4-89 Dismissed

4-89 Dismissed

With the arrival of Azaela, the commander of the Venerers, the mayhem that beset the city was swiftly dealt with. Her arrival was coincidentally met with the return of the other Venerers who had been led away from the city in pursuit of a lead they stumbled upon.

The viceroy of the city was rescued. The presumed leader of the pandemonium and havoc, Rex, was eliminated. Order was gradually being restored.

Thanks to the efforts of the Aeryons, a great deal of the common folk survived the ordeal. However, they were not entirely content with the outcome. The nobles, to whom they entrusted their livelihood and safety, had abandoned them in their time of need. If it wasn’t for Aedan’s intervention, many of them would surely have perished and only a few of them would remain.

Had it not been for the fact that the common folk were in grief and exhaustion, they would have taken up arms with pitchforks and torches, and marched right into the noble district. Moreover, they were lacking in numbers even if they planned to revolt. The meagre numbers they were now would be easily overwhelmed by the soldiers even if the said soldiers were wrought with fatigue.

Another factor that contributed to easing the common folk’s wrath was the aid of House Valdrun. Their knights and soldiers could be seen aiding the common folk in nearly every corner of the city. Their banners were hung overtly and proudly. Those who saw the banners breathed a sigh of relief.

As much as the common folk’s resentment for the nobles was higher than ever before, they didn’t reject the charity of House Valdrun. Unlike the other nobles, House Valdrun did not abandon them from the beginning. They stayed with them until the end of the chaos.

Although the epilogue of a calamity was nearing, a new storm was already brewing on the horizon. The ugly outcome was rearing its head, heralding a new quandary.

Azaela heard the reports from her fellow subordinates and she came to that very aforementioned conclusion. The end of one problem was the omen of another, something she had come to learn in her times as a sword for her god, Ruva.

It was not only her subordinates’ reports that made her sigh and creased her brows in dismay and exasperation. The reports from the city authorities themselves were enough of a headache. She thought about crushing the bundle of reports in her hands but since they were still needed, she staved off her impulsive thought.

Instead, Azaela tossed the documents right on the desk she had parked herself behind. She rose from the ornate armchair she was sitting on and wandered around the desk with her head hung low, though her gaze was as firm and sharp as ever.

All the other Paladins and Venerers in the room held their breaths as they watched their Commander’s actions with great care and attention. They knew well they were all treading on thin ice given the outcome of the havoc.

“C-Commander?” one of the Venerers called out to Azaela after some much hesitation.

Azaela responded with a glare at the Venerer who called out to her.

The Venerer shrieked internally and lowered his head without speaking a word.

“Commander, your orders?” Lucan asked unabashedly. “We can’t keep dawdling here.”

“Dawdling?” Azaela’s glare shifted to Lucan. “Is this what it is to you? We’re dawdling here?”

“Are we not, Commander? We’re just standing in this room without doing anything when we should be out there—”

“You had your chances, Lucan,” Azaela cut him off. Her glare deepened. “All of you did. Yet, here we are. Thousands of casualties, dead or heavily injured. How could you let this happen?”

“The common folks are certainly in a dire state but the casualties of the nobles are very—”

“People died, Lucan. Innocents. Nobles or not. Innocents have died. The nobles suffered significantly less than the common folks. True but that’s not a silver lining. I’m disappointed in you, Lucan.”

“With all due respect, Commander, the nobles fund our temples and missions. Like it or not, their well-being is a silver lining. Had it been the nobles who have perished the most in this ordeal, it would have been difficult for the Ruvan to continue—”

“Silence, Lucan,” Azaela said, almost a whisper. “Many of the lives lost in this ordeal could have been prevented if you weren’t so foolish to be led astray by our enemies. The absence of the Venerers played a huge part in this huge loss. Because of this, Ruvans of common origins are starting to doubt Ruva.”

“If they doubt Ruva this easily, then it’s just because their belief in our god is weak.”

Azaela scoffed in disbelief as she stared straight into Lucan’s brazen gaze that seemed to put no one but his opinions in his own sight.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Or am I wrong, Commander?”

“You asked me a question but I get the sense that you don’t need an answer.”

“Because you already know the answer, Commander. I spoke only the truth with Ruva in my heart.”

Her gaze turned soft with disappointment. “If that’s truly what you believe… then you are lost, Lucan.”

“Commander, what are you saying right now?” Lucan frowned. “I am not misguided.”

“But you are. I had hoped that you would grow out of your arrogance but it seems that I have overestimated you.”

“Commander, this is ab—”

“Shush,” Azaela uttered.

And shush Lucan did.

“We came to this world with the difference of plains and mountains. When we die, we will all be on equal grounds. This is the teaching of Ruva. Yet, I don’t see that belief in your eyes or your heart.”

Lucan’s unfounded confidence began to tremble, evident from the twitching of his brows and cheeks.

“This failure is on me as much as it is on you. I thought you were ready and you certainly sustained that illusion marvellously, for a time.”

Lucan’s face twisted with astonishment and dread.

“I hereby remove you from your role as my deputy. You are dismissed, Sir Lucan.”

“C-Commander?! You can’t do this. I—”

Azaela pointed to the door. “You can walk out of this room yourself or you can be sent out of this room on a stretcher. Choose wisely now.”

