Baron Matthan was scratching his head inside his study, trying every possible way to win over Kolk. However, every telegram he had the city government hall send out sank like a stone into the sea, with no reply whatsoever.
“My Lord Baron, there’s a piece of news.”
A servant came rushing in, looking flustered as he spoke.
“In the resistance team this morning, there was that lawyer who sent your child away before!”
This news instantly cut through the gloomy, cloud-filled thoughts in Baron Matthan’s mind, giving a sudden bright spark to his nearly-bald head as he fretted. That said, Matthan already had a classic “Mediterranean” hair pattern to begin with, so there wasn’t much hair left anyway.
Kolk was busy figuring out how to get a hold over the nobles to achieve his ambitions. The only leverage he had managed to grab was the matter with Berriyet and a few trivial things.
Aside from the Berriyet affair, nothing else posed even the slightest threat to him.
Now that the lawyer on the other side had joined the resistance, Matthan could easily ramp up the propaganda and argue that the nobles’ dirty laundry was very likely deliberately fabricated by the resistance forces.
Baron Matthan believed this might be a perfect opportunity to switch sides.
This was a chance to counter the negative rumors—not only to dispel Kolk’s doubts, ease the unfavorable impact caused by the Berriyet incident, but also to solidify his own power and position, and maybe even climb higher…
“Get everyone moving!”
Baron Matthan slammed his fist on the table, a flash of madness gleaming in his eyes.
“Stir up the waters, and then bring that guy over here!”
Right now, swept along by a surging tide of public opinion and anger, Vistda and Antina were leading a group of workers toward the city government hall.
Flames of fury were burning fiercely in their hearts—a longing for freedom and equality, a resistance against oppression and exploitation.
To seize Mobis City and cut off most of its connections with Kolk, they had to first capture the heart of power in Mobis City—the Mobis City Government Hall.
When Vistda and his group reached the main gate of the city government hall, they found the police presence extremely thin.
As it turned out, most of the guards had been pulled away to block the main roads and suppress the sparks of resistance springing up like wildfire across Mobis City. At that moment, there wasn’t even a single police officer guarding the government hall entrance.
Without any hesitation, Vistda stepped forward and pushed open the government hall’s doors with ease.
With a creak, the doors slowly swung open.
“Who goes there? Haven’t you heard that the city government hall isn’t receiving visitors today?”
A police officer lounging on a chair in the center of the lobby jerked his head up at the noise and snapped at Vistda for his behavior.
He tried to intimidate Vistda into backing off with a threatening tone, but Vistda ignored him completely. Calmly, he pulled a pistol from his coat and aimed it steadily at the officer’s head.
“How about now?”
Vistda’s voice was icy cold. Across from him, the officer instinctively raised both hands.
The officer’s face turned pale instantly, and tiny beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He stammered:
“Mo… Mobis City Government Hall wel—welcomes… your arrival.”
One of the workers behind Vistda was quick on his feet. He rushed over to the officer and, in a few swift moves, unclipped the pistol hanging from the officer’s belt.
“Tell me where they usually work.”
Hearing Vistda’s question, the officer pointed a trembling finger toward the elevator on the left. Apparently, riding that slowly rising contraption would take you to where the government staff worked.
After getting the information, Vistda had a worker bring some rope. They tied the officer up like a dumpling and stuffed a sweat-stained piece of linen into his mouth.
The officer struggled desperately, making “mmph mmph” sounds, but it was no use.
After dealing with that officer, Vistda led the group as quietly as possible to the office. Then, three of them who had guns charged straight in.
“Hands up! We don’t want to hurt anyone!”
When people saw armed men storm in, everyone in the busy government office turned their attention to the three pistols.
Fear or confusion appeared on every face. They stopped working, one by one, and slowly raised their hands.
However, there were a few restless individuals who tried to rally others to fight back against Vistda’s trio.
They figured there were over a dozen people in total, and only three troublemakers. Taking them down should be a piece of cake.
The next second, the office door swung open again, and a group of sturdy, tough-built workers barged in.
Seeing these workers, those restless folks immediately dropped their plans. They could clearly see that countless big, strong men were standing outside—far more than the number of people in their office.
Seeing this, Vistda and another worker quietly put away their guns.
“Um… ladies and gentlemen… what can we do for you? I’m the person in charge here…”
A man who seemed somewhat important spoke up nervously, his legs trembling nonstop as if he might collapse at any moment.
One of the workers nodded, then shoved the gun against the person in charge’s forehead. This gave Vistda quite a fright, but the next second, he snapped out of it and began interrogating the government hall’s head official.
“Where’s the mayor of Mobis City?”
