my armed maid

Chapter 33 32: respective positions
Half an hour ago, the City Lord’s Mansion.

In the study, Ivan checked a confidential document several times, finally put it into an envelope and sealed it with wax.

"Dong dong."

Evelin knocked on the door and pushed in.

"What's the matter?" Ivan glanced at her, took out the seal of the Bayhart family from the drawer, and put it on the wax of the envelope.

Evelin leaned against the door and said, "There is a march to call for war in the city this morning. Do you want to go and take a look?"

"Parade? Why do you think it's so noisy outside today?"

Ivan's brows suddenly knitted into a Sichuan shape, "Didn't I instruct the city guards to step up their efforts to maintain order in the city? Why would they allow this kind of parade to happen?"

"If you're so curious, why not go outside and take a look for yourself?" Evelin was tempting, "Maybe after listening to their lobbying, your mind will change!"

"Bullshit!"

Ivan shook his head, "I have already discussed all the details of the military mutual assistance agreement with Broken Star City. When they receive this letter, they will immediately send reinforcements to us.

"Broken Star City's military strength is strong, and it is no problem to repel the grassland people. This is the option to solve this war with the least casualties."

Evelin was a little dissatisfied and said: "The casualties may be minimal, but our money and supplies will go to Broken Star City in vain. Their asking price is too high. They are simply taking advantage of the situation!"

"There is no way. After all, it is a special period, and it is inevitable that it will be expensive."

Ivan was unmoved, "People are more important than money. It is better to consume resources than to lose all the people."

"But people can't live without money..."

Evelin muttered, "Furthermore, Broken Star City only said to send reinforcements, but did not guarantee that all the grassland people would be driven out. I'm afraid they will raise the price again and take advantage of us..."

"Oh!"

Ivan suddenly slammed the table and growled: "I've made up my mind, don't say any more!"

Evelin was startled, and she wanted to reply subconsciously, but seeing his angry look, she couldn't provoke him anymore, so she just "hummed" and left.

Ivanli took a breath, then called the attendants and ordered: "Ask the guards to disperse the parade. I don't want this to happen again."

"Yes!"

Just as the attendant was about to leave, Ivan warned again, "Wait... let their methods be gentler and remember not to cause bloodshed."

"Yes!" The attendant hurried away.

The study became quiet, and Ivan sat back on the chair and slowly relaxed his body.

Going to war will cost lives and money, and asking for help will cost money. No choice is perfect.

But he hated war even more.

It's not just that he is conservative and afraid that the war will destroy Fengcheng's troops, he also believes that this war is fundamentally meaningless.

Thanks to the inheritance of the Bayhart family, he has the talent to become a knight, but he is not keen on training and fighting. Instead, he has a soft spot for history and literature since childhood.

He knew that the Roland Empire's glorious cause of unifying the human territory was built on countless blood and tears. The pride of the Empire's people might be a deep sorrow and shame to other nations.

The seeds of hatred were planted 80 years ago and sprouted after the death of Roland I.

Now the Lebus people want to regain their homeland, but the Linfeng people who have lived on the grassland for decades have already regarded this place as their home.

But the Linfeng people are also very innocent. Their ancestors were recruited by the empire to open up wasteland, and they did not come here voluntarily. After they left their hometown, they only had Linfeng City as their home.

Both have a sense of justice in fighting for their homeland.

The collision of two irreconcilable justices became the source of tragedy for both parties.

When looking at this conflict without any position and simply looking at this conflict from a grand historical perspective, Ivan suddenly felt that everything in front of him was hollow.

War breeds hatred, and hatred breeds new wars.

When will such a tragic chain end?
After struggling to the end, he finally made a choice and found his own solution:
That is to avoid fighting with the grassland people, avoid intensifying conflicts between the two sides, and at the same time actively look for ways to negotiate peace.

Lebus Grassland is actually very large, and Linfeng City has always been vast and sparsely populated. Even if part of the fertile land is allocated to the grassland people, it will not have much impact on Linfeng City.

He planned to drag it out until reinforcements arrived and until the grassland people calmed down and felt that war was not a wise choice. Then the two sides would sign an armistice agreement and make peace among the territories.

Peace is more important than anything else.

But unfortunately, his plan has now been hindered by all parties:
First, the grassland people have barbaric habits. They burn, kill, loot, and even commit cannibalism along the way, which has caused great harm to the Linfeng people.

Secondly, the grassland people were resolute. He secretly sent an envoy to negotiate for peace, but in the end they still returned without success. According to the envoy's guess, the grassland people should have been instigated by the second prince Roderick.

Roderick gave the grassland people some material assistance, tacitly agreed to give the entire Linfeng City to the grassland people, and promised that the empire would never be held accountable afterwards.

Now that they have received assistance and promises, and have the opportunity to regain the entire Lebus Grassland, the grassland people are naturally unwilling to share land with the Linfeng people.

