Chapter 250 I’ll Declare War!

520

May 3, 1350, two o'clock in the morning.

On the wall of a colonial city belonging to Loen, soldiers stood guard with guns in hand, each feeling a little uneasy. On the huge city wall, their existence seemed a bit lonely.

The night was like a thick quilt, covering everything up.

As time went by, the temperature in the early morning became lower and lower.

The soldiers' thinking was dulled by sleepiness and the unchanging dim environment around them. Their awareness of the surroundings gradually weakened, and they yawned one after another, approaching the torches on the city wall, huddled together for warmth.

Although the nights in early spring in the southern continent are definitely not cold, people always have an instinctive yearning for warm places.

"Lerha and Hesut were really taken away by the Balam rebels?"

To combat their sleepiness, the soldiers passed the time chatting. A young soldier with brown eyes pulled up his collar and said worriedly: "Really or not? These two places are so far apart..."

"Why are you thinking so much? Wasn't it written in the kingdom's newspaper? It was these two cities that suffered disasters first, and then were taken away by these all-pervasive cultists." Another soldier said disapprovingly.

"Didn't Aldera have an internal agent before? It's been going on for half a year. It's only a matter of time before the kingdom gets it back. If the cult is really that capable, it won't be a cult anymore."

The city they guard is not too big, but it is not too small either. It is about the same size as the two cities that were taken away, so they feel uneasy.

The two cities that were suddenly destroyed by natural disasters cannot be said to be close to each other. They can only be said to be completely unrelated. Their completely different strategic values ​​and unrelated geographical factors make it impossible for the Northern Continent to strategically explain the two cities. The reason for the sudden fall of the city was that even the people from the Church of Death would start to doubt the distance between the Quetzalcoatl's eyes after a brief moment of ecstasy after looking at the map.

Why did the God of Death choose to destroy these two unrelated cities as soon as he opened his eyes? They didn't know, and they didn't dare to ask.

Maybe the God of Death was just on a whim, but the Extraordinaries on the path of the "God of Death" had to go back and forth to manage the city.

Therefore, the Northern Continent official can only say that it is the combined effect of natural disasters and evil cults... which is not wrong.

Anyway, the people of the Northern Continent who have experienced normal life for more than a thousand years, although they have not seen the extraordinary with their own eyes, most of them have developed extraordinary imagination. If you give them a rough excuse, they will find reasons for themselves.

"However, even if they cooperate inside and outside and can control three cities, the Balam Resistance Army and their cult are much more powerful than the Highland Resistance Army."

The brown-eyed soldier was still worried and couldn't help but say something to enhance others' prestige: "And here we are..."

Under the complicated gazes of several compatriots, he muttered: "Not very ordinary."

There has been no follow-up for more than a week after the incident, and the kingdom has responded to some extent. People who don't understand the extraordinary have nothing to worry about. However, the problem is - just look at the map and you will find that the city where you are stationed happens to be in a Between Lerha and Hesut, it even happens to be on the shortest line segment between the two points.

This special strategic position is what makes the soldiers tremble.

"Stand guard carefully!" The squad leader arrived in time and scolded the young soldier.

"The kingdom's colonies can be taken away by the cult at their command? These rebels won't be able to occupy them for long. If a war breaks out, troops will be sent to station them. You don't need to worry about it."

His voice was carried far away by the night wind and fell on the plain on the outskirts of the city. There was no echo and was swallowed up by the vast darkness.

It is not an important city, nor does it have an important economic or strategic position. There are only a few hundred thousand troops stationed in the city.

But if you really want to fight, you may not be able to defeat them. After all, the guns and weapons used by the rebels are all old products that are at least one generation behind them.

Thinking about it this way, I can barely feel relieved. After receiving this training, the soldiers quickly became quiet and stopped talking in low voices. The young people, who were under forty at most, cheered up and calculated the time. They still had more than three hours before they could change their posts and go back to sleep. After a while, they would be there.

After waiting for a while, it was almost dawn, and the sound of soldiers starting to yawn again came from the wind.

The captain was also drowsy, but as soon as his eyelids closed, several dry and harsh croaking sounds suddenly came from his ears. The captain woke up and saw a mottled crow resting on the wall.

The crow stopped at the right spot, leaving a back for them. The squad leader immediately became energetic, and the soldiers standing nearby also looked over. The two men gently loaded the guns in their hands, intending to shoot down the bird and take it back to add some meat flavor to the pot.

With a "click", the gun was loaded, and it exploded in the silent night.

The crow fluttered its wings and was not frightened away by the sound.

A smile appeared on the squad leader's face, and he clasped his fingers slightly, as if he had seen the crow fall to the ground and turn into a meal.

