Chapter 143 - Over My Dead Body
Blackmoon Castle.
“Gauze, clear water, and medicinal herbs that can treat external injuries… be quick!”
The maids attended to the knights’ injuries in the hall.
More than ten knights were laid on the clean and spacious floor. Some of them suffered from broken limbs, while others were covered in blood. They were weak, so the maids had to support them. They bandaged the knights’ hands and feet and fed them medicinal herb soup.
Those knights had been affected by the spells used in the battle.
“It might be a little painful later. Bear with it for a while.” Wendy was cleaning the wounds of a newly-recruited knight. Since he was still new, he was only a bronze-tier warrior. He could only fly with the wings that he had obtained after his Phoenix bloodline was awakened. Therefore, his injuries were relatively serious.
A fragment of a blade was embedded in his chest. That had happened when the silver-tier weapon in his hand shattered as he fought against the platinum-tier spell. The shrapnel had struck his body instead.
Wendy’s voice was gentle, but the knight was still in so much pain that he broke out in a cold sweat. However, he nodded and kept quiet. He allowed Wendy to pull out the blade from his chest. She ground a gold-tier medicinal herb into powder before she sprinkled them on his chest.
As the gold-tier medicinal herb touched his flesh, his injuries immediately healed. A few minutes later, new skin had appeared on that wound.
The knight was still on the floor; he closed his eyes as he tried to recover his combat aura. He knew that he would have to join the battle later.
As he waited for his injuries to recover, more wounded people were sent into the hall, and more recovered patients were sent away.
More than ten minutes had passed since the start of the battle. The entire Blackmoon Castle was on the verge of collapse as it had endured several rounds of platinum-tier spells. It would have collapsed if it were not for the sturdy materials that built it.
Sloth stood in the corner of the hall. “Hey, Sloth, don’t just stand there. Come here and help.” Lust had an excellent quality medicinal herb in her hand, and she mashed it before she applied it onto a knight’s injured leg.
That knight was injured, but he did not feel any pain. Instead, he stared at Lust as if he had been mesmerized.
Sloth hovered in mid-air as she held a pillow in her arms. When she heard Lust’s voice, her white eyelashes fluttered. Then, she stretched her hand before dozens of invisible hands stretched out from behind her—each one had a task. Half of her arms helped to massage the knight in front of her, while the other half worked on the medicinal herbs before she applied them on several knights nearby.
“Greed, please use the Money Enhancement spell to strengthen their bodies,” Lust said again.
Greed, who stood nearby, tossed a coin in her hand, but she did not move. “Lust, you are working so hard; do you really think you are a member of the Blackmoon Castle?”
Lust looked up coldly. “What do you mean?”
“I’m just a little suspicious. Have you forgotten our purpose?”
“Which purpose are you referring to? For example, to investigate why the Great Sin Mask was fused? And after getting enough information, we’ll escape from here?”
“That’s right. I think now is a good time to escape.” Wrath’s giant form walked into the room from outside; she carried five to size Blackmoon Knights on her shoulder. She placed them carefully on the ground before she shrunk her body back to her normal size and went toward her companions.
“You may not know this, but Pride has found help from one of the most powerful mages in the kingdom, the astrologer. Now, Blackmoon Castle has no time to take care of itself. The continuous injuries of their Blackmoon Knights are proof of that! We can kill them while they are wounded.”
Wrath lowered her voice subconsciously and made a gesture of cutting her throat. “Then, we will capture Watson’s siblings and his parents and force him to stop, hand over the mask, and submit to us. That way, everything in the castle will belong to us.”
As Wrath spoke, Sloth dropped from the sky and reached out to touch her head; Wrath was unhappy about that. “Sloth, what are you doing?”
“One can only dream when one is asleep at night. It’s daytime now.”
“What are you saying?”
“Wrath, don’t get so agitated. Sloth is right. Your thoughts are a little whimsical!” Greed said.
