In Ark Simulator, why do I always get a tough start?

Chapter 23 The Elector's Surrender
"Lord Elector, do you really... have a daughter?"

Inside the tower, Brandt stared in disbelief at Werner, who sat silently in a recliner after his verbal battle with Chen Qi. After a long pause, he finally managed to squeeze out a question through gritted teeth:
"Why didn't you report this to Her Majesty the Queen?!"

"...Mr. Brandt, please don't talk nonsense. I don't have a daughter. This is all just gossip."

However, when faced with Brandt's questioning, Werner, who had been deeply shaken, strangely calmed down.

To be honest, when Chen Qi confidently announced from below the tower that he had an illegitimate daughter, Werner's heart sank.

This matter was little known even within his tower.

Given Chen Qi's unwavering confidence and insistence that she was his illegitimate daughter, there are only two possibilities that Werner can think of.

One is Qi's intelligence organization. They bribed several servants they regarded as family members in order to learn such a secret fact.

Another possibility is that he had already caught his wife and learned the information from her.

However, neither outcome can change the current situation...

The only reason Walner's psychological defenses didn't completely collapse was because he didn't see his wife and daughters by Chen Qi's side.

If Chen Qi's evidence is truly conclusive, why not immediately present his illegitimate daughter to him and force him to give up his resistance?
So that means that although Qi knew he had an illegitimate daughter for some reason, she did not actually find his daughter!

Or rather, Qi didn't know exactly how his daughter was sent to Kazimierz!
This is Werner's only hope for resistance now!

As long as Qi can't catch his illegitimate daughter, all the accusations he made against him will be baseless!
Moreover, Werner believed his plan to escort his daughter to Kazimierz was extremely meticulous…

If I can seize this opportunity, I can turn defeat into victory.

Despite the dire situation, Werner regained a semblance of composure and keenly grasped this only hope. He resumed the calm befitting an Elector and said to Brant beside him:

"What you need to do now is choose to believe me and help me protect this tower."

"Please do everything in your power to protect me until I choose to give up resisting."

"...Yes, my lord."

However, Brandt, bound by duty, knew that Warner was hiding something from him, but he had no choice but to accept the Elector's orders.

Outside the tower, Chen Qi, hearing no commotion from within, couldn't help but sigh and mutter to himself:

"It seems this Elector isn't so incompetent after all. Is it impossible to make him surrender with just words?"

"But at least, it's now almost certain that the 'goods' he sent out were definitely Viviana."

"Is all we can do now just wait? Hopefully, Count Glaufeld and Gertrude will bring good news..."

However, Chen Qi had barely finished speaking when a member of the vanguard team ran up to him and reported with a serious expression:

"Your Excellency, a message from the Earl of Browfield."

"Give me."

Upon hearing the question he cared about most, Chen Qi immediately took the communicator and asked:

"Count, is there any news on your end? Have you caught up with them?"

However, Chen Qi was met with an extremely noisy sound and the Earl of Brockfield's uncontrollable roar of anger.

"—Lord Qi, we've been tricked!"

However, the Earl of Browfield, who was in a small border town, and his vanguard members had been separated by the huge crowd.

The townspeople flocked to the spot, rushing in one direction like madmen, grabbing at the contents of the box that had fallen to the ground.

The box, large enough to hold a baby, was the "goods" that Browfield had been painstakingly searching for.

But what was inside was not the baby he had expected.

The boxes were filled with a pile of extremely high-quality jewelry and gold coins!
Just as Browfield and his vanguard arrived in the town and began searching house to house, a spy who was clearly a member of the Casimirs gang grabbed the box and quickly jumped out of a window to escape.

Just as he ordered the vanguard to hunt down the spy, the spy unexpectedly dropped the box on the ground.

The jewels in the box scattered all over the floor, immediately drawing the attention of the vanguard team members.

Then, accompanied by a heart-wrenching cry from a spy hidden somewhere—"There are jewels here!"—the entire town rushed towards them like wild beasts smelling blood.

If, by now, Browfield still doesn't realize that he has fallen into a trap set by the enemy, then all those years of fighting have been for nothing!

"There were no babies in the box, only jewels! We've chased the wrong target!"