Thirdly, the price for Broken Star City's military aid was higher than he had imagined. Not to mention money, cattle, sheep, and horses, even the little mineral resources close to the Linfeng Mountains had to be taken away.

Even if the reinforcements repel the prairie people, Linfeng City will not be able to easily restore its previous economic level within five or seven years.

Over the past few days, the bad news coming from all sides has made him anxious. Those war-fighters who only have honor, hatred and muscle in their minds are still chattering in his ears every day.

In the morning, he had just confirmed the agreement on military mutual assistance between the two cities and was about to release the goshawk to send out the letter.

As a result, a group of marchers gathered in front of the city lord's palace to protest.

He felt like he was being driven crazy.

Ivan rested on the chair for a while. He originally thought that the noise outside would subside, but unexpectedly it became louder and louder.

"What are the city guards doing? What are the guards in the mansion doing!"

He stood up a little irritably and paced back and forth in the study, "Could it be that the situation was out of control and there was a conflict between the guards and the crowd? I'd better go out and take a look."

He walked out of the mansion and happened to see Evelin standing at the door of the city lord's mansion.

"Eve, what's going on now?" He stepped forward and asked.

"Wait...don't come over yet!"

Evelin turned her head, her pale face showing a bit of panic.

When she said this, Ivan wanted to go see him even more. He was the city lord. If something happened, he would be able to control the situation.

He quickly stepped forward and stood at the door of the City Lord's Mansion, and then saw a scene he would never forget -

Just in front of the gate of the city lord's palace, the corpses of dozens of marchers lay scattered on the ground, and the blood red under their bodies spread, covering the entire street.

So many people died in front of him, at the gate of the city lord's mansion. Ivan felt his head buzzing and he was completely confused.

"How could this happen?" He shook his lips, "Didn't I say that bloody conflicts are prohibited?"

"I-I don't know either!"

Half of the guard captain's body was spattered with blood, and his expression collapsed, "We really didn't do anything, they... committed suicide!"

The suicide attempt on the street was coming to an end. Ivan saw several people holding swords on his neck. He no longer hesitated and shouted:
"Stop! Stop it for me!"

But he didn't get what he wanted. He only saw fanaticism and hatred in their eyes.

"Kill the barbarians! Avenge blood!"

The last group of petitioners chanted, "Glory to the Roland Empire!"

Under Ivan's desperate gaze, the marchers resolutely cut their own throats.

A trace of blood swayed in the air, like a red flag, like the anger of the deceased.

"No..." The rest of Ivan's words were stuck in his throat and he could no longer say them out.

As the last group of marchers fell, the crowd turned their attention to the young city lord.

The whole process witnessed the demonstrators dying for the righteousness of protecting their homes and the country. The anti-war sentiment of the masses was amplified to the extreme at this moment. "Please, Lord City Lord, start a war!"

Someone in the crowd shouted something, and then everyone followed suit.

"Please, Lord City Lord, start a war!"

"Please, Lord City Lord, start a war!"

"Please, Lord City Lord, start a war!"

"..."

Ivan's hands and feet were cold. At a glance, he saw that all the people who loved him in the past were now standing against him. They formed an airtight human wall to surround him, as if they were judging a timid person who refused to fight. coward.

So everyone is against me?

Did I do something wrong?

Seeing that the situation was becoming increasingly uncontrollable, in order to prevent an accident from happening, Evelin grabbed Ivan's arm and dragged him back to the house.

Ivan only felt that his whole body was numb. He stood blankly in the room, and the enthusiastic expressions of the marchers before their death still lingered in his mind.

Evelin also had a lot of worries in her heart, but seeing his devastated look, she couldn’t just leave alone and leave, and continued to comfort him:

"It has happened, so don't think about it anymore... You go and take a rest first, and let us handle the rest."

She didn't speak, but as soon as she spoke, Ivan's emotions exploded instantly.

"Stop pretending to be a good person here!"

He roared hysterically, "I have clearly ordered the guards to maintain order in the city, but not only did the guards betray me, but you also betrayed me. You actually described this suicide march as an ordinary petition march. You like it so much." See me making a fool of myself and see their blood flowing all over the ground!"

Evelin's face turned blue and white, and she was speechless for a moment.

She was the one who asked the guards at the city lord's palace not to drive away the parade in the morning. She also knew that the city guards would turn a blind eye to the parade.

Judging from the results, it is true that she allowed and condoned this bloody incident, and it was also true that she deceived Ivan and described the incident as an ordinary petition for war.

If the guards and guards had stopped the parade from arriving at the gate of the city lord's palace earlier and had not given the parade time to incite the crowd, it would not have resulted in the consequences that Ivan is facing now.

But the problem is that she was also deceived. She really thought that this morning was just an ordinary march, a way for ordinary people to express their voices.

