Shadow Trails in Azeroth

A city-wide purge was carried out in an orderly manner in the cold night of Drustvar.

With the guidance of the superb hunting skills of the seven Watchers, and the secret assistance of the Uncrowned Ones summoned by Black, there are also local organizations eager to wash away the shame who will fight hard with their bare hands as the vanguard.

That night, the citizens of Klein City could only hear the neighing of war horses and frightening wailing all night long.

After the officials appointed by the Waycrest family in the city were screened in the first wave, they wandered around the city, calming the anxious citizens and asking them to stop watching the excitement and go back to sleep.

He also said that after early tomorrow morning, some respected people from each neighborhood would be sent to gather in the city square. The local lord, Old Count Waycrest, had something important to announce.

Accompanying these officials were the priests of the Holy Light Church.

They were ordered to use holy light to soothe people's hearts, and at the same time, they also held a free clinic that night to distract the citizens from their stress.

All captures were ostensibly carried out by the Paladins and the fanatics under the command of Priest Isenlion.

Whenever those priests in white robes go to a designated witch stronghold, they will recite holy advice, and then use the burning holy light to cleanse everything around them.

After finishing, all unclean things must be destroyed with holy water.

It is related to the safety of the old pope and the Holy Light Church's large-scale missionary work to demonstrate its superiority and practicality in the local area. It is probably because of the constant saving of souls that the paranoia in their hearts that has no place to rest has been brought to an extreme. Great satisfaction.

Each of these pastors seemed energetic and showed no signs of fatigue even after working all night.

This also led to the beating of holy light everywhere in Klein City that night, which was in sharp contrast with the bright moonlight in the sky.

Until early in the morning, after the arrest operation came to an end, in the city square of Klein City under the night before the morning sun came, an old earl in military uniform rode a horse from the manor, with his son guarding him.

Arthur Waycrest, who will succeed the earl in a few days, also puts on the armor worn by the orcs during the war, with a heavy sword on his back and a battle helmet, looking majestic.

The most peculiar thing is that his fiancée, Miss Meredith, also wore a ceremonial light armor, making herself look heroic, and followed her husband into a chilly city.

This is a really smart woman.

She always knows what kind of dress to wear in any situation and the meaning of dressing up like this.

Your Excellency, the followers of darkness in Klein City have been captured.

In the city square, the silent knight Dathrohan, who was holding the Grand Crusader Sword in his hand, dismounted the old earl, holding the hilt of the sword and approaching him, and said softly to him:

Following the instructions of His Majesty the Pope, we handed over the evil people in the city to your guards. A total of 21 evil people involved in black witchcraft have been identified, and as many as 45 servants were coerced or actively followed by them. people.

During the arrest, seven people resisted violently. In order to protect the innocent, we had to use deadly force.

But at your request, the bodies of these evil spirits were also brought back.

Having said this, the great knight hesitated for a moment, frowned and asked:

Please forgive my curiosity, Lord, what do you want their bodies for?

This is a local custom, Your Excellency the Knight.

The old Earl of Waycrest was a libertine when he was young and had no faith at all. However, when he reached middle age, he regained his ancestors' enthusiasm for the Holy Light. He respected the Grand Knight very much and explained:

On your way here, you should have heard of some backward customs in the mountainous area of ​​Drustvar. My people are protected by the mountains, but they are also blocked.

They don't have much communication with the outside world, and they stubbornly insist on some ancient traditions.

There are some very cruel and inhumane practices among them.

For example, burning witches.

The old count paused and looked at the real witches in the square who were guarded by paladins and family guards.

The magical disguises of those guys have been dispelled by the Holy Light, revealing their ugly faces full of scars and scars, an evil appearance that can scare children to tears.

It's like the inner darkness is revealed on the outside.

It's true that face comes from heart, none of these witches are good-looking.

But the disguised identities they choose in the city are all young and beautiful ladies, using this false power to seduce the restless hearts of men.

There was anger and shame in Earl Waycrest's eyes. He breathed out a sigh of relief and said to the great knight in front of him:

“My daughter-in-law once counted for me the number of ‘witches’ burned to death in Drustvar over the past ten years, and the report was shocking.

Although I have always known that my people are reckless and impulsive, I have never understood the weight of this sin.

