Chapter 184

The old man with graying hair had his body trembling slightly; he closed his eyes as if making some difficult decision.

After a long time, he suddenly opened his eyes and slapped the table.

"Damn it! Let's do it!"

The old man's words were like a signal.

"Let's do it! The bold are stuffed to death, the timid are starved to death!"

"Master Silas is right! We can't hesitate anymore!"

"I'll bet! I'm betting my entire fortune on that Master Roko!"

For a time, the crowd was impassioned.

All previous opposition and doubts vanished into thin air.

Replaced by a determination to burn the bridges and an infinite longing for the future.

Silas looked at this scene, a satisfied smile appearing on his fat face.

He knew he had won the bet.

He stood up and held his teacup high.

"Then, everyone!"

"For our shared future, for the golden age that is about to arrive!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

More than a dozen teacups clinked together heavily.

At this moment, they were no longer a group of profit-seeking merchants.

But a group of crazy gamblers preparing to flip the entire table of the Sunset Province.

One hour later.

A secret letter, jointly signed by more than a dozen core members of the Commercial Alliance, was delivered to Roko through the most secretive channels.

There was only one word on the letter.

"Agreed."

Roko looked at that word, a confident smile curling the corner of his mouth.

He knew that from this moment on, the sky over the Sunset Province was going to change.

He looked up and looked out the window.

The sky had gradually darkened.

A huge storm was quietly brewing within Sunset City.

The night deepened.

The night in Sunset City should have been brightly lit with singing and dancing.

But tonight, the entire city was shrouded in an eerie silence.

The streets were empty, every household had their doors and windows tightly shut, and not even a hint of noise could be heard in the taverns.

The air was filled with a suffocating atmosphere, as if a storm were about to break.

Everyone was waiting, waiting to see what kind of ending the day's turmoil would have.

And the center of the storm, the Governor's Mansion, was even more deathly silent.

Marquis Archibald, ever since he was allowed to return from outside the city, had locked himself in his study.

He did not call a doctor to bandage the wound on his forehead, letting the blood congeal on his face, looking ferocious and disheveled.

He did not get angry, did not throw things, just sat blankly behind that huge desk symbolizing power, looking at a glass of red wine on the table with dull eyes.

He knew he had become a joke.

A Marquis forced to kneel and kowtow by a Baron.

This stain would accompany him for his entire life—no, it would accompany the entire Archibald family forever.

He was finished.

Reputation, dignity, wealth—everything he had once been proud of had been crushed to pieces today by that young man named Roko.

He was now a tiger with its teeth pulled and claws clipped, holding the title of Marquis in name only, yet not even as good as an ordinary noble.

"Why—why did it turn out like this—"

He muttered to himself, his eyes filled with confusion and unwillingness.

He couldn't figure out how he could have lost so miserably, so thoroughly.

Just then, the door to the study was knocked on lightly.

"Get out!"

Archibald, like an enraged lion, suddenly raised his head and let out an angry roar.

"No one is allowed to bother me! All of you, get out!"

However, the person outside the door did not leave.

"Marquis, it's us."

A steady voice came through.

Archibald's pupils shrank.

He was very familiar with this voice.

It was his City Guard Commander-in-Chief, General Vittel.

The general who had been rendered speechless by him on the city wall.

"I said, get out!" Archibald roared again.

However, the door did not quiet down because of his roar.

With a "click," the lock of the study door was opened from the outside.

The door was pushed open, and the tall figure of General Vittel appeared at the entrance.

Behind him followed seven or eight high-ranking officers clad in heavy armor, holding weapons.

These people were all the highest commanders of the Sunset City Guard, his most relied-upon right-hand men.

But at this moment, there was no longer the respect and fear of the past on their faces.

Replaced by a cold, strange expression.

"You—what do you want to do?"

