Chapter 100. Rightful Lord of Norington (3)
“Execute him.”
“Spare…… Spare me! Baron!”
At Blanc’s single word, a middle-aged man screamed long and was dragged out by guards.
“Next.”
Following Blanc’s instruction, another man entered making a fearful expression.
The eyes of the Black Wolf looking at him were shining fiercely.
Every day passed, the number of heads cut and hung on spears in Norington’s Central Plaza was increasing.
Blanc Cadmus, the true master of Norington.
Their young lord who defeated the army of three barons and created another legend.
Support of territory residents toward the rightful successor who cut through the collapsing sky and finally arrived at Norington was beyond imagination.
Territory residents of Norington living holding breath due to harsh exploitation by the three barons.
To them, the existence called Blanc Cadmus was truly like hope given by the Goddess.
Moreover, the family called Cadmus rooted over 3 generations was also something not easily erased from the hearts of territory residents.
Blanc, the new lord of Norington who obtained such firm support, did not disappoint his territory residents.
The first thing Blanc did after regaining Norington was finding his father’s remains, but.
The second thing he did was exactly ferreting out traitors of the Cadmus family.
There were retainers of Cadmus who submitted to the 3 lords.
Some submitted unavoidably due to threats, but some fell for sweet enticement and actively sold off Norington.
Blanc strictly questioned their crimes, replacing punishment with just expulsion for those who fell for threats unavoidably, but answered with bloody retribution regarding those who actively sold off Norington.
“Still…… If administrative personnel are executed to this extent, Norington will stop completely.”
Hansen, who barely recovered from injury now, advised Blanc with a worried tone.
“I am prepared for that much.”
Blanc spoke, shining his blue eyes.
Hansen’s worry also had sufficient reason, but Blanc didn’t have a bit of wavering when it came to executing collaborators.
Blanc intended to expose all remnants of the three barons scattered even if stopping Norington for a while.
Because he had not an ounce of thought to discuss the future of Norington with those who bowed heads to father’s enemies and sucked the lifeblood of his territory residents.
Simply It wasn’t just because of vengeance for the family.
Blanc was the Lord of Norington and a regressor who jumped over 30 years and returned.
Unlike other lords, he was a person who had to look a bit further.
Blanc had a mission to eliminate threats to humanity that would appear continuously in the future using Norington, where the first Void Tree was removed, as a stepping stone.
“I need trustworthy people in Norington I will create in the future.”
Therefore, Blanc was a person who couldn't be just tied to the fixed place called Norington.
Since he had to possess dominance that doesn’t shake even if he vacates his seat frequently, Blanc had to gather those loyal to him as much as possible and reconstruct the territory called Norington firmly.
“I must create a new Norington.”
Blanc had to use loyal ones as stepping stones and rise stepping on them.
To plant new seeds, one must pick out stones first.
Every time traitors’ heads were hung in the plaza, territory residents did not spare praise for Blanc.
It was a passage showing how much Norington’s traitors tormented territory residents in the meantime.
However, if someone was dragged down like the people executed now, another someone had to fill that spot.
There were retainers who kept integrity until the end even though Norington fell.
Knights protecting Blanc’s father Pallard all died, but there were a few retainers who survived like Valone’s case, and there were families rooted in Norington even for knights and retainers who died keeping loyalty to Cadmus.
While the three barons ruled Norington, they lived in oppression and contempt, but after Blanc Cadmus, the true master of Norington returned, they could find a ray of light.
Blanc greatly welcomed loyal retainers and their descendants visiting him and accepted them with a glad heart.
By executing the three barons’ hunting dogs, a huge administrative vacuum occurred in Norington, but this was just a problem that would be solved as time passed.
Because loyal people were continuously being recruited.
Those newly recruited into the Cadmus family.
Current retainers who passed through the painful and rough sieve were people boasting the best loyalty among the Cadmus family history, although their ability might be unknown.
And people visiting Blanc were not only loyal people of Norington.
The title Blanc Cadmus, the rising star, was now not simply referring to Blanc as a knight.
He was a monarch causing big changes in the borderline of Kingdom of Felix and Kingdom of Gartaria as a dignified lord possessing a territory.
Young lord bringing a new wind.
People were gathering under the flag of the young, shining, and ambitious Black Wolf.
