Chapter 017: The City Lord

Du Fan glanced at Simon with a smile and said, “It seems Major Simon is also a smart man—knowing what it means for a true hero not to suffer immediate losses. Come… come… since you’re willing to talk, then sit down and talk slowly. But if you dare lie to me even once, I assure you your life will be worse than death. Do you believe me?”
Simon remained silent as if frozen, not daring to say anything, only nodding repeatedly.
Du Fan smiled again and after a moment snorted, “Major Simon, do you still remember what I asked you just now?”
Simon nodded, “I remember! I remember!”
Carol sneered beside him, “If you remember, then just answer. Do you need our third young master to ask you again? Or are you, Major Simon, itching for trouble? If we don’t fix that for you, won’t you learn to be smarter?”
Simon hurriedly said, “Yes! Yes! I’m not smart… I’m not smart… Young… Young Master Du Fan, it’s like this… I really didn’t have the courage to come and cause trouble for the Northern Legion. It’s just… someone above me gave orders, so I had no choice but to come. Otherwise, even if given a hundred times the courage, I wouldn’t dare.”
Du Fan nodded slightly and asked, “Did that person not tell you my identity?”
“No, no,” Simon shook his head vigorously. “If I had known your identity from the start, how would I have dared to come rashly?”
As he spoke, Simon stole a glance at Du Fan but didn’t dare say more.
Du Fan sneered and said, “Who exactly is this so-called ‘someone above’? Why not make it clear?”
After hesitating for a moment, Simon said, “Well… that ‘someone above’ is naturally the city… the city…”
“The City Lord, right?” Du Fan said coldly.
Simon nodded repeatedly, wishing he could break his neck.
After thinking for a while, Du Fan suddenly smiled and said, “So it’s the City Lord playing this trick on me. It seems this time… humph… Major Simon, you may go. But as for what happened here and what to say or not, I don’t need to teach you, do I?”
Major Simon’s face lit up with joy. “Of course, of course!”
Du Fan stood up, walked over to Simon, kicked him to the ground, and then snarled, “Get lost!”
Simon didn’t dare say anything. He scrambled to get up and fled in panic.

Du Fan watched quietly as he left, then turned to look at the somewhat dazed Carol and said, “What’s the matter, Captain Carol? Do you think I did something wrong?”
Carol hurriedly replied, “Oh no, Third Young Master certainly didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
“It’s just that we don’t understand why Third Young Master kicked him in the end. After all, given our status, doing such a thing inevitably makes us seem… a bit…”
At this point, Carol glanced at Du Fan but couldn’t continue.
Du Fan stepped forward and sized Carol up before smiling and saying, “Just say what you want to say. I’m not your direct superior—what’s there to be cautious about?”
“Yes,” Carol replied. “Then I’ll be bold and ask, Third Young Master… wasn’t your behavior just now a bit too childish?”
“Childish?” Du Fan smiled faintly. “Consider it childish if you must. But kicking him had its advantages. You’ll likely understand the reasoning behind it soon enough. For now, tell me more about the lord of Rui Gen City. After I sent someone there, he still dared to send a fool to test me. He probably isn’t easy to deal with, is he?”
Carol said, “Yes, Third Young Master. The lord of Rui Gen City is indeed not simple. I’ve been in Rui Gen for quite some time and only seen him a few times. Each time, he seemed inscrutable. But after some investigation, I found that he seems to have intricate connections with some noble family in the capital. Otherwise, he wouldn’t dare to defy our Northern Legion like this.”
Du Fan thought for a moment before saying, “There are indeed noble families in the empire that dare to challenge our Green Family. Most of them have fairly good relations with us, but there are a few with poor relations. It seems this lord of Rui Gen City has a good relationship with one of those families. If he were from another family, even if he didn’t come in person, he wouldn’t dare send such a fool to test me. Hmph… This lord seems to think very highly of himself…”

Du Fan sneered inwardly several times. After a few thoughts, he concluded that this city lord was quite unlucky to have run into him when he was in a bad mood. Whether it was bad luck or the end of his luck, if he didn’t make this man understand what it meant to live a life worse than death this time, he wouldn’t be Du Fan. If Carol could see through his thoughts at this moment, even this decisive captain would break into a cold sweat.

