Chapter 327 The Situation All Around the World (2/2)

”The Northern Empire is very vast. It has taken up the entire North region. Although it seems that the Emperor controls it as one, all of the territories in the region have their own authorities.”

Nostradamus seemed to be walking in a hurry. He shook his head and sighed tiredly, ”All of the superior nobles in the regions have special laws in their own territories. If the strength of the Royal the kingdom is not powerful enough, those nobles would not obey them. The humans behaved that way. So the dwarves, the elves, the winter fairies, the goblins, the hobbits, and the other races followed as well… My point is, if the plague had broken out in some territories that belong to some nobles or some other races and they chose not to report it, then we would not have been able to stop it in time.”

”Then you must kill everything at their roots, or educate the counts of the territories across the world about the danger of the plague. Otherwise, the plague will spread, and there will be no way to stop it.”

Joshua and Nostradamus walked at the same pace. Ying and Ling had to jog in order to keep up with them. ”The cultists have invaded my territory which is located at the border of the continent. It seems that the other territories are facing the same problem. For them, it could be far worse. Even my territory, such a marginal place, has sneaked into a cult and it is threatening to spread into the other territories.”

”No! I must say this out loud. You're a special case! Your reputation has already spread across the Cults! There's no doubt about that!” Nostradamus shook his head slightly and secretly thought to himself. Then, the old mage spoke again, ”Emperor Israel is having an audience with a few ambassadors at the moment. I shall see him immediately. It would make things a lot easier if the ambassadors are still around. The news must be spread as soon as possible.”

”What a coincidence.”

Joshua rubbed his chin as he thought to himself, ”The four main settlements of the human beings and even the churches are nearby the Imperial City. That has really made things more convenient than ever.”

There were four large human settlements on the Mycroft Continent. The Northern Empire was the most special one. It was the only large-scale unified regime among all the other settlements. Although was not considered as a united kingdom, under the leadership of a mighty Emperor, the Imperial Kingdom was still able to gather all main forces across the continent and started a great war with the Orcs that lasted years in the Northwest Plains. However, because of the suppression from the orcs, the official forces of the Northern Empire rarely communicated with each other. The war between the two races had prevented the development on both sides. The Kingdom did not have time to put their focus on developing the Dark Forest, nor did the orcs had the time to develop outwards.

In fact, it was because of the orcs that the humans were united as a kingdom to battle.

The Northern settlement of the humans was geographically special. The middle region of the settlement was actually plains and hills while the border of the South and the North were filled with mountains that were connected to each other all the way to the Central Dark Forest and Iceland in the North Pole. In the west of the Northern settlement was the Tartaros Highlands where the orcs lived. Further ahead was the great sea. The east was also part of the endless sea.

The Western settlement was one of the oldest origins of human extraordinary power. There were many kingdoms in the region, each ruled by a family with a long history. Most of their rulers were born with special strength. In other words, each kingdom was ruled by warlocks.

The Western Gathering District remained peaceful. Its racial policies were extremely broad. Apart from demons, any race, even the undead, and the specter lived there. The struggle between kingdoms was confined to the 'civil war' among the superior warlock families. However, due to the lack of domination in the region of the settlement, the west side of the settlement was the region which had the most cults and demon sacrifices. Historically, several large-scale live sacrificial events had occurred on the west side of the settlement. There were too many mountains over there. Each kingdom was separated from the other kingdoms by the rivers and mountains. That was also one of the reasons why there were lesser wars happening between the kingdoms. They would need to scale mountains and rivers before they could even get to the border of the other kingdom. It was too much trouble for any kingdom to start a war with the others. The effort to expedite was just too great for the kingdom to bear if they ever wanted to start a war.

The western part of the mountainous region was linked to the east side of the Central Dark Forest. The other three regions of the Central Dark Forest, west, south, north, faced the sea. Legends had it that there were Elder Dragons living in the north coast of the Lantis Strait.

The Eastern Plains seemed to have mountains that were scattered. None of the mountains seemed to be connected to the other. There were only a few solitary peaks and some hills in that region. It was filled with patches of grassland separated by rivers and forests. That was the last place humans would look to settle down. One must cross the sea in order to arrive there. Another way to the region would be to go through the Dark Forest, which was technically suicidal.

Several mages were the first humans that ever lived there. Powerful casters were capable of getting through the Dark Forest. So they had settled down in that region. They had also brought some ordinary people with them to serve them. That was how the earliest settlement was formed. Then, as time passed, the number of people in the settlement increased. As more and more people migrated from other places, many city states and kingdoms led by powerful mages were established across the Eastern Plains.

Here, kingdoms were nothing more than a tool used by the various casters to rule. The two large association of the mage, 'Skypiercing White Tower' and the 'Council of Seven' ruled 70% of the kingdoms and the city states in the region. Usually, the battle among the mages never involved the civilians. However, the city states would always trigger wars among themselves. Not to mention that war also existed between the mermaids in the coastal region and the Eastern Seas. They were literally killing themselves over power. The humans on the plains were brave and they excelled in battle. The Winged Cavalry of the Fallante Duchy and the Leviathan Knight were renowned in the entire continent.

However, the Eastern Plains also had the most rigorous ethnic policies. Except for the major races such as Dwarves and Elves, the other races besides human were discriminated. But their lives were not defined by their ethnicity. Those who were created by the mages were allowed to gain power and titles as long as their minds and conscience were normal.

