Chapter 55 – The Emperor’s Spears (1)

“Juan.”

Anya approached Juan with a smile when she found him standing at a corner of the city square, staring at the assembly hall. In front of the assembly hall, Ardin was standing on the platform to make announcements to the members of the Hiveden’s organizations. Juan noticed Yuldrick, Gino, and Celpha’s head beside Ardin on the platform.

“Violent scenes tend to shock the audience and draw their attention. He definitely knows how to incite people.”

“Are you talking about Ardin?”

“Yes. He has an interesting way of talking as well. He is speaking under the assumption that the audience is trash, but somehow the audience aren’t offended by it.”

“He seems to play his role pretty well.”

Ardin’s speech consisted of the events that happened at the council; how three members of the governing council died from the attack of the Order of Huginn, and how Hiveden should hold hands with the Order of the White Crow to avenge their deaths. It seemed like an ordinary speech, but its goal was to brainwash the people of Hiveden. Ardin implicitly suggested that Hiveden had no choice but to leave their revenge to the ‘honorable Templars of the Order of the White Crow who hold sublime duties’ as Hiveden doesn’t have the strength to fight against the Order of Huginn, and that it is important for Hiveden to be united more than ever.

.

It was hard to find anyone with less honor than the people of Hiveden, and the subordinates of the dead members of the governing council had already crawled under the organization of Ardin and Opert. It would be hard to consider the people of Hiveden powerless in reality, but they weren’t too far off from being powerless when compared to the Order of the White Crow and the Order of Huginn.

“In summary, he is suggesting to sit out and watch the battle between the Order of the White Crow and the Order of Huginn. He is even saying that the dead members of the governing council had been useless people who had been in opposition of the city being united. It is likely that clever people will catch the meaning behind the speech quickly, and those who aren’t will be implicitly brainwashed anyway,” Juan said.

“Yes, since the brain works fast when things are related to their own benefits. Besides, it’s a stable choice for the people of Hiveden. They were worried about the Order of Huginn becoming their enemy, but the Order of Huginn backing off after only killing three council members is a good trade off. If the council decided to cooperate with the Order of Huginn, Hiveden would be going against the whole empire. So they seem to be satisfied with the position of being the weak.”

“I have to wonder in what ways Ras is planning to change this city…”

“I think he will change everything about this city from scratch once we kill the Order of the White Crow, since it was a plan he had been putting off for a long time. Besides, Ardin is a slave merchant and there is plenty of trash in the city, so it would make sense.

“A slave merchant?”

“Yes.”

Juan crossed his arms and stared at the man giving a speech. Ardin hadn’t realized yet, but he had just lost a reason to be kept alive. Juan didn’t mind the fact that the Order of Huginn had been neglecting the slave merchants, as Juan himself hadn’t been very active in stopping unfair treatment toward the demi-humans when he had been the emperor. Juan’s grudge against the slave merchants was clearly personal.

“Did we really have to take it this far?” Dilmond said as he crossed his arms and looked at the council members on the platform.

“Why do you say that? If I didn’t kill them, you would've smashed their heads yourself. Oh, could it be because you don't like how their heads are still in decent condition?” Anya asked.

“No, I just feel like we didn’t have to get ourselves involved if we were just going to make Hiveden cooperate with the Order of the White Crow. Of course we’ve gained some benefits, but they won’t be much help anyway. I don’t know if it was worth revealing our force.”

“You can be honest with me—I know you weren’t happy with Sir Ras showing himself in front of people. There are lots of reasons why we did what we did, but I’ll summarize them in three points for you. One, we needed to show them we would be victorious. Two, our spies might be at risk if we didn’t use our force. And three, to make the city of Hiveden appear threatened by us rather than cooperating with us,” Anya smiled.

“Threatened?”

“The events that happened at the council meeting will one hundred percent leak. Well, maybe not right now since everyone is scared, but one day it certainly will, since there were a lot of witnesses. The empire will definitely hold Hiveden accountable once the time comes, and Hiveden’s only excuse would be to say that they were threatened by us. If we didn’t show ourselves and destroyed the Order of the White Crow, the empire would suspect that we had negotiated with Hiveden behind their backs.”

“Hm. It makes sense to me now, but I wonder if the Church would think so too. Don’t you think they will mess with the city just for the fact that sir Ras has shown himself?’ Dilmond asked as he nodded his head.

“They would, if those bastards from the Church are really like what I heard they were,” Juan said.

Dilmond and Anya turned around upon hearing Juan’s voice. Juan muttered as he looked at the people of Hiveden being incited by the speech.

“I can’t wait for that time to come.”

