CH 118 Name And Contract

The witch Griselda brought good news for the King.

After such a long time, she had completed the preparations for other aspects of the ceremony. All remained was the King's help, and then she would be able to summon the Walway pirates who died of the Black Death back to the Jenny as ghosts. She hoped that the King would grant the Walway pirates permission to leave the River of the Departed in hell.

Seeing this, the King looked up at the Devil.

The Devil smiled: "Your Majesty, hell is the place where all the sins finally converge, and this here is the ending point of death. However, before the Millennium Kingdom opened, the River of the Departed was stagnant, and the souls were just stuck in layers inside and cannot enter the last Abyssal Fountain.....Of course, this will be different in the future."

The King also knew what he meant by "different".

Today's River of the Departed had gradually begun to flow, and some new souls have begun to appear. However, the number was still very small, which did not match the mortality rate of this era…..It could be seen that hell had only just recovered, and there was still a long way to go before it reached its peak.

Witch Griselda also mentioned another thing in the letter:

The witches in the Kingdom of Bressi hope to be accepted by the King.

"Witches….."

The King pondered.

In the letter, Griselda briefly introduced some things about witches to the King.

In fact, the original residence of witches should be in the extreme arctic ice terrain. On the "cloth of the world", cartographers filled the blanks in the ice terrain with giant pythons and poisonous snakes. And in the beliefs of the witches, the "snake" was a very important symbol. They believed it was a symbol of women, sin, and darkness. But after the end of the legendary era, the power of the witches was weakened. They could not endure the severe cold of the ice terrain as before, and left their original residence.

In the witches' own history, the first century AD was called the "Hundred Years Migration".

Witches gradually mixed with ordinary people, but the good times didn't last long. With the development of the Holy Court, the life of witches became more and more difficult. Now with the establishment of the Holy Empire, it became increasingly difficult for them to survive in the country ruled by the Holy Court. The Holy Court could allow astrologers to survive under their noses, but there seemed to be an absolutely unforgivable line between them and the witches.

A group of witches contacted Griselda, and through her, they expressed their hope of taking refuge with the King.

If there was any other place in this world that could be a shelter for these heretics, Legrand was the only one left.

"Now, let's talk about the so-called surprise."

After the King read the letter, he already had a solution to the witches' request for help in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face.

"The ghost ships that your pirate gentlemen steer are products of forbidden alchemy that astonished the gods," said the Devil. "Do you know what they were designed for?"

"As battleships?"

The King had guesses.

"Yes, they were originally meant to be battleships against the gods." The Devil replied, and then he suggested to the King, "You can let your pirate gentlemen steer them into hell, where they can be restored to some extent. En.....It just so happens that we can use them to surprise the lords."

The King thought for a while and agreed to his suggestion.

……………………

Southeastern Legrand, Koszoya Port.

As the Black Death on the other side of the Abyss Strait receded after the "God's Miracle", the blockade of Legrand's southeastern coastline was also lifted. The chambers of commerce, which suffered heavy losses, left the port almost immediately on the hour, hoping to make up for the losses endured from the over half a year long blockade as soon as possible.

Free Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

The head of the Royal Chamber of Commerce previously appointed by the King, Madam Venomous Spider and the patriarch of the Dawson family have been busy non-stop since the "Southeast Coast Emergency Blockade Regulations" was lifted. The King's newest order had reached them before the lockdown was lifted.

There was only one core content of the order: after the blockade was lifted, to strengthen the royal family's control over commerce in the southeast.

The King's intentions were obvious. He clearly wanted to take advantage of the impact of the Black Death on Legrand's southeast commerce to establish the royal family's economic and commercial status. The "uncrowned king of the sea" like the Five-Port Alliance would not make a second appearance. During the blockade period, under the requirements of the "Southeast Port Ship Register", the royal family's understanding of the Southeast chambers of commerce had reached an unprecedented level.

Affected by the blockade of the coast due to the Black Death, almost all the minor chambers of commerce in the southeastern coastal area went bankrupt, and the major chambers of commerce also suffered huge losses.

It was at this time that Madam Venomous Spider and Patriarch Dawson received the "Temporary Chamber of Commerce Protection Law" drafted by the King.