The crow turned around and approached the torch on the city wall. The smile on the face of the soldier standing behind the squad leader suddenly froze, as if it was stuck in his throat. His expression suddenly changed, as if he had seen something terrifying.

"Belly! Belly!" The soldier tremblingly stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction of the crow.

The mottled-feathered crow was still not frightened away by the soldier's uncontrollable voice. The team leader took a closer look and immediately held his breath, shaking the gun in his hand. The crow was facing them sideways. They had not been able to see clearly in the darkness. Now that they were near the fire, they noticed that a large piece of the crow's abdomen was missing, as if it had been eaten by another animal, exposing its empty cavity. and rotting flesh.

The crow shook its wings stiffly, and blackened bones were exposed under the wings.

"Dead bird!" The team leader was horrified. He moved his fingers immediately, and a gunshot knocked the strange crow to the ground.

But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the crow that had lost half of its body stood up unsteadily again, with no head and wings, and white maggots and bones were indistinguishable from each other in the fracture. The crow took two unsteady steps and plunged into the torch, stirring up a handful of fluffy sparks.

The team leader and the soldiers were in shock, and suddenly there was an exclamation from behind: "It's foggy! It's foggy!"

They quickly looked back. It was not surprising that there was fog at night, but they did not expect that in the short moment when the crow attracted their attention, the dense fog actually gathered into layers of curtains, and dozens of defenders on the city wall No figures were visible at all, only the torches on the city wall and in their hands could be seen, and a warm halo shone in the distance.

The squad leader also quickly reached for the torch, but at that moment, he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder. From the corner of his eye, he saw a rotten lower half of a face pressing on his shoulder.

The face opened its mouth and blew gently, and the cold wind of putrid smell and death immediately blew out the torch in front of it.

At the same time, all the torches on the city wall went out at the same time.

In the extreme darkness, they suddenly felt instinctive fear. Cold hands pressed on their shoulders, knees and back of their heads, pressing them down. They knelt down towards the plain, with their foreheads close to the ground.

The plain outside the city has been filled with fog for some time.

…

A young man with bronze skin and a few braids of hair tied back was staring in the direction of the city wall.

He stood alone on the plain, looking at the city with lights in the distance. Gray-black mist surrounded him. After a while, he blew out a breath, and the bone whistle in his mouth made a sharp sound. There was silence in the mist. The standing zombies stepped forward one after another.

簌, 簌.

This is the sound of dry bones pushing away the soil.

The whistling of spirits cannot be heard with ears.

The dead stood up one after another from their slumber, and young men with pigtails blew whistles and walked in the middle of the procession, driving them toward the distant city, just like a shepherd driving her sheep.

When he reached the city gate, he was about to open the gate to the underworld and pass through. The colors beside him suddenly became brighter. The majestic white-haired old man, Mirela, the "Messenger of Death" walked out of the spirit world and stared at the young man in front of him. .

"Why haven't you attacked the city yet?" he asked.

The young man lowered his head: "I have made the soldiers guarding the city lose their combat effectiveness. I can open the door and send undead creatures into the city at any time."

"But they are still alive, and you didn't let them go to the kingdom of death." Mirela scolded unkindly, but still remained patient, "Stop showing off your womanly kindness, stay with women and children for too long Oh, have you also forgotten how to fight and how to kill?!"

The young man was silent.

Mirella raised her voice: "Garland Persat Eggers! Don't let me remind you again of the glory of your last name!"

"When you play with the children, you should remember how your sister was killed because she was unwilling to give herself to the soldiers!"

"When you get along with women, you should remember how your mother and father were publicly executed for their resistance and identity!"

"When you were hiding at sea to escape reality, did you ever think that the people in your hometown were still being persecuted?" Mirela painfully taught her children, "Her Majesty the Queen once specifically asked me to bring you back. I hope you are kind-hearted and have popular reputation. You can bring positive changes to the empire, do you want to live up to Her Majesty the Queen's expectations?"

Garland, the "gatekeeper" of Sequence 5, lowered his head and remained silent. After a few seconds, he closed his mouth and took a deep breath.

He exhaled forcefully, and the bone whistle clenched between his teeth made a sharp sound that cut through the night sky.

The door to the underworld bursts open! The ten-meter-high bronze gate completely covered the original location of the city gate. Countless vines and arms stretched out from the underworld and wrapped around the city wall. The extraordinary power caused the city wall to weather and corrode at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Without the protection of extraordinary power, the tall and solid city wall turned into a ball of tofu-like mud in a short period of time. The collapsed mud was mixed with some white bones, wearing the clothes of Loen soldiers.

