Chapter 625:Serious Slander
Chapter 625: 625:Serious Slander
Ethan sat atop his horse and looked at the villagers quietly. His gaze swept across the frightened faces standing before him, but his expression remained calm.
"We are not here to harm civilians," he said in a steady voice.
"You are free to leave."
The villagers looked at one another in confusion. Many of them could hardly believe what they had just heard.
Several women immediately grabbed their children and pulled them close, while others hurried over to help the elderly move. Slowly, the crowd began retreating away from the village, but the fear inside them had not disappeared. They glanced back again and again as they walked, as if expecting the soldiers to attack at any moment.
In their eyes, the Arcadian soldiers were still invaders. Many had lost family members during the fighting. Many had watched their homes burn or collapse before their eyes. Many carried deep anger alongside their fear, and those emotions refused to fade so easily.
As the villagers continued moving away, one young man suddenly stopped in his tracks. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face twisted with hatred as he glared at the soldiers. Without warning, he bent down, grabbed a stone from the ground, and hurled it with all his strength.
BANG!
The stone slammed directly against a knight’s helmet.
The knight staggered slightly from the impact.
The entire atmosphere froze.
"What the hell?"
Before anyone could react, several other villagers suddenly followed his example. They picked up stones, broken bricks, pieces of wood, and anything else they could find lying nearby.
"Monsters!"
"Murderers!"
"Get out of our land!"
Stones immediately began flying from multiple directions. One elderly man rushed forward with surprising speed and struck a nearby knight with a wooden stick. At almost the same moment, a young woman threw a rock that smashed directly against another soldier’s visor. In only a few seconds, the entire situation spiraled completely out of control.
The Order of Eternal Blade reacted almost on instinct. Years of battlefield training took over before they could think.
Several knights immediately drew their swords.
SLASH!
One attacker collapsed.
SLASH!
Another villager fell.
Blood splattered across the ground.
Ethan’s eyes widened in shock.
"Stop! Don’t kill them!" he shouted loudly while pulling on his horse’s reins.
But it was already too late.
Several villagers had already fallen.
The moment blood appeared, panic completely erupted throughout the village.
Terrified screams echoed in every direction. Children burst into tears while women ran in fear. Some villagers desperately tried to flee, while others grabbed whatever weapons they could find and blindly charged toward the soldiers without thinking.
The knights quickly tightened their formations and tried to restrain people without killing them, but confusion had already spread everywhere.
"What are you doing?"
"Stop attacking!"
"Get back!"
Orders and screams mixed together as the entire village descended into chaos. Dust rose into the air while frightened people pushed one another in every direction trying to escape. Several soldiers struggled to hold back panicked villagers without causing further casualties, but every passing second only made the situation worse.
Meanwhile, Ethan remained seated atop his horse and stared silently at the chaos unfolding before him. His expression slowly darkened as the scene slipped further and further beyond anyone’s control.
What should have been a simple release had suddenly turned into complete mayhem.
"Don’t kill them!"
Ethan’s loud voice echoed across the entire village and drowned out much of the confusion and shouting that had erupted moments earlier.
"Just disarm them!"
The Order of Eternal Blade reacted immediately after hearing his command.
"As you wish, my Lord!"
The knights moved swiftly and professionally while rushing forward to restrain the attackers without hesitation, and although several swords had already been drawn, most of the soldiers immediately switched from lethal attacks to suppression techniques in order to carry out Ethan’s orders.
At first, many of the knights believed that these people might be enemy soldiers disguised as civilians because such tricks were not uncommon during wartime, and hidden militias often used villagers as cover before launching surprise attacks against occupying forces.
However, after a brief struggle and a thorough inspection of the captured individuals, they quickly discovered that these were truly ordinary villagers who possessed neither military training nor hidden weapons.
There were no military insignias.
There were no concealed swords.
There were no signs of organized resistance.
These were simply frightened common people.
As the confrontation slowly settled down, several villagers remained restrained while others sat trembling on the ground, and the sounds of crying children mixed with the groans of the injured while fear continued lingering heavily throughout the ruined village.
Ethan himself looked somewhat taken aback by the entire situation because this was genuinely the first time he had encountered something like this.
Previously, many civilians had feared Arcadian soldiers and had hidden from them whenever they approached, but none had reacted with such hostility immediately after being spared.
