Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 248: The Councilor

After gloriously becoming the Saintess of the Silver Witch Church, Lucia’s daily life actually didn’t change at all. She still had to follow her teacher every day, studying rune studies and those math lessons that left her dizzy and half-numb.But there was nothing to be done about that. After all, the Silver Witch Church had only just been founded; they didn’t even have a temple yet. Even if she wanted to do something, there was simply nothing to do.

As for Yvette, after using faith magic to remotely “supervise” the construction progress of the temple over in Lute Village, she welcomed a new guest the very next day.

It was a stiflingly hot afternoon, but the reception room of the Old Oak Inn was pleasantly cool. A magic array hummed quietly, dispersing the summer heat. Yvette hadn’t been waiting long when the door was gently pushed open and a tall woman walked in, the heels of her boots landing on the thick carpet with only the faintest muffled sound.

“Good day, honored bearer of the Councilor’s Token. I am Leilani Vales, regional chief for the Free Alliance sector. It is an honor to make your acquaintance.”

The woman’s voice was clear and bright. As she spoke, her right hand pressed lightly at her waist as she gave Yvette a slight bow.

Yvette gave her a closer look and saw that she was a tall half-elf with long ash-blond hair distinctly different from that of pureblood elves, tied back into a ponytail with a ribbon. She wore a high-collared, impeccably tailored wine-red long coat over a white shirt, with straight trousers of matching color and fabric below, giving off a practical and capable impression.

What was worth noting was that, despite the sweltering heat outside, she’d walked in dressed like this without a bead of sweat on her. Eight or nine times out of ten, she had to be using some ice-aspected magitech tool or spell to keep cool.

“My name is Yvette Loxivia. Hello, Miss Vales.” Yvette gestured for her to take a seat on the sofa opposite.

Three days earlier, she and Lucia had used that tiny token to check into the Old Oak Inn for free and had even been given the highest-grade suite. Although she hadn’t asked the manager here to notify the upper echelons of the Silverwind Trading Company, it was obvious the news had reached them anyway—and they had come uninvited.

“Just call me Leilani, Councilor,” the half-elf woman said as she sat down gracefully, legs together, posture respectful.

But Yvette could sense that beneath that respect was an even stronger curiosity about her personally.

Leilani was indeed extremely curious. Her own position in the Silverwind Trading Company was already very high. After all, beyond the Council of Five, the ultimate decision-making body, the very next tier down was the five regional chiefs, respectively in charge of the Herman Empire and Snowfield Region, the Sit Kingdom and Academy of Truth Region, the Elven Kingdom Headquarters Region, the Free Alliance Region, and the Southern Alliance Region.

And even at such a lofty level, this was still her first time seeing the so-called secretive, never-publicly-mentioned Fifth Councilor in person. She even suspected that she might be the first among the company’s upper ranks to ever lay eyes on this mysterious figure’s true face.

“I’ll start by asking you a question,” Yvette said.

“Please, go ahead.” Leilani leaned forward slightly, doing her best to make her attitude appear sincere, while also making sure her head didn’t rise higher than that of this legendary Councilor.

Yvette glanced at her, then took out the token Moga had left her. “What exactly does this token represent? What authority does it grant?”

“Authority—” Leilani froze for a moment, then finally reacted, blurting out in surprise, “You mean… you possess the Councilor’s Token, but you don’t know what it does?”

“Yes.” Yvette met her gaze openly.

Leilani fell silent. As a regional chief, she had clawed her way up from the bottom. She had dealt with all sorts of people and prided herself on her eye for reading them. She could tell at a glance that this seemingly ordinary, short-haired, brown-haired girl was not lying. That calm that came from deep within simply couldn’t be faked.

What’s more, there had never been any internal report in the company about the Fifth Councilor’s Token being lost. That alone made it even less acceptable to harbor baseless doubts.

After about ten seconds of silence, she ventured, “Then—Miss Loxivia, do you know the Windspeaker Councilor?”

“Windspeaker?”

“Yes. The Silverwind Trading Company’s highest decision-making body is the Council of Five, and the Windspeaker Councilor is one of them,” Leilani explained. “She rarely intervenes in specific matters, but one of her few explicit directives is that we must constantly keep an eye on the whereabouts of that Fifth Councilor’s Token you hold. If it appears, we are to report it to her immediately.”

Having said that, she added apologetically, “My apologies, Miss Loxivia, but as a precaution, I must ask you to confirm the Windspeaker Councilor’s true identity. You only need to state either her identity or her real name.”

“The Wandering Wind Ranger.”

“Confirmed, Miss Loxivia. You are now the fifth member of the Council of Five.” Leilani finally relaxed completely. The true identities of the Council of Five were top-secret within the company, known only at the regional-chief level. Since the other party could so cleanly name the Windspeaker’s true identity, there was naturally nothing left to worry about.

“Can you contact the Windspeaker now?”

