Chapter 99: Salem Witch Trial
Reinhard’s eyes widened, his entire body trembling while Marie gasped audibly and Joseph’s mouth fell open."They did..." Joseph’s voice cracked slightly. "W-What is it?"
Vanna’s brows furrowed, her expression growing darker. "It’s a similar incident that happened in Salem Town, north of the Academy."
Roana’s frown deepened, confusion evident. "Salem Town? But I heard it got destroyed decades ago."
"It did." Vanna confirmed as she crossed her arms. "Because of an insane practice they were doing, which was later famously called the Salem Witch Trials. The townspeople would sacrifice female Beast Masters, whom they called witches, to gain benefits from their revered beast."
Her voice dropped lower as she rubbed her forehead. "A lot of it is shrouded in mystery. But it’s stated that they were experiencing a drought that was killing all their crops and making it hard to do anything due to the heat. The Town tried many methods before the Town Mayor came up with an insane plan to sacrifice ten people to appease nature."
Reinhard frowns as he hears the sacrifice part. But he didn’t say anything as he could imagine the heat was making them lose their mind, and the lack of food and water wasn’t helping.
He wouldn’t be surprised if the thought of killing their people was just them trying absolutely anything at that point.
Vanna continued. "The people of the town killed ten of each. But it wasn’t until they killed ten female Beast Masters that a change happened, leading to a storm coming from the sky and rain rushing down. After that incident, they continued killing ten female beast masters to help grant wishes... But then something happened, I’m not sure what, but it’s said a piece of the revered beast they were asking for help was able to descend."
Shock rippled through the room.
Marie’s eyes widened, but Reinhard could see her delight, interest, and curiosity in her golden eyes. Joseph blinked and then blinked once more before tilting his head in shock.
Niki’s face had gone white. "A piece... Descended?"
Gran pressed his hands against his thighs. "And no one knew..."
Scáth stood abruptly as she furrowed her brows and asked. "How many died?"
Vanna furrowed her brows and said. "The entire town. Over eight thousand people who were in the town were gone... When the piece descended, the town was destroyed with a footprint that no one can recognize from the time that has passed."
Roana’s golden eyes went wide, her mouth opening, and she said. "Just one piece led to its destruction? That means that Phantasm Beast was far stronger than the Star Walking Beast."
"Which is also why it required so many souls..." Vanna says lightly.
Reinhard moved to sit on the nearest bed as his mind began connecting implications with horrifying speed.
If Phineas was planning something similar with 100,000 souls... The scale of what could descend would be incomparably larger. Not a piece like in Salem Town, but an entire Beast Spirit from the Throne of Myth will appear in their world.
And Phane City’s population easily exceeded that number.
"We have five days." Reinhard said quietly. "Five days until his performance on September fourteenth."
Marie nodded as she said. "Then we have five days to stop him."
"Or to evacuate the city," Joseph added.
"No one would believe us," Gran said flatly. "We have no proof. Just speculation based on files that could be interpreted multiple ways and a historical incident most people have never heard of."
Scáth’s hands clenched, her knuckles cracking audibly. "Then we find proof. Or we kill him ourselves before he can complete whatever ritual he’s planning."
"Both options require knowing more about his plans." Roana said as she held her chin. "We need to find where he’s keeping Anasha. We need to understand what the ’performance’ actually entails. We need to know if there are other Sinners involved or if he’s working alone."
"And even if we find proof, it wouldn’t be enough to convince them in time... What we need to focus on is stopping the performance fully." Reinhard says, making the others frown.
Vanna sighed as well and said. "He is right. The amount of money Phineas has donated to the city makes up at least 30 percent."
The expression of everyone shifted as they stared at Vanna in disbelief.
Gran furrowed his brows and said. "With that much, it’s almost impossible to overturn the good feelings and faith the people of Phanes have in Phineas... At least in the limited time we have."
"Ignore the normal and rich people, the City guards and City Leader wouldn’t believe us. To them, the amount of time, effort, and money Phineas invested into the city is too much for him to destroy in the next moment." Scath states bluntly.
"I can’t even blame them because it would make no sense." Roana says as she lightly bites her lips.
"It’s because he is insane and does anything for his plot." Joseph said as he rubbed his forehead.
"But that makes it worse, since they wouldn’t be able to comprehend a person like that in time." Nikki says with a nervous chuckle.
Vanna says softly. "Let’s ignore that for now and focus on how they plan to kill so many people so quickly. While you guys do that, I’ll continue researching Salem Town and any other similar incidents. If we can understand the ritual mechanics, we might find a way to disrupt it."
Everyone nodded their head, leading the projection to fade away and silence to descend for a couple of seconds.
Then Scath says. "Well, at least things won’t be boring-"
"You shut up." Roana, Gran, and Joseph say at the same time, giving her a blank look.
"Hahaha!" Marie laughed as she crossed her arms over her stomach while Nikki giggled.
Reinahrd shook his head and headed towards the table, grabbed a wine bottle, and began pouring himself a glass. Then he placed it down before pushing the glass to his lips and began drinking the wine.
"Actually, I am curious. How did a freshman like you become the Herald and the leader of a team?" Scath asked as she walked up next to Reinhard and leaned in close.
"Do you have a guess?" Reinhard asked as he brought the glass to his lips once more.
Scath grinned as she said. "It has to be that you have an extremely high-class Beast Spirit. So which one is it, SS or SSS class?"
Gran furrowed his brows and said. "Scath, I don’t think the Principal would send a SS or SSS class person on a dangerous mission like this after just becoming a Beast Master."
Nikki nodded her head and said. "Even as crazy as Principal Klaus is, he wouldn’t be that insane. Right, Marie?"
But to Nikki’s surprise and confusion, Marie was on the couch with her body trembling and her face planted on the seat.
"Marie? Is something wrong?" Nikki asked in worry as she quickly moved over to Marie, but the girl simply waved her off.
Roana narrowed her eyes before glancing at Joseph, who was staring out the window and not paying attention to them. But she could see the slight twitch of his hands, leading her to glance at Reinhard, who already noticed Roana’s gaze.
"Yes, I became the leader and Herald because of my SSS Class Beast Spirit."
Silence descends on the room except for Marie struggling to keep her laughter in and Joseph snorting.
Then Scath says, "Ha, I knew it! The leader and Herald position isn’t something someone not strong or special can achieve. Anyway, let us fight-"
"Shut up, Scath."