The Pathway Of Wisdom-Chapter 70: Maintaining the Agenda is the Top Priority! Part-1.
Ethan and Vincent took Antonio to the main gate of the City of Ilma, and once they reached there, they found a whole squad of knights standing there in perfect formation.
Seeing Ethan and Vincent arrive, the commander of the knights stepped forward, gave them both a slight bow as a greeting, and spoke.
"Sir Ethan, Sir Vincent, thanks for catching this powerful criminal alive! I am happy that you two made it back safe; your bravery is really admirable for all of the knights of the city of Ilma!"
Antonio, who was listening to the words of the knight commander carefully, was shocked to the core, and his eyes widened in sheer disbelief!
*hmmm!!!* *mmmmhhhh!!!!*
He tried to protest and struggle, but it was all futile; Vincent immediately threw him on the ground, and several knights rushed over instantly to completely restrain him.
They ripped apart his clothes and only left his underwear intact before throwing him inside a tall, narrow cage made up of iron bars!
The knights actually wanted to strip him naked, but Ethan stopped them, as that seemed too much; thus, Antonio was fortunate enough to keep his little brother hidden from everyone’s sight.
The cage was tall enough to fit a grown man inside but too narrow to allow the person inside to sit or even move comfortably!
The knight commander looked at Antonio with a cold look on his face and declared in a loud voice,
"Mr. Antonio, you are hereby arrested for committing a major crime of trying to summon demons and causing the deaths of many innocent civilians of the city of Ilma!"
"You will be put in jail and will pay for your crimes!"
*hhhmmmmmm!!!!????!!!!*
Antonio was shocked and couldn’t process what was happening; in shock, he looked in Ethan and Vincent’s direction.
Ethan didn’t hide from that gaze and spoke.
"The Saint will meet you himself and explain your crimes to you in person! Do not try to cause any harm to the city of Ilma from here on!"
Ethan was the type of person who couldn’t stand injustice, so obviously he wasn’t going to destroy all of Antonio’s hope.
He was instructed by Alex to say these words to Antonio.
Hearing these words, Antonio was confused for a second but then understood the hidden meaning behind those words!
Ethan was trying to say that ’You should go with the flow for now; the saint will meet you later and will explain everything to you.’
Vincent also looked at Antonio and said in an awkward voice,
"We personally saw you heading inside the warehouse of the old mill where dark magic rituals were used, and you were also working with a powerful monster to deal with innocent civilians!"
"We have caught you red-handed! Don’t think you will be able to run away now!"
Both he and Ethan were bad at acting, but it didn’t matter; they just had to shout out what they were told by their masters and be done with it.
"We will be escorting this criminal to the public jail now. Will you come with us, Sir Ethan and Sir Vincent?"
Ethan and Vincent immediately shook their heads at the question of the knight commander and refused.
"No, I have to return to the service of my benevolent god right away; I cannot delay important matters of the church any further like this..."
With that said, Ethan rushed away in a hurry as if he was really pressed for time and didn’t have much time to stay here and keep talking.
Vincent, on the other hand, smiled and spoke.
"I have a particularly important appointment today... so I need to get myself ready. I shall not accompany you all today, gentlemen... let’s meet again if fate allows it!"
And with that said, he said his farewell and disappeared into the crowd without waiting for a single second!
They both disappeared on the spot and abandoned Antonio with these unfamiliar knights!
Before Antonio could react, the knight commander ordered the knights to put Antonio’s cage on an open cart pulled by donkeys!
Then they started parading forward on foot while leading the donkey cart carrying Antonio towards the public jail through a very crowded main street!
Many people started gossiping, and seeing so many knights escort a single criminal was very shocking to them!
All people in this world know that veteran knights are all-powerful people who are usually already early Phase-1 Pathwalkers or they are close to that level.
With so many of them escorting a single person, it would be strange if people didn’t find that weird.
