Chapter 276: The Constitution
The crystal sphere lay neatly in Kaelen’s palm, inside possessing a silver light thread spinning slowly.
"Hold out your hand."
Elric hesitated for a moment, then held out his hand. Kaelen placed the sphere into his palm, flicking it lightly.
The light burst out.
Before Elric could cry out, the entire grand hall had disappeared. He was no longer sitting on the wooden chair, but standing in the middle of a hillside, the wind blowing past his face carrying the smell of wet mud and the smell of kitchen smoke. In front of him, a strip of terraced fields stretched from the foot of the hill up to halfway up the mountain, the water sparkling under the afternoon sun like a mirror staircase.
He looked down at his feet. There was no shadow.
"This is a memory, not a place." Kaelen’s voice echoed in his ear: "You cannot touch anything. Just walk and see."
Elric stepped down into the field, hitting his eyes were beastmen, very many beastmen. The ones tall and large with shoulders broad as doors were carrying stones to embank the edges, carrying wood, digging ditches, every step stomping down into the mud sinking to the ankles; interspersed among them were much smaller figures, their bodies slender, on their heads only dotted a pair of small ears or a not too large pair of horns like those of beastmen. These people did not hold hoes but held notebooks, held rulers, held wooden boards, wherever they went that tall and large crowd bowed down listening there.
Initially, Elric thought they were females, because in this Great World, anyone with a small stature and not rushing out to do heavy work was nine times out of ten a female; but looking more carefully for a while, he saw someone shirtless exposing his back under the sun, someone carrying a bundle of bamboo stakes running across the field edge as light as nothing, someone rolling up his pants wading into the mud arguing fiercely with a beastman twice his size about banking the edge half a foot off, and that flat chest, absolutely was not a female that he knew.
"Those are male females." Kaelen’s voice echoed by his ear:
"In the past, when the Beastman Continent was separated from the Great World, females were entirely killed by a kind of disease. Ultimately to maintain the species, Sub-Beasts evolved into females themselves. They still retain the characteristics of Sub-Beasts, but their bodies automatically became more slender and weaker, in exchange they gained the reproductive ability like females. I am also one of them."
Elric was a bit stunned. He had wondered right from the beginning but did not dare to ask it out loud.
Sub-Beasts in the Great World speaking bluntly were hybrids between the Beastman clan and humans, unable to transform into beast form but inheriting a robust physique and strength equal to beastmen in human state.
Meanwhile, Lord Kaelen was too slender compared to normal Sub-Beasts. Elric even thought he was malnourished...
While Elric was trying to change his worldview, the surrounding scenery altered again.
He was standing in the middle of a spacious stone-paved courtyard, in front was a row of low tiled-roof houses with reading voices echoing out, and when he peeked through the window frame he saw forty or fifty small children sitting in rows on long benches. Regardless of whether they were natural enemies of each other or not, they all sat beside each other. The Black Snake cub sat mixed with the Golden Peacock cub, the Mouse clan sat beside the Cat clan; every single one rested their chin babbling reading following the wooden pointer of the young teacher standing on the podium.
The scenery changed again, a blast furnace was spewing smoke, then a weaving workshop with dozens of looms running rattlingly, then a long house filled with beds having people wearing white clothes walking among the aisles leaning down feeling the pulse for a one-legged old man, and finally a market.
The market was the thing that astonished Elric the most.
He had passed through Lyra market no less than a thousand times so he knew very clearly what a market looked like: people huddled, haggling over every coin, their eyes always darting sideways checking if anyone intended to stick their hands into their pockets; yet the market before him was noisy, crowded, and people laughed.
A female selling vegetables was arguing fiercely with a Tiger clan beastman about the price of a cabbage bunch, arguing until their faces turned red and ears purple, finishing arguing the Tiger guy dug out money to pay in full yet was still shoved an extra handful of scallions, then reached out his hand as big as a fan punching the opponent’s shoulder forcefully once, and both laughed uncontrollably together.
They touched each other, as normal as breathing. Yet in his world, a woman exposing her leg or accidentally touching hands with a man, her reputation would be stamped with a stain even blacker than swamp mud.
Elric stood there, thinking of his younger sister in the past. She was only fifteen years old, the most beautiful age of a girl’s life. Just because she was accidentally touched physically by an old Marquis, under public pressure she had to marry that man, only to be abused to death day by day. Elric became a knight solely to take revenge for his younger sister.
