Chapter 134: The Investigation Knights

Even the head of the Gladstone family would not dare to openly declare, "My son came to seize your pioneer territory and was killed by you; therefore, I demand vengeance."

They are forced to swallow their grievances and instead request that an investigation commission gather evidence to hold Riverbend accountable for the murder of a nobleman. However, even villains are loath to act as accomplices without any personal gain, let alone the investigative knights whose mission is to uphold law and justice.

Moreover, it is evident that this Riverbend pioneer territory is an emerging fief supported by the Banner Knight Rigolav. Although the pioneer lord is merely a lowly commoner sergeant, such individuals are far easier for the Petukhov family to co-opt.

In the North, a Banner Knight family holds a status equivalent to a baron beneath a marquis in the South, or a chiliarch under the command of Burke in the West. Generally, they do not possess only a single knight’s fief. However, the ruling counts, while accepting the knights' oaths of fealty, prevent these banner families from growing too powerful by strictly limiting the number of their territories. This is one of the reasons why, despite being the nephew of Count Frilov, Nelson could not even secure a single knight’s fief for himself.

As a great noble house with a lineage spanning hundreds of years, the Frilov family rarely produces fools. The current count is unwilling to let a relative with no aptitude for land management squander the family assets, nor does he wish for a cadet branch to grow powerful enough to threaten his own rule. Even the largest banner family under the Count of Frilov holds no more than ten villages, and few of their lands are even contiguous. To expand their power, these banner families must seek other paths: marriage, alliances, or a third method—secretly cultivating and patronizing knights of different surnames to swear private allegiance.

The investigation commission, caught between these two banner knight families, naturally finds it best to feign ignorance; to take proactive action would be a mistake. If Riverbend were to act carelessly or unprofessionally and leave behind traces, the knights would have no choice but to present the evidence to the town court. But if there is no proof that Nelson died at the hands of Riverbend, then the subsequent conflict is none of their concern.

Before the commission even entered Riverbend, scouts among the wildfolk had already reported their arrival. Ulyan and Leo hurried to the gate to welcome them into the settlement. As the knights observed the guards—noting their gleaming chainmail, steel blades, and iron-bound crossbows—they nodded to themselves, confirming their earlier suspicions. Riverbend is indeed an emerging fief heavily backed by the Petukhov family! As for the source of this high-quality equipment, the knights could only hope for a favorable explanation.

It must surely have come from the Petukhov family armory. The infrastructure, military strength, the condition of the villagers, and the level of trade in Riverbend all far exceeded their expectations. Even a noble pioneer knight with family support could not have reached this level of development and scale in just half a year.

In the decades surrounding Isonpol, new pioneer territories were almost always established by lords who first built logging camps or mines, slowly transforming them into villages through five or ten years of accumulation. Some, with slow development and minimal investment, failed to reach the status of a knight’s fief even after twenty years. Others were abandoned entirely due to frequent raids by wildfolk and alien tribes.

The investigative knights felt a shiver of apprehension. The Petukhov family already held an extraordinary knight’s fief south of the Western Watchtower; now, they possessed this vast territory and population in the northern Riverbend. The Western Watchtower has long been considered the traditional border of the Frilov county. Beyond its mountain pass, virtually no knight-lords have survived; many ambitious pioneers have met their ends there. Yet today, the Petukhov family holds two such strongholds. On the western border of Isonpol, Rigolav may not command the entire world, but he is at least beyond any opposition. Given this, Nelson’s rash attempt to seize the land was a death for which he could only blame himself.

The investigation commission did not even state their purpose. After a cursory tour of Riverbend and a few questions posed to the villagers—which they duly recorded—they accepted Ulyan’s warm invitation into the lord’s manor. The knights knew full well who had killed Nelson, but they were forced to pretend they did not. Ulyan and Leo could see that the visitors had guessed the truth, yet they too had to pretend otherwise.

Only Brother DeWitt Jefferson, the commission’s Light-faith cleric, broached the subject during casual conversation. Even then, he did not press the matter, speaking only of Brother Lawrence. "My brother, Lawrence, has been missing for nearly three months. No one has seen a trace of him; I fear he has met with misfortune."

Ulyan could only reply, "My condolences, Brother." After eliminating Lawrence, Ulyan and Leo had studied the doctrines of the Church of Light extensively. In the Imperial tongue, the term for a cleric is "brother," hence they address one another as such. The Southern sect—the Order of Light—is also known as the Brotherhood of Light. Thus, the two were not overly surprised, unlike Ivan, who had foolishly thought the visitor was truly Lawrence’s biological brother.

"However, some of Brother Lawrence’s actions were indeed contrary to the teachings of the Light, and I had previously counseled him," DeWitt added. "That he met with misfortune is… well, it is difficult to speak of here. It is just that Lawrence’s family is still waiting for news, if only to reclaim his remains."

According to the doctrine of the Light, the remains of the faithful must be buried in consecrated ground; if left abandoned, the soul cannot ascend to heaven. DeWitt’s request was earnest, but Ulyan and Leo remained unmoved. Who knew if this was a trap or a sincere plea? Regardless, the matter of Lawrence was a thing of the past and had nothing to do with Riverbend. Furthermore, Lawrence had since become an ogre’s favorite doorbell, and Leo dared not remove him.

Ulyan feigned complete ignorance, thumping his chest and promising to help search for the missing man. Seeing that they would not yield, DeWitt did not press further. After a lavish feast, he toured the Riverbend temple. Originally a tiny shrine, it had been rebuilt once the territory had a labor surplus, with wildfolk and refugees participating in the construction and adding several new shrines. It now resembled a rural ancestral hall.

At the center of the altar stood a wooden statue of Tyr, the God of War, flanked by the emblems of the "Hundred Sons of the War God," including Odaro, Frila, Basaka, and Lavad. The Northern people worship a multitude of gods, and their faith is eclectic; beyond the ancestral Hundred Sons, there are all manner of strange deities. Some counts allow for diverse individual faiths, while others worship everything indiscriminately.

However, for hundreds of years, the Church of Light has been tirelessly proselytizing in the North. In the southern region—the south bank of the Anzero River—many Northerners have already converted to the Light. Many knightly fiefs have built churches, which have become an essential part of village life. The various original gods are now worshipped within the home. Thus, many Northerners pray at the church by day and make offerings at home by night, seeing no conflict in this.

The Southern sect of the Light has a tradition of burning heretics, but the clerics in the North tend to ignore this topic. After all, those who dare to advocate for burning "heretics" often find themselves burned first by the savage Northerners.