***

Despite it being almost dawn, Kamil, the Deputy of the Order of the White Crow, entered Ethan’s tent with an urgent report. She expected to see Ethan getting ready for the battle, but what she encountered as she entered the tent was the scene of Ethan wiping blood off his face as if he had just been in a fight. Kamil noticed a man lying on the floor with his head rolling around.

“Hiveden has surrendered,” Kamil stepped over the corpse to deliver the letter of surrender to Ethan. The letter stated that Hiveden would accept all of Ethan’s demands.

Ethan wiped his bloody sword with the letter of surrender, and threw it on the floor.

“What should I do about the body?”

“Wrap it up and throw it in the toilet pit to bury it with shit once we withdraw.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Kamil took care of the dead body, she found a symbol of the Church on his clothes—this meant that the man was probably a Priest.

Kamil couldn’t recognize his face. She quietly removed the symbol of the Church from his clothing and put it inside her pocket and continued cleaning.

“The capital must have sent him here.”

“Yes. He told us to leave Hiveden alone and withdraw. He said we should chase after the black haired boy instead.”

Ethan’s words revealed that the man was the Pope’s envoy. If word got out that Ethan had beheaded an envoy of the Pope, his position would be at risk, not to mention the heavy punishment he would be facing.

“I didn’t hear about an envoy’s arrival,” Kamil said.

“He was floundering near the boundary of the emperor’s foot—it seemed like he barely made it in. Thank goodness we found him first. If the bastards from the Hiveden had found him first, we would have had to wipe out the entire city for real.”

“His Majesty is in our favor.”

“Yes, too bad for this envoy. Oh, if anyone asks about this envoy’s whereabouts, tell them he was murdered by the Order of Huginn.”

“Yes sir, I will let everyone know.”

Neither Kamil nor Ethan were concerned about the leak of confidentiality. The Templars of the Order of the White Crow all shared a single purpose, and considered the rest irrelevant. Ever since the establishment of the Order of the White Crow, everyone had been dedicating their lives for the same cherished cause; the death of Ras Raud, the destruction of the Order of Huginn, and to be a knight order that faithfully served only His Majesty. Being this close to achieving their long-cherished goal, it was only natural for them to neglect the command to chase after the black haired boy.

Ethan recalled the Pope, who had claimed that he speaks on behalf of His Majesty. Although Ethan admired the Pope, he felt that it was weird that the Pope shared history with His Majesty. Ethan thought the pope wasn’t suitable to be the person to deliver His Majesty’s voice.

Those who walked alongside His Majesty in history were legendary figures such as Regent Barth Baltic, Gerald Gain—the knight who brought the dragons to their knees, Dismas Dilver—who killed the king of the western giants, Dane Dormund—the world’s one and only Grand Magician, and so on. It was strange that the only person who could deliver His Majesty’s words was an old man whose identity hardly had any impression at the time of His Majesty’s death.

“...Captain? Should we prepare to enter the city?” Kamil whispered to Ethan upon seeing him standing in silence.

“My apologies. A disrespectful thought had crossed my mind. It seems like unnecessary thoughts are coming to my mind as we are about to complete the great task we have been longing for. Prepare the knights for a battle right away, since the Order of Huginn would definitely be in the city. Oh, and get ready to charge,” Ethan commanded as he shook his head.

“Charge, sir?” Kamil asked as if she had misheard him.

Ethan replied with a smile.

“Yes, charge.”

***

The eastern sky was lit up with a red tint. The people of Hiveden had stayed up all night, and they stood on the walls to look at the Order of the White Crow hustling in a rowdy atmosphere. As everyone had already been told that it was impossible to escape from under the emperor’s foot, no one was evacuating the city. Those who were capable of hiding hid, but the rest of the people had no choice but to watch.

The Order of the White Crow was stationed close enough for their shouts to be heard by the people. It was a distance close enough to be within reach of an arrow, but the guards that should be protecting the people were completely unarmed and stacking the weapons that Hiveden had been storing outside the wall. It was a pathetic sight to see the guards giving away their weapons when they should be acting as a shield to protect their people, but no one blamed them.

“Is everything ready?” Juan asked as he stood on the wall with the others.

“Yes, somehow we managed to prepare everything. I just hope that the Order of the White Crow will fall for our trap. There would be no point in giving up the advantages of the city wall otherwise,” Anya nodded.

“Wall? This isn’t a wall, it should be called a thick fence instead. If all the Templars are just as skilled as the guy I met last time, I bet they could easily jump over it.”

“Perhaps you’re right. Hmm…”

“You don’t seem too worried,” Juan said as he took a glance at Anya’s face.