The bronze gate still stands there, and Garland's whistle becomes light and ethereal. At this moment, the gate of the underworld is like a floodgate. When it is opened, a black and white cloud-like tide is released. Any stranger who approaches will be killed. The undead in the tide pulled out wood from the remains of the city wall, ignited blue flames, and threw them into the city ahead like countless meteors.

In the absolute silence, the crackling sound of torches in the hands of the undead could be heard.

"My dear child, don't let me down." Mirela gave Garland a deep look, "The Angel of Temperance also supports us, don't be merciful anymore, child, in the future, your kindness will make more people Our compatriots died as a result.”

Hearing the word "temperance angel" and thinking of the leader's story and experience, Garland's emotions rose a little.

"...Father, I don't want to kill anyone."

Garland held his whistle in his mouth, clenching his upper and lower teeth, and his voice was somewhat unclear.

"Because for us, killing people is too easy, but saving people is difficult."

Mirela patted him on the shoulder. After a brief harshness, he also slowed down his voice, showing his usual amiable elder look. He sighed to the child he had raised:

"If you sympathize with them, who will sympathize with us?"

"There are many adults, old people and children in need of help in our rear. After the city is broken, you can stay in the rear for a while."

Garland nodded silently. In front of them, the city had turned into a sea of ​​blue fire burning quietly, and the firelight entered their eyes like a tide. No one is running in the streets, no one is running to put out the fire. The town is asleep and will sleep forever.

The infidels died, and the compatriots remained.

Everything happened naturally, just like what happened every day for two hundred years.

It's neither fun nor sad.

At four o'clock in the morning on May 3, 1350, before dawn, the Loen colonial city of Canterlot was attacked by the Church of Death. All the city's garrison was wiped out, and the fourth city returned to the control of the Balam Empire.

This fire burned away the last bit of room for relaxation between the two countries. At seven o'clock in the morning, Emperor Bailang declared war on the Kingdom of Loen.

…

In a manor in Backlund, the fiery-red-haired War Angel sat on a garden bench, frowning and carefully watching the reports of the fall of the city in the southern continent.

Due to the recent huge changes in the Southern Continent, any slight disturbance will attract the attention of the newspapers in the Northern Continent.

In just one hour, various intelligence agencies in the northern continent had received the news of the Balam Empire's declaration of war, and then they notified the newspapers one after another. Three hours later, the declaration of war and the Declaration of Independence were published in daily newspapers in various countries, spreading like a storm throughout the country. Spread across the continent!

"It has begun! The fire of this war is burning so beautifully." A smile appeared on the corner of His mouth and he said in a low voice.

It has to be said that the God of Death is still more pleasing to the eye than the others. Just saying that he dares to fight and do things is enough for Medici to praise him a few times. The Red Evil Spirit read this page of the newspaper over and over again. He only regretted that the policies of the Aurora Society and the Iron-Blooded Cross Society currently did not include fishing in the troubled waters of the Southern Continent, so that he could not freely go and make trouble in this new war.

Then He burned the newspaper and strode toward the office of the True Creator.

"host!"

He jumped up from the open-air balcony, sat down on the railing of the balcony, smiled at the young man with black gold highlights and a cross: "Are you ready for promotion?"

"If we don't work harder quickly, we won't be able to add fuel to the war sweeping the world!"

His Lord was standing in front of the bookshelf, flipping through a book. A pen flew up on the table and wrote on a piece of paper.

The True Creator didn’t look back: “Next week.”

War Angel was satisfied and laughed.

…

In a luxury villa that I just paid 315 pounds to rent for a year.

Klein took off his coat and stood with his back straight on the large balcony of the semi-open room on the third floor. Looking at the scenery of the surrounding streets, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart:

"Sure enough, expensive still means expensive, so the rent of 315 pounds is not too wasteful..."

He had paid one year's rent yesterday afternoon and could only force himself to become more and more comfortable with this place.

At the same time, he also directly paid Walter's annual salary of 115 pounds, because after he obtained the Antigonus family notes, he was likely to abscond, causing the butler to lose his job.

Based on this concept, he also paid the housekeeper Taneja's annual salary of 42 pounds in one lump sum this morning, giving this lady an initial feeling of Mr. Dawn Dantes' generosity and magnanimity.

With the busy work of the two housekeepers, the servants have been basically hired, and the character and life of the rich Dwayne Dantès have begun to work. There is nothing to do about Dwayne himself for the time being. But as soon as Klein sat down, he immediately noticed the newspaper at hand.

That was what Walter, the butler, had just brought in.

