Chapter 51 – The Eve of War (2)  

As Ethan barged into the room, people inside the dark room all stood up with nervous expressions.

The guards followed Ethan into the room with a perplexed look. The right thing to do would be to stop Ethan from barging into the room without permission, but no guards were willing to mess with a Templar.

“Ethan? This is the governing council of Hiveden. It’s not a place someone like you can barge in like that.”

Ethan looked at the man who admonished him. The man had been an insignificant noble back in the capital, but had become the head of the loan industry after moving to Hiveden. The others in the room were not that much different; their ranks included a prostitute, a swindler, a gangster, a gambler, and even the leader of the smugglers.

These varied groups of criminals held the authoritative power in the lawless city known as Hiveden.

“It seems like Earl Henborn really is dead. Are you the new chief of the Hiveden council now?”

“I am. My name is Ardin. I was told you were the last to meet Earl Henborn. Do you know anything about his death?” Ardin asked with an explicitly suspicious tone.

The rest of the council had no choice but to step up and make movements since Henborn, who used to be the head of the council on the surface, was found dead last night.

“I wouldn’t have left his body intact if I had been the one who murdered him. I thought that murder without leaving any evidence was your specialties?” Ethan derided with a sneering look.

The expressions of Ardin and the rest of the council members changed when they heard about Ethan’s suspicion of them using poison to murder Henborn.

Ethan’s suspicion was only natural, since the members of the council themselves had also been suspecting each other. The reason why the council was called immediately after Henborn’s death was so that all the members could monitor each other and confirm that the culprit was not one of them.

“Please mind your manners,” Ardin said cautiously, as he was the only one who could talk back to a Templar with his decent status.

Ethan didn’t even bother to look at Ardin, and drew his sword from his waist, instantly smashing it into the table. With a loud sound, the table cracked as if it was about to split in half. Ethan’s sword pierced so deep into the table that the blade wasn’t even visible.

“The only courtesy I’ll show is not killing you criminals right this moment. Earl Henborn isn’t here to protect you all anymore, and the Order of Huginn hiding behind you all is on borrowed time. The Order of the White Crow is on their way,” Ethan said.

Ardin froze and took a big gulp.

“I should’ve done this a long time ago, but better late than never. I’m planning to sweep the city and clean out the trash. However, I’ll give you all a chance before I do so.”

“W-what do you want from us?”

“Give up the city’s right of autonomy.”

Ardin immediately made a disapproving expression.

“No way! Hiveden’s right of autonomy was approved by the council of nobles! It’s not something you can easily take away from us like this! If you have a greedy intention behind…”

At that moment, Ethan’s hand reached out to grab Ardin by his throat to lift him up in the air.

The other council members immediately drew their weapons, and the guards that had been hiding in the shadows jumped out and surrounded Ethan.

Ethan didn’t have any guards to protect him as he had come to the council alone, while the members of the council had guards that seemed much more skilled compared to the ordinary soldiers.

However, Ethan didn’t even bat an eye when he saw them.

“Do you really think that I care about secular wealth or authority?” Ethan whispered at Ardin while still holding his body in the air. “Let dogs and pigs fight over that. The only thing I care about is sabotaging His Majesty’s enemies.”

Ethan dropped Ardin on the floor, and Ardin gasped for air as he backed away. Fear and hatred toward Ethan crossed Ardin’s face as Ethan smiled as he extended his hand toward the other guards.

“Put down your weapons. If you continue holding your weapons, I might misunderstand your intentions and consider this a challenge.”

“...You have no idea how many swords are pointed toward you in this room,” Ardin threatened Ethan. “Yes, but I wonder how many of them could actually get near me.”

Ardin closed his mouth—his silence implying that he agreed with Ethan. Even if Ardin ordered his guards to attack Ethan, he couldn’t be sure of just how many of them could withstand Ethan’s counterattack.

.

The Captain of the Order of the White Crow was one of the most powerful men in the empire. At the same time, even if they could kill him once out of a hundred chances, the city of Hiveden couldn’t handle the consequences of killing a Templar. It was certain that his knight order would seek revenge on everyone within this room, be it those that left a mark on Ethan’s armor, or those that watched.

While the Church stood behind Ethan to support him, the same applied to the governing council of Hiveden—they had the nobles of the capital and corrupted Templars to protect them. If the nobles of the capital and the corrupted Templars joined forces, the Order of the White Crow would have no choice but to pay the price for their arrogance.

