Free Web NovelTwo days later, on the outskirts of Hamel Town, inside an ordinary inn room, Bishop Beckett sat at a table studying the reports he had recently received.
After secretly returning to South Harbor County, he had not only moved to eliminate Sally Hesh according to the Earl’s instructions, but had also deployed his own people to investigate Leon.
However, the results were exactly as he had expected.
Nothing useful had turned up.
Whether within the Inquisition or throughout South Harbor County and River Valley County, Leon had displayed no obvious abnormalities.
Putting himself in Leon’s shoes, Bishop Beckett reasoned that if he had already done something that might incur the Earl’s wrath, he certainly would not do anything unnecessary within the sight of the Earl’s informants.
For Leon, the only relatively safe place now was the Labyrinth fortress on Arend Island, which he controlled completely.
Yet neither the Earl nor Bishop Beckett had considered conducting an inspection there.
It would have been meaningless.
Leon would have more than enough time to deal with them.
Leon Set was merely a cadre.
There was no need to waste effort on such a tug-of-war.
Once suspicion became strong enough, action was all that mattered.
Even if they imposed disciplinary measures on him immediately, poisoning Sally Hesh first and then delivering a final ultimatum was already considered a relatively gentle approach.
That was only because Leon still retained some value after being brought back under control.
Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door.
It followed a special rhythm.
Moments later, a letter was pushed through the gap beneath the door.
One of his attendants, who had been leaning against the doorway, glanced at the secret letter, exchanged a look with Bishop Beckett, bent down, and picked it up.
After carefully examining it and confirming there was nothing suspicious, he handed it over.
Nowadays, whenever any of Bishop Beckett’s local subordinates uncovered information, they would send a secret letter to a designated contact point according to procedure.
A specialized courier would then retrieve the letter and deliver it to him.
Bishop Beckett opened the letter.
It was from Zona Mendes, whom he had planted inside the Inquisition.
Just two days ago, he had assigned her the task of poisoning Sally.
The poison they used contained a delayed-release agent.
According to their estimates, Sally should be dying around today.
Bishop Beckett unfolded the letter.
He first inspected the handwriting.
After confirming it was authentic, he quickly continued reading.
Just as expected, Zona reported that prison personnel on morning duty had discovered Sally Hesh had failed to get out of bed.
Upon inspection, they found she was suffering from a high fever and had already fallen unconscious.
Leon immediately initiated emergency treatment procedures.
However, Sally’s condition rapidly worsened.
At noon—approximately one hour earlier—Sally Hesh had died from respiratory failure.
The preliminary conclusion was that it had been a complication of Saltification Disease.
After reading the report twice, Bishop Beckett set it down.
The plan had succeeded.
Still, he was slightly surprised.
He had suspected that if Leon truly had betrayed the Earl, he should have been somewhat vigilant.
There had been a possibility that Leon would discover Zona’s poisoning attempt beforehand.
Yet Leon had failed to notice it.
It seemed he had ultimately overestimated his student.
Bishop Beckett was not concerned about the possibility that Zona had been coerced into sending false information.
The people he planted had undergone strict training.
They would not break easily or cooperate with captors.
At the very least, they could not be broken in such a short period of time.
Moreover, even if they were forced to send a message, they knew how to include warning codes.
This letter contained no warning signals whatsoever.
The handwriting was correct.
The delivery process was correct.
Nothing appeared out of place.
In truth, Bishop Beckett simply did not believe Leon was capable of actively challenging the Earl.
That would be a one-hundred-percent suicidal act.
Activating the Secret God’s Blessing of Teleportation, he immediately reported the situation to the Earl.
“Very good,” the Earl said coldly after hearing the report. “Proceed according to the plan. When you meet him, let me speak to him directly. I will personally judge him.”
“Understood,” Bishop Beckett replied.
He immediately began packing his belongings and preparing to depart for the Inquisition.
Sally Hesh was dead.
Leon had already received punishment.
He had also lost one of the primary reasons for risking everything to protect Weiss Rogers.
Now it was time to deliver the final ultimatum.
Leon had only one path to survival.
He would have to immediately agree to hand over Weiss Rogers and swear never to resist the Earl again.
The Earl would then take the opportunity to insert his own personnel into the Labyrinth, completely seize control of it, and use the Witch Rena Lothark as a hostage to further restrain Leon.
Any other response—
Feigning ignorance.
Playing dumb.
Resisting.
The Earl would grant him no opportunity.
Leon would be restrained immediately.
Soon afterward, a military force would assemble and conquer Arend Island.
At the same time, every one of Leon’s strongholds would be destroyed.
They would dig through those locations inch by inch searching for Weiss Rogers.
If they still could not find her, they would capture Rena Lothark and torture her, extracting further information from Leon.
At that stage, whether Leon talked or not, he would essentially be dead.
Rena, on the other hand, might still survive as a useful tool for refining Magical Beasts.
Even if there was truly a thirty-percent chance that Leon was innocent, killing the wrong person did not matter much to them.
They had already considered that possibility when deciding to target Sally Hesh.
