The warmth of the sunshine dispelled the coldness of the autumn day, but it didn't make the atmosphere in the royal palace any more lively at the same time. As a matter of fact, the events that happened during this period of time had made many people in the Marco Kingdom scared and couldn't even believe that their own country would be in such a state of turmoil. In a whole month's time, three or four large and medium-sized commercial cities have been attacked by unknown people, showing a terrible situation of being half destroyed or even completely destroyed. In the border villages, the situation is just as bad.
"Max! This is your plan! You're going to give me an explanation!!!"
Max lowered his head and looked at the plan which was thrown at his feet by the king in anger, he could almost feel the ridicule and mockery of his colleagues around him, this time it was clear that the king didn't mean to give Max any more face, from the fact that he didn't even confer with himself in his study as usual, but rather he lost his temper in a hall like the court meeting, the king wasn't willing to give this ambassador of Marco's kingdom some special rights of honor anymore. The king was no longer willing to give the chanter of Marco's kingdom special rights of honor.
"In just a few dozen days, three large commercial cities have already been destroyed, which even exceeds the losses our kingdom suffered during the war! And you still haven't managed to find the traces of the enemy?!!!"
"Lord Marks, I would also like to remind you that ..."
The treasurer next to him was in a crooked voice.
"In addition to these three cities, the kingdom's peripheral farms, as well as villages have also suffered a lot of losses, and not only this, the kingdom's foreign commercial transactions have also dropped significantly ... And as a result of this, the domestic food prices have also begun to rise, and there are even some places that have already stopped the food trade! ... I don't know as the commander-in-chief, should you take the responsibility?"
"And that's not all!!!"
It seems as if everyone has a grudge against Max and doesn't feel comfortable not taking advantage of the opportunity to retaliate, but looking at it from another angle, things are pretty bad in the country right now.
"Just two days ago, the team transporting armed supplies was attacked by those bandits! If we hadn't rescued them in time, even the armored mechs would have been snatched by them, and once those brutal bandits have this kind of weapon, things will become even more troublesome! Lord Max, this is no longer the time to wait and see what happens! We must take action!!!"
"Action?"
Max's snow-white eyebrows raised slightly upwards, and he looked up with a serious face, gazing at the man who had just spoken.
"So you tell me, what's the move?"
"Of course it's to find the other side, and kill them all!!!"
"So you tell me, how do we find each other out?!"
Max grunted coldly, while the man froze with his mouth open for half a second, finally not knowing exactly what to say.
"Find it? Green Shade City, Nightingale City, Fishy City, and Serinaya City ... Their locations are not unknown to you! Two are in the south of the kingdom, one is in the north, and the other is in the southwest. So, can any of you tell me what these people's next move is? Which city are they going to attack? Can you see where they're going? If you say so, then you tell me, which city will they attack next?!"
"..."
Everyone was silent, and indeed, that was Max's problem. If they were just a team of saboteurs and assassins, then it would be easier to find them, after all, they had a trail and a target to follow. But these people were completely unexpected, they didn't care if the cities they destroyed and the people they killed were of strategic value or not, they didn't seem to see any difference between the commoners and the royals. In order to lure them into attacking, Max even persuaded the king to move the large-scale ceremony held two days ago to another city, and at the same time let the whole kingdom know about it. Max even mobilized the strongest army he had ever mobilized to help with this plan. But the whole ceremony was uneventful from start to finish, without any danger. At the end of the ceremony, the king received news that nearly made him faint - another city had been reduced to a pile of rubble just as the ceremony was taking place, and it was the neighboring city of theirs.
Even the most battle-hardened general in the Marco Kingdom is having a hard time with all this. Since the other side has the power to destroy a city, it's not due to a lack of strength, but what exactly is their goal? Assassinate the king? Obviously not like ... but has such a powerful ability, but only in other countries to demolish the city to play, this is really puzzling people. Moreover, every action of the other side does not have the slightest trajectory to follow, completely unable to deduce their next action.
