Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 538 Yuno
“When I was in the family, I heard that Yuno came from a fairly ordinary commoner family in Asia, yet he showed extraordinary wisdom and a talent for prayer even before he came of age. At the age of sixteen, he joined the Ministry of Justice of the Golden Dynasty and was highly regarded by Viscount Lyman, the Grand Justice at the time. It is said that the dynasty’s high command once considered making him succeed Viscount Lyman as Grand Justice. Although this did not happen in the end, his reputation had long been widespread in the highlands and lake region,” Olivia recalled.

“That is indeed true,” Hiren coughed. “I remember it was around the 35th year of the Golden Calendar. At that time, the capital had just experienced the turmoil of the Ominous Omen and the exile of the War King’s lineage. The central government was extremely weak. So Her Majesty Marika personally issued an edict to recall a large number of the Holy Temple elites who were originally used to suppress the Northern Territory. This made many of the efforts that Pirac and I had made over the past five years go to waste.”

"He has to stay at the newly established Obsidian Sanctuary, and I have to stay at the Watcher's Fortress. The alliance with the local powers in the west, such as Borelius and the Samir clan, is also at a critical stage. I am simply unable to be in two places at once. His Majesty must have met the Ice Dragon God and his followers before this trip. He naturally understands that they always have a natural wariness and hostility towards the Golden Clan, even though they fought side by side in the War of the Giants just a few years ago. Without my personal intervention, the bishops below cannot even enter the gates of the Sixteen Clans. The alliance cannot be negotiated, and the situation between the two sides is becoming more and more tense every day. If this drags on any longer, it is not a pipe dream that a second Northern War will break out."

"It was around that time that Pirac, acting entirely out of public interest, wrote to the Temple of Eternity requesting that someone be sent to the North to take over my post at the Watchers' Fortress and to establish the position of 'Head of the Watchers,' so that he could serve as both the Archbishop of Flame and the fortress commander—this was both to stabilize the situation in the North and to reassure the officials in the Hall of the Sun about us, the remnants of the War Kings, so they wouldn't keep nagging about 'strengthening the Lord's defenses in preparation for unforeseen events in the North,' cough cough."

Lucia nodded slightly and said, "Is it at this time that Yuno was selected and appointed as the head of the Watchers and the third archbishop?"

“Yes,” a hint of nostalgia appeared in Hiren’s cloudy eyes. “At first, I was quite dismissive of Pirac’s practice of hiring people to hinder him, but Yuno’s actions after taking office quickly impressed me and even won me over.”

"After receiving the appointment, he first rushed to the Obsidian Sanctuary to visit Pirac, and then invited me to join him. We talked for three days and three nights, during which he humbly asked us about the military and political situation, culture and beliefs, customs and traditions of the North, and even some local customs that outsiders simply did not care about."

“On the third day, he finally laid out all the countermeasures he had come up with along the way. Those ideas were so mature that they didn’t seem like drafts made by a young man in just a few days. Compared to them, the things that the dukes and marquises in the capital discussed day and night in the Sun Wheel Hall were worse than toilet paper. More than 40% of the Northern Border governance system you see now came from our discussion that night. No, calling it a ‘discussion’ is just flattering us two old guys. Almost every military strategy and policy was proposed by him on the spur of the moment, and we were enlightened. We then recorded it in detail and implemented it one by one.”

"On the fourth day, he only rested in the sanctuary for three hours before heading straight for the Watcher's Fortress. At dawn, he went to the giant's graveyard and returned at sunset, covered in blood, carrying a whole dozen heads of giant remnants. According to the current ranking system of that pseudo-royal court, the lowest-ranking members are all third-generation beings, and there is even a first-generation general whom I had organized four encirclements to capture but failed to capture, yet he single-handedly brought back his head."

“Since then, Yuno has always led from the front in every battle. In less than a year, he has wiped out the remnants of the giants who were rebelling everywhere. Everyone in the Holy Temple is convinced of his sincerity. Even the Samir clan, which had been restless since the war, has become docile. It was from that time that the Fire Temple was able to build the structure it is today, and the North was able to be stable for more than ten years afterward.”

At this point, Hillen sighed deeply. "Given all these past events, when Pirac suggested that Yuno take over as chief in the future, I had no objections. Although I understood that he had repeatedly given me advice on these matters, both openly and subtly, out of concern for the bigger picture and to prevent me from being dissatisfied—but to be honest, I'm not much younger than his old bones, and I'm long past my youthful vigor. After so many years in the North, I know my own limitations. It's fine to follow behind as a patchwork repairman, but to expect me to be like those monsters and control this 30,000-mile-long ice plain with my own abilities is simply impossible."

“What Pirac said is exactly what I was thinking. Even shortly before this turmoil broke out, after the twenty-first council of cardinals, I had already secretly prepared a joint letter with Pirac. As long as those troubles that didn’t seem so serious at the time were resolved, we would recommend Yuno to the capital. With the remaining influence of the two old men, we could also help him smoothly hand over power.” “But I didn’t expect his ambition to be so great. Ha, while we were still fantasizing about helping him realize his ambitions with the position of chief archbishop and bringing another twenty years of peace to the North, what he was planning was already that divine position that even mortals would find presumptuous.”

Lucia recalled her meeting with Yuno half a day ago and found it hard to connect the peerless genius that Hillon had described as a child prodigy who had dominated the North for fifteen years with the ambitious man she had just met.

When did Yuno begin to see his own reflection in the light of the extinguishing flames while he was on the front lines of the sanctuary, monitoring the flames day after day?
From now on, I'm afraid no one will be able to provide the answer anymore.

"Lord Hilen, you just said that you tried everything but couldn't find out the truth about that notebook, so how did you eventually discover all of this?" Olivia asked, puzzled.

“That notebook was indeed written by Pirac himself. He didn’t even realize the changes in himself when he wrote those frantic words.” Hiren closed his eyes, his face showing pain.

"So even though I used countless methods after the last meeting, I couldn't prove that he hadn't fallen into depravity. In those days, whenever I felt lost and helpless, I would go back to his small, dilapidated room, look at the furniture that I had restored to its original state, and imagine that when he was still alive, he would point to the map and describe the future of this land with great enthusiasm. I would imagine that when I turned around, he could look at me again and confidently tell me a better strategy."

"But gradually, what I was thinking about changed. I suddenly remembered that I don't know when it started, but he got old, so old that he could hardly support that heavy black iron armor, so old that I had to stay by his side often and use perfumes to relieve his heart-wrenching asthma."

“Starting five years ago, I always carried two bottles of incense with me and kept an eye on him to make sure he always had a spare bottle hanging on his pendant. His incense was burned to a pile of slag when he ‘fell’, but Yuno never expected that it was that pile of metal slag, which he thought was foolproof, that exposed his identity.”

(End of this chapter)