Section Thirty-Eight: Representative Kidd (Part Two)

“So what if I do? Do you really think you can keep fighting all the way into the heart of the land?” Kade let the laughter die from his face. “Even if you could occupy Hilderhalt forever, when necessary we could abandon the city, withdraw entirely from the region, and leave behind a vast wilderness as a barrier. Even the people you capture would starve to death. By then you would be forced back to the sea with nothing to show for it. As for the wine you like, it is brewed elsewhere. Even if you captured the cooks, without the proper ingredients they could do nothing to set a lavish meal before you.”

“The loss on your side would be greater than mine. At worst, I would gain nothing; but one of your cities would be destroyed because of it.” Philipic sneered again. At this stage, an attack on Hilderhalt was within the Feishi people’s power, but as for driving deep into the continent, he was not so arrogant yet. The Feishi people’s advantage lay at sea; at the very least, they would need to secure support from the ocean.

He admitted it very quickly. “That is why I proposed that we cooperate. We do not want losses. You, too, may not suffer any great loss, but are you truly willing to walk away empty-handed? As long as His Imperial Highness is willing to make a small concession, everyone stands to benefit.”

When Kade finished speaking, Philipic fell into thought. For a moment, the second-floor hall was so quiet that even a pin dropping could have been heard.

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The city of Gaulois was in high spirits. After the Revolutionary Corps drove off the First Division and shot dead the former governor, Hendley, who had refused to flee and had made a fool of himself to the end, the whole city seethed with excitement. Everyone was spreading the word that the world was about to turn upside down.

Under Grant’s orders, the Revolutionary Corps soothed the common people, toppled the old nobles who had once lorded it over the city, sealed away the wealth they had extorted from the populace, and affixed huge seals to it, assigning special men to count and record everything in detail.

As for the noble lords, Grant ordered them all gathered in the governor’s residence, the half-collapsed mansion that had been battered nearly to ruin by cannon fire. Only a few ramshackle rooms could still barely be called houses; the once magnificent outer walls had been riddled with shell holes, and the cold wind blew straight through. In the city, every one of these nobles had once been a figure of consequence, each with a grand house of his own and still wanting for more. Now nearly a hundred of them were crammed together there. Some wept and raged, some simply rolled about on the floor, and some shouted that they would fight the Revolutionary Corps to the death. The guard captain, Gamio, could no longer bear it. He ordered his goblin company to drag the fellow shouting for a fight out of the overcrowded house and indulge his wish by giving him the treatment of a private prison all to himself in that underground cell. Only then did the others finally fall silent.

For the past two days, the Revolutionary Corps had continued fighting the remnants of the First Division outside the city. The two sides were nearly evenly matched in the open fields. The Revolutionary Corps had once tried to lure the First Division under the city walls and bombard them again with artillery, but just as they were about to succeed, Colonel Smith saw through Grant’s plan and withdrew in time. By the third day, the First Division’s ammunition had been nearly exhausted, and the musketeers could no longer play an important role. Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Corps had seized the city’s ammunition depot, and a small arsenal left behind by the original test-casting team within the city was continuously supplying bullets and shells.

Just as the First Division showed signs of collapse, the cavalry that had been lured away arrived in time, preventing the Revolutionary Corps from pursuing their advantage and preserving most of the First Division’s strength as it withdrew from the Gaulois region.

Only then could the Revolutionary Corps be said to have gained temporary control over the area around Gaulois. Grant announced that a grand assembly would be held in Gaulois, in the city’s largest square.

Hegel and Wei Wujie, meanwhile, had been worrying all along about the whereabouts of Cessily. Grant assured them that once the First Division had been repelled and control of Gaulois secured, he would devote all his efforts to finding her. He did keep his promise, but Cessily seemed to have vanished as if she had grown wings. For the time being, no information had been found. Only one report surfaced among the insurgents: Hendley had indeed once spotted someone suspected to be Cessily, and the cavalry regiment had gone to capture her, but she was carried off by a winged person. Later, however, they mistakenly seized a woman who merely resembled Cessily. The cavalry regiment had not taken part in the uprising, and there was now no way to find anyone to verify the accuracy of the report.

A winged person first brought to mind the angels said to serve the Lord of Light, yet it was hard to believe that the Lord of Light would personally descend through his servants and warriors to rescue a woman who did not even believe in him. Besides, it had been many years since anyone had heard of angels descending from the Church of Light. There were, to be sure, winged peoples among the ancient orc tribes as well, but whether the harpies or the Smai clan, known as the noble people of the skies, they had long since vanished in the smoke and dust of the great wars of old.

While continuing to order the search for Cessily, Grant also comforted the two men, telling them that at tomorrow’s assembly, he would invite those beastmen who were relatively close to the Revolutionary Corps, such as Beel and Monk, and they could ask them then.

Wei Wujie had no better plan either. Strong though he was, finding one person in a needle-in-a-haystack search was not easy. He could only rely on Grant’s influence. Still, having nothing better to do, he would continue to fly out each day in a streak of light, carefully searching the surrounding wilderness in the hope of finding some trace of Cessily.

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Under a great tree outside the city, Fei Liguo stood beside another man who looked so plain and ordinary that he might have been no different from any common Landean. A faint halo surrounded their bodies, and that halo came from the star compass in Fei Liguo’s hand. The two of them watched quietly as Wei Wujie flew off into the distance until he disappeared. With the power of the star compass, unless Wei Wujie had already discovered their position and then carried out a meticulous search with his divine sense, he would not be able to find them. Their auras were shielded by starlight to a great extent, and even Wei Wujie would have difficulty detecting them at a glance.

“Your senior brother has gone,” the plain-looking man said.

“Do you really need me to assassinate Grant?” Fei Liguo looked at him and could not help asking, “I still cannot make out your purpose at all. You want me to assassinate Grant, yet you plan to throw yourself in with the Revolutionary Corps? And like your names—Lord of the Single God Jar, Scale of the Yin Man, Ridden Dream Concealer, Willow Following the Wind, Sovereign of the Nine Netherworlds—there are already so many identities I know of. Which one is your true face?”

“That is in the East. In the West, I have quite a few names as well. Some of them are already on the wanted lists of both the Church and the various kingdoms.” The ordinary-looking man spoke languidly. “You may call me Mister Rider of Hidden Dreams for now. But after a while, I will go to Gaulois under another name.”