The Pitiful City Lord

Seeing Lilith's calm, unconcerned expression, Esdeath looked thoroughly bored.

She had thought Lilith cared quite a bit about her body never growing up.

Apparently not.

Instead, Lilith was more concerned about the sneeze she had just let out.

If an ordinary person sneezed, they would only think they had caught a cold or that their nose had been irritated.

But Lilith was different. Her body would not fall ill, and her nose had not been irritated just now either.

To put it more mystically, a sneeze meant someone was talking about you.

It was quite the mystical notion.

And that was exactly what Lilith had thought of.

As for who might be talking about her, Lilith believed it could only be one of her enemies.

She did not think she had anyone important enough to be thinking about her, so it could only be an enemy.

Lilith did not have many enemies, but neither did she have few.

For instance, Night Raid from over a month ago.

But if it really were Night Raid, she would have been sneezing nonstop long ago.

Cautious as she was, Lilith would not dismiss this sneeze. It was the first sneeze she had had in the several years since she transmigrated here!

So Lilith guessed that perhaps someone had developed killing intent toward her and was preparing to act, while she had somehow sensed it in the dark... and so, she sneezed...

Mm, plausible. Very mystical.

Then Lilith made a mental note of it.

"The bandits in the mountains around the Imperial Capital have all been wiped out, and many spies within the Imperial Capital have been killed too, yet there's still no sign of Night Raid. Lilith, do you know what those people from Night Raid are thinking? It's been so long—they should have shown themselves by now, shouldn't they?"

Over the past month or so, the city Ozneth had been constantly thinking about, the one that had provided him with vast sums of money, was still breached by the Rebel Army.

And it had fallen with remarkable ease.

The soldiers in that city had lived pampered lives for so long. When had they ever seen the flames of war? They might have been able to bully unarmed civilians, but against the Rebel Army, who had already endured countless battles, they were utterly insignificant.

Moreover, the city lord of that city was a coward.

The moment he heard that the Rebel Army was approaching, he had packed up his valuables and prepared to flee at any time.

If he had not feared being held accountable by the Minister, he would have run long ago.

But in the end, he still failed to escape.

He was betrayed by the Vice City Lord he had trusted most!

His subordinates opened the city gates and led the Rebel Army into the city.

The city lord was publicly executed as well.

Before the execution, a whole list of his crimes was read aloud.

With his mouth tightly gagged, the city lord was completely dumbfounded.

So many of those crimes had not been committed by him at all! They had clearly been done by the Vice City Lord he had trusted most, the man standing on the platform, along with the officials around him! It had nothing to do with him!

All he had done was raise the taxes a little to please the Minister as much as possible. And beyond that, he had merely taken a few more concubines—but they had all been willing!

The land here was fertile, with abundant fields. It was one of the Empire's most important grain-producing regions.

Because the land was so fertile, even after he raised the taxes, the remaining grain was barely enough for the people to eat—enough to keep them from starving to death.

And most of the extra money had been squeezed out of those merchants.

Being the clever man he was, he knew that in the Empire, the people from whom one could extract the most wealth were not the farmers, but the merchants!

Really, he could be considered one of the few good officials in the entire Empire who actually cared about ordinary people.

After all, the fact that he considered whether those farmers would starve to death truly made him a good official!

As for all those other ridiculous taxes—the land tax, fertilizer tax, irrigation tax, city entry tax, and so on—they were imposed by the other officials! They had nothing to do with him at all!

They were all done by the people standing beside you! It really had nothing to do with me!

Listen to my explanation!

"Mm... mmph... mm..."

With his mouth gagged, the city lord glared resentfully at the city's officials and wealthy merchants standing around him, all wearing righteous expressions as they coldly watched him.

You shameless thieves!

In the end, after every crime had been recited, the pitiful city lord was beheaded.

His head was hung in the square for public display, left for crows to peck at.

As for those officials, in order to placate them, the Rebel Army left most of their positions unchanged. Whatever they had done before, they continued doing now.

Even those who "retired to their hometowns" could live out the rest of their lives in luxury with the wealth they had previously amassed.

And as for those wealthy merchants, with the city lord no longer exploiting them, their lives only became more comfortable.

It would have been even better if not for all that money "funding" the Rebel Army.

When the minister learned that the city had fallen, he furiously wolfed down three huge chunks of meat in succession.

Then he urged the army to quicken its march.

If they had not been dragging their feet, he would not have lost this source of wealth.

The Empire's regular army finally confronted the Rebel Army head-on!

The moment they clashed, the Rebel Army began retreating again and again.

In the end, they withdrew into the city they had only just "captured."

This enraged the officials and wealthy residents within the city, who cursed endlessly.

Seeing that things had gone wrong, they had let the Rebel Army into the city to save their own lives and pushed all the blame onto the pitiful city lord.

But only a few days had passed—how had they been driven back already?

Then these opportunists tried to pull the same trick again, opening the city gates to lure the Imperial army inside.

But the problem was that the Rebel Army had not left them unguarded. The troops stationed at the gates were all Rebel Army soldiers, and they themselves were under surveillance as well.

More importantly, they had already betrayed the city lord. The minister would never spare them.

They could only follow this path to the bitter end.

Fortunately, the city walls were fairly sturdy, and they barely managed to hold out.

Then the Imperial army and the Rebel Army remained locked in a stalemate.

If this continued, it would clearly be disadvantageous for the Imperial army.

The city had stored a considerable amount of food, enough to feed the Rebel Army.

But the Imperial army's logistics were a tremendous burden, consuming an unknown amount of provisions every day.

As for the grain in the surrounding fields, it had long since been harvested. Because of the war, no farmers had planted new seeds in the fields.

The Imperial army could not even find food in the surrounding area.

"They should be moving soon. After all, the Rebel Army needs to keep a powerful force like you tied down in the Imperial Capital. Otherwise, they would never withstand your blade."

Thinking of the situation at the front, Lilith guessed that the Rebel Army must have given Night Raid an order.

Coupled with that sneeze just now, Lilith reckoned that Night Raid would act before long.

She just did not know whether they would come after her right away.

Still, she did not think Night Raid had the nerve to attack her directly in the Imperial Capital.