第25章 开战了

Although it was past curfew, Benjamin returned to the Riser Family estate without incident under the escort of the knights.

He bypassed the night-watch servants and slipped into his bedroom, his movements unnoticed by anyone. He locked the door, lay down on his bed, and took out the cross, turning it over in his hands with immense delight.

It was a small, silver cross with exquisite craftsmanship. When Benjamin pressed it against his forehead, he could feel a holy aura faintly radiating from within.

This must be the power of divine arts.

Compared to magic, the common people of the Hori Kingdom were far more familiar with divine arts. Every town had a church and a priest, and almost everyone had seen a priest perform divine arts.

According to the Church, divine arts were the power bestowed upon humanity by God to combat demons.

Legend had it that long, long ago, demons ran rampant across the world. Famine, plague, and war—misery constantly unfolded under the demons' temptation. People lived in dire straits, and even a peaceful life became an extravagant wish.

Later, a pair of brothers appeared: the elder, Cain, and the younger, Abel. No one knew where they came from, but they were determined to save humanity and end this era of demonic rule. After failing time and time again, Cain feigned a sacrifice to the demons and gained immense power. Finally, using his ever-growing strength, he turned the tables and drove the demons away, restoring peace and tranquility to the world.

However, good times did not last. Under the influence of demonic power, Cain's temperament changed drastically; he became increasingly cruel and cunning, just like the demons he had driven away. He began to enslave the people, wage wars, and slaughter the innocent, plunging the human world, which had only just found peace, back into chaos.

Abel watched all these changes unfold. After another war, he stood in the luxurious palace his brother had built and suddenly began to pray in front of Cain. Cain was enraged; he threw Abel into prison and nailed him to a massive cross to suffer. Seven days later, Abel vanished, and when he appeared before Cain again, he possessed the power of divine arts.

No one knew what Abel had experienced in the interim. But what everyone knew was that the empowered Abel engaged in a great battle against Cain.

In the end, Abel defeated Cain.

Just as he prepared to purify Cain with the Holy Light in his hands, Cain suddenly shed tears. He seemed to have reverted to the Cain of old, weeping bitterly before Abel and recounting stories of their brotherhood. Moved, Abel let his guard down and exposed his back to Cain. Cain seized the opportunity to launch a sneak attack, burning Abel to ashes with evil flames.

Just as Cain was gloating, a divine light descended from the sky, enveloping him. The voice of God echoed from the heavens, demanding to know Abel's whereabouts. Cain flatly denied it, claiming he knew nothing. Disgusted by Cain's lies, God prepared to deliver punishment, stripping Cain of his power and exiling him for life. Cain was furious; he refused to accept God's punishment and used the blood of his entire body to cast a curse, sealing the world. From then on, neither gods nor demons appeared here again, and the world became the "Land of God-Forsaken."

Cain died of weakness after casting the curse, and his blood scattered across the world, passing down the power of the demons. The polluted human world fell into war once more; those with demonic power slaughtered one another, while ordinary people could only struggle to survive in the cracks.

Until one day, a young boy stood where Abel had been burned to ashes and prayed with his hands clasped. A beam of Holy Light rose from his palms, blooming like fireworks in the night sky, reflected in the eyes of the thousands looking up. From then on, humanity possessed the power of divine arts, and that praying boy became the first Pope of the Church.

He dug a fragment of a blade from the soil where Abel had perished. When his hand first touched the blade, a sentence echoed in his heart:

"The Holy Light shall shroud the world."

That blade fragment became the Church's holy relic, enshrined in the deepest part of St. Peter's Cathedral, and that sentence became the first oracle, passed down through the generations.

That was the origin of divine arts and magic as preached by the Church.

When the system first recounted this story to Benjamin, he had to admit that the myths of this world bore many similarities to his original world. The character archetypes of Cain and Abel were so similar that it went far beyond the scope of "any resemblance is purely coincidental."

He couldn't help but wonder if there was some connection between the two worlds.

But at this moment, he couldn't find the answer.

This world was not like his original one. Here, there was magic and divine arts; human power had no limits, and the so-called gods were likely just humans who had reached the pinnacle of strength.

Therefore, the possibility that the myths of this world had actually occurred was much higher than in his previous world—though not necessarily the Church's version. Benjamin believed that if a mage were to tell this story, the plot would likely be completely different.

Thinking of this, he suddenly gave a self-deprecating laugh.

If this myth originated from real events, it could be considered the origin of the world's essence. With his current strength, exploring this was premature—he hadn't even been in this world for seven days; he was getting ahead of himself.

Time to wash up and sleep.

Benjamin felt sleepiness wash over him. He put away the cross, washed up briefly, blew out the oil lamp by the bed, climbed in, and fell soundly asleep before long.

Perhaps because he hadn't slept in a long time, he slept very deeply. By the time he woke up, it was almost noon the next day.

