Chapter 406 July 7

"What's the date today?"

The peasant soldiers and guards retreated like a tide. Catherine stood on the wall, wiping the blood off her glasses with a handkerchief, and asked softly.

Around her, red blood-sucking vines were lying on corpses, greedily sucking blood.

"November 7."

Catherine's senior partner and Chamber of Commerce Secretary Erindor bowed.

"Four more days?" Catherine looked down at her hands. Her hands appeared double in her eyes, and even had strange spiral patterns, as if they were crawling like little snakes.

After days of continuous and intensive use of spells and being exposed to divine magic from time to time, her mental state began to have problems to a certain extent.

She seemed to have returned to those wandering days, and whenever anyone fell ill, she would be considered the source of the disease.

The refugees did not dare to disobey her, let alone attack her. That was not respect, but fear.

"I feel something is wrong." Catherine's voice was more hissing.

"Why do you say that?" Elindor handed over a hot towel.

"Today's offensive ended exceptionally quickly." Catherine wiped the sweat off her face with a hot towel. "Yesterday, we stopped the offensive for another day, and today we are only conducting a tentative offensive again."

"Maybe he's tired." Elindor took the towel from Catherine half a step away and covered his arm with it. "Or maybe he's not getting enough food. This happens all the time."

Unlike before, this time he deliberately wore flesh-colored leather gloves, and even when he took back the towel, he subconsciously took the side that had not been wiped on his face.

It would have been fine if I didn’t know it before, but now that I know, I must pay more attention to it.

Otherwise, if you accidentally get infected with the witch disease, it could be fatal.

Elindor, who was serving Catherine, was still cautious, but Catherine could see that this caution was very different from the past.

Is it because I'm a witch?
The blood-sucking vines lying on the corpse began to sway, winding on the ground like red snakes, as if choosing someone to bite.

Catherine closed her eyes tightly, and the blood-sucking vine that was aiming at Elindor's back like a cobra fell limply to the ground.

She didn't know whether Elindor noticed or not, but a drop of sweat ran down his forehead.

"I always feel something is wrong." Catherine took two steps back and sat under the makeshift straw shed on the wall. "Do you have any clues?"

"Are they going to retreat? I heard that Valen Taylor is making a big fuss about it."

"Impossible. The main force of Alman's church army has not been lost, and Prince Condé is still there. They will never flee in disgrace."

After sitting in the chair and thinking for a long time, Catherine put on her glasses again: "Tell Mithril to take those wizards to go around the city gates and catch all the traitors in the city."

"Yes, Lord Governor." Elindor took a few steps back towards Catherine before quickly walking down the city wall.

Sitting under the thatched hut, Catherine watched Elindor go away, then fell on the recliner and closed her eyes to rest.

She could feel strange gazes sweeping across her body, and Catherine could even sense the fear and suspicion in them.

The straw hut avoids direct sunlight and is much better than other locations under the scorching sun. The only disadvantage is that it takes up space.

Originally, Catherine was unwilling to be treated differently, but the citizens and soldiers were afraid that she would be driven to rage by the hot weather.

So even though she disagreed, the thatched hut was still built.

This shed is like a manifestation of the attitude of the entire Rapid City citizens towards her.

She didn't think she would go berserk, but everyone in Rapid City thought she would go berserk, it was just a matter of time.

The entire Rapids City was speculating about how many seeds of strange plants were stored in the warehouse of the Magdi Chamber of Commerce.

I guess with Catherine's ability, once she goes berserk, Rapid City will instantly turn into a hell of fire.

But why? I have not shown any signs of going berserk for decades. Just because I am a witch, should all my past achievements be erased?
She heard more than once, "It turns out that Lady Catherine is a witch, what a pity" and "How nice it would be if Catherine wasn't a witch?"

If she wasn't a witch, Rapid City would have been conquered more than a week ago.

The citizens of Rapid City were afraid that the church army outside the city would attack, and at the same time they were afraid that Catherine would go berserk and destroy the city.

They dared not and could not express any opinions. They could only pretend to ignore the witch and bury their heads in the sand like ostriches.