***
“You say you are from Gartaria Collegiate Church?”
Blanc looked at the young man of neat impression standing in front of him.
He was a person looking over 30, but continuously blinking eyes and looking around didn’t give an impression of trust.
“Yes, yes. Baron. I am called Nicholas.”
Hearing his name, Blanc’s eyebrows went up.
“Who did you say?”
“Pardon?”
Hansen shook his head seeing Nicholas asking back at Blanc’s question with a dumbfounded expression.
“……Nothing.”
Blanc looked at Nicholas closely because there was a person coming to mind among figures of the last life from his name, but he couldn't determine if it was the person he knew just by appearance.
Also because he wasn't a figure he encountered directly in the last life in the first place.
“If you are from Gartaria Collegiate Church, you would be a person whose success is guaranteed in its own way, so how did you come even to me, a noble of the Kingdom of Felix?”
The Collegiate Church created by the collaboration of the Goddess Religion and Gartaria Royal Family was a higher education institution teaching not only theology but also high-level knowledge a bureaucrat must possess such as law and administration.
Just graduating from there was a place high in fame to the extent appointment offers flooded from lords of Gartaria.
To the extent children of wealthy families of other countries went to study abroad.
Therefore Blanc was wondering.
Why did he flow even to himself, the frontier of Kingdom of Gartaria and creating an antipodal point with them?
At Blanc’s question, Nicholas began rambling, sweat pouring down his face.
“Uh…… So…… I admired Baron Blanc’s fame from long ago…… And you won big in the war this time too…….”
“Stop.”
Blanc’s brow was wrinkling.
Blanc’s disappointment grew at his appearance so clumsy that it was doubtful if he was really from the Collegiate Church.
‘Seems he was a namesake with that person.’
Although greatly disappointed, Blanc decided to give Nicholas a chance once again.
‘Still, he is a talent who graduated from the Collegiate Church…….’
He decided to trust the diploma of the Collegiate Church Nicholas possessed.
“In the view of you who have excellent scholarship, how is my situation right now? What decision would be right to make in the future?”
It was a question of Blanc implying many things.
To answer this question properly, one needed not only to pay much attention to Blanc but also insight to predict the future based on the flow regarding the Human Three Kingdoms.
In the first place, even Blanc didn't ask expecting him to answer properly.
However.
Hearing that question, Nicholas' eyes were shining brightly.
“No one would think Baron Blanc, who won big in the war with the three families of Langketa, Vicious, and Kamora, would stop here.”
He was not Nicholas flustered by Blanc’s question with a stupid expression just a moment ago.
His eyes were twinkling with intelligence.
“Since you are the righteous avenger and also the Seeker of the Blue Star receiving support of the Goddess Order, there is nothing lacking in justification even if you occupy and rule the territories of the three families defeated in the war.”
Nicholas' words continued like flowing water.
“Moreover, Baron Blanc is riding a very good flow. Since it means lands of Gartaria are taken by a noble of the Kingdom of Felix, the Royal Family might strongly oppose, but. Isn’t the Gartaria Royal Family currently engulfed in great confusion internally?”
It meant they wouldn't be able to stop the Black Wolf rampaging in the frontier since it was the Gartaria Royal Family right before the Prince’s Rebellion started.
“Furthermore, don’t know if you intended it, but since you are obtaining sturdy support of Tolome and Neudorf, the Meritorious Noble families of the Kingdom of Felix, at least there won't be forces opposing the Baron expanding territory within the kingdom. However…….”
“However?”
Interest was hovering in Blanc’s eyes.
Nicholas swallowed saliva as if catching breath for a moment and continued speaking.
“However, what troubles me is that the Baron’s rear is unstable for him to set his sights on the land of Gartaria at the moment. One must always be wary of what lies behind when turning one’s gaze outward.”
Blanc was nodding his head unknowingly at Nicholas' words.
“If viewed from the perspective within the Kingdom of Felix, since the Baron is a newly rising southern force, it would be natural for Count Lacie, who claimed to be the existing ruler of the south, to be uncomfortable.”
‘Right.’
Nicholas pinpointed one of Blanc’s worries exactly.
“At the very least, it would be good to solidify relationships with surrounding lords. How about a form like a sort of alliance? Since the air flowing in Gartaria is suspicious, if you use that, you will be able to solidify solidarity with surrounding lords firmly.”
