The Wind Calms the Fire - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 26
Carrion had wandered the North-eastern Region for six years, yet there were far more places he’d never seen than those he had.
Whenever he transferred to another garrison, he chose desolate routes, so he’d never had occasion to venture into the distant regions surrounding the outposts.
He remembered the city’s name: Heketia.
The fact that he remembered it meant it was a settlement of reasonable size and administered by the Empire.
Yet as he observed the landscape around him, he felt a quiet shock.
A city under Empire administration shouldn’t be this neglected.
How much worse must the condition be in villages even smaller than this?
The distinctive pungent scent of medicinal herbs drifted on the dry wind.
In the market, merchants seemed to outnumber customers.
As the three of them passed through, every eye—merchant and customer alike—followed in their wake.
They were clearly outsiders at a glance, and the man and woman’s appearance and bearing suggested nobility of no small standing.
Afraid of attracting unwanted trouble, people drew back.
They stole glances, but the moment the trio approached, they scurried away as though fleeing.
The merchants didn’t even call out their wares.
When Lea stopped before a stall, the merchant flinched and asked hesitantly.
“Is there something you’re looking for, honored guest?”
Lea pointed to a shriveled herb in the corner of the stall and inquired.
“Do you have fresh Dust Flower?”
“Fresh Dust Flower? We don’t typically sell it that way, honored guest.”
“I need it fresh. I’ll pay double.”
“Ah, just a moment, please.”
The merchant hurried into the shop and soon emerged with a sack brimming full of Dust Flower.
“How much of it would you like, honored guest?”
Watching the merchant’s uncertain yet desperate gaze, Lea spoke.
“All of it.”
“All of it? You truly want all of it?”
“I’ll buy all of it at double price. Just set aside a handful for yourselves. Leave the rest here, and I’ll collect it later—would you deliver it as well?”
“Of course, absolutely.”
Since Dust Flower was common and inexpensive, Lea had enough coin on hand to pay.
The merchant wrapped the herbs in a large leaf and tied it with stems.
As Lea received the package, a sharp scream pierced the air.
Dozens of armed soldiers appeared at the market entrance.
They wore Bronze Half-Plate Armor, the insignia of the Empire’s military.
“By Imperial Decree, all medicinal herbs in Heketia are hereby confiscated in place of unpaid taxes! Any who resist shall be deemed guilty of Treason!”
At the commander’s shout, soldiers rushed toward the stalls.
They shoved herbs from the stalls into sacks without discrimination.
“No, please! What am I supposed to do if you take my entire livelihood?”
“You’ll ruin the roots if you handle them that way!”
“This can’t happen! That’s all my savings!”
People trembled with fear, and when some tried to rush forward in desperation, the soldiers pushed and kicked them without mercy.
An old man clung to one of the soldiers.
“Kill me and take it all, you brute!”
“Insolent old fool!”
The soldier drew the Iron-Core Club from his belt and swung it down at the old man’s head.
Before the club could strike, a stone flew toward the soldier.
Crack!
The stone struck the soldier’s jaw with perfect accuracy.
“Leave my grandfather alone!”
The soldier’s eyes blazed as he fixed his gaze on the boy who’d thrown it.
“You miserable little pest.”
The soldier shifted his target to the child and advanced.
When someone stepped in front of him, he didn’t bother to look—he simply swung his club.
“What do you think you’re—Ugh!”
His wrist was seized and twisted sharply.
Carrion wrenched the club from the soldier’s grip and drove his knee upward in a vicious strike between the man’s legs.
The soldier screamed in agony, collapsed, and clutched himself.
His shriek was so agonized that all eyes turned toward him.
“You dare strike an Imperial soldier in the performance of his duties!”
Several soldiers charged forward with their clubs raised.
Carrion sidestepped the attack with minimal movement and backhanded the soldier’s jaw as he lunged for the ribs.
He slipped the arc of a club descending from behind, then drove forward and struck the man’s abdomen.
“Ugh!”
“Gasp!”
Thwack, thwack—the crack of impact mingled with the soldiers’ cries.
The market merchants watched, entranced, as the mysterious outsider moved like wind through the Imperial ranks, methodically pounding them into submission.
They swallowed hard, one after another.
Part of them felt a surge of satisfaction, yet their feet shuffled with dread—this man would pay dearly for this.