It was a "protection law" in name, but it was actually a bill of incorporation. According to this bill, bankrupt minor chambers of commerce could obtain royal assistance at the expense of direct incorporation of the royal family. And the major chambers of commerce could also obtain preferential tariffs after further concessions. But no matter which one it was, they were destined to fulfill more responsibilities to the King from now on.

After the bill was promulgated, all the chambers of commerce cursed in private.

Because just before the holy miracle appeared on the other side of the Abyss Strait, the blockade southeast of Legrand was still a long way from being lifted. And all merchants could only look anxiously at the countless backlogs of goods.

Just before the Holy Court called down the "God's Miracle", the King issued the "Temporary Commodity Remedy Law", which used a lower price in the name of "relief" to buy all those backlog goods, causing many merchants to rush to sell their goods to the kingdom.

As a result, now, the Black Death was solved.

The great chambers of commerce, which sold their goods to the royal family with the intention of trying its best to save their losses, almost wanted to spit out blood at this time. What made them even more angry was that the King's assistance to those bankrupt small chambers of commerce was to provide them with the goods purchased from them at low prices.

——Oh, they too had to pinch their noses and sign a series of treaties with the royal family before they could receive the first batch of goods from the headquarters of the Free Chamber of Commerce.

Too shameless, too despicable.

During this period of time, the heads of the great chambers of commerce in the southeast scolded the King countless times.

However, the other small chambers of commerce accepted this well——they did not have the strong capital of the great chambers of commerce, and if the King had not purchased their backlog of goods, they would have starved to death in this winter and spring. And there was nothing wrong with accepting the complete incorporation of the royal family. Anyway, they had not been doing well in the first place due to being squeezed out by the great chambers of commerce.

"How wonderful."

Witch Griselda leaned on the railing, watching the merchant ships sailing out of the port one by one.

After the blockade was lifted, the Walway pirates were in no hurry to leave the southeast——they were now also a member of the Royal Navy——but continued to patrol the coastline on the border of Legrand.

This was the order of the King.

On the one hand, they have to hunt down other pirates who want to take advantage of the opportunity to intercept merchant ships after the blockade was lifted. After the Black Death, the businesses that suffered huge losses could no longer afford the harassment of the pirates. One must know that the merchant ships that have been incorporated were now the King's property, and the King would certainly not sit back and watch the situation where pirates interfering with business routes continue to develop.

On the other hand, they were ordered by the King to be on alert for any possible attack from the other side of the Abyss Strait.

"Are you ready?"

The first mate, Charles, had a bit of worry on his face, and hesitated to speak.

"Are you…..sure?"

When Griselda turned her head, she saw some pirates shrank their heads and pretended nothing happened, some of them wiped the decks, some of them pulled the cables…..She laughed a little: "You guys don't trust me and Jenny this much, Jenny will be angry. "

As soon as she finished speaking, a guy who was pretending to be fixing the cables tripped over the ropes, and with a "plop" fell through the hole that suddenly appeared on the deck.

Charles smiled, too.

The sky gradually dimmed, and after night fell, all the ghost ships of the Walway pirates——plus one hell ship——had all returned from their patrol and moored here. Charles, who needed to stay to deal with things, stood on an ordinary clipper ship, watching the ghost ships at a distance.

Griselda stood on deck with Hawkins in her black pointed hat.

Charles waved them off as a farewell.

These special ships quietly left the port under the cover of night and sailed to the vast sea. When they were out of sight, a storm broke out.

Jenny had already sailed to the uninhabited open sea.

During the storm, Hawkins turned on his gold compass to check the direction. After they gradually arrived at the coordinates mentioned in the letter from the King, Griselda saw that the sea water gradually became as black as ink, and in the frenzy of the storm, a huge vortex appeared on the sea not far from them.

The vortex was so deep and black, thick black mist rising from it, and the storm howled out from it, making people feel chills at first sight.

It seemed to lead straight to hell.

"We've arrived."

Hawkins said he closed his gold compass and stood motionless on the heaving deck in the storm.

"Go, Jenny."

The witch said.

Without batting an eye, they directly steered the ships into the vortex that swallowed everything.

……………………

Hell, Blackstone Royal Castle.

The Devil knocked softly on the King's door. There was no day or night in hell, and the Devil played the role of a considerate servant, enjoying it immensely and seeming to never tire of it.

After getting an answer and pushing the door to enter, the Devil found with some regret that His Majesty had already got up and was reviewing the documents at the desk——even if the King was in hell, he still had to continue to take care of the political affairs of the mortal world.

