Throne of the North.

Chapter 618 The Burning Black Swan Flames
Ryan arrived in the Danube province three days later. Count Pascal's mansion was filled with desolation and gloom. Although he was curious about the count, whose true identity was a light mage, Ryan first paid his respects to the countess.

"My deepest condolences, Your Excellency."

The assassination of an earl on his way home is a major event following the death of Grand Duke Russell. News of the incident has reached the capital city as quickly as possible, but there has been no response there yet.

The Treaty of the Kingdom of Nantes was written by the Empire, and neither the Emperor nor the nobles of the Empire would dare to contradict themselves and start another war.

"What the Dawn Church has done is unforgivable."

Inside the Earl's castle, the nobles were filled with righteous indignation. They also banded together in fear, because if the Earl had been assassinated, they would most likely not have been able to withstand it.

Ryan didn't think the nobles' discussions would yield any results. After the mourning period ended, the only thing these nobles could do was to quickly return to their own territories and stay there.

This is the safest way; if the matter weren't so serious, they wouldn't even want to come to Count Pascal's mansion.

For example, right now, of the nobles from outside the Danube province, only Baron Ryan has arrived.

"There shouldn't be any black swans trying to assassinate me on my way back, right?"

Ryan thought to himself.

Indeed, no, because the Black Swan assassination attempt had already occurred by the time he considered this possibility.

He appeared in Count Pascal's mansion, in the shadows behind Ryan.

It was a bright, sunny night, not the night when black swans are most active, but a blurry figure quickly emerged from the swaying shadows of the bushes by the wall and rushed toward Ryan.

Ryan stood in the spacious castle hall, the shadow only fifteen meters away from him—a distance that a legendary Black Swan assassin could cover in the blink of an eye.

"rub!"

The moment the sword was drawn, Signy's dagger blocked Ryan's back. When Ryan turned around, he saw a chaotic scene of black shadows clashing and fighting. Neither side revealed their aura in the slightest. This meant that the battle between a legend and a saint, two assassins, did not even affect the ceramic vase half a meter away.

"catch him!"

Count Pascal roared, and the gargoyles that served as sculptures in the hall began to move.

Although he was a legend, he was also an assassin who had already been exposed. With a large number of gargoyles approaching, the Black Swan assassin had already lost the desire to continue.

It's easy for a legendary assassin to escape; even Signi could only follow behind him, and the bulky gargoyles were unable to effectively block or stop him.

But in the next instant, the master of this land was enraged. Blinding light emanated from Count Pascal, and at the same time, the ancient gargoyle castle exuded a heavy aura. The Pascal family's accumulated strength over the years erupted at this moment, and layers of invisible cages descended from the sky, covering the Count's castle like towers. Even the legendary Black Swan assassin was trapped inside, and no matter what methods he used, he could not break the magic-suppressing cages.

Ryan's nostrils flared slightly as he felt the oppression. This heavy cage was designed for everyone trapped inside, and the stronger one was, the more intense the feeling was. As a Saint Knight, he felt his heart pounding wildly as if it were about to burst, and he found it difficult to breathe.

Count Pascal glanced at Ryan in surprise. He sensed Ryan's strength, and after expressing his apology, he waved his hand, and chains of anti-magic stone extended from the walls of the castle, binding the Black Swan assassin tightly.

Throughout the entire process, the legendary Black Swan assassin had no chance to resist at all. Half a minute later, the air was no longer solid, and Ryan's blood and energy calmed down again.

He was about to lose control of his power and instinctively fight back.

However, after seeing the fate of that legendary assassin, it's clear that confronting Count Pascal within this castle is definitely not a good idea.

"This castle..."

Ryan stared in astonishment at the ancient castle beneath his feet. He had always thought that the ancient castles owned by nobles were merely chapters in the history of civilization, but he never imagined that they also belonged to the extraordinary world.

Moreover, the Pascal family was once a loyal hound of the Dawn Church, and even the Church did not know that Pascal Castle possessed such terrifying supernatural power.

"The power of the divine origin."

Count Pascal explained that the secret was a way of expressing his apology to Ryan, after which the two saw the Black Swan assassin bound by anti-magic chains.

To be precise, the magic-blocking stone chains cannot restrict the legendary Black Swan assassin to be like an ordinary person; he possesses divine magic, not magic. However, the strength of the chains themselves is sufficient to bind this legend.

This prevented him from escaping into darkness.

"You ran away three days ago."

