Chapter 221:

Chapter 221: Countering the Guest
Veritas.

After five days of scrambling, the Law Lords finally buried the rift.

The purple canopy that seemed like a nightmare disappeared.

It was replaced by bright sunshine and moist sea breeze.

The price they paid was not just thousands of tons of energizer stones and three islands that had been completely lost in the rift ever since.

There were also nearly two thousand “mules” that were urgently mobilized from the “lower city” such as No. 91~100.

Clothed in simple protection, they were put into the rift one after another to throw stones, and none of them survived.

Most of them were stowaways, and all of them had criminal records.

They usually live on the back 10 islands, which are in disarray, and take advantage of the morning and evening openings to come to the “city” to make a living.

In the event of a disaster, the rich neighborhoods numbered less than or equal to 20 are protected by the highest level of security.

In the middle, the 21st to 90th districts also have basic protection, although not as strong as the former, but at least there.

As for the “lower city”, there is nothing.

That’s why every time you send out a similar recruitment order with no chance of survival, it’s always overcrowded.

The dead were not even named. They ended up in the papers with one line:
“Over 2,000 casualties.”

…

Sector 4, McDuck Hotel.

One of the most expensive conference rooms was rented for private coordination between the Shadow Temple and the Mercury Royal Family.

However, the official in charge of mediation had not yet arrived.

In the spacious pantry next to her, Ciara put down the newspaper in her hand and frowned slightly.

She looked at “Mage Naga” in front of her.

“Mr. Naga, I don’t understand why something this big hasn’t made any waves in Veritas……. Can’t those protesting and demonstrating see such horrific numbers?
“Two thousand casualties, and the chaos in the lower city. Shouldn’t an accident of this magnitude be an excuse to attack public opinion?”

“You still don’t understand the politics of Veritas.”

Megumi took a sip of tea and shook her head.

“It is true that the Council of Six represents different races, different opinions, and different clans, and they often use public opinion to attack each other, and even if there is nothing going on, they will target His Excellency, the Speaker, who is in charge.

“But all of this presupposes that the matter is with the ‘populace’.

“The two thousand people you mentioned are all from the Lower City, which is filled with stowaways and refugees, and is extra-legal, and it doesn’t matter how many of them die if they’re not Veritas.”

Ciara still couldn’t understand, “But wouldn’t the people who live there be outraged by this? They can read this newspaper too, wouldn’t they ……”

“That’s not true, ma’am.”

Megumi said in a regretful tone:

“I understand that the same thing happened in the Northlands, even if the death toll was one zero less, there would be an uproar and a lot of people would lose their jobs and even their lives over it.

“But that comes with the caveat that the angry people see each other as one of their own.

“The people are angry because they see the possibility of things happening to them.

“But, in the lower city, those people look at each other with alarm; they are all competitors, not fellow citizens.

“The Lower City is not Veritas, not the Land of Dreams, but a proving ground before they arrive in the Ideal Country.

“So, not to mention the two thousand people on the surface, even if a conservative estimate of the hundred thousand who died had been passed over by the newspapers, they wouldn’t have been outraged, they would have even been glad that they’d lucked out and survived.

“Because for them, for every competitor who dies, they are one step closer to becoming a citizen of Veritas.

“By the same token, the citizens of Veritas won’t care if these people die or live …… because they are not fellow citizens either.”

Ciara listened in silence.

The doubt was cleared, but her brow remained furrowed.

“Why is this happening …… Why don’t they leave?”

“Haven’t you ever been downtown?” Megumi asked.

Ciara shook her head.

“We can only operate in the first 20 districts.”

“That makes sense.”

Megumi nodded, “You are an emissary of the Shadow Temple after all, and Veritas’ security only covers the rich districts.”

After a slight pause, she continued:

“Let’s put it this way, the lower city is basically devoid of humans, it’s all filled with elves, dwarves, Zanros, and your people, the Nyss, as well as all sorts of messy hybrid offspring.

“They form all sorts of groups and gangs based on racial ties, and live a ‘barren but rich’ life that you can’t imagine.

“They were indeed unrecognized and fled their homelands to this lonely island.

“But every morning and evening hundreds of whale-class blimps filled with expired and expiring food dump ‘garbage’ on the island, where the men play decomposers and digest it.

“And every street in the lower city is covered with MagicNet broadcasts, with a flood of entertainment programs, commercials, and news filling their 24 hours to overflowing.

“In addition, the endless rifts and strange beasts around Veritas require adventurers to go forth and deal with them.

