Chapter 706 — Long Time No See
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
The soldiers were rigorous and dutiful. Though Bard displayed the utmost cooperation throughout, these men carried out the handover and escort procedures to the letter, ushering him into the building. As a former Typhon general and a member of a cult, Bard had privately calculated the whole process as well, and had concluded that even if he had a mind to flee, he likely could not have run a hundred meters and lived.
Every soldier here carried a mana reaction; the magical devices that had once blasted him half to death were their most basic equipment, to say nothing of the countless mana traps and monitoring devices that might be hidden here. Just as, back then, burning a newspaper in a bar had drawn a whole squad of peacekeepers down on him, in a facility that looked this important, similar surveillance devices would only be more numerous.
And yet these soldiers were all just ordinary people.
Bard kept his head down and walked forward under the guidance of the escort soldiers.
But more than ninety percent of the people in this world... were ordinary people.
The soldier stopped before a door, nodded to the attendant guarding it, then pressed Bard's shoulder and gave him a push forward. "Once you're inside, keep respectful. Good luck."
Inside the room, Gao Yang saw a long-unseen face appear before him. Though they had met only once a few years ago, in his enhanced memory the face's former appearance remained perfectly clear.
Compared with several years before, this face had plainly fallen into decline. Beard and hair were ill-tended, and the eyes no longer held their former pride and confidence. Whether the sinister air of a cultist or the sharp edge of a former Wolf General, both seemed to have vanished utterly.
Yet when Bard walked to the center of the room and met Gao Yang's gaze head-on, those decayed eyes still changed somewhat.
Some luster returned to his eyes. Then he strove to straighten his body, adjusted his gray-white prison uniform, and bowed slightly. "I salute you, Your Majesty Gao Yang Cecil."
His bearing was that of a captured general facing the sovereign of another nation.
How ironic, he thought. Years ago he had so resolutely cast aside his own honor and chosen to devote himself to a grand yet dark cause—and yet today, years later, reduced to the lowest point of his fortunes, he had instead straightened his back.
"We meet again, Mr. Bard Wendell," Gao Yang said, studying the other man. He neither launched into immediate denunciation nor offered any mockery or scorn. "Divine officer of the Church of All Things' End, the Wolf General of the Typhon Empire who feigned death and fled... I truly never imagined that all these days you were right under my nose."
Wolf General... Hearing this title he had once abandoned, Bard's eyes held only calm. He glanced at Gao Yang. "It seems you have investigated a great deal about me."
"I merely happen to have certain channels," Gao Yang said with a smile. "When I first heard that a strange prisoner was squatting in the Rockstone City jail, cadging food and drink and refusing to be driven out no matter what, I truly never guessed it was you... Only when I saw your name appear in the reports did I have to marvel at how wondrously fate arranges things."
"I never expected to see you again under these circumstances either," Bard said, his brows knitting slightly. "So, since you have already discovered... it seems my comfortable days are over."
"As a divine officer of the Church of All Things' End, you have committed countless crimes. But to be honest, I have not come today to judge you," Gao Yang said, gazing into Bard Wendell's eyes. "Cecil esteems rule of law and justice. When you last appeared on this land, Cecil did not yet rule the Southern Region. I cannot try the crimes of a previous dynasty under today's law. But for what you did in the Leslie domain, there are others who are qualified to render judgment."