Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 314

“Hurry! We must get to Grang now!”

The moon was a sliver in the sky, casting long, weak shadows across the yard.

At the heart of Cleed territory, a small area of land ruled by Baron Cleed, hurried movements could be seen within the lord’s residence.

“Darling, do we really have to leave as if we’re running away?”

“Have you forgotten already? About the arrow? If we stay any longer, we’re dead!”

The middle-aged man with a mustache snapped at the plump noblewoman’s whiny complaints.

Her face turned pale at his outburst, and she hesitated, making the middle-aged man hit his chest hard with his fist, making a loud thump.

“Listen to me, will you? We need to escape right now!”

Baron Ted Cleed’s expression was far from pleasant as he shouted.

His territory was small and far away, not important to the rest of the kingdom. But it was still his land. How could he feel at ease abandoning the land passed down through generations?

But he had no choice.

‘I can’t die like this.’

His fist was shaking, not with anger like he wanted to show, but with cold, hard fear.

Ted Cleed was not a good lord.

Until recently, the tax rate, which had reached a staggering 70%, was just one of the many reasons to despise him.

He treated the territory’s inhabitants as mere objects, taking taxes using different excuses whenever something happened. It was common for him to make the people beaters for his hunts, and if the hunt failed, he would shoot and kill them because he was bored—a truly shameless act.

Moreover, he had revived an old, cruel custom called ‘droit du seigneur,’ where the lord could take a new bride for himself, a right that had been almost forgotten for hundreds of years.

It was common for a bride dragged away under the guise of this right to return as a corpse the next day, so the territory’s inhabitants’ discontent and hatred for him grew very high.

But no one could do anything about it.

He was always with a dozen or so strong escort knights, and these knights, who were like superhumans to ordinary people, were the very symbol of power that no one could fight.

However, the abuse of power based on that overwhelming force had completely collapsed due to a new policy recently enacted by the King.

‘Damn the King. Because of that ridiculous policy…’

It wasn’t just the reduced taxes that were the problem.

The biggest issue was that most of the knights became affiliated with the Royal Army, and only a small number of knights were sent to his territory in turns. The system changed so that the dispatched knights, along with a small number of older soldiers who hadn’t made it into the army and the local militia, maintained the territory’s security.

However, the knights dispatched from the kingdom had no loyalty to the lord, and many of the territory’s inhabitants carried repeating crossbows—weapons supplied only for training—even during ordinary times, saying they were hunting.

Until then, he had only felt a slight unease.

But the day before yesterday, while on a hunt after a long interval, an arrow whizzed past his head, grazing his cheek, and that unease became a reality.

The memory of a few days ago flashed quickly through his mind.

“W-who dares?!”

Ted froze for a moment, then, seeing blood flowing from his cheek, he roared in anger, but the soldiers only looked at the knight beside him.

“Good heavens… Capture him! He’s attempted to assassinate a noble!”

“Yes, sir!”

Even a lord who deserved criticism was, nominally, the person in charge of the territory.

Nevertheless, the soldiers, only after the knight, whose expression had slightly hardened, nodded, began to rush off to find the would-be assassin.

It was not a pleasant sight, but Ted was not in a state to worry about such things.

“Sir Shiron! You must! You must! Capture him! I will personally tear him limb from limb…!”

Watching him yell and scream, Sir Shiron quietly asked.

“Do you have anyone in mind? Someone who holds a grudge, perhaps…”

“Dare to a noble…!? Ah, a grudge?”

“Yes. Someone who would have a reason to kill you, Lord.”

“There’s no way! I’ve lived such an upright life…!”

Sir Shiron chuckled, watching Ted become even more agitated.

Then, with a look of disbelief, he asked again.

“Really?”

“Tch!”

How dare a mere knight glare at him!

Ted, about to shout in response to the rising anger, could only swallow hard at Shiron’s gaze.

A contemptuous look. Ted couldn’t say anything, even to that look he had seen since being dispatched here.