“Councilor Loxivia, the Windspeaker Councilor’s whereabouts are currently unknown, but the company does have emergency channels for contacting her. Your message will be forwarded with the highest priority,” Leilani said. After Yvette nodded, she continued, “Also, for the sake of keeping your identity confidential, would you like to decide on a codename to be used within the Council?”

“A codename… just call me ‘Nameless.’”

“Understood, Councilor Nameless.”

With that, Yvette entrusted Leilani with the matter of getting in touch with Moga, and smoothly turned the conversation to asking about information on cult activity in the area surrounding Adelock.

Among the trading companies of the Eastern Continent, the most famous was the Southsea Trading Company, jointly founded by the Southern Alliance and the Dragon Kingdom. Next came the Suihuan Trading Company of the Herman Empire, which boasted a history of more than three hundred years. In third place was the Silverwind Trading Company, whose headquarters was in the Elven Kingdom’s royal capital, Lindus Hill, though most of its business took place abroad.

A trading company so renowned across the entire continent naturally had its own intelligence network.

And as it happened, Yvette felt that, for the development of the Silver Witch Church at this stage, the best way to expand was to crack down on cults—

Snatching territory and Benedictions from the eldritch-god churches was only right and proper, and would go a long way toward avoiding conflicts with the local righteous gods. Right now was the perfect time to make use of the Silverwind Trading Company’s resources to help determine her next targets.

As for building some grand Silver Witch cathedral right here in Adelock, she had very little interest. According to the research she’d done over the past two days, whether it was first-rate true-god churches or second-rate righteous-god churches, the main battleground for believers was always in towns and cities. Vast rural areas with sparse populations were rarely given much importance. The only reason Sanggren Village had an Evergreen Revelation parish church was that its population was close to five hundred.

So she planned to go straight for the “surround the cities from the countryside” route—claim all the sparsely populated little villages first, and think about urban development later.

“Eldritch-god churches—?” Leilani clearly hadn’t expected that the very first thing this Nameless Councilor wanted was such sensitive information, and she was momentarily stunned.

“Mm. Can you get it?”

“I can, but—” Leilani looked at the utterly ordinary-looking Councilor before her, from head to toe, and said uncertainly, “It’s just that these matters are inherently risky… May I be so bold as to ask, Councilor Nameless, what exactly you plan to do with this information?”

Yvette shifted in her seat, a sacred solemnity appearing on her face. Although it looked a little abrupt on her usually composed features, she herself didn’t notice at all and remained fully immersed in her performance. “To purge the world of evil and demons—that is my ideal, and the mission entrusted to me by my God. Leilani, perhaps it is destiny that has brought you to meet me at this very moment. Mm—so, would you be interested in hearing the teachings of my God?”

“Uh—Councilor, you’re also a clergy member?” Leilani was even more astonished now. This was worlds apart from the image she’d had in mind of a trading-company councilor.

“You could put it that way. I serve the Silver Witch Church and worship the great God of Serendipity, the Silver Witch,” Yvette said calmly, looking straight at her.

“The Silver Witch Church—?” Leilani stared. She knew of the Silver Witch. In fact, many people in the Silverwind Trading Company were casual believers of the Silver Witch. After all, the God of Serendipity—there was no downside to a little belief, and it didn’t interfere with worshiping other deities.

But the Silver Witch had a church?

Since when? And how had she not heard a word of it?

“Councilor, I’ve actually always been a believer in the God of Serendipity,” Leilani decided to play along. After all, the person in front of her was a Councilor.

“Excellent, Leilani. Then would you like to join the Church?” Yvette said, very pleased. “The Church has only just started up—it’s exactly the time when you can make a difference. Once everything is on track in the future, I can appoint you as one of the God’s Apostles and grant you the God’s Benediction.”

What do you mean ‘only just started up’—

Leilani felt an increasing sense of dissonance. Hesitating, she asked, “Councilor, when exactly was this Silver Witch Church you mentioned founded?”

“—Yesterday,” Yvette said, after a one-second pause.

“You wouldn’t happen to also be the Pope, would you?”

“More or less, but the title is ‘Throne.’”

“…,” Leilani looked at her with a troubled expression. “I—I’d like to think about it a bit longer, if that’s all right.”

“That’s fine.” Yvette let out a tiny sigh but still nodded. She wasn’t about to force anyone into the faith.

Besides, faith elements depended on sincerity. Surface-level gestures didn’t count.

Soon, after about an hour’s wait, Leilani took her leave, and Yvette received a thick stack of dossiers on cult activity in and around Adelock.

Naturally, she had no intention of reading them herself, and decided she’d just pass them directly to Ezra later and let him go through them.

At the same time, she felt a twinge of disappointment, because from the firm stride of the half-elf lady as she left, it was clear that her first attempt at proselytizing hadn’t gone very well. She had no idea what had gone wrong.

It really did seem that the development of the Church would be a long and arduous road.