Chapter 84: Chapter: 80

Previously:

Judas de Cassius was crucified and executed by Grizel and her gang who are disguising as a mysterious group at the Western border, while framing the rebels as the scapegoats, Judas's death was broadcasted across the country and shocked everyone, now the rebels faction officially became the public enemy of the whole nation.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

This morning everyone is in turmoil, the words of Judas's death spread like unstoppable floods, even so, not a few people are doubting the news as well despite the huge number of witnesses who had watched the execution.

Besides the absurdity of the story, one of the reasons why some people do not fully trust that information is because the Empire didn't make an official announcement regarding this matter yet, which means that the information is still considered dubious.

"I heard a group of Imperial Guard was dispatched to the Western border to check the validity of the information"

Murmur...

Murmur...

Most of all the talks in town were discussing this incident, even those who have been indifferent towards the Empire's affairs couldn't let it slide like they always did because the scale of the incident this time is not a joke and has the potential to lead them to a civil war against the rebellions, no matter what, they are still part of this Empire's citizens, their lives depend on the Emperor's decision.

"Yeah, I witnessed them raiding horses through the gate before the dawn and leaving the capital city in a rush"

A muscular man added, he was working on the bar last night and also one of the witnesses who see everything from the very beginning.

"I saw them too, it was chaotic"

"Huu, I feel like I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully for the next few days"

The image of the burning crucified Judas can't be easily removed from their head, because that horrifying scene can be happening to them as well.

"I hope they could confirm the truth as soon as possible"

"Aaah would it be our first war after centuries of peace?"

"I'm not ready for that"

"Same dude, no one hopes for a war"

This incident seemed to affect the people of the Empire greatly, not only the Central Region, but the other parts of the empire are quite messy as well because of the unexpected news about Judas, especially the Southern region of Azure where the territory of Judas Cassius is.

The servants who served the ruling family of this wealthy region are frantic with worried because the mistress of Cassius's Castle collapsed last night due to the shock, as the wife of the Lord, she was already burdened by the storms of trouble caused by her husband's disappearance, yet she only found Judas's whereabouts when he was dying, leaving his physically-and-mentally exhausted wife.

Lately, the Goddess of fortune seemed to turn her back on this affluent family, problems come one after another endlessly, the chains of misfortune started when the Lord mysteriously disappeared in one night without a single trace.

But as if it wasn't enough, an unexpected tsunami destroyed their precious cash cow, which is the valuable Port, thanks to it, some financial crisis arose within the territory, the poor management, as well as the corrupt officials, know nothing but to make it even worst.

All the scheduled trading was postponed, the flow of business in this biggest trading town is in a whole mess, the price skyrocketed due to unbalanced supply and demand caused by the traffic jams in the delivery of goods, to make it worst, the bad merchants are taking advantage of the situation to gain more benefit, and now amidst this chaos, the Cassius family stumbled upon another hard rock, the missing Lord might have been executed by the Rebels faction.

Facing those waves of problems to solve, no wonder the most extravagant Duchess of the South who used to love bragging about her wealth in the upper-class society to drop her health like this, in truth, those issues are merely the external problems in the eyes of outsiders, the internal affairs of this household is not less messy.

"Mother, I think as the eldest son of the Cassius house, Brother has the obligation to go to the border and confirm the news about father himself"

"Yes, I agree with the second brother, we need to send our people to the border and confirm the validity of the terrible scene last night..."

"...And that is the duty of the heir"

The second son of Judas said while being supported by the youngest, they have teamed up to send the most possible heir of the house to the conflict area hoping for his demise, it will be good to reduce the competitors in the succession.

"What?!! Do you take me for a fool to go to such a dangerous place?"

Of course, the eldest son bursts out in anger at his sly younger brothers who certainly aiming for his position as the heir to Cassius's wealth and authority, the competition of the successor has begun long ago even before they reach adulthood, but when their father is missing, they started to confront each other more bluntly.

"Haaa... Brother, this is for your sake"

"Unlike us, the second and youngest sons who have less possibility of inheritance, you have to prove your worth as the heir to gain the loyalty of our vassals, we don't need a coward Lord to serve"

The second son sneered sarcastically at his older brother who is about to explode, the apples don't fall far from the tree, the death of their father has not been confirmed yet, but the sons are already fighting over inheritance, worthy of being Judas's offspring.

