Chapter 814: The Clear-Eyed One

Henwell's family gathers around the dinner table at Blood Hill Manor.

After the meal, Henwell summons Johnson to his study.

Henwell has always been impressed by Orak's eldest son, who advanced to Battle Knight at seventeen.

Johnson is now twenty-eight and already a veteran Grand Knight.

He studied at Peace Haven Military Academy and later served at Henwell's side among the Lord Iron Guards.

He then joined a mixed legion and rose from squad leader to warband commander. An overly aggressive decision in battle later cost him his post and saw him demoted to battalion commander.

Henwell has put a great deal of care into Johnson's development. After more than a decade together, the young man is almost a son to him.

As Henwell studies the young man before him, he suddenly feels old.

He motions for Johnson to sit and sighs. "How quickly time passes. You were only twelve when your father left on his journey."

"Sixteen years have passed."

"Before I knew it, you had grown into a man."

"My brother missed your wedding and the birth of your child. I imagine that regret weighs heavily on him."

"Johnson, tell me honestly. Do you resent me for absorbing and purging the Phoenix family?"

Johnson shakes his head. "Uncle, that is not the right way to put it. You are also a member of the Phoenix family, so how could you have absorbed it?"

"When the time came, you simply made the decision Phoenix needed to transform."

"Many of us knew Phoenix had to change, but no one could bring themselves to make that decision. Not even my grandfather."

"The glory of the old nobility had already faded. A new age stood open before Phoenix, yet no one was willing to take the first step."

"You had no choice but to give us a push. Adapting to a new environment and a new path is always uncomfortable, but what matters is that the result is good."

Henwell does not need his abilities to know Johnson is speaking from the heart.

Johnson had followed Henwell and received his guidance since the age of twelve.

Henwell had taught him all his martial skills and knowledge.

After more than a decade together, Henwell had become far more of a father to Johnson than the absent Orak.

Johnson's mistake on the Northern Mountain Front sprang from his hunger for merit and a legion command of his own.

He had seen the crisis closing around the Phoenix family. He desperately wanted command of a mixed legion so he could return under Duke Jansen's banner and purge the family before it was too late.

But impatience and war are a deadly combination.

Not only did Johnson fail to win the great victory he wanted, but he also suffered serious injuries.

Henwell's eldest son, Pabos, later used his connections to transfer Johnson back to the Lord Iron Guards.

While Johnson was recovering, Kaku and Tuster seized control of Phoenix, ultimately driving the situation beyond anyone's control.

Johnson has never stopped blaming himself. Had he returned with his mixed legion instead of lying wounded, things might have ended differently.

Even a single warband under his command might have prevented such a disastrous outcome.

Rumors outside claimed Henwell had stolen leadership of the Phoenix family and left Johnson as a powerless figurehead.

Johnson naturally dismissed those rumors. He had grown up beside Henwell and within Peace Haven.

He knew Peace Haven's strength. It was already a power on the level of a nation.

The Phoenix family was not even qualified to become Peace Haven's enemy.

He knew his uncle even better. If Phoenix could not challenge Peace Haven, it had even less right to challenge Henwell himself.

Henwell often said that the Phoenix family had made him what he was.

Yet everyone believed that without the Phoenix family, Henwell's rise might have been more difficult, but the ultimate result would not have changed greatly.

Some members of the Phoenix family, however, had taken Henwell's modest words literally.

They truly believed they had made Henwell what he was.

Henwell's respect for the Phoenix family further misled them into thinking he was merely repaying a debt to the family.

What alarmed Johnson even more was that many Phoenix family members regarded such repayment as their rightful due.

Only Johnson and a handful of others understood the truth: Henwell had never been grateful to the Phoenix family as a whole.

The only person Henwell was grateful to was Duke Jansen.

Many reformers from the Phoenix family serving in the mixed legions realized that disaster was inevitable if the family continued down this path.

Once Peace Haven established its Eastern and Western Districts, the Phoenix family no longer had the standing to treat it as an equal.

During the subsequent Three-Kingdom Encirclement War, Peace Haven broke the encirclement and nearly overturned Lumir's regime.

Peace Haven gained the Southern District and Expeditionary Zone, while Henwell signed The Six Kings' Accord.

By then, Henwell already wielded power on the level of a king.

The Battle of Cellarwine City then brought Peace Haven several times more territory and population.

Peace Haven formally became a state-level power, and it was far from the weakest among them.

Yet even at that point, members of the Phoenix family still tried to survive by trading on old favors. They had no intention of fully integrating into Peace Haven.

The situation had already become extremely dangerous.

The Phoenix family had benefited from Peace Haven for twenty years, yet its members still demanded more as though those privileges were their birthright.

This stirred resentment throughout Peace Haven. As long as Phoenix refused to integrate, that resentment would only deepen with time.

As a member of the Phoenix family's younger generation, Johnson saw the danger and grew increasingly anxious.

More than once, he spoke with Duke Jansen and sought an opportunity to change the situation.

Unfortunately, they were still one step too late.

The Phoenix family ultimately became part of Peace Haven in the bloodiest way possible.

Johnson therefore does not hate Henwell. This had always been the Phoenix family's inevitable end.

As for the deaths of his grandparents, uncles, and other relatives, Johnson has even less reason to hate Henwell.

First, he is certain that Henwell had nothing to do with the deaths of Jansen and his wife.

Second, whether they were directly or indirectly responsible for killing his grandparents, Kaku, Tuster, and the others deserved death in Johnson's eyes.

And everyone else? Too bad.

Johnson came to Blood Hill Manor at twelve and spent most of his life growing up there. He was never close to those relatives within the family.

Now that Johnson has shown he understands, much of the frustration weighing on Henwell fades.

Henwell says, "Johnson, do not resent me for sending you back to the Northern Mountain Front."

"Peace Haven is about to intervene fully in the Calamity War, and every other region will become dangerous."

"By comparison, the Northern Mountain Front has been fighting for three years and is relatively stable."

"Its fortress cluster grows stronger by the day, and we understand the Northern Mountain Raiders far better now. Compared with the other fronts, it is safer."

"You have already been tested on the Northern Mountain Front. Although the Silver Claw Legion is newly formed, you know what awaits you there."

"Its soldiers are all elites from the Phoenix main army, and they will readily accept you as the legitimate heir."

"Take these elites to the Northern Mountain Front and temper them in battle. Help them mature as quickly as possible and forge them into an elite legion."

"I have received word that your father is on the list for the next group transferred into the Abundant Continent."

"He will return within a year at most."

"When he returns, he will become head of the Phoenix family and commander of Peace Haven's Northern Military District."

"As his eldest son, you need a force of your own, one strong enough to stand beside him when the time comes."