Chapter 818 Sorrow and Despair (2/2)

Until now, there were still Far Southern citizens living in makeshift villages and farmed with crude tools, living apathetically in mudlands. There was no light of hope in sight, and not even the nobles could shoulder the burdens as their territories approached the state of collapse.

Be that as it may, the Royal Family neglected them entirely, even playing ostrich, living in their 'peaceful fantasy', enjoying the luxuries of life.

It was no infighting that came out of a moment of nobility inspiration, nor a conflict provoked by conspirators for their own profit. Living had simply become too painful, the people no longer able to endure and, at the very last moment, burst out in resistance and raging cries.

As for the demonstrations in the Eastern Plains, Joshua and Igor's examination also revealed the true conflict within.

Being the most powerful mage guild on Mycroft, the Skypiercing White Tower was naturally the tyrants of the Eastern Plains. Having occupied nearly half or perhaps more fertile regions, their presence alone oppressed the many living spaces of smaller mage guilds. The common folk certainly would not understand those mage geezers wanted either, and hence simply went with the flow, having to suffer heavy taxes and voluntary labors due to competition between mages.

That was how the conflict started—in appearance.

In fact, the Skypiercing White Tower had effectively occupied most of the Eastern Plains two hundred years ago. Most smaller guilds were not unwilling to join them—in fact, they were down on their knees, begging to join. The heavy taxes were actually relative to local terms, since their rates were mild compared to the West Mountain nations, and far from the level of forcing the people into a corner.

But it remained that the problems originated from the seemingly unconcerned common folk.

In recent years, the Skypiercing White Tower oversaw widespread magical technology revolution. Many factories and ateliers appeared in various territories, and with the mages' highly efficient operation capacity, various main cities in the Eastern Plains had underwent initial magical power renovations in only half a year. Every family now had low-cost magical heaters, and cities no longer had to purchase coal, instead using magically powered hearths.

Still, while the peasants gained significantly in quality of life, the mages clearly never considered the issue of 'mana pollution'.

In fact, that was not entirely true either—during the initial period when the magical factories were being built, most elite mages noticed that the energy cores powering the factories would discharge substantial myriad-colored mana dust. Those particles contained special mana crystallizations that was too difficult to be absorbed by humans, harming most common people which led to the closure of several factories as they attempted to find a solution.

The solution was not actually too difficult—by drawing upon the Northern Empire's experience and adding anti-pollution circles for the factories, Skypiercing White Tower began to establish magical factories on a wider scale. They did all they could to modernize the magical equipment within their territories, but as most plans went, they would sound good on paper, but the execution could turn out otherwise.

Since the anti-pollution circles have to be set up by Silver-tier or even Gold-tier mages, both its casting and maintenance require great capital. That was why most factory owners who had obtained permits would simply skip that procedure—after all, they themselves were not living near the factory and the affected environment did not matter to them. However, the settlements nearby the factories could not escape the harm, with substantial cases of deaths from radiation exposure.

Mages were highly immune to the mana crystallization contamination, even able to digest the particles partially and hence was not really threatened. Indeed, they benefited marginally, and along with the necessity to guarantee the success rate of modern magical revolution, the Skypiercing White Tower simply reacted half-heartedly to the jerry-building… just as the factory owners wanted.

In the end, they did not live in the contamination zones. Who would care what the common folk thought?

Therefore, the Eastern Plains people living within those contamination zones and the lesser mage guilds living at the edge of the Skypiercing White Tower's influence were forced to take the brunt of the contamination's damage.

What could they say, or even do?

Nothing.

In the Eastern Plains, mages and non-mages were two different separate classes. Even for Extraordinary individuals, they have to be Gold or they were considered a class beneath mages, and it was worse for the peasants—their very existences were as mere seeds for producing new mages, with any individual dragged into the mages' circle when they were determined to have spellcasting talent, assimilated by it.

They were lower than vermin in the mages' eyes, tools for producing fundamental resources, granted no respect or permission to doubt or hold opinion. Their lives did not matter to the mages, just because they were not spellcasters.

'Do we mages not know where the issue lies? Do you peasants even have the intellect or courage to doubt our commands? Just do it.'

'Funny. Do you think your complaining would change orders from above? You should be the ones learning to adjust.'

'Pollution or whatever will be handled soon, just bear with it now. Your sacrifice is given in the name of progress, a necessary cost for the Truth… although we'd never remember your name. Haha!'