"Enough!"

The Duchess of Cassius finally opened her mouth to shut her foolish sons from arguing, she took a deep breath while massaging her temple, still feeling the headache after she fainted from the shock last night, none of her sons is competent enough to help in this crisis, all they can do is fighting each other.

"We will send our best investigators to confirm the validity of the news, your assistance will be nothing but a hindrance"

She chose to send their most capable men only, bringing one of these stupid sons is more likely putting another burden on the investigators to finish their job quickly, she needs to find her husband as soon as possible while hoping for all of this bullcrap to be false news, she couldn't bear to spend her time amidst those pile of complaint papers any longer.

Looking at how their mother took control of the household, the 3 siblings showed obvious displeasure on their faces because the Duchess isn't as reliable as it seems, compared to them, their mother spend money more lavishly to satisfy her lust.

This is a problem, if one of them isn't officially announced as the new Lord immediately, the authority will fall into their mother temporarily, a cheating woman who loves to spend her money to pamper her young handsome lovers, who know how much of the family's possession she will give to those male prostitutes in that period of time.

'Tch, I need to inherit the Duchy as soon as possible and get rid of these damn family members'

All of them seem to have the same thought, at least they are showing their resemblance of a family in this matter, greed has made them rotten to the core, blinded by selfishness and desires, unable see their own downfall.

In the end, the Cassius family sent an investigation squad to the Western border to confirm the news of Judas's death while the main family members of the house are fighting over the power, they are blissfully walking towards their destruction even without Grizel's intervention.

Different from the Central and Southern regions that sent their people to the Western border to investigate the truth behind the incident, the Belial territory which is located in the East, the farthest and the opposite side of the rebellion is calmer compared to the other regions.

"Ugh... I hope the nightmare last night was a mere illusion, I can't close my eyes because of that terrifying scene"

"Same to me, I am worried about our Princess, living in the capital is certainly not easy"

The others nodded in agreement, they somehow look exhausted judging by the huge dark circles under their eyes, the clear evidence that they could not sleep comfortably because of that traumatic event.

Though tired, they are still concerned about their kind-hearted Princess, the Belial Princess who was iconic and loved by the people in this territory.

"Regardless of the truth, it will certainly become a serious problem in the future if we keep on silent about the rebellion"

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, right now they are gathering power to face the Empire, worse come to worst, I'm afraid we will be dragged into the bigger conflict like civil war"

Because they are not as anxious as the other regions, people in this territory could see the roots of the problem, which is the rebellion, when most of the people are curious about the truth behind Judas's death, the people in this Belial's territory aren't get clouded by their emotions, they are thinking right on the main point of the problem.

"But, civil war is inevitable to erase this group of rebellion"

"Aarrgh, it's like a loop, my commoner's brain is getting a headache"

Murmur...

Murmur...

People are having their thoughts on this matter, some agree with the war for a better future while others feel reluctant, but all of them admit the most important thing, and that is the threat possessed by the rebellion.

"Right, we need to take decisive action towards the threat before it gets bigger"

Even though not all people believed in Judas's death, but the people of the Empire was made aware of the danger of the rebels, if the war broke out and the Empire lost against them, the authorities will fall to rebels, and they, as the powerless civilian couldn't do anything about it, by then surrender is the only way to survive.

But now is not too late to support the Empire against those rebels, if the war is indeed inevitable, they should be prepared for it and fight for the Empire, it's none other than the way to assure their future.

As the devil's wish, the Rebels have become the public enemy of the empire.

-•-

Baron Goldway almost got a heart attack when he heard about the confirmation of Judas's death, as one of the traitors who have eyes and ears within the rebellion, he could confirm the information faster than the Imperial guard, he thought that man wasn't Judas since he was acting weird pretending to be a loyal subject to the Empire which is absolutely nothing like Judas he knew, maybe it was an illusion or someone who looks like Judas.

