“Yun.”
Raymond spoke, still unable to catch his breath.
“I want the Silver Moon Order to support Arku.”
The chairman and the councilors’ gazes fixed on Raymond all at once.
“No… Councilor, what are you—”
“You’re saying we should join hands with the Silver Moon Order?”
Brief gasps and wariness burst out together.
Raymond turned his head and listened once more to the shouts still coming from the direction of the castle gate outside the window.
Then he spoke low, but firmly.
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
“The strength of that holy knight.”
“We have the guards and the military police.”
Another councilor immediately stepped forward.
“And if we use the siege weapons on the walls—”
“No.”
Raymond cut him off.
The situation left him so little room that he, who rarely interrupted others, had done so.
“It isn’t that simple.”
He counted them off one by one on his fingers.
“If we attach more of the guards and military police to the walls, public order inside the walls will be left empty.”
“Right now, Imperial personages inside the city are being held in ‘protective custody.’”
“If a gap opens there, it will erupt from within.”
Raymond fixed his gaze on the councilors.
“And as for the siege weapons.”
He stated it decisively.
“If we bring out the weapons, deploy them, and fire—”
“At that moment, they’ll seize upon a pretext to move from ‘dialogue’ to a ‘siege.’”
A councilor tried to argue, but Raymond added one more sentence.
“The moment they commit to a siege, this will no longer be a matter of only the forces here.”
“Reinforcements may come down from the mainland.”
“Then this won’t be a crisis of ‘today.’ It will become a ‘war.’”
The room fell silent.
Raymond brought out the last point.
This was the true crux of the matter.
“There is something more important.”
The chairman looked at Raymond.
“…Go on.”
“If it truly becomes war.”
Raymond spoke in a low voice.
“And if we show the world that we cannot act even in the face of a force of that scale—”
He raised his head.
“The hand of the Duchy of Carmen may not end as a hand that only holds back the Empire.”
Breaths escaped among the councilors.
Raymond continued.
“After it holds back the Empire… that hand may seize Arku.”
“The moment we look weak, salvation turns into occupation.”
Only then did the air in the room catch up to why Raymond had brought up the Silver Moon Order ‘now.’
The strength Arku needed in order to remain Arku.
Not an external strength, but a strength born within this city and rooted in this city.
Yun looked at the chairman.
Her expression was calm, but her voice was firm.
“We will help you as much as you need.”
The councilors swallowed their breaths.
Yun did not turn her gaze away.
“We are people who love Arku.”
“There was only one reason we existed and lived as we did.”
Yun spoke quietly.
“To drive out the Empire that seeks to take root in Arku.”
A brief silence passed.
Yun added one more phrase.
“However.”
Her eyes brushed past Raymond, then fixed on the chairman again.
“From this moment on, this is not ‘assistance.’ It is an ‘agreement.’”
The chairman looked at Yun warily and said,
“…An agreement.”
He lowered his voice, but everyone in the room could hear him.
“If you call it an agreement, what is it you want?”
Yun did not hesitate for even a beat.
“Please accept the Silver Moon Order… as citizens of Arku.”
A murmur immediately broke out among the councilors.
“How does that make any sense?”
“Until now, the Silver Moon Order has been a group outside the law.”
“Who was it that was accused of being behind the explosions— and now you want them as citizens?”
“Then what becomes of all order up to this point!”
Yun did not raise her voice.
Instead, she chose her words precisely.
“There are many people of Arku in the Silver Moon Order.”
“And there are refugees who fled here from the Empire as well.”
One councilor cut in sharply.
“Are you using refugees as an excuse to legalize an illegal organization?”
Yun shook her head.
“It is not an excuse.”
She lightly touched a finger to the floor.
“It is reality. We are caring for them, but…”
“There are children growing up in harsh conditions.”
Yun’s voice lowered slightly.
“Those children have committed no crime.”
The chairman continued.
“That is not a matter that can be resolved with pity. Citizenship is rights, and rights are power.”
“That’s right.”
Yun accepted it immediately.
“That is why I called it an agreement.”
Another councilor shook his head.
“If you become citizens, it sounds as though you’re saying you will move freely within the city.”
“You are already dangerous enough. Arku already bears the wound called an ‘explosion.’”
Yun’s eyes turned cold for an instant.
“The ones who made that wound… were not us.”
But she did not push with those words.
Instead, she changed direction.
“If we become citizens, what we gain is not a ‘place to hide,’ but ‘responsibility.’”
Yun raised her head.
“We are willing to be monitored. We will accept registration and regulations.”
“In return, the children— and the people who have lived with us—”
“Need a safe place to stay.”
One of the councilors spoke as if sneering.
“In the end, you’re asking for a dwelling place.”
Yun calmly acknowledged it.
“A dwelling place.”
“And a name.”
