Chapter 93. Toss the Gold Coin Into the Air!
Inside the study, Eli’s finger slowly traced a circle around the mark for Gray Crow Grove on the map.
“Captain Ron,” he said in a steady, clear voice.
“This is my plan. I want you to personally lead a team and select a few of your most elite knights, the ones most skilled in concealment and reconnaissance.
They will be guided by my Chief Intelligence Administrator, Aika, and depart at once for the area near Gray Crow Grove.
They will have only one task: to see whether they can obtain the contents of the enemy’s meeting.”
Ron Hohenzollern’s thick brows drew together. His eyes filled with confusion and a faint anger at being underestimated.
“My lord baron! I respect your judgment, and I trust your intelligence!
But now that we have already pinpointed the time of the ringleaders’ meeting, why do we still need to proceed so cautiously and scout it out?
It is a waste of time! My entire squad of the Gold Lion Knights is here, together with your elite men.
If we strike like thunder while they are in the middle of plotting and capture all three leaders in one blow,
would that not be clean and decisive? Why wait any longer?”
“Capture them all in one blow?” Eli lifted his head and met Ron’s gaze calmly, a faint curve appearing at the corner of his mouth.
“Captain Ron, if Sabda has managed to stir up so much trouble right under our noses, it is not because of reckless courage.
He has extremely capable scouts at his side.
The moment our main force approaches the outer perimeter of Gray Crow Grove, no matter how careful we are, it will be difficult to completely avoid the eyes of those hidden sentries.
If we alarm them and make them suspicious in advance, or force them to cancel the meeting outright, then not only will all our earlier efforts go to waste, we will also completely expose our intentions.
Once the enemy’s vigilance is raised tenfold, catching them in the act again will become as difficult as ascending to heaven.”
“And do you really think they would be foolish enough to bring all their strength to the meeting site?
Even if we wipe them all out in Gray Crow Grove, all we will catch are a few leaders and a small number of guards.
The main force in Runestone City will still be there, and the main rebel force under Skars will still be there.
That would be nothing more than cutting off the head of a venomous snake while leaving the body alive to thrash back in a frenzy.
“It might even become even more frenzied and unpredictable with its leaders captured. What we would face then would be an even more chaotic situation.”
The battle fervor in Ron’s eyes gradually gave way to gravity.
He had to admit that he had indeed been blinded by the enormity of the merit to be won.
He was no brute. Eli’s analysis made him see clearly the enormous hidden dangers and consequences that a frontal assault might bring.
Eli raised his voice.
“Now that the Gold Lion Knights, this invincible force, have joined us,
and now that we have already seen through their conspiracy, then my goal is no longer merely to capture a few ringleaders.
What I want is—”
His finger jabbed hard at Runestone City and Scorpion Gorge on the map.
“to force all three parties to mobilize their real fighting strength.
To make them leave their fortified cities and their gorge, and then, on the battlefield, wipe them out in one net.
To annihilate them completely.”
“Com... completely annihilate them?!” Ron sucked in a sharp breath, and his pupils contracted violently.
Battle-hardened and strong-willed as he was, he was still utterly shaken by the scale of Eli’s ambition and the ferocity of his appetite.
This was no longer simply a matter of crushing a conspiracy.
He intended to use this opportunity to uproot every potentially hostile force along the southwestern border.
That scale. That ruthlessness...
Only now did Ron truly understand
why even a figure as unfathomable as Sir Lucius regarded this young baron so differently.
But then a long-forgotten surge of battle spirit and hot blood rose in Ron’s heart.
He realized that this would be an opportunity for immense merit.
He snapped his back straight and pounded his right fist heavily against his breastplate.
“My lord baron! Your plan... has magnificent scope. Ron Hohenzollern, together with the Third Squad of the Gold Lion Knights, is willing to serve as the vanguard when the time comes!
We will depart at once and make sure every detail of their plan is uncovered!”
“Good! Thank you for your efforts, Captain Ron!” Eli nodded forcefully, his eyes blazing with sharp intent.
Ron said nothing more. With crisp efficiency, he turned and left.
The study fell silent once again.
Eli stood alone before the huge map, his deep gaze fixed in the direction of Thorn City.
The arrival of the Gold Lion Knights was both powerful reinforcement and a double-edged sword.
Given what he knew of Sir Lucius’s mind, deep as the sea,
even if Sabda had crossed the bottom line, that Governor of the Western Frontier would probably never have sent such a core force to aid a mere baron like him.
The price that would be demanded behind such overwhelming support would likely be extremely heavy.
That was another reason why Eli opposed a frontal assault.
He intended to make proper use of this force and secure even greater benefits for himself.
“Sir Lucius...” Eli muttered softly, his fingers unconsciously tapping against the desk.
“What exactly is it that you want...?”
...
In the study of the City Lord’s Residence in Runestone City,
Ragnar was pacing back and forth anxiously across the floor, which was covered in thick carpets.
His face was full of unconcealable worry and anger.
He came to an abrupt stop, then turned and stared at Sabda Medici, who sat behind the desk with an expression so calm it was almost cold.
