Ch 278
TL: xLordFifth
ED: Mister-Canada
“Phew, we can finally rest now-”
Just as Leeha was about to take a breather, the messenger spoke again.
“And the Fibiel army, who faced the gold dragon until the very end, stand by! The commander-in-chief is coming! The commander-in-chief of Minis is also coming, so all of Fibiel’s forces have to disarm and wait!”
“Wow. Commander-in-chief Granville is coming too?”
“What? The commander-in-chief of Fibiel and Minis are going to meet?”
“What did the letter say…?”
Their wish to rest did not come true. After a while, the messenger of Minis arrived, preaching the same message and ordering him to wait.
“Hyung, what will happen now?”
“Well. In any case……”
Leeha, after thinking for a while, looked at the back of the retreating Fibiel users and NPCs in the moonlight and opened his mouth.
“I think the war is over.”
At least, there will be no more than 1 million users in each group fighting together like now.
However, it remains to be seen whether that will be the end of the war.
It was because of this that Leeha did not feel any regrets.
“Long time no see, Granville. If it had been a little longer, I would have been able to look down on you from our capital. Maybe it would have looked pretty good even if you were tied on a leash.”
“You’re still the same, Ewin. If it had been a little longer, I would have been able to easily reduce your weight by 5kg.”
“In the encirclement, Fibiel would have been defeated. You would have felt terrible to be taken prisoner.”
“Thank you. If Fibiel captured Minis’ capital, you would have been beheaded immediately.”
The commanders of both armies exchanged bloody greetings with warm smiles.
It was on the hill where the last battle took place where Fibiel and Minis’ meeting was being held.
In the name of protecting the commander-in-chief of the Fibiel army, many users remained, and a similar number of users followed the Minis army.
There were a few users in the top 100, but most of them were users whose reputation was not very high. There were people wearing clown costumes or black robes in the middle, but they were not the main force anyway.
It was because Alexander and Bailephus alone can balance the Fibiel elites.
The supreme commanders who can take charge of each country’s war had a meeting in a place with a few tables and chairs without any tent.
‘If it was a real war, it would be crazy. In such an open place. The guards have nowhere to hide.’
Of course, no one can do that in Middle Earth.
Leeha stood behind Granville, because Luger sat on top of the table where the Minis Commander-in-Chief Ewin and Fibiel Commander-in-Chief sat opposite each other.
“Messenger of Ezwen.”
Ewin, who had been arguing with Granville, opened his mouth.
Without answering, Luger went through his bag and placed an item on the table.
Tok-!
Ewin nodded as he looked at Luger who made a loud sound.
“Indeed…”
The winged golden key was small but lit by itself. The wing’s even wriggled as if it was alive.
‘Wow, what is that? Is it a monster? It looks terrible.’
‘Isn’t that one of the Holy City’s relics? And don’t say that anywhere else, hyung! The priests might hit you with a bible!’
Kijeong trembled as Leeha frowned and whispered into his ear. In fact, with the exception of Leeha, most of the elite users who knew the settings of Ezwen, the Pope, and Granville looked in amazement.
“I heard that you are a citizen of Fibiel, how did you get the qualifications to be Ezwen’s messenger?”
“It doesn’t matter which I belong to right now, Sir Ewin. At least in this case, you can think of me as belonging to Ezwen. You don’t believe it, even if I presented the [God’s Key] as evidence?”
At least it wasn’t as provocative as before, but Luger’s way of speaking was still pretentious. Rather, Leeha thought that it was great that he could clearly see the expression of the Minis’ commander-in-chief.
“Cough, well……. I wasn’t suspicious. I am sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“As expected of a sly fox.”
“Be careful, Granville. You and I have yet to reach an agreement.”
Granville just laughed as he listened to Ewin. He also looked at the relics of the Holy City for a moment and asked Luger.
“How is Pope Gaius IV?”
“He is very anxious right now. It’s because there’s something so urgent that he dispatched me in a hurry. Of course, I was the one who discovered it.”
“What is it? The letter only gave instructions to stop all battles and listen to you. No, there was another word written on it…”
Granville paused for a moment and looked at Ewin. Ewin also received a letter with the same content. The content of the letter was enough to fluster the two commanders-in-chief, so Granville asked Luger what it meant.
“Gaius IV……. The letter said that he would personally enforce the peace treaty himself. Is that true?”
“That’s right.”
It was a proposal for the conclusion of a peace treaty between Fibiel and Minis by the Holy City, Ezwen. In effect, it was coercion disguised as a suggestion. They expected it to happen, but when it was confirmed, they were confused.
“Peace Treaty!”
“The end of the war? Are you saying the war is over?”
“Why? Why so suddenly?”
“Then what will we do?”
A peace treaty brought on by force through a third party, effectively ended the war.
The surroundings became noisy. It was such a shocking remark that even Leeha, who had a faint feeling that the war was coming to an end, was flustered for a moment.
‘Really? Is it really over? A peace treaty mediated by Ezwen-’
Did Middle Earth aim for this from the beginning? At least, the nature of the peace treaty will be different from that of a peace treaty signed unilaterally by the defeated country.
If fact, compared to surrender, this one looked much more plausible. Most importantly, it will be possible to restore the national balance.
‘No, then why did you start the national war in the first place?? Simple event? It wasn’t bad, but I don’t think it was good either?’
There’s no way this event was made for users to fight and enjoy.
Above all, what happened before the outbreak of the national war? A word suddenly came to Leeha’s mind. ‘Phase 2. Attack is the best defense-’
As soon as the users who had received the new information had a moment to think for themselves, Granville spoke again.
“The Pope of Ezwen is certainly respected by all nations of the continent. However, how could the Pope speak of mediating the indellible wounds that have occurred between the two countries?”