"This is clearly a conspiracy by the San Marino Empire!!!"
Another one yells out .
"We should protest to the San Marino Empire! And declare war!!!"
"A declaration of war?"
This time it was the king who grunted, he clenched his fists and stared coldly at the man who had said such a stupid thing, and the surrounding area was quiet for the moment.
Are you kidding me? Even if everyone knows that San Marino did it, what reason do they have to send troops?
In other words, even if they send troops, it is still questionable whether they can deal with the other side with the current strength of Marco Kingdom being tossed around. If San Marino catches the advantage and bites them back, the glory of Marco Kingdom will end here.
You can't fight it, you can't stop it.
Even Max couldn't solve this problem.
And now that the Marco Kingdom is in turmoil, those gifted people who used to hide like rats have gone crazy and started a counterattack. They massacred villages, buried women and children alive or burned them to death, and cut off the heads of young men and women and placed them on the roads. Even in the face of those who came to encircle them, these people no longer just run for their lives as before, they almost seem to forget their fear, and fearlessly rushed up to die with the enemy. In this short period of tens of days, the original face of those monsters have the absolute advantage of the armored soldiers, actually lost several hundred. Moreover, these damned monsters seemed to have made a deal, never bothering those cities with strong walls, but specifically looking for those villages to attack. Since the villages didn't have any armored soldiers, only ordinary soldiers were in charge of defense, and with their strength, they were no match for those gifted and organized gifted people. Although there are many people who would like to send the armored soldiers to guard the village, but the royal family and the military can't say anything, after all, the Marco Kingdom used to face the gifted with overwhelming power, although there are sporadic resistance, but after all, the arm can't be twisted by the big leg, and occasional fights by one or two people won't have any special impact.
But now is different, these gifted no longer seem to fear death, although there are still people being tied to the stake every day, but it seems to have completely failed to achieve the proper deterrent effect, but instead, it is even more stimulate their crazy revenge. Even in one city, the day after the Gifted were executed by fire, the heads of a village were found hanging above the city gates, representing naked revenge and anger.
In this abnormal situation, the military is not sure, if those crazy gifted monsters get the armored weapons, will they become more powerful? More difficult to deal with?
So the military was deafened by the information coming in from all over the world, which obviously caused anger on the local level. But for the time being, there was nothing more they could do than strengthen the defenses of the major cities and military fortresses.
"It's called a four-way split."
Gazing at the virtual image of Euphonia in the jewel, Emin replied with a smile.
"There is no main force, and nowhere is not the main force, when they can not understand what we want to do, they will naturally become cautious, and this just fall into our trap ... Now it seems that everything is going well."
"If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be able to use this tactic."
Euphonia didn't mean to deny it, but she said to Jared with a sincere tone.
"Well, then, I wish you all the best, and, I hope, when you return in triumph, with the heads of Max, Andale, and Fiala."
"I try."
Jared gave a slight nod of understanding, and only when the image of the Lord of the Pale disappeared did he let out a long breath.
"It's exhausting."
（"Let's get this over with and go back to our homes.)
Caroline said to Jared with a hint of displeasure as she apparently gently stroked Kura, who was lying prone in her arms, already asleep.
(Lately, I've only been able to bathe in the field, which is too much of a hassle.)
Obviously, she was suggesting this for purely personal reasons. After all, the city was under martial law, most of the gates were closed, and the inns were closed to guests. This made Caroline, who had only been able to bathe and clean herself in the wilds, very unhappy, but there was nothing she could do about it.
"It's almost time for it to be over."
Jared gazed up at the beauty before him and shrugged his shoulders.
"Dad, we can go back to ... that country called San Marino, they really won't treat us like monsters?"