He was the King’s knight, not his, and a mid-level Force User, something rarely seen in these remote areas.

Since he was a powerful figure who could overwhelm the knights he had in Grandia before, all he could do was…

“I-I’ve only exercised the rights I should enjoy as a noble! It’s the rabble who are unhappy about it who are strange!!”

It was just this kind of complaint.

Shiron’s brow furrowed even more at those words.

Having ears, he couldn’t have failed to hear the rumors about the lord. It was also why he kept his distance from the lord.

“Haa…”

A sigh came out naturally, and the lord pressed him.

“Sir Shiron. You have a duty to maintain the security of this territory! Immediately find the one who shot at me with the crossbow…”

“I know, Lord. But to catch someone who has already fled far away, we need at least a suspicion. Are there really no people who might hold a grudge? If there really aren’t any, it might be difficult to catch him.”

People with grudges?

Certainly not among the nobles.

He had always begged nobles for favors with more power than himself.

But among the commoners… there were too many.

– How are we supposed to live!?

He could still hear the old man’s cries in his head from the time he had a frail old man flogged until he died for questioning the excessive taxes.

– Please, return my wife, Lord.

The time he used him as an animal to be hunted out of a man kneeling and begging for the return of his already dead wife.

– Lord!

– How could you do this!

– Aah, you’re a devil! You’re a devil!

Countless incidents, where he had enjoyed feeling better than them while looking at the faces of the wailing commoners, flashed through his mind in an instant.

“None, then?”

“……I, I only exercised the proper, proper rights of a noble!”

“……I see you don’t.”

Ted couldn’t say anything to Shiron’s assertion.

No, he did say something.

“The commoners! It’s the commoners! The commoners who are unhappy with me…!”

“Which village are you referring to?”

“Th, they have crossbows!?”

“Each village has its own militia, though.”

“……”

Ted, unable to name a specific person because too many came to mind, soon began to make absurd claims.

“Round up all the commoners with crossbows! The culprit must be among them!”

“Are you arresting the King’s own Home Guard? Without proof? Are you going against the King?”

The voice was so cold, it stopped Ted like ice.

He remembered stories of the King killing many nobles in the capital.

Seeing Ted’s reaction, Chiron shook his head, his face showing he didn’t believe it.

It meant that every commoner in the territory was a suspect. Ted felt a chill. He knew the King was dangerous.

‘This will be difficult.’

To be honest, he didn’t really want to find the killer.

Ted’s thought came true quickly.

“I’m sorry, Lord. They all have solid alibis.”

“Wh-What…!”

Ted wondered if Chiron didn’t try hard enough, or if there was no proof. Chiron didn’t seem to care much about finding the killer.

In the end, the attempted assassin was not caught, and from then on, Ted was now very afraid of being shot by a crossbow, anytime, anywhere. He jumped at every shadow and loud noise.

After trembling in terror for days, today’s escape was decided.

“If we don’t run, we’ll die!”

Ted repeatedly urged his household, thinking it would be better to buy a house in Grahn and simply receive taxes.

He didn’t realize that his greed, trying to take all his wealth while fleeing, was causing an increasingly large commotion.

“Move faster! Faster!”

Splash!

Flap.

Despite the coachman’s whip, the ponies tied to the huge baggage cart struggled to move. The baggage cart was huge and overflowing with boxes and bags. The wheels of the cart bumped on the road. The ponies’ hooves clip-clopped slowly.

“Eek!”

The coachman couldn’t believe it. The lord’s family was taking all their riches, but they only gave him two ponies for the heavy cart. They were leaving in a carriage pulled by four horses! He was just a coachman, he couldn’t argue with the lord. The coachman was angry and tired.

‘If I’m late after all this, he’ll beat me.’

The coachman gritted his teeth and struggled to catch up with the lord’s carriage, which was slowly moving away, but, alas, the ponies showed no sign of speeding up.

But his anger changed to thankfulness.

Ratatatatat.

“Aaaargh!”

Hee hee hee!

