Chapter 654: Uninvited Guests (II)

"What?!"

The group exploded into a commotion.

"Country of Light? What are their bastards doing in the Munn Kingdom? Don't they have enough trouble on their hands?"

"Sir Overlord, this is ridiculous! Those bastards dare to come to our land and capture our people!"

The group was agitated, where even Lize and her Clerics sulked and appeared furious.

Although the Country of Light and Munn Kingdom didn't have a close relationship, it had worsened over the years and the Northerners in the Munn Kingdom would grit their teeth at the mention of Country of Light. The ultimate reason was the 'Myriad Flowers Battle' 50 years ago.

In summer, 50 years ago, the Country of Light border troops 'Glory of Light' entered the territory of the Munn Kingdom, the Myriad Flowers Plain, in the name of military exercise. This invaded the vagrants' gathering place and the vagrants responded quickly by asking them to leave. However, not only did they not leave, but they also launched attacks on them, which resulted in destruction to their gathering place. This incident shook the entire Munn Kingdom. What made them even more furious was that when the former ruler interrogated the Country of Light's parliament about it, the latter made a false countercharge and justified that they were defending themselves as it was the barbaric vagrants who attacked them first. Their soldiers had warned the vagrants of the consequences but were neglected and the vagrants retaliated instead. Not only that, but the Country of Light parliament also accused the Munn Kingdom of fabricating facts about a crime and attempting to smear their reputation and troops. In the end, the Country of Light did engage in hearings and trials, but the savage executioners expressed that it was all a 'misunderstanding' that they had entered the Munn Kingdom's territory by mistake. It was a 'tragedy' caused by 'wrong judgments' and the Country of Light's parliament let the murderers go off scot-free!

Thereafter, this caused a complete standoff with both sides. The Munn Kingdom Northern Army crossed the borders of Country of Light in the name of military exercises. The trade associations and merchants who were related to the Country of Light in the Munn Kingdom had taken a huge toll, where the Country of Light forcefully closed the distribution trade routes from Munn Kingdom.

In Munn Kingdom, that was when the conflict between the North and South became worst. The North representing the Myriad Flowers Plain condemned the Country of Light of being barbaric and tyrannical. Besides, it wasn't the first time that the Country of Light army had entered Munn Kingdom borders. Many residents of the North had often been harassed by them. However, the situation wasn't that serious back then, so the residents swallowed their anger. On the contrary, the Southern representatives who were close with the Country of Light's parliament chose to trust the Country of Light. Not only did they believe that Country of Light did no wrong, but they also felt that the Northerners were being unreasonable and smearing the Country of Light's reputation. The entire incident was a misunderstanding, but they reacted dangerously without thinking everything through, which led to the 'forced protection' of the Country of Light troops. If they could calm down and appeal through reasonable channels, this tragedy wouldn't have happened. Besides, many of the Southerners used the chance to criticize the Northerners of being crude and weak and they believed that the Northerners deserved it.

Back then, the Southern overlord raised up this incident on the royal banquet and called on the Northerners to reflect on their mistakes and stop making continuous mistakes. In the end, the Northern Army couldn't take it anymore. They berated the Southern nobles for being a bunch of incompetent swines.

But it was a pity that the ruler back then wasn't Lydia. Even though the former ruler was also furious about the entire situation, she had never taken actual actions, which led to a non-conclusive end. On the contrary, the Country of Light used the information against them and ridiculed Munn Kingdom for shifting the blame onto others. With conclusive evidence, most of the Country of Light civilians accepted the Light Parliament's explanation and believed that Munn Kingdom was in the wrong while they were the victims! Some even proclaimed that the entire incident was a scam. The people were murdered by assassins sent by the Munn Kingdom, in order to shift the attention of the residents and maintain their crumbling dictatorship.

This left burning wrath in the hearts of many in the Munn Kingdom and deepened the hatred between them, the Country of Light, and the South. Thereafter, every newborn child in the North grew up listening to this story from their parents, which described how painful, humiliating, and tyrannical the Country of Light was. This hatred passed on for generations and this was why so many Northerners gathered around and cheered when Lydia hung the Reformist Party. The Reformist Party and Country of Light was just as terrible as each other to them. Back then, they gloated over the situation and even helped outsiders to deal with their own people. They deserved to die!

It was due to this reason that even though the Southerners were unfortunate and pained due to various reasons, no one pitied them.

Just like karma and how the Reformist Party treated the North in the past—they brought it upon themselves, so they didn't deserve sympathy.

Apart from Old Walker who had experienced this incident, the others were still young. However, this didn't falter their hatred toward the Country of Light. It wasn't as simple as the pain of word of mouth. In fact, even though the Country of Light had held back with their activities in the Munn Kingdom borders thereafter, their arrogant behavior was still present. Moreover, the disagreement between the people of the Munn Kingdom and Country of Light were huge. People of the Munn Kingdom respected the Light Dragon and believed that the Creator Dragon Souls created this continent. But on the contrary, the people of Country of Light believed that they built their current nation through with hardships and the Creator Dragon Souls were just using this reason to enslave them. It was due to this that both parties hated each other. The people of the Country of Light thought that the people of the Munn Kingdom were a bunch of slaves who worshiped a dictator while the people of Munn Kingdom saw the people of Country of Light as a bunch of traitors who betrayed the Creator Dragon Souls.