"—So that's how it is. No wonder so many jewels seemed to be missing from the house. They were stolen by greedy servants."

Meanwhile, on the magical screen atop the tower, Walner, who could clearly hear Chen Qi's voice from his communicator thanks to the tower's sensors, was immediately relieved.

Soon, the elector who had almost fainted from fright at Chen Qi quickly regained his composure and demeanor.

He smiled at Chen Qi and the vanguard army behind him and said:

"It seems that all of this is just a misunderstanding, Count Qi. It was just an ungrateful servant who stole wealth that did not belong to him and, under my name, tried to send the stolen goods to Kazimierz to be disposed of."

"Thank you for your loyalty and dedication, but since this is all a misunderstanding, could you please withdraw your troops?"

“If you do not withdraw your troops, I may suspect that you are plotting a military coup.”

With the tower's blessing, all the vanguard members surrounding it could clearly hear Volner's words.

However, just as Walner was feeling relieved, thinking that his words could shake Chen Qi's morale and force him to retreat, he was about to...

The scene before him, however, caused his relaxed smile to gradually freeze.

Why is there no movement?

The army surrounding the tower seems completely unaffected by him.

"How can this be?"

Using the tower's detection capabilities, Walner was horrified to discover that the army surrounding the tower was completely unaffected by his words.

Each soldier stood motionless in place, like a stone statue.

"Without military orders, no one can sway them. How did Earl Qi manage to train such an army?"

Brant, as a member of the Golden Law Guard, was now deeply aware of the terrifying nature of this army.

Even if you searched the entire country of Letania, you probably wouldn't find another army like theirs, with such neat military bearing and strict discipline, except for the Golden Law Guard!
What's terrifying is that the ambitious Qi is the only person in Letania who can train this army!
Given time, he would possess several such armies...

Letania may really be about to change hands...

"But that doesn't matter. As long as Earl Qi wavers, that's enough for us!"

Clinging to the last glimmer of hope, Brandt turned his gaze to Chen Qi, who was standing at the very front.

He prayed in his heart that Chen Qi would give up and leave, giving them a chance to catch their breath.

But the result only added to Brandt's despair.

In the detection device, Chen Qi's figure still stood proudly at the forefront of the army. He was there, without retreating or ordering a withdrawal.

Brandt couldn't even detect a trace of tension or wavering on Chen Qi's face.

He stood there confidently, like a monarch who had victory in his grasp, gazing at the distant battle that, though not yet begun, was already over. At this moment, Brant truly understood why Qi's army possessed such unwavering willpower.

All of this is because of the leader they follow.

Their leaders are always so composed, always standing at the forefront, leading them to victory without exception!

This time, their leader has remained steadfast.

Then the morale of this army will be even less likely to be shaken!

He stands proudly here, the pillar of this army, and indeed of everyone.

As long as he doesn't fall, this army will never fall!

This powerful figure, who could single-handedly use Originium Arts to envelop an entire school campus, felt a long-lost sense of apprehension and fear after understanding everything before him.

After the initial fear subsided, only one thought remained in Brant's mind—this man had to be eliminated!
He is absolutely terrifying.

If we don't kill him here, I'm afraid no one will ever have the chance to kill him again in the future.

Now, he is exposed at the forefront of the army. If he uses Originium Arts to power the tower, the tower's defense system can take his life.

But do I really dare to do it?
If Chen Qi is killed here, both he and the Elector will be branded as murderers of the Earl.

When that time comes, how will the Twin Queens deal with the thousands of angry people who support Qi and quell the public resentment?
Perhaps only beheading is the solution?
Even Brant, who was fiercely loyal to the Twin Queens, hesitated at this thought, staring at the defense system buttons on the control panel, unable to bring himself to do it...

But just as he hesitated, Chen Qi outside the tower seemed to finally make a new move.

"Sir! New communication!"

"Whose is it?" Chen Qi calmly turned his head and asked the vanguard team member.

"Yes, it's Lord Gertrude's!"

Finally, having heard the answer he wanted, Chen Qi immediately picked up the communicator again.

This time, Chen Qi was met with Gertrude's alluring voice, which, though weary, held a hint of amusement.

"You really know how to order people around, Lord Qi."