But the fact bought by his informant is more shocking, the victim was undoubtedly Judas, he was hypnotized to speak like a loyal dog of the empire, but the most surprising fact is the culprits of this mess, according to the guards who were on duty that night, it wasn't their colleague who executed the Grand Counselor but a group of unknown people has framed them, they sprinkled a type of poison and forced them to laugh uncontrollably, even though they saw Judas is burning in front of them, the guards couldn't do anything but laugh.

Of course, it's unbelievable, who would be crazy enough to burn such a huge figure alive in the territory of the enemy? This group of mysterious people must be insane, and there's no guarantee that Judas will be the only victim, what if they are targeting the traitors?

With a pale blue face, Baron Goldway runs towards his room and locked the door as he hurriedly contacts the Northern Lord through his magic pendant given by the Emperor, not knowing that someone out there who is monitoring them from the shadow could hear everything of their secret conversation.

"Baron Goldway?"

The Northern Lord answered, he is the last traitor beside Goldway and Judas.

"A-ah"

Baron Goldway replied stuttering, he doesn't know anymore what is happening right now, everything is a mess, not even a single thing goes well according to the plan.

"W-what happened? Why did everything turn into a mess like this?"

He asked hoping for a solution by calling his last remaining ally, he doesn't know what to do.

"First, calm down and take a deep breath"

The Northern Lord calms him down because panicking will only make the situation worsened, Baron Goldway listened to his advice and took a long breath as he gained a little bit of his composure but once again back to panic when the Northern Lord speaks out of his assumption.

"I don't know what's happening either but there's a possibility that the Empire has found out about Judas and planning to get rid of him discreetly by blaming the rebels"

The Northern Lord has always been the most cautious among them, he always did everything with calculation, even so, it doesn't mean he isn't in a state of confusion, based on the plan offered by the Western alliance, the success rate is incredibly high, everything goes well at the beginning but suddenly turned into a mess, what is wrong? is there something they missed?

"What?! T-then, shouldn't we go to rebels and seek protection there?"

"No! I said it was only a possibility, contacting the rebels is like confirming our act of treason"

His ally forbade strongly, he was merely talking about one of many possibilities, there's also a chance that this whole incident was a trap to lure all the traitors who worked with the rebels, or the involvement of that mysterious 3rd party, whatever it is, taking action right now will eventually draw attention especially things related to the rebellion since the eyes of the Empire are currently watching them.

"For now, let's patiently wait for the representative of Westerners called Master Chamuel who was scheduled to arrive tomorrow, and avoid doing anything out of ordinary"

"I, I think you're right"

Baron Goldway cleared his mind, tomorrow one of the 7 strongest members of the Westerners union will come to aid the rebellion in the upcoming war, his ally is right, it's better to wait for him than recklessly making a move, he ended the conversation with the Northern Lord and left his room with less anxiety.

From the glass window in her locked room, his daughter, Lily, looked at the Baron who is hastily walking in the hallway at the main building, this girl once was his greatest tool to seduce the Crown Prince, but she failed his expectation even with the help of a legendary blessing, the charm of Aphrodite.

The young beauty which was once praised by the whole nation can not be seen anymore as she looks like a mess, her silky rose pink hair has lost its shines as she became thinner with a depressed look unfit to a little girl of her age.

Though appears to be hopeless, her eyes are staring at her father with mixed emotions of longing and disappointment, Lily never throws the address given by the mysterious lady who offered to grant her a wish in exchange for Goldway's fortune.

At first, she thought it was an absurd offer, but lately, Lily started to reconsider what's the use of Goldway's wealth which couldn't bring even a little happiness to her anymore?

Her once gentle mother keeps poking her failure to seduce the prince, her father would abruptly torture her even though it was the blessing that is failed, and the servants who used to sweet-talk to her, starting to show their true faces.

Lily almost fell to that sweet temptation, just a little push to make her determined to leave the house, if there is not even a speck of love left for her to believe her parents and the people in this mansion, then it's better to find that mysterious lady and throw everything behind.

To be continued...

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Author's Corner:

I am late, yes.

Sorry...

( '༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ')

My personal matter took more time than I thought, and it's not finished yet, ugh, but I will do my best to write as much as possible in my spare time.

Once again, I apologize for the late update.

Anyway, do you guys remember who's the mysterious lady in disguise mentioned above?

In case you don't, she appears in the latter part of chapter 60.

(〜￣▽￣)〜