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More than enough…
Joe should have persuaded them to abandon such a ridiculous and even amusing plan. However, words rested on the tip of his tongue when he saw the confident look on their faces.
There was something even more incredible coming next.
Joe expected to give full cooperation to the rescue team and share all the information he knew. The King of Graycastle had promised to save Farrina, so he must need detailed information about the Archduke Island first, and Joe would be the best person to consult with.
He also anticipated that they would pry into the church’s secret and the Holy Book, and he had made up his mind to divulge this information if that could save Farrina.
However, after Joe entered the cabin, he realized how ignorant he was about his old enemy, Roland Wimbledon, who had fought against the church for so many years and eventually uprooted the Holy City of Hermes.
He greeted neither an interrogation nor a pre-operation meeting.
The person sitting at the other end of the long table was, on the contrary, the famous dramatist, Kajen Fels.
Answer all the questions he asks.
With these words, Sean withdrew, leaving Joe staring at Kajen blankly.
He had watched Kajen’s performances back in the New Holy City.
Although this was something nearly ten years ago, Joe remembered what Kajen looked like.
What’s the King of Graycastle thinking about?
he wondered.
Instead of an army, he met a troupe. Were they really planning to save Farrina?
Please take a seat, boy,
Kajen beckoned him to sit down and asked,
Want some tea or wine?
Tea… please.
A pretty young girl soon delivered him a cup of hot tea.
This is my student, Miss Roentgen.
Ah… thank you,
Joe said distractedly. This was all like a dream in spite of his manacled hands and feet.
Why are you here?
Because I made a promise to His Majesty.
Kajen said smilingly,
We should have talked in a more comfortable manner, but they insisted on keeping you chained.
That’s fine…
Joe muttered.
What do you want to know?
Farrina’s story and yours as well.
Joe stared at him in disbelief.
Me… and her?
Yes. I want to know when you joined the church, how you met and also how she was captured by Lorenzo,
Kajen replied slowly.
Farrina… Farrina…
The mere sound of her name made his heart quaver in pain. He tried to refrain himself from thinking of her, but their past kept floating out of his memories. Words abandoned him, and his vision blurred.
Farrina had just been a common civilian when she had joined the church.
At that time, she was wearing a patched, coarse and filthy robe, her hands and feet swollen and red due to exposure to crisp, cold air.
She could have died had Joe not taken her in on his way to the Hermes Plateau.
Joe was a member of a diminished noble family with nothing but a reputable family name, so he had decided to try his luck at the church.
The Holy City would not discriminate against a person based on his background.
Since he could read and write, he became a priest clerk.
Farrina, on the other hand, became a warrior trainee.
Joe was not happy with this arrangement.
Priests and warriors were equal in the Holy City. Joe was a little irritated that a civilian girl saved by him could suddenly meet him on equal terms. In his opinion, Farrina should have been assigned to the kitchen or some servant job.
What made him even more upset was that Farrina actually looked quite pretty.
He began to suspect the real reason she had been chosen as a warrior.
Farrina should have been his girl, and his girl only.
Harboring a bitter resentment and virulent jealousy, Joe started to tamper with Farrina’s work by taking advantage of his office and even humiliated her in public. However, she never dared stand up for herself, which further inflated his anger.
In the next few years, the young woman gradually revealed her talent. Like a polished gemstone, she dazzled the church.
Farrina was soon promoted from warrior trainee to Judgement Army reserve. Then, she officially joined the Judgement Army and later became a unit leader.
Joe always saw her pace up and down on the stronghold city wall during the Months of Demons.
At that time, he had just been promoted from clerk to assistant priest.
His status was now much lower than Farrina’s.
He had, at one time, been afraid of Farrina’s retaliation, but Farrina had not done anything of such sort. Gradually, he had developed a secretive, burning passion as he constantly peered at her behind the wall.
Slowly, Joe came to the realization that Farrina was not as ordinary as he had thought.
Then, Princess Roland of Graycastle arrived.
The pope died and the God’s Punishment Army was annihilated. The entire Church of Hermes fell apart overnight.
Numerous believers fled the Holy City. Farrina shouldered the burden to save the rest of the Judgement Army. If she had not reached out her hand to him at the time of the riot, he might have been stamped to death by the swarm of refugees.
At that moment, he had somehow grasped something.
Farrina was not the most eminent figure in the church. There were still the Priest, the Chief Justice and the Senior Commander in the Holy City after the defeat at Coldwind Ridge. They simply abandoned the Holy City to her and the acting pope, Tucker Thor. Everybody knew the Holy City was doomed, but nobody wanted to take their responsibilities. Therefore, they needed someone to hold the Holy City up a little bit longer so that they would have time to escape from the city.
So, this was how a woman in her 20s became the General Commander of the Judgement Army at Hermes. Ironically, she did her best to stabilize the new and old Holy Cities, but fewer and fewer church executives chose to stay. Very often, a building was emptied overnight. By the end of the Months of Demons, there were only around 500 Judgement Warriors left in the church.
She was offered to Roland Wimbledon as a sacrifice.
Did Farrina know nothing about it?
Of course she did. She knew it when she assumed the post.
But she took the job without the slightest hesitation.
Simply because the church had once sheltered and trained her.
Just as she had never revenged on Joe, she did not blame the church either.
She was grateful for the ride Joe had given her.
Joe was deeply touched when he saw Farrina walk up and down at the city wall, drenched in sweat. Her back became a tiny little spot against the white snow. The bead of sweat on the tip of her nose reflected off sunlights.
Joe had never put much faith in the church. He should have left the Holy City a long time ago, but he chose to stay.
Not for God.
He had pledged allegiance to Farrina from the bottom of his heart.
It was not an oath a believer made to the commander of the Judgement Army.
It was one that a knight made to the girl he wanted to protect.
He had fallen in love with her.
