Chapter 875 (2/2)

He quickly turned to the last page, tore it into pieces, and burned them until each and every one of them had become ash.

No, this is probably not enough.

Bale thought for a moment, then took out a quill and prepared to write.

“No matter the consequences, you must record the truth. Do you understand?” Duke William’s words sounded echoed throughout his mind.

Of course, he would record the truth, even now.

This was a Clerk’s duty.

But in this world, nothing was absolutely objective. He was now living in a city governed by Roland. So, being a little bit biased was not strange. In other words, this was also part of being objective.

Bale took a deep breath and started writing.

“The ambassador sent by the great King Roland Wimbledon arrived in his loyal city of Valencia today…”

***************

Outside of the City of Redwater, at the camp of the First Army.

“Your Highness, there is a secret letter from Eastern Region.”

Nightingale jumped out of the Mist while holding a grey Goshawk in her hands. The latter tugged its claws towards Roland and grunted with dissatisfaction as if complaining about the letter being too heavy. There were six notes tied on its paws, almost covering both of its feet. Only when Nightingale handed out a bunch of grilled fishes, did the carrier pigeon finally calm down.

Well, this could not be considered a secret letter anymore.

Roland opened the six densely written notes one by one and had a quick look at them. They were sent by Iron Axe and they were mainly focused on the post-war summary and the situation reports.

The first part was exactly the same as he had expected. The Eastern Front Army had easily occupied Valencia. During the battle, the mortar’s effect was significant. Faced with the firepower of the twelve-pound field artillery, even though it was a siege, the enemy still had no chance to fight back.

But when he read the last part, Roland was a bit surprised.

“What happened? Did something happen there?” Nightingale asked.

“Well… not really a problem, it’s just a bit strange.” He passed the fifth note to her. “Look here.”

“Burning the dungeon where the nobles were imprisoned?” Nightingale immediately found the key point after a glance. “This wasn’t your order?”

Roland shook his head, “No, I told him that he has full authority at the battle of the Eastern Front.”

“So… what’s strange then?” she asked confusedly. “Since he has full authority, any measure he takes should be acceptable, right? Not to mention that those people had ulterior motives anyway. They still haven’t surrendered to you after so long, so apart from sweeping them up, we could also use this chance to clear the Rats. Seems like a double win.”

“You’re right…” Roland said while stroking his chin with his hand. Deep in his heart, he still felt this approach was too soft. The Eastern Region was the Second Prince’s home for a long time. Seizing the city was only the first step. The following political battle with the surrendered nobles would be a key point in achieving full control of the city. It’s for this reason that he had arranged over half of the novice officials trained in the City Hall to go to the east and had appointed Iron Axe, who was from the Sand Nation, to be the commander of the Eastern Front Army and deal with the complex intricacies of the relationships with the nobility.

He believed that after occupying Valencia, in order to eliminate the enemies, Iron Axe would almost certainly use his interrogation techniques to the fullest. When it came to the Mojins’ torture, even the High Priests of the church were not able to resist, not to mention those weak nobles. Through bloody trials and executions, he would destroy their power step by step and establish a new order.

However, setting a fire directly was not Iron Axe’s style at all.

Roland thought for a while and decided to leave this matter alone for now. Once the two armies met, he would find out more about it—after all, just like Nightingale said, the result of this fire was far too good. It made the nobles fear for their lives, leaving the territory en masse without caring about their lands anymore.

At this speed, Seawindshire and the rest of the domain would be under the complete control of the City Hall within a month. At first, he had thought that the Eastern Front situation would last for a while but, unexpectedly, it had even surpassed the Western Front’s progress.