Establishing Authority

"I thought I was taking command of warriors. Now I see you're nothing but rotting meat waiting for the Dark Races to devour you."

The entire camp erupted in unrest. Some burned with anger at the insult; others squirmed because it had struck home.

A young knight flushed red and gripped his sword hilt. Hans, standing beside him, reached out to stop him.

Hans frowned at Shien on the mound, troubled by a feeling he could not explain. Still, he sneered. "Let him talk. Let's hear what wisdom he has to offer."

Shien ignored the commotion below.

His gaze passed over face after face, then settled on several glaring red numbers above heads in the crowd.

Those numbers had already been negative. After his words, they sank even lower.

"Several things have happened these past few days that I cannot tolerate," Shien continued.

"For example, some people have been saying that instead of bleeding outside the wall, you'd be better off slipping away in the chaos. Run fast enough, duck behind the Great Wall, and no one will catch you. That sort of nonsense."

Hans's heart sank. He had quietly instructed several trusted men to spread those very words.

He had no real intention of running. He only wanted to plant doubt. Once they reached the Graymist Defense Zone, he could use fear to seize control of the force and reduce this green young lord to a figurehead.

Yet the brat had repeated those words as if they were nothing. What was he playing at?

Worse, nearly everyone Shien looked at was one of Hans's trusted men. A chill ran down Hans's spine.

Coincidence... or...

Shien's lips curved slightly, and his voice grew colder. "Hah. What a remarkable little vermin's way of thinking."

He raised his hand and pointed sharply at the huge banner bearing the Sacred Flame emblem in the center of camp. "Look up. Take a good look at that banner!"

Firelight played across the cloth, and the image of the Sacred Flame billowed gently in the night wind.

"You were invested beneath the Sacred Flame. That makes you Nightwatch. Under Church law, one step back makes you a Heretic. Abandoning your territory is betraying the Sacred Flame! Betraying humanity!"

With the light of the Blood Moon and the Sacred Flame crossing over him, the white-haired boy looked almost holy.

In that moment, he was no longer a bastard cast aside.

He had placed himself on ground the Church could not dispute. Even if the Pope stood before Shien now, he could not refute him.

"A Long Night Lord who deserts his post, along with his followers, faces only one sentence under the laws of the Most Holy Church—death!

"The judges of the Holy War Council will dispose of you deserters like garbage. They'll nail you and your families to stakes of shame and burn you alive.

"Your souls will fall forever into the Long Night, never to find shelter beneath the Sacred Flame."

As his words faded, several red numbers plunged in Shien's sight.

Found them. The corners of Shien's mouth lifted.

Among the crowd, Hans could feel the trusted men beside him going rigid.

Mad... The little bastard's gone mad! He plans to purge the knights before we've even reached the Great Wall? Does he want to die?

Hans's throat went dry, and sweat broke out on his palms.

But a moment later, his mind raced. This was not as bad as he had first thought.

He had never said those words himself. He had only reminded his men to leave themselves a way out if they truly could not hold on.

Those fools had taken it upon themselves to say something so treasonous.

Even if someone informed on them, there was nothing to pin on him.

Shien was bluffing. He could not touch Hans, nor would he dare. After all, he needed a captain of the Knights who had served on the Eternal Night Wall.

If someone did get caught, Hans would have to distance himself to stay safe. Or perhaps he could turn the situation to his advantage and use his knights to put the young lord in his place...

But Shien gave him no time to settle on a plan.

The boy turned toward the circle of Church Knights in ash-gray cloaks.

They had kept their distance from the secular knights, sitting apart like blades still in their sheaths.

"Cleric Fabien." Shien nodded slightly to the Church Knight at their head. "Under Chapter Five of the Sacred Flame Wartime Disciplinary Code, anyone who spreads talk of retreat before battle and weakens the will of the Sacred Flame must receive a warning by fire."

The camp fell utterly silent.

Fabien, the Church Knights' captain, froze for a moment.

He clearly had not expected a fourteen-year-old boy to cite Church law in public, much less give him an order.

He turned to that page of the code in his mind. The provision existed, and Shien had quoted it word for word. There was no room for dispute.

The law was clear and the order justified. For a devout Church Knight, refusing was not an option.

"As you command, my lord." He stepped forward with a dull thud. It was not loud, but the air in the camp seemed to turn cold.

Hans and his men panicked. None of them had expected Shien to make this move.

Shien's gaze moved slowly across the crowd. Among the pale gray numbers in his sight, several dark red ones flickered erratically.

"Moke."

The crowd stirred. The knight whose name had been called went rigid before a Church Knight behind him pushed him out.

"Thorne."

Another startled cry rang out, followed by a jumbled protest. The Church Knights ignored it and dragged him out.

As though calling names from a death register, Shien soon had several knights pulled from the ranks.

The camp filled with noise. Some swore their innocence; others rushed to blame someone else. The Church Knights listened to none of it.

Their years of experience meant one look at a man's face was enough to tell whether he was lying.

"One last name." Shien's voice did not waver. "Hans Croft."

Hans went rigid.

Only moments ago, he had told himself over and over that he would be fine. Shien had no evidence and needed him. He could not move against him so easily.

Hearing his own name took him completely by surprise.

"I never said it!" Hans's mind went blank, and he protested on instinct. "This is a frame-up! I'm a knight of Greywood. You can't—"

As the Church Knights closed in, he instinctively reached for his sword. His fingers had barely closed around the hilt, drawing an inch of gleaming steel, when a Holy Silver Greatsword came down from the side.

The blow was swift and clean. The blade landed against his shoulder.

Battle Aura had only just gathered within Hans when a denser force crushed it apart.

He stepped back on instinct, trying to bleed off the force.

But the blade bore down with him.

His knees slammed into the mud. The edge of his armor struck the ground with a heavy thud.

The shock shot up through his bones, knocking the breath from him.

At the same time, another Church Knight seized Hans's shoulder armor from behind and forced him face-first to the ground.

His cheek pressed into the cold, wet earth. Mud seeped between his lips, and the rank smell of soil filled his head.

Clenching his teeth, he struggled and gathered his Battle Aura again, trying to drive upward with his core.

It was useless. The weight on his back pinned him to the ground without yielding an inch.

"I never said it! Help me!" Hans forced his head up. His voice cut sharply through the night.

The crowd around him went silent.

The knights who had been laughing with their arms around his shoulders moments before now stared at the toes of their boots, afraid even to meet his eyes.

Only then did Hans realize that the situation had slipped beyond his control the moment Shien opened his mouth.

"I didn't... I swear I never said that! I only told them to be careful! Not to underestimate the enemy!

"Sir Fabien! I served two years on the Great Wall! How could I undermine morale? This is a misunderstanding... Someone's framing me!"

His defense grew more frantic and disjointed. The words came faster and faster, as though he could still save himself if he did not stop talking.

"My lord, I've been loyal to Greywood! If I ever said a word about fleeing, let the Sacred Flame punish me. I'll swear it. I'll swear it before everyone!"

His voice grated through the night, but no one dared respond.

On the mound, Shien simply watched. His expression remained calm, untouched by Hans's cries.

Whether Hans had spoken those words himself did not matter to him.

Neither did evidence. Others might need witnesses, proof, and a careful interrogation.

To Shien, the dark red above Hans's head had already told him everything.

Hans was the linchpin of the Greywood Lineage's knights, the man most of them instinctively looked to.

That he bore hostility toward Shien, their lord, was something Shien could not tolerate.

Even if Hans had done nothing, Shien would have found a chance to kill him.

There was no room for two suns in his territory. His authority had to be absolute.