When she received the message, Yilin’s hand holding the letter trembled slightly.
"Are you sure... is it true?"
"It should be correct, all sources of information are consistent," Abi Robbs whispered, "Actually, we suspected his identity from the beginning, but we didn’t expect it to be this serious. He’s... a Lich. Everyone is talking about it now. I think, Miss Yilin, you should make a statement as well. Otherwise, people will think you’re on Gray’s side."
"Everyone, who do you mean?"
"The public, the Church, and... the nobles from various regions. Even those who have benefited from the Holy Knight’s favor, no one dares to openly support him now. At this point, we only stand a chance of protecting ourselves by claiming we were deceived by him."
"Prepare a horse for me."
"Where are you going?"
"Salted Fish Port," Yilin answered softly.
Count Gruglu pressed the letter against his face, holding it tightly, his body trembling slightly. For a long time, he didn’t remove it.
"The Holy Knight is actually a Lich? My God."
"So what happened to the Holy Light? How did a Lich become a Holy Knight and even manage to control the Church?"
"But he did a lot of good things. Didn’t you praise him just a few days ago? You even asked us to include his name in our prayers."
"I was deceived by him! That Lich is evil, truly evil! *I was tricked!*"
"So why would a Lich impersonate a Holy Knight? Was it to subvert our beliefs?"
Everywhere was filled with discussion.
No one was discussing whether Gray was really a Lich. What people wondered was why a Lich was impersonating a Holy Knight and what unspeakable purposes he had.
Rumors say Gray extorted a huge fortune from the countries that swore loyalty to him.
Rumors say Gray tied up and burned the cardinal in the name of the Holy Light.
Rumors say Gray fed on infants.
There are even rumors that the death of the former Pope, Augustus III, was related to Gray.
*When the other party is a Lich, any rumor is not too far-fetched, isn’t it? Any rumor would be believed. After all, he is a Lich. Would a Lich ever do something good?*
All past glories seemed to be forgotten in an instant.
"He truly is a brave Lich. I almost feel like praising him. What could have driven him to reveal his identity voluntarily?"
"We don’t need to think about this. Fanatics always have their own logic. What we need to know now is that the situation is becoming increasingly favorable for us. Supporting his rise was indeed the right decision. If he hadn’t climbed so high, he wouldn’t have fallen so hard."
"Ha ha ha ha, if Heaven does not declare a crusade against him soon, I have a good suggestion. We can declare a crusade in the name of Heaven, then disguise our people as Angels, promoting our own proxy. This idea is simply too marvelous. The original Church will be completely reduced to an illegal organization."
The voices from the abyss were discussing.
The voices from the Holy Light were discussing equally.
"He revealed his identity himself... This outcome couldn’t be worse."
"In this case, we have no choice but to announce a crusade against him."
"Maybe we should reconsider. Do we really want to crusade against a saint?"
"We have no other options unless we are willing to declare defeat in this battle against Hell. They will have a slew of plans waiting for us if we don’t immediately distance ourselves from the Lich."
Silence, a long silence.
A voice asked, "Now that the conditions for a crusade against the Lich Knight have been triggered, does anyone want to initiate a motion to terminate the covenant with him?"
The white scene of Holy Light, quiet, without any sound.
After a long time, the voice continued, "Since that’s the case, let’s execute the agreement. Dispatch the Angel Army and end this farce."
Amidst the tumultuous wind and rain.
In mid-May of the Holy Calendar year 10758, one month after leaving Black Dragon City, the Silver Moon Knight Order led by Gray finally returned to their ’home’ at the southernmost tip of the continent—Salted Fish Port.