Who could have imagined that this march would turn into a frenzied suicide scene?

"I was also cheated..."

She explained with difficulty, "I thought... it wouldn't turn out like this..."

"Hahaha, but now things have fucking turned into this!"

Ivan burst into laughter, "Someone must be secretly instigating this kind of thing. Do you dare to say that you don't know about it?
"You put on a sad look, you must be secretly happy, right? It's great, everyone has been forcing me to start a war, and now you are finally getting your wish.

"Everyone wants war. If you like war, then I will give you war! Just go and fight to your heart's content. I don't care about anything. If you want to die, then all of you will die!"

Being betrayed by the people around him and watching the people commit suicide in front of him in order to resist him made him almost lose control of his emotions.

Evelin gritted her teeth, turned around and left.

She was going to find Nolen to find out.

……

In the private room of the tavern, Nolen stood up.

This suicide march has alarmed the Knights. More and more troops gathered and began to forcibly evacuate the onlookers.

The petition for war was over, but its effect had been achieved.

He used the tragic experiences and patriotic feelings of the refugees to inspire the people's will to resist the war, marched and gave a speech at the gate of the city lord's palace, and died to express his will.

Such parades were not only lobbying the city lords, but also lobbying the masses.

These deaths were not caused by being suppressed by the city guards as reactionary forces, but by collective suicide, with blood splattering on the city lord's palace, and for the sake of clarification.

Such a shocking scene has never happened before in the entire history of the Roland Empire.

After this parade, the direction of public opinion in the city will completely shift towards the side that started the war, and the city lord's palace will be forced to go to Liangshan——

When everyone wants to fight, and some people even die to fight, the City Lord's Mansion that insists on not fighting will lose all the support of the people, and will be forever nailed to the pillar of shame in history as a coward.

If Ivan doesn't want to be ruined and infamy for eternity, he must stand up and fight head-on with the prairie people.

This was the conspiracy he and Harrison discussed that night.

"The march was a success."

Harrison drank the red wine in his glass and stood up, "After today, the City Lord's Palace will have to stand on the same front as us."

If there is anyone in Linfeng City who most hopes that the City Lord's Mansion will go to war with the grassland people, Harrison is definitely one of them.

His mercenary group and its commercial assets are extremely dependent on the living space and trade channels outside the city. Once the grassland people block Linfeng City, his power will be hit hardest.

He needs the forces of the city lord's palace to join the battle and let the army help ensure the smooth flow of trade channels.

Therefore, despite the outer shell of protecting the country and rescuing refugees, he is also a staunch activist with interests in mind.

Now, in order to promote the war, he planned this suicide march in the name of justice, even at the expense of a hundred dead soldiers.

Most of these dead soldiers were refugees whose families had been destroyed by the invasion of the grassland people, who were desperate and had death aspirations.

Harrison used their hatred of the prairie people to lobby, making them believe that as long as they could commit suicide in front of the city lord's mansion, they could force the city lord to send troops to avenge themselves.

There are also those refugees who are poor and have families to support. They are struggling on the edge of survival.

Harrison promised to take care of their relatives and promised appropriate compensation, eventually convincing some to die for his plan.

As Evelin once reminded, he is indeed a businessman who is good at inciting people and puts personal interests first.

However, even if Harrison planned this suicide march for his own benefit, this suicide march could indeed unite Linfeng City and force Ivan to go to war.

Once the City Lord's Mansion joins the battle, it will be easier for him to help Yuna get revenge, at least they will no longer fight alone.

Although the two have different positions, their goals are the same.

This is why he was ultimately willing to assist Harrison.

Although some people will die in this march, if such a radical method is not used to force Ivan to go to war, more refugees will only die as time goes on.

And their deaths will be even more painful and meaningless.

Which one is more important? That night, he only thought for a moment before making a decision.

If participating in planning this suicide march was evil, then he chose to accept this evil.

All he could do was to live up to the expectations of the deceased, help Linfeng City win the war, and allow these sacrificed people to rest in peace.

This is his determination and his awareness.

Leaving the tavern and getting on the carriage back, there was no conversation the whole way.

When he arrived at the door of the alchemy workshop, he and Yuna got off the carriage together, and saw Evelin blocking his door outside.

Nolen was not surprised that Evelin would come to investigate and accuse her. After all, it was he who deceived Evelin into thinking their plan was just an ordinary petition march.

Before she walked over and was about to get angry, Nolen winked at her and whispered: "Let's go in and talk."

Evelin didn’t want to lose her temper in front of Yuna. She followed Nolen into the room with an angry expression: “You lied to me, you’d better give me a satisfactory explanation, otherwise I will tell you today It’s not over!”

　Thanks to lm876a for the tip.

　　The preparation is complete, it’s finally time to get started, Valkyrie is ready!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)