### Chapter Seventy-Six: Rossius (Part 1)
The cold wind sighed, and the lights flickered.
On the dimly lit terrace of the main building’s second floor, I sat with my legs crossed at a round table, leaning my chin on one hand as I listened to Forgiveness Head Rect drone on about the recent trouble in the royal city.
“Hogtus Millerwolfat Rossius. Qatar J. Rossius’s younger brother, Seattlek Podor Rossius’s uncle, the Archbishop sent from the Holy City, the head of the Ethanbel Archdiocese, the current general manager of the Royal City New Currency Exchange, and the leader of the Clergyman faction in the advisory council…”
“Wow, quite the old rascal, huh? And we’re trying to pin something on him?”
“Sounds like quite the troublemaker,” I shrugged, “Shouldn’t the Rossius family be due for a bit of a smackdown? But who’s Qatar? And Seattlek—wait, why does that name sound so familiar?”
Where have I heard that before?
“Seattlek, the head of the First Knights Order of the Holy Church, leader of the Graced Balance sub-team, and the Storm Eye’s Church Knight Governor. He’s like the urban legend of taverns; you could hear the same story in eight different places and get twelve different versions. That guy loves the spotlight, so of course, he sounds familiar.”
Rect’s tone shifted, turning mockingly, “Behind closed doors, he’s nicknamed the most popular Church Knight among young women. Apparently, there are a ton of cliché romance novels about him—who knows, Princess, maybe you’ve read a couple?”
“You’re the one reading those kinds of novels.” I rolled my eyes at him, show of disdain fully delivered.
The head of the First Knights Order of the Graced Balance?
Now that you mention it, I kinda remember something.
I took out his brother back in the Eastern Continent…
If I recall correctly, it was his younger brother, right?
Just a spoilt loser from the Rossius family, who had the audacity to threaten me before kicking the bucket by saying his brother would definitely take revenge or something along those lines—what was his brother’s name again?
I can never remember these background character names.
“As for Seattlek’s father, Qatar J. Rossius, he held the position of Cardinal fifteen years ago, alongside St. George and Elena. But he was voted out of office just two years later.”
Rect continued, “He was a talented guy from the slums, bold but unfortunately never appreciated by the last Pope. Died full of ambition but ignored, he kicked the bucket in ’84 in the Holy City.”
“Oh.”
I nodded, signaling I got it.
So it seems like the only noteworthy Rossius I’ll need to keep an eye on is Seattlek.
If I remember right, he should be at the Holy Wall right now…
Along with his Graced Balance Knights…
“After the Williams family faded, the Rossius family rushed to fill the current Pope’s shoes, showing their loyalty through some pretty underhanded tactics, which eventually led to them taking over the St. George Currency Exchange.”
“I think it was around the middle of last year when the personnel shakeup at the Ethanbel main branch finally wrapped up. Almost everyone related to the Williams family got booted out, and Archbishop Hogtus got reassigned to be the head honcho at the Royal City New Currency Exchange during that time… By then, the Rossius family had already set their sights on the city’s debts.”
“Hogtus and the others were actually in the advisory council a year earlier; their ambitions were not just a few million coins. They wanted to wheel and deal with the neutral members of the council to control and influence Her Majesty’s political decisions…”
“Uh, to put it simply, you probably wouldn’t care much to delve into the tedious intricacies and manipulations going on during this time.”
“So, summarizing where things stand today: the Church is losing power, the Fourth Knights Order took a massive hit in the Empire, and the Currency Exchange’s plans to hike taxes across nations took a serious blow.”
“They thought that if they could conquer Silgaya and take advantage of the war-stricken Chielis City and the Winter City, then controlling Ethanbel would be a breeze. The old dogs of the Rossius family were too confident in the Church’s strength; they didn’t believe a bunch of snowflake barbarians could compete with their unstoppable Church Knights. But, well, reality isn’t always what you expect.”
“The Valen Empire’s victory gave Ethanbel’s nobility tons of confidence, and the alliance with the Empire made all the families supporting Her Majesty feel ecstatic. They no longer feared the Fifth Knights Order’s might; in fact, some even started thinking the Church Knights were just a bunch of loudmouths. That confidence lasted until Her Majesty returned triumphantly, and the process of making the advisory council less Church-like officially kicked off.”
Rect paused for a moment, took a sip from his teacup to moisten his thirsty throat.
“You know her well.”
He set his teacup down, “Strike when ready. Once we move, there’s no room for the enemy to breathe.”
“Things in the royal city may seem calm on the surface these two months, but we’ve clashed with those clerics over ten times already. The royal city’s church district has been fully locked down, and we’ve gathered important evidence of those monks and bishops abusing their power for personal gain, embezzling from the kingdom’s treasury, and stealing from the people.”
“Before you came to the royal city, we’d rounded up most of the big fish among them. The advisory council has been thoroughly cleaned out due to Her Majesty’s decisive actions, and it seems we’re nearing the end of this whole affair. The only one missing is that old man Hogtus, who must’ve sensed the storm and skedaddled. We’ve searched everywhere but can’t find him.”
“He’s probably already out of the city,” I remarked casually, “What else would he be doing here? Waiting to reunite with his old cleric buddies in jail?”
“No, he probably hasn’t left the city yet or at least not too far from the palace, he still has something he wants to retrieve,” Rect stated.
“Retrieve what?” I shot back.
“The evidence against the Rossius family.” Forgiveness Head leaned closer, narrowing his eyes at me, “You could say it’s evidence against the Church too. Tonight he’s sending those kids to try to retrieve it from their estate.”
“Evidence?”
I furrowed my brow, “Is it the documents you mentioned earlier?”
“Exactly.”
Rect nodded slightly, “We went to great lengths to find them and stole them from the royal city’s financial vault. It pertains to the series of tax increase policies implemented first in Silgaya, detailing where the collected taxes went, the itemized expenses, the role the Rossius family played, and the profits they made…”
“That’s wealth beyond imagination, Princess.”
Forgiveness Head looked at me, his expression unusually serious, “This isn’t just about the merchant associations on the Eastern and Western Continents or the money from the poor farmers in the southern Republic. Those charlatans propped up a puppet regime in the Republic, radically reformed land laws, and squeezed nobles and farmers in Emerald City and beyond, forcing them to sell land and labor at shockingly low prices—all while being willing to annihilate the entire Western Continent’s food reserves to line their own pockets, even if it meant letting everyone starve.”
