"Tuojin Bisike, come in," said the gendarmerie guard outside the door to the young man who seemed somewhat apprehensive.
Tuojin saluted and then entered the inquiry room.
Truth be told, upon hearing that the Spencer family was being hunted down by Lord Malin, the young man felt puzzled deep down. He didn’t know why his family was subjected to purification by Lord Malin, but he also wouldn’t believe the news from his family—had it been someone else, Tuojin might have believed that the cruel Prince was persecuting loyal subjects.
But Tuojin himself understood that his Spencer family was far from loyal subjects—in fact, the Spencers were affiliated with the Moriti family. Although they were vassals of the kingdom, in the past years, without a King, and only a young Queen, the nobles from the south and the north saw her as a commodity, to be bargained with.
In truth, they nearly succeeded.
Alas, before the final engagement ceremony could be conducted, the Moriti family gave up, and the old lady chose Malin Gaiate as the Queen’s Prince Consort.
"My child should not become a Prince Consort," that was her explanation for her choice.
As it turned out, she was right.
Tuojin was a young man who, because of the actions of the southern and northern nobles, felt desperate and chose to run away from home. He headed north and on the way, encountered refugees fleeing to Carterburg. Out of curiosity for their talk of a Heavenly Kingdom on earth, he joined them, traded his splendid clothes for something simpler, and his already calloused hands from sword practice became even rougher with work. Though life in the factory was dull and boring, the refugees said that with work, wages, canned food, and a home, it was as wonderful as the Heavenly Kingdom on earth.
Having been a noble since childhood, Tuojin gradually understood the common people’s days—outside of Carterburg, commoners lived exceedingly miserable lives. They were used as serfs by the nobility generation after generation, their lives valued less than that of the nobles’ hunting dogs, and even soiling a noble’s boots could lead to whipping. Hunger and death were commonplace to them, those who ran away would be hanged, and poachers out of starvation could be hanged and dragged to death behind horses.
What a terrifying existence the nobility was, Tuojin had seen these scenes within his own family, and the naive young him simply thought that this was the fate that these wretched serfs deserved.
Yet he never considered that the families of those who poached rabbits had already starved to death, the runaway serfs couldn’t afford the heavy rents, and those refugees he met had been sold to the lord at Carterburg by their lords because they couldn’t survive.
Our new lord, the true master of Carterburg, the kindest person in the entire world.
That’s how the commoners called him, but to Tuojin, he was a... very strange man.
He was full of contradictions, an orphan by birth, yet he was the red-cloaked High Priest, a ducal Prince; his lineage conflicted, yet he was so powerful it was almost inhuman... Such a strange man, some said he was the Knight of Destruction, others claimed he was the Sage of Salvation, some said he would sound the bell of world’s end, and others believed he would raise the flag of world’s salvation.
Tuojin did not know what kind of existence this lord would become, but he was sure he was not the devil king intent on destroying his family as described in the family letters.
Malin Gaiate never minded using slaughter to solve problems, but those who died at his hands, in Tuojin’s view, were without exception villains of the worst kind.
And so it was, as soon as the fact that Prince Malin had been slandered and looked down upon by the Spencer family was publicized, along with the news of his legendary achievements, no more nobles dared to point fingers at this matter.
Tuojin felt certain that his family would meet their doom, and he was powerless to stop it, nor did he wish to take action. In his time with the factory guard, as a political propaganda officer in the army, he had listened to lessons from Lord Malin.
He asked Tuojin and the others why the world was the way it was, why it couldn’t be different, why every person was born unequal, and why such inequality had never been changed. Could it be right that a serf’s child continues to be a serf, and a noble’s child continues to be a noble?
Could it be that only those with talent can change their Fate?
Is this truly what the gods call "Fate"?
While his comrades struggled with the questions, Tuojin had already grasped Lord Malin’s ambition.
What he spoke of was the thought and theory of those in the North, but more forthright than theirs, more heart-searching... What Lord Malin wanted was to change all the injustices of the world. Indeed, each person’s birth is unfair, some may be born idiots, deaf, mute, or even blind to this beautiful and cruel world, but what Lord Malin wanted, was to make everyone’s life journey as equal as possible going forward.
It resembled the mild theory factions of the North, but Tuojin knew that while Lord Malin was mild and merciful, he was definitely not the kind to compromise easily to achieve his goals. His compromise was due to external, greater enemies, more ruthless opponents.
Compared to the Evil God and the Tide of the Dead, the nobility was indeed not much of a problem, as the latter generally only want wealth and pleasure, while the former usually only want your life.