Something felt wrong.
Slowly climbing down from his horse, Ethan began walking toward the gathered villagers while carefully observing them.
Several knights instinctively moved to accompany him.
However, Ethan immediately raised one hand.
"Stay back."
The soldiers stopped at once.
Ethan continued forward alone.
His eyes moved carefully across the crowd while he studied their expressions one by one.
There was fear.
There was panic.
There was anxiety.
But strangely enough there was no patriotism.There was no determination to protect their homeland.
They also have no burning hatred toward Arcadia itself.Instead, the emotions he saw were directed specifically toward him.
Almost as if they genuinely believed he was some kind of monster.
Ethan frowned slightly.
Walking closer, he finally spoke.
"Why?"
The villagers lowered their heads.
No one answered.
Ethan looked toward another person.
"Why did you do it?"
Again, silence followed.
Several people visibly trembled.
Others avoided eye contact completely.
Ethan continued asking several more individuals, but every single one remained silent while refusing to answer.
Then finally an old man slowly lifted his head.
His wrinkled face trembled slightly.
"Aren’t you the Devil incarnate?"
The question caught everyone completely off guard.
Even Ethan blinked.
"What?"
The old man pointed a shaking finger directly toward him.
"You allow people to leave and then hunt them down afterward."
"All of this..."
"Isn’t this just a game to satisfy your ego?"
For a brief moment, the entire village became silent.
Then chaos erupted among Ethan’s knights.
"What!"
"The fuck!"
"The fuck do you mean, old man?"
Several knights immediately shouted in anger while stepping forward aggressively, and some even drew their swords after hearing such accusations directed toward their lord.
The old man, however, showed no fear.
Instead, he stared directly into Ethan’s eyes.
"You brute."
"You fucking piece of shit."
"Playing with the lives of innocent people."
"Don’t you have any shame?"
The moment he finished speaking, he spat directly toward Ethan.
Several knights gasped as the spit landed on Ethan’s armor.
Yet Ethan did not dodge.
He did not react nor did he become angry.
Instead, he simply stood there silently while staring at the old man.
The village gradually became quiet once more.
After a long moment, Ethan let out a slow sigh.
Then he turned toward his knights.
"Unbind them."
The knights froze.
"My Lord?"
"Let them disappear."
Several knights immediately frowned.
"But..."
Ethan interrupted them.
"Just follow the command."
His voice remained calm, but the firmness behind his words left absolutely no room for argument.
The knights reluctantly obeyed.
The ropes were removed.
The villagers immediately gathered their families and hurried away without looking back even once.
The entire incident remained inside Ethan’s mind long after they left.
Unfortunately...
It was not the last time.
As the Order of Eternal Blade continued moving from village to village and settlement to settlement throughout the occupied regions, they repeatedly encountered similar reactions from civilians.
Fear.
Suspicion.
Hostility.
The same accusations appeared again and again.
The same fearful looks.
The same whispers.
The same stories.
Gradually, Ethan began collecting pieces of information from the rumors spreading among the local population, and little by little the full picture started forming inside his head.
Apparently, countless stories were spreading throughout Xylos about him.
Stories calling him a devil.
A monster.
A butcher.
A bastard.
Some rumors claimed that he slaughtered innocent civilians for amusement.
Others claimed he tortured prisoners before executing them.
Some even claimed that he ravaged beautiful women, burned villages for entertainment, and personally hunted down those he pretended to spare.
The stories became more absurd the more he listened to them.
Even Ethan was stunned.
"Who the hell came up with this shit?"
He genuinely could not understand it.
The rumors were so ridiculous that they sounded like something invented by drunkards sitting inside a tavern.
Yet somehow...
People believed them.
Although this was Xylos territory and not Arcadia, the realization still left a bitter feeling inside his chest because these rumors were clearly not spreading naturally.
Someone was deliberately creating them.
It was as if that person was actively trying to destroy his reputation.
The more Ethan thought about it, the darker his expression became.
By the time evening arrived and he was sitting inside his tent while reviewing reports from the day, his mood had already reached rock bottom.
His fists slowly tightened.
A dangerous look flashed across his eyes.
"Don’t let me find you, son of a bitch."
"Or I am going to tear you into pieces, you bastard."