Chapter 125: A Rising Star
Chapter 125: A Rising Star
A month later, morning in the Ascart Fiefdom, an exquisitely designed carriage appeared from around the corner and trotted its way down the streets. There was a unique insignia on the carriage which consisted of an eye hovering above candlelight. Had it been outside of the Theocracy, people would have probably immediately assumed that it was the insignia of an evil cult.
However, here in the Ascart Fiefdom, this was an insignia that was well-known by the populace, especially over the past month. More and more people were starting to recognize this insignia along with a name constantly associated with it—Roel Ascart.
For some reason, the young successor of the marquess house had become the proxy fief lord, gaining full powers over the management of the territory, thus making him the number one most powerful figure in the local bureaucracy.
As glorious as the title of being the ‘youngest ever proxy fief lord’ sounded, it came together with plenty of skepticism and doubt. Most officials chose to hold their tongues, but they were actually dissatisfied with Marquess Carter’s decision.
One must know that Carter was a famed figure in the Theocracy, respected by the people no matter where one went. Even though he did slack off quite a bit when it came to the management of the fiefdom, there was no denying that his massive influence and popularity made their work much easier.
It was normal for humans to glorify the past in the face of uncertain changes, resulting in an extremely low approval rating for Roel when he first came to power. However, to everyone’s astonishment, the situation changed swiftly over the course of a single month…
The carriage bearing the insignia of an eye hovering above candlelight came to a halt before the Administrative Bureau of the Ascart Fiefdom. The coachman quickly hopped down and placed the stairs down before opening the door to the carriage.
A beautiful maid first stepped out of the carriage and stood respectfully by the side as she awaited the distinguished personage sitting within to step out.
This scene had already become one of the daily top sights for residents living in the vicinity.
From the moment a black-haired boy slightly bent his body and walked out of the carriage, revealing his young and suave face, many of the pedestrians instinctively halted in their footsteps and turned their gazes over. The young women seeing Roel for the first time gasped in wonderment whereas the older women couldn’t stop themselves from taking a few more looks.
Ahhh, how good-looking.
These were the feelings that resonated amongst most of the gathered audience to Roel’s arrival.
Roel was getting more and more accomplished in the art of dazzling others with his looks. There was hardly any flaw that one could pick with his image, and humans happened to be creatures whose perceptions are heavily affected by their sense of sight.
As Roel made more and more public appearances, his popularity amongst the youths, especially with the opposite gender, surged like a rocket blasting for the sun. More and more young women carrying romantic dreams would intentionally pass by this street every evening, and some of the more well-to-do individuals even chose to rent a house in the vicinity.
To be honest, Roel was a little conflicted about this situation. These fan-like behaviors reminded him of tragedies that had occurred to highly popular idols in his previous life, but fortunately, it would appear that the people here were much more level-headed.
Now that he thought about it, Nora also faced such situations whenever she made a public appearance, perhaps even more severe. The royal family was always in the limelight, and everyone was naturally curious about their affairs.
Knowing that there were people out there who had it worse than him, Roel felt a bit more soothed.
After alighting from the carriage, he casually shot a sweeping look in his surroundings, and many of the pedestrians responded to his gaze with a slight bow. In return, he nodded his head with a slight smile.
As the facts had shown time and time again, Roel could have made a living on his face alone. However, he had returned back this time around with great ambitions to correct the mess his ancestors had left behind, not to mention that the massive debt he was in was constantly hounding him from the back of his mind. He was determined to change the state of the Ascart Fiefdom!
A month ago, after Roel took over as the proxy fief lord, the first thing he thought about was how he could rally the people together. Chaos was bound to occur when a change in leadership occurred. The subordinate officials lacked a sense of loyalty to their new lord, and the populace who weren’t interested in politics were unaware of the change in leadership.
This was a normal occurrence in a world with an underdeveloped media industry.
This problem was further exacerbated by Roel’s jarring young age. He knew that he would have to act fast, or else it would be difficult to change public perceptions once the notion of him being an incompetent leader sank in. The first days would be crucial.