“By the way,” Du Fan said indifferently, “what’s the name of our smart and capable city lord?”

Carol thought for a moment and replied, “I think the city lord’s name is Gabriel.”

“Gabriel, huh…” Du Fan touched his nose and murmured in a voice only he could hear, “What a nice name… It’s a shame… Why did you try to test me? Do you think I, Du Fan, am easy to bully? Or do you have another purpose? Or maybe…”

…

The city lord’s mansion in Rui City exuded an opulence beyond ordinary people’s reach. Numerous servants were busy everywhere. A few servants carrying wine jugs wiped their sweat and cursed, “Damn it, this city lord doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. There was a grand banquet last night, and now he wants to hold a dance party tonight. Is he not tired enough of us?”

A servant next to them made a gesture and said, “Shh, be careful someone might hear. Our heads will be in trouble…”

Another servant glanced around and said mysteriously, “Alright, stop complaining. I heard that the imperial defense forces offended some important person from the capital, and it seems they’re here tonight to settle accounts with the city lord… I heard…”

Before the servant could finish speaking, a supervisor with a whip came over and whipped him, scolding, “What are you doing! What are you doing! I paid you to work, not to talk nonsense here.”

The servant writhed in pain but dared not say much, only muttering to himself, “You guys will suffer for this sooner or later…”

On an ancient bell tower beside the city lord’s mansion, a middle-aged man stood with his arms crossed, observing everything below. The tower was covered in ivy, giving the entire garden a green hue.

Ivy might seem ordinary, but how many plants could survive in this northern region? Premium plants like roses and tulips would likely freeze to death as soon as they stepped onto this land.

So although this middle-aged man was merely looking at these cheap ivy plants, his face still showed great satisfaction. Finally, he took a deep breath and slowly turned around. He appeared to be around thirty-five or thirty-six years old, with short, slightly curly blond hair and neatly trimmed, aristocratic-style moustaches. His eyes were narrowed into slits. His skin was unnaturally pale—the kind of distinctive whiteness that nobles often pursued—but paired with his tuxedo, it gave him a distinguished appearance. Seeing his actions, the two servants nearby quickly stepped forward; one helped the middle-aged man put on a vest, while the other handed him a warm, wet towel. The middle-aged man took the towel, wiped it on his hands a few times, then walked over to a sofa inside the bell tower and sat down slowly. Staring at the soldier kneeling on the ground, he smiled faintly and said, “Harry, is this the whole story of what happened?” Harry shuddered and replied, “Y-yes… My lord…” The man kneeling there was Captain Harry, the one who had tried to attack Du Fan earlier. Before him stood Gabriel, the lord of Rui Gen City. Gabriel scanned Harry with his half-closed eyes for a moment before sighing suddenly, “Stupid… so stupid…” Harry looked up at the lord and said, “My lord… I… I don’t understand…” “Hmph, what could you possibly understand?” Gabriel glared at him. “I don’t blame you for targeting those traveling merchants or that young master. After all, don’t I know perfectly well what’s going on in Rui Gen City? I understand that soldiers need to make ends meet, as long as they don’t go too far and provoke widespread outrage. But why are you so stupid… Tell me… why?” Harry replied in panic, “My lord… we… we shouldn’t have attacked that young master… We shouldn’t have…”

“Waste!” Gabriel suddenly shouted angrily. With a flick of his hand, the wet towel hit Harry’s face, but he still thought it wasn’t enough. The city lord, whose face was as pale as death, suddenly stood up, grabbed Harry by the collar, and said slowly, “Why… why did you go after those guys from the Northern Legion? Can such things be made public? Even if you brought all the defenders of City of Rui here, it would still be better than going after those bastards from the Northern Legion…”