Like those hypocritical nobles in the upper class of Boralus, I thought I was a very qualified lord.

But I'm not.

In the past ten years, 172 women have been burned to death in this mountainous area. They were all accused of witch crimes and were often set on fire amidst the shouts and curses of the villagers without being tried by officials. .

They believed it was a way to ward off bad luck and darkness, and they believed that fire purified everything.

However.

The old earl covered his heart and his voice became deeper and deeper:

Among those 172 ladies who died in vain, there was not a single real witch! They were all accused of being evil because of trivial and unreasonable reasons.

During the recent clean-up on this land, I sent people to conduct a secret investigation and found that most of the unjust deaths were reported by the real witches hiding in the crowd.

The reason why they framed these innocent women may just be because their beauty and youth made the witches jealous, or a suspicious look made them feel threatened.

This is a mistake, Lord Knight.

I do not deny that my family and I were negligent in this matter.

Because of Waycrest's connivance, my people's hands are stained with blood. I don't even dare to think about how many innocent people have been burned at the stake because of these ridiculous traditions in the past hundreds of thousands of years.

This mistake should be stopped today!

Earl Waycrest straightened his back again and said to the great knight in front of him:

My soldiers spent several months wiping out the witch organizations in most of Drustvar. Many of their members heard the news and fled the mountains.

Our payment to them will never stop!

This is the oath I swore in front of the Holy Light Icon. Each generation of Waycrest family heads will inherit and abide by this oath to make up for the mistakes I and my ancestors made.

The group of witches in front of them should be the last remaining group of vicious people in the Drustvar Mountains.

I will judge them in their own way, before my people!

Dathrohan nodded.

Under the heavy battle helmet, he glanced around. The city officials were erecting a black gallows in the center of the square, and some people brought charcoal and firewood.

What they are going to do is self-evident.

Although the fanatics within the Holy Light Church, led by Pastor Isenlien, have been talking about burning the heretics as a slogan all day long, in fact, these pastors are just talking about it.

As an ancient church that has been inherited for more than three thousand years, cruel punishments such as burning and with strong religious rituals have long been eliminated.

No pope has ever allowed this backward punishment to reappear.

And with the character of Old Man Fao, it is even less likely that he would actively promote this kind of behavior. He even abolished the organization of the Inquisition.

He believes that the Holy Light's punishment of darkness is a means rather than an end, and violence must not be allowed to be mixed with faith.

Therefore, this was the first time for Lord Knight Dathrohan to witness the burning.

Frankly speaking, this made him feel a little uncomfortable.

He has killed orcs on the battlefield and seen all kinds of corpses. After becoming a paladin, he also dealt with many dark things in the name of faith.

But burn the living.

Even as a punishment, this is a bit too much.

Probably feeling the discomfort of the great knight, after the old earl left, Arthur and his fiancée came over and explained softly to the great knight:

Your Excellency Dathrohan, please don't hate this land because of this barbaric custom. In fact, my father has already made a decision. The witch trial that will be held today will be the last trial in the Drustvar region. A trial.”

Miss Meredith also answered:

Father has made up his mind that after the trial is over, he will forever and completely abolish all traditions related to the witch trials in the name of the lord.

From now on, no more innocent people will die in the flames without judgment on this land.

And, on a personal note, I have no sympathy for these witches who are about to be burned at the stake.

This is the punishment they deserve, and those innocent people who died tragically because of their dark sorcery and evil hearts will receive precious comfort.

This terrible punishment, which was fueled by them, would be inflicted on them in a real sense for the first time.

They will feel what those innocent people have experienced and go to hell in despair and pain!

This is delayed justice.

Miss Meredith held her fiancé's arm and concluded to the knight:

“But it is better that justice comes late than never.

We are also honored to end a period of dark history under the witness of the Holy Light. This story may make you and the pastors of the church aware of some of the 'stubborn diseases' in the land of Drustvar.

That is a stubborn spiritual disease that needs to be cured, and its name is ignorance.

Meredith's words made the Grand Knight look with admiration at this future lord's wife who was said to be both benevolent, martial virtuous, and wise in local legends.

These words are really not something that a reclusive lady could say.

It seems that Drustvar folk's praise of Mrs. Meredith is not groundless.