Meanwhile, the distant south settlement was also an extremely special place. It was not because there were many mysterious forests and grounds in that area. It was special because of its rich culture.

If the Northern Empire was said to recognize dwarves, halflings, hobbits, goblins, and other creatures as its citizens, many western kingdoms also believed that anyone could be a citizen of the kingdom as long as the law was respected. This kind of policy was regarded as broad and merciful. Hence, there was no such thing as an 'alien race' in the kingdoms in the distance south. In the kingdom founded by the elves, the humans and the fairies, there were gigantic worms, forest people, centaurs and many other races. They also held the freedom and right to join elections and politics in the kingdom just like everyone else. Deep inside the Lake of Eternity, there were hundreds of law-abiding giant dragons living peacefully. However, some of the giant dragons preferred to live among the humans. Some of them had even changed their appearance to look like humans and became the count of a territory.

Perhaps the uninhibited environment had created the rich and artistic atmosphere in the distant south kingdoms. Many renowned musicians, writers, bards, and explorers came from the Far South to learn about the culture of the place or even spread their artistic cultures over there. They were willing to explore and take risks. They were credited for the discovery of thousands of islands across the region. The druids of the Far East even mastered the method of transforming the Dark Forest into an ordinary jungle. However, the process was too slow, making it impractical to cleanse the Dark Forest.

Joshua vaguely remembers the situation back in his pre-existence. Other than the kingdoms in the distance south, the kingdoms under the warlocks rule in the Western Mountain region were worst hit by the plague. The kingdom in the Eastern Plains and the Imperial City remained fine for the moment. One was because the kingdom was under strict management, the other one was because it was further away from the plague. Not to mention that the weather was also a defining factor that kept the plague from spread fast into the Imperial City.

In the pre-existence, the Black Plague broke out during the winter at the beginning of the year. The plague had spread across the world by the summer of the same year. It had reached the Northern Empire by the next winter. As the winter came to an end, the countermeasures to contain the plague was almost done.

Even so, the death toll in the southern border of the Empire had reached the thousands. That was just the statistics. The actual death toll was definitely more that. Although Joshua was not really a saint, one word could potentially save thousands of people. So what was the reason for not doing it? Not to mention that the movements of the cults these days had obviously changed, and they were currently behaving much differently from the pre-existence. It remained unknown that the plague would only spread in the distant south.

With Nostradamus leading, everyone had arrived at the central palace of Morlaix Palace. Many guardians were roaming and patrolling the place. There were also quite a number of people waiting quietly in the corridor. It was pretty obvious that they were the higher ranking nobles, the ambassadors from the other kingdoms and city states, and some ordinary people who were not qualified to enter the main hall of the palace.

However, it seemed that the meeting in the main hall was over. The door of the main hall opened. People with different uniforms and different faces slowly made their way out of the hall. They seemed unsettled. Most of them looked anxious and enraged. Only one of them looked fine—a tall and brawny middle-aged man with silver hair and wore a white robe. He had a naturally angry face but there was also a hint of a smile.

That man possessed an extraordinary strength. The power in the holy knight's body rippled into the surroundings. Joshua could also sense that the man had attained Supreme tier. He was unquestionably Robzek, commanding knight of the [Hammer of Freedom] legion from the Far Southern Holy Mountain.

The holy knight seemed to be surprised when he walked by Joshua and the others. He gasped and turned around to look at Joshua.

Naturally, Joshua also turned around and looked at Robzek.

”Have you seen young Roland recently? No, judging from this presence, you seem to be around him all the time.”

The silver-haired man with black pupils seemed to be in a good mood at the moment. ”Tell him not to get upset about it. There will always be sacrifices in a battle. He should not give up fighting for the world over the passing of a friend. The holy shrine would remain his home forever—we will never blame him for that. Can you pass my words to him and tell him to come home as soon as he is able to?” he asked.

It seemed that the middle-aged man was Roland's acquaintance.

After meeting the holy knight, Joshua suddenly understood something of significance. He finally knew the reason why he felt that the woman, who was blindfolded, was familiar when he was on the way to the Royal Library. She had the exact same aura as Robzek who stood before him now. Both of them were probably Roland's acquaintances. Both of them had the familiar scent of the holy knight mixed with the scent of blood. It seemed that all of them had been fighting side by side in the battlefield.

”I shall pass your words to him. Unfortunately, he does not intend to come back to the Imperial City with us. He has other plans for now.”

”There's no rush…” The Supreme-tier knight narrowed his eyes and scanned the warrior from head to toe. He shook his head a little and turned around. As he was leaving, he sighed. ”Young men these days… Every one of them stranger than the other... I'm getting old…”

It was obvious that he could tell the strength within Joshua's body and the warrior did not attempt to hide his strength at all. The fact that a man, barely reaching his thirties, attaining the Supreme-tier was truly astounding.

Nostradamus looked at both of them calmly. He already knew the holy knight so he was not surprised by the behavior and words of the holy knight before he left. The old mage waited for Robzek to leave first before turning towards Joshua and Dimore and telling them, ”I will enter the hall and inform the Emperor first.”

”Perhaps the both of you can come in after that and personally explain the situation to the Emperor, again. It is always more reassuring and convincing if the words come from you directly, Joshua.”A country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess