Do you have a problem with necromancers?

Chapter 99 Charging into Battle
During the election season in the capital, all sorts of gimmicks can be seen on the streets almost every day.

Because in this world without the internet, mobile phones, and data traffic, the vast majority of citizens know nothing about the candidates participating in this election, so the scarcest resource is exposure.

For wealthy candidates, hiring a large number of vote thugs and handing out money directly on the streets are the most efficient methods.

But if you don't have money, you can choose to cause trouble or pull a prank. As long as you can leave a deep impression on the citizens, that's a victory. For example, the famous hen councilor Gert Solothu, in order to promise the farmers in the capital that he would vigorously fight for tax cuts for the livestock industry, even went so far as to sit in an open wooden cart full of chicken droppings to the suburbs to campaign, in order to prove that he was not the kind of aristocratic gentleman who was out of touch with reality.

Among these troublemakers, the Amazon Society is undoubtedly the most prominent organization. With the backing of many noble ladies and young women, they are incredibly unscrupulous in their actions, wishing they could trample every imperial person they encounter on the street under their feet, so that the entire capital would know that the Amazons have now risen up.

The only people they dared not offend were the guards of the capital.

Olivia Crosos, once a prominent figure within the Association, ended up in the Royal Prison, and her whereabouts thereafter are completely unknown.

What's even more bizarre is that the association's top management remained completely silent, without even putting up any public pressure or attempting to help, seemingly intending to swallow all the bitter pill in silence.

Even among the noblewomen of the Amazons, most were groomed for political marriages and had not received elite family education. Their understanding of the concept of strength and weakness was quite rudimentary: the association's silence on this matter meant it had conceded defeat to the Imperial Guards, and the balance of power had been established.

Therefore, in various meetings within the association, everyone tacitly avoids mentioning the Imperial Capital's guards. If it's unavoidable, they can only vaguely mention, "Try not to cause trouble for the guards."

“Many of the association’s higher-ups disagree with this,” Bersalia told Renn. “They think the Golden Robes were just lucky. They only escaped because Olivia was out of her mind and tried to assassinate the minister’s secretary. As a result, the Amazons are now all timid and afraid to speak up.”

“Marsan even spoke up for you, saying that you donated a huge sum of money to the association and were definitely not an enemy of the Amazons, but they collectively accused you and even suspected that she was a spy you planted in the association.”

Bersalia, with a smug smile that said, "I'm the spy," continued:
"By the way, the association has already nominated its candidate this time. It's Ego Floren. I'm not sure if you've heard of her, but she's not some idiot like Olivia."

Renn had indeed heard of the name. The wife of the Earl of Florence, a rare intelligent female noblewoman in the Amazon Society, unlike others who were overly emotional and impulsive.

Of course, the price was that she didn't believe the nonsense about "Amazons being oppressed" at all; she just wanted to use the Queen's connections to climb the social ladder—coincidentally, the same was true for Raine.

There's no way to work with someone like Olivia; she's audacious, arrogant, and unprincipled, and would stab you in the back at any moment. But Ego is different. She's a typical old-fashioned noblewoman, and she's willing to form an alliance with someone who shares common interests.

However, the two sides first need to find an opportunity to make contact.

After confirming with Berthalia that the Amazon Association had a candidate for councilor, Ryan was in no hurry to take the initiative to contact them, but instead focused on dealing with the backlog of garrison work.

Now that the Amazons are no longer causing trouble, the workload of the guards has been greatly reduced. The brave guards of the capital city have no fear in dealing with gangsters, thugs, or vote-buying hooligans, but dealing with the Amazons is another matter... Whenever you try to arrest them, they just need to tear off their clothes, lie on the ground, and start shouting, and a lot of enthusiastic people will immediately come to watch.

The onlookers didn't care whether these Amazons were "real criminals" or not; they only instinctively sympathized with the weak, pointed and gossiped about the guards, and even openly obstructed law enforcement. For example, when the previous commander, Rello Dacros, was in charge, a mob in the southern district tried to cover the escape of prisoners, and afterwards, more than a dozen people were caught by the Golden Robe and thrown into the dungeon.

As a result, the association pulled every string they could, eventually reaching out to Mrs. Argus, Rello's aunt, who used her position as an elder to pressure Rello directly. Left with no other option, the Golden Robes were forced to release him.

The root cause of this bizarre phenomenon is that no one in the empire had anticipated that these noble ladies and young women, once united, could possess such immense power. If their respective families had provided them with an elite education (instead of training them as tools for marriage alliances), so many wouldn't have been foolishly bound to Her Majesty the Empress's chariot, serving as pawns to charge into battle for others.

In that sense, the root of all evil was Queen Margaret.