“Do you think the nobles of the capital would let you take away the right of autonomy from us?”

“They won’t. But don’t you think you would all die before that?” Ethan chuckled.

Ardin got goosebumps all over his body when he saw Ethan chuckle.

‘That crazy lunatic really is planning to find the Order of Huginn and destroy them regardless of the consequences.’

Now the question came down to whose side they had to take in order to survive.

Ardin and the other council members quickly calculated the profits, the support, and the future potential that they would gain through the Order of Huginn and compared them to the risks they would have to face if they rejected Ethan’s offer; it wasn’t a hard decision to make.

“...I’ll consider your offer. Please give us some time to think about it.”

“You have until tomorrow to decide.”

“That’s too soon! I need at least another week…”

“I can already see you telling the nobles of the capital to interfere. But if you think that whining like a little baby is going to change anything, you’re wrong,” Ethan said as he walked out the door. “Once again, you have until the sun rises tomorrow. If I don’t hear back from you by then, Hiveden will have to face an unexpected war. I wonder how long this city will last against the Order of the White Crow and the Laus Mountain Scouts.”

***

The entire room fell silent. The members of the council felt as if the sword stuck in the middle of the table was stuck in their foreheads.

The first one to break the silence was Ardin, someone who had controlled Hiveden by closely serving Earl Henborn.

“What are we going to do?”

“What do you mean what are we going to do!” a bald man stood up and shouted at Ardin’s anxious tone. “It’s obvious what those fanatics will do after taking away our rights of autonomy! They are going to make our city exactly like one of those ordinary religious cities. Those rotten bastards from the Church will steal our base of operations!”

Ardin looked at the bald man with an exasperated expression. The bald man’s name was Yuldrick, and he was the Captain of the mercenaries. Although they were called mercenaries, they were nothing more than a group of bandits when they had no work in the off-seasons.

“I agree. They might say they’ll leave us alone as long as we give up our right to autonomy this one time, but I bet they will continue trying to control our city. It wouldn’t be so hard for them to take advantage of us the second time. We’ll end up like the Laus Mountain Scouts, and have to serve them for eternity,” said Celpha, the ponce of the prostitution industry and the head of human trafficking industry.

“The Order of the White Crow is worrisome on its own, but we also have to watch out for the Priests behind them. I heard that Earl Henborn was planning to give Bishop Rietto a gift, but it went to a waste. That might end up coming back to bite us. Perhaps the bastards of the Church are trying to use this opportunity to take over the city,” said Gino, the owner of the casino.

As this was a matter of their livelihood, most of the council members were opposed to the idea of giving up the city’s right of autonomy. Although most of their earnings were illegal methods, they couldn’t help but feel as if their fixed income was being stolen. The atmosphere in the room soon became rowdy.

“Then why didn’t you tell Ethan that when he was here,” Ardin muttered at the council members.

The room once again fell silent at Ardin’s words.

“How are our defenses in the city looking?” Gino carefully opened his mouth to break the silence.

“...We have mercenaries and plenty of armed forces. But we don’t have proper equipment. The defensive walls are low and thin, and we don’t have enough pots to boil oil. We also don’t have enough arrows to attack and lack security guards to patrol the walls.”

Hiveden wasn’t a city that was built during the era of gods or the era of the emperor; it was only founded recently. As the city was close to the capital, there was no need to worry about the foreign invasion. Due to these reasons, the defensive wall was built poorly with only the purpose of separating the inside and outside of the city, rather than defense. For the same reasons, the city was also lacking in equipment for defense.

“What? Then what’s the point of having security guards?”

“I don’t know why you’re asking such a stupid question, but it’s because it is more important to monitor our ‘honorable’ and ‘law-abiding’ citizens from stabbing each other rather than watching out for the non existent foreign enemies.” It would be hard for anyone to say that Hiveden had excellent security. Although some people would laugh it off, Hiveden did in fact have security forces. However, they were already overwhelmed with just preventing the minor scuffles from turning into a major massacres.

The council members placed their hands on their aching foreheads as they realized this reality.

“We all agree that it would be impossible to fight against the Order of the White Crow, yes?” Celpha groaned.

“Oh yes, they’ll definitely accuse us of damaging His Majesty’s dignity if we dared to leave so much as a scratch on their equipment. We need to make justifications for our actions… such as proving that the Order of Huginn isn’t hiding in our city.”