However, having taken revenge, he did not know where to go, living a wandering, aimless life until he met an Elf clan maiden on the run. Half of her face was burned, done by her own self using hot firewood to brand it. He admired her bravery, walking alongside her for a distance. Gradually he discovered, beneath that ugly skin layer was a kind-hearted and holy soul yet equally resolute.
He loved her, she loved him, willingly living in the shadows just to be by his side, even giving birth to a son for him.
Elric felt his nose sting.
Throughout ten years as a City Lord, Elric only selfishly protected himself, always thinking of ways for his mate and son to be safe. He completely did not think that, if humans and non-humans could peacefully coexist, then what did he need to fear his mate being discovered by the Church day by day for?
The light retracted, and Elric saw himself still sitting on the wooden chair in the middle of the grand hall, the crystal sphere lying in his palm had died out since when, and his face was drenched wet without him even knowing.
On the step above, Kaelen sat still for a very long time, because in the memory segment just now, in that market scene, at the end of the street there was a tall figure leaning against a pillar, his two arms crossed before his chest, looking straight towards the person holding the recording sphere without saying a single word, only curling his lips slightly.
He still remembered clearly it was a July afternoon, that day Sane followed him to the market to carry things, walking halfway then being pulled back by Zale asking about troop deployment matters so he had to stand rooted there for exactly half an hour, and he had deliberately panned slowly past that spot once before retracting the sphere.
Kaelen tucked the sphere into his spatial bag, acting as if nothing happened, while Ivy standing beside glanced at him once then quietly poured more water into his cup.
"Now you read the final part of the plan document again." Kaelen spoke up.
Elric wiped his face, looking down at the goat skin parchment, his finger tracing to the Department of Public Security section then stopping at the text line that earlier he had only skimmed past: [Attached, Lyra Constitution, twenty-seven articles.]
"This is..."
Kaelen answered: "The new law of this city."
Elric put the paper down, his expression slowly turning solemn, and for the first time throughout that whole afternoon he opened his mouth using the voice of a City Lord rather than the voice of a believer who had just knelt down kowtowing.
"Lord, do you know who set the current law of Lyra? It is the Church of Light. This law has existed since three hundred years ago, hand-copied into six copies, one copy kept in the secret vault in the Capital, the five remaining copies scattered in five major branches, and the copy kept in Lyra is still lying in the iron chest right behind your back until now.
Therefore you must understand what you are proposing.
Changing the operational structure of the City Hall, recruiting non-humans, redeeming slaves, all those things I have ways to hide, have ways to deny, have ways to blame others if unfortunately exposed; but changing the law cannot be hidden anywhere, changing the law means I speak straight into the Church’s face that your laws are wrong, and for three hundred years no one has ever dared to say that sentence and remained alive."
"I know." Kaelen said.
"You do not know." Elric shook his head, and in his voice at this moment there was not a bit of fear anymore, only the tired look of a person who had calculated this matter back and forth more times than he wanted to admit:
"I am a Holy-level Knight, this entire Continent has less than forty people like me, and the City Lord seat I have sat in for twelve years is not because I am wiser than others, nor is it because the Vandenberg family has a lot of money, but only because the Church needs a person strong enough to guard this crossroad for them.
Them turning a blind eye for me to hide my mate for ten years is also because of that reason, they know, do not think they do not know; they are only weighing whether a flawed City Lord or an unguarded Lyra is a bigger loss. But the day I touch their law, everything I used to be useful for is not worth half a silver coin, and at that time the thing they dispatch down will not be a few monks going to collect tribute gifts anymore."
Kaelen nodded, also not rushing to argue, only waiting for him to speak fully.
"Therefore I must ask clearly." Elric looked up: "What do those twenty-seven articles write?"
"Article one, all intelligent living beings, regardless of race, are equal before the law; a person killing a Goblin bears the same crime as a person killing a human, and a person killing a human also bears the same crime as a person killing a Goblin, those two clauses must go together to be called a law."
Elric took a very deep breath.
"Article two, trading intelligent living beings is prohibited; contracts signed before the day the law takes effect are still recognized, but the master must pay wages according to the minimum level set by the Department of Labor, and the worker has the right to redeem their freedom using exactly that wage amount."
"You do not abolish slavery immediately?" Elric was a bit surprised: "I thought that is the thing you want the most."