Knowing how important it was to have the support of his subordinates and populace in order to effectively implement changes, Roel unhesitatingly pulled out the Three Axes Plan.
The first axe was to reorganize public security.
It was true that the Ascart Fiefdom was viewed to have the highest level of public security amongst the fiefdoms of the Five Eminent Noble Houses, but that was an evaluation of the overall environment made by merchants. In other words, the dominant factors in this evaluation were things like the number of bandits operating in the fiefdom, the safety of the roads within the Ascart Fiefdom, and other factors that would affect business operations.
However, to the citizens of the Ascart Fiefdom, it was the criminals lurking within the community that destroyed their livelihoods. Minor thefts, hoodlums, gangs, loan sharks, and even human trafficking—these were the things that brought stress to the people, sometimes even dealing irreparable harm to them.
Roel had heard a lot about such matters in his previous world, and he carried a deep level of abhorrence for them. He was determined not to allow such vermin to operate under his rule, which was why he started a campaign with the slogan of ‘Cleanse the vermin off the streets’! The goal was to tighten security on the streets and sweep away the criminals who were already operating in the area.
He started off by carefully picking his team of law enforcers. He could have mobilized the civilian militia and the city guards, but he chose not to do so for two reasons. First, he had concerns that they were in collusion with some of the local criminals and secret societies. Second, he was worried that they weren’t strong enough to deal with their targets.
Most of the transcendents he had fought against thus far were extraordinarily powerful, such that he had a skewed impression that there were plenty of Peter Katers out there. Besides, this was his first undertaking as the proxy fief lord, so it was only appropriate for him to take extra caution and ensure that things went well.
Due to all his considerations, he was easily able to narrow down the candidates—the Ascarts’ guards and royal guards who had escorted him back to the fiefdom.
As a result, an unprecedentedly powerful law enforcement team was created. It consisted of Dirk as the leader, and the team was filled entirely with Origin Level 5 transcendents and above.
Dirk, having grown up here, had plenty of connections with the locals, and he was extremely motivated about this as well because it was the first mission Roel had assigned to him. In less than a week since the team was created, Dirk had already submitted a name list with a hundred people on it.
The name list was categorized into three classifications.
The first classification consisted of murderers and human traffickers. The second classification consisted of violent criminals and loan sharks who had torn families apart. The third classification consisted of thieves, blackmailers, and most of the less grievous crimes.
Roel instructed Dirk to do further investigation and make sure that the evidence was concrete. The law enforcement team had to first ensure that everything was accurate and document the process well before making an arrest.
The severity of their punishment would depend on their crime. For human traffickers, especially those who kidnapped children and sold them elsewhere, they would be facing the death penalty. Roel felt that there was a need to make it harsh in order to deter others from doing the same. He carried strong emotions about this matter due to the documentaries he had watched in his previous life, and he didn’t think that there was any need to waste valuable taxpayer money on people like that.
As for those who belonged to gangs and secret societies, they were severely punished so as to ensure that they wouldn’t be able to hurt another victim or exact vengeance against the one who reported them.
Due to the swift and sharp actions of the law enforcement team, within a fortnight, several of the larger secret societies and gangs inside Ascart City fell one after another. Many loan sharks were apprehended in the midst of their escape, and the human traffickers were all arrested too. It was a nightmare for all of the criminals.
All of this bad news led to criminals queuing up to admit to their wrongdoings. They were afraid that the law enforcement team would hurt them outright.
The law enforcement team that Dirk led were mostly hot-blooded youths from the military. They had an overwhelmingly strong sense of righteousness that led to them having the tendency to go overboard when dealing with criminals, especially for those who were caught right in the act. Those who got off with fractures should be counting their blessings, for there were some who were killed right on the spot.
While the means was questionable, there was no denying that the deterrence effect was incredible. Nowadays, the street hoodlums would start shivering uncontrollably as soon as they saw the guards wearing the Ascarts’ military uniform.