She said,
“Not the name ‘criminal,’ but the name ‘citizen.’”
Raymond quietly added a word.
“Because we have kept the Silver Moon Order ‘outside’ until now, we had no way to control them.”
“If we make them citizens… we can at least place them within the framework of the law.”
Another councilor immediately snapped back.
“What changes if they are placed within the framework of the law? The power they possess does not change.”
Yun answered as if she had been waiting for that question.
“It does change.”
“What changes is where that power is used.”
She paused to catch her breath, then continued.
“There are many in the Silver Moon Order who possess skills and talents.”
“Blacksmiths, herbalists, repairmen, people who handle records…”
“They will help Arku develop.”
Yun’s words softened, but their ending became firm once more.
“And above all.”
Yun looked straight at the chairman.
“We will live to protect them— no, to protect the citizens of Arku.”
The councilors began murmuring again.
Yun brought out her final point.
“The forces we have raised to face the Empire.”
She opened her palm.
Like an offered hand, not a hidden blade.
“We will serve as Arku’s civil guard.”
A momentary silence settled over the room.
The chairman spoke slowly.
“…A civil guard.”
Yun nodded.
“A hand that follows the Republic’s orders and faces the Republic’s enemies.”
She added,
“If the one standing outside the gate right now is an enemy— then we will stop that enemy together with you.”
One councilor narrowed his eyes and asked,
“…Your words are fine, but then.”
He looked Yun up and down.
“Just how much fighting strength do you have that you can say you will face those people in front of the gate?”
The room grew quiet again.
Neither the chairman nor Raymond rushed to answer.
Yun spoke first.
It was short and precise.
“Is it numbers you want first?”
She shook her head.
“We do not have many. Instead, we have people who can be of use.”
Just as the councilor was about to snort derisively, Yun continued.
“I hear the military police operate Idrin.”
Her gaze fixed on the chairman.
“Is that correct?”
The chairman hesitated briefly, then nodded.
“That is correct.”
He refined the end of his words.
“It is not a power anyone can handle.”
“But for the sake of our fighting strength, we have at least specified it in the military police manual.”
Yun nodded.
“Good.”
Then she immediately attached the conclusion.
“Our ‘forces’ operate Idrin as a basic matter.”
“We also have a systematic training method.”
Murmurs rose again among the councilors.
“Then… are you saying you intend to interfere with the city’s military system?”
“An outside organization with the military police manual—”
Just as Raymond was about to step in, Yun raised a hand first to stop him.
“We will not force it.”
She looked at the chairman.
“We are saying we will cooperate, if you wish.”
“Only selected personnel. In a closed location. With records kept, and under supervision.”
Yun continued without turning her head.
“And it is not only Idrin.”
She brought out the word clearly.
“We also operate a power called ‘Arquin.’”
The chairman’s expression shifted faintly.
“What… is that?”
He added cautiously,
“I know of Mirquin, but…”
Yun did not begin with an explanation.
She raised one finger.
Then, very slightly, she flicked her fingertip toward the candle flame.
The flame wavered.
Though no wind had brushed past,
the candle’s flame stretched out long like a thread and carefully gathered at Yun’s fingertip.
Not like heat, but like a ‘flow.’
A small ember formed at her fingertip, and when Yun lowered her hand, it returned to the candlestick.
Breaths escaped all at once in the room.
“Th-that…”
One councilor stammered, choking on his words.
“Isn’t that m-magic?”
Another councilor added sharply,
“It may be an ominous power! The power the Empire calls the power of demons—”
Yun shook her head.
“The Empire calls it that.”
Her voice was still low.
“The power of demons. Something seditious. Something that must be forbidden.”
Yun looked at the candle flame as she spoke.
“But this is the power of the ‘rules’ that have existed since the beginning.”
“Like everything, if used wrongly, it becomes poison… and if used well, it becomes medicine.”
Raymond quietly added a word.
“…In other words, it is a controlled technique.”
Yun nodded.
“We use this power for that control.”
“To protect.”
The chairman swallowed and asked,
“…Are you saying you will teach that to us as well?”
“If you wish.”
Yun replied.
“But we will not give it to just anyone. Only to those who can bear responsibility for this city.”
Yun’s gaze turned toward the window.
Beyond the castle gate, low shouts and the sound of metal striking metal could be heard faintly.
She spoke slowly.
“As it happens, tomorrow night is the full moon.”
One of the councilors unconsciously swallowed.
Then the chairman asked,
“What… does that mean?”
Yun answered without taking her eyes from the window.
“Why the Empire fears the moon so much.”
She pressed down on the final words in a low voice.
“We can show them.”
A brief silence passed.
Yun turned her gaze back to the chairman.
“So I will ask you.”
“Will Arku get through tonight ‘alone’?”
“Or… in the name of Arku, will you get through it together with the people of Arku?”