Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 844: Alex, the Villain II

CH844 Alex, the Villain II

***

Alex glanced at Fabien with amusement.

Fabien shuddered, looking at him like a mouse cornered by a cat. Although the older youth tried to hide it, it was as plain as day before Alex’s Truth-Seeker Eyes.

Alex immediately figured that Fabien had pieced some things together.

‘Well, if you can’t do this much, then you wouldn’t have piqued my interest,’ Alex thought to himself, amused.

He wasn’t bothered that Fabien had pieced things together. After all, Udara hadn’t done things shoddily.

Udara had been in Mirador incognito for at least a week. During that time, she had set multiple ploys into motion that would obscure the true origin of Viscount Dunhill’s assassin.

The Viscount wasn’t a saint.

There was more than one minor noble house or ordinary Imperial citizen who hated him. The Stronghold troops stationed in neighbouring domains under the Stronghold’s sphere of influence weren’t just there to project the Stronghold’s military deterrence or provide security. More often than not, they carried out the Viscount’s dirty work—and that of Marquis Brandford behind him.

While they almost always covered their tracks, they weren’t perfect. Even without knowing the specifics, it was enough to point the finger at other likely suspects.

In fact, even within the Stronghold itself, the Viscount had enemies and political opposition—though from minor characters.

Aside from making it appear as though external enemies had sent the assassins, Udara also made it look as though internal traitors and conspirators had been involved—if not the masterminds themselves.

Fabien had only directly suspected Alex and the Frontier March because he was intimately aware of the relationship between the Frontier March and the Frontier Stronghold.

Even if anyone else remotely suspected Alex and the Frontier March, they would place him near the very bottom of the suspect list based on the available evidence—or at least, what remained after the drones cleared away everything of value and carefully left behind only what further supported Udara’s intended narrative.

Alex didn’t mind Fabien ‘figuring’ things out because not only had he deliberately left behind the clues that enabled the man to do so, there was very little Fabien could do with that knowledge given the countermeasures already in place.

Whether the man knew the truth or not wouldn’t change the situation as it currently stood.

What did have use, however—something that Fabien didn’t realise—was the fact that the highest-ranking surviving officer of the Stronghold currently present in the city, namely Fabien himself, was walking through the devastated city alongside Count Skywalker.

That invoked a sense of goodwill between the Frontier March and the Frontier Stronghold in the eyes of the surviving citizens.

People, especially during such catastrophes, instinctively seek order and security. And the appearance of Count Skywalker seemingly offered the promise of both.

Ordinarily, the citizens of Mirador would have been reluctant to accept the hand of an outsider, even if that hand belonged to a prominent Duke—never mind a Count. However, with a respected high-ranking member of the Stronghold, in the person of Fabien, implicitly ‘endorsing’ him, the people would become far more… amenable.

In essence, from beginning to end, Alex was using Fabien.

‘This feels wrong and scummy—perhaps even villainous—but it is a necessary evil,’ Alex sighed inwardly.

Unfortunately, the thought didn’t ease his conscience—at least not entirely.

Because he knew that merely telling oneself something was a ‘necessary evil’ was a slippery slope that was difficult to escape.

One might never realise when they had progressed from committing a ‘necessary’ evil to becoming simply evil.

‘You either die a hero, or live long enough to become a villain, huh,’ he muttered to himself.

Even though he sensed that what he was doing might be morally wrong, Alex didn’t feel any regret for doing it. He wanted to chalk it up to one of the changes brought about by his Fury bloodline’s madness, but he found that he couldn’t.

He was too proud to accept that his bloodline could influence him in such a way, as that would mean he wasn’t as in control of himself as he believed.

He would rather believe that these were his own thoughts and decisions.

But if that was the case… then was he indeed already drifting away from being a hero—an identity he had always denied anyway—to become a villain, something he didn’t necessarily want either?

Alex shook his head.

‘There’s no point thinking about that right now. I just need to focus on what needs to be done and get it done,’ he said to himself. ‘Udara and the others have already set the stage. The suffering has already been inflicted. I have to bring everything home, or it would all have been for nothing.’

Psyching himself up, Alex walked away from Fabien and onto a podium in Mirador City’s central plaza—a location directly in front of the city’s main administrative building and the current gathering point for all the surviving citizens.

This place had been where the Commander of the Stronghold or the Mayor of Mirador City addressed the people with important news. With both men now dead, it would instead be used by Count Skywalker to address the city’s survivors.

With that in mind, Alex set aside the mental cap of Alex Fury—the common engineer and innovator—and donned the mantle of Count Skywalker, the charismatic noble and statesman.

“People of Mirador, I am Alex Fury, the current Count Skywalker and claimant to House Skywalker.

“I have come to offer my deepest condolences for your loss and to promise that my domain will do whatever it can to aid you all during these trying times—to the best of our ability, but not to our own detriment as well.

“I want to assure you that I have ordered my troops to clear the surrounding areas of any remnants of the berserk beasts. Hence, you can rest assured of your safety… for now,” Alex said.

His words initially brought some measure of calm to the people, but his final statement seemed to plunge them straight back into a cold hell.

Noting the rise and subsequent fall in their expressions, Alex continued as sympathetically as he could.

“It will take time for the Stronghold Army to reorganise itself, if indeed it ever can. As much as I would like to station my troops here until that happens, Imperial law prevents me from doing so.

“I am a Pioneer Knight of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Jame Picard XIII himself, with the mandate to reclaim and extend the Imperial border into the Great Berserk Beast Forest. As a Pioneer Knight, I do not have the right to station troops anywhere within Imperial territory aside from the border domain I have carved out and reclaimed from the Great Berserk Beast Forest in order to protect it.

“As such, I will not be able to leave my troops here to protect Mirador City during its recovery and reconstruction. In fact, we will be leaving by tomorrow morning at the latest,” Alex said regretfully.

***