Chapter 386: He Actually Reached The Answer First (1/2)

Naturally, Xi Wei saw everything Jom was doing.

His assessment was thus: Wow, to think that you reached the answer first.

It was true that Xi Wei had high hopes toward his believers and was convinced that small fry like the hill-folk would never win against the Players. However, the condition of the bet was whether the opposing side could occupy the Sky Horizon, formerly known as the Elven Synchronized Intellect Nation (SIN).

If their opponent proved shameless and would claim that they succeeded in occupying the Elven SIN by just having one or two believers landing on Gaim, even getting the Earthweaver to ‘uphold fairness’, Xi Wei would have to suffer in silence.

But since the Lord of the Peaks had a positive public image to uphold, he could not afford to be unreasonable and directly bully others with his power.

That was why even if he would resort to dirty tricks, he would at least need to fly his believers up to Sky Horizon.

That way, what Xi Wei had to do was clear: his believers need to do what they can to stop the hill-folk, and prevent even one of them from getting up to the Sky Horizon!

They could even go further and avoid the hill-folk from learning where the Sky Horizon even was!

***

Soon after the Players actively prepared themselves, the event started once the Lord of the Peaks’ believers began to set foot within the borders of the Valla Empire.

And not long afterwards, the envoys and supplies from Lancaster had reached Crookes which was under reconstruction.

Still, Lancaster had not sided outrightly with the Church of Games the moment. Being a city of trade, there were many churches that had a foothold within, and the various religious factions acted as a deterrent against each other, hence maintaining a certain balance.

Even though Corinth Atherton had discreetly sided with the Church of Games, he did not actually change his faith. From a certain perspective, he was merely working with the Church of Games.

Moreover, the waters of Lancaster ran deepmany nobles and ministers were ready for conflict at any given moment, because of their birth and the perspectives instilled in them. As such, even though they were aware that their mayor was allied with the Church of Games, they would at best show goodwill and not side with them alongside Corinth.

Indeed, the nobles’ thoughts and attitude did not change much even after the Twin City Cup and learning the strength of the Church of Games.

In truth, it did not matter to them who their mayor was or which church held powerwhat, is the mayor not going to need us nobles to manage his city just because your Church of Games controls it?

Herman thought so too.

That was why he was really reluctant to be appointed as envoy by Mayor Corinth, who attached him to the supply convoy heading for Crookes.

Why would Lancaster have to donate our resources without recompense?

It would be fine if it was to earn good karma back when Crookes was a powerful mining city. But after it had been reduced to debris by natural causes (the official statement from Crookes was that a mountain collapsing and destroying the city), its former prosperity was now buried underneath mud and rockwho knew how long it would take for them to rebuilt.

In comparison, wouldn’t it be better to keep the resources at Lancaster to reward us nobles who contributed so much to the Twin City Cup?

It was therefore a pity that Gerald McCobley, captain of the Lancaster city watch had been keeping a very close eye on the convey throughout the journey. Herman would have diverted half of these fifty supply carriages so that the Lancaster nobles could be reimbursed for their losses!

“Welcome, envoy from Lancaster.” Mayor Meredith greeted Herman in delight when he eventually reached Crookes. “Truly, you only know who your friends are in times of hardship.”

In the past, a noble of Herman’s level would never have the right to meet old Meredith. But now that he saw for himself that Crookes was just a pile of debris, Herman was shaking. He naturally could not say anything assuring in response to old Meredith’s greeting, and simply played along with some half-hearted grunts. It was only when he reached the tent prepared for him that he turned to his aide and said, “Since Crookes had fallen to such a state, we probably wouldn’t get much in return even though we invest so much resources in them. With Lancaster’s future development in mind, let’s keep some of the goods for ourselves.”

“Won’t Mayor Corinth accuse us if we bring it home with us?” His aide asked rather worriedly.