“I mean, it is our first time fighting an all out war, but… I’m confident that the Order of Huginn is strong enough to easily win against the Order of the White Crow if we fight with all our might, not to mention that sir Ras is joining us this time. Also…”

“Also?”

“We have Juan on our side! Hehe. If it’s necessary, Juan can kill them all for us,” Anya giggled as if she was shy.

Juan shook his head to see Anya’s endless faith in him.

“I have no idea why Ras chose someone like you to be his successor. You are nothing like a knight of the Order of Huginn.”

“Hey, I’m a candidate selected after serious discussion among the senior knights .”

“Are you sure you didn’t behead all the other candidates for… wait, someone’s moving.”

The knights of the Order of the White Crow were aligning their lines on their horses. There were around five hundred Laus Mountains Scouts positioned at the rear, but it seemed that they wouldn’t be participating right away.

All the Templars were heavily armed, and one of them stepped out in front of everyone on his horse. It didn’t take Juan long to recognize the long haired man—he was the one Juan had run into on the night that Anya had stolen the Indeterminate Polyhedron. Juan could feel his hands tightening.

‘

Would I be able to win against him if I fought him the second time?

’

Juan couldn’t help but look forward to fighting him again, although he wasn’t fighting alone this time. Ethan’s skill was incomparable to the other imperial knights who have been disappointing.

Ethan stood in front of the Templars, and suddenly began to give a speech with a loud voice.

“My brothers and sisters! His Majesty’s fists and his holy spears! We have been serving His Majesty with our blood and tears for a long time! We have believed that the blood we shed was the only evidence of our loyalty. It was all that we could offer to His Majesty who sacrificed himself for humankind!”

“For His Majesty!”

Juan snickered. However, his expression changed as Ethan’s speech continued.

“But everything was a lie! We have never once served His Majesty!”

The Order of the White Crow seemed perplexed at Ethan’s unexpected remark. The same applied to the people of Hiveden, standing on the city wall.

Ethan drew out his sword and continued his speech amongst the murmurs.

“We were no Knights! We had been nothing but butchers! Butchers created to slice the meat of the ravens! We were only created to kill the Order of Huginn and not to serve His Majesty. We were created, maintained and died for the Order of Huginn! We cannot say that we have served His Majesty!”

The faces of the Knights were filled with anger. Serving the emperor was their ultimate goal and a last assignment. If it had been anyone else other than Ethan who gave such a speech, they were bound to be struck with a sword at any time.

“But we are no butchers! We are the blade of a spear that wishes to die for His Majesty, and wishes to only scatter upon the enemy’s sword!”

“His Majesty!” one of the Templars shouted with a loud voice filled with passion.

At the same time, similar shouts spouted here and there. Juan felt the unusual atmosphere among the Knights. This was not a speech to be made before entering a city that had already surrendered.

“And over there! Our enemy who pushed us into the dark pit is inside Hiveden! Many people call that apostate our arch enemy, but I disagree! Ras Raud is nothing but a stepping stone we have yet to step over. We will step over Ras Raud to rise and get closer to His Majesty!” Ethan raised his sword high up in the sky and pointed toward Hiveden. “Today, we kill Ras Raud, the apostate who attempted to assassinate His Majesty! We pierce his knights and hang them on our spear! And we will break free from his curse to truly become His Majesty’s spear!”

Ethan rushed into Hiveden at the same time he ended his speech. In an instant, the Knights followed him with passionate shouts. With Ethan leading them, their will became as sharp as the tip of a giant spear blade.

Screams broke out from atop the city wall to see the Order of the White Crow approach them with such speed, and the sound of people scattering could be heard.

As the Order of the White Crow continued to rush in, white lights began to gradually shoot out from their formation. Soon, they gained acceleration which made them frighteningly fast.

The Laus Mountain Scouts located at the rear tried to avoid them in shock, but immediately got trampled under the horses.

Some of the guards belatedly figured out the situation and closed the city gate in haste. The city gate not being too big was an advantage at times like this. The guards succeeded in closing and locking the gate just in time.

“We are His Majesty’s spears!”

With Ethan’s cry, the city gate exploded with a roaring sound. This roar shook the entire city. The city gate wasn’t the only thing that was blasted apart, but the walls surrounding it also exploded.

Fragments of the broken gate and the wall, as well as the victims who had been standing on the wall were scattered all over the city. The buildings swept by the debris crashed down, and screams of the victims broke out everywhere.

Ethan, still draped in the white lights, walked out of the acrid dust with a cruel expression.

“Kill them all. The judgment will be made by His Majesty.”