"Your battleships are about to arrive, but there is a small problem….." said the Devil, "The dock of the castle hasn't woken up yet, and you need to wake it up yourself."

The King put down his pen. He had some suspicion that the Devil told him about the ghost ships to actually have him further awaken the castle.

"Your Majesty?"

The Devil took the cloak from his arm and looked at the King inquiringly.

"Let's go."

The King stood up.

When the Devil stepped forward to put the cloak on the King, the King asked a question seemingly casually: "If hell exists, what about heaven?"

He had thought about this question for a long time.

"There has never been a heaven."

After the Devil put on the cloak for the King, he took a step back and gave an unexpected answer.

"At least…..there is no heaven like what those guys talk about."

"Then, what is it?"

"The dwelling of the gods." The Devil whispered, "However, after dusk, everything had changed. Since then, the eternal night has resounded, and the stairs to heaven have been cut off…..What a pity."

Dwelling of the gods?

The King subconsciously thought of something else.

The Holy Court was not the spiritual ruler of the world from the beginning.

Taking the end of the legendary era as the boundary between before and after AD, the King could infer from the history of the alchemists that at least in the legendary era, people believed in more than just one god known as the Holy Lord.

The Age of Legends could also be called the "Age of the Gods".

The establishment of the Holy Court should have been in the 1st century AD, and at that time the gods had gradually withdrawn from people's sight, and since then, the number of representatives of the Holy Lord in the human world had gradually increased. In the King's memory, the earliest and clearest record of the display of the Holy Court's power was the history of Bressi.

217 AD.

The predecessor of the Bressi Kingdom, the Crow Kingdom, surrendered to the Holy Court. With the help of the angels, they unified many states on the east coast of the Abyss Strait, established the Bressi Kingdom with a vast territory, and accepted the Holy Court as the state religion. ".....the priests drew crosses on the chests of heroes, and the brave knights were invincible from then on." It was from here that the view that the outcome of a war was determined by the Holy Lord gradually took root in people's minds .

This was a more objective origin of the Holy Court.

One thing worth noting…..

The origin and development of the Holy Court have always been hidden in the mist. For more than a thousand years, the Holy Court had spared no effort to combine the holy book with history, and had rooted an impression in people's minds that the omniscient and omnipotent God who was in charge of everything opened up this world, and the will of God ran through the history of mankind, that the development history of the Holy Court was the evolution history of human civilization.

It must be said that the Holy Court did a great job on this part. Countless theologians have developed theology to an extreme generation after generation, and have found corresponding theological explanations for every major historical event known to mankind. It eventually evolved to the current situation: belief in God ran through all aspects of people's lives.

And earlier, the era of polytheistic belief had been subtly forgotten. All polytheisms have become "heresy".

The King raised his hand and pressed his forehead, feeling that he had touched some hidden truth.

"What does the age of the gods look like?"

He asked.

"The age of the gods....." the Devil looked at the King, "the gods were worshiped by different names, and each of their names points to different attributes and different authority. Who doesn't want to hold the ultimate supreme authority? That was an age of battles, packs of wolves fighting each other."

"What was your name?" the King asked suddenly as he listened.

"I?"

The Devil seemed to be taken aback for a moment, but he quickly replied in his usual frivolous manner.

"That's an unremarkable name, and I don't think you want to know, Your Majesty."

The King did not speak, but silently watched his contractor, the Devil who always wore a smiling mask and power that manifested as black butterflies. The Devil finally put away his smile gradually under those icy blue eyes, and became sinister and cold, like a blood-quenching blade drawn out of its sheath.

A long time later.

"I have no name," said the Devil, "I have long since lost it."

The King was slightly taken aback. The Devil's voice was very calm, but the King clearly felt that there was overwhelming bloodlust in his words. The moonlight shifted, and the figure of the Devil was hidden in the darkness. The King couldn't see his expression clearly, but he could only feel him standing there silently, silent and full of anger.

The room suddenly became quiet.

"That's nothing." The King said lightly, "It's just a name, what do you want?"

The Devil looked at him, realized that the King was not joking, and burst out laughing.

The stiff silence of the scene was shattered at once, and the Devil returned to his handsome gentlemanly appearance. He smiled and bowed to the King: "Then please help me get my name back when that day comes. My dear sire."

"Fine."