Roel was well aware that the law enforcement system he had implemented was extremely rough and had many underlying problems, but he felt that it was in the interest of the people to start fast and strong before slowly refining it. There was a lot of work to be done in order to build up a proper judicial system, but in the short-run, this would have to do.
Other than apprehending and punishing the criminals, Roel hadn’t forgotten about compensating the victims either. In his capacity as the proxy fief lord, he pushed out a policy to compensate the victims duly from the money the law enforcement team confiscated from criminals.
The policy sparked a huge commotion right away. Ever since a long time ago, any money confiscated from criminals would usually go into the fief lord’s own pocket. It was unheard of to distribute the money to the people.
On the day that the policy was officially announced, a huge crowd gathered right outside the Administrative Bureau, hoping to see whether the victims would really receive compensation or not. However, it was only during the evening that the first applicant came knocking on the doors of the Administrative Bureau.
The applicant was an old man who had offended one of the secret societies and ended up having his legs crushed. He had no money to treat his condition, which he would soon die from, so he decided to take a gamble and give it a try. Yet, who could have thought that just after an hour of running through the full procedures, the proxy fief lord himself personally handed him a pouch of gold coins?
“Thank you! Thank you, milord! Sia will bless all of you!”
The old man burst into tears before the earnest young fief lord standing before him as brilliant green light shone from his head. When he limped his way out of the Administrative Bureau, there was a smile filled with hope on his face.
It was with this precedence that other victims of all sorts of crimes began visiting the Administrative Bureau in order to ask for financial aid while also serving as eye-witnesses against their aggressors.
There was no way to say for sure whether the gods were really watching over everything happening in the mortal world, but the people had eyes of their own too. They could see the warmth of justice and benevolence radiating from Roel, and it embraced all of them in its protection.
All of those who were grateful to Roel’s aid sang praises of him to those that they came by.
The old man who had his leg treated at a hospital constantly told his neighbors about Roel’s generosity. The despairing parents who had their kidnapped children brought back to them told their children time and time again to hold Roel’s grace deep in their hearts. Those who were liberated from the mire of debt loan sharks placed upon them were grateful for the new life they had been given, and they swore to give their all for the Ascart Fiefdom.
One had to know that it was the vulnerable ones who numbered in the majority in society. Through their word-of-mouth, the approval ratings made a miraculous turnaround. From someone who was little known and whose competency was viewed with skepticism, in less than a month since his appointment, Roel Ascart’s reputation soared higher than anyone else.
To the people, he was Goddess Sia’s envoy, the Holy Son, the light that banished the evil. The commoners spent every single day toiling hard just to eke out a living, so they could hardly be bothered about other matters. Be it Carter Ascart, the Five Eminent Noble Houses, or the Xeclydes, all of those mattered very little to them.
The only one that they truly recognized and respected was Proxy Fief Lord Roel Ascart, for he was the only one whose magnanimity interfered in their mundane matters and lent a helping hand to them.
…
“Young master Roel, people nowadays salute us whenever we patrol the streets in our military uniforms. There are quite a few young lads in the team who have found female companions too,” said Dirk.
On the day the ‘Cleanse the vermin off the streets’ operation came to an end, Roel held a celebration banquet for everyone involved in the operation.
Dirk drank heartily at the banquet, enough that his cheeks turned bright red. He had never felt so fulfilled in his job before. If only Dirk had recognized Roel’s potential in the past! The affairs that occurred so far under Roel’s leadership had convinced him to offer his fealty.
To be honest, the ‘Cleanse the vermin off the street’ operation was hardly worthwhile in terms of gains and losses at all. Mobilizing so many valuable Origin Level 5 transcendents for such an operation was extravagant. One must know that their team of law enforcers was strong enough to make a strategic difference on the battlefield, but here they were, mobilized for ‘less important’ matters that would have normally never fallen into their hands.
Dirk had never heard of any fief lords going to such an extent for the common populace before, but Roel did it, and with overwhelming success at that!
Perhaps young master Roel is indeed different from the other patriarchs of the Ascart House.
With such things in mind, Dirk continued gulping down the alcohol before him in merriment.