her entire family as well.

They also claimed that evil Witches corrupted their family members' bodies through bloodline connections.

When Romain was ten, he witnessed the Church burn a Witch alive.

She was a Witch who had awakened within the territory of the Armor-Splitting Family.

Grand Duke Armor-Splitting refused to pay tithes, but for some reason, he did not oppose the Church arresting Witches in his lands, even when the Church intended to burn them alive in public.

Romain had been curious, so he went over to watch.

He saw the blazing stake, black smoke rising above the flames and drifting into the sky like the sinister laughter of a devil.

A helpless woman was tied to the stake. As the raging fire scorched her, she lifted her neck high. Her face was covered in dust and soot, her hair hung loose and disheveled, and her body endured the searing heat.

Yet her agonized, despairing screams were all drowned out by the crackling sound of wood fibers snapping in the flames.

Until everything collapsed with a crash and turned entirely to ash.

That sight shook the young Romain deeply, as though something in his heart had been shattered.

"That was no devil. It was merely a Witch."

At the dining table, the steward Seth served breakfast.

Romain gestured for Mol to take a seat.

There were few rules in his household. Green and Aaron had already started eating.

Seth could sit at the table as well, but the old stickler insisted on standing beside him. He would not touch the fresh food, insisting on eating leftovers instead.

At Romain's invitation, Mol could only sit down cautiously. He then asked, "Then, my lord, how do you intend to deal with this Witch? Shall we notify the Church?"

There was no Church presence in Sigg Town.

But Mol believed that if those fanatics learned a Witch was here, they would not care about the mere thousand-li journey, and would even reward the informant with ten Gold Coins.

That was the price of twenty Draft Cattle!

Romain glanced at him. "Why deal with her? Why notify the Church? She was merely passing through."

Mol was speechless.

This was the frontier of the Black Iron Kingdom. There was no place more remote than Sigg Town, yet somehow a Witch was merely passing through.

My Noble Lord, do you even believe that nonsense yourself?

Mol believed him.

"Yes, you are right."

Romain asked again, "There was no panic, was there?"

Mol said, "No. Two unfortunate souls saw her, but they were not struck by any evil curse. I made them keep their mouths shut. I also inspected Sigg Town. No one is missing or injured."

Romain nodded. "Then leave this matter alone."

This Witch seemed to be looking for someone in Sigg Town.

But it did not matter. Romain did not care about the Witch's origins or purpose, as long as she did not interfere with him.

Otherwise, how was he supposed to find her?

Turn all of Sigg Town upside down?

It was said that if one possessed Amethyst, holding this extraordinary crystal near a Witch would trigger a special phenomenon.

Because Amethyst possessed the power to reveal evil.

But Romain had no Amethyst, nor did he have the leisure for it.

After breakfast, he set off for Sigg Town with Green, Aaron, Seth, and Mol.