When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 621 - 584: Tavern Riot

The door of the tavern trembled, and the noise of conversing and clinking cups struck Rangbang's ears, making him unable to resist scratching the itchy earholes.

In the dim light, sitting behind a greasy fir table, Liborole waved his dye-worker hand with ragged fingernails at Rangbang: "Here, sit here!"

Rangbang took off his wool vest and sat next to Liborole, who pounded his shoulder: "Why are you so late? What were you up to?"

Pulling the sleeve of his linen shirt to hide his arm, Rangbang's eyes were a bit evasive: "I overslept."

Liborole eyed Rangbang up and down but didn't call him out, instead he stood up proactively: "Come on, let's toast to our supreme duo of tribunes and popular representative Rangbang! His proposal on reducing the Dead Hand Tax not only passed but passed overwhelmingly.

On the basis of Rangbang's representation, His Majesty Horn has reduced the Dead Hand Tax to nothing. From now on, our farmers no longer need to pay the Dead Hand Tax!"

"Well done, Rangbang!"

"Farmers suffer too much, it ought to be like this."

Their voices were so loud that even the people in the tavern looked over.

Once they understood their conversation, a wealthy farmer excitedly ran over to hug and thank Rangbang, even kissing him.

Rangbang obviously had never received such treatment, and his face turned red.

Although the votes from left, center, and right representatives are only for reference, the two tribunes have the power to appoint and dismiss representatives and have Wanpiao veto and approval powers.

But who dares to say that the voting results didn't affect the judgment of the tribunes? Didn't His Highness the Despot also approve this proposal?

After everyone drank their wine, they returned to their seats, chatting idly over blood sausages and sticky rice pudding on the table.

"Today we won a major victory at the constitutional convention. You guys didn't see those nobles' faces, as black as donkeys, they went home without dinner."

"Hahahaha—"

"I say, the biggest regret is not passing the power for popular representatives to participate in electing the monarch."

"His Majesty Horn has already tried hard to fight for us, but was vetoed by His Highness the Despot with Wanpiao, fortunately, the Priest-in-Charges have gained the power to elect the monarch."

"With the Priest-in-Charges, at least our opinions can be valued."

"I want to toast to His Majesty Horn, come on!"

The farmers and citizen representatives raised their glasses to drink again.

Putting down his glass, Liborole wiped his mouth: "I just don't know when the first article of the constitution will pass."

"Yes, they argue every day, the two tribunes keep vetoing, they're all tired of arguing."

Speaking of this topic, everyone's enthusiasm waned a bit.

Over these three days, every morning they argued once again about the first article of the charter, amended it over a dozen times, voted over a dozen times, either vetoed by His Majesty Horn or by Her Majesty Moliat.

As the meetings progressed, even these uneducated representatives understood its meaning: it decided whether they could legally overthrow or expel their lords.

This was truly jaw-dropping, in the Norn Kingdom, a kingdom of savages, such things were frequent.

But in the civilized world west of the Dragon Sleep Mountain Range, such events have been unheard of since the Divine Ai Empire was established!

Yet they all faintly expected, what if it really passed?

Although they themselves lacked the power to overthrow the noble lords, weren't there two tribunes?

These nobles couldn't even resist Prince Kongdai, if they dare to oppose blatantly, could they still withstand the two tribunes who defeated Prince Kongdai head-on?

The two tribunes did not ascend through coups, but through brute force.

"Don't be anxious, even if there's no result after arguing for seven or eight more days, there has to be compromise." A notary representative chewed on a roast meat roll, "Both tribunes are geniuses and distinguished, they will surely find a way, they can't let this matter split the Thousand River Valley."

Everyone agreed, even Rangbang nodded along.

Although many representatives were like ducks rushed onto the shelves, not very mindful, they realized how significant their position was after these three days of meetings.

Originally, laws were enacted by lords and a few ministers discussing then directly enacting them.

But now, they actually stood at the scene of lawmaking and could even offer suggestions.

Within three days, the constitutional convention passed the "Sacred Autocratic Duke Election Law", "Church Property Nationalization Law", and "Abolition of Dead Hand Tax Law", and rejected the "Abolition of Public Register Farmers Law", "Noble Military Power Law", "Revocation of Monastery's Proprietary Rights Law", and "Land Uniform Registration Proposal".

This inevitably made the representatives a bit arrogant, they too were big figures, "lords"!

Unfortunately, this thought had just arisen for a second when a deerskin boot stomped onto their tabletop, a drunk knight of the Duke's Army glaring at them: "Move over, I want this seat."

"I came first; we haven't finished eating yet!" A representative immediately protested.

The knight slapped his face: "I don't care what representative you are; I'm a knight, you're a commoner, commoners should give knights their seats. Move!"

In an instant, their daydream shattered; a few representatives exchanged glances and could only obediently stand up and prepare to leave.

But as soon as Rangbang stood up, he felt a large hand holding his shoulder: "Don't move, you are popular representatives, representing popular opinion, why should you give this devil's lackey your seat."

Rangbang looked up and saw a black-clad soldier with scars on his face, coldly staring at the knight.

"What does it have to do with you?" Although the knight looked down on the Salvation Army, he seemingly received Her Majesty Moliat's orders to not recklessly conflict with the Salvation Army soldiers.