“Sabda!” Ragnar’s voice carried a low growl of suppressed rage.
“Working with that greed-driven Alders was already like making a bargain with a tiger!
Perhaps that old fox only wants to use you, and once the matter is done, he could sell you out in an instant. That was dangerous enough, and we could only proceed cautiously. But you...
Why did you also have to provoke those Scorpions? Do you even know what you are doing?!”
He drew a deep breath, lowering his voice to the barest whisper, yet each word cut like a blade.
“That is treason! It is cutting yourself off from the entire Western Frontier and the Kingdom of Orlando!
Do you know what you will face if this matter is exposed?
The towering fury of the entire Western Frontier! The thunderous punishment of the kingdom!
When that time comes, even Duke Hackson will absolutely not be able to protect you!
The Medici Family will probably sever ties with you at the first possible moment!
You will be nailed to the pillar of shame as the kingdom’s perfect example, and you will never recover!”
Sabda listened quietly to Ragnar’s outburst. There was not the slightest ripple on his handsome, feminine face.
His gaze rested on Ragnar’s flushed face as he spoke calmly.
“No, Ragnar. No one will know. No one ever will.”
Ragnar looked as though those words had caught in his throat. He stared at Sabda in disbelief, as though he were truly seeing, for the first time, the young lord he had served for so many years.
“No one will know?” he repeated, his voice filled with absurdity and a trace of chill.
“You mean... once it is done, you plan to deal with the Scorpions...
and also the men Count Alders sent...?”
Sabda neither admitted it nor denied it.
Silence was itself an answer.
Ragnar was completely speechless. An immense disappointment and helplessness seized him at once.
He staggered back half a step and leaned against the cold stone wall, his voice heavy with weariness and deep sorrow.
“Sabda... you’ve changed... changed so much that you feel like a stranger to me.
Why did you hide something this enormous from me? Why didn’t you discuss it with me?
Do you think Count Alders is a fool? Do you think those desperate men from the Scorpions are idiots?
Do you think Sir Lucius and Marquess Marcus are blind and deaf?!
You think everyone is a chess piece that can be deceived and used as you please!
But Sabda... more often than not, the one who thinks he is clever is the one who ends up losing everything... the fool.”
“Changed?” Sabda finally set down the ring in his hand and slowly rose.
He stepped around the desk and walked to Ragnar. Pressing hard on Ragnar’s shoulder, he forced him down into the chair beside him.
Yet his expression remained extraordinarily calm.
“Yes, I have changed, Ragnar,” Sabda said in a low, powerful voice.
“In the ruins of Shadow Vale, in the despair of the beast tide... it was you who helped me stand back up.
It was you who told me that I could not admit defeat, that I had to change.
I listened to your advice, and I changed.
And so, I took Runestone City! I became a baron!”
He looked down into Ragnar’s stunned eyes, his tone turning fervent.
“And now, Ragnar, if I succeed in swallowing everything Eli Pendragon has!
Do you know how much our strength will swell?
The wealth and population of Black Territory and Lucerne! Then, once I also absorb the resources of Easton, Clive, and Frost that Eli has already consolidated,
and add Runestone City on top of it, we will instantly become the undisputed overlord of the southwestern Western Frontier.
We will command a powerful army and possess abundant resources!
At that point, even in the whirlpool of the royal capital, we will have the capital to gain a foothold.
This will no longer be a matter of petty schemes in some remote corner. This is... the true road to rise!”
Ragnar looked at the flames of ambition burning in Sabda’s eyes, and at the suffocatingly grand blueprint he was painting, and felt only a chill seep through his entire body.
His mouth opened, but in the end, he could only force out a single sentence with difficulty.
“You... you are gambling.”
“That’s right!” Sabda admitted it without the slightest hesitation, his voice carrying an almost fanatical confidence.
“I am gambling! I am gambling that my plan is flawless!
I am gambling that Eli will not be able to react in time! I am gambling that Lucius and Marcus will have their eyes tied down by the royal capital!
I am gambling that Alders and the Scorpions are all fools who can be used and then eliminated in the end!
I believe... that this time, fate will surely stand on the side of me, Sabda Medici!”
Ragnar stared blankly at the young lord before him, at once familiar and utterly unfamiliar.
Ambition, ruthlessness, obsession, madness... all of those qualities burned together within him.
He really had changed, changed into a true... Medici.
In Ragnar’s mind, the ancient crest of the Medici Family surfaced uncontrollably—a venomous serpent coiled around a gold coin.
And with it came that cold maxim passed down among the family’s core members.
“Toss the gold coin into the air!”
Bet everything on a single throw. Either win until your hands overflow with gold, or... plunge into the abyss.
Ragnar closed his eyes and let out a powerless sigh.
He knew that he could no longer stop this mad gamble.
Perhaps the only thing he could do now was pray that the Goddess of Fate would truly favor this mad gambler.
Or else, before the coin struck the ground and everything came crashing apart,
find a possible way out for himself... and for the innocent people of Runestone City.
His hand unconsciously rested on the hilt of the sword at his waist, then slowly loosened.