“Well, we have our connections in the capital. Let’s contact them first. His Holiness has been benefiting from the money we send, so he will be on our side. The Order of the White Crow wouldn’t be able to refuse His Holiness’ command.”

“Didn’t you hear what that lunatic said? Ethan, that lunatic declared that he doesn’t care about the consequences.”

“Well His Holiness will have to at least send us an army if the Order of the White Crow refuses to follow the orders! He’s been living off of our money until now!” Yuldrick shouted like he had gone crazy.

The other members of the council stared at Yuldrick as if he was a madman.

“Do you honestly think there’s a possibility that the Church and the Order of the Capital will fight against the Order of the White Crow for us? The Regent is not the type of man to move for money, while the pigs from the Church won’t risk getting slaughtered as all they care about is themselves. We have to deal with this situation on our own,” Ardin sighed.

“...Let’s at least get in touch with the capital first. They’ll have to make a move one way or the other. Who knows? They might even pressure the Church, unlike our expectations. There’s also a chance that Ethan could be bluffing.”

“I sure hope so,” Ardin said as he nodded his head.

The council members whispered to their subordinates with concerned looks. It seemed like none of them had positive views on their upcoming future. They were people who went through all sorts of hardships, but not a single person wanted to be involved with the Templars.

“Let’s wrap up the council meeting then. The rest of us can go back home and spend some time with our families…”

“Why don’t we cooperate with the Order of Huginn?”

The man who suggested this was Opert, the head of the smugglers, who had stayed silent throughout the whole meeting. He had expanded his influence by smuggling rare spices of slaves and items from beyond the border for the nobles in the capital. Many of the council members often received his help, as he easily brought in items that were banned by the Church.

Ardin had always thought of Opert as an intelligent man, but now he was contemplating changing his perception of Opert.

“What do you mean by cooperating with the Order of Huginn?”

“Exactly as it sounds. I suggest joining forces with the Order of Huginn to bring down the Order of the White Crow. It’s not like we will be outnumbered. Besides, we have members of various organizations to fight other than the guards; they make great armed forces with their bravery and skills.”

“Are you dumb or just clueless? If we cooperated with the Order of Huginn, we would be labeled throughout the empire as a city that held hands with the apostates. Can’t you imagine what’s going to happen?”

The imperial army would move, and the Regent Barth Baltic would be the one to lead them. All the buildings of Hiveden would be crushed to the ground, and the citizen’s bones ground into powder and scattered all over. Unless they hid far into the mountain like the Order of Huginn, the imperial army would get rid of every single trace of their existence. There were already many cities that had been destroyed like that after the assassination of His Majesty—the number of destroyed cities exceeded two digits.

Such harsh purging processes terrorized the entire empire. Hiveden’s cooperation with the Order of Huginn was only possible because they only moved covertly.

Opert tried to say something more, but Ardin completely ignored him. His organization held the least influence within the council anyway; Ardin ignored him and dismissed the council meeting.

“Then let’s all return and…”

“Sir Ardin!”

Ardin was about to blow up in anger. He felt as if the whole world was against him declaring the end of the council meeting and stopping him from going home. Ardin felt uneasy looking at the soldier gasping for air with a pale face.

“I-I think you should take a look at what’s going on outside.”

“Outside?”

Ardin and the other council members headed to the window with a curious expression. Looking out the terrace, there were quite a few people also looking at the sky. Ardin lifted his head up to see what was in the sky, and soon noticed a faint golden light covering the entire city like a bubble. Ardin couldn’t quite figure out what the golden light was.

At that moment, someone squeezed his wrist. It was Yuldrick, the Captain of the mercenaries. His face turned pale unlike when he was raging to fight just a while ago.

“A-Ardin. I think it’s for the best that we surrender.”

“What? Why do you say that? What is that in the sky?”

“I-I’ve seen that kind of Grace back on the battlefield when I was hired by the knight order. T-that’s a wall made with the strength of a Grace; now that it has been placed, not a single object or sound can leave the wall. The Templars called this Grace ‘The Emperor’s Foot.’”

“Wall?” Ardin asked back.

Yuldrick nodded his head in haste.

“What’s important is that they killed every single soul that refused to surrender whenever they used this Grace. Literally everyone would be trampled under The Emperor’s Foot. Ethan is basically telling us that if we don’t give in, he will wipe out the whole city.”