Grimace wrought Lucan’s expression. Red filled his face but not of bashful nature. There were so many words he wished to say but against Azaela’s threat, all those words receded back down his throat. Had it been any other person who talked to him in this manner, he would have quickly resorted to a physical altercation without any hesitation.

However, the person who belittled him was Azaela, the Scarlet Blade. He had seen her prowess and strength firsthand. He was not her match, not even in a million years. Without a salute of any kind, he marched out of the room with a dark expression.

The awkward silence returned once more to the room. Dread filled the other Paladins and Venerers. They all knew it was their turn to be reprimanded. If they were lucky, it would just end there, unlike how Lucan fared in the face of Azaela’s wrath.

“Now, Saril,” Azaela said as she plopped right back down on her armchair.

“Yes, Commander?” The Venerer named Saril stepped up.

Azaela flipped through a report she took from the desk. She sighed inwardly as her eyes devoured the contents. “You harassed some adventurers. Is this true?”

“Commander, with all due respect, I don’t believe I have harassed anyone.”

“You stopped a group of adventurers while you were on your patrol around the city. You tried to apprehend them which ended in your terrible loss and resulted in a great deal of damage done to the streets. What do you have to say about this debacle?”

“The adventurers I tried to apprehend were suspicious.”

“Suspicious?” Azaela raised an eyebrow. “On what basis are you saying they are suspicious? Do you have any evidence?”

“They were hanging around in a place that they should not be, Commander. It is suspicious.”

“Yes, I can see here in the report that you confronted them in the slum. How is that suspicious?”

“Is it not suspicious?”

Azaela buried her face in her palm. “Are you joking with me?”

“N-no, Commander. Of course, not.”

“I can understand your perspective but you failed to look at the situation from another angle. Ask yourself, why would anyone be roaming in a place where it is notably infested with criminals, especially an adventurer?”

“To commit a crime, Commander?”

Azaela lightly clawed at her own face as she groaned. “If there’s a bounty for a criminal, where would be the first place you look into?”

Saril couldn’t find her voice. Her face turned pale, and then red. She, too, lowered her head like many of her peers in the room.

“I don’t doubt the will, resolve, and prowess of all of you here. But… I never dream that you all would lack this much common sense.”

No one offered a retort, lest they suffered the same fate as Lucan.

“Your belief doesn't make you superior. We, the Ruvans, are not above the law. Though it’s undeniable that we possess some privileges but we, ultimately, are not free of the consequences of our actions. What you all have done and failed to do, has brought nothing but humiliation to Ruva’s name.”

Once again reminded of their failure, the expressions of the Paladins and Venerers sunk even further.

“At least there’s a silver lining, the Viceroy is safe. However… it appears that he had a hand in this ordeal. Since the Lord of the city itself held some of the blame, you lot are pardoned from your failures by the court on the grounds that your misguidance was concocted by the Viceroy himself. But don’t be too pleased about this. It doesn’t change that you still failed in your duty.”

Azaela’s stern gaze was wandering around her subordinate. Then, her gaze rested on two of the Paladins to her right. A hint of rage could be felt as her glance stopped at the two.

“Brahms, Miller.”

“Yes, Commander?” The two Paladins responded in unison.

Azaela retrieved another set of reports from the desk. This time, she didn’t even flip the report open and merely stared at the front cover. She had read all the reports beforehand and thus, knew of the contents. She was hesitant about giving the report in hand another glance lest she lost her patience.

“C-Commander?”

Azaela raised her gaze from the report and glared at the two. The disappointment and rage in her gaze were even more evident than when she was reprimanding Lucan.

“Commander, whatever displeasure you have of us, please do let us ex—”

Azaela narrowed her gaze. “You two were absent from the excursion that Lucan led.”

“Yes, we were, Commander. We were tasked with—”

“You mean you took bribes from those nobles.”

“C-Commander, that’s a lie! We did not—”

Azaela clenched her fists, crushing the report in her hand. That small act alone silenced the two Paladins. “At least Lucan is no liar. He doesn’t lie. That I can respect, more than I can say for the two of you. It’s good that you two stayed behind in the city but what good had come out of it? You didn’t help the ones in dire need of aid. No, you stayed cope-up in the noble districts, sipping wine and fondling whores with these rich cowards while the common folk suffered. Is this what the Ruvans are now?”

“Commander, please understand. We did this with the best intentions. The gold we received would go into—”

The desk snapped into half all of a sudden and Azaela had not moved a muscle. The desk was crushed by the weight of her wrath alone. The shattering of the desk sucked away the Paladins’ shameless and futile attempt at defending their own actions.

They spoke not another word. Even though they weren’t harmed by Azaela’s aura, they could feel the threat looming close. Another word and who knows which part of their bodies would snap like the desk.

“Saril.”

“Yes, Commander?” Saril responded with her gaze raised and her back straightened.

“Take these two to the square. Stripped them down to their bare skin and have them flogged.”

Colours were instantly drained from the two Paladins. They wanted to beg for mercy but they knew the moment they did, there would be absolutely none.

“Understood, Commander.” Saril nodded.

“And gather all of the Ruvan Militias in this city. It’s time for a long overdue reformation.”