The scarred soldier had a few black-clad soldiers standing behind him, freshly done with their patrol: "You threaten representatives, undermine the constitution, please leave."

"Hell dog, you're a lowly civilian and dare to ask me to leave? Just wearing black skin really makes you think you're a monk?" The knight erupted, grabbed a cup from the table, and splashed the drink onto the scarred soldier's face.

Wiping his face, the scarred soldier sneered, his anger showing through: "Alright, alright, faithfuls, throw him out."

"Try touching me!"

"Grab his hand! Still dare to bite?" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Ouch, let go of your grandfather, dare to have a one-on-one?"

The Knight, having drunk, was no match for the few newly arrived Salvation Army soldiers, and was quickly knocked down, grabbed by the neck and thrown out of the pub.

As the world spun, the Knight rolled twice on the ground, wiped his bloody nose, and stood up, but before he could curse, he felt someone supporting his shoulder.

Turning his head, he saw a group of Duke's Army soldiers passing by, led by a Knight with a grim expression: "What happened?"

"I was drinking in the pub, and they said I was a noble, so they threw me out." The Knight immediately started distorting the truth upon seeing his comrades.

It must be said, these words hit the soft spot of the Duke's Army Knights.

They feared that after the constitutional meeting, they, the nobles, would become targets of public ridicule, a narrative and rumor that had been spreading within the Duke's Army for a long time.

Dozens of Duke's Army soldiers on shift immediately surrounded the pub, but the few black-clad soldiers weren't soft either, with one instantly running out to call for reinforcements from the Salvation Army patrolling on the street corner.

Soon, two officers and two Knight Captains stood in the center, negotiating with the scarred soldier and the drunken Knight.

The pedestrians who saw this scene simply ran away, and the pub patrons quickly paid their bills and left.

"Let's go, let's go!"

After this incident, the representatives lost their mood to continue drinking, settled their bills, and prepared to leave.

They barely stepped out of the pub when they saw dozens of black-clad soldiers rushing towards them, while the Duke's Army soldiers from the street corner likewise charged forward.

"Holy Father, return! Return!"

The representatives who had just stepped out of the pub immediately shrank back inside.

They squatted in a corner, peeking out the window.

In just a few minutes, nearly a hundred soldiers had gathered on both sides, pushing against each other with shoulders and chests, or provoking with elbow strikes.

But soon this provocation turned into a brawl, with fists and feet flying and curses ringing out, while the officers and knights stood at the doorway.

They didn't join the brawl; soldiers fighting was common, as the Salvation Army and Duke's Army both had internal fights.

It was healthy to occasionally release tension through fights.

Besides, it wasn't the first time the Salvation Army and Duke's Army had brawled, both sides had strict discipline and hadn't caused any trouble.

Now they were all filled with resentment due to the first constitutional article, properly venting was beneficial, and once the military police and senior nobles arrived, it would be fine.

Even the Salvation Army officer poked his head inside the pub to shout to the representatives: "Anyone who wants to leave can go now, go under the eaves, I'll have them make a path for you, don't be late for tomorrow's constitutional meeting."

"Thank you, thank you."

The representatives were full of praise, hurriedly moving to the doorway. As they pushed the door open to leave, a sharp "bang!" was heard.

"Ah!"

A Duke's Army soldier fell to the ground clutching a bleeding hole in his arm.

"Return, return!" The representatives who had just stepped out rushed back into the pub once more.

Seeing someone use a Holy Gun, the Salvation Army officer immediately realized it was bad, quickly stepping forward to explain and question.

"Who fired the gun?!" He jumped onto a barrel outside the pub, shouting to the crowd, "Wait, this is a misunderstanding, we didn't..."

The Duke's Army Knight even ran towards the "combat zone": "No using blades, I want to see who dares..."

"Whizz—"

Before finishing his sentence, the officer on the barrel howled and fell off with a crossbow arrow piercing his thigh.

The whole scene paused for a second, then in the next moment, a roaring wave surged forward.

"Damn dung diggers, fight them!"

"Put down the gun, who brought the Holy Gun here?"

"Don't fight, do you want to split the Thousand River Valley?"

"Kill the nobles, support the constitution!"

Several clear-headed officers and knights were still trying to restrain the soldiers' actions, but the Black Champion Monks, being of refugee origin, didn't have discipline as good as the Imperial Guard.

The Mountain Knights were even worse; as mountain people, they were naturally violent, seeing their comrades go down left no words to say.

Nearly a hundred soldiers started brawling or battling at the pub door, drawing military knives and longswords, occasionally hearing the firing of Holy Guns and arrows.

Officers and Knights were trying hard to block, scolding to confiscate Holy Guns and crossbows, the bloody smell drifted through the door and window.

The pub patrons, no matter how drunk, sobered up, lying on the sawdust-covered ground, clutching their heads and trembling.

Several civilian representatives huddled in a corner, not daring to breathe.

Only Liborole looked at the flying arrows, suddenly grit his teeth, picked up a door panel, and prepared to rush outside.

Rangbang hurriedly grabbed his ankle, asking in fear, "What are you doing?"

"We must call the gendarmes and Night Watcher, or if this spreads, everything will be ruined, our laws will all be abolished."