Chapter 298: The Angry Clown
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
In the Golden Cathedral, Aalto.
“What? Sentence Clown to death? He’s the leader of the Night Watch!” Although Gossett, the red-robed cardinal, knew that Natasha would be pissed after seeing the black miasma, he totally did not expect this.
Natasha’s silvery-purple eyes looked at the cardinal seriously, “Yes, Clown must be sentenced to death.”
As a cardinal, Gossett was good at controlling his emotions. Although he knew that Natasha was not here for negotiation, he still said to the princess in a nice way, “Your Highness, Mr. Evans will be fine. No side effects will be left. Maybe you can let this thing go. After all, we cannot make sure that it was Clown who attacked Mr. Evans. Quite possibly, it was some heretic who wanted to frame Clown up.”
“Cardinal Gossett, this is simple. If you think Lucien accused the wrong person, just let him ask Clown a few questions himself, and use the divine spells to test if Clown is lying, so everything would be clear,” Natasha said in a very pushy way. After all, both of them were of senior-rank.
Facing Natasha’s proposal, Gossett was a bit speechless. Because, in fact, the pastors and cardinals all believed that it was Clown who did this, and it would definitely bring very negative words to the reputation of the Church if the fact was proved.
“Alright…” Gossett used in the same gentle voice and said, “Let’s first assume that Clown did it. Why would he do it? The only possibility is that Mr. Evans might have something to do with Professor, the evil sorcerer on the Cleansing List, so Clown decided to test him…”
“You’ve got any evidence?” Natasha took a step forward and there was stateliness in her eyes, “It’s not in the War of Dawn, and you cannot randomly accuse someone of having ‘something to do with’ a sorcerer. Clown almost killed Lucien Evans because of his terrible assumption, so can I say someday the Church can directly kill a noble because of a baseless suspicion? No noble would want to live in this kind of fear. Also, although knights might not worry that much about themselves, they would still worry about the safety of their family!”
Gossett felt great pressure.
“On behalf of all the nobles of Aalto, I insist that Clown shall be sentenced to death to warn all the night watchers. No one can break the pact between the Church and the nobles!”
Gossett wished that they had lived in a few hundred years ago, so he could just ignore the unreasonable request from Natasha. However, the power of the nobles had increased a lot, and when they were united together, their power was strong enough to affect the decision made by the Church. Also, what Natasha said was not just nonsense.
“Your Highness, you’re a devoted follower of the God of Truth. Fortunately, Mr. Evans is fine. And even though Clown made a bad mistake, sentencing him to death isn’t the only solution, right?” Gossett softened his tone, “We can send Clown to the Inquisition, where he will get the punishment he deserves.”
Natasha crossed in front of chest, “Only truth lives forever.” Then, she said seriously, “I’m a devoted follower, so I don’t want to see anyone ruining the relationship between the Church and the nobles like Clown did.” Natasha’s voice became very firm, “Clown must die.”
Gossett remained silent for a while and said, “I’ll send your request to the grand cardinals. I’m sorry I cannot make the decision for the Inquisition.”
Natasha nodded, “I’m sure that the grand cardinal and cardinal Amelton know how serious this thing is, and I’ll be waiting for the final decision.”
…
In a common house in Aalto.
Clown was reading the information collected, trying to find clues out of it to figure out the relationship between Lucien Evans and Professor.
All of sudden, the door was pushed open. Juliana, the battle pastor, rushed in and said out of panic, “You gotta leave now, right now!”
“What? Calm down, Juliana.” Clown looked up at Juliana with his ridiculous-looking face.
Juliana took a deep breath, “The Inquisition has decided to sentence you to death. You have to run now.”
“What?!” Clown could not believe his own ears. He felt that he was abandoned by the whole world. He could not believe that all the effort he had made to defeat the evil for Lord, for the Church and the Inquisition now meant nothing at all.
Juliana said in a great hurry, “Lucien Evans passed out at the end of his concert an hour ago. Cardinal Gossett said it was because of the injury he had from before. The princess is very angry. Representing the nobles, she’s imposed great pressure on the Church. From Lend’s words, it seems that the Church has compromised. They’re planning on arresting you and sentencing you to death secretly to pacify the nobles without damaging the Church’s reputation.”
“Sentence me… to death?” The ridiculous-looking clown face was still grinning, but the voice behind the mask was beyond desperate.
