Chapter 367: So-Called Bards
The light in the other councilors' eyes grew ever brighter.
Their gazes practically said, "Leave this matter to me."
However, Priest Agamemnon’s expression softened as he gently asked, 「What is the reason you cannot handle this matter? You can't even mobilize a single bard?」
Councilor Yorn sighed. His tone was rather fluent, though his emotions were clearly downcast, as he said, 「Those bards are highly resistant to following my orders. They say they belong to Dean Oscar. If I want them to work, I should go speak to Dean Oscar. I sent an invitation to Dean Oscar some time ago, but he refused to meet me.」
Agamemnon’s eye twitched slightly as he asked, 「So you’ve just been waiting until now?」
Yorn replied helplessly, 「That’s Dean Oscar, after all. And before this, I did have people reach out to the various bards. But they all uniformly said I should talk to Dean Oscar.」
Agamemnon took a deep breath.
He suddenly felt that it might have been a mistake to let this honest man, Councilor Yorn, join the Senate in the first place.
Yet, seeing the faint plea in Yorn’s eyes, he still said, 「You are a member of the Senate. If you feel that your work cannot proceed, you can come to me or ask the other councilors for help.」
After speaking, he ignored the other councilors' glances and looked directly at Julian.
Julian was also the only one whose eyes didn’t shine with greed. His expression remained solemn.
Agamemnon said, 「Councilor Julian, since you require the assistance of those bards, then you should know how to make use of them. I believe the president of the Bard Guild, Councilor Yorn, will now grant full authority for his bards to follow your orders.」
Yorn opened his mouth, wanting to explain that he actually didn’t have a single bard under his command.
But Julian was quicker, nodding directly, 「Understood.」
Having said that, he sat back down.
The other councilors’ eyes revealed undisguisable disappointment and contemplation.
They understood—there was now another "Julian" in the Senate.
Councilor Yorn had spent half a month without managing to make even one bard obey his orders.
Yet Julian, in just half a day, not only got the bards to comply, but also made them voluntarily pledge loyalty to Yorn’s Bard Guild.
He didn’t do anything else—he simply sent a team trained for covert operations to capture a group of bards, and then, without saying a word, executed half of them on the spot.
This silenced the bards who had been ready to mock Councilor Julian by showcasing their bardic talents.
Julian told them that he initially intended to recruit bards from the Bard Guild. However, the guild president, Councilor Yorn, said he had no bards under him. So Julian had no choice but to find some unaffiliated bards to handle the task.
Julian also said that the Kingdom had now officially recognized various guilds. Only those registered with the Bard Guild were considered legal bards under Kingdom law. Those unaffiliated were lawbreakers who could not receive guild protection. Thus, as criminals defying a councilor’s orders, they naturally had to be punished.
The bards more or less understood Julian’s meaning: one, they were to complete the task, and two, they were to accept the management of the Bard Guild.
Of course, they didn’t want to submit to guild control. Once they became the mouthpieces of councilors, who would still believe the messages they spread?
Moreover, if they couldn’t report on the councilors, who would listen to what they had to say?
Worse still, if they couldn’t discuss the councilors at all, how could they feel the power of being a bard?
So they braced themselves and repeated to Julian what they had told Councilor Yorn: they were Dean Oscar’s bards and apprentices. If anyone wanted them to do anything or manage them, they needed Dean Oscar’s approval. And since Julian had killed so many bards, Dean Oscar would surely reprimand him.
Julian merely nodded calmly.
Then killed another half.
This time, the surviving bards finally showed true fear on their faces.
They realized that Julian hadn’t selected specific targets—his killings were truly random, completely disregarding their backgrounds.
Bards had been so audacious precisely because they didn’t rely solely on Oscar. They were at least Tier Two warriors who had also learned magic. Oscar’s training gave them limited head-on combat power, but they excelled in escape.
Even Tier Three warriors had difficulty capturing them—they could easily toy with such opponents.
Only Tier Four individuals could reliably apprehend them.
And for today’s nobles, the number of knights loyal to them—excluding those few knight orders and high-ranking nobles—seldom exceeded ten.
Hence, they believed themselves to possess the power of true freedom.
But who could have imagined that Julian had prepared a covert team of at least Tier Three warriors?
So when they realized they couldn’t escape, and that this councilor blatantly ignored threats from Dean Oscar, they knelt.
Thus, while Councilor Yorn was still in his mansion relieving stress with a mistress, the bards came running to pledge their loyalty.
From the bards’ mouths, after packaging the story slightly, Yorn learned what Julian had done to them—and he was stunned. He dismissed his mistress and immediately started handling Bard Guild affairs in earnest.
As it turned out, the bards trained by Dean Oscar bore his signature style.
In just three days, rumors began to spread—how the nobles of the Woodlands treated commoners like livestock, how they exploited them, and how the people there lived in hell. The gossip spread rapidly from York City as the center, radiating outward.
Once the stage was set, vague whispers followed:
『The commoners of the Woodlands suffer so much because they do not live under the Lord’s protection.』
Then, stories about the commoners' miseries lessened, replaced by tales of the nobles’ sins—how they broke promises, robbed trade caravans even after being paid, and exhibited unbridled greed.
Such stories were laced with salacious accounts of noble affairs and assassination plots—topics far more appealing to the common folk.
These weren’t even made-up stories, but actual events from the former nobility of Greenwood.
Though unfamiliar to commoners, bards merely shared what they knew of the past.
While new stories required some logic, the actual deeds of past nobles defied reason—and were far more entertaining than bardic fiction.
After all, Greenwood wasn’t the Northland, and the Woodlands certainly weren’t. Compared to the Northland’s barbarism, Greenwood’s tales, rich in detail, felt more believable.
Of course, Greenwood’s current nobles still engaged in such acts, but thanks to the presence of the Church of the Sanctuary, they hid it better and were less overt.
When the tales reached this point, the commoners of Greenwood began to feel disgust toward the Woodlands' nobility.
Ordinarily, this would be the time when Greenwood’s nobles would strike at the bards, for they had done all those things too.
But right now, their attention was occupied by the Senate’s newly announced Knight Guild.
They could clearly see—the Senate aimed to strip them of the right to confer knighthood.
This they could never allow.
Even mercenaries, though they bolstered their forces, also disrupted their control over their territories.
So they resorted to subtle tactics to sway the councilors. Let alone directly confiscating their sharpest blades.
However, the Eastern Crusade had not long passed, and they hadn’t forgotten the power the Church had displayed during that time.
Though the Senate claimed to serve the uncertain King of Lundex, to them, it was simply an extension of the Church’s authority.
Hence, the nobles dared not raise armies openly. Instead, they conspired in secret.
Naturally, their eyes turned first to the two most powerful marquises.
There were currently four marquises in the Kingdom of Lundex, but only two held real power: Marquis Richard Adrian and Marquis Gregor Doyle.
Thanks to the knight orders under their command, their forces were no weaker than the former ducal domains.
As for the other two marquises—their territories weren’t even fully populated yet.
「Don’t concern yourself with these matters,」 Bishop Marl told Richard, who had come to inquire, 「Agamemnon has completely severed ties with the Church. This policy comes from the Senate. I have no additional information.」
「But I can confirm the policy is correct. As the commander of the Oath Knights, you should understand the difference between ordinary Tier Four knights and Oath Knights. And since you yourself control the size of your knight order, you must sense that the new classification of knights within this Knight Guild is justified.」