Chapter 93: Anticipation and Dread
"You know, I was more than a little conflicted about the offer that the Commander of the Knights gave us, I felt like I just couldn’t make up my mind about how to respond to it...but now, I think I’m leaning towards a favorable response, given what’s occurred over the last few days," Remarked Aster thoughtfully.
"Yeah, same here. Especially the whole thing yesterday, that was pretty crazy," Nodded Raven in response.
It had been five days since Jules approached The Irregulars, and in the days since then, a lot of changes had occurred in the nation.
Under the command of the Pope, and with the support of the new Queen, about a third of the remaining members of the church had been apprehended and imprisoned, including a number of the leaders of individual branches of the church.
With the King no longer around to restrict the authority of the Pope and the Inquisitors, they’d gathered plenty of evidence of corrupt activity by members of the church, and convicted them accordingly.
A number of those who’d been arrested were scheduled for execution, due to the extent and severity of their crimes, the rest being sentenced to imprisonment.
But it didn’t end there. The following day, the Queen held a meeting with the heads of all the most influential Noble houses, many of whom immediately questioned and voiced their opposition to her supporting the elimination of corruption in their church.
She then proceeded to have the Knights take several of those Nobles into custody, and informing them that the Inquisitors had gathered proof of a number of crimes they’d committed, and several other Nobles were also being investigated.
And then, the next day, those Noble heads were publicly executed, with the Queen issuing a speech that the Inquisitors would be continuing to investigate the Nobility to identify any others who’ve engaged in criminal behavior, and that they would be punished accordingly.
Several Nobles vanished and went into hiding following that speech, during which numerous changes to the laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Persona were also announced and enacted.
Most notably, that those with Irregular Magic would no longer be criminalized and executed, and that Irregular Magic would be renamed back to Arcane Magic, as it was known in the Age of Ancient Magic.