Count Pascal's eyes were filled with icy coldness, as were the Pascal family members around him, who stared angrily at the assassin, but were even more terrified of Count Pascal himself.

Other nobles couldn't understand, but Ryan knew the reason. These Pascal family members had experienced the era when the Earl personally slaughtered his own bloodline. They knew some of the truth about the massacre, and therefore feared the Earl who had slaughtered Pascal.

“I will make sure you don’t die so easily. As a former demon hunter, I know a lot of ways to deal with vampires and monsters like you.”

The Black Swan assassin's eyes held no fear, but rather a fanatical faith.

"The Sunbird has awakened. It will break the seal and return to the earth. The glory of our Lord will shine on this land once more. You traitors will die without a burial place, and your souls will suffer eternal torment!"

Count Pascal sneered, raising his hand to unleash a dazzling blade of light that pierced the Black Swan assassin's chest. It wasn't fatal, but the magic of the light attribute clashed with that of the Black Swan, an assassin who roamed the night, causing the assassin to suffer as if the water in the lake were being roasted and evaporated.

Ryan, standing nearby, also asked a question.

"Were you one of the members who participated in the assassination of Archduke Russell?"

Upon hearing this, all the nobles looked at Ryan. The death of Grand Duke Russell was not something to be mentioned lightly.

"Ha...nobles of the empire, you traitors will all face the judgment of my lord!"

If the Black Swan assassin continues in this manner, it can be considered an admission of his involvement in the events.

Ryan understood. Sure enough, even the Dawn Church couldn't possibly have that many legendary Black Swan assassins, especially one who wanted to enter the treacherous Empire.

"You shouldn't show up during the day."

Ryan was curious, while the Black Swan assassin's eyes gleamed with the flames of revenge.

"That demigod who will surely suffer the most intense divine punishment is hunting us down, but he will not succeed. Before he kills us, the Swan of Night will kill all the imperial nobles."

"You will all die, to be buried with the seal of the Sunbird!"

Many of the nobles in the hall couldn't help but feel frightened, but Ryan was not among them. He spoke to Count Pascal.

“My lord, it seems he is no longer of any use.”

He turned to the other nobles and said:

"As you all have heard, His Highness the Demigod Anselmo Russell is hunting down these Black Swans. I believe it won't be long before peace returns to the Empire." Behind him, the legendary Black Swan assassin's eyes widened, never expecting his threat to be used in this way.

“You damned nobleman, you cannot escape. My lord’s servants have entered the North. You, the blasphemer of the North, will never survive.”

Ryan neither confirmed nor denied it, but instead said with considerable regret:

I really hope you can live to see that day.

Only after the Black Swan assassin left Ryan's sight did Ryan begin to ponder: Did the Dawn Church harbor such deep resentment towards him?

However, it's also possible that this legendary assassin, having experienced his failure a few days prior, knew he couldn't kill a prepared legendary mage.

"The Dawn Slayer of the North?"

Ryan remained silent, his expression strange. Could there really be assassins who could enter his territory?
The attack on Count Pascal by the Black Swan assassin was not an isolated incident; it's just that his rank was higher. In the short few days in the Flor Empire, hundreds of nobles have been attacked.

The result of this silence was that more than one-fifth of the nobles died within their own territories.

This attack by the Black Swan assassins was far more devastating than the last one; the Black Swan assassins were more numerous and more powerful.

Most importantly, they were imbued with a strong sense of faith, no longer acting on the orders of the Church but for the faith of the Dawn, dedicating their lives to the sunbird Ifrit.

In the face of faith, believers are not afraid of death.

Until the end of Countess Pascal's funeral, there was no public statement from the capital. Clearly, the clause in the Treaty of Nantes that prohibited military warfare had tied the empire's hands.

At the same time, His Majesty Emperor Columbus III would absolutely not be the first to break the Treaty of Nantes; he valued his reputation and would not allow the nobles to take the blame.

The most likely person to take the blame and cause the Empire to wage war against the Papacy again to deal with the Black Swan assassination attempt is Archduke Freming. But isn't that a coincidence? Archduke Freming had just taken the blame not long ago and had changed hands. The new Archduke Freming does not yet have the prestige and authority to influence the Empire's decision-making and overturn the Treaty of Nantes.

"So, why did we even have the Treaty of the Kingdom of Nantes in the first place?"

During his few days at Earl Pascal's castle, Ryan also pondered this question. If he were the emperor, he would definitely try to destroy the Dawn Church with one blow, or at least cripple it.

