I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 197 The Hunt

Manet is always restless for some reason. If a mortal, she would only go to God to pray or think she was ill, but for a witch, she stayed up all night and warned several people around her. A member of the sect—as if to prove her unease, the ravens and snakes she released did not return to her. At this time, everything was silent, only the sound of the wind passing over the treetops, and the shop’s signboard shook gently, using The place where it came to connect it with the support rod rustled, she pulled up her skirt, leaned out, a drop of dew fell on her head, she wiped it reflexively, and a stench suddenly came from her touch. where it spreads.

   At that time, a dead mouse died on the corner of the eaves.

Wizards are not afraid of mice. They all keep mice as pets, but a dead mouse often means a terrible plague. The Black Death is something witches have to fear. Manit cursed. , reached out and wiped it on the skirt, but found that the blue and black traces could not be wiped off at all, she gasped lowly, rushed back into the room, stretched her hand into the fireplace, while chanting the spell aloud, the flames jumped, Burning her palms - now is not the time to light the fireplace, but Manit managed to light a fire in his room when he felt strange - mortals often use the stake to kill witches, but real witches Not only is she not afraid of flames, but she also frequently uses flames—flames are a necessary element to dispel many evil spells. While roasting her palms repeatedly, she pulled out a screw horn on her chest and shouted loudly to it: "Get up. Get up! There are enemies!"

   The reaction of the Bohemian witches was not unpleasant, but just before they got up, they heard a pleasant flute sound.

According to mortal legends, there was a piper who came to a plague-ridden city and told people that he could drive away the plagued rats. For this reason, the mayor and the councillors negotiated a considerable price with him. , so he played his flute at night, and all the rats came out of their nests and followed him closely, he went all the way to the river and stopped, but the rats all jumped down the river and died, and witnessed the sight The townspeople were both surprised and lucky, because these mice could not come back, so they were unwilling to pay the piper, the piper was very angry, he left the city, and was laughed at by the people. Middle - On the second night, he played the flute again. This time, all the children who ran out with the flute were the children of the city. They followed the piper to a place where people could no longer find it. There was only one lame man. The children of the legs were thrown out because they couldn't keep up with the line.

This story is true. The piper is also a famous dark wizard. Like Bosch, he is also very good at and likes to play with people's hearts. Obviously, with his means, as long as a little punishment and warning are given, those citizens will pay The last copper coin in their pockets, but rather than money, he prefers to see people separated from flesh and blood, with no regrets - the fate of these children, as long as they are parents, I am afraid they will not bear to listen.

This spell disappeared for a long time later, perhaps because of the spread of the Black Death, and the rat as the culprit became the target of the church's attention. The wizards put away such a method, but just tonight, they again Appeared, first one or two, small things with bright eyes, dragging their long tails, standing up, ears standing up, as if listening to some moving music, then dozens, hundreds of them. Thousands, and these are just drilled out of the town, and more rats are galloping from farther away.

Manit stretched out his hand and pulled the broom, and flew out of the window. She saw the street crowded with black rats, which made her tremble all over. In the distance, a baby was howling, and then she turned into a woman. The scream, the man's roar, Manit made a few gestures, and the witch beside her rushed out like a fly-her flying tool was a huge iron pot, which was also one of the means of transportation that witches often used. One, it is more secure than a broom, but it has a bigger goal, but in this kind of thing, the iron pan is better than the broom, because the mice climbed the wall like the tide, the window lattice, the doorpost, and jumped towards the witches, There was a crackling sound outside the rapidly rising iron pan, and their strength was so great that they almost smashed themselves into meat patties.

Several mice even almost bit Manit's skirt. She rushed up with the broom, and then searched in all directions with several other witches, trying to find the man who played the flute, but not only did they fail to find it, I also met a few witches riding on nightmares. The flames, freezing or spikes they cast caused the witches to fall from the air. Among them was the witch riding a wok, and Manit watched her being swallowed by the rats. , could not help shedding tears of pain - but she still remembered her duty: "We must get out of here at once!" she shouted: "Tell the sisters, we must leave, these are the dark wizards!"

