Chapter 137: 141. Closer to Endgame Part 2

“What’s going on, Shaula?” Prisca asks. 

Barden notices Prisca’s sincerely worried expression. She’s truly treating this human woman with patience. To display your anxiety, to be so vulnerable in front of this stranger… Prisca isn’t someone who would be this way without reason. Barden can tell that Prisca already trusts this woman.

His own cautious exterior softens as a result. Perhaps he should try approaching her with the benefit of the doubt for now. Not really understanding Barden’s careful thoughts, Shaula continues.

“I’ve… I’ve noticed some undercover guards trying to blend in with the crowd over here. I think the guards are preparing to arrest you, sir.” Shaula says to Barden.

“Yes… My confidants Sutty and Leon have already informed me about some suspicious people. You were able to notice them? How many did you spot?”

“I spotted fifteen in the vicinity.”

“…What?” Barden looks over towards Sutty and Leon, a demihuman woman and man respectively, whose faces seem to pale at Shaula’s estimate.

Within the crowd surrounding Barden, there are about forty demihumans and humans on their side who serve as a buffer between them and the city guards as well as any other human supremacists.

To find that there are already fifteen undercover guards who are trying to close in on him is… more than he had expected. Even without their armor, they could easily cause a lot of problems. As guards whose job was to maintain public quiet, they were given a lot of training so that they could do their jobs well against commoners.

“How are you so certain of—“ Barden tries to ask, but is interrupted by a frantic voice who also understands the seriousness of what Shaula has claimed.

“Shaula would know, Barden! Don’t doubt her here! I’m sure she has senses just as good as Ajax anyways…” Prisca mumbles that last sentence mostly to herself, though Barden picks up a new name.

Who is Ajax? Barden thinks to himself. He could only picture that Ajax is another noble if Shaula has senses “just as good as” his. Why would she mention him with Shaula in this context otherwise? Though Barden doesn’t know who he is, he wonders if Ajax is one of their human defenders in the nearby crowd. He cannot even tell by the name alone whether Ajax is a man or a woman.

Prisca’s expression is grim, but soon it becomes relaxed, expressionless.

“Shaula, do you think they’re trying to arrest him or… put an end to him?” She asks, her voice shaking slightly. 

“I… I honestly don't know.” Shaula looks between Prisca and Barden hesitatingly. Barden finds that expression of hers surprisingly innocent.

Is she truly just an inexperienced noble child? Maybe one without a family or one who is sympathetic to demihuman suffering…

“With that many undercovers nearby, they could be trying that…” Barden muses. “But, I think they’re just going to try and detain me for interrogation.”

“Just, you say…” Prisca understands what it means for Barden to be detained. 

He would activate his suicide protocol. If he were to die, the guards would not be able to torture him for information about the nationwide structure of the underground Church of Panaphon and Savitarius.

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This is information that only he knows within the city of Tritol. If he activates his protocol and dies, he would be removed from the hierarchy of the church. He would cease to be a point of weakness to their organization, and the guards would get nothing.

Barden and Prisca’s eyes meet. She knows that the church in Tritol would not be the same if he were to die. Yet, he was willing to risk his life to display solidarity during the statue march against human supremacy, while also trying to hamper Baron Liri’s new initiatives.

He had moved by instinct because of the liberties that the guards had been taking today; they had acted in ways that they would have acted even under their predecessor baron. They were uninhibited from moment one of the march, indicating they received some sort of permission from above, from the Baron.

He knew that Liri, the new Baron, is both efficient, motivated and sees the demihumans he tramples as pests. He would absolutely try and use their suffering for his purposes. Barden was sure of it. Just standing back and letting this Baron win is a poor choice for the future of his demihuman comrades in this city.

“Barden…” He turns to Sutty’s voice, with Leon standing beside her.

They’ve been quite loyal to him while he was living in this city and leading his congregation. He would like for them to leave as soon as possible. He wants to reach out to them, place his hands on their shoulders and order them to abandon him. Yet, Barden doesn’t say anything.

He can see the resolve in their faces. They would not leave him, he knows that much. How can he convince them to escape with their lives and unharmed?

Angelidis, Shaula, Barden, and Prisca are unmoving and restless as they consider what Barden wishes to do. They all want to know what he wants as their person of interest. However, Prisca raises her voice while fidgeting, unwilling to hear Barden’s self-sacrificial thoughts.

She knows that Barden would order them to leave him behind.

“Shaula, we have to do everything we can to protect Barden! There can be absolutely no possibility that he is captured.” Prisca tells Shaula with an even tone.

Prisca phrasing it in this manner makes her pause.

There is something about the fear in her voice that fills her with worry. The other members in the group, particularly the beastkin woman and man, share quizzical expressions at Prisca’s overt panic. Yet, Barden seems to understand why she’s so worried.

The protocol that Shaula isn’t aware of.

Her heart rate is going up too… Fuck, who cares about that, it’s not helpful right now.

Shaula grits her teeth. Angelidis had warned her about what happens when the guards get pushback. They only ramp up in their violence. They take things too far and start to target the community, the people who live around Maz square, as well as other majority demihuman neighborhoods.

Angelidis and her friends. They’re all going to feel repercussions from this, right? If they really try hard to grab Barden, won’t they start fighting people within the crowd? How many of them will be arrested? How many of them will be tortured at a guards’ station? How many will die right here?

She looks around those gathered. Barden follows her uneasy gaze. She doesn’t want anyone around them to die. Is there something she can do? Something that will force the guards to back off, rather than simply waiting for a fight that will result in many losses?

Then, she considers something.

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