Because he heard a series of things falling and terrible screams from the lord’s carriage ahead.

Baron Ted Cleed and his family were attacked and killed while escaping the territory.

Even people who didn’t know where the Cleed barony was located made people listen carefully to this news.

It was an incident presumed to be a noble killed by a commoner.

And that incident made the Maclaine nobles very afraid. Especially those nobles who had been very unfair to the people in their lands were even more terrified. Nobles whispered in fear.

“Could this mean we could die too?”

“Hey, how serious is the murder of a noble? Even the ignorant know that.”

They tried to calm each other down, but they were still scared.

But.

Cleed Barony Murderer Still at Large.

Not only was the killer in the Cleed barony not caught.

Baron Roman Deruna Assassinated by Crossbow.

The unwelcome news that Baron Deruna, a similarly corrupt lord to Baron Cleed, had also been murdered followed.

And before a proper investigation into the killer could be carried out.

Viscount Max Peretta Assassinated. Also by Crossbow.

News came that Viscount Max Peretta was also killed. He was also killed by a crossbow. This was shocking. Peretta’s land was very close to Maclaine, the King’s birthplace. He had surrendered to Maclaine even before Logan Maclaine became king.

That news caused not only the corrupt nobles, who were trembling because of the sins they had committed, but even ordinary nobles to be gripped by anxiety. Some nobles started to panic.

It didn’t matter that Max Peretta had the worst reputation as a lord before he surrendered to Maclaine.

“If Peretta, who was loyal to Maclaine, died…”

“If even such a person died……”

In the end, the territory nobles, trembling with anxiety, gathered in groups of three or five and filed a petition to the royal family.

It is dangerous to allow commoners to possess repeating crossbows. Please reconsider!

In the midst of all this, another shocking rumour swept through the kingdom.

Baron Trebo Dalan hired mercenaries to attack the Home Guard who had attacked him.

The Dalan territory was devastated by the war between the Home Guard and the lord.

An incident in which the commoners, represented by the Home Guard, and the nobles, represented by the lord, fought seriously.

Everyone in the kingdom was talking about this rumour.

“Aren’t we heading for big trouble?”

“The nobles are the ones who caused it.”

“No, man. It’s not about blaming anyone right now, but isn’t the country about to be turned upside down?”

Smart people were worried. They knew the kingdom was in danger.

All nobles are to gather at the royal palace.

In the name of the King, a grand conference was held, bringing together all the nobles for the first time in a long time. The royal palace hall was large and grand. Nobles filled the room, looking worried. Some nobles were sweating. Nobles looked around nervously.

“I propose the disbandment of the Home Guard!”

“The recent incidents are not simple assassinations.”

“That’s right. The blue blood of the nobles must be respected!”

As soon as the nobles with anxious expressions were granted permission to speak, they began to raise their voices from here and there.

This was a direct challenge to the strengthening of national defence that Logan had been steadily pursuing.

The nobles, who couldn’t even dare to resist Logan in ordinary matters, were in a slightly different situation this time.

“The nobles, who are the centre of supporting the nation, are trembling with anxiety due to recent events. If this continues, the kingdom cannot be maintained. A solution must be found quickly, Your Majesty.”

As King’s father-in-law, Roberts Floyd, said, it was a matter of threatening the very foundation of the aristocracy, so the nobles couldn’t help but think that they were as good as dead either way.

But on Logan’s face, looking down at the nobles from the head seat of the grand conference, there was a faint smile. Logan watched them, a secret smile playing on his lips. He had planned this.

‘How can it be coming out exactly as I thought?’

The biggest weakness of Maclaine, who has been repeatedly carrying out radical reforms.

The fact that commoners have more power than nobles. This is the biggest problem with the policies Your Majesty is taking. If this becomes a concrete incident and explodes…….

He could only admire the vassal who had predicted this.

And the plans to stop it were already fully prepared.

“Silence, all of you!”

Thud.

The Overlord, who silenced the commotion in the grand conference with a single stomp, opened his mouth with a cold smile.