But what the Grand Knight doesn't know is that Meredith's good reputation is not only showing off and displaying her wisdom everywhere, but it is also inseparable from the tireless words of a group of drunkards and bards secretly hired by the Red Hand Society. Oral transmission.

That's right, as the most outstanding albatross under Black's command, Miss Meredith understood the importance of public opinion without any teacher.

This was also an important reason why the old earl made up his mind to let this humble girl marry his only son.

All this could not be hidden from the old count.

The wise ruler did not regard this method as deception. On the contrary, the old earl felt that his son had been raised too upright by him and needed a wife like Meredith to assist him.

Well, the leaders of big families always have such an eclectic way of thinking when looking at people.

While preparing for the Witch Trial that was about to begin at dawn, on the way to Klein City from Waycrest Manor, in the old Pope's carriage, Black, who had been busy all night, was taking a nap.

Although he was in charge of command work that night, with his subordinates doing errands such as arrests and investigations, command work is also very tiring, okay?

This is a serious burden on the intellectual level.

Opposite the napping pirate, the old pope was looking seriously at the Compendium of Drustvar Witches that Meredith had spent a lot of effort to collect.

That book is very thick.

It details the local witch trials stories of the past ten years.

Each story has a name and is recorded in detail down to the date of birth and death, but frankly, it is very boring because each story is very different.

If you don't look at the details, you will just feel that the same sad story happened nearly two hundred times.

The old pope took it very seriously.

From time to time he would turn his rosary beads, pray a few words, or draw a religious symbol on his chest.

He was silent.

Especially after reading this dark story that was almost written with blood and tears, the old pope closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time before letting his mind settle down.

He spoke:

It's really unimaginable that this would be a crime that occurred three thousand years after the beginning of human civilization. A weak organization that could be eradicated in a few months actually secretly controlled such dark things for thousands of years.

Sure enough, the real evil is not just the fanatics who claim to destroy the world.

The truly terrifying evil is always the madness hiding in the darkness.

What can I say?

Blake shrugged, yawned, spread his hands to the Pope and said:

I can only say, welcome to the real Kul Tiras, your Majesty. This land that is also illuminated by the sun is full of darkness, and it has become difficult to return.

But perhaps you can heal it, just as you healed the other realms in the Eastern Continent.

Witch trials are just one of the 'ancient traditions' in the Drustvar Mountains. As long as you have a pair of 'discovery' eyes, you will soon have your eyes opened.

I see that you are a little tired. Would you like me to tell you a heartwarming story about Little Girl's Teapot Party to cheer you up?

That is the most popular bedtime story around Xiaowan Town.

It has been popular for probably a few decades.

The little girl in the story is now the most frightening existence in the nearby black forest. I estimate that if you want to appease her grievances, you have to take action yourself.

You were just trying to scare me, you mean pirate.

The old pope had seen too much darkness today, which made him feel mental pressure. He waved his hands and said:

Let's talk about these stories later. I can probably guess why you want me to come to Drustvar in person. Do you want me to see the problems of this land with my own eyes?

No, I came to you to beat up Haixian, don't think too much about it.

Blake pouted and said:

But among the three lands of Kul Tiras, Drustvar's problem is the smallest. If the reality here makes your hair stand on end, then once I reveal the darkness of the reality, you may have a nervous breakdown.

Dai Lin thought he ruled this land, but he was never the ruler here.

I even believe that humans never really conquered Kul Tiras, and that the ancient evil spirits of this land have always been seeking to regain control.

This place is too far away from the mainland, and the Holy Light cannot reach here.

Then something dark takes its place. A fruit that is rotten from the heart, no matter how delicious it looks on the surface, I will not taste it.

Well, it's daybreak and they're going to start burning the witches!

Make the carriage go faster, Your Majesty, this is a local 'repertoire' that is loved by men, women, old and young. You won't want to miss it. Maybe you can also recite scriptures by the flames and throw out a few rays of holy light to cheer everyone up or something.

The Pope did not refute Blake's unseemly remarks.

As the carriage drove into the city and headed towards the crowded city square, the Pope closed his eyes and turned the rosary in his hand. He suddenly said:

Tell me the story of 'The Little Girl's Tea Party.'

If you think I can save her, then I'm willing to give it a try.