She waved her hand as she held a gold coin in it. “Since Watson dares to leave us here, he’s not afraid of us betraying him. If we cause trouble now, he’ll kill us. So, we just need to steal something. I saw them take out all the medicinal herbs, including the bronze-tier crystal wheat, to treat the injured soldiers.
“Each of those medicinal herbs is very expensive. If we can steal a few thousand of them, we can offset the Demoness Bandit Gang’s loss.”
There were tens of thousands of herbs in Blackmoon Castle. It should not be too obvious if they only take one-tenth of them.
“That’s a good idea.” The other girls nodded. Just as they were about to agree, a cold voice echoed.
“What a bunch of idiots!”
“Envy, who told you to eavesdrop on our conversation? Also, how are we idiots?”
Envy held a mop in her hand; she was cleaning the bloodstains on the floor. She paused her task as she heard their conversation. “You’re all too short-sighted. That’s all you can do for the rest of your lives; being a bandit is the highlight in your life.”
“Envy, everyone has their own ideas. We didn’t even say anything when you betrayed us. I’m warning you now; don’t make this personal!” Wrath was the first one to be unhappy about that.
“Make this personal? Do you think you are worthy?”
Envy seemed disdainful as she looked at them. “Take a good look around you; these people are fighting to their deaths for Blackmoon Castle. And to repay them, Blackmoon Castle is willing to use up all of their medicinal herbs. But you guys are thinking about how to steal these herbs? Don’t you know if you take them, then the knights will die, and the castle will be destroyed?”
“What does that have to do with us?” Wrath was indifferent about it.
She was a member of the Demoness Bandit Gang, so naturally, Blackmoon Castle was her enemy. It would be great if her enemies were destroyed.
“Wait, let her continue.” Lust seemed to have thought of something; she pulled Wrath back.
Envy asked, “What has always been the purpose of the Demoness Bandit Gang?”
“To revive the Demoness Church and restructure the Great Sin Mask. Do you need to ask that?”
“But have we done it?”
“No.” Wrath looked impatient. “Envy, what are you trying to say?”
“I do not understand why the Demoness Bandit Gang couldn’t revive the Demoness Church even though we have been dormant for more than ten years. After Blackmoon Castle destroyed us, and after watching the battle here today, I finally understand that our defeat was not without reason!”
Envy felt emotional. She used to be Queen Avril’s personal guard and had the honor of hearing some of the king’s speeches. The King of the Holy Dragon Kingdom once said something that left a deep impression on her. “An army without cohesion is just a pile of loose sand. Rather than using loose sand to build a tower, it’s better to throw them away.”
She finally knew that the Demoness Bandit Gang was only a pile of loose sand. Everyone had ulterior motives for their own benefit and for the sake of fighting for the ownership of the Great Sin Mask.
“Blackmoon Castle is different from the Demoness Bandit Gang. The master here will spare no effort to help his subordinates. Compared to winning, he values the safety of his subordinates more. The guards here also trust their master unconditionally because they know who gave them everything. Can the Demoness Bandit Gang do it?”
Envy asked her companions, “If the Demoness Bandit Gang were to encounter the same disaster, would you be willing to give the treasures in your hands to your subordinates so that they can defend against the enemy? Would you give the medicinal herbs that can save your lives, not to yourself but also the people around you? Can you help the injured men and rush to the front to take the lead? No, you can’t do that. All you can do is run.”
Everyone else was silent.
Envy continued to say, “I’m not accusing you of anything, because that is the way the world works. It’s because of that that Blackmoon Castle makes me feel so different! If they can survive this disaster, I’m sure they will become a great force that will shake things up in the kingdom. I prefer to follow them than to return to the Demoness Church as a bandit.”
Envy did not think there was a need to choose between a force that valued loyalty and would give her a limitless future or return to the days when she needed to sneak around.
“Alright, I can’t be bothered to say anything more to you! I’ll put it this way—you are free to take advantage of Blackmoon Castle’s crisis today. But I won’t agree to do the same. So, if you want to do it, you’ll have to do it over my dead body.”