At Nicholas' words pouring out incessantly, Hansen eventually couldn't follow the flow and was just blinking his eyes.
The reception room fell silent as Nicholas finished speaking.
People who couldn't catch up with his words pouring out like a waterfall had no choice but to answer with silence.
At that moment, there was a sound of applause ringing in the reception room.
It was the sound of applause Blanc was making.
“Excellent! Indeed intelligence befitting a graduate of the Collegiate Church!”
“Thank you! Baron!”
As words of praise were heard from Blanc who might become an employer, a smile spread around Nicholas' mouth.
However, words coming out of Blanc’s mouth were completely unexpected words like a bolt from the blue.
“Lock him in prison.”
A thick smile spread around the mouth of Blanc pointing at Nicholas.
“Pardon? Pardon?”
At Blanc’s order, the guards bound Nicholas’ arms tightly and dragged the confused man away.
“Baron? Baron!”
Nicholas, who couldn't understand the reason he was being dragged away at all, panicked and flustered, but Blanc’s decision did not change.
Thus, when Nicholas was finally dragged out of the reception room, Blanc called Hansen and spoke quietly.
“I like him very much. Please conciliate him to our side by all means.”
Hansen, flustered by Blanc’s words, asked back.
“No, is there a need to drag a person who came to be appointed even to prison and conciliate him?”
Hansen’s question was reasonable, but the view of Blanc who saw the future of 30 years was different.
“Although he came all the way to Norington saying he evaluates me highly, it is certain he flowed up to here because there is a disqualification reason of his own.”
Looking at Nicholas answering his question, Blanc was convinced he was the same person as the person he knew in the last life.
“It is disgusting that the guy named Nicholas is hiding something from me, so pressure him and make him vomit out the reality.”
“I understand.”
Blanc didn't instruct Hansen in detail, but trusted his abundant experience.
Since he said he is a talent he wants to recruit, he would be able to make him settle down through moderate threat and conciliation rather than harsh torture.
“Must recruit him. If he says he won't come under me…….”
Instantly, a bleak light showed in Blanc’s eyes.
“I understand.”
Hansen, having understood Blanc’s intent, answered quietly.
In his previous life, the King of Gartaria had eventually been the Third Prince, Aleid.
Aleid who succeeded in removing both the 1st Prince who was the eldest son and the 2nd Prince who was building a force in his own way.
The reason Aleid, who had the most lacking position, could become the King of Gartaria was because there were excellent retainers and knights by his side.
Among them, there was one who rose even to the Prime Minister of Gartaria.
The name of the last Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Gartaria destroyed by Void was.
Red Prime Minister Nicholas.
***
Late at night.
Blanc stood by the window looking outside.
A full moon floating brightly in the autumn night without a speck of cloud was illuminating the site where the Cadmus family mansion used to be.
Traces of the Void Tree settling firmly in the middle of that place.
Blanc’s eyes looking at the huge tree stump deepened.
-One must always be careful of the back when turning gaze outside.
Blanc, chewing on what Nicholas said, searched the desk, found a small wooden box, and took it out.
“Time to use it came.”
The wooden box emitting glossy light was receiving moonlight and twinkling whitely.
That wooden box was what was stored in the safe of Iron Bank Bigrove Branch.
The wooden box is stored in the safe of the Cadmus family.
Blanc opened that wooden box.
Bundle of letters contained there.
Replies of southern region lords who answered Pallard Cadmus' sincere proposal.
Pallard Cadmus tried to join forces with surrounding lords to oppose the maneuvering of Gartaria flowing unusually along with Count Lacie’s pressure.
For survival.
For the family’s existence.
Eventually, Pallard ended up played by Prince Aleid’s scheme, but his attempt itself was excellent.
Pallard Cadmus was one who read the trend of the times.
Blanc stroked the letters and looked at the struggle of his father who tried to survive somehow.
“Father’s will shall continue.”
Kingdom of Felix Southern Union.
Pallard Cadmus tried to birth the union for survival, but his son Blanc Cadmus intended to use it with a different intent.
Only by possessing a solid foundation and wide influence can one take a leading position in the approaching destruction.
“Must pacify at least the south to equip a foundation.”
Ruler of the South, Cadmus.
A certain picture was being drawn in Blanc’s head.