Just when people were getting confused about what was going on, some random people mixed in with the group and started spreading rumors in low and suppressed tones.
"Th-that... isn’t that Antonio the ’Black Magician’!?... They caught a black magician!?"
"What!? That’s a black magician!?"
"No way, right?"
"It’s true... my friend is in the military and he recently told me that a black magician had recently been lurking in that old abandoned mill located at the outskirts of the city..."
"The one that’s been infamous for being haunted for several years now?"
"Yes, that one! I even heard that there were quite a few people going missing recently..."
"D-don’t tell me he..."
"It’s possible that he used their blood and tried to summon some evil entities..."
"Th-that c-can’t be right man..."
Just when people were gossiping, the knight commander suddenly turned towards them and shouted in a loud tone!
"Maintain distance! We are escorting a very powerful and highly dangerous criminal right now!"
"Do not get close! And stop spreading false rumors! Everything is under control here!"
People were frightened off by that powerful aura of the knight commander and hurriedly backed off.
But some random person suddenly stepped forward and looked directly at Antonio’s face before shouting.
"My son has been missing for days! Don’t tell me it’s you who did that!!!"
"Return my son to me, you scum!"
Antonio’s eyes widened in shock at that man’s remarks, and he tried to protest, but his mouth was gagged, and he couldn’t speak at all!
*HMMMMAAAAHHHHH!!!*
The moment Antonio groaned loudly, that random man who was shouting at him suddenly clenched his chest and spewed out a mouthful of blood on the spot!
Blood started flowing from all over his body, and he collapsed on the spot!
Dark red blood splattered everywhere on the ground, causing all the people nearby to scream in shock and disbelief!
Before the people could react, several knights rushed over and hurriedly picked up the fallen person and threw him on the empty place of the cart!
The knight commander hurriedly shouted with a loud voice that seemed to carry some urgency.
"Hurry! We have to take this criminal to the jail! He can still harm people with just his groans!"
"He’s a powerful black magician! Clear the civilians and open a clear path! Sh*t!"
The knight commander brought out his sword and glared at the people standing nearby before saying,
"You lot better get away now, or I will slaughter you all personally!"
Hearing those domineering words, everyone panicked and backed far away!
Antonio himself was shocked to the core after seeing that random man collapse like that, and he couldn’t even comprehend what was going on at the moment.
But all this ’made-up show’ was enough to cause rumors of all kinds to spread like wildfires among the people!
"F*ck! That’s really a black magician! He killed a man by just looking at him!"
"I heard they eat people’s internals and bathe in blood!"
"T-that can’t be true, man, right... I-I feel like I am going to puke!"
"Sh*t he killed that random innocent man with just a look! Poor guy, his son was eaten by that devil spawn and now even he got killed..."
"Wh-why are they bringing that devil inside the city!? Can’t they just deal with him outside!?"
"Apparently these strong black magicians have spells that help people grow stronger... also the lord is trying hard to make his son a paladin around the same time..."
"Don’t you think it’s a coincidence they caught a living Black magician exactly when they needed to make their noble lord’s son stronger?"
Conspiracy theories—random bullsh*t, made-up stories that would usually be laughed at and ignored by everyone were being spread at a very rapid pace!
Even people who were more educated and financially stable panicked after seeing such a scene.
And since it was still not the age of the internet, where fake and real could be easily figured out with the help of several netizens working together, the innocent civilians were tricked into believing those weird rumors.
The knights’ squad paraded through the majorly populated streets for the next two hours, and nearly five people collapsed from ’Antonio’s Cursed Eyes’!
This caused mass panic and many rumors to spread in the entire city uncontrollably.
Even those who didn’t believe the rumors ended up unconsciously mentioning the topic to others during random conversations that day.
The incident spread throughout the entire city of Ilma through word of mouth, and many individuals were scared after hearing these rumors!
And since there was only one church in the entire city of Ilma, the God of Wisdom church became flooded with visitors that day!
