Chapter 385 The End of a Long Night (2)
While Layla was bringing the latest news to Vicente and Rory, others in town were learning the night's outcome.
"Captain Bain, the men who went to the Symons estate say the whole family has been wiped out!" A soldier from the royal army entered a tent in Millfall's main square, where Nova was currently commanding the army's post-auction operations.
Upon hearing this and seeing the soldier's agitated face, Nova stood up from where she was while the people next to her stood in shock, unable to believe what they had just heard.
In the last few minutes since the auction had ended, at least six calls had come in from soldiers patrolling the city, asking for reinforcements in various parts of the city.
One of those calls had come from near the Symons estate, where a group of 15 men had moved in minutes earlier on Nova's orders.
But less than eight minutes after those reinforcements left, the man in charge of the group's communications that night came back with this information.
"What?" Nova asked, finding it hard to believe at first.
"The Symons family has been wiped out. There's no one left!" The soldier said what he had just heard.
In fact, not only was there no one left alive, there were no bodies. When the reinforcements sent to that side of the city arrived at the site of the confrontation where the Viscount had fallen and then at the Symons' estate, all they found were the burning bones of the members of that
family in fires.
How could they be sure that the Symons family had fallen? Every nobleman had his vital status stored in the capital and army posts of the city where they resided.
Since nobles were important state members, their vital status was very important to the official forces.
Viscount Symons' vital status had been upgraded to dead a few moments ago. Given the fact that there was no one else in the Symons family in the city nor signs of them seeking help or refuge, the soldiers concluded that they had been exterminated.
Further investigation would be needed to confirm who had died and if there were any survivors, but for now, based on the evidence they had, they had a good margin of certainty that the Symons had been eliminated!
Nova clenched her fists at this confirmation, unbelieving that she would have to deal with the fall of a noble family in her temporary command.
'Damn it! How could this happen? The Viscount was supposed to be the strongest in the city, able to withstand even a Sovereign! How did he die?' She felt terrible, aware it wouldn't be good for her army career that something like this happened under her command.
"Who was with the Viscount tonight? Who was after him after he left the auction? Let's consider all of them as suspects in the death of Viscount Symons." She said, seeing that she had to sort this out, even if the situation wasn't promising.
"At least 15 people were chasing the Viscount's party earlier. We don't have the identities of most of them, Captain." A soldier said, revealing how difficult it would be to deal with them. "Among them was the woman representing Miss Death and Cesar Mazzanti."
"Cesar?" She narrowed her eyes, seeing that this pest kept popping up in her path. 'That bastard is probably responsible for this too!'
"Do we have anything that could point to Cesar's involvement in the Viscount's murder?" She asked the soldier who brought the message.
The man closed his eyes and shook his head negatively. "All we have is that the Symons family had their property stolen before our soldiers arrived. But the thieves may not have had anything to do with the Viscount's death. They may have stolen the place after the family fell."
There were royal laws that punished acts against nobles. But when a nobleman died, his title would be passed on to his heir until there was no one to inherit it. From then on, the title ceased to exist, and his possessions theoretically became unowned goods.
Royal law served to order the state to ensure that the royal family benefited. Still, it also guaranteed the people their private property. However, a crime was only a crime if one side was harmed.
If an entire family was killed, their property theoretically had no owner and could be taken by anyone.
The mere fact that people had collected items from the Symons family was not a crime, and it would not be so easy to link thieves to the extermination of the family!
Therefore, listening to that soldier, Nova could only get more frustrated, seeing it would be tough for her to find a culprit and arrest them within the kingdom's rules.
"Since we don't have any indication of a first suspect, start the basic investigation into what happened. We'll make a full report and indicate what can be included. If the Martial Court is willing to help us, we can get something out of it."
She said before leaving with the other soldiers to start new actions that night.
Unfortunately, they were weak and couldn't do more in this situation.
The royal laws did not work in all cases. Even if the kingdom's forces wanted to enforce the rules, the law couldn't punish or protect people without evidence!
The only way out was to act through personal justice with one's own powers. But could mere Acolytes do that in this situation?
Without coins and political power on their side, these soldiers were practically tied down, unable to do anything more for the good of the kingdom!
...
Quickly, all the confrontations inside and outside of Millfall that the previous auction had caused came to an end.
By the night's end, 20 Mages, 50 Acolytes, and 30 Apprentices had died due to disputes over the auction items or Shelby's actions!
Of the 20 auction items, 6 ended up in Vicente's hands at the end of the night, while 6 were with Miss Death's representative, who had already left the city by the time the "flames" had died down in the city.
Of the remaining, the members of the local Awakening Temple and the blacksmith Henry kept their items. As for those who were taken out of town after the auction, they left the hands of their buyers and ended up in the hands of strangers.
Few knew who had what now that it was all over. All that the survivors, or those who would investigate the battles of that night, would soon know was that much blood had been shed in the aftermath of the auction.
Few would come close to knowing who killed whom and who was with what.
With that, the long night ended, with consequences that would immediately affect the population of Millfall and things that would take weeks or months to change the area.
With the fall of a noble family, a new position in the nobility had opened up. Now was the time for those interested to seek the title left by Viscount Symons!
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