"Abolishing immediately, the eight hundred slave owners in the city will burn the City Hall right that night, and having burned it they will still be in the right, because I blatantly robbed their legal properties according strictly to the law being practiced." Kaelen took a sip of tea: "Therefore I do not rob, I only make raising slaves become a loss-making thing: raising a slave costs food, costs guards, they work perfunctorily, they ignore broken tools, whenever there is a slip-up they run away; whereas hiring a free person paying proper wages they work three times as much, they feel pity themselves for broken tools, and there is no need to assign anyone to guard. Two years is enough for them to calculate that math themselves, by the third year there is no need for me to force, they themselves will release people then turn around cursing anyone still raising slaves as stupid."
Elric fell silent for a moment then slowly nodded, because this was something he understood, understood better than the words about fairness or mercy.
"Article three, marriage must be voluntarily agreed by both sides, and only those two sides have the deciding right; parents, relatives, masters or anyone else are not allowed to step forward to promise marriage or force marriage, any contract signed lacking the signature of the person involved themselves the Department of Public Security will tear up, the person stepping forward to force will bear punishment like the crime of coercion.
People under sixteen years old are not allowed to marry under any title, even with parents’ agreement, even with monks witnessing. Anyone abusing their mate, the other side has the right to divorce immediately, keeping the children and half of the properties, and the husband’s family or wife’s family is not allowed to use that matter to humiliate them.
As for marriage between two different races, it is fully recognized, the children born are recorded in the population register like every other child, no stamps, no notes, without a single distinguishing word."
"Husband and wife must keep loyalty to each other, and this binds both sides equally, there is no such thing as this side violating is called a slip-up while the other side violating is called defilement. Anyone having a mate yet sleeping with others, the betrayed side has the right to divorce, keeping the children, and taking two-thirds of the properties.
The betrayer leaves the door with exactly their portion, not allowed to use the children or the dowry to haggle. Any family keeping concubines, keeping slaves to serve in bed, or forcing hired workers to satisfy themselves, the Department of Public Security will handle as the crime of coercion rather than handling as a private family matter."
Elric snapped his head up: "This last article..."
"This last article touches half of the wealthy families in your city, I know." Kaelen was nonchalant: "But you try thinking about it, a thirteen-year-old girl being sold into someone’s house as a servant, then every night being dragged onto the bed by the master, then how is that different from a person on the street dragging her into a dark alley?
The only difference is the trading paper. And if that paper is powerful enough to turn a crime into a habit, then the wrong does not lie in the buyer, it lies in the law allowing people to buy."
Elric could not say a single word.
He sat there, his two hands resting on his knees, and Kaelen saw his fingertips turning pale white from gripping too tightly.
In his head at that moment there was only one image, which was that morning nineteen years ago, when the girl sat on the step of the old house, her hand still holding half a bread loaf, looking up asking him that brother, people say I have to marry him, is it true brother. Back then he was seventeen years old, not yet a Knight, not yet anything, and he had answered the girl that do not worry, let me talk with father.
He did talk with his father indeed. Finishing talking he had two ribs broken, and three months later the girl got on the wedding carriage.
If that day in Lyra there had been a law clause like this, then it only took the girl shaking her head once and it was done, no need for anyone to argue with anyone, no need for anyone to have broken ribs, and nineteen years later he would not have had to stand before a nameless grave swearing to himself that he would kill an old Marquis at all costs.
"Lord Elric?" Kaelen called.
Elric was startled, looked up, only discovering his eyes were wet again.
"It is nothing." He raised his hand wiping across his face, his voice extremely hoarse: "You just continue speaking, I am listening."
"Article four, every child in the city, regardless of race, regardless of gender gets to learn to read for free until twelve years old, the funding deducted from commercial tax. The regulation is mandatory, but there is no violation penalty level, only encouraging families to send their children to school." Kaelen continued: "Article five, using the name of faith to rob properties, force corvée labor, or convict a person is prohibited."
Elric jumped in shock: "This article aims straight at the Church already!"
"You read again and see if it mentions the Church’s name anywhere." Kaelen was nonchalant: "It mentions all faiths, without excluding any faith."
"Including the faith reserved for you?"
"Included."
Elric sat up straight, and Kaelen placed the teacup down on the table, casting his eyes looking at him.
"This is exactly the part I need you to listen carefully to, therefore you flip down to article twenty-seven."
