Chapter 52 – The Eve of War (3)  

“I heard that the guards of Hiveden have surrendered.”

In the underground hideout of the Order of Huginn, Dilmond and Anya were having a conversation about the events that happened in the council meeting earlier that day.

Juan was also in the hideout, sitting alongside the commanders of the Order of Huginn, but no one had any complaints about his presence; Ras approved of his presence.

Ras had only said that Juan is ‘a trustworthy man,’ but that was enough for the Order of Huginn to accept him.

“That’s going to shake up the council even more.”

“Well, no one wants to be trampled under the Emperor’s Foot. I heard the Order of the White Crow is still preparing for war—they are really pressuring the council.”

“Didn’t they say that they’ll give the council some time to decide until tomorrow?”

“Yeah, but they’re basically pressuring them to make up their mind sooner. The Order of the White Crow is also running short on time.”

The Order of Huginn already had spies in the governing council Hiveden. In fact, one of the council members was an associate of the Order of Huginn. Through him, the Order of Huginn received details on everything that had been discussed in the council meeting, and found out the council was leaning toward surrendering, unlike their prior decision.

“I don’t quite understand. Why is the Order of the White Crow surrounding the city that the citizens are residing at, and preparing to annihilate them just to catch a few people from the Order of Huginn? Doesn’t the Order of the White Crow belong to the imperial army?” Juan asked.

“To be exact, they are troops that belong to the Church. But they are treated much better than the imperial army—they even have the authority to request for conscription,” Anya answered pleasantly. “Oh, but of course we have no regrets since we did what we had to do to help Juan. Sir Ras had already been labeled as one of the Six Apostates that were involved with the assassination of His Majesty, so the empire doesn’t care about the sacrifices resulting from the process of catching him. In terms of the number of people that they have sacrificed, Barth Baltic would be way worse than the Order of the White Crow.”

Juan shook his head. He wondered where he went wrong while teaching Barth for him to become what he had become now. Although Juan had defeated many demi-human armies during the war against gods, he had never led a mass massacre; the disappearance of the god that had been protecting them often caused the armies to fall into despair and lose their will to fight.

But the citizens of Hiveden were different from those armies; they had already been subjugated to the empire. The fact that Barth, the current leader of the empire, was willing to massacre its own citizens was not a good look for him.

“Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with this situation, Juan?”

“No. Should I?”

“Well, it would be better to have even one more possible solution, since we will die like rats trapped in a mousetrap, if we can’t get out of here. Perhaps we could use a secret passage? I did have one, but it’s been blocked.”

Juan briefly recalled the sky he had seen outside, which looked like a giant dome formed with a golden stream of lights. Juan remembered when he had been pierced by Arwain’s Spear of Wrath. The Spear of Wrath didn’t cause any damage to Juan, and Juan thought it might be due to the fact that the spear was imbued with his own mana. If his prediction was true, it would be possible for him to make use of his mana in the sky.

“If that’s the emperor’s power they are using, I might be able to make a secret passage.”

“I knew it! I can always count on Juan. I knew you could find us a way out of this situation.”

Juan wondered how he was perceived in Anya’s eyes. Juan had never revealed that he was the emperor to Anya, but Anya seemed to already consider him as someone close to being the emperor.

“I could make one if I wanted to. But is that alright? All of our forces in Hiveden will end up being killed. It would be quite a waste to give up our foundation here.”

“It would be a waste of the foundation we’ve built, but the condition sir Ras is in is pretty bad. Besides, you said you would help us. If we compare the overall gains and losses, it’d be more beneficial for us to give up on Hiveden.”

“Who do you think I am?”

Juan asked Anya upon hearing that she could throw away Hiveden in exchange for receiving his cooperation. However, Anya’s answer to that question after much consideration was not very satisfactory.

“The incarnation of justice that has come to destroy the empire?” “Incarnation? And you call yourself a follower of His Majesty when you believe in such a thing?” Dilmond said as he looked at Anya with disdain.

Anya was the first one to surpass the skills of an older generation ever since the knight order’s generations changed several times. However, Dilmond was rather concerned about her frivolous and unruly behavior. Dilmond opened his mouth again to switch the topic of the conversation to the Order of the White Crow.

“Anyway, the Order of the White Crow will push through regardless of the council’s decision to cooperate with them or not. It would definitely be better to have a secret passage to escape… Although Anya says that she doesn’t care, I am not so carefree. After all, as someone that is responsible for leading the knight order, I am worried about a few things; you know, like food.”

“Well, it’s autumn. Won’t we be able to make ends meet in the mountains?” Anya asked.

“To be exact, it’s late autumn. That means winter is approaching. It would be hard to gather enough food to last through winter unless we play the brigand. If we don’t prepare for that…”

『We are not leaving Hiveden.』

Anya, Dilmond and the others immediately stood straight upon hearing the sudden voice. The only person remaining calmly seated was Juan.

Covering his face with the robe’s hood, Ras appeared from the dark hallway. The voice composed with magic echoed from the inside of his empty skull.

『We are not giving up on Hiveden.』

“I don’t agree Ras,” Juan said as he spun his short sword with his fingers while still sitting down. “Those bastards from the governing council sitting on the top of our heads are dying to hand you and your knights over to the enemy. And you still want to protect them?”

『That’s the right thing to do.』

“It seems like you do not understand this, Ras. Your attempts to convince the council are not the same as you saving those people. It’s actually you asking them to die for you. From their perspective, they only have to fight against the Order of Huginn if they comply with the Order of the White Crow to give up on you. But if they were to hold hands with you, they would have to fight against the whole empire.”

Ras didn’t respond as he knew Juan was right.

“So why are you being so stubborn?”