He was shaken awake.

"Benjamin! Wake up, we're leaving! Wake up!"

Benjamin opened his bleary eyes, feeling completely dazed.

"Get up, stop sleeping, we're going to be late!" The noisy voice still echoed in his ears, but the word "late" triggered memories from before his transmigration, waking him up quite a bit.

Late... late for what?

Damn, that scared me; I thought I had a morning class.

Benjamin rubbed his eyes and tried to focus, only to see a boy of similar age and appearance standing by his bed, shaking his shoulders vigorously.

It was his younger brother—Grant Riser.

"Wha... what?"

Benjamin was confused, his face a mask of bewilderment.

According to the system's previous introduction, Grant had a decent relationship with him and didn't look down on him for being a waste. But for the current Benjamin, he hadn't actually interacted with Grant yet. The current situation was completely beyond his expectations.

Furthermore, what did he mean by "late" and "leaving"...?

"You forgot? We're going to war with them today, don't dawdle, we're going to be late!" Grant urged without a second thought.

War, war?

Benjamin widened his eyes and opened his mouth, staring blankly at Grant. However, Grant's expression looked serious and solemn, even carrying a hint of fanaticism; he didn't look like he was joking at all.

"..."

Benjamin remained stunned for a moment, then flopped back down to sleep.

I must be dreaming.

If I'm dreaming, so be it, but please don't disturb my sleep; this bed is very expensive.

"Hey! You're still sleeping, get up now!" Grant didn't disappear like in a dream; instead, he shook Benjamin's shoulders even harder, shaking him until he felt like he was going to vomit his stomach acid.

Benjamin sat up from the bed again and opened his eyes.

"I'm not dreaming?" he asked.

"No," Grant replied.

"..."

Benjamin didn't know what to say; he felt terrible.

He felt that since arriving in this world, his way of waking up had always been wrong. First, he was kidnapped by a witch, then he encountered a sleepwalking idiot in the middle of the night. This time it was even more absurd: he woke up to a war. How long had he been asleep?

...Was there really going to be a war?

"Stop dawdling, get up! Get up, get up, get up..."

"I'm up! Stop shaking me, I'm going to throw up!"

Under Grant's frantic urging, Benjamin, though still unaware of the situation, had no choice but to crawl out of bed and be herded like a duck to wash up and change his clothes. Still dizzy and unable to get a word in, he was dragged out the front door by Grant.

During this process, the servants they passed had no expression on their faces, looking as if they were used to it.

Gradually recovering from his dazed state, Benjamin had no choice but to ask the system:

"What exactly is going on?"

The system emerged slowly and replied lazily: "Nothing much, just a little activity for the noble youths."

Clearly, Benjamin was not satisfied with this answer.

He pressed: "Can you explain what you mean by 'little activity for the noble youths'? And what's this about a war? Are we going to fight other noble youths?"

"Hmm..." The system seemed to ponder for a moment before saying, "You could understand it that way."

"That's as good as saying nothing." Benjamin's dissatisfaction continued to escalate.

"Don't overthink it, it's not a big deal, trust me." The system sounded unbothered. "Why are you in such a rush? It's very troublesome to explain. Anyway, once you get there, you'll naturally know what's going on."

...Is the system really worth trusting?

Benjamin couldn't help but grumble inwardly.

The original system was merely unreliable, but now it had added another flaw: laziness.

Without a doubt, he wouldn't get anything out of the system. Looking at Grant, who was dragging him along at a run, it was clear he wasn't in a state to communicate either. Thus, Benjamin had no choice but to resign himself to fate and wait to see where Grant was taking him.

On the streets of the inner city of Havenlight, two youths ran past, leaving behind a face devoid of hope.

The place Grant was going wasn't far, and they stopped after running for a short while.

They were still in the inner city, but the area was relatively remote and few people passed by. Before them stood an abandoned castle that looked quite old. Although it wasn't large, Benjamin was still quite surprised to see a castle appearing in the city.

At the entrance of the castle stood about a dozen people. Looking closely, they were all teenagers, dressed like nobles, which confirmed the system's mention of "noble youths."

However, Benjamin remained confused, completely ignorant of the current situation.

"What's the deal, why are you two so slow?" One of the group saw Benjamin and Grant and walked over to say this.

"We're not late, what's the rush?" Grant immediately retorted.

The person didn't care and turned around again: "Alright, alright, let's start. Same old rules: everyone disperse first, and we'll start the action in ten minutes." Following his words, the group began to walk into the castle.

Start the action? What on earth are they doing...

Although he was still clueless, Benjamin noticed that Dick Fool happened to be among them.

When he saw Dick, Dick happened to look back at him. As their eyes met, Dick glared viciously at Benjamin and made a threatening gesture, looking as if to say, "You're dead."

Benjamin felt a wave of speechlessness.

Why is it this guy again?