The Administrative Officer of Cappadocia City was named Domingo. At this moment, he was overseeing the delivery of “goods” to a fleet—a group of over six hundred indigenous people recently captured from Goring Island.
The Ingrima Empire was not founded by the native inhabitants of the three Ingrima Islands. Instead, settlers from various nations on the Old Continent had crossed the seas to establish over twenty small kingdoms. Later, Duke Guillaume, one of the founding nobles of the Fars Empire, led an army across the seas and nominally unified the three islands of Ingrima.
The three islands of Ingrima had been conquered seven times and unified three times. Each wave of settlers from the Old Continent contributed to the creation of new kingdoms, but it was the Red Dragon Dynasty, now the Ingrima Empire, that rose under Duke Guillaume’s leadership.
The third emperor of the Ingrima Empire adopted a sinister proposal from his finance minister: to secretly sell the native populations of Goring Island and Ojibwa Island to the New Continent as slaves.
This trade route of sin fueled resistance among the residents of both islands against Ingrima's rule.
...
When Charlot Mecklenburg burst into the administrative officer's residence, he had deliberately donned the Mask of the Cat, thinking to himself that if this turned out to be a misunderstanding, he could turn around and leave without incriminating evidence left against him.
However, when he entered the building and saw the Goring Island natives bound in chains—some locked in cages due to fierce resistance—a surge of hot blood rushed to his head.
Domingo, upon seeing intruders storm his residence, immediately assumed his slave-trading activities had been exposed. Without hesitation, he drew a pistol and fired at Charlot.
The leader of the slaver fleet, Chatham, was originally a pirate and a Transcendent. During the era of Zimourman Axel Robin’s reign over the seas, Chatham had judged himself no match and decided to ally with the Ingrima Empire, taking on dirty tasks for them.
Having spent years as a pirate and slaver, Chatham had encountered countless Transcendents. Upon witnessing Charlot’s swift movements as he entered the residence, he cried out, “A Byronite!”
Byron and Ingrima were rivals in the slave trade. Both empires had territories in the New Continent and were desperate to populate their colonies.
Domingo, convinced, shouted, “Do you Byronites want to declare war on the Ingrima Empire?”
Charlot, holding the Silver Rhino pistol, rolled to evade Domingo’s shot. With a smooth motion, he returned the pistol to its holster, drew the Firequell Silver Rhino, quickly loaded a round, and pulled the trigger.
Although Domingo had risen quickly through the ranks, his position was owed more to family connections than competence or education. He was not a Transcendent and stood no chance against the anti-magic armor-piercing round, which blew him apart on the spot.
...
Seeing Domingo’s gruesome death, Chatham was deeply shaken. Domingo had been highly distrustful of him and allowed him to bring no more than twenty men into Cappadocia City. Faced with Charlot’s ferocity and the sailors who surged into the administrative residence, Chatham made a quick decision and fled without hesitation.
Charlot, turning his weapon toward the fleeing slaver, fired. Chatham, reacting swiftly, shot multiple rounds at the bound Goring natives.
Charlot raised his hand and unleashed seven Flame Dragon’s Hands, which intercepted the incoming bullets. In the confusion, Chatham managed to escape.
Charlot holstered the Silver Rhino, his heart pounding as a wave of exhaustion swept over him. This brief but intense confrontation had profound implications. He had just killed the administrative officer of the Ingrima Empire. How could he explain this?
Even though Domingo was involved in the slave trade, it wasn’t Charlot’s place as a diplomat of the Fars Empire to intervene—especially not in such a violent manner, killing an officer responsible for managing an entire city.
...
With Domingo dead, the guards in the administrative residence surrendered one after another, their morale shattered. Charlot found himself unsure of how to handle the soldiers of the Ingrima Empire. As he pondered, a patrol unit burst into the residence. The chief patrol officer, upon seeing Domingo’s mangled body, surprised Charlot by kneeling on one knee.
“Byronite lord, we are willing to surrender,” the officer said.
Charlot, bracing for a drawn-out battle, could hardly believe his ears. The officer’s next words, however, clarified the situation: “I am a Goring Islander, and so are my men. If you can take us with you, we will pledge allegiance to Byron.”
Charlot exhaled quietly and said, “Integrate yourselves into my forces. When I leave, I’ll take you all with me.”
...
In just thirty minutes, Charlot had taken over the administrative residence, killed Domingo, driven off Chatham, and absorbed Cappadocia City’s patrol forces. The progress was astonishingly fast, even baffling Charlot himself.
Despite being a well-traveled transmigrator, Charlot felt momentarily at a loss.
A short while later, Anastasia and Belisa arrived, filling Charlot in on the broader implications of his actions. He no longer had the energy to question Dolores about why she had led him in this direction.
After all, back in the Fars Empire, Charlot might have chosen to endure such injustices, resigned to the world’s harsh realities. But in the Ingrima Empire, he couldn’t tolerate the slave trade, especially when it involved the Goring Islanders.
Charlot decisively ordered the release of all Goring captives, personally asking each one if they were willing to join his army.
The captives—all young and able-bodied, with seventy percent male and the rest young women—harbored an intense hatred for their Ingrima captors. Each raid to capture slaves was accompanied by bloodshed; those deemed “worthless” due to old age or the difficulty of transport, like children, were killed outright by Domingo. These captives had blood debts to settle with the slavers.
Thus, without much persuasion, nearly all six hundred captives agreed to join Charlot’s forces.
Between the administrative guards, the city patrol, the freed Goring Islanders, and his own sailors and West Wind Knights, Charlot suddenly found himself commanding over a thousand troops.
“Do I actually have the talent for rapid army building?” he mused.
“How is it that I started this journey with fifty men and now have a thousand-strong force?”
The diary in his possession emanated a peculiar intent, confirming that Charlot Mecklenburg, as the commander of the occupying forces in Cappadocia, had fulfilled the requirements to establish the fifth labyrinth. Cappadocia was about to transform into a labyrinth, and Charlot was tasked with assembling a fleet of at least eighteen medium-sized ships. Until this was achieved, he was prohibited from leaving the area for more than a day’s journey by sea.