When Alexander discovered a couple of days ago that Priest Peskov had almost forcibly coerced the village elder into letting him engage in nut trading, it greatly unsettled the vampire. The churchman's decision seemed ambiguous, as he clearly needed dirt on the head of the neighboring village. Naturally, the scouts were instructed to obtain a human's blood, while the knight decided to send a Trojan horse to the priest. The daughter of the elder, Sophie.
The girl was supposedly going to visit her parents and other relatives. And she would come alone! Showing off her belly and lacking a marriage bracelet. No priest would tolerate that and would be compelled to take action. In normal circumstances, the wrath of the Church would be directed at the man responsible for such inappropriate behavior, but in Sophie's case, there was no such man.
Knight Blood and the free village were almost irrelevant, especially after the girl received several instructions on how to answer certain questions. A priest who tried to expose the vampires afterwards would look ridiculous, and angering the mages was dangerous. Ignoring the situation and pretending nothing happened was not an option, although it would be the best solution, so all the priest's wrath would fall upon the unfortunate Sophie.
Simply because someone had to be punished for such sacrilegious deeds. But the point was that the girl was not guilty in this situation and would just be used as a classic "scapegoat," and most importantly, the Holy Father would be intruding on foreign territory, punishing and denouncing the girl. The key was to intervene in time and turn the situation against the priest himself.
Sophie, when her role was explained to her, agreed to it with enthusiasm. The priest had been one of those who had persecuted her strongly between her rape and the moment her essence was expelled from the village. She was eager to avenge her tormentor. Spending several months in such an unusual place as a vampire village had inevitably affected the girl's psyche.
She had become strong and independent, although she didn't yet realize it and was more likely mimicking the behavior of the adults around her. And given that she usually spent time with Maria, Olga, Katya, and Stefania... She might have grown into something remarkable and completely out of place in this world. Now the child had gracefully jumped off the cart and, with the most innocent expression, walked toward her old house.
An hour later, a furious priest arrived. The observers, of course, did not see this. They were guided by external signs: a young man running to the quarry and interrupting his work; workers and villagers who had been outside the village, suddenly returning; the noise of the assembled crowd. After all these events, they waited another half hour and then gave the signal, just as the shrill cries of the priest, occasionally heard from the center of the settlement, began to reach ultrasonic frequencies!
This time, Knight Blood's entourage was vastly different from the usual. A dozen gendarmes in full combat gear entered Peskov's village, following their lord. The man who had been denouncing the weeping girl in the square was now choking on yet another appeal to the Light.
The stern faces of the leader and the openly angry faces of the soldiers made it clear that they were not inclined to continue the verbal execution. Especially considering that the priest could not chastise the girl; she was not part of his flock and was under the authority of the newly arrived person.
— What's going on here? — Alex scanned the crowd, picking out the elder standing aside and gloomily staring at the ground.
Whether it was the commanding tone of the vampire's voice or the question itself, or perhaps the man's dreams of long being the bishop's assistant, something broke in the priest's soul, and he completely lost all sense of propriety. Otherwise, his response to the question was inexplicable.
— I am punishing the dark soul! — he proclaimed proudly.
The peasant crowd collectively sighed and fell silent in astonishment. What had started as a free show was promising to become merely a verbal humiliation for the elder's family, and who doesn't like to watch a boss get berated, even if indirectly through his daughter? And now, it turns out they were punishing a dark soul, and one not even belonging to the village!
No matter how uneducated or ignorant the villagers were, they understood such things instinctively, otherwise, survival in this world would be impossible. You cannot beat or kill a neighbor's dog, even if it has soiled your entire garden; only its owner can do that!
Alexander was inwardly exultant, though he maintained a displeased expression on his face. The priest had walked straight into the trap without even needing to be pushed! It was fortunate he had allowed Sophie to go alone; initially, a couple of escorts were planned, which would have created a different scenario and might not have led to such a good outcome. Lightly dismounting his horse, the vampire approached the priest closely.
— I hope you're not talking about Sophie? — A slight gesture of the hand left no doubt about which Sophie was meant.
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