“Once they’ve risked their lives to complete their commissions, or traveled to the real Veritas with their prey, they can enjoy the complete package there – medical care, training, promotion, and a whole system of hunting-related contributions – which is their main avenue to becoming a legitimate citizen.

“After hearing all this, do you still have any doubts?”

After a moment’s silence, Ciara sighed.

“I really did underestimate Veritas’ energy after all.”

“Yes.”

Megumi nodded deeply:

“This place gathers more than half of this world’s wealth and resources, and even if you count all the people in the lower city, the per capita distribution of resources here is more than ten times that of other countries.

“This prosperity is piled up by excess resources, so even staying in the Lower City is closer to the ‘most advanced civilization’.”

Ciara suddenly recalled her days in the Buried Bone Ground and the words that were hung on someone’s lips.

“Waste is shameful.” She couldn’t help but say.

Hmm?
Megumi froze, this aborigine is quite interesting ……

This ideological awareness was worthy of what Heine was looking at.

“Mr. Naga.”

Xiara suddenly looked up with a smile, “Are you really just an ordinary mage?”

Megumi also smiled heartily.

“Of course.”

Five days ago, after the disaster erupted, just as she thought, the Truth House had no time to worry about a shrimp like Naga.

That was convenient, so she ran to furtively offer herself as one of Shiala’s staff.

At that time, she impressed the other party with her words, “It’s not advisable to expect a court hearing, it’s only reasonable to settle things privately.”

The reason was simple.

Veritas would definitely focus on rebuilding the Magic Network and recovering the trade routes.

Otherwise, as time passed and the Void Capsule technology became street goods, their core advantage was gone, and they would face a terrifying catch-up.

In the game, they realized after a few years of hard work that this path was not going to work.

It just so happened that players came into their vision, and so it was only right that they became the players’ brokers.

–Brokers who are thousands and thousands of times darker than Heine.

There are no players in this world, so they have to find another way out.

Therefore, they are happy to see the other four countries at odds with each other.

It’s best to delay such things as court sessions as long as they can, until the conflict intensifies and the Yankees and Elves can fight.

If Eternal Dawn was also involved, it would be a blood profit!
In addition Hui Hui also predicted what would be reported in the newspapers of Veritas in the next few days – The Council of Six was divided into three camps, of which “Good Morning! The House of Truth is the property of Scrooge Dark.

He was bound to make a vigorous attack on the current Speaker, William Phillips.

After this showmanship, she managed to win over Ciara’s trust.

And, based on this, Ciara never stopped trying to find out her “true identity”.

Considering that the monitoring role of the Chain of Pardon was unclear for the time being, she didn’t respond explicitly, but only hinted at it again and again.

Now she was sure that the other party had understood her hints and guessed that she was not the real Naga.

The odd question just now was undoubtedly the signal.

Soon the Soulhunter guard named Tooth came knocking on the door.

“My lord, Veritas’ men have arrived.”

Ciara nodded and got up to walk out of the room.

Seeing that the one in charge of mediation was actually Professor Collins, Megumi’s pupils quaked!
She remembered the other party.

She had crossed over because the Underworld Guard had invaded the Truth Library.

Only after that did she learn from Ms. Xia that the ones who had planned the invasion were two professors who had been turned by the great witch demon Vega.

One of them was Collins.

So the question was, was Collins now a two-fifty?
Megumi wasn’t sure.

On the other hand, Collins, still unaware that he had been recognized, pressed on, ignoring the handlers standing behind Ciara.

On the surface, he greeted the crowd in a reserved manner, but secretly he was already looking for the “Mr. Donald”.

Archmage Scrooge Dark was exceptionally gifted, and at the age of one hundred and twenty, he was already an eighth level mage.

Mages at this level basically live to be three hundred years old, so he can only be considered a “young man”.

Both he and Donald were backed by the McDuck family.

This is an ancient and mysterious family.

The older the family, the more it relies on bloodlines to sustain it.

Because they are above everyone else, they tend to look at the eyes of others with indifference and vigilance.

So for a “nephew” like Donald, he is bound to look at it very seriously.

Soon, Collins locked an old man with gray hair.

There was no doubt that this was Donald.

Because he was ordinary – standard and pure ordinary human.

This was extremely rare even in Veritas.

A hint of deeply hidden envy floated in Collins’ eyes.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, both sides took their seats.

With the end of the opening remarks, the scene was instantly tense with swords.

Especially Shiala.