“That’s what the Pope said too.”
“He said that-”
“When you see this, especially the commander-in-chief of both countries, he said that you would definitely accept.”
Luger interrupted Granville and rummaged through his bag. Another item was placed next to the winged golden key.
“What is that?”
“A hat? Is it an item?”
“Does anyone feel bad……?”
It was a hat. A top hat with a high crown that would be worn by a victorian gentleman. However, it looked very old, and there was a strange pattern painted on the side of the hat.
It was not because of the pattern or shape that users felt bad. It was because of the strange energy that came from the hat.
‘Kijeong-ah, what is that?’
‘Well…… It’s my first time seeing it too.’
Leeha and Kijeong did not know what it was. It was only the two of them who were surprised to see the hat on the table. Commander-in-chief Granville trembled and Commander-in-chief Ewin looked at the hat and Luger alternately with his mouth wide open, motionless.
Those were actions that anyone nicknamed ‘Pillar’ and ‘Fox of the Prairie’ would never do.
[A noble’s hat.]
“Pronounce it correctly, Dragon. It is count Le’s hat, the chieftain of the demon tribe.
[How did you get it?]
“I was about to tell you.” I got it from the mouth of the abyss.”
[Count Le, no……. I don’t want to give him that rank. Then I will ask you again, did you see a ‘blue beard’ in the mouth of the abyss?]
Luger quietly nodded.
[Another one……. Hmmmm…….]
Seeing this, Bailephus signed quietly. Fatigue was evident in the gold dragon’s voice.
The dragon who did not get tired, even when he wiped out Fibiel’s users, and fought with elites, was now tired.
“No…… there’s no way……. Bluebeard died 30 years ago. Dead! Perished!”
“Ewin is right. The division that last stood up to the demon tribe corpse was led by him, because I commanded that division! Bluebeard or chieftain, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, Le is dead.”
The commanders who were listening to the conversation between the gold dragon and Luger shook their heads. He couldn’t do that. There can be no such thing.
Luger looked at them and snorted.
“Funny old men.”
No one could speak for a while. It took a moment for Granville and Ewin to understand who Luger was talking about.
“What?”
“What did you just say-”
“Dig out the gunk from your ears and listen carefully. While you were wasting your energy uselessly, I entered the mouth of the abyss in the land of the dead.”
“And there, I met Le, who had sealed himself up. Do you understand?”
“You’re saying he’s not dead?”
“Middle Earth is crazy for setting up such settings. He’s not dead. He only pretended to be dead and hid while he was recovering.”
The words Luger spat out in a flash were loud enough to be heard by all the users around him. Granville and Ewin, who were near each other, could not bear to refute his painful words. As he looked at the commander-in-chief and the users around him, Luger uttered his final advice.
“The 3rd human-demon war is upon us. One of the Fragments of the Demon King, Count Le has awakened.”
“That’s why the war started…”
“Huh? What was that, hyung?”
“So…… so that’s why this whole war started. It was for that!”
“W-what are you talking about, hyung? Suddenly…”
After listening to Luger, Leeha was finally able to solve the puzzle. National. The reason why Middle Earth did this and concluded with a peace treaty in an ambiguous form. They had no intention of destroying any country from the beginning.
‘Weakened power!’
Can it be said that they should be glad that there was no level down? However, level was not the only important factor in measuring a user’s power.
What if, in addition to item drops on death, the money and time consumed every time they participated in the battlefield, there would be additional penalties for a negative contribution?
After taking part in the war, it had slowly but surely weakened more than 5 million users of not just Fibiel, but of Minis and Kraven, rather than level up and raising their characters over the course of two months.
A few quick-witted users who heard Leeha were also shocked.
A ‘3rd Human-Demon War’?
There were also many people who said. “What are you talking about?”.
The Important people were able to grasp the whole situation with those words alone, and it was only the ordinary users who did not understand the flow of Middle Earth.
To drain the power of users before the real phase 2 began.
That was the purpose of Middle Earth’s national war.
‘Like doing gymnastics before the guerilla training…”
Leeha’s thoughts were correct for the most part In place of the speechless Granville and Ewin, Bailephus spoke.
[If you met Bluebeard in the mouth of the abyss, how could you be alive right now?]
“You stupid reptile. Didn’t I already say it? Bluebeard was sealed. No, he sealed himself.”
Luger’s expression, which had always been sharp and cynical, became a little stiff.
He managed to open his mouth again.
“For the past month, I have been only underground in the land of the dead. I thought the lab would be in a place where the sun could not reach- no, I was looking for a place. Then I found it.”
Luger slipped and spoke of a lab, but immediately fixed it, but Leeha and Kidd understood. If Luger was trying to find a laboratory, it would be no other than Kaztor’s research lab.
“Obviously it wasn’t a natural cave. It was a maze in the dark with no lights. I went down, relying on only one torch. It was wide and high. At some point, I was confused as to whether I was in the basement or inside a large building. I had some expectations. I believed it must be the place I was looking for.”
Kaztor’s lab can never be natural.
It was a place where a dark elf collected data and conducted research, so the size was not normal. Like the lab Leeha found.
Luger must have been even more convinced that he had already visited several research labs.
He must have been more sure because he saw it
“The basement continued. One floor, each floor was as wide as the first floor. And most importantly, the monsters…… the number and strength of monsters were different from common sense. The commander-in-chief will know what’s coming.”
Luger looked at the commanders as if he was doing a test.
“All the monsters that I met there were large.”
“Winged-Ogres, conical cyclops that used magic, high-trolls riding on troll horses…
Ewin added to Granville’s response. Nightmare-like memories were set for the old knight NPC who remembered the 2nd Human-Demon war…
(To be continued…)
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