Archibald's heart sank, and an ominous premonition instantly enveloped him. "Rebelling? You bastards!" he shouted, his voice lacking conviction. General Vittel ignored his roar; he just looked at Archibald quietly, a hint of pity in his eyes.

He walked slowly into the study and placed a piece of parchment gently on Archibald's desk.

"Marquis, take a look at this."

Archibald's gaze fell on that parchment.

On it was a ferocious scorpion mark.

His heart skipped a beat instantly.

With trembling hands, he picked up the parchment.

This—this was something from his treasury's secret chamber!

It was a secret letter written to him by the Scorpion Society!

How could it—how could it be here?!

He suddenly raised his head, looking at Vittel in disbelief.

"You..."

"We know everything, Master." Vittel's voice was very calm.

"We know about all your dealings with the Scorpion Society."

Archibald's complexion instantly turned as pale as paper.

"No—this isn't true! This is forged! That Roko is framing me!" He roared frantically, making a final struggle.

Vittel shook his head, the pity in his eyes deepening.

"Whether it's a frame-up, you know best in your heart."

He took out another letter, a letter sealed with golden thread.

"You wouldn't say this is forged too, would you?"

Upon seeing that Three-Headed Dragon emblem, Archibald felt the world spinning.

His final psychological defense line completely collapsed.

He slumped into his chair, as if all his bones had been removed.

Finished.

Everything was finished.

His biggest secret, his final trump card, had actually been dug up by that madman Roko!

"Why—" he muttered distractedly, "why do you have these things—"

"It was the Commercial Alliance," Vittel said blandly. "They 'shared' these things with us."

The Commercial Alliance!

It was the Commercial Alliance again!

It was that fat pig Silas again!

In Archibald's eyes, monstrous hatred erupted.

He understood; this whole thing was a trap!

A deadly trap meticulously laid for him by Roko and the Commercial Alliance working together!

"Marquis." Vittel's voice pulled him back from his resentment.

"We didn't come here today to judge you."

"We just want to tell you that from now on, for the safety of the Sunset Province, and for the lives of the tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of citizens behind us, the defense of Sunset City will be temporarily taken over by us, the military."

"You—you are mutinying!" Archibald pointed at him, trembling with rage.

"You can think of it that way." There was no expression on Vittel's face.

"We cannot let the entire Sunset Province be buried with a traitor."

The word "traitor" was like the sharpest knife, stabbing fiercely into Archibald's heart.

He opened his mouth, but couldn't say a single word.

He had lost.

Lost in a complete mess.

Abandoned by his followers and betrayed by his kin.

These four words were the truest portrayal of him at this moment.

"Guards." Vittel turned around and ordered the guards outside the door.

"From now on, without my order, no one is allowed to enter or leave this study."

"Yes, General!"

The study door was closed heavily.

Archibald looked at the tightly closed door, just as he looked at his own destined, dark future.

He had become a prisoner.

A pathetic prisoner imprisoned in his own Governor's Mansion.

At the same time, outside the Governor's Mansion.

The originally tightly closed city gate slowly opened again.

This time, the gate was wide open and never closed again.

On the city wall, the flag that originally belonged to Marquis Archibald was slowly lowered.

Replaced by a white flag representing "peace."

General Vittel personally walked out of the city gate and arrived in front of Roko's army.

He dismounted and knelt on one knee before Roko.

"Master Roko."

"Sunset City has cleared out the traitorous rebels."

"I, Vittel, on behalf of the tens of thousands of defenders of Sunset City, welcome you, Master—into the city!"

When General Vittel knelt on one knee and said those words, "Welcome Master into the city," the whole world seemed to go quiet.

On the city wall, those soldiers who had just experienced their lord's surrender and the change of military power looked at this scene with complex expressions.

They didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

They only knew that from today on, the sky over Sunset City had completely changed.

Outside the city, the citizens and mercenaries who had been watching all day were even more stunned by this dramatic scene.

Without a drop of blood shed.

This phrase instantly appeared in everyone's mind.