Juliana thought Clown did not believe her words, so she explained further, “You should trust Lend. I know we didn’t get along well with him after what happened in the Black Forest, but as soon as he was selected to be the one to arrest you, he took a great risk and told me this. He needs you to leave Aalto right now. Someday you can come back using another identity. Several cardinals in the Inquisition are still on your side!”
Clown started murmuring to himself but just stood still there, as if his soul had been stolen. When Juliana was about to urge him to leave again, Clown burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha… Haha!”
The laughter sounded crazy.
“Are you alright?” Juliana asked concernedly.
The laughter suddenly stopped, and Clown replied in an extremely calm way, “I’m fine. I just find it funny. A musician who is close to an evil sorcerer and a princess who has special connections to the Congress of Magic can force the Church to kill their most loyal servant. I wonder if the Church has belonged to those sorcerers. How can the grand cardinals… How can Sard, Amelton, and Gossett let this happen?”
“It doesn’t matter. I trust you, Minsk trusts you, Lend trusts you, and many night watchers are also on your side. Two out of the three leaders of the Inquisition have mercy on you! This is just temporary. One day the darkness will be driven away!”
Clown shook his head, “I’m okay, Juliana. You have to trust my willpower, or I wouldn’t be able to control my Blessing power. I’ll hide properly until I find the solid evidence. Then I’ll accuse Lucien Evans of connecting to the evil sorcerer right in front of the Inquisition, or… it’ll be even better if I can kill Lucien Evans right in front of Natasha’s eyes.”
“Don’t! Right now Lucien Evans must be under great protection.” Juliana hurriedly reminded him, “Maybe this is a trap for you!”
Although she was aware that Clown was able to control his emotions to avoid making stupid mistakes, Juliana also knew that a dark Blessing could make people more or less crazy.
Clown looked out of the window and sneered, “I know. I know how bad Lucien Evans was injured by me. I did not have the time to really harm him. As a knight, even without those potions, he should be able to recover within a few days. It was Lucien Evans himself who turned this into a bad disease, and thus Natasha could find the reason to kill me using the Church’s hand. I’ll be careful when investigating him. This time, I’ll get him.”
His eyes on the clown mask looked cold.
…
In the garden villa.
“Lucien, are you sure that someone will tell Clown the news?” asked Natasha with uncertainty. “Don’t tell me you learned this from your magic crystal ball.”
“How did you know?” Lucien pretended to be surprised, then he said, “It’s just a simple reasoning. What you asked for was too much, and the cardinals and the leaders of the inquisition must more or less sympathize with Clown, not to mention that based on the number of night watchers that survived in the black forest, there must be other people who hate Professor very badly just like Clown, and those people must be on Clown’s side.”
What Natasha said to Gossett was previously agreed by the two of them.
“I see, but this is just your reasoning. Those cardinals and the Inquisition have always been taking a ruthless position when it comes to maintaining their relationship with nobles, so maybe Clown will be killed, and then your plan wouldn’t be able to continue.” Although Natasha was impressed by Clown’s resolution in fighting against darkness and evilness, she was on her friend’s side firmly. She knew it well when she should have mercy and when not.
“Even so, those night watchers are gonna be so worked up that they won’t just let go of Professor.”
Also, Lucien thought to himself that, if that person noticed something, he would not blow this chance. After Clown attacked him, Lucien found another way of using this chance and this was also the foundation of his reasoning.
“I hope so.” Natasha smiled, “You’ve got that person’s information. You should go now. I’ll stay here for you.”
…
Although he failed to awaken his Blessing, Viscount Klein was still very energetic in his fifties. His black hair was taken good care of and his green eyes were like deep lakes. He was an archon in the town hall of Aalto.
After attending Lucien Evans’ concert in the Psalm Hall, he was too excited to fall asleep. So he just got up and started to read the books he collected in his living room.
It was getting late. Putting down the old book in his hand, Klein was ready to go to his bedroom.
When he put on his pajamas in front of the mirror, a mysterious figure showed up in it, like a reflection. The man in the mirror said to him in a hoarse voice:
“Long time no see, Mr. Philosopher.”
“Professor?!” Klein was shocked, and in the next second, he activated mage armor. In the past years, he finally became a sorcerer.
Viscount Klein was one of the apprentices, Philosopher. Because he was close to Silvia’s father, or say, White Honey’s father, Natasha got his information but never told this to anyone.
Klein carefully looked back but saw no one behind him. However, the man wearing the black robe in the mirror was still there.
The fourth-circle spell, Figure in Mirror?
