86 The Bleak City

The wheels of time moved forward and now, Shun Gordon was 20 years old. And at this age, he was already a member of Inquisitors and served the king directly.

However, his identity as an Inquisitor was secret, known only to a selected few in the Kingdom.

There weren't many tasks that required the Inquisitors to step in. So, Shun had worked hard and possessed another identity in the Sinyalian Kingdom.

He possessed immense talent in cultivation. After graduating from the Willow Creek Academy of Martial Arts at the age of 13, Shun was already a 4 Star Warrior.

To have become a 4 Star Warrior from scratch in 6 years spoke volumes of his monstrous talent. No one in the Sinyalian Kingdom could boast the same.

But Shun wasn't satisfied with his progress. He knew he had a long way to go.

As he lived in Willow Creek Academy, he came to understand more about the Noble Families. Their evil deeds, their good deeds, and the influence they held in the Kingdom. He came to understand that not all Noble Families were bad.

The people who abused authority were the ones who were terrible. Power itself was not evil. Maliciousness was the nature of humans.

He reconsidered his revenge and changed his objective slightly. It was to exact his revenge and do all he could to bridge the gap between the Noble Family and the common people.

Perhaps he wouldn't be able to do it even if he spent his entire life on this task but he wanted to try it anyway.

He wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could do it. There was just nothing else he felt worth living than this.

He wanted to do whatever he could to make a small change in society.

He received multiple offers from various departments of the kingdom and Shun chose the Law Enforcement Agency.

As a law officer, he solved multiple cases and his fame began to grow. Even the king had heard some praises about Shun from the Law Enforcement Head.

3 years later, a thief managed to sneak out of the Royal Palace with a valuable treasure and a document.

The treasure was some sort of box which couldn't be opened through external force. And the document recorded some secret deeds and plans of the Royal Family.

The value of these two things was immense. The thief couldn't be allowed to get away with those two things.

It was Shun who caught that thief and retrieved the items back to the Royal Palace.

He had no demand even after performing such a great task.

The King rewarded Shun with Sun Moon Fruit and also the best cultivation technique present in the Royal Family.

A Sun Moon Fruit contained immense energy and was useful in helping a warrior to break through to the next rank. The best time to consume it was when a warrior reached the Peak 4 Star Rank.

The warrior could then consume it and break through the barrier to become a 5 Star Rank Warrior.

However, Shun had consumed it as he reached the High 4 Star Rank. He wanted to grow quickly and was confident about breaking through to the 5 Star Rank after eating the Sun Moon Fruit.

It had something related to the abilities he had unlocked when he was in the Willow Creek Academy.

Once he became a 5 Star Warrior, it turned into even greater news.

As a 5 Star Warrior, the King had the choice of granting him knighthood as well as territory.

However, the territory under a king was limited. And it had been split among the Noble Houses. The House of Nobles wouldn't agree to split their territory and allow the King to assign it to a lowly commoner who became a knight.

The King had witnessed and heard of Shun's abilities more than once and was fond of his talent.

He had already investigated Shun's background and found it clean. There was no chance he was a spy or planned to do something against the Kingdom.

After Shun had become 5 Star Warrior and was granted knighthood. Thus, Shun became the youngest knight in the Sinyalian Kingdom. Also, the King had secretly sent him the offer of joining the Inquisitors.

Shun accepted the invitation and became the youngest 16-year-old Inquisitor in the Sinyalian Kingdom's History!

As an Inquisitor, Shun was given only a couple of missions in the whole year. But each one of these missions was of great importance for the Sinyalian Kingdom.

He hunted the wanted man nicknamed Iron Fist alone and brought his head. Informed the Law Enforcement Agency of the possible bandit group locations he deduced from the clues left behind at the scenes.

His most noteworthy accomplishment as an Inquisitor was to lead a small force of 5 individuals and bring victory against a special force from the Glerian Kingdom comprising of 21 individuals.

His teammates who had been Inquisitor for a much longer time than Shun were dissatisfied that he was leading them despite his inexperience. However, this all changed after the battle.