That young man named Roko, he didn't even lift a finger, didn't let his knights charge even once.

He just threw a head into the city, proposed three conditions, and then waited quietly outside the city for a day.

And then, this impregnable Sunset City opened its gates by itself, and the City Guard Commander-in-Chief personally came out and knelt to welcome him—what kind of divine method is this?

This is no longer war; this is art!

Everyone's gaze converged on the young man who was still riding on his horse.

His face still held that calm, waveless expression, as if everything before him was a matter of course.

This bearing, this depth of character, this method—it's simply monstrous!

Roko looked at Vittel kneeling before him, a flash of appreciation in his eyes.

This is a smart man.

And also a man with courage.

Upon learning of Archibald's treason, he did not choose blind loyalty, nor did he choose to wait and see, but instead made a decisive move, launched a mutiny,

controlled the military power of the entire city, and then offered his pledge of allegiance to him.

He used this method to preserve Sunset City, preserve his subordinates, and also secure the best possible future for himself.

"General Vittel, please rise."

Roko's voice was not loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"You made a correct decision."

"For the Sunset Province, and for yourself."

Vittel felt a weight lift from his heart; he knew he had bet correctly.

He stood up and respectfully stepped aside, clearing the way to the city gate.

"Master, please!"

Roko nodded; he did not enter the city immediately but turned his head to look at the three hundred Storm Knights behind him.

"Hart."

"Subordinate is here!"

"Take one hundred men and go take over the city defense. Tell the soldiers in the city that as long as they lay down their weapons and behave themselves, I, Roko Raymond, will let bygones be bygones."

"Yes, Master!"

"Fula."

"Master."

"Take one hundred men and come with me into the Governor's Mansion."

"Yes!"

"The rest of you, camp outside the city; without my order, no one is allowed to enter the city."

"Yes!"

In just a few words, Roko arranged the subsequent matters in an orderly fashion.

His orders were clear, decisive, and filled with unquestionable majesty.

Those surrendered Sunset City generals who originally still had some misgivings couldn't help but nod secretly in their hearts upon seeing this scene.

This new lord, although young, acts with experience, rewards and punishes clearly, and is by no means a reckless person.

Perhaps following him is truly much better than following Archibald, who was self-willed and colluded with foreign enemies.

After the deployment was completed, Roko gently squeezed his horse's belly.

"Let's enter the city."

He took the lead and slowly drove into the gate of Sunset City.

Fula and one hundred black-armored knights followed closely behind.

Their steps were uniform, and the sound of hoofbeats and the clashing of armor echoed in the silent streets, knocking on everyone's heart.

On both sides of the street stood the soldiers of Sunset City.

They had already laid down their weapons and looked at this army driving past like a black torrent with complex expressions.

They could clearly feel the iron-blooded murderous aura emanating from this army, which they, these pampered City Guards,

could never compare to.

Too strong!

It crossed thousands of meters from the direction of Stone Slope on the east side of Harvest Town, and with a speed beyond everyone's comprehension, it slashed down fiercely!

Roko rode on his horse, looking straight ahead.

His gaze swept over the buildings on both sides of the street, over the awe-filled faces of those soldiers.

He knew that from this moment on, this city, this province, belonged to the Luo family.

This is what he wanted.

To gain the greatest benefit with the minimum cost.

Attacking a city is the work of a brute.

True victory is to conquer the heart, to subdue the enemy without fighting.

He not only wanted to obtain this city, he also wanted to obtain the hearts of the people in this city.

The journey was silent.

Roko's team came directly to the front of the Governor's Mansion.

The gates of the Governor's Mansion had long been opened.

Vittel and several core generals were waiting respectfully at the entrance.

Behind them, Silas of the Commercial Alliance was also standing there, sticking out his big belly, his face full of smiles.

Seeing Roko, Silas immediately rolled over like a ball of meat.

"Governor! You have finally arrived! This humble one has been waiting for a long time!"