The remaining witches immediately turned around and ran to the small town of Waterloo, which was originally quiet and dark, but now it is completely chaotic - the rats swarmed completely engulfed every building, and the wooden doors that humans used to resist the same kind and beasts could not block it. With the rat's sharp teeth, accompanied by a palpitating clack, a huge hole will appear in the solid gate in a short time. These nasty creatures seemed to feel no pain or danger, and they rushed forward without fear, the flames scorching their hair and bodies, and the flaming rats were like a flame with long legs. Even if they fell to the ground, the fire was scattered by them, and the weakened fire was crushed by the rolling rats, and the human beings retreated, they overturned wine barrels, tables and chairs, Burned down the stairs - this slowed down the swarm a lot, rats couldn't jump that high after all, but there was a high-pitched cry from the room as there were rats coming down the chimney, they never had a fireplace with no fire Fortunately, not every building and every room had a fireplace at this time. After paying the price of flesh and blood, people huddled in several rooms that were tightly sealed, gasping in pain and despair.

The people in the town of Waterloo, in addition to the original residents, are the women and children of Brussels, and the French soldiers who were wounded in the battle. They are here because of the kindness of the king, but now it seems that this has changed. became their reminder.

"You know..." After seeing the witches hurried back to the town and the rats finally taking an absolute advantage, the piper put down his flute and said to Jeromenes Bosch who was beside him: "We are doing a A very dangerous thing, sir, wizards have not been involved in mortal wars for a thousand years."

   "Although I can prevaricate you with some stupid words," Bosch said with that Rubens face: "But you should say, we're doing the same thing as Merlin."

   "So who is King Arthur? Leopold I?"

"He doesn't have the guts to admit that he even hired us," Bosch said. "It's the king, if he's not too greedy, Paris is a good place to live, but we don't need to say much now. After all, we are still wizards in Flanders. If we continue to stand by and watch the mortal kings, Carlos II or Leopold I, we can only watch this place become a province and city in France, As for what it will be like after that, look at Lorraine, Alsace and you will know, those poor people, driven from their homes, displaced and starving, do you have to look at Flanders Are the people of Ireland in such a predicament?"

"Of course not." The piper said, at this time, several other wizards also returned to them, but except for the piper who still maintained a little prudence and conscience, these dark wizards are all looking for commissions and other special rewards (Sacrifices and experimental materials) will be hired by Leopold I, and Bosch doesn't need to talk to them.

   "Have you seen those witches?" Bosch asked: "I heard that the king of France recruited them? As witches or as wives?"

   "It doesn't matter," said a wizard. "It doesn't seem like they wanted to fight us."

   "I don't care what they mean," said another wizard, "but obviously we can have an extra pay."

  ——

   "What are you talking about?!" Manit exclaimed.

It is not unpleasant or unresolute that she makes a decision, but what she did not expect is that not all witches are willing to leave, to be precise, only a few people are willing to leave - the way the witch order hides in Bohemia Although it is good, the consequences of doing so are quite bad. Bohemians are a group of extremely free and unruly people. Their laws are like child's play, and their morals are like nothing. What they advocate is passionate love, and a wonderful "Morality", these young witches are either unwilling to give up their husbands easily, or they are unwilling to give up this group of mortals who need help.

"Those are dark wizards! We're going to die!" Manit stomped her feet impatiently, she couldn't believe it... Yes, give her a few more months, not to mention dark wizards, as love goes away, these The witches would urge her to go, but now, an ironic stubbornness jumped out of these witches.

   "How could they be here?" another witch asked. Manet glanced at her, and she also wanted to know this question. In order not to fight against these dangerous dark wizards, they had already compromised enough. In Manet's mind, wait until the army of mortals occupied Flanders, and then There will inevitably be a war in the world. The king has the wizards of Gayola Island, so they should not be used. She tried every means to inquire about the news from Vauban, and it was for this reason that if the war ended, the king still did not let them. The meaning of leaving must be the intention to violate the contract.

   Unexpectedly, before the king's war was over, they collided with a group of dark wizards.

She glanced at the innocent girls. Even if they fled immediately, there were no one who could escape safely. Manit raised his hand to stop the witches who gradually turned from persuasion to quarrel—in this room, Most of the elders of the Witch Cult, as well as the representatives of the young witches, Manet's expression made them lower their voices unconsciously and then fell into silence - "It's too late." Manet said, she took out A mirror - from Lorraine, cleaner and flatter than a Venetian mirror, on which Manette bit her thumb and wiped it with blood, which immediately showed the scene outside - for a time, the witches thought they were going down outside. Torrential rain, and then they realized, it was giant bugs, they landed on Waterloo like hail, and now, let alone brooms, not even woks, unless they could fly away like the wizards of Gayola did. Flame, leave in the water, but there are not many people strong enough to do this, Manit can, but she will never leave, these witches are all selected by her...