Just as Raine was sorting out his thoughts, someone outside suddenly delivered another letter.

The Empress has summoned me.

----------

In the private garden next to the Amazon Museum, Renne met the Virtuous Queen again.

Margarita was in a very good mood, picking dew-covered flower buds with scissors, followed by a maid carrying a tray.

“You’ve come, Renn.” She placed the cut flowers on the maid’s tray and waved for her to leave. “It seems that Olivia’s matter didn’t cause you too much trouble.”

“I have no real grudge against Miss Olivia,” Rein said in a deep voice. “But it is my duty and mission to keep the Imperial Guard under control for His Majesty, and I will not allow anyone to interfere. Even if she hadn’t gone mad and tried to assassinate the Minister of Law’s secretary, I would still have fought her to the death.”

“Hmm.” Margarita was clearly very satisfied with his attitude. As a superior, it was always pleasant to see conflicts between subordinates. If Rein had formed deep friendships with all the other high-ranking members of the Amazon Association, Her Majesty the Queen would have become wary. “I didn’t know about Olivia’s matter at the time. She took it upon herself to use guild resources against you without my knowledge.”

"You don't need to worry about this anymore. I will make sure she gets the punishment she deserves."

Ryan quickly put on a flattered expression, but inwardly he sneered: You don't know? You think I'm a fool?
However, court politics has always been like this. I'm acting, and you're acting; we both put on a show of acting. If we both see through each other's act, we just smile at each other. If someone doesn't see through it... well, sorry, they'll naturally be manipulated by the other actors later on.

"The Amazon Association also has someone running in this House of Representatives election." Empress Margarita felt she had reassured him enough, so she formally began to assign him a new task. "This matter is very important. As the commander of the Imperial Capital Garrison, you need to work closely with the Association's candidate to help her win a seat in the House of Representatives."

“Understood,” Ryan replied immediately. “I will cooperate as much as possible.”

“Did you hear that, Igor?” Margarita smiled slightly, and a noblewoman stepped out from behind a pillar of the pavilion in the opposite garden.

She was in her early forties, with many wrinkles around her eyes, but her gaze was long and sharp, revealing her astute nature as an aristocrat. She nodded slightly to Renn and said:
"The leader of the Golden Robes, Marquis Fahl of the Reach, is surprisingly such a young man."

“You too,” Ryan said with a flourish. “Mrs. Florence, I never imagined you would join the Amazon Society.”

"Me? Heh." The other party just smiled faintly, and Raine immediately guessed from her reaction that, just as the players on the forum analyzed, this Ms. Florence was probably not interested in "becoming an Amazon" at all, and only joined in reluctantly because of the Queen's Party's needs.

“Darling, we can talk about pleasantries later. Let’s get down to business now,” Margarita suggested. “It’s about our plans.”

“Hmm.” Ms. Florence nodded and said, “The association has prepared a special topic for this parliamentary election, and we will need Your Excellency Fahre’s cooperation.”

She began to explain clearly and logically, and Ryan listened attentively, his eyes quickly becoming sharp.

The initial trigger for this matter was that a minor nobleman secretly sought out Lady Florence through connections, asking her to help break up a marriage.

A minor nobleman had a daughter who was born mentally challenged. After growing up, she married the son of a wealthy merchant family. Within the four borders of the empire, marriages between lower-class nobles and wealthy merchants were quite normal and frequent. After all, the former needed the latter's wealth to maintain their prestige, while the latter needed the former's bloodline to help their descendants join the ranks of the nobility.

The problem was that the wealthy merchant soon went bankrupt due to business failure, so the minor nobleman considered having his daughter divorce the other party's son. But the daughter was simple-minded and couldn't understand her father's hints at all. What to do? They quickly came up with a solution, saying that their family's title was bestowed by the Florentine family from their ancestors, and that the marriage of a vassal's son required the lord's consent; otherwise, the contract itself would be illegal.

"So does the Florent family have such a rule?" Renn asked with great interest.

“No,” Mrs. Florence replied. “The Florence family has never demanded such trivial power from its vassals, so I pointed him to another path.”

She paused for a moment, seemingly wanting to see if Ryan could guess the answer.

Renn was silent for a moment, then frowned and said:

"Are you going to frame this as a marriage fraud? That the merchant family used improper means to forcibly take this noblewoman?"

"Since this woman is born mentally challenged, who can guarantee that her marriage was a voluntary choice?" Ms. Florence said calmly. "The truth of the matter itself is not important. What is important is that it can effectively arouse the common fear of women in the capital, namely the fear of being forced into marriage by their families and marrying someone they do not like."

“Fear can breed anger, and anger can generate a strong enough motivation. At that time, I just need to stand up and call for action, and I can easily mobilize them to vote for me.”

