Erwin was fighting the urge to grimace as he put on a calm facade and said, "You know, human skin isn't all that strong. If you keep digging your nails in, you're going to draw blood soon."

"Hmph, don't make it sound like you don't deserve it," Onean grumbled in a displeased voice.

Erwin knew that Onean was in a bad mood at the moment, so he made the wise decision to remain silent.

With a wave of his hand, he gestured for Georgina to approach him. Traveling alongside Georgina was another horse, and on the back of the horse sat none other than Count Onen, whose upper body was completely bound by ropes. At this point, he was already completely resigned to his fate. He was unable to use his arms to maintain balance, so he could only allow his own body to sway from side to side as he rode along on horseback. Occasionally, he had to lean against the back of the horse's neck in order to prevent himself from falling off its back, and it was truly a demoralizing experience.

Erwin was naturally aware that normal ropes would be unable to restrict a martial artist like Onen, which was why he had instructed Georgina to keep an eye on Onen at all times. If Onen ever decided to try and resist and escape, then he would have to face Georgina's assassination techniques. With a pair of broken legs, there was no way that he would be able to escape.

"I have no personal vendetta against you, so I have no intention of killing you," Erwin said as he cast his gaze toward Onen.

Count Onen didn't want to speak with Erwin at this moment, so he merely remained silent and pretended not to have heard anything. He was most likely still in a state of shock and depression, making him very reluctant to speak.

"The reason why I decided to capture you is because all of the citizens of Zans recognize you, so you're going to be very useful to me," Erwin continued, paying no heed to the fact that he was being ignored by Onen. "Otherwise, I would've already released you."

"You think I'm naive enough to believe that?" Onen was looking directly forward, and even as he was speaking, he continued to refrain from looking at Erwin.

A faint smile appeared on Erwin's face. "It's up to you whether you believe me or not."

"Your ultimate objective is to abolish the rule of the nobles? Do you think I can't tell who you are?"

"What are you trying to say?" Erwin asked with a smile.

"Quit putting on a righteous facade and lying to everyone! You two are also nobles! Do you think everyone else is blind?" Onen finally turned to face Erwin and Onean with an enraged expression as he spoke.

"Don't get so worked up," Erwin chuckled. "Just because you know we're nobles doesn't change what's going to happen."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"What's going to happen is that the ownership rights to Zans are about to change hands."

"So what? Look at this pitiful unit that you have. How long will you be able to lay claim to the city for?"

"You still don't understand what's happening," Erwin said as he shook his head with a smile.

"What don't I understand?"

"You still haven't realized that it's already over for nobles like you," Erwin replied in an indifferent voice as he cast his gaze toward the outline of the city that was gradually appearing on the horizon in the distance.

"You really have gone insane," Onen scoffed with a derisive expression.

The smile on Erwin's face faded upon hearing this, and he turned to Onen with a serious expression as he said, "Don't push your luck. I don't want to kill you, but I'm not a saint, either. If you keep testing my patience, I may not be so gracious every time."

Count Onen was rather intimidated by the sudden turn in Erwin's mood, and looking at the cold and menacing expression on Erwin's face, he was temporarily at a loss for words.

Erwin had spoken nothing but the truth just now. It was true that he had never considered taking Onen's life. After all, in his eyes, Onen was just an incapable buffoon who couldn't pose any threat to him. However, if Onen continued to act all high and mighty without considering the situation that he was in, then Erwin couldn't guarantee that his patience wouldn't run out.

Furthermore, whenever Erwin saw Count Onen, he was always involuntarily reminded of Onen's daughter, Faya. Even though they had only shared a night together, he still felt reluctant to kill her father.

...

Under the summer afternoon sun, the city of Zans was like a seductive woman, putting on an alluring pose while waiting for a visit.

All of Onen's main forces had been sent to the Canston Plain, so at the moment, Zans was essentially an unguarded city.

The eastern gate of Zans was hanging wide open, awaiting the return of Erwin and his troops.

Onen turned to Erwin with an alarmed expression upon seeing this.

"After you led your troops out of the city, I arranged for my people to seize control over the eastern city gate," Erwin explained.

A hint of despair finally appeared in Count Onen's eyes. Only now did he realize that Erwin definitely wasn't someone who had simply swooped in on a spur-of-the-moment decision to claim the spoils of battle. Instead, he had planned out everything meticulously, and Count Onen couldn't help but shudder as this realization dawned on him.

"Wait a minute... Were all of those robberies against the Tellier Wine Trade Guild your doing as well?" Onen asked as he turned to Erwin with wide eyes.

"I arranged those robberies in your stead. There's no need to thank me," Erwin replied with a smile.

This was clearly a very tongue-in-cheek way of describing the situation, and even Onean couldn't help but be amused upon hearing Erwin's response to Onen.

Onen had thought that he would be enraged by this revelation, but that wasn't the case. This was because he felt so defeated and inferior that he didn't even feel worthy of being angry at anyone. Aside from the self-deprecating emotions that he felt toward himself, the only other emotion in his heart was a profound sense of fear toward Erwin.

At the same time, he was also thinking to himself that Mackney was most likely also oblivious to the fact that they had both been played for fools by such a young man.

