Chapter 518 (1/2)

Chapter 518: The New Journey of Magic Hand

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

It was a bright and sunny day in King’s City, making it perfect for a sentencing day.

A cannon would sound on the square every hour, signaling that another formerly “prominent and important” figure received his deserved verdict.

Their convictions had actually already been decided, so this process was mostly used as a propaganda for the citizens. It especially condemned the church and Timothy for conspiring against the king and stealing the throne. After a week of preparation, the evidence collected against them proved their guilt without a doubt—of course, Roland did not actually give them a chance to argue for themselves.

Only a few of the nobles were sentenced to hanging. Besides Timothy, his henchmen, the Prime Minister, and judge, all the other sentenced men were the church believers. Even the church of King’s City was completely uprooted, and Roland made sure that everyone who was involved in spreading the demonic plague got what they deserved.

These scumbags will surely be met by cheers from the audience when they’re brought to the gallows.

“Are you not going to watch it in person?” asked Nightingale, standing by the window.

“Iron Axe and Theo will take care of everything,” replied Roland without even raising his head. Public trials helped excite and unite the subjects in Border Town, but they would not have the same effect here. The people would not automatically side with Roland as soon as he killed Timothy, just like they did not side with Timothy after King Wimbledon III and Gerald died.

He did not have enough support among the citizens here.

He was also concerned about his own safety. Sylvie eventually found the gem list Roland remembered, which Timothy had hidden in a secret compartment in his closet. However, there were twelve more names than the gems there, four of which were hidden in King’s City. It meant that they had all received Timothy’s orders. Although they were not necessarily the assassination orders, Roland still kept his guard up. Execution grounds were too disorderly and unsuitable for him to visit, and he had no interest in watching executions.

He had much more important things to deal with.

For example, the army.

The casualties in capturing King’s City were finally calculated, revealing that the First Army lost 33 men, which was their worst loss so far. Although they killed a much larger amount of enemies than that, Roland still noticed many flaws in their street battle tactics, especially in house demolition—most of the First Army’s casualties were caused when enchanted soldiers surprised them by leaping out from civilian houses. If his soldiers could use rifle grenades or blasting cartridges to demolish suspicious houses in their way, there would definitely be lighter casualties.

His other concern was the size of the army. The First Army could take on the entire Kingdom of Graycastle with its 3,000 men, but it was not enough to conquer everything in his sights. He would have to leave at least 500 men behind to maintain order in King’s City, and after conquering Fallen Dragon Ridge and the Southernmost Region, the army would be too small to maintain a peace war. He needed to expand his army.

Roland wrote down the plans for death benefits and army expansion and handed them to his guards. He ordered them to take the plans back to the City of Neverwinter, where the City Hall would carry them out.

After that, the prince directed his attention to the lower-level nobles.

They did not have any substantial political power, but they were all well-educated and desperately wanted to be promoted. All the great nobles in King’s City had already been cleared out. They were either exiled from the territory or sent to the Neverwinter mines, leaving many vacancies in the office. In order for King’s City to run normally, the most effective tactic was to have these lower nobles work for him.