The Earl had executed many people due to suspicion.
Not just his nephew Jay.
There were far more whom he had never even given a single chance.
Among them were numerous cases later proven to be wrongful killings.
But so what?
The Earl had never felt guilty even once.
Such behavior was hardly uncommon in the underworld.
Their style had always been simple:
Better to kill the wrong person than let the right one escape.
After finishing his preparations, Bishop Beckett left the inn with his attendant.
Both mounted horses and set out toward Hamel Town.
Once there, Bishop Beckett would gather his local personnel, summon Leon out of the Inquisition, and deliver the Earl’s judgment.
They traveled along a forest path through the countryside.
Approaching from the opposite direction was a man dressed like a farmer.
He wore loose hemp clothing and a straw hat.
A cloth bag hung across his shoulder in front of his chest.
With his head lowered, he carried farming tools as he walked.
The attendant paid him no special attention.
Bishop Beckett, however, glanced at him.
Suddenly, something felt wrong.
The man had clearly heard the approaching hoofbeats at close range.
Yet he never looked up or moved aside.
In that instant, Bishop Beckett activated the Secret God’s Foundational Blessing.
A perception resembling x-ray vision spread through his mind.
Then he sensed the outline of the object inside the farmer’s cloth bag.
A large-caliber half-length Flintlock Pistol.
He immediately pulled on the reins.
His attendant, well-trained, halted his horse at once as well.
The attendant was about to ask a question when Bishop Beckett had already placed a hand on his own firearm.
From about ten paces away, he shouted:
“You there, stop! Raise your head!”
The attendant instantly became alert and reached for his gun.
The “farmer” finally raised his face.
Their eyes met.
Bishop Beckett sucked in a sharp breath.
Leon Set!?
The very next instant, Leon charged directly at them.
At the same moment, he activated both his Werewolf transformation and Time Acceleration!
The acceleration was pushed to its limit.
Nearly five times speed.
Even the speed of his Werewolf transformation increased accordingly.
In Bishop Beckett’s and his attendant’s eyes, Leon’s transformation seemed to explode into existence in a single instant.
The attendant drew his gun.
Bishop Beckett drew his gun.
Neither was slow.
But from Leon’s perspective, their movements looked like slow-motion scenes from a film.
While charging, Leon drew and fired his own weapon at a speed neither man could possibly match.
He targeted the attendant on the left.
Even within his accelerated time field, the bullet moved too quickly to track.
The attendant never managed to raise his gun.
Blood burst from his left eye.
His body tipped backward and fell from the horse.
Everything appeared absurdly slow in Leon’s vision.
Seeing that Leon had targeted the attendant first, Bishop Beckett believed he still had a chance to fire a shot.
However, the moment he drew his gun, an icy numbness suddenly spread from his upper arm throughout his body.
His movements became noticeably sluggish.
Even before transforming, Leon had already activated the Cursed Blood implanted inside Bishop Beckett.
And once Time Acceleration began, the poison’s activation speed multiplied as well.
In his Werewolf state, Leon leapt forward.
At a speed Bishop Beckett could not possibly react to, he seized the bishop’s throat with one claw.
Using the immense strength of a Werewolf, he yanked him straight off the horse.
On the verge of suffocation, Bishop Beckett’s final conscious act was using his Blessing to notify the Earl:
Fenrir has betrayed us!
Leon Set has betrayed us!
We misjudged... this man!!
Neither the Earl nor Bishop Beckett had imagined Leon would be this insane.
He had actually chosen to start a war against the Earl himself.
But Leon’s tremendous strength nearly crushed his throat.
At the same time, the Cursed Blood activated within him at five times normal speed.
There was no time left to act.
His consciousness was swallowed by darkness amid a dizzying whirl.
Leon landed on the ground and pinned the petrified Bishop Beckett there.
He was not worried that the bishop’s body would shatter.
Before petrification became fatal, the victim’s body still retained a degree of toughness.
Its texture was closer to a metal with slight flexibility.
Only after the body died irreversibly from petrification would it undergo Saltification and become brittle.
By the time Leon completed his accelerated landing, the attendant he had shot from the horse finally hit the ground as well.
Leon deactivated Time Acceleration.
Only then did the frightened horses seem to awaken from a dream, whinnying as they bolted away.
Leon examined Bishop Beckett lying on the ground.
In the distance, the carriage he had prepared was rapidly approaching.
“This time, our positions have been reversed, Bishop Beckett,” he said in a low voice.
Though the bishop could not hear him in this state.
A year earlier, Bishop Beckett had led a raid into the Hamel Town Labyrinth and captured the completely unsuspecting Rena.
Now—
Leon had ambushed the completely unsuspecting Bishop Beckett and captured him instead.
The carriage arrived.
Leon’s subordinates disembarked and immediately began cleaning up the scene.
With a wave of Leon’s hand, they stepped forward and loaded the petrified Bishop Beckett into the carriage.
Next, Leon would have many questions to ask him.
Bishop Beckett was the Earl’s most trusted confidant.
The intelligence he possessed would become the key to defeating the Earl.