“You fool!”
The commander’s horse thundered toward them.
He drew his sword and leveled it at Carrion.
“Stand down this instant! Interference with lawful enforcement shall be prosecuted as treason!”
Carrion’s gaze shifted to the commander.
As he drew closer, the commander instinctively jerked the reins backward.
“Whose command do you serve?”
“What?”
“I am the Supreme Commander of the North-eastern Region. In my jurisdiction, no one moves troops without my authorization. I asked you whose command you serve!”
“The… the North-eastern…”
The commander’s face drained of all color, and he scrambled down from his horse.
Carrion stood motionless, pressing the club firmly against the commander’s shoulder.
“Is your hearing impaired? Whose command do you serve?”
“The 1st Prince’s Direct Tax Collection Unit, sir! We carry a Confiscation Permit issued by the Minister of Finance! We are merely conducting tax collection through proper procedures, and—agh.”
Carrion thrust the club into his abdomen again, hard.
“Were these soldiers drawn from Selene Garrison?”
“Yes, they were.”
“Tax collection ends when the Administrative Official arrives. An Edict from the Emperor himself, not a minister’s paper—and you mobilize troops in the Supreme Commander’s district?”
Carrion turned sharply away.
The soldiers stood frozen, stunned, as they realized who he was.
“He really is the Supreme Commander.”
Soldiers at the garrison rarely saw the Supreme Commander up close.
So they did not know his face in precise detail.
But they had all been briefed on his distinctive features, and as soon as he revealed himself, recognition dawned.
“Return all confiscated items to their rightful places. At once!”
“At once!”
The soldiers hurried to retrieve the medicinal herbs from their sacks.
Carrion turned back to the commander and spoke.
“I will meet with the collector myself. Go to the City Administrator’s Residence and wait.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The commander said nothing more and turned to leave.
Penny, watching from the side, murmured under her breath.
‘That was rather impressive.’
Penny glanced sideways at the princess, who was staring at the 4th Prince.
‘Our princess is worth far more, though. My lady, you mustn’t be the first to fall for him.’
When Lea heard the word “1st Prince” from the commander’s mouth, her body trembled of its own accord.
Hatred of him was matched only by a formless, primitive fear.
But watching Carrion stand without the slightest hesitation before the 1st Prince’s name—her anxious, racing heart quickened with a different emotion entirely.
Could this man fight at her side?
Was it permissible to hope he might become her ally?
Before meeting Carrion, Lea had harbored no expectations of him as a person.
People were too great a variable.
Yet now she found herself thinking he might not be an uncertain variable at all—but the single most crucial piece.
She watched him direct the soldiers for some time.
Just as order was being restored, Kasim and Luke returned.
Luke, grasping the situation at a glance, couldn’t help but cry out at having missed such an entertaining spectacle.
“Your Highness. For a matter like this, sheer numbers are crucial. Shall I summon them?”
Carrion gave a brief nod, and Luke drew a Signal Flare from his pouch.
The flare he fired arced into the sky and burst in crimson.
Soon the Supreme Commander’s Direct Guard would come riding.
Lea turned to Kasim and asked.
“Did you find it?”
“Yes, miss.”
As Lea turned to look at Carrion, he spoke.
“I’ll be at the City Administrator’s Residence. Come there once you’re finished.”
“Understood.”
* * *
The Bartol Family was a line of apothecaries spanning generations.
There had been a time when they’d enjoyed considerable wealth as prominent regional figures, but the family fortunes had begun their sharp decline since Bella’s grandfather.
The primary cause was successive failures in Medicinal Herb Research, into which they’d poured their entire fortune.
Bella, the Bartol Family’s sole heir, lived in a remote place up a steep hillside.
Bella, who had been gathering dried medicinal herbs, watched the unfamiliar strangers approaching her home with wary eyes.
“Who are you?”
Sensing that these unexpected visitors carried an air of uncommon station, Bella chose her words carefully.
‘She’s young.’
Bella was an apothecary who had joined the wandering band that Lea led.
Thanks to her, who also served as physician, they had overcome hardship more than once.
Bella was far younger and more fresh-faced than Lea remembered.
Though she was a woman in her thirties, “fresh-faced” was not an odd description — a decade hence, Bella bore the weathered marks of hardship.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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