Chapter 42: Preparations |
"The Royas King…" Chris stayed silent. When countries were considered, it had never been easy to determine things with simple concepts like justice or evil.
If the Royas Kingdoms were to wage war on the Interkam Kingdom, then for the Interkam people, the Royas Kingdom would be considered undoubtedly 'evil', but was the entire Royas Kingdom evil?
Defining a large group of people as simply good or evil was biased. The so-called concepts of good and evil were nothing but conforming to the public's generally accepted sense of morality. Those who conform are considered 'good', while those who don't are considered 'evil'.
This was why there were many things that couldn't be generalized, and why sometimes it was just better not to think too much about it, as long as you still act following your own sense of morals.
"I won't comment on King Eldridge" Chris slowly replied.
Although good and evil couldn't be used to judge a country as a whole, personally speaking, Chris was more on the side of the Interkam Kingdom. For one, Interkam had always been a multi-racial country, while the Royas Kingdom was mostly made up of Royas people and had kept up a deep sense of racial discrimination.
Especially after the 'Great Robber Ika Elissa' incident, the majority of the Royas people considered those of different racial ethnicity to be inferior.
The other reason was because the current Royas Kingdom, under the lead of King Eldridge, hailed as the greatest Royas ruler in the last millennium, was incredibly aggressive. Invasions for the sake of expanding the country border could be praised as expanding their territory, but for civilians, wars have always been nothing but suffering.
Because of this, against the side that instigated a war, Chris wouldn't necessarily call them 'evil' and want to smite them down, but he would naturally feel wary and apprehensive towards them.
Among those that Chris knew about, the only one who could possibly rival Negary directly in power would be King Eldridge.
He had absolute confidence that preceded all else, enough that he felt even the God worshipped by the Church of Divine Grace to be below him.
13 years ago, when Eldridge had only just claimed his throne, a Cardinal of the Church of Divine Grace travelled to the Royas Kingdom to seek an audience with this King and requested him to allow missionaries of the Church of Divine Grace to spread their worship.
At the time, there were already quite a few within the Royas Kingdom who felt interested in the Church of Divine Grace. There were even aristocrats who expressed support of welcoming the Church of Divine Grace into their country. Of course, it would be hard to tell exactly how much of this was actual belief in the Church and how much was part of the country's power struggle to have the Church of Divine Grace restrain the overbearing Andrea royal family.
But the King immediately suppressed all this dissatisfaction with iron and blood. He declared that even God was nothing but one of his subjects and that it was enough for the Royas people to worship him alone. He chased the Cardinal away and foiled the plan for the Church of Divine Grace to enter the Royas Kingdom. He then cleaned up the burdensome nobles who held the Royas Kingdom back and united all the aristocrats for the sake of building a greater Royas Kingdom.
Currently, the forces of the Royas Kingdom far surpassed that of itself when King Eldridge had just been crowned. While on the contrary, the Interkam Kingdom's overall forces had grown weaker due to the internal strife Seth the First instigated to ascend to the throne.
Both Kings employed cold iron and blood within their own countries at similar points in time. In fact, the Interkam Kingdom was a bit more powerful than Royas back then, but now, the Interkam Kingdom was growing weaker day by day.
If one were to insist on having a reason, then it would be legitimacy. Eldridge's ascension to his throne was legitimate, so after he cleaned up the unrest within his country, he could focus on growth without worry.
While Seth the First borrowed too much power from the nobles to ascend his throne, after the coronation, even when he wanted to try to reform and make Interkam grow, he found nobles blocking his path at every step of the way. In the end, Seth the First who claimed himself to be an equal of Eldridge grew more and more silent as time passed.
This was the main reason behind the two countries' imbalanced situations. The current Seth only wanted to maintain his rule, labelled by many as 'The Sunset of the Nation'. While Eldridge was being hailed as the greatest Royas ruler in the last millennium. Countless young men of the Royas Kingdom swore their loyalty to the King and wouldn't hesitate to risk their lives for him.
"As an aristocrat of Royas, I am fearful of Eldridge's vast influence and power. But as a citizen of Royas, I am proud to have such a King" Smick's eyes showed complicated emotions.
"Let's end this topic here. I won't do anything to that little girl, and I can order my subordinates not to act before Negary is dealt with" Smick spoke seriously: "At this moment, whether as a Royas citizen or as an aristocrat, Negary is an obstacle that needs to be dealt with"
"We'll move at exactly midnight today. Furthermore, in order not to cause conflict, we will attack from the East of the forbidden zone. Any problems?" Smick continued.
"No problem. We'll attack from the South" Chris nodded. Then, after both sides determined some communication signals, Smick's body blurred before he completely faded away and left without a sound.
"[Light Inheritance] huh?" Chris sighed. Eldridge had completed a dictatorship over his own country. The ones who were supposed to be against this the most were the aristocrats of Royas, but as Smick talked about Eldridge just now, he couldn't help but express his respect towards the man. That just showed how powerful Royas currently was.
"Whatever, this would be a matter for Seth the First and the Church of Divine Grace to worry about" Chris couldn't help but think about Nala's innocent face, suddenly a bit unwilling to help turn her into the Saintress of Salvation; because that would mean she would have to carry a very heavy weight on her shoulders.
After informing everyone else about the plan, Chris laid down and slowly closed his eyes. He wanted to rest well for the battle tonight.
…
On the other side, Yadley was arranging for tonight's defense of the forbidden zone with a complicated expression on his face. Anyone could tell that their enemies would attack the forbidden zone tonight with the intent of harming the great Lord Negary.
But what was causing Yadley to feel strange was because the one who orchestrated all of this was most likely the Lord himself. He could already guess the Lord's intentions, but there was still a lot that he couldn't understand at all.
Regardless of what the situation was really like, the only thing Yadley had to do was make sure to protect the forbidden zone, protect the order of Reystromia and prevent those people from disturbing Lord Negary during his dormant period.
"With our lives, we vow to ensure Lord Negary's safety!" Yadley declared to all the Crowmen.
Within the forbidden zone, Negary was sitting on his throne of bones with both eyes closed, apparently pondering something. After the shroud of night thoroughly draped over the land, he finally opened his eyes and grinned: 〖 Let the fun begin 〗
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