  ———

Both the king and Elarius thought they were going to face a fierce battle, but when they stepped into this half-abandoned church, they saw only a triptych used for a curse, and a black face covered in blood. The sorcerer - this slowed Elarius' scythe for a moment, and with that, Rubens was able to make him see his eyes, and under the torches, those eager eyes looked at the triptych - Saint Daniel Ni's head rolled at his feet, biting a doll's head in his mouth, because Erael came too fast, it had to go back into the painting and hide, but who was Erael? As soon as he retracted his arm, the scythe that was originally swinging towards Rubens swirled to the lower left, and cut off the drawing board on the left side with just one click. Speaking out, the Grand Inquisitor saw the drawing board, and there were two Saint Denis, two pairs of followers, as well as soldiers, as well as believers and the audience, all glaring at him. Shadows - It's like the people in the picture suddenly came to reality, their shadows jumped off the wall, and hundreds of arms grabbed towards Elarius and the king and others.

The king took a step back and drew his musket, and Viscount Turenne was faster than he was, but there was one, no, two... "Exist," the blue-black catboy said from the king. It jumped out of the pocket of his coat, and while still in the air, he became bigger than a lion, and there was a little headless doll, which fell upside down from the king's boots to the ground, and went straight to the siege. Saint-Denis, who had been cut in half, pulled back his own head from his head, and while pressing his head on, he jumped and greeted the filth with joy. s things.

Even if the cat gets bigger, its movements are still very cute, of course, only for the king and his people, for those creatures of black magic, it is a cruel and greedy predator, it holds a Shadows, just bite and swallow it - hammers, swords and scythes used by the priests of the Inquisition to rip them apart, but they will soon fuse together again, like a king The ones in the dormitory were even trickier, because they seemed to be inanimate, but the cat caught them, just like catching a sluggish mouse, and after being eaten by the cat, the shadow couldn't recover.

The   doll doesn't seem to have any interest in these shadows. It grabs one, knots it, just like people do with cloth, and throws it either to the catboy or to the priest.

Forget the cat, the priests are really mixed with such gifts. They looked at Elaius, and the chief judge just shrugged indifferently, and cut the "knot" thrown at him with one knife. .

Only then did Louis have time to look at the motionless man standing beside the triptych. He raised the torch slightly, and found that the other party had a pair of calm, somewhat relieved eyes - a few minutes later, with the help of the cat and the doll , the priests of the Inquisition finally dealt with these troublesome shadows, Elari pretended not to see the cat boy jumping back into the king's pocket, and the doll also sat happily on the king's shoulders. He walked towards Rubens, looked at the latter for a while, and then stretched his hand back: "Holy water." He said, a priest immediately brought a silver jug, and Elari took it, and after a short pause, he cleaned the inside. The liquid slowly poured over Rubens' head.

Being torn apart a little bit by the skin can be regarded as a kind of torture. When he was done by his own "pigeon", Rubens could still hold on, but when the holy water slowly flowed from his hair, he did not. He twitched in pain, but the effect of the holy water was immediate. Stubborn oil dripped down his face. Although he was scarred, he could tell that this was not Jeromenes Bosch.

"But he's also a dark wizard, Peter Paul Rubens." Elarius said, "Bosch's disciple." Rubens knew that he was also on the unknown list of the Inquisition, and it was not surprising: "Bosch left."

"Leave, not run away?" Elaho was a little disappointed, because this time the king could be said to have used himself as bait - they almost succeeded in Dunkirk, of course they can repeat the same trick in Brussels and do a good job The prepared king and Grand Inquisitor Elarius have been waiting for them - from the point of view of Bosch's hobbies and the way he is good at cursing, it is most likely his specialty - there are many people who are like this, being walked down the screen People and monsters strangled their necks, drained blood, or contracted a disease, and occasionally they left the drawing board. Before the sun and water failed to crack and melt their "body", they could be like people and animals. Those who act in that way, like Louis XIII, may have been caught by the hoofs of the mount by the murlocs in Bosch's painting, and they will fall off the horse.

   "Leave," said Rubens quickly, "he led a group of wizards to Waterloo."

   "Waterloo?" asked the king at once: "What are they going to do to my soldiers?"

   (end of this chapter)