Mercenary Wars

Chapter 67 Grave
In the world of Farallo, the best way to build rapport is to share the holy names of others.

Having learned each other's holy names, Gaucano and Cassandra quickly began a relaxed and pleasant conversation.

Then a priest came over and took out two small boxes: "On behalf of Cardinal Fabien, I thank you for your contribution to saving Prestoburg."

The two took the small box and found that it contained three bottles of medicine.

The pastor explained, "This is a 'nourishing potion' that can help you recover quickly from your injuries and also neutralize many poisons."

"Thank you," the two said.

Then the pastor, looking somewhat embarrassed, leaned closer and said, "What happened today... I hope you will try not to mention it to others, or at least not spread it around."

A war that was essentially an internal struggle within the church has ended up involving fallen angels—or rather, demons. This will undoubtedly cause the church to lose face, or at least cause some members of the church to lose face.

Therefore, it is not hard to imagine that even if it is impossible to completely block the news, the church still hopes to control public opinion so that people will forget about it as soon as possible.

“We understand.” Gaucano and Cassandra, having no intention of opposing the church and having received benefits, immediately nodded in agreement.

The pastor gave a few more instructions before turning and leaving.

In the days that followed, the church in Prestoburg did almost nothing but two things: purify the black blood produced by Rossier and control public opinion.

With the Church's indifference, the Battle of Presto was quickly forgotten, and apart from those who experienced it firsthand, few people knew the details of the battle.

The descent of the fallen angel incarnation has given rise to many versions of the story, some of which are extremely absurd. For example, it is claimed that what appeared was not a fallen angel at all, but a black harpy-like creature that resembled a fallen angel...

Gaucano strongly suspects that these claims are simply a deliberate attempt by the church to mislead the public.

As for the origins of this war, the selection of the next Earl of Presto has become even more unpredictable.

Lena is dead and has no descendants.

Viscount Joris is also dead. Although he has a son, his blood relation to the old Earl is distant enough that, given the current complicated situation, it is difficult to say whether his son is still eligible to inherit the title, even for the most senior jurists.

As expected, after the war ends, a war of words will follow, with supporters of both sides, bishops, nobles, and scholars arguing for years over the succession to the County of Presto.

Before this, Lena's husband, a minor nobleman whose status was similar to that of a son-in-law, seemed to have become the biggest winner for the time being.

He had neither much knowledge nor much strength, but became Lena's husband because he possessed some special talents that were beneficial for childbirth.

When Rosier's incarnation descended to earth, he accidentally fell from the castle but miraculously survived. A few days later, he was appointed as the acting administrator of the County of Presto.

However, he seems unable to shoulder such a heavy responsibility.

Having just become a manager, he was forced to confront the economic problems brought about by the war, such as the huge bills owed to the Gray Eagle Mercenary Group.

Strangely enough, Gaucano heard from some rumors that Lucius seemed to have known all along that the County of Presto would have difficulty paying the money, but he still helped defend the city without hesitation, and had not made any attempt to collect the debt beforehand. It was unclear what his motives were.

Now Lucius is starting to press for payment.

Therefore, the Grey Eagle Mercenary Group stationed itself in Prestoburg for a period of time.

During this period, Gaucano's most important task was to recover from his injury.

His injury was mainly a side effect of the Blood Burning Sprint; he could have fully recovered with just one bottle of nourishing potion, but he felt it was unnecessary.

After all, nourishing medicines are quite precious, and he doesn't want to use them easily. He'll just use some ordinary medicines to recover slowly, since it's not a serious injury anyway.

While recovering, Gaugano would occasionally wander around the castle—searching for the mithril arrow. Normally, retrieving the arrow would be easy for him, as he could control its trajectory with the Swift Breeze. But this anti-magic arrow was too fast; after shooting Rosier, it quickly flew out of Gaugano's range, leaving him unable to determine its final landing point and forcing him to search within a general area.

He searched for several days but couldn't find the Demon-Slaying Arrow.

It's unclear whether it was picked up by someone or shot deep underground and disappeared from sight.

This evening.

After another fruitless search, Gaugano left Prestoburg through the east gate with a heavy heart and walked for half an hour before arriving at a cemetery.

The cemetery was bustling with activity.

People who had just experienced a great battle buried and mourned the dead here, and the cries could be heard from afar in Gaucano.

He came here primarily to bury the deceased.

Amaro the fortune teller.

Gaucano arrived at the edge of the cemetery, dug a pit, and took out the coffin containing Amaro's body from his storage ring.

Before the burial, he opened the coffin and took one last look at Amaro's body.

Because of some preservation treatments, the fortune teller still looks lifelike, lying quietly inside as if asleep.

After a moment of silence, Gao Jiano closed the coffin, placed it in the grave, and covered it with soil.

Then he took out the tombstone he had prepared beforehand, placed it in front of the grave, and wrote on it according to Amaro's last wishes: Amaro Fortunak Sindoreirun Rosier, the diviner on the edge of fate.

The words were carved by Gaucano himself.

It was only when he was carving the inscription that he realized that Amaro actually had a section of the holy name "Rossil".

Of course, he wasn't entirely sure; it could be a holy name with a similar pronunciation, but because his knowledge of mysticism was limited, he couldn't distinguish between them.

By the time Amaro's tomb was completed, it was already late at night, and the cemetery had become quiet and deserted.

Gao Jiano wandered around the cemetery with a torch in his hand.

He had a second purpose in coming to the cemetery—to find and dig up the graves that the spirits of the dungeon had told him about, something that could only be done at night.

The cemetery was quite large, and doing this kind of thing in the middle of the night put him under some psychological pressure. He wandered around for about two and a half hours before finally finding his target near the center of the cemetery.

This is a dilapidated grave, overgrown with weeds, with a tilted tombstone. It's clear that it's been neglected for many years.

The inscription on the grave is also somewhat blurred, requiring careful reading to decipher: Tomb of Beloved Father Finn.

After confirming that everything was correct, Gao Jiano immediately stuck the torch aside and took out a shovel to start digging.

Digging up the grave and lifting the coffin lid, a wooden box immediately came into view.

The wooden box is made of high-quality materials and is exquisitely crafted, a stark contrast to the dilapidated state of the tomb.

Gao Jiano first inspected the box, then carefully opened it.

[Status Acquired: Witch's Curse (Second Ring)]

(End of this chapter)