625,
“No way! If even Marcina can’t beat it…”
“Shut up!”
Faced with the fat man Frans’s unease, Alexander, the hero of the Holy Capital, hurriedly patted him on the chest and ordered him to keep quiet.
The reason was simple: they had brought all of this upon themselves. It was their own mess, and they couldn’t let word get out.
Alexander spoke in a low voice.
“She never had any obligation to protect our homeland in the first place. Now that King Kakarl has died at the hands of the Great Dragon, we’ve already got the best possible start.”
Amid the tense atmosphere, Frans tried to nod in agreement.
“I understand. When I heard the High Priest’s plan that day, I thought he was crazy too. Who would’ve thought of provoking the Great Dragon?”
Alexander drew the greatsword from his back.
“But this is the final step. No more involvement in politics, no more being treated as an enemy nation. For the freedom of the Water Shrine…”
Alexander’s hand was trembling, and the sword he held shook even more noticeably.
“Go. Finish what we came here to do.”
Meanwhile, with the Great Dragon’s descent, the High Priest, King Allen, the King of Twilight, and the other people in power immediately began an emergency meeting.
The situation was so urgent that they could only keep things brief.
The High Priest laid out the situation plainly: the rampage of the heretics had provoked the Great Dragon and brought it here.
Normally, nations didn’t make requests like this of one another. Bringing another country’s army into your own city was an extremely dangerous thing to do.
But the situation was urgent. To save the civilians who might be injured by the Great Dragon’s bombardment, they could no longer afford to worry about national security.
The request was reasonable, and so was the answer.
What’s more, King Allen didn’t merely agree—he welcomed it.
Now that the High Priest of the Water Shrine had made the request, King Allen only needed to go along with it to bring his great army into Kakarl.
This cooperation with the heretics could be called a tremendous success.
It was just a pity that the dead King Kakarl had ultimately become someone else’s pawn. Even until the end, he had only walked the path others had chosen for him.
“No problem. My men aren’t far away, though there aren’t many of them.”
The High Priest knew that King Allen’s army had already been secretly moving this way, and there was no way to describe its numbers as merely “not many.”
But all of this had been calculated in advance, including the places the Great Dragon had destroyed so far.
Now they only needed to drag the Great Dragon toward King Allen at all costs and minimize the destruction it caused.
Once this was over, they would find a reason to let King Allen take control of Kakarl. Then everything would be settled.
“But to send the entire army…”
The minor lord of Sunset City was confused by such an operation.
After all, Sunset City’s small force would also be entering the city. If this caused dissatisfaction in Kakarl, a major power in the future, a small city like Sunset City wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences.
“At a time like this, who cares about propriety?”
King Allen slammed his hand on the table.
“I’ll give the order immediately. Allen’s army will do everything in its power to help the Water Shrine!”
The King of Twilight was also seated at the same table.
After hearing King Allen’s decision, the King of Twilight merely waved his hand, then spoke loudly.
“My forces may not be numerous either, but we’ll do everything we can to help you.”
After he finished speaking, the gesture he had just made signaled someone behind him to step forward.
Once the person approached, they whispered into the King of Twilight’s ear.
“We still haven’t found him. Aside from that one time the day before yesterday, he’s been hiding ever since.”
The moment the King of Twilight heard this, he spoke loudly once again.
“Send everyone of squadron rank and above to King Allen’s side to assist them. Have the rest help evacuate the civilians.”
“Understood.”
At that moment, everyone present understood.
Helping with the evacuation was merely incidental.
This situation also worked to the King of Twilight’s advantage. Under the name of evacuating civilians, his troops could conduct a search in practice.
As long as they found Cyclone Theodore seeking shelter amid the chaos, his fate could easily be imagined.