『I have a friend who can explain for me.』

Ras beckoned somewhere. One of the knights knocked on the door at his gesture, and a gaunt looking man wearing an eye patch soon appeared through the door. The man took off his eye patch to see Ras, and placed his hand over his chest to pay his respects.

“His name is Opert, and he is our spy in the governing council. He is the head of the smugglers. While we have our influence on all the organizations of Hiveden, we have complete control of the smugglers,” the knight explained.

Opert greeted Anya and Dilmond, but flinched upon seeing Juan. But he soon greeted Juan as if seeing his superior, since Ras was treating Juan the same way as Anya and Dilmond.

“What does a smuggler have to do with this situation?”

『Smuggler is a fake title to keep him under cover, but his real identity is that of the vice master of the magic tower.』

‘A criminal on the surface, but actually a mage, huh?’

Juan showed curiosity. Juan was an excellent swordsman, but he was an apex mage before that. It was only natural as his teacher was a mage. At the time, the mages from the magic tower were good allies of Juan. However, it was hard to meet any of them now since the majority of them were treated as criminals—and the same seemed to apply to Opert.

“Why is a mage pretending to be a smuggler in Hiveden?” Juan asked.

“Let me explain,” Opert opened his mouth to speak.

***

The atmosphere of the Hiveden’s governing council was still chaotic even after sunset. Handymen were busy going in and out of the building to pack expensive items and load them onto the carriage. Once a carriage was full, they packed the rest of the items in a bundle to move them somewhere.

Their purpose was to preserve as much of the fortune they had accumulated until now as they could, since they wouldn’t be able to continue their business after the Order of the White Crow subjugated them. Although there was no formal declaration yet, most of the people that had good awareness had already prepared for evacuation.

“Hurry up and move everything! You must get the job done by sunrise tomorrow!” “Sir Ardin, what should I do with this?”

One of the handymen handed over a statue of an unknown goddess that was the size of his palm to Ardin. It was made of precious ivory that wasn't found in the empire, and it was beautifully processed which made it impossible to measure its price. Ardin’s eyes were in conflict. He wanted to keep the item considering that he had a hard time getting his hands on it. However, forget the fortune, but his life would be at risk if such a heretical item was discovered.

“Either break it or burn it. Don’t leave any evidence that I had it.”

“Yes sir, certainly…” the handyman replied in a regretful tone, then sneakily snuck it in his pocket.

Ardin saw him slipping the item into his pocket, but didn’t mind; Ardin wouldn’t be the one to get beheaded because of the statue, but it would be the handyman. If they could get out of Hiveden safely, he could simply take it back from the handyman.

“Any items that the Order of the White Crow could accuse us go to the right! Put the rest of the items on the left in the carriage! Also, be more cautious with the artwork!” Ardin shouted.

“You look busy.”

Ardin turned his head to the sudden voice. He wondered who it could be, since everyone that was close enough to him to speak informally were making their own preparations.

‘Who the hell…’

At that moment, Ardin’s face stiffened as he recognized the person.

“Long time no see, Mr. Ardin. I came on behalf of the Order of Huginn. I would like to have a word with the council,” Anya said as she tapped his shoulder.

***

Everyone at the council seemed to be in an unpleasant mood as they were interrupted in the midst of their preparations. However, they had no choice but to respond to the call of the council at such a chaotic time. No one knew what could happen in the next minute. For the same reason, many armed guards joined the council meeting unlike the morning.

“What’s going on, Ardin? You should know that everyone is busy right now.”

“Didn’t we already agree to comply with the Order of the White Crow’s decision? Perhaps the Captain sent us another message?”

Many questions were thrown at Ardin, but he anxiously remained seated. Meanwhile, the council members noticed the mysterious woman wearing a black robe standing beside Ardin; it was an unfamiliar face.

Just as they were about to ask about her identity, the door of the assembly hall opened.

Two people wearing the same black robe as the woman walked into the room—it was a gray-haired old knight with a beard, and a tall man who was about three heads taller than others. Their identity wasn’t known, but it was obvious they were extraordinary people.

Soon someone from the council noticed that those wearing the robes all had a black raven brooches on their shoulders.

“The ravens…”

A groaning murmur froze the air inside the assembly hall. As soon as the guards that filled the assembly hall realized their identity, the guards all drew out their weapons.

The atmosphere quickly turned vicious, but the knights from the Order of Huginn didn’t seem to care at all.

The knights from the Order of Huginn broke the dead silence by walking forward with the crackling sound of footsteps as if they were walking on thin ice. Once they stopped in front of Ardin in a relaxed manner, the tall man glanced around the surroundings.

The hood was deeply draped over his head, so they couldn’t see his face. However, everyone in the assembly hall could smell the unusual scent coming from him, and soon recognized what it was. It was a smell far from life; it was the smell of death.

The woman who stood beside Ardin walked to the center of the assembly hall, and opened her mouth to speak with a cheerful attitude,

“Thank you Mr. Ardin for giving me this opportunity to meet all the members of the council. Everyone, you all are associated with us, but I believe it’s our first time meeting in person. I won’t introduce myself as I bet you all already know me by the name ‘Anya.’”

No one from the council replied to Anya, but glared at Ardin who had deceived them. However, Ardin had no other choice if he wanted to spare his life.

“Please don’t blame Mr. Ardin too much. If we wanted to meet up with any of you individually, I’m sure our ways would have been…well, more private and violent.”

The council members couldn’t help but be convinced upon hearing the words Anya said with a smile. Not a single one of them wanted the Order of Huginn to pay them a visit in the middle of the night in their bedroom.

As the atmosphere of the assembly hall leaned toward having a peaceful conversation, the subordinates of every organization lowered their sword in relief. However, no one sheathed their weapon.

“Alright. It seems like everyone is ready to talk. Then let’s begin the council meeting about the current state of affairs in Hiveden.”