In the spiritual world created by the church, witches are a kind of original sin. "Sir, the message to the Savior Army has finally been sent out." Carl's voice rang out amid the sound of armor colliding.

"I just hope they don't follow the example of the coalition forces in Xiaochi City." Catherine opened her eyes, her eyes full of fatigue. "It's better to arrive slower than to make any more mistakes."

"If you can't arrive on July 7, don't make such big promises." Carl looked at the scorching sun above his head and sat down on the bench next to Catherine in a dull manner. "Didn't you say you would arrive today? It's already noon, where is he?"

Catherine put her greasy hair in a bun on her head. She hadn't washed it in seven days. She could only bear it for now. "If we arrive too early, we will have to force march and repeat the mistakes of Xiaochi City. Rapid City can't stand the blow of the second destruction of the reinforcements."

After saying this, the hut fell silent again, leaving only the increasingly cheerful chirping of cicadas.

"Can you hold on?" Karl asked out of the blue.

Catherine looked at Carl's face and didn't say that she saw two pairs of eyes.

"Hold on for another five or six days. If I really go berserk, I will commit suicide or jump to the city walls in advance."

"Sir, how can you say such a thing?" Karl was shocked by Catherine's words.

Catherine smiled self-deprecatingly, stood up from the recliner and walked to the city wall. The church army still showed no signs of activity.

So far, there has been no second wave of attack after the call-off. If nothing goes wrong, today's offensive should end here.

"When do you think they'll arrive?"

“我估计他们是7月12日出发的，预计要花13天到达，那就是7月25日。”

Looking at the cloudless sky above her head, Catherine muttered to herself, not knowing to whom she was talking: "Three more days..."

As long as I can make it through these three days, the last three days...

But what happens after these three days? Her identity as a witch has been exposed. Can she still manage the entire Chamber of Commerce as before?
Will the City Council still accept me? Will the Magdeburg Chamber of Commerce still obey me?
"Forget it, you go back first." Catherine turned around, her pale face becoming even paler in the sun. "Go back to the South Gate and be more alert. After all, it is the second main attack direction."

"Okay... South Gate?" Carl, who was about to leave, was stunned for a second, "Isn't Hesperon guarding the South Gate?"

"Hesperon? He's guarding the west gate." Catherine was also stunned. "Didn't Pettier say that at the meeting yesterday?"

"But you gave me a warrant..."

“I haven’t written a warrant for you…” Before Karl could finish, Catherine’s face suddenly changed, and she interrupted Karl eagerly: “Who gave you the warrant?”

"You didn't give me a warrant, but... Holy Father! Riyals?" Carl screamed in the middle of his words, "How could he?"

"Are you sure Rial gave it to you?"

"Yes, he, he also said that this is your handwritten order." Carl's brain was like a mess at the moment. Rial was the last person to betray him.

If he wanted to betray, he should have done so when the Magdi Chamber of Commerce had three fingers cut off by the Knights Templar.

If Catherine had not arrived in time, this loyal Juano would have died from blood loss.

He will never betray anyone!
Carl was still confused, and Catherine's hair seemed to stand on end. An inexplicable order was issued to transfer the general in the second main attack direction...

"Carl, Carl!" Catherine's stern shout brought Carl back to reality from his daze.

"Rial, Rial is a traitor..."

"This is not important, we'll talk about it later."

Karl hit his chest hard, and the blood-sucking vines beside Catherine seemed to scream: "You are not guarding the South Gate, and Hesperon is not guarding the South Gate either, so who is guarding the South Gate now?"

Carl seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw: "There are three gatekeepers in charge of the capstan and the city gate. He can't be so quick..."

"Dong-dong-dong" continuous and rapid bell sounds rang, and the source of the bell sounds was the South City Gate not far away.

After these five bells rang, the whole city seemed to be quiet.

Karl’s words slowly stopped, and he stood there as if frozen.

It was a hot day, but Catherine felt her hands and feet were cold and she was sweating all over.

Of course she knew what this urgent bell sound meant. This was the signal she set personally, and the specific meaning was very simple - the city gate was broken.

(End of this chapter)