Her gaze fell on Donald’s face, not hiding the anger in her eyes.

The other man just smiled and averted his gaze to look at Collins.

“Your Excellency Professor, my humble self, Donald Dark, I have come on behalf of Eternal Dawn to fulfill my duty of monitoring the undead mutations.

“Before the bargaining begins, I would first like to request that this matter be referred to Eternal Dawn.”

Collins frowned slightly, “And the reason?”

Donald: “There are three reasons.

“First, the cause of this incident was the Shadow Sanctuary’s entry into the mountains of Makara under the pretext of ‘dealing with the flood of holy light’, so it was they who violated the Convention of the Four Nations first, and they shouldn’t be the initiator of accountability.

“Secondly, they took away the vast majority of the information regarding the research on shapeshifter spells, whose researcher is known to be named Barry Gitler, and considering the special nature of the surname, we have reason to suspect that this is research they secretly started eight hundred years ago.

“I.e., the Shadow Sanctuary is engaged in unknown and illegal research behind the scenes.

“Third, they took Silverwing captive and used torture on him without informing the Mercury royal family, which is a clear violation of the original agreement between the four nations – jeopardizing the personal safety of the Transcendents.

“Therefore, we believe that it can be referred to us for arbitration when the courts of Veritas are temporarily unavailable.”

After saying that, Donald smiled and looked at Xiara.

It seemed that he hoped to see even more intense anger in the other party’s eyes.

However, his hopes were dashed.

What he saw instead was calm.

What the hell?
“What do you think about this?” Collins asked Ciara rhetorically.

The latter raised her delicate chin slightly and looked directly at Donald.

It was all the same as the Naga Mage’s projection.

As expected, the people of Eternal Dawn would definitely play a rogue when they intervened.

They would refuse to admit that they had built the Holy Light Energy Storage Well, and then they would throw the dirty water on the Shadow Temple.

Huihui gave a complete response plan for this.

Don’t fall into the self-incrimination trap.

To put it bluntly, when someone scolds you, don’t think about why you’re being scolded, but just scold them back!
Since they wanted to change the nature of the matter, it was simply a matter of aiming the spear at Eternal Dawn.

“We believe that the Mercury royal family, or rather all the elves, are the victims in this matter.”

When these words came out, the room was filled with astonishment.

Even Third Queen Renee’s eyes widened.

How is it that the plaintiff is starting to speak for the defendant?
Ciara continued:

“We all know that Eternal Dawn has the obligation to monitor the undead mutations and the escape of death aura, yet the root cause of the withering of the three great forests is the uncontrollable death aura.”

Saying this, she apologized to the dead Headmaster Gare in her heart.

She knew it was wrong, but it was the “consensus” of these people.

Megumi had emphasized to her the importance of learning to speak in other people’s languages.

“…… In other words, the birth of the Blight was a sign of Eternal Dawn’s dereliction of duty in the first place, and their inability to do anything about the Blight was another symbol of their incompetence.

“We all know that it was the Blight that caused the elven pioneers to come to the Whispering Woods, and that Sabellia thus inaugurated the shapeshifting school of Tree Shepherds.

“This class of spells was then sent to the Mercury Crown, who at the time were closely associated with the Eternal Dawn, but included it as an official school with the latter’s permission.

“Why? Why did Eternal Dawn acquiesce?

“It is clear that this ring is equally a dereliction of duty on the part of Eternal Dawn.

“Returning to recent events, the reason our floating city appeared in the mountains of Makara was indeed to address the flood of holy light.

“However, why was the local area flooded with holy light? And why did we find yet another unauthorized holy light storage well in the Whispering Forest?
“Not long ago, the Eagle’s Bit Mountain erupted with a deadly aura, which was later neutralized by a large amount of holy light – the third holy light storage well.

“So, three holy light storage wells, as you can see, is the crux of the matter.”

She suddenly flipped out a thick stack of volumes and slapped them onto the table.

“In addition to that, we have listed the slip-ups and mistakes that Eternal Dawn has made in carrying out its so-called ‘obligations’ over the past one hundred years, not the least of which is a large number of behaviors that jeopardize the personal safety of the Transcendents and go against common sense.

“And that’s just part of it.

“Therefore, we have reason to suspect that Eternal Dawn is no longer capable of carrying out this monitoring obligation.

“Their negligence in this aspect of their work is what has led to this situation today.”

After saying that, Shiala glanced at the sweating Donald and revealed a small smile.

(End of chapter)