"They made me rush to Kazimierz overnight to contact that muscular woman, and then they wanted us to intercept this baby. After all that trouble, it would have been better to do nothing at all."

As if afraid Chen Qi wouldn't understand, Gertrude uttered, almost as a complaint, the words that filled Volner on the spell screen with despair:

“Our Elector Marquis even made two preparations.”

"He deliberately sent a group of people across the border to transport fake goods to mislead us, while on the other hand, he discreetly contacted the Infected Knights of Kazimierz to take over his goods on the other side."

"The esteemed Elector Marquis would rather believe the Infected than the Kazimierz Commercial Federation. How audacious of him!"

"Fortunately, our dear Miss Jian didn't waste her time in Kazimierz this year~"

"She really has influence in the Infected Knights of Kazimierz. With just a word, she can get the Infected Knights to help us settle all of this."

“…Gertrude, thank you for your hard work.”

A fleeting sense of apology crossed Chen Qi's mind regarding the elder's efforts, but he quickly regained his composure and inquired solemnly:
"So, Gertrude, have you obtained the 'goods' we wanted?"

"...Listen to yourself."

However, amidst Chen Qi's eager anticipation and Werner's anxious observation from the high platform, a moment of silence was followed by laughter coming from the communicator.

A distinct laugh, the kind that comes from a baby being amused.

And, a sound that Chen Qi also found particularly familiar, the sound of a mace.

"Even if you're hungry, I don't have any of that kind of thing. Didn't I already tell you?"

"Well, I guess you can play with this. You really like swords..."

However, the words on the communicator, which could conjure up a harmonious scene even without any visuals, sounded like a death knell to Werner in the tower.

In an instant, as if all his strength had been drained, Warner collapsed to the ground, his face ashen.

If it weren't for the two Golden Law Guards supporting him, he probably would have fainted right there.

"Lord Elector?!"

Brandt immediately helped Walner up, whose body had gone limp.

However, he saw that the Elector was already in tears.

His eyes were unfocused, and his face seemed to have aged ten years in an instant; only his mouth remained, mumbling incoherently:

"My...my daughter, my daughter..."

"I'm so sorry... I'm so incompetent, I was so presumptuous..."

"...Sir, what should we do?"

Now that things have come to this, Brant understands that the outcome is already decided, but as a mere Golden Lawyer, he cannot make decisions for the Elector before him.

The Elector, whose psychological defenses had completely collapsed, could only raise his head woodenly. After a long while, he managed to utter a sound with difficulty from his throat:
"Please, please tell Earl Qi... I beg him, I beg him not to harm my daughter."

"Just let me... let me see my daughter one last time..."

“I am willing to... disable the tower's defense system... confess my sins to him... and surrender.”

As soon as the word "surrender" was uttered, Walner seemed to have exhausted his last bit of strength, and even his proud head bowed deeply.

As Brant looked at the Elector who was being manipulated by Chen Qi, a pang of pity rose in his heart.

However, he still had to announce the Elector's orders to Chen Qi outside the tower.

"...Your Excellency, according to the Elector's decree, he is willing to confess his crimes and surrender to you, only asking that you spare his daughter."

"no problem."

Beneath the tower, Chen Qi, who had secured the victory, loudly agreed to Brandt's request.

"As long as the Elector Marquis truly repents, I believe Her Majesty the Empress will certainly treat him leniently!"

Having said that, Chen Qi, having achieved victory, no longer glanced at the pitiful Elector Marquis on the magic screen.

He turned to look at his army and the generals and nobles whose expressions were still dreamlike, as if everything was too easy for them to believe.

Faced with this scene, Chen Qi drew his noble slender sword from his waist and raised it high.

"Now, I will take over the management of the tower, and even all the city defense affairs of Shi Tong's territory!"

"Today, thanks to your bravery and perseverance, victory still belongs to Letania!"

"For victory!"

"—For victory!" XN
With deafening roars and overwhelming momentum, thousands of soldiers expressed their fervent worship of their leader and their admiration for the leader who had won the victory without suffering any casualties!

With each salute, they conveyed this message to their leader.

They were willing to follow him as if he were a god, until they were plunged into hell!
(End of this chapter)