The empire's victory in the war stemmed from over a century of development. It could be said that the previous wars were simply a hundred-year time difference, a war of the new era against the old era, which the empire won.

The Dawn Church will realize this. If those bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and popes are unwilling to lose their dominance over the world, they will have to make changes.

The Papacy is corrupt, but precisely because it no longer strictly adheres to its former institutions, it is easier for them to change things than before.

So... why the empire?

"The emperor and the nobles probably don't want to continue the war."

Wars always have a purpose. Some wars are to avoid being bullied, some are to divert attention from conflicts, some are for profit, and some are purely for killing, to consume excess population and reduce resource pressure.

Imperial wars also have diverse objectives.

For the sake of faith, the Empire needs to prove to the Church of Light that this war is also a war of faith.

Also for the sake of profit, before the rebellion of the Andara Kingdom in the North, all the kingdoms and noble territories in the southern lands were followers of the Dawn. The human civilization in the southern lands, the Flor Empire, was fighting alone.

The war changed this outcome; with the fall of the Kingdom of Carlos, the imperial nobles had less need for war.

Undeniably, when the Kingdom of Nantes fell apart and the Kingdom of Iron Eagle betrayed the Dawn and turned to the Light, the Empire had already achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory.

Such a victory was enough to send the empire's nobles into a state of unbelievable jubilation.

There are nine kingdoms in the southern part of the Norris continent. The Kingdom of Andara has become an ally of the Empire and believes in the light. The Kingdom of Sera, the youngest kingdom, is beyond the control of even the Holy See. The faith of Dawn may still exist... perhaps.

According to information Ryan received from Sven, his missionary was about to turn the religious beliefs of the Kingdom of Sera into his own personal domain.

The Dawn Church has lost influence over the two kingdoms to the north.

In the south, the Kingdom of Carlos was destroyed, losing most of its territory, and none of the remaining nobles were qualified to inherit the kingdom's title.

The Kingdom of Nantes lost its royal family, and its young king disappeared and has not been found to this day.

With the Iron Eagle Kingdom's betrayal, the Dawn Church has now lost control of five kingdoms. It can be said that this war between the Empire and the Norris Continent has created a two-way balance of power, with the Empire gaining the upper hand. This is because the Dawn Church can no longer reach the Kingdoms of Coran and Grond in the east through normal channels.

The prestige of the Dawn Church was dealt a devastating blow, and in its place, the Empire's prestige soared to new heights.

In this situation, the emperor of the empire no longer needed to continue wars that deepened faith, because further wars would be meaningless and too costly.

Aside from faith, there's the interest in land.

The emperor gained supreme authority, and the nobles acquired precious lands. Carlos, along with those noble territories that were silently wiped out, had annexed vast amounts of land. In the coming decades, the nobles could confidently send their bloodlines to those lands to inherit their titles.

War also brings wealth, which has already made the nobles extremely rich.

Grand Duke Rodrigo within the Empire has already fulfilled his own plans for self-interest, and the Mage's Guild has spread throughout the Empire. What Grand Duke Meyers is after is still unclear, but it is related to the North and has nothing to do with the war in the South. He is only participating in the war to support Elector Volvo.

Grand Duke Freming didn't have to do anything; he could simply enjoy the fruits of the previous era's choices. He had supported Columbus III among the four grand dukes, and during Columbus III's reign, the Freming family gained benefits without ever needing war.

That's why he opposes war.

Grand Duke Russell... This should have been the grand duke who most desired war, but this grand duke should be the one who died, the Grand Duke Russell. With the death of the old Grand Duke Russell, the new Grand Duke Russell has successfully avenged himself, and what he needs most now is to consolidate his power, just like the power transition in the Fleming family.

The Russell family is also entering a period of power transition.

Earl Clayton… Ryan thought of his father, who was perhaps the only nobleman in the empire who longed to go to war with the Papacy.

"The nobles of the empire do not want the war to continue; they have already received enough benefits."

"Therefore, the empire had no more means to extinguish the flames ignited by the black swan."

Ryan looked at the empire with curiosity, and couldn't help but feel a little expectant.

"How many nobles will die in the flames of this black swan?"

The next day, as Ryan was preparing to return to Northwind Province, he met the demigod.

No wonder the legendary Black Swan assassin was in such a hurry to kill him; it turns out this demigod was already so close.

(End of this chapter)