Reborn As Noble

Chapter 891: Broken Pride, Bitter Choices ( 891 )

Arjam Region.

Southern Gate.

Chaos erupted as the two factions faced off at the battered gate.

”No! We will not let Armand govern us!” one man shouted, face flushed with anger as he shoved his way to the front.

”Don’t you forget, Sir Thilan! Our late lord was never on good terms with the Armand family!”

Others behind him raised their fists, their voices echoing with old resentment.

Across the crowd, a woman’s voice rang out, raw with frustration.

”Are you all stupid?! Look around! Everything’s in ruins! Bandits are everywhere! Even Mister Karzan, the food merchant, he was attacked and his wife was kidnapped! We can’t do anything to stop them!”

”Yeah! Look at our market! There’s nothing left! We have no choice!” another shouted, desperation cutting through his words.

But the opposing faction yelled back, holding firm.

”If you let Armand’s troops inside, the other nobles, especially our late lord’s cousin next door, will see it as betrayal! Are you willing to risk that?!”

”Sir Thilan! Say something!” one of the men shouted desperately, his voice cutting through the chaos.

”What’s there to say, huh!?” another yelled back. ”We, the people, won’t let Armand govern us!”

The two factions shouted over each other, anger and old resentment flaring in the heat and dust. The square felt ready to erupt into violence at any moment.

Thilan stood silent, letting the noise boil, his eyes grim as he watched former friends, neighbors, even family members face off with nothing but fear and old grudges between them.

Finally, he raised his hand, voice ringing out clear and commanding,

”All of you! Enough!”

The crowd froze. Every head turned as Thilan stepped forward, flanked by several soldiers still loyal to the region’s fragile government. The man’s expression was grim, his voice carrying the weight of exhaustion and authority.

”Can’t you see what’s happening around us!? Half our people already fled to Armand just to survive! They went there for food, for shelter, for safety! And we’re here, still fighting among ourselves like fools!”

He swept a hand across the battered town. ”Look around! Do you not see it with your own eyes? We’re all suffering! Most of our late lord’s army has splintered, some have joined the neighboring nobles, some thrown in with bandit gangs, others just vanished.”

His voice grew harder, pain and frustration mixing.

”Most of the old officials, our own people, have broken away, forming their own factions! The whole Arjam region is torn apart, every town, every border is its own battleground! We have skirmishes every day, old friends turning on each other. Just look at the northern border, how many more refugees must we see before you admit we’re losing everything?”

He swept his gaze across the group, anger and grief in his tone. ”Do you call this freedom? Do you call this loyalty?”

Someone muttered weakly, ”But if we let Armand’s army enter”

Thilan cut him off sharply.

”Then what? You think the New King will save us? You think the ones who abandoned us care about this land? Look at how Armand treats its people. Humans, elves, beastkin, dwarves! Even refugees from fallen kingdoms are given homes and work! None starve there! Do you not see it clearly?”

His voice rose, clear and unwavering.

”And yet here we are, too proud to admit our weakness while our children die in the streets!”

The silence that followed was heavy.

”The remaining three town governors, including myself, already agreed in negotiation to meet with the Lord of Armand. We even went so far as to beg him for help! Lord Garius told us he’d discuss it with his council, but you think I want to see all that effort go to waste because of your stubbornness and selfishness?”

He pointed sharply at the crowd, his face set and voice rising.

”You say you hate Armand, but look at the truth, most of our food, our supplies, everything comes from Armand! Every merchant who keeps us alive gets their goods from there!”

His expression darkened as he grit his teeth.

”We don’t even know if he’ll send his army, or even agree to help at all! And here you are, shouting about the relationship between our late lord and the Lord of Armand, as if that matters now? Even after we swallowed our pride and begged for Armand’s help, there’s no guarantee they’ll lift a finger for us!”

He swept his arm across the battered street, voice ringing out.

”Just look at where we’re at! Our soldiers, barely a hundred left here, fighting to defend this town. The other two towns barely have two hundred men between them! Do you think Armand stands to gain anything from helping us? Open your eyes!”

He glared at the crowd, his voice trembling with frustration and truth.

”Even during our late lord’s rule, the Armand economy outgrew us all. You can take all the regions of the Human Kingdom, add them up, and they still couldn’t match Armand. Even the royal family’s wealth doesn’t come close to Lord Garius!”

The townspeople fell silent, the reality settling over them like a heavy cloud, no longer able to deny the harsh truth that even their survival now depended on the mercy of the one house they’d spent years resenting.

”Do you think the Lord of Armand is stupid?!”

Thilan’s voice cut sharply through the crowd, every word hitting with the weight of reality. ”If he wanted to conquer this region, do you really think it would take him any time at all to sweep through and claim everything? Are you all so blind you can’t see how powerful the Armand army is?”

He stabbed a finger at the ground for emphasis.

”Two wars! Did you all forget? Our late lord sent his army, used this very region as the launch point for the first noble coalition war. And what happened? Armand crushed every opposition.”

He scanned the faces in front of him, letting the silence press in. ”And not just that! Armand just won the main celestial war a few months ago! Eight hundred thousand troops under the late King Edmund, wyvern units and all, fought against Armand, who had less than a hundred thousand main soldiers, and yet... not a single loss on their side. Nothing!”

He let that fact settle, voice simmering with cold truth.

”If Lord Garius wanted to rule this land, he wouldn’t need our invitation. We’d be under his banner already. So stop acting like we have anything left to bargain with, and open your eyes to the only help left for us!”

Before Thilan could continue, the emergency bell rang out, sharp, jarring, echoing through the town.

A soldier’s voice roared from the top of the watchtower, panic breaking through the late afternoon heat.

”ENEMY!!!”

( End Of Chapter )