Chapter 79 Witch-hunting
Chapter 79 – Witch Hunt
September had already taken on an autumnal feel in the Northwest Bay, with the forests that roamed the mountains slowly draping themselves in gold and orange hues, as farmers diligently busied themselves in the fields harvesting their crops in preparation for the long winter that was to come.
On a road leading from south to north to the town of Lake Heart in the territory of Count Alda, a caravan was slowly traveling.
This caravan is the first batch of artisan talent that Quiller Foster recruited for his good friend Paul and a merchant fleet of his family, who took a ship from Horn Bay and traveled by sea to avoid the war-torn area in the southern part of the Kingdom of Aldo, and then landed on the west coast of the Kingdom, and then traveled north from there to the northwestern part of the Kingdom by land.
And the one escorting this team was the previous Leachman’s Adventure Group, only this time they were out in full force.
……
Go back in time two months.
“Why did I raise a waste of a son like you!”
Marquis Foster, a member of the Horned Bay Alliance Convocation, exclaimed in his mansion with a sad face.
Standing next to him was his aggrieved second son – Quiller Foster.
Quiller retorted with dissatisfaction, ”Pops! Wasn’t I just sneaking out for a few days? As for getting so mad?”
Marquis Foster glared at his son, “I’ll get back to you later about you leaving without telling me.”
He held up a porcelain dish with both hands and waved it carefully in front of Quiller’s eyes, “First, let’s talk about this stupid thing you did!”
Queller was puzzled, “This is a gift from my friend, he asked me to come back and publicize it for him, he plans to sell it to the south, I know it’s worth a lot of money, that’s why I asked you, a veteran in business, to estimate the price, how is it that you call it stupid?”
Marquis Fordyce first carefully placed the porcelain plate on the table, then slapped his son’s head and said in a tone of hatred, “How did the family’s commercial talent disappear cleanly into you? You should have decisively taken its exclusive agency right at that time.”
Quiller came to a realization, “Uh …… so that’s what you’re here for.”
Seeing his son’s look like he had only just realized, the Marquis was even more enraged and pointed at his son’s nose and started to criticize him bitterly.
“Overall uneducated, just know how to wander around!”
“How much your brother saves me from worrying, at the age of 15, he can negotiate a business deal on his own.”
“Twenty years old and still accomplishing nothing.”
……
Quiller looked unconcerned, letting his old man’s words go in one ear and out the other as usual.
Marquis Foster, tired of cursing, picked up a glass of water to moisten his throat, and just as he touched his lips he remembered that there was something more pressing than lecturing his son.
“Quickly, quickly, take a merchant fleet to the northwest bay, the ‘porcelain’ agent down, and that new type of paper, also talk down, this is the prospect of great things. By the way, isn’t that count friend of yours short of shipbuilding craftsmen? Go and recruit as many as he wants. If it’s not enough, pull a batch from the family shipyard.”
Quiller casually responded, “Well well well, father-sama take your time.”
Seeing that his son still had a nonchalant look, Earl Foster jumped to his feet, “Now!!!” ‘
Quiller screamed, “No way, I just arrived home alas, I have to rest for a few days.”
But looking at his father’s gesture of smashing his face with a glass of water, he immediately ran out to run his errands in a huff.
……
The crowd of the Lichtman Adventure Group received the honorarium for this quest from the Adventurer’s Guild.
The leader of the group, Meru, was very happy and held up his money bag and said, “This quest was finally a thrill, let’s go find a gourmet restaurant and have a big meal.”
The crowd clapped their hands in favor of this and cheerfully looked for a food store on the street.
Suddenly there was a commotion on the street, pedestrians avoided to both sides, and soon the center of the street was empty, and the adventurous group followed the crowd to avoid the side of the road.
Dean pulled the sleeve of a passerby next to him and asked, “Excuse me, we just arrived here and are not familiar with it, is this what happened?”
The passerby looked back and said, “The Inquisition caught a witch a few days ago, and she’s about to be burned at the stake right now!” Dean was startled and subconsciously went to glance at his companion, Lardy, and sure enough, the scholar girl’s face was already white.
The other companions of the adventuring group were also stony-faced.
The Witch Hunt Movement, which was the largest scale initiated by the Church and continues to this day, as far as Dean knew, during its craziest period, only one city-state, Messiah, burned to death more than 400 people suspected of being witches within a year.
The long witch-hunting campaign created countless tragedies, many times even the Church itself had to admit that it had created wrongful cases and vindicated the people involved.
There was a time in between when a few scholars and nobles boldly reflected on and criticized the witch hunt movement, and with the rise of the Council of the Magi within the Holy See, the witch hunt movement fell into a low ebb.
But in recent years, the witch-hunting movement has begun to rise again, ironically, this time in the southern countries that boast enlightened thinking.
But it can’t be said that the church was created out of nothing, can it, and at the very least Dean knew there was a ……
Passersby on both sides of the road began to shout.
“Burn the witch!”
“Burn this whore who lusts with the devil!”
Under the escort of the church knights, a prison wagon slowly drove through the street, and many passersby threw stones at the prison wagon.
Inside the prison wagon was chained a woman with a disheveled face, with only a pair of dull, lifeless eyes showing through the gaps in her hair, allowing the hard stones to fall on her body, adding new wounds to a body that was already covered in scars.
Continuing on was the square in the center of the city, where the stake had been prepared and the woman’s fate was sealed.
Lardy tugged at the chief’s sleeve and whispered with her head down, “Meru, let’s go ……”
Meru grabbed her hand and held it tightly, whispering in his ear, “Don’t be afraid, we will always protect you.”
After such a thing happened, the crowd was not in the mood to enjoy the food, so they returned to the inn.
Entering the front door of the inn, they found a familiar figure.
“Brothers and sisters of the Leachman Adventure Group, it’s been a long time, I’ve missed you all!”
Quiller came up and hugged the two males in the group tightly.
Troupe leader Meru said with a helpless face, “Hey, hey, hey! Young Master Foster, we’ve only been separated for half a day!”
“Hahaha! Don’t worry about the details. Hm? Why do you all look like you’ve just gotten very sick?”
Meru said, “Looking for us for something? We’re about to leave the city.”
Quiller snapped his fingers, “It is the fear of you leaving that has brought me to you in such a hurry. I have an urgent mission I would like to entrust to you.”
“What mission?”
Quiller pointed to the north and said, “My father asked me to lead a caravan to make another trip to the Northwest Gulf, are you willing to escort us there? Feel free to name your price for the commission or whatever.”
“Oh?” Meru came to be interested, not all because of the commission, but she inwardly planned to leave the south as well, leading the troupe to avoid the winds of the recent witch hunt movement.
She glanced at Dean and Kai, who quickly grasped her meaning and nodded in agreement.
Meru then said, “Alright, Young Master Quiller. But since it’s a caravan, we can’t escort it with just a few of us alone, we’ll have to rendezvous with a few other corps members before we can set out.”
Quiller said happily, “It just so happens that I need some time as well, so it’s a deal then!”
I did a quick search today and found that the historical witch hunt reached its largest scale precisely after the Renaissance, it’s pretty incredible.
(End of chapter)