After Lydia took over the throne, her iron-willed self finally broke the pressure that the Country of Light had been applying on the Munn Kingdom and turned against them. If it wasn't because the Light Dragon was nominally the ruler of the Country of Light, no one could guarantee the development of the situation.

It was due to this that everyone exploded into a commotion when they heard this news. They were instantly reminded of the bloodbath from 50 years ago. Now, the Country of Light army had intruded Munn Kingdom once again and captured their companions? Was this how much they disregarded Munn Kingdom?

The Half-Demons were stunned. Based on their experience, perhaps others would instantly be at their wits' end when they heard such news. No matter what, the Country of Light's forces were still massive on this continent. In fact, it wasn't only Munn Kingdom who didn't have friendly ties with the Country of Light. The other overlords were mostly dissatisfied, but they didn't dare to speak about it. After all, they didn't have an Archangel as their backing. Even in the Munn Kingdom, not everyone was brave enough to stand against the Country of Light.

However, Rhode's Starlight was an exception. Rhode's group had been pushing the Country of Light and Reformist Party away as they developed. Rhode had no respect for the Country of Light at all and his subordinates naturally had the same attitude. Therefore, not only were they not afraid, but they also gritted their teeth and expressed their hatred in eliminating the sluts. Sol had never faced such a situation before. Although he had roamed to several places in the Country of Light while leading the Half-Demons, most of them revered and evaded as long as the Country of Light was mentioned. Sol never expected such reactions from the others.

"What should we do, Boss? Just a word from you and our brothers will fight them without any hesitation! We will go wherever you want us to!"

"That's right! We haven't had enough from these Orcs. I have always longed to kill that bunch of idiots!"

Rhode looked on with his poker face. On the contrary, Lize frowned and turned to him.

"Mr. Rhode. I feel that this matter is a little strange..."

"What's wrong, Miss Lize?"

The bustling crowd quietened. After the Paphield battle, Lize's position in their hearts as the aide-de-camp had been established strongly. Joey asked with puckered his brows and Lize nodded slightly.

"We're currently located by the perimeters of the Silver Moon Forest on the Ice Field, so it isn't wrong to say that we're near the borders of the Country of Darkness. However, this area isn't bound by the Country of Light, is it? If I recall correctly, we will reach the border of Country of Law if we head down deeper into the Silver Moon Forest and pass through Mr. Rhode's Grenbell. There isn't an inch of territory that belongs to the Country of Light along the line, so why did the Country of Light army penetrate into Munn Kingdom?"

"Now that you've mentioned..."

The crowd pondered in astonishment. Indeed. The location they were at was by the border of the Country of Darkness and the Country of Light was right at the other end. The intersection of the three nations wasn't close along the borders at all. If that was the case, the Country of Light had entirely crossed over to Munn Kingdom territory and came all the way from the back to the front line of the border. According to the Cavalryman, there were about 300 troops including Mages that encircled John's team. With that much manpower, it would still be explainable if they sneaked through the borders. However, it didn't make sense for that many troops to penetrate into the hinterland without being discovered by the Munn Kingdom.

At this moment, many of them had calmed down. They looked at one another with resentment, wrath, and helplessness in their eyes. After following Rhode for such a long time, they had a general sensing of the situation now. Moreover, most of them in the elite squad were rather sharp in their senses. They felt that these intruders perhaps didn't simply intruded by accident. Royal Highness Lydia was no longer the kind ruler of the past. She would surely take action if she knew about this. But now... If these people had received permission from Royal Highness Lydia to enter the Munn Kingdom, what could they do?

Rhode lifted his head and the corners of his mouth perked out. Then, he revealed a brilliant smile.

"—!"

Sol was rooted in his place and he sucked in a deep cold breath.

There were two most common rumors surrounding Rhode. First, one should never mention Rhode's face before him. If not, one would receive unimaginable pain and torture.

Second, it definitely wasn't a good sign if Rhode smiled widely before anyone else other than Christie.

Sol had witnessed the close interactions between Rhode and Christie. Back then, the smile on his first was indeed unlike his usual expressionless face. The warm, gentle smile was relaxing and pleasing to the eyes. But now, his smile was full of indescribable threats.

Sol felt a chill running down his spine as though he had been led to the guillotine and waiting for the ice-cold blade to take his head off. The shadow of death had shrouded him, but he couldn't escape the fear and despair.

Not only Sol, but the others also watched in silence. Even Anne had curled up and hid behind the Clerics, peeking at Rhode from behind them.

"There's no meaning for us to guess what they're here for."

Rhode looked ahead and said with a smile.

"We will have to ask them the reason if we want to know..."

The tone of his voice was as calm as usual, but the next line sent chills down everyone's spines.

"... Get ready for battle and move out."