After the morning training, Benjamin returned home.
Soon, he heard something about what happened that morning.
More than thirty noble families rushed to St. Peter's Cathedral this morning to seek an explanation for what happened to their children at the reception. The nobles who gathered to protest were really guessed by Dean.
Unfortunately, the church’s response was also very timely. Before the people could gather together, they were driven away by a dozen paladins.
However, these nobles obviously did not give in so easily. After being driven away by the church, they discussed with each other for a while and then ran to the entrance of the palace to sit down and demonstrate. Benjamin had finished lunch at home, and the group was still sitting there, motionless.
If there were more people, Benjamin suspected, they might all go to a parade.
In this regard, Benjamin only felt that it was meaningless. Since the royal family and the church had done such a thing, they must have anticipated the current scene. Instead of running around like clowns, these nobles should use the resources at hand to do something that can truly threaten the church.
To put it bluntly, more than thirty noble families are not a force worthy of attention for the church. You know, there are hundreds of noble families in the kingdom, and there are more than a dozen great nobles.
But these great nobles have not said anything yet.
After learning enough information, Benjamin began to feel that the church's use of the royal family was a very cautious step.
There were hundreds of people attending the reception at first, but throughout the process, many people left one after another. Some, like Elizabeth and Dick, left early, and others, like Benjamin, left late but were not stopped. In the end, only about a hundred noble children were actually forced to "wear" the cross.
There were only more than sixty noble families that were actually monitored—many of them were members of the same family who were "wearing" crosses.
And the message about the god who "purifies all mages on the continent" was also used by the church as a weapon to suppress dissatisfaction. Anyone who fails to obey will be considered to be in collusion with the mage.
Therefore, the power of protest has become much smaller.
Finally, that afternoon, the church sent out paladins to list out a bunch of conclusive evidence and kill one of the nobles on the pretext of colluding with the mage. Just like that, the meditating crowd at the entrance of the palace dispersed in the blink of an eye, like antelopes being driven away by a cheetah.
At this time, these nobles realized how powerless they were in front of the church.
The power of resistance faded away like a tide. Maybe they were still planning something while avoiding the "monitoring" of their children, but at least on the surface, the nobles succumbed.
Those nobles who were not affected remained silent. Perhaps some were still secretly happy that their children had escaped this disaster. It seemed that everyone had forgotten the agreement and acquiesced to the church's lawless behavior.
The nobles seemed to realize at this moment that from the beginning of the founding of the country to today, the gap between the church and the nobles had widened to this extent. A hundred years ago, the nobles still held the army. A hundred years later, the nobles only had gold coins in their hands that the church could take away at any time.
Benjamin knew that if they did nothing, soon they would not even have gold coins in their hands.
As for the Riese family, their status is dependent on the church. Claude turned a deaf ear to the great changes taking place in the royal capital and concentrated on managing his fiefdom, as if the only thing on his mind was how to pay more tribute to the country and the church.
Of course, Benjamin doesn't agree with this. Needless to say, it's the truth that the lips are dead and the teeth are cold. But whether he agrees or not doesn't seem to mean anything to the Riise family.
Therefore, he couldn't do much in this regard and didn't bother to care.
Benjamin also asked about the Wood family. According to them, their family's only daughter, Elizabeth, went home early on the day of the reception because she felt unwell. She became seriously ill on the day she returned home and passed away early the next morning. For fear of contagion, they burned their daughter's body before the church pastor arrived, leaving nothing behind.
When he first heard the news, Benjamin refused.
Elizabeth, the girl who was so talkative at the cocktail party that she wanted to take Benjamin to dance, actually died that night
He didn't believe it.
Thinking of what Elizabeth said, "I'm leaving the royal capital tonight," and combined with the news that the bodies were all gone, Benjamin quickly made a guess.
The Wood family probably got wind of something and asked their daughter to fake her death and send her daughter to seek refuge somewhere.
Of course, this whole thing is still full of doubts. Really speaking, the situation in the royal capital is not so bad that it is necessary to fake death and take refuge. Benjamin found it hard to believe that Elizabeth left the royal capital just to avoid the limelight.
As for the real reason, Benjamin naturally couldn't figure it out.
Not only that, he won't think about problems that have no results.
Therefore, Elizabeth, his strange ex-fiancée, was quickly forgotten by him, and he did not think about it again for a long time.
Now he has more things to do.
The cocktail party was over, and Claude's ban on him had also ended. The church's plan of sending people to watch over him had stopped sending people some time ago.
For almost the first time since time travel, he gained complete freedom of movement.
He can go wherever he wants without worrying about the eyes and ears of the church or the restrictions of Claude. Above his head, there were no more watching eyes, only the free blue sky.
Let me ask, who can bear to continue meditating at home instead of going out to cause trouble
Benjamin couldn’t do it anyway.
So he went out that afternoon.
He took the guy he was supposed to take with him and arrived at the outer city of Havenright without anyone noticing. He hid in a secluded place, disguised himself, and once again looked like a beggar - much better than the last time.
Then, he took action.
As for the purpose of his actions...
At the moment, there are two things before him - digging out Anne's belongings and finding the assassin who first assassinated him.
They are all things that have been put off for a long time, and they all seem to have little meaning. However, it is quite annoying to just put them aside all the time, so let's just take this opportunity to solve them.
After thinking for a while, Benjamin came to the pub called "Bonnie" first.
This place is very close to an abandoned stronghold that Michelle used to have, and the assassin also became Scar Man's subordinate here. Here, you should be able to find some clues.
Not long after he last came here, the tavern had changed drastically. After all the original employees and the proprietress were killed by the scarred man, the place quickly got a new owner, as evidenced by the decoration team coming and going at the entrance of the tavern.
Ordinary people are forgetful enough, and business changes are ruthless enough.
Standing across the street from the tavern, Benjamin looked towards the tavern. Suddenly, he noticed a guy in colorful clothes and holding an accordion standing by the door of the tavern.
Street artist? Or a troubadour or something
In Benjamin's imagination, such people should be well-informed and know a lot of gossip.
Why not... go over and ask him.
Thinking like this, Benjamin walked over and said hello to him.
"What are you doing here? Isn't this pub not open yet?" he said.
The organ man glanced at him, suddenly showing an embarrassed expression.
"I'm sorry, I'm also very poor and have no money to give to you. You'd better find someone else."
Hearing this, Benjamin was stunned. Then he realized that he was pretending to be a beggar, and the man probably thought he was coming to ask for money.
Benjamin felt a little funny, but he still shook his head and said to the organ man: "You are overthinking. I am not here to ask you for money. I just saw you standing here alone and felt strange. Come and ask where you are." what."
The organ man had a puzzled expression after hearing this.
Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something, opened his eyes wide, and looked at Benjamin.
"I heard that beggars nowadays are very rich, right? No wonder you don't beg from me." He put down the organ in his hand, grabbed Benjamin's shoulders with both hands, and said expectantly, "I also want to earn money as a beggar. Qian, can you introduce it to me?”
“…”
Benjamin suddenly felt a little regretful.
Why was he talking to this person