Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 76: (Zack) Fenwick’s Proposal

Zack had to think a while to remember who Exi was, but once he remembered the name of the Chianti Hunter who was killed a few days back, he looked back at Fenwick with sympathy.

The Councilman was still seething however, even though his anger seemed to be directed towards Pende.

"Come now, Fenwick. You knew what he was walking into when he joined us."

"I did. Or I thought I did. He was joining to help recover our lost nation, not be killed like a dog in the Tal."

Pende winced, but Fenwick was not yet done.

"And why? For some keys to the blasted library? Is that really the priority of Miden? A fucking library? When we have a King we need to depose?"

A chill went through Zack as he listened to the impassioned Fenwick. He had never really thought in detail what Miden’s end game was, in fact he had tried not to think about it too much. But Fenwick was right, there was only really one way Miden could achieve his goals.

Deposing the King!!

"Now, now. Calm down Fenwick. You can’t shout about those things in a public area." Pende whispered urgently, his eyes darting about for anyone who might have overheard the Councilman.

Satisfied that there was no one, Pende placed his arm on Fenwick’s shoulder and said, "Come with us to our Inn. We can talk in peace there about how we failed your son."

.XX.

Fenwick stayed silent on the journey back to the Inn. Even his clouded eyes seemed to smolder with anger as he quietly followed Pende and Zack. He didn’t need any help or assistance, and Zack thought that he would definitely be offended if either of them had made the gesture in the first place.

The Inn was not too far from the North Tower, barely a fifteen minute walk. Fenwick had his hood up throughout the journey, all the way until the three of them were alone in the room.

Must be trying to hide his Identity.

Of course it would definitely be suspicious for a Councilman of Drighor going into the inn of a random stranger. Especially if the random stranger could be connected to the Chianti Hunters later on in any way.

"Now," started Pende once all of them were inside and sitting down, "as I said before as well, all of us were hit hard by Exi’s death, most of all Miden."

Fenwick scoffed. He had calmed down a bit, but was clearly still angry.

"Come now, listen to me Fenwick. Getting access to the hidden library is essential, absolutely essential, to topple the King. You understand don’t you? The Crown is the only entity who knows what happened at the end of the Great War, what the Mist is, and they are choosing to do nothing about it. If we can reveal this fact, we can topple the Crown!"

"You can also topple the Crown if you assasinate the King." Fenwick said in a dry tone.

"No we can’t, and you know that! The Crown enjoys reasonable public support still. If we kill him now, the most likely outcome is the Queen will take over the Crown and crack down on all of us much, much harder. And the public sentiment will be with her."

"So? Many believe Queen Rakhi is the one calling the shots already. And anyway I didnt peg Miden to be a coward."

"There’s a difference between bravery and stupidity. I thought you of all people knew that."

Fenwick didn’t answer, turning his head away. The turmoil and grief was clear, shifting the expressions and muscles of his face imperceptibly.

"Who killed him?" He asked quietly.

"We don’t know yet." Pende said. "We will find out. Dio is on his way to the Tal now, he will figure out who killed him and how he died."

Fenwick nodded. "Then I shall ask you to let me have my revenge on whoever that turns out to be."

"You have my word." Pende said in a serious tone.

Fenwick nodded, and his face returned to a mask of professionalism.

"I believe Pende, you need my help now?"

Pende broke out into a wolfish grin. "You got it Fenwick. As I said before we need your help to get the second key in the Capital."

Fenwick nodded thoughtfully. "Of course I don’t know exactly where it is in the Capital, but I can tell you how to find it."

"How?"

"Tch tch tch, not so fast Chianti Hunter." Fenwick said, clicking his tongue.

Pende sighed. "Tit for tat huh?"

"Of course. That is how your deals with me work, remember?"

"I thought you would have changed by now, truly believe in our cause of deposing the King."

"I do. Wholeheartedly. In fact if you mobilize troops to march on the Capital, I will be the first on the frontlines. But all this hidden library, bloodless revolution doesn’t really arouse my interests. I will still help you of course, but for a price."

"How much gold?"

"Aah, but that’s where you are mistaken Pende. I am not after gold."

"What you after then?"

"Power."

The room was quiet for a while, before Zack spoke up for the first time, breaking the silence.

"Don’t you already have power though? You are a member of the governing council?"

Fenwick turned his head towards him. His blind eyes seemed to be boring a hole into Zack’s forehead as he answered, "I have some power yes. But that’s not what I want."

"What do you want?" Pende asked quietly, his expression making it clear that he already knew the answer.

"Absolute power. Currently our government is stuck in a standstill. No decision can be made, no progressive step taken until three of us agree. Do you know how difficult that is? To get three different humans out of four, each following a different principal, a different school of thought, to agree on anything of importance? Oh yes we debate and deliberate, we even pass laws on insignificant items like the price of eggs, or how long bars should stay open. But in any contentious issue, any issue related to safety of our city? Crickets, nothing."

"That’s how the system is built though." Pende answered carefully.

"And that’s wrong! The Crown doesn’t rule like that, there is no elected Council, there’s a single hereditary monarch."

"Don’t you hate the Crown?"

"Yes I do! I hate the people who wear the Crown, the people who rule over us when they have no authority to. I don’t hate the concept of the Crown itself."

This man is dangerous.

Every single instinct in Zack’s body was screaming at him, telling him that allying with this man would be extremely dangerous for them. He looked over to Pende, who was grave but otherwise didn’t look like he had any problems with Fenwick.

"Where do we come in then?"

Fenwick sat upright. "Well the major problem is the other three members of the Council will never agree. And it’s not like I can wait for them to retire, because their successors will be just as bad from them, since they are handpicked from people sharing their beliefs after all."

"Then what?"

"There’s one scenario where a Councilman doesn’t choose their successor."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room before Pende finally said, almost in a resigned fashion, "An assassination?"

"Your words, not mine. But yes in case of an assassination, the remaining members of the Council choose the successor." Fenwick let the suggestion hang in the air, not completing it.

"So," Pende started, "if three of the Councilmembers are assassinated, then the successor is chosen by the only remaining Council member?"

"I guess, in a truly unfortunate situation like that, it would be the case."

.XX.

Fenwick left a short while after this ominous exchange.

"I am giving you today to think about it. Come to the North Tower tomorrow and tell me your decision. Just remember, without my help you can forget about finding the second key." Saying so, Fenwick left.

Once he was gone, Zack immediately spoke up, "We can’t do this, Pende."

"We can’t? We WILL do ANYTHING necessary to get the key. You already have blood on your hands, old man."

"Of a tyrant! Not innocents."

"Innocents, huh. How do you know they are innocents? The Councilman of the South Tower is embroiled in organized crime, the Councilwoman of the East Tower runs a prostitution trafficking ring. There’s no innocents in governance, old man, especially in this rotten Kingdom."

"We are not executioners, Pende, we can’t-"

"WE WILL DO WHATEVER WE HAVE TO DO." Pende’s eyes burned with passion. Zack stopped, he could see the madness in Pende’s eyes.

Ah, of course. These people are murderers.

Through their journey in Odania, Zack had almost unconsciously developed a sense of camaraderie with the Chianti Hunters, forgetting their true nature. They were not noble warriors, they were murderous rebels, who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. The first time Zack had met Pende was when the latter was killing an innocent town guard after all.

"Tomorrow." Pende said grimly. "Tomorrow, we accept. Because that is the only choice we have." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

And Zack knew from the look in Pende’s eyes that there would be no changing his mind.