With Erwin and Shiba leading the way, the unit made their way into the city of Zans through the eastern gate in a calm and collected fashion.

After the Universal Church Freedom Army had entered the city, Erwin waved up toward Chahan, who was standing above the city gate, commending him for a job well done.

Initially, Chahan wanted to go into battle alongside Shiba and the others, but Erwin had instructed him to stay behind in Zans.

As it turned out, that had been a very correct decision.

Just as Erwin had expected, Chahan really did have a way to open the city gate. Having said that, given the fact that Zans was completely unguarded at the moment, it wouldn't have taken Erwin much time to break into the city by force anyway.

Erwin didn't know whether Chahan had accomplished this through Baroness Klay or through some alternative avenue. However, he had been informed by Shiba earlier that Baron Klay was among the group of nobles that they had captured alongside Count Onen. With that in mind, it seemed that Baroness Klay had already completely fallen for Chahan and was abandoning her current spouse.

"Women really can be very terrifying if they suddenly experience a change of heart," Erwin sighed into Onean's ear.

Onean had naturally already spotted who Erwin had just been waving at, and she said, "You should look out for people like him in the future. Men who rely on women all the time are not reliable in the slightest."

Erwin nodded in response with an amused smile. "Why do I feel like it sounds like you're talking about Chahan, but your words are actually directed at someone else."

Onean shrugged in response. "If you want to think like that, then I can't say anything to convince you otherwise."

...

The first thing that Erwin did after entering the city was send Shiba with some men to control the families of the captured nobles.

After that, he sent out more people to gather the citizens of Zans together.

The citizens of Zans had no idea what was happening, and they initially thought that Count Onen had returned after a triumphant battle, but they were growing a little uneasy at the sight of the unfamiliar unit that had entered the city.

Thankfully, Erwin had made sure to instruct his subordinates to be very polite and civilized with their handling of the city's citizens, so there wasn't any excessive alarm.

Thus, with the Universal Church Freedom Army visiting the homes in the city one after another, countless families quickly began to make their way to the Holy Jade Cathedral before assembling outside.

After only around an hour, when night was just beginning to fall, the streets outside the Holy Jade Cathedral were already packed with people, and tens of thousands of citizens had gathered there.

Everyone wanted to see exactly what had happened.

A wooden platform consisting of several dozen wooden crates piled together had been set up on a plot of empty land outside the cathedral's entrance, and it had clearly been prepared for a certain speaker.

Shortly thereafter, Lia took the stage in an unhurried manner right before everyone's expectant eyes.

All of the people present were commoners, and they were very relieved to see that it was Elder Lia who had stepped onto the stage, and that the platform was surrounded by clergymen of the Universal Church.

No one had any idea exactly what had happened, but seeing as it was the Universal Church that was arranging all of this, the citizens of the city felt very much at ease. After all, the Universal Church was extremely popular among the common folk. Of course, not all of the tens of thousands of citizens present were followers of the Universal Church, but at the very least, the vast majority of common folk harbored no animosity toward the Universal Church.

"Please be quiet, everyone!" Lia called out as he made a quieting gesture toward the rowdy crowd gathered before him.

"I'm sure all of you must be very curious about exactly what's happened today. Before I explain everything, I have to give all of you a brief history lesson."

Everyone exchanged bewildered looks upon hearing this, and it became even more unclear where this was going.

"As we all know, the nobility system has already existed for several centuries, which means that those lazy and haughty scumbags who are completely devoid of moral compass have already oppressed us for several hundred years. Think about it, it's been hundreds of years! Throughout this entire time, we've had to endure their constant exploitation and derision." Lia's loud and passionate voice was ringing out audibly across the entire crowd.

In response to his words, everyone was rooted to the spot. In the memories of these common folk, they couldn't recall hearing anyone denounce the nobles like this, so Lia's words were so shocking to everyone that they had been stunned into silence.

"This is not what the world should be like! Everyone should be born equal. There shouldn't exist a hierarchy where a certain group of people is considered to be fundamentally inferior to others. We were not born to serve the nobles as slaves. Everything that we do should be for ourselves, not for an oppressive higher social class." Lia's voice was becoming louder and louder as he spoke, and many people were already becoming riled up by his words.

"Why are those useless and selfish nobles able to exert so much control over us? What has allowed them to do this for the past several centuries? It's land! They hold all of the land in their hands, so we're forced to grovel on our knees and serve them." Indeed, this was the fundamental reason why the common folk had to bow their heads to the nobility.

"But from this day forth, all of this is going to change!" Lia declared in a rousing voice. "On behalf of the almighty Universal Lord, the Universal Church is going to return the land to the people. That will be the lifelong pursuit for all of our Universal Church's clergymen, and any nobles who dare to stand in our way will be regarded as our enemies. Bring them up here!"

With that order from Lia, Count Onen and the group of captured nobles were brought onto the stage one after another before being forced to their knees in front of the crowd.

Georgina, Sherry, and the others were all holding weapons while standing behind the nobles in an alert manner in case they decided to retaliate. After all, these nobles were currently being put through the most humiliation that they had ever endured, and there was a chance that some of them would rise up in fury to retaliate.

However, Erwin had overestimated their pride and courage.