“I must correct you here,” Queen Margarita said with a smile. “It is not the fear of the women in the capital that is the fear of the Amazons.”

“You should link this to the ‘long-term oppression of the Amazons by the Empire,’ otherwise their anger will only be directed at that innocent merchant family and will be vented and dissipated as the marriage is broken. The Empire’s hegemony is a better, more elusive target that can sustainably and for a longer period of time to inspire the Amazons’ fighting spirit.”

“Ha, Amazons.” Ms. Florence frowned in disgust.

In her view, calling themselves "Amazons" was completely unnecessary. They were all imperial nobles whose ancestry could be traced back to the early days of the kingdom, with clear paternal and maternal lineages for each generation. Where did this "Amazonian blood" come from? And why was it fashionable to dress up as savages?

However, being pragmatic is an essential professional quality for nobles, so Ms. Florence skipped over the topic and said to Renn:
"What we are doing is extremely likely to arouse resentment, so please guard this side and keep the situation under control to prevent the security situation from escalating."

“Okay.” Ryan nodded. “Notify us in advance of the time and place of the operation, and I will send my men over to maintain order.”

Ms. Florence astutely noticed that Rein had said "let his men" rather than "I will lead the team myself." Clearly, this officer in the golden robes knew that breaking up perfectly good families was utterly immoral and would inevitably provoke fierce resentment from many intelligent citizens of the capital. If not handled properly, the fire could spread to the very guards of the capital.

To incite a small group and offend a large one is definitely not a wise choice. Moreover, in the long run, all the benefits will go to the Amazon Association, while the enemies will only remember the name Ego Floren... Ms. Floren suppressed her secret thoughts and continued chatting with Renn without showing any emotion.

After the meeting, Raine returned to the Imperial Capital military camp, still silently thinking and planning.

This incident may seem minor, but it will have a profound impact on the entire capital. One of the core elements of the civic culture that forms the foundation of the Second Empire is "marriage, family, and responsibility," and the Amazon Society is attempting to destroy the sanctity of this core culture.

If even families aren't worth building and protecting, how can we expect citizens to defend the empire? The very foundation of the nation will rot away.

Of course, neither the ambitious Emperor Nilocas nor the compassionate Empress Margarita paid any attention to this matter. They were only concerned with how to secure their positions and hold onto their scepters more tightly.

For Raine, the most pressing matter was to find a way to protect himself. Because the Amazon Society's attempt to dismantle the cultural foundations of the Empire would inevitably invite a full-scale attack from the conservatives, whose firepower would certainly not be aimed at the Emperor and Empress.

"Dia! Dia!" Renn called out loudly to the little maid.

"What's wrong?" Dia quickly poked her head out from the next room, her mouth stuffed full, like a hamster hiding food in its cheeks.

"What are you doing?" Renn asked, frowning.

“Fatim is baking butter cookies, they’re delicious, would you like to try some?” Dia asked enthusiastically.

"Don't eat yet, call everyone over," Renn instructed.

--------------

After hearing what Ryan had to say, everyone fell silent.

Although I knew from the start that this empress was no good, she was a perfectly good family, and you insisted on going there to break them up. That just makes you seem a bit like a hypocrite.

“You shouldn’t have done this,” Ellina said in a deep voice. “Raine, this is undoubtedly an evil deed.”

“Eileen, you need to understand, I’m not the one in charge of carrying out this task.” Raine sighed deeply. “Her Majesty the Queen only sent me to maintain order; someone else is in charge of this.”

“Who is it? Tell me their name and address.” Aurora patted the longbow slung over her shoulder. “I guarantee that one night, an arrow will silently pierce her throat.”

“Assassinating her would be pointless,” Dia said. “That lady was just following the Queen’s orders. Even if you killed her, the Queen could just find someone else to carry out the plan. Wouldn’t that be a complete waste of effort?”

“Then kill the Queen,” Aurora said.

"Stop!" Renn quickly stopped everyone from continuing their discussion of the treasonous plot. "I am utterly loyal to the royal family and will not allow anyone to discuss anything detrimental to the royal family in my office!"

You're being way too cautious... Everyone was speechless. Which of these heroes present wasn't incredibly perceptive? Couldn't they have noticed if someone was eavesdropping around the office?

“I suspect that Ms. Florence didn’t actually want to do such a despicable thing,” Berthalia pondered. “Inciting conflict between traditionalists and extremists will only attract more extremists to the Amazon Association, but it will also attract hatred and firepower from traditionalists.”

“Raine, you could meet with Ms. Florence privately and try to find out what she really means.”

“Hmm.” Renn looked at Fatin, who hadn’t spoken from the beginning, “Princess Jinsha, what are your thoughts?”