The head official, with a gun to his head, had no intention of hiding anything and answered honestly:
“The mayor disappeared yesterday. He must have heard the wind and just fled outright.”
That mayor of Mobis City was a smart one, all right. He realized the situation in Mobis City had spiraled out of control, the building was about to collapse, so he packed up and ran away along with those big company bosses.
“Second question. What’s your method of contact with Kolk…”
Vistda stared intently into the head official’s eyes.
The head official didn’t hide a thing. He pointed to the two telegraph machines behind him and said:
“We use these telegraph machines to send messages to Kolk. These are the only ones I know about.”
Satisfied with the answer, the workers surrounded them. They tied up all the government hall staff like dumplings, then tossed them like trash downstairs next to the police officer.
When that police officer saw people coming, he got excited and wanted to call for help. But when he saw it was the staff members, all tied up, he deflated like a punctured balloon.
At that point, the resistance workers had successfully taken over the Mobis City Government Hall. But since none of them had any experience with telegraphy, they had no idea how to send messages. They could only find someone to hide the two machines away.
But just as everyone thought things had calmed down and were about to celebrate their victory, there was a loud bang, and the government hall doors were kicked open again.
“Damn pests! Prepare to die!”
Four people came in, all of them holding guns. But anyone with eyes could see that most of them had no clue how to use a gun. One guy was even holding his upside down, with the muzzle pointing at himself—so ridiculous it was hard not to laugh.
Seeing that everyone inside was wearing clothes woven from coarse linen, along with the bunch of tied-up employees on the floor, the leader thought for a long moment before realizing they were too late. Someone else had already beaten them to the city government hall.
“My name is Jaeger. I used to be a low-level private detective in this city. I went bankrupt because I had no income.”
Jaeger looked very polite, and his demeanor wasn’t much different from any ordinary detective. But there was a trace of world-weariness in his eyes.
“My name is Kört. I’m his assistant.”
Kört nudged the red-haired guy next to him with his shoulder, telling him to quickly introduce himself.
“What’s there to say… It’s all fake anyway…”
The red-haired guy muttered something under his breath, but after Jaeger shot him a glare, that street-thug attitude of his vanished instantly.
“Osas.”
He said it very reluctantly, his voice low as a mosquito’s buzz.
Finally, the scrawny guy lingering at the back of the group stammered through his self-introduction:
“My name is… Grogg. I’m fifteen… uh.”
His eyes were full of unease, like a startled fawn.
“We’ve disliked the government hall for a long time. Seeing how chaotic things were today, we thought we’d come stir the pot. Uh… we didn’t expect you guys to move so fast.”
Jaeger smiled awkwardly, trying to ease the tension.
After Jaeger finished speaking, Antina pulled Vistda aside. Her eyes were full of caution, and she whispered:
“I think we need to ask where they got those guns.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Something feels off.”
Vistda nodded, his brow furrowed.
So Antina stepped forward and demanded:
“Where did your guns come from?”
“Oh!”
Jaeger glanced at the gun in his hand. So that’s what they were worried about. He quickly explained:
“There was a shootout between the gangs and the police. We happened to be nearby, so we picked these up.”
A strange, hard-to-describe feeling lingered in Vistda’s mind. But when he thought it over, it actually seemed reasonable. Maybe he was just being overly suspicious.
These people standing before him, rising up and fighting for freedom—there was no doubt about it. They shared the same goals and were comrades fighting shoulder to shoulder.
Vistda and Antina were overjoyed. They fully supported these newcomers joining them, both hands and feet in favor.
But right in the middle of the cheerful atmosphere, Antina suddenly changed the subject.
“However…”
Her gaze landed on the worker who had so impatiently shoved his gun against the head official’s forehead—Leolo.
“Leolo, didn’t we agree on this before? We can go all out against the police and the guards, but we absolutely must not frighten ordinary people.”
Antina’s tone was serious.
Leolo, however, couldn’t care less. He raised an eyebrow and asked with a cheeky grin:
“So, what are you gonna do to punish me?”
As soon as he said that, a burst of laughter erupted all around.
Antina, being mocked by everyone, felt a rush of anger shoot straight to her head. Her chest felt like it was blocked by a huge rock, tight and uncomfortable.
Seeing this, Vistda was about to step in and mediate, but Antina stopped him with her hand. She moved quickly and decisively, unbuckling the pistol from that worker’s waist and handing it over to another worker.
“I know that when it comes to strength, I can’t compare to you big, tough guys. But that doesn’t mean I’ll just let you look down on me and laugh at me!”
Leolo watched helplessly as the gun at his waist was handed over to his rival. His head drooped immediately. He knew right then—he had just lost some serious ground in front of her.