Misery thus spread. Countless families were in tears, men lost their wives and daughters, just as wives lost their husbands and sons. Half of the population in some heavily contaminated villages simply died off while the survivors mutated grotesquely—none could endure such a life unless they did not saw themselves as human, losing the genes to resist and their death cries.

The protest in the Eastern Plains was identical to the revolution in the Far Southern Kingdom, and strictly speaking was neither infighting nor conflict.

It was the raging cries as misery descended into despair.

As for the Northern Empire… if he was being truthful, Joshua would be wiping away cold sweat off his forehead now if not for the fact that he could not sweat—he was aware that if Israel's Skynet project implemented some time ago, the 'sorrow' that had accumulated at the bottom of the Imperial hierarchy would have been a hundred times that of the Far South and the Eastern Plains.

In the first place, the Empire uses a traditional nobility system which granted nobility the right to exploit peasants. Therefore, from the primitive perspective of Imperial Law, peasants were non-citizens and basically the property of lieges. Furthermore, there had been long years of war against the orcs and the pressure from heavy taxes that went with it, along with the cloak and dagger disputes between new and old nobles.

Meanwhile, there was also crime syndicates, slavers, larger families who claimed the lands of smaller families, the arrogant exploitation and torment from the nobles… beneath the blossoming appearance of their triumph against the orcs, the Empire was already fatigued and sickly.

A single spark was all that was needed for the Empire to collapse from within, which was why the powerful nation had split apart at once when Israel died in the preexistence, and why there was all-out-war without any delay.

Compared to the tormenting days, the peasants would rather die in the flames of war.

”To think that Israel's complete dictatorship turned out to be a good thing…”

Joshua could not help but sigh at the very thought. ”Justice never propagates itself, only power would… Haha. 'Lightless justice needs might to propagate it'—how would I have known that the Empire is still rather stable now because of Justice from Might?”

The Empire had now improved considerably than before. In the very least, after Israel had publicly executed most of the unscrupulous nobles and comprehensively purged who-knows-how-many syndicates that the atmosphere at the lower reaches of the nation was cleansed at once. Furthermore, recent policies improved the lives of peasants, which in turn kept the misery lurking in the dark from bursting apart into a wave of insurgencies such as the Far South and the Eastern Plains.

Without a target to hate, the citizens who had lived in comfort would become forgetful. Their demand was simply to live with respect, full stomachs, and the right to speak—as such, they would remain a power of the civilization no matter how dire circumstances were, and not the opposite.

***

Having analyzed the truth behind the conflicts in those three regions, Joshua and Igor turned their eyes to the West Mountains… and found nothing.

No matter how they looked at it, Romain, the Grand Emperor of the West Mountains was imply expanding his power, annexing and conquering.

Relatively speaking, his motives was the most normal amongst all four regions.

In the end, war was normal for the Mycroft Continent, especially in the West Mountains. Every kingdom had been at it for centuries, and it was especially good considering that one powerful faction was attempting to unify its surroundings. The peasants were happy with it too, since feats in battle meant nobility, and the spoils of war would keep themselves fed for a long time!

As for citizens of other nations… Well, it was an honor to become a resident in powerful nations when it was the West Mountains. According to Israel's information, many foreign citizens were actually defecting to the Grand Emperor, and if the new champion was to be acknowledged by other psionic royals in the West Mountains and the Sacred Swordsman's tribe, he might unite the region in its entirety.

”If that's the case… isn't it likely that it's not an Evil God?”

Igor muttered quietly at their findings, becoming even more puzzled when he remembered the fate of the many demons which Joshua mentioned. ”But that wouldn't explain the peculiarity in the Abyss.”

”I believe that it is an Evil God.”

Joshua, however insisted on his own opinion. ”At least our world is stable,” he said, frowning. ”Most people would survive here, but for the Abyss, the cumulated 'sorrow and despair' from their ruined civilizations and species that face extinction must be a thousand times more than our own.”

”The phenomenon would present itself as infighting and conflict in our world, which in turn could be resolved and anticipated. For demons, however, such things would destroy them at once, completely shattering even their hope as they struggled to survive.”

”Sorrow leads to despair; despair leads to destruction. Without hope, it was better to die—if it was indeed the omen of an Evil God's arrival that affected the hearts of men, then the name of that Evil God…”

At that, Joshua paused for a moment before breathing out, and spoke in a low voice, ”Should be [Misery] or [Despair].”

”Your Holiness, we now should not be minding some simple thing such as 'foreign politics'. This is a problem that affects civilization's survival, and I suggest promptly calling for all Legends to direct, and directly interfere with the source of those miseries and despairs.”