In the battle, it wasn't Shun who had dealt the most damage to the enemies. In fact, he had hardly dealt with 2 or 3 opponents.

However, it was his leadership that had impressed them.

When they followed his orders, they saw that they were coordinating extremely well. It was as if everything had been calculated from the beginning.

They felt that as long as he commanded them, each one of them could use 100% of their ability.

This was what impressed them greatly and they decided to stop looking down on Shun because of his young age.

It had been just one year since Shun became a knight while secretly being an Inquisitor. The King summoned Shun and informed him that there was a territory available. And he wanted him to control it.

This was the territory of an Earl. This territory was near the borders of the Sinyalian Kingdom and touched the Republic of Raleroma on the southern side.

From his spies, he found that this Earl was actually planning a rebellion.

The King ordered two noble houses near the territory to attack and exterminate that Noble House.

In just a month, his order was accomplished.

The Noble Houses that had launched an attack were handsomely rewarded. One of them was promoted by a rank and the majority of the territory was split by the two Noble Houses. Only a city was left behind without a ruler.

The King revealed that he wanted Shun to rule over it as the Acting Mayor.

Meaning, Shun would be allowed to rule the city as long as he didn't commit a blunder. And if this continued for a decade, then Shun's family would henceforth be granted the title of Baron.

Naturally, once this was known in the House of Nobles, the king's decision was met with fierce criticism.

"The King is playing favorites. He is choosing a knight that hasn't even accomplished much for the kingdom."

"I think the King is actually planning to exterminate us slowly and grant our territories to his loyal subordinates. This way, he will create new Noble Families completely loyal to the Royal Family."

These two arguments were widely accepted by the many heads of the Noble Families.

For this reason, the Nobles would try everything they could to make things difficult for Shun. They first applied political pressure on the King and requested him to change his decision but it was all for naught.

The king said that as long as they bring the proof that he is managing his city improperly, he would rethink this matter.

This more or less meant that he was willing to support Shun unless it was a huge blunder from Shun's end.

Meanwhile, when Shun reached the city, he couldn't help but sigh.

As he had expected the city assigned to him was the City of Vanta also known by the title "The Bleak City."

The land was barren and the officials weren't exactly cooperative here.

Even the citizens were wary of him.

'The Noble Houses probably smeared my image by repeatedly bashing me in papers. They don't want me to succeed in this territory.'

He easily reached the conclusion but he didn't care.

In his first speech as a Mayor, he stated, "I am Shun Gordon, the new Mayor of this city. Many of you must have heard of me since I became the youngest knight in the Sinyalian Kingdom's history just a year ago. All of you have also probably heard unfavorable news about me. I won't get into detail about whether they are true or not. You can be the judge of that."

"What I can tell you is that as long as I am the Mayor of this town, your safety will be my responsibility. To get you the food will be my responsibility. To give you a rooftop over your heads will be my responsibility! To increase the prosperity and make it a city you can all take a pride in will be my responsibility!" Shun's voice exuded confidence and pure emotion that stirred the hearts of the citizens.

"You don't have to believe me, but I do want you to look at the results. Give me three months. The results will be visible in three months. If I am unable to keep my pledge, I shall end my own life."

Citizens and even the officials were extremely shocked to hear his words. They didn't think he would actually promise to kill himself if he couldn't keep his pledge.

The crowd had witnessed hollow promises many times by the mayors on this same stage.

Yet, never had they heard of someone who had put his life on the stake.

The people began to hesitate. All people who had been hostile to Shun were now hesitant. They thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to atleast give him 3 months.

And thus, Shun won the support of people as well as his officers for the 3 months.

Shun was aware that the true troublesome individuals who had been bribed by the Noble Houses wouldn't give him 3 months though. They would try to raise all sorts of trouble for him but he now had the support of the general public.

This was good enough.

He had a general plan on how he should do it.

The first thing was to work on the land.

The farmers were essentially unemployed and were forced to do labor work because the land was unusable. It was difficult or even next to impossible to grow anything in this land.

He first decided to bring a reform amongst the farmers and then tackle the merchants.