Logically speaking, "Backlund Daily" is a morning newspaper. If Walter wants to buy it, he should buy it around eight o'clock... Klein looked elsewhere, but saw that there was also a copy of "Backlund Daily" on the table over there. ", couldn't help but be slightly startled.

Is there any difference between these two newspapers? Has something new happened?

Klein picked up this brand-new newspaper and could still smell the faint aroma of ink on it. This newspaper is very thin, only half the size of the "Backlund Daily" in the morning. The content inside is quite shocking. It is actually the news of the Balam Empire declaring independence!

Klein wouldn't be too surprised if it was just a night attack by the Death Church or the restoration of the Balam Empire. After all, it had nothing to do with him. At most, he would be worried about Mr. Azik.

Even when Balam declared war on Loen, Klein was only a little nervous, thinking that as a Sequence 5 Beyonder, he could somewhat protect himself in the war. Benson and Melissa were also in Backlund. , can take care of you at any time.

What really made his eyes tremble was the "Declaration of Independence" that took up an entire page!

This is the Declaration of Independence!

“…he obstructed the administration of justice by refusing to approve laws establishing judicial powers.

He has stationed among us, in time of peace, without the consent of our Legislatures, large numbers of armed troops;

He sought to make the military independent of and above civilian government.

To shield them with sham interrogations, allowing them to murder residents of our states with impunity;

We were escorted overseas to stand trial on Luo Zhi charges...

He plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and decimated the lives of our people.

At this time, he was transporting large numbers of foreign mercenaries to complete his old business of massacre, destruction and wreaking havoc. This business had been started for a long time, and its cruelty and despicability had no precedent even in the most barbaric era. He is completely unworthy of being the head of a civilized nation.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for improvement in the humblest terms; but repeated petitions have been answered with repeated injury. A prince is unfit to be the ruler of a free people when his character has been marked by the conduct of a tyrant. "

This "him" is written as Kingdom of Loen, pronounced as Northern Continent... Klein took a deep breath, and a name began to swirl in his mind: Russell Gustave, Luo... No, the colonial world promoted by Russell, How could it be possible to provide the people of the Southern Continent with the Declaration of Independence? Could it be the true Creator? But it seems that the Aurora Society did nothing in this incident...or maybe...Edward Vaughn...

The rich man who had just started his new life was a little dizzy when he learned that the war was about to begin. Klein walked to the entrance, opened the door, and found that the expression of the valet Richardson standing outside was also a little embarrassed and uncomfortable.

"I'm used to taking a nap for three-quarters of an hour at this time. Don't let anyone disturb me."

"Yes, sir," Richardson humbly responded.

Because he is a mixed-race illegitimate son, his father is a Loen and the steward of a manor, and his mother is a native of East Balam and a slave of that manor.

After he was born, he suffered discrimination and bullying, and developed a cowardly and obedient character. Because he looked quite good and was suitable for receiving guests, he was selected by the owner of the manor as a male servant and brought to Backlund.

When the upper and lower houses of Loen Kingdom passed the bill to abolish slavery, he was miserably unemployed and had no choice but to ask for assistance from the "Metropolitan Association for Helping Household Servants".

Before Klein, he had served two families, made some mistakes, and accumulated a lot of experience. He was favored by the butler Walter and became Dwayne Dantes' personal servant.

Looking at Richardson, who was tall and tall and about the same height as himself, Klein shook his head invisibly and sighed in his heart:

"This guy who looks like he can be a star can only be a servant in this era, and he is so tall, but he is timid and cowardly. However, this can be regarded as an advantage. He is obedient, silent and obedient. He will do whatever the master tells him. Whatever you do, never make your own decisions..."

Looking at Richardson's embarrassed expression, thinking about the contents of the newspaper, and the southern continental people's march that was gradually getting bigger and bigger, Klein also felt a little subtle.

But he did not have the idea of ​​​​firing the other party.

Under such a tense situation, firing a Southern Continent mixed-race person who had found a stable job would really push the other person into the abyss.

Without saying anything else, Klein closed the door and locked it, returned to the easy chair, walked four steps backward, and entered above the gray fog to investigate the strange "moon puppets" that Emlyn White had sacrificed.

TBC

——————

Adam: It's okay. It's just an internal war in the Southern Continent. We can still save it. (tear) (erase) (write)

Someone in the comments mentioned that this is a matter of stance and it has nothing to do with right or wrong. In fact, many things still have right and wrong, such as colonial wars and invasions. No matter what stance or reason, they are all wrong, wrong, wrong and cannot be washed away, understood, or saved. The medicine is wrong! ! !

If there is anyone who finds colonization guiltless, it is certainly those who benefit from it. For example, colonists who obtained cultural relics.