Chapter 1154
The Newly Formed Watchers Organization
June 18th.
It had been three days since Eivass’s interview and meeting with Speaker Pierre.
Since that day, the Iris Flower had undergone drastic changes—
The news of Eivass’s assassination attempt, previously suppressed, was finally released in full. The Giant Tree Party, leveraging its influence in the public opinion sphere, pushed the related news with all its might. Under the suppression of the death threat, their work efficiency was astonishingly high.
Instantly, newspapers scattered like snowflakes, spreading throughout the Iris Flower. Even those who rarely read newspapers heard discussions about the matter from various sources.
In this era without the internet, many people were unaware of the previous two assassination attempts—mainly because Speaker Pierre had quietly suppressed these news items. After all, he was the leader of the Eagle Eye organization and naturally did not want the Eagle Eye to attract too much dissatisfaction and hatred. This time, however, he could no longer protect the Eagle Eye and could only cut ties and sell them out.
Thus, people learned for the first time how close the Iris Flower had come to destruction.
This time, the experts no longer concealed the situation by exaggerating their country’s military strength. Instead, they focused on publicizing the terrifying nature of the Church and the New Empire—using Star Antinomy as an example. The Iris people might not understand the Church, but their fear of Star Antinomy was deeply ingrained.
The Church, with just one escort ship, had directly defeated Star Antinomy’s entire navy. A year ago, the Church had only three such escort ships, but now they had eighteen, and construction was still ongoing.
Simultaneously, the experts specifically explained that Eivass’s resignation from the Pope’s position did not mean he was expelled or impeached. They detailed the second assassination attempt on the Pure White Saintess, finally clarifying how Eivass had the opportunity to ascend to the papacy in the first place. He had essentially been a “placeholder Pope” designed to take the place of the Pure White Saintess who was being targeted. Once the Pure White Saintess recovered from her injuries, Eivass automatically abdicated and handed the position back to the original Pope.
In other words, he was a direct descendant of the current Pope.
Eivass’s ability to serve as Pope at that time was, in fact, a result of borrowing the authority of the current Pope. This was not a stripping of his power; quite the opposite—precisely because he abdicated in a timely manner, Eivass now held a very high position in the Church, arguably second only to the Pope, enjoying the dual treatment of a current Cardinal and a former Pope.
… Although this statement still deviated from the facts to a certain extent, it was the most easily understandable explanation for the Iris people.
But with a moment’s thought, the Iris people suddenly realized something was amiss—why were all three assassination attempts centered around Eivass? Eivass was targeted twice, and once the Eternal Pope was targeted. Were they simply asking for death?
This behavior seemed designed to provoke war!
Even when one attempt failed, they went to great lengths to provoke a second and a third!
What were their intentions!
The people were filled with righteous anger.
If you said Eivass was assassinated, the Iris people would just laugh and say, “Who cares? We die every day, what makes you so special, country bumpkin?”
But if you told them that if Eivass truly died, the Iris Flower would be leveled by elven warships without resistance, and all surrounding countries would become sworn enemies—then the Iris people would instantly understand.
—Understood, you’re just asking us to kill the entire Eagle Eye family.
This was also the greatest strength of the Iris people… they truly had no sense of awe.
After all, they dared to kill their own king’s entire family, so others naturally had no psychological burden—didn’t the Eagle Eye’s original slogan oppose the Child of the Moon? Now that the Child of the Moon was gone, you were no longer needed.
Thus, the cleansing of the Eagle Eye faced almost no obstruction.
One by one, young assassins were captured from sewers, safe houses, various residential buildings, or warehouses, and beheaded in batches.
Their names, true identities, and crimes would be published in the next day’s newspaper.
Who had previously robbed a house out of greed, killed an entire family, and taken their property for themselves; who had obeyed a company executive and stolen a personal inventor’s patented technology; who had kidnapped a wealthy merchant and then callously murdered him; who had committed arson and rape…
Although the Iris people had heard rumors that the “Eagle Eye did not do good deeds”… their understanding of its evil deeds was still insufficient.
After all, the Child of the Moon was even worse. To offer sacrifices to the Blood Heavenly Envoy, and to heal their inner thirst and pain, they cruelly tortured others.
Once they received the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s grace, they could no longer satisfy their instincts through various pleasures like the Banquet Master’s Child of the Moon. Instead, it became like a nicotine addiction, a “negative feedback” where they would feel uncomfortable if they didn’t act that way. On one hand, they craved power and grace; on the other hand, they envied humans and other “normal” members of their own kind.
They harbored twisted desires, their extremism even surpassing that of the Children of the Moon in the late Hrasal Empire.
Under such circumstances, being taken as a Blood Slave essentially meant a miserable death. It might even be a painful release to die, so people could only ask the Eagle Eye for justice.
But what people did not know was that the Eagle Eye was also a cowardly bunch. Contrary to their proclaimed stance of “fighting the Child of the Moon to the death,” many within the Eagle Eye colluded with the Child of the Moon!
They dared not provoke those Children of the Moon who had received the Blood Heavenly Envoy’s divine art, were truly wicked, and yet immensely powerful. Instead, guided intentionally or unintentionally by these envious Children of the Moon, they assassinated the relatively gentler Children of the Moon.
The Hengwo faction of the Child of the Moon, who “only drank the blood of those who willingly offered themselves,” was exterminated for this very reason—they perished under the combined assault of the Child of the Moon and the Eagle Eye. Not all Children of the Moon were willing to restrain their desires, and the existence of these pure Children of the Moon seemed to highlight their own sinfulness. Furthermore, their harmlessness and weakness allowed the Eagle Eye assassins to kill the innocent and claim merit, further accelerating the Iris Flower’s bloody spiral of suffering.
These were the crimes committed by the assassins who were now being beheaded.
This even excluded those assassins who “merely accepted a mission and killed”—if they simply followed the organization’s missions and did not harm any innocents beyond the mission targets, they were merely detained. Regardless of how many people they killed during the process, they were not sentenced to death.
—All those sentenced to death were scum who killed innocents outside of their missions or misused their Extraordinary Abilities to commit evil.
The sheer number of these individuals had completely overloaded the execution grounds in major cities—
The blades of the guillotine had to be maintained with Preservation Technique or Sharpness Technique more than six times a day. People even brought out old gallows, and even then, it was not enough. Craftsmen were building new gallows every day. The hanged bodies were packed into bags and thrown into the underground catacombs—which was also the former lair of the assassins.
No matter where these assassins hid, they could not escape.
—Because those who went to apprehend them were senior assassins of the Eagle Eye.
All their hiding techniques, counter-tracking techniques, and stealth techniques were meaningless to these Master Assassins.
They knew far too well the methods of their degenerate disciples.
And now, these Master Assassins also had a new name—
—Watchers.