“There’s no need to call me Princess Jinsha,” Fatin said softly. “Just call me by my name.”

“I don’t know much about the current human empire. Renn, if you’re going to see that Lady Florence, may I accompany you as her maid?”

Renn was quite surprised by this, but considering that the other party had only been resurrected not long ago and indeed needed some time to adapt, he nodded in agreement.

Ms. Florence did not keep him waiting long; the next day she sent her butler with an invitation to invite Ryan to dinner.

Speaking of dinner, there was another nobleman from the capital who had also sent an invitation to Renn—that was Duke Dacros.

He died later.

Therefore, inviting Ryan to dinner is very risky, because if you accidentally offend him, you could die.

Unfortunately, Ms. Florence was clearly unaware of this. Following the traditional customs of the capital, she delivered hot soup for rinsing his mouth, bread, and salt for dipping to Renn at her doorstep.

After the guest ceremony was completed, Renn was led by the butler to the banquet hall, where he saw Count Florence and his wife waiting for him.

In terms of rank, Renn Fahr was a marquis, a rank higher than the Earl of Florence. However, the imperial tradition held that nobles from border provinces were considered inferior, so the Earl of Florence wasn't overly enthusiastic, simply inviting Renn for drinks and food and engaging in perfunctory small talk.

Ms. Florence noticed her husband's indifference and coughed subtly.

“Excuse me.” Count Florence quickly stood up. “I have some family matters to attend to. Please excuse me.”

After the Count left the restaurant, Ego Floren wiped his mouth with a napkin and sighed, saying:
"Please forgive my worthless husband. He has wasted too much time in peaceful and comfortable life and can't distinguish the fundamental difference between a marquis from a border province and a marquis who holds real power in the capital."

“I understand.” Ryan slowly and methodically cut the lamb on his plate, the knife and fork making a sharp scraping sound against the plate. “As for you, madam, I have long heard of your reputation. Few noble ladies are as shrewd and capable as you.”

"If you marry a good-for-nothing and still have to keep the family's reputation intact, you can only try your best to become strong," Ms. Florence said bluntly. "Unfortunately, sometimes, no matter how careful and cautious you are, you can't withstand the self-righteous cleverness of a good-for-nothing."

"If I could go back in time, I would definitely tell my younger self: you must be careful when choosing a marriage partner, just like you must be careful when choosing a business ally. A bad ally can't help you at all, but will only hold you back."

"Hmm..." Renn put the juicy lamb chop into his mouth, savoring Ms. Florence's unspoken meaning.

She wants to form an alliance with me and is testing my attitude.

"Madam Florence, did you marry the Earl willingly?" Renn asked slowly.

“No, of course not.” Mrs. Florence laughed. “I come from the Dorsa family, a noble family as ancient as Florence’s. My marriage was arranged from the moment I was born.”

"Is this why you broke up that marriage?" Renn asked, feigning curiosity. "Do you hope that all Amazons will have the courage to resist arranged marriages?"

“Ha, Amazons.” Ms. Florence gave an undisguised sarcastic laugh. “I don’t think so, because most of the people in the association never had the chance to get married in the first place.”

"Your Excellency Fahr, I don't know how much you know about the Amazon Society. In my opinion, this society is full of disillusioned people from the lower classes and those who despise themselves."

"The reason why these so-called 'Amazons' abandon their Imperial identity is essentially to escape their originally destitute and miserable lives, and to squeeze benefits from any law-abiding group around them through unreasonable behavior and sophistry."

"You really dare to say that..." Renn couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.

Of course, he was also aware that the noble ladies and wives of the association's higher-ups indeed viewed ordinary commoner members in the same way. The Amazon Association, in essence, was nothing more than a group of bad people manipulating and directing a large group of fools.

“I couldn’t agree more with you,” Raine said in a low voice, “but my loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen is beyond question, and her will is the direction I follow.”

“Of course, who isn’t?” Lady Florence smiled slightly, understanding Renn’s unspoken meaning. “Serving the royal family is an honor for every noble in the capital, but how to serve the royal family is something that needs careful consideration. If we only follow His Majesty’s orders, then what’s the difference between us and ordinary Amazons?”

“You mean…” Renn pretended to think for a moment, “that the result is important?”

“What matters is the result,” Ms. Florence stated firmly. “Whether radical or conservative, the goal can ultimately be achieved, and it makes no difference to His Majesty, but it makes a big difference to us.”

“You’re right.” Renn raised his glass and had Fatin, who was serving him, pour him a drink. “A proper nobleman should avoid putting himself in danger.”

"And let others fight for us." Ms. Florence raised her glass in a gesture of respect, her smile spreading across her face.

(End of this chapter)