Until now, Gina was still a little worried. Although Kylie and the others were very friendly to her, Gina wasn't stupid, she knew that just because these people were nice to her, she couldn't assume that their country was the same. After all, the policies of a country and the attitudes of its people could not be completely linked. Moreover, Gina had been deeply hurt in the Marco Kingdom, so up until now, she had only politely talked to Kylie and the others, and instinctively kept her distance from them. This makes Jared and Caroline very helpless, but really can not do anything. After all, in essence, they are simply two worlds of people, for them, this world of people and aliens are similar, even if there are national disputes between them, conflict. But just as in the eyes of the Martians, yellow-skinned and white-skinned human beings are bipedal animals, in Gina's view, these people are "otherworldly people", there is no difference at all.
It would take some time before Gina's wariness of the Otherworlders would be dispelled.
"Then, it's time for the final battle."
"Jared, are you sure you don't want to join forces with the gifted?"
Kelly was still a little confused, and not without reason. Her thoughts, however, were the opposite of Jared's.
"Not going to, as I said, I don't like to be a hero, and I don't want to lead people to overthrow a regime ... And what would San Marino think if I did?"
"... this ..."
Facing Jared's rhetorical question, Kelly finally chose to remain silent. Indeed, with Jared's strength, as long as he united those gifted people in various places, together with their help, it was very possible to overthrow the regime of Marco Kingdom. But how will Jared be viewed within the Empire? Those gifted people are fed up with the oppression of ordinary people. Naturally, they won't make peace with the San Marino people, and a hero in such a situation will easily lead to personal admiration. At that time, facing a Jared with a powerful and loyal army, neither the royal family nor the Academy Council will take it lightly.
"I think I need to make a point to you ..."
Jared straightened his expression and said seriously to Kelly, Wendy and Mailer.
"I came here to carry out the mission sent to me by the Empire, not to fight for these Gifted, except that I judged it would be easier to fulfill my mission. I have always believed in taking matters into my own hands, and I have given them the opportunity to change the fate of this country, the choice is not mine to make, nor would I want it to be. I'm just trying to do my job, and I'm trying to vent my anger. And, honestly, I don't think ... these gifted people can take control of the country." He stared at Mailer and said, word for word.
"This wildfire is uncontrollable, and all we can do is wait for it to burn itself out."
In the Kingdom of Marco, how deep is the hatred between the gifted and the commoners?
No one could answer this question, but the brutal and violent counterattacks of the Gifted along the way had shown that the feud between the two sides could not be resolved, and no one wanted to resolve it. The Gifted have always been treated as monsters, killed with impunity, and died to the cheers of the common people. There was no way they could live with these guys. To the people of Marco, the Gifted have always been vicious, cruel, and horrible monsters. How can humans live with monsters? As for those gifted people who wish to live with ordinary people, they have all run away to San Marino Empire. Those who stayed were either consumed by hateful anger or extremists who never believed they could get along with ordinary people.
This is an irreconcilable and totally irreconcilable contradiction.
Even if Jared were to make the slogan that he wanted the gifted to live in peace with the common man, no one would answer his call because, well, the two sides were never meant to live in peace.
One remains, the other dies.
It's a fight to the death ora fight to the death.
So Jared simply let go and let them have a big fight, wait until both sides are almost exhausted, then let San Marino Empire take over. After all, the hatred accumulated by the gifted for generations needs to be vented. This is not a situation that can be solved by saying "peace".
The more the flame burns, the sooner it will be extinguished.
"And now, the final battle. Mailer, order your magic soldiers regiment to be ready, and give orders to Yuri, let him bring those people to meet with us, these days have been outside the East and West tossing and turning, I think he must also be tired ... next, we just need to release information to go, then the other side will surely make a move."
"But, Lord Marks is a wise man, Jared. Can you actually ... with such an obvious ploy?"
"You're forgetting something, Kelly."
In response to Kelly's rhetorical question, Jared stuck out his finger in triumph and wagged it.
"The truth is, even if he had seen through my plan, it would have been of no use at this point. After all this, the royal family must have been confused, and they are desperately looking for any possibility to crush us. When a normal person, standing in a group of crazy people when ... he even if normal, but also can not manipulate the direction of the development of the situation."