Elric flipped the paper, read, then read again a second time, then snapped his head up looking at Kaelen as if he had just seen a ghost, because on the last line of that goat skin parchment it wrote: This Constitution binds all living beings residing in or passing through Lyra city, without excluding anyone, including the Deities.
"This article..." He stammered: "This article who allowed you to write it? Tying even the Deities into mortals’ laws is no different from..."
"Is no different from blasphemy, you intended to say that right." Kaelen stood up, stepped down the stairs, stopping in the middle of the grass carpet in the grand hall, and the grass crowd under his feet automatically parted to the two sides yielding the path: "I ask you this question: do you know why hundreds of millions of years ago the world collapsed? It was not because the Deities were weak, but because the Deities were too strong yet completely lacking anything to bind them; They bestowed grace when happy, struck punishment when angry, after declaring a verdict the whole world had no choice but to bow their heads, and never had there been a single person stepping forward asking a question whether that was fair yet."
He turned back looking at him.
"The Elf clan lost the Elf King for hundreds of millions of years just because of a traitor, the Dwarf clan was punished for the crime of standing watching. Yet the Goblin clan was not punished.
Why? Because they had to go steal to feed their cubs and no one had ever taught them a different way to live, speaking simply, it is because they were already lying at the bottom so there was no place left to banish them down to anymore. Those verdicts were all declared by the Deities, and no one could appeal, because above the Deities there was no law at all."
"So..." Elric swallowed hard.
"So this article twenty-seven was not added arbitrarily by me." Kaelen said, and his voice deepened significantly: "It is His intention."
Elric’s whole body trembled.
"He instructed me like this: if intending to rebuild something on the ground, then the first thing to build is not any building, but a law strong enough to bind even its creator. Because there will be a time He makes a mistake, definitely there will be, and at that time there must still be people able to drag Him out to judge; otherwise hundreds of millions of years later everything will just repeat exactly the same."
"Is there any Deity who would personally say a sentence like that..." Elric whispered.
"Therefore exactly why I followed Him." Kaelen answered succinctly.
He returned to his seat, conveniently patting Steven’s head once.
"As for the law enforcers, He also designated them already, no need to discuss."
"Who is it?"
Kaelen jerked his chin towards the six children standing still behind.
"Them."
Steven raised his head, his eyes widening.
"I have taught them to read, to calculate, to argue reasonably, so now teaching one more thing, that even the person raising them is not allowed to stand above the law." Kaelen smiled: "You just rest assured, I have raised them for four months, every single one is very stubborn, they are not even afraid of arguing with me so there is no one they dare not argue with."
Brian hugged the notebook tightly to his chest, his two ears turning bright red right to the hair roots.
A very long time later, Elric finally leaned down rolling the goat skin parchment up, holding it with both hands like people holding a fragile object.
"Lord, please give me three days, and not to think, I have decided already." He stood up, his voice stabilizing again: "Three days is for me to arrange: I need to withdraw the entire trusted guard squad back to hold the City Hall, need to replace all the guards of the five city gates with my own people, need to send a letter to my uncle over at the eastern port region, and need to get my son out of Lyra before everything begins.
As for my mate, she is not leaving, I asked already, she said she has sat within four walls for ten years, now if she dies she also wants to die in the sun."
"You go back, remember to divide the three pills exactly three times, do not let her drink them all at once." Kaelen said.
Elric clasped his hands bowing then turned around stepping out the door, but walking halfway across the grand hall he stopped, and also did not turn his head.
"Lord, the person leaning against the pillar at the end of the market in that memory segment, who is it?"
In the grand hall there was silence for a quite long span.
"It is my mate." Kaelen answered.
"Where is that person?"
"I do not know, I have searched sixteen cities yet still have not seen him." Kaelen said, his voice so calm it was impossible to hear whether it was sad or not sad: "Therefore exactly why I must build this city so truly grand, so grand that standing anywhere on the Continent one can also hear the sound, so he can know the way to find it."
Elric nodded, not asking any more questions, stepping out the door; outside the afternoon sun had already turned to honey color, and on the square far away, the corpses of the two White-Robed Cardinals were still swaying in the wind.
He frowned, tilted his head whispering a few sentences into his subordinate’s ear. His subordinate bowed receiving the order then quickly ran to take those two corpses down, bringing them away for cremation.
Those two stinking turds were dead yet still irritated people’s eyes, should not be left in this place ruining Lyra’s beauty.