Super Righteous Player
Chapter 1048 - 106: The Great Schemer, Annan

Chapter 1048: Chapter 106: The Great Schemer, Annan

After discussing the situation in Dennisiowa for a while longer, Annan excused himself—under the pretext of asking Ouzel to buy some drinks to help sober them up, he sent Ouzel away.

Ouzel was an old bureaucrat.

Even though Annan’s excuse wasn’t very good, Ouzel immediately understood that His Majesty intended to send him away.

So he promptly took the hint, knowing that he didn’t need to come back anytime soon.

He left the tavern with Shirley and the two "noble guests."

"Please wait here for a moment. There’s a nice yogurt shop across the street... I will be back shortly."

Ouzel respectfully bowed to the two of them and tactfully left with Shirley.

The reason he took Shirley with him was that sometimes dogs could understand human speech. This was even more true for Transcendent beings.

He didn’t want the others to think that he left Shirley behind to eavesdrop on their conversation—because that could get Shirley killed.

His double-breasted, thick black overcoat immediately identified him to the locals—as a black coat detective or white coat cavalry officer, both public Transcendents.

And to be treated with such respect by a detective...

That could only mean they were dealing with nobles of high stature, not to be trifled with.

So people began to walk around them, not even daring to look up at them.

The streets cleared around Annan and Isaac, forming a large circle at the center.

Yet, this "tact" and "respect" did not bring Annan any joy... but instead filled him with sadness.

Isaac simply looked down, pressing his lips together without speaking.

But it was evident that he, too, was saddened by how his own citizens were so "respectful of nobility."

Whether it was Noah, Winter, The Holy Nation, or the Underground City... the citizens of those places might fear the nobility, but they would never show such a degree of fear. Even someone with a bit of ability—like Elle’s worthless painter father—dared to frequent the Viscount’s house every day to paint for the Viscountess without any fear.

And the captain of the guards at Tan Juan’s household even dared to outright kill his master.

As for assassins who targeted the royal bloodline, from Noah to Winter, Annan had personally seen them countless times...

However, in the United Kingdom, where royal power was weakest, even to the point of having a "House of Lords and Commons," such incidents were the least likely to occur.

The reason was simple.

Both Noah and Winter had their dignity. During wartime, to maintain stability and ensure law and order, the punishments might have been somewhat harsher.

But hundreds of years have passed since the Bloody Wars ended.

The countries have become more civilized.

Capital punishment had basically become the most severe penalty.

The most brutal punishment in Noah was "The Silver Pouring." The culprit would be filled with molten silver to meet their end.

But this penalty had not been used for over a hundred and twenty years. Nowadays, hanging was the usual method—beheading had almost entirely ceased.

Winter once practiced "snow burial."

The specific method involved tying a person up and methodically pouring several kettles of boiling water over them, scalding their whole body, then untying and throwing them out of the city.

The injuries from the boiling water and the completely soaked clothes made the person slowly freeze to death in the snow. Even if they desperately tried to survive, attempting to take off their clothes, they would almost certainly not make it. In the end, they would die outside the city, agonized and contorted.

Before they died, they would even feel that the snow was scalding hot. These bodies would naturally be covered by blizzards and ultimately concealed.

The severity of the punishment generally depended only on "how many kettles of water were poured." If the crime was more severe, the criminal might be directly scalded to death, and there would be no need to throw them out...

Nowadays, this process had been simplified—or rather, civilized—such that lesser offenses led to simply throwing the convicted out and leaving them to their fate; capital offenders were given to the Frost Beasts, and public executions were no longer held.

Without being doused in boiling water first, the survival chances of the "exiles" had greatly increased.

It probably went from two decimal places after the point to one before it.

An epic increase indeed.

The situation underground was rather special, after all, a city, a law. It did not rule out the existence of chaotic areas like saltpeter ranches, where people were captured and "planted" to grow saltpeter.

But for the most part, diggers typically couldn’t be bothered to carry out executions—because once a death row inmate escaped the city, they were no longer considered a convict.

After all, underground, laws between different cities weren’t applicable, and crimes weren’t inherited.

As for The Holy Nation, Annan wasn’t quite familiar. However, there weren’t any cruel execution cases there... Only the Union Kingdom was different.

That’s because in Dennisiowa, the "apparent crime rate was very low," and hardly any death row inmates were executed.

But the pirates were nearly all villains—and for "people they could kill at will," they truly took delight in torturing them before finally killing and sinking them to the seabed. To maintain their dominance and voice in this region, this sort of "torture" was usually public.

Take "Venomhand," a wanted criminal, for instance. The real reason he was wanted was actually just the first two—attempting to assassinate a noble and plundering an official ship. Because the latter two, almost any pirate has committed them, it’s just that it was deliberately overlooked.

This power to warrant the capture of almost anyone at any time is also why the nobility’s status supersedes that of detectives and mounted police.

Even pirates had to show respect when in the presence of a noble.

Because every one of them had actual "dirt" on them.

And this was precisely because of the nobles’ deliberate permissiveness...

"Do you see... this is where I was born."

Isaac lifted the corner of his mouth into a sarcastic grin and with a mocking smile said, "It really is no different from one hundred and sixty years ago.

"They never intended to make Dennisiowa any better, even in the slightest, right from the start. They just wanted to rule Dennisiowa generationaly."

"You seem quite happy now."

"Because I think you can see it too... Dennisiowa is about to plunge into chaos."

Isaac smiled smugly, showing a sort of schadenfreude: "Those high and mighty nobles probably don’t even realize the severity of the problem.

"These pirates, who in their eyes obediently listen, come and go like dogs upon command, who dare not utter a word even when they’re outright killed or executed... if someone really tried to cut off their lifeblood, they wouldn’t just passively await death like the commoners."

"Indeed."

Annan was also somewhat worried.

But he wasn’t worried for Dennisiowa—he was concerned for his own reputation.

Back when Annan was still known as Black Annan, he stayed in Winter.

And so, Winter saw two waves of rebellion one after the other, lasting five or six years. And just when the internal strife had subsided, the Noah royal family immediately started slaughtering each other, seamlessly picking up where the strife left off... Later they found out, Annan somehow had gone to Noah.

Actually, when Noah first began to fall into chaos, Annan hadn’t even gone there. He was world-traveling at that time, spending a while in every region.

As soon as the old King of Noah met Annan, he dropped dead.

Annan immediately "ran back to Winter" in fright—and then right after his return, Winter’s Grand Duke also dropped dead. The northern nobility of Winter then started rebelling, and Annan’s Frost Beast troops directly overthrew the northern nobility, resulting in a mass execution.

Before matters had settled there, Annan ran off to Noah... where Philip and Elizabeth immediately started fighting each other, with one suddenly dying and the other encountering major trouble, and Annan’s close ally Kafney smoothly ascended to the throne.

When Annan journeyed to the Union Kingdom, civil war broke out within a month of his arrival—if Annan’s guess was correct, this old King’s head was most likely gone too.

Annan was in distress.

How do you all die in such regular patterns, making it seem so much like it’s somehow related to me...

I literally did nothing, I was just passing by!

At this rate, Duke Annan was going to become an unmatched